← Federalist Radio Hour
Federalist Radio Hour
‘You're Wrong' With Mollie Hemingway And David Harsanyi, Ep. 203: Democrats’ Platner Problem
01:17:02
Join Federalist Editor-In-Chief Mollie Hemingway and Washington Examiner Senior Writer David Harsanyi as they weigh in on the FIFA World Cup, dissect Graham Platner's primary win in Maine, analyze the implications of the Los Angeles mayoral race...
Loading summary
Transcript149 lines
- [00:00]
Molly Hemingway
Foreign.
- [00:16]
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. Hey, Molly, did you know that the World cup of soccer is here in the United States this year?
- [00:38]
Molly Hemingway
I vaguely knew about it and I even looked into it just a tiny bit to see about going, but the going, those tickets are so insanely expensive, it's unbelievable. My brother is a lifelong huge soccer fan, and he was the kind of brother who would get up early to watch or follow World cup, depending on where it was, you know, throughout the, throughout the globe. He's not one of these late comers to soccer. He was playing soccer in the 70s and early 80s. So
- [01:20]
David Harsanyi
everything I was about to say, I didn't want to insult your. Now I'm going to be insulting your brother, basically. I don't mean to do it. I just think we have a patient patriotic duty not to follow soccer or like soccer. It's just.
- [01:33]
Molly Hemingway
I agree. I love my brother, but I agree. What is it?
- [01:38]
David Harsanyi
It's a terrible sport. It's very boring. There's no scoring. But especially I dislike it because Europeans love it so much and mock us for not calling it football and for not following it.
- [01:51]
Molly Hemingway
Do you?
- [01:52]
David Harsanyi
What is it? Hold on.
- [01:54]
Molly Hemingway
I have a World cup exception, though. Like, I don't think we need American teams. I think the fact that all the kids play soccer is pretty lame. They should be playing baseball or other real sports. But when it comes to World Cup, I actually do enjoy country versus country. And then I get really into obscure countries just for a game. But you don't you think that's un American?
- [02:18]
David Harsanyi
When the, this family called the DiMaggios came over here, Little Joe didn't play soccer. He played baseball. I think you have to embrace American sports, real sports, and the rise in soccer, I think correlates exactly with the decline of America in a way. Since I was a kid and I've heard older people tell me this, they've been kind of forcing kids or pushing soccer on us all the time. But I wonder, little kids play soccer, but do older kids still really like soccer? It seems like they, they kind of graduate out of it and play some real sports typically.
- [02:54]
Molly Hemingway
One of my, one of my friends from church who played, I think for Syracuse just broke his, broke his arm playing soccer. He's Not a kid. He has three kids of his own.
- [03:09]
David Harsanyi
So anyway, I do agree with you that World cup soccer holds a certain entertainment value because I just think about whenever I see like let's say Denmark is playing Germany or Romania is playing Denmark, I have to come up with some sort of historic, historical, geopolitical reasoning to see who I'm going to root for. So that's kind of fun. But then I'm so bored watching it. So bored. I don't know the players, they never score. I just find it very boring. I, I'm half kidding. If you want to watch soccer, enjoy it, whatever.
- [03:43]
Molly Hemingway
I actually have trouble believing that you're being serious because you're a hockey fan and soccer is. Hockey's like ice soccer.
- [03:53]
David Harsanyi
That is the worst thing you've ever said on the show. By far. Hockey is the most beautiful, physical, violent, fast moving sport that exists. It is mesmerizing and compelling and emotional and all the things that soccer really isn't. It's like. I wish I could come up with an analogy right off the bat here. I can't believe you just said that. There is no marvel at the fact that, that hockey is not the most popular sport in the United States and it should be. It's greatest sport. Soccer is incredibly, incredibly boring. I would, you know, I would put it under tennis, maybe even golf, which is just. I can't even understand how anyone watch, watches golf. But at least there are sort of personalities involved. Individual sport, you can root for somebody to, to do interesting things with, with a golf ball. Whereas soccer balls almost never go in the net anyway. I don't even know. I can't believe you said that. I'm reeling from that comment.
- [05:01]
Molly Hemingway
One of my. I remember being really sick once and some big soccer. I'm sorry, some big golf tournament was on and I started out being very confused about everything. And after what seemed like six hours on a Sunday, I was like crying as someone pulled ahead of someone El and I was so into it. And I realized for a lot of sports you just need the time to get into them. Time I don't have. And it is a little weird that sometimes the most exciting soccer match is a one nothing result. Although that's true baseball too. I still remember going to a game that went 16 innings. I believe in. I was very young at chavez ravine. Dodgers versus cardinals, 16 innings, final result, one nothing. And I mean that stayed with me. So
- [06:03]
David Harsanyi
baseball is a slow, you know, is a mellow sport with kind of just these punctuated by incredible feats like a Home run. Hitting a ball that's thrown at you 90 miles per hour, 400ft. Anyway, here's the reason I brought it up. I finally get to the point there. There is this genre now on X where soccer players from, like, Germany are on a bus and they're driving through some town like Gainesville, or, you know, they're in Georgia, they're in Florida, and they're shooting film and they're writing back home and they're writing. I'm just in some place I never heard of called Gainesville, right? And every house here is a mansion. These people are rich. Like, wherever they go, they're like, I can't. You know, this Waffle House was the best restaurant I've ever been to in my life. And I've been trying to make tell people this forever, at least since I wrote the book. Euro Trash that we are inc. They are poor and we are rich. Mississippi per capita GDP is like 48,000. That's higher than the capital than the per capita GDP of virtually any real European country other than, like, Monaco. We are incredibly wealthy, and what we have is incredible. And the way people talk about this country, I just don't think they realize how much better we are. I watched this show called International House Hunters.
- [07:28]
Molly Hemingway
Oh, I know. You told us about it, David.
- [07:30]
David Harsanyi
Where Americans go over to Europe and look at houses. And every. Every single episode, the realtors trying to tell them, this is not America. It's going to be a lot smaller. The things aren't going to be as nice. You're not going to have the same comforts. Anyway. Let's get on to politics. The.
- [07:49]
Molly Hemingway
I do want to say one thing about the World Cup. My husband was telling me that we recently lost to a middling team while wearing Pride jerseys. And it does kind of crush your desire to root for your team. We've lost a lot of skills about how to do patriotism right. And putting everybody in Pride jerseys is a really great example of what not to do. I don't even know. I don't even know if people understand how offensive that is to a lot of Christians. I mean, for one thing, pride is not considered a virtue, regardless of what you're prideful in. Scripture is very clear that you're not to be prideful. And pride cometh before the fall. You know, we've lost something there with holding up pride as this virtue. And then also pride in sexual sin is definitely contrary to scripture. So it's this in your face attack on Christian morality. And then they wonder why people aren't like rah rah for their companies or for their organizations that do this. But anyway, on that note.
- [09:06]
David Harsanyi
No, no.
- [09:06]
Molly Hemingway
Happy Pride Month, David.
- [09:11]
David Harsanyi
The. It's also against Jewish morality. It just. Now I'm going to start stressing this for the rest of my life considering what's been going on, especially with these progressive Jewish groups that put up signs saying pride is a Jewish value. I literally saw Jewish Democrats saying that. I was just reading a book. It's called Ethics of Our Fathers. It's like this Jewish book of aphorisms from like famous rabbis going back to the, you know, Roman times and the half. The book is about how you should not be prideful, like that it leads you to the devil. That at least not the devil, but, you know, it leads you to sin. It is not a Jewish value either. I doubt it took value in any kind of useful faith.
- [09:51]
Molly Hemingway
I saw something on Twitter where someone is saying like, why do Christians so oppose, you know, this issue and not divorce? Why are they so public about opposing this? And someone wrote back something like, well, for one thing, my local school, school doesn't have a Happy Divorce Month flag out flying and all. There are lots of things you can be critical of, of how people are, are living their lives. But it is interesting how this became like a huge, big thing a few years ago and people are starting to, I guess, have second thoughts about some of the embrace of a radical gay pride type approach. Also, speaking of Happy Pride Month, Graham Platner won his Democrat primary last night in Maine. Just kidding. That has nothing to do with Pride Month. But
- [10:54]
David Harsanyi
yeah, he did. I think that's expected. No one was really running against him. Janet Mills, I think, was still on the ballot, but Janet Mills, yeah, but she wasn't actively campaigning. I saw a poll where, where Platner had become more, more popular among progressive Democrats after the stuff came out about the Nazi tattoo. It's almost as if they actually like that about him. I don't know if you saw this interview with one of his fans at an event. This woman, she was probably my age or older than, than I am. And she was asked, does it bother you? And she says, no. You know, then someone said, well, what if he had had an tattoo on him? And she says, well, I'd be against that because they are involved in genocide. So just to recap here, the Nazi tattoo is not genocidal, does not in at all represent genocide, but the Israeli flag does. Like, that's kind of demented thinking. A lot of progressives have. And he. The thing with this guy is like I've been trying to grab my brain around why, what is the appeal here? Why are they so defensive about him? Is it just because they're going to defend any kind of progressive candidate? Is it because he's a radical and they just want him in the Senate? Is it because they just, I don't know, I mean, there's nothing appealing about him. I took a deep dive on his speeches and interviews. He is not a smart man if you're, if you like him. Because finally you say to yourself, wow, here's a blue collar working class person who can finally get into Congress. And I actually think that's, that would be good. He's not even that it's all fraudulent. His, we talked about this last week. His company is propped up by his mother. His house was bought by his dad and he, he gets VA benefits, which is fine. He's, he's a veteran. I'm not, you know, thank you for your service. But I mean, everything you've said after that is insane. And he's a radical. So, I don't know, maybe you have an answer for me. Why? What leads people to show such a devotion to a man who is such so creepy and sleazy?
- [13:02]
Molly Hemingway
Jamie Kershuk had a line about how Donald Trump has been said that Donald Trump is a poor person's idea of a rich person. And he said Graham Platner is a rich person's idea of a poor person. But he's this kid of privilege who's cosplaying as a working class guy. I get that. I get why that would be a good approach for Democrats to take. They have a huge problem in how they repulse working class voters. No normal person is voting Democrat these days and they keep putting forth these just effeminate weird dudes or shrieking cat lady types. They're failing to get men to vote for them. They're failing to get working class people to vote for them. And it's not just appearances. Their message is reported to working class voters. So I can see why Democrats would say we need to work on this and put someone who's not the way that James Talarico is in front of voters. I can, I totally get that. What I don't, what I'm not convinced on. Well, a, they've managed to pick a guy who has a, has a closet just packed to the rafters with skeletons. But also, I don't think he's actually a populist. I don't think when you're Thinking about, again, appealing to voters. I don't think he breaks from Barack, from the Barack Obama to Chuck Schumer to AOC range. He's right. He's right in there. And I don't think he opposes immigrant open borders and rampant mass migration. I really don't. I mean, first of all, weird that nobody has asked him about it, but until he stands up and says I'm going to lead the charge to shut down the borders and stop illegal immigration, he can't say he's a populist. That's like the 100% populist issue. That's something that even Bernie Sanders was for until a few years ago. So I don't, I think he's like a fraud in every way. Not just that he's cosplaying as a poor kid when he's subsidized by my tax dollars and his parents to have a fairly beautiful lifestyle. Not that he runs a business whose only client is his mom. Not that he went to Hotchkiss, a $70,000 a year prep school. But I think he's pretending to be a populist when he's basically just like the rest of the Democrats on everything else.
- [15:53]
David Harsanyi
I mean, I think he's an economic populist where he. It's all class war, all the way down, all the time. Maybe. I don't know what his. Honestly, now that you mention it, I don't even know what his opinion on immigration is. I guess wherever Bernie Sanders is is probably where he is right now.
- [16:07]
Molly Hemingway
He disobeyed Barack Obama. Would you say, Would he disobey Barack Obama? That's my question. Because unless he's willing to break away from Barack Obama, he's, he's just like all the rest.
- [16:23]
David Harsanyi
Yeah, I mean, I don't know, but Barack Obama's changed. Like Barack Obama put on a fake centrist facade during the. I don't think he was really that, but I think he, you know, positioned himself as a. Somewhat of a centrist who is speaking to normal people and he was liked by some middle class people for sure.
- [16:44]
Molly Hemingway
I, I agree that he's left wing. I'm saying he's not populist.
- [16:48]
David Harsanyi
I don't really know what that word means exactly, but okay, that's fine. I come I, I would call him a progressive populace. Like, you know, everything's class war, everything's the rich stole this from us, we need to get it back. That's a populist message.
- [17:02]
Molly Hemingway
I agree with you that it's a Barack Obama message. To me.
- [17:05]
David Harsanyi
Okay. The thing is, now that you mentioned it, I don't know what he actually believes specifically. I was telling you I took a deep dive on into his speeches. They're so. It's all just platitudes, like with. Given, with emotion. Like, here's just a line from the other day. He says this is a race about performative politics that they're used to. What they don't understand is this race is about us. Like, these are. This is just. Just gibberish. Right? There's nothing. He's not saying anything for real. So just imagine this going on for entire speeches. He has white male.
- [17:41]
Molly Hemingway
Kamala Harris.
- [17:43]
David Harsanyi
Yeah, I think he. I think she actually has more meaning in her speeches than him. It reminds me of Frank Drebin from Naked Gun. I don't know if you remember when he says to his love of his life, maybe the problems of two little people don't amount to a hill of beans, but this is our hill and these are our beans. There's a guy, Daniel Dennett, I don't know if he's still alive. He's like a philosopher, but he called these deputies. They sound poetic and emotional and weighty, but really they're nothing. They're. It's just empty, vacuous. That's what this guy is.
- [18:15]
Molly Hemingway
Deep thoughts with Jack Hand.
- [18:17]
David Harsanyi
But those are so funny. Yeah, yeah, like Kamala Harris, but weightier, if you can believe that. But here's the thing. So I'm just saying that because. Or I'm just bringing that up because it's childish, mostly. Childish gibberish and freshman college level, kind of like socialist sloganeering. But that's what people seem to want. And don't get me wrong, I get it. Most politicians don't say deep things in their speeches or policy. I mean, it would be boring to hear about policy all the time. But they. Not very long ago, they would take positions on major issues in a way that was. You know, it was a big deal when Barack Obama moved away from single payer to Obamacare. Right. Like, forget his real intentions or anything. But it mattered. We debated it. We spoke about where he stood. You had. People don't even take. Democrats don't take positions other than that Donald Trump is bad and that rich people are. We need to tax billionaires and get rid of billionaires. That's their answer to everything. And this guy is a cartoonish version of that. So the point is, even if you take away the Nazi tattoo and this. And. And we didn't even talk about or did we about the kick account he had or how he called white rural people stupid, racist, or how he mocked the Purple Heart recipient or sat or when he said the Virgin Mary was a skank. Does that not bother people? I actually think it's incredibly important to stop this guy. This guy is. It's like having the worst, you know, House member and Ilhan Omar or something. In a Senate seat. In a very important Senate seat. And not just that, but it's a double whammy because you're losing a moderate Republican who balances things out in the Senate to some extent. I don't know. I just think it's a really important race.
- [20:06]
Molly Hemingway
It is important. I don't know enough about Maine voters to know how it will go. We should note that there is a provision where Democrats could replace him. I think they have three or four weeks here to replace him with someone else that they've picked. So there are lots of concerns among Democrats that what has come out about Graham Platner is not everything and particularly related to his presence on a predatory website called Kik, where he has a picture of himself, you know, with a towel around him. That people who are on that site, you know, we already know from his wife that he, during their very short marriage that just began, I think, two years ago, has been sexting a half dozen women. We know he's on this predatory website that he was on until maybe a few days ago. There's lots of. There's a lot of concern that there might be worse things to come out and that they might involve minors. If that comes out in the next three to four weeks, I think they do have a way they can replace him. If it doesn't come out or it doesn't. If it's not there, if it doesn't come out. The Democrats have said they're just going to let the voters of Maine decide. And that seems to be a politically savvy way to still have a shot in this race to just defer to the Maine voters in a way that they would never. That they and their allies in the corporate media would never defer for a Republican situation. And I'll just be curious. I think the media will try to rehabilitate Graham Platner. They will downplay his anti Semitic, misogynistic, racist, or otherwise problematic comments. They will continue to deride anybody who makes any such statements about him in order to give him a fighting chance against Susan Collins.
- [22:05]
David Harsanyi
Yeah, I think people know this, and you definitely know this, and I'm sure many listeners do, but I'm going to just stress this. Until now, this has probably been a Democratic Party operation to get him off the ballot, not a Republican one. Republicans are going to wait, and they just waited until after he wins the primary. And now there's probably a lot more there. And they may even wait until he can't get off the ballot. Right. You know, where it becomes impossible to replace him, to start really coming out with stuff. There's no way that he's done all this stuff and there's not more, I don't think.
- [22:45]
Molly Hemingway
Did you see the Wall Street Journal ran a video interview of the couple, like a Harvard Yale couple that found Graham Platner and told, you know, got him to run for Senate. Did you see that video?
- [23:02]
David Harsanyi
Yes, yes. You, you sent it to me. I watched it and it is horrifying. His voice is breaking like he's about to cry when he's talking about Graham Platner and the, the, the stuff that's come out about him. And then he says voters want someone who wasn't made in a vat or something like that. You know, what he's saying is they want a normal, regular guy. To me, when I grew up, grew up around people who I would call blue collar, right. That. To think that a progressive from a Harvard Yale couple think that progressives have Nazi tattoos, that they say horrible things about women, that they go on sites with their shirts off to hook up and do all that stuff, that that's normal for a blue collar, working class person. I find that. I would find that incredibly, incredibly insulting. That's not most. A lot of blue collar people go to church. A lot of them have families and don't ever cheat on their wives. And they don't like Nazis and they don't protect, defend terrorists and they don't do a lot of the things that progressives seem to think that they do anyway. Sorry.
- [24:13]
Podcast Narrator
Most political shows tell you what to think. The Future of Freedom Podcast trust you to think for yourself. Every episode features two guests who share a commitment to liberty and limited government, but disagree on one major issue. And instead of debating each other, they each make their case one at a time, clearly, thoughtfully, and without the usual political theater. It's a refreshing change from the outrage driven media we're all used to. Hear multiple sides of an argument and make up your own mind. Search for future of freedom wherever you listen to podcast.
- [24:55]
Molly Hemingway
I just want to stick on these two consultants because I would encourage everybody to find this interview and listen to this guy.
- [25:03]
David Harsanyi
May I ask you something? Are they Consultants like in Maine, have they been around a long time?
- [25:08]
Molly Hemingway
Do you know anything about on Bernie Sanders presidential campaign? He goes to Yale Law, I think she went to Harvard. They consider themselves progressives and they think that populism will be a winning message for the Democrat Party. So they don't consider themselves populists. They just understand that the working class has completely moved away from the Democrats in a way that causes electoral problems. So that was going into their thinking and they hooked up with the Graham Platner's campaign guy who created the Mamdani myth and ethos and managed to have a successful race there. But this couple, it can't be. It must be seen. The man has uptalk worse than the most Valley girl, Southern Californian, you know, lady out there, he talks like this when he's talking about his support program partner. It can't be real. And it can't be real that he's with a woman. Like the levels of brainwashing that need to go into people to say it would be in any way reasonable to be with a man like this. It can't be real. And you and I just encourage everybody to check it out.
- [26:39]
David Harsanyi
What if it's an affectation and he's straight as they come? Straight as an arrow. I think that that's a possibility as well. People are in communities where other people speak this way and they pick it up and they start acting a certain way. That's not natural.
- [26:53]
Molly Hemingway
Well, and that's partly what I, what I think is happening. That the Democrat party is so bereft of men that nobody knows how a man talks. And they're so opposed to masculinity that they are rejecting it in their core. So I'm not actually saying he's gay. I think being gay is like an action, not a, not a way you talk, a sexual action, not a way you talk. But I'm worried about the Democrat party.
- [27:21]
David Harsanyi
But Platner is masculine, but in an actual toxic way for real. Right. And that's what they think a white, straight, masculine male should act like or acts like.
- [27:33]
Molly Hemingway
They're so unaware they're not around any men. I think the Democratic Party must be like 80% female these days, particularly at the activist core.
- [27:42]
David Harsanyi
It's a lot of single women are Democrats. They are the core. People don't talk about it in this way, but they're the core. Like there's always this mention of white men are Republican. If white men voted, Republicans would win every race and every everywhere. But if single women were only voters, Democrats would Win every race everywhere.
- [28:03]
Molly Hemingway
And James Tall Rico all the way down.
- [28:08]
David Harsanyi
James Talarico. Have you read these stories where they keep leaking? They pretend they're upset by it, but they keep leaking stories about the girlfriends he had while he was in D.C. to prove that he's straight.
- [28:19]
Molly Hemingway
I think it's a brilliant strategy. I just want to say, in campaigns, you need to come up with something believable. The only thing believable. Everyone kind of knows James Talarico is probably not getting an actual lady. So they keep leaking that he has. Well, they said his current girlfriend was his former chief of staff, who's a beautiful woman who could be with a man. And they're like, yep, they've been together for a while. And they're like, oh, and he also dated another staffer. I think they're saying staffer in there so that people will think, well, it must be true because it's kind of inappropriate by Democrat Party standards to date staffers. So they're saying, we wouldn't say something that kind of hurts us unless it were true. And this way, people are like, maybe he really is with ladies. And I don't think he is.
- [29:09]
David Harsanyi
You don't think so?
- [29:10]
Molly Hemingway
But, I mean, I don't know.
- [29:14]
David Harsanyi
I'm surprised at the. At the. At the. I don't want to get in trouble, but I'm just gonna say it. I'm surprised. I'd be surprised, but I'm surprised that the level. I think what the mistake here is the level of lady they put him in the room with. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, way above anyone he could prob. Probably date in real life. I think you need to be more realistic.
- [29:34]
Molly Hemingway
I think it's easier to get Democrat activists to claim that they dated James Talarico than to get a real woman to claim that, like, there's a picture of him, interests.
- [29:48]
David Harsanyi
A picture of him at a music festival with his lady. And I don't know how else to put it, she's very attractive, you know, and he's there and he just looks so out of place and so weirded out by what's going on around me. Just. It's almost like he was Photoshopped shopped in. His girlfriend from Canada. He photoshopped himself or Photoshopped her in maybe. I don't know.
- [30:07]
Molly Hemingway
She really does have Canadian roots. But what about California?
- [30:15]
David Harsanyi
Yeah, let's talk about this. So, Spencer Pratt. Everyone's very excited about his candidacy because I'm not an expert on la, but it seemed like he was speaking Truth to power, as they say. There's a lot of problems in that city. Was it a mirage because he lost? He's not in the runoff. This. But a lot of people, and I think, I'm not one of these people who say, oh, this is a stolen election, that's a stolen election. I need to see proof. Right, fine. The way this played out, I. I do not begrudge people their skepticism. It he. All the mail in ballots seem to just go in one single direction to make something happen. There's no way around that fact. Do I know that there was cheating? No, I have not read anything about cheating. So what do you say? You're an expert on this sort of thing.
- [31:04]
Molly Hemingway
I actually think talking about stealing or cheating is not the most helpful framework for understanding whether an election has integrity. And the Los Angeles situation is that it's an overwhelmingly Democrat city. That's why it, that's why it's in such bad shape. Right. They have rampant homelessness and then all the problems caused by that. People setting fires in the encampments, lots of abuse of people, abuse of dogs. There's public health crisis, there's defecating in the streets. It's a major issue how poorly Los Angeles is run. And it's poorly run because it is overwhelmingly Democratic. They have these large primary systems where to get to a runoff. It's only the top two that get to go to a runoff. When you are 75, 80% Democrat, that usually means you're going to get two Democrats in the runoff. Even for a lower percentage of Democrats, you're going to get two Democrats in the runoff. So the fact that Spencer Pratt was competing was interesting. They'd had a good candidate, Rick Caruso, a fairly good candidate, Rick Caruso, a few years ago, who also made it to a runoff. What was interesting about Spencer Pratt's campaign was how it highlighted all of these issues. The filth that people are living with, the corruption, the horrific running of the fire department and the police department in la. And that excited a lot of people and just put a light on something that we usually don't get. Nobody wants to talk about how Democrats are destroying cities, least of all CBS News and the liberal media. So it doesn't breach a national conversation frequently, but Spencer Pratt was able to elevate that to a national conversation. But you should be wary of campaigns that are more online than ballot operation campaigns. Democrats have perfected ballot operations in California. They have decreased any level of integrity in the election. You can, for instance, have a quote, unquote, Mail in ballot that comes in with no postmark well after election day. Why would that be a problem? Well, there are many ballots that are sent out all over the, all over the state. It's a, it's a mail, mail out ballot paradise there. And so you can just kind of figure out what you need and then, and then put those ballots in. And you did see that in some cases you were having these large tranches of ballots coming in. I'm not exaggerating here. Literally 100% for the third place candidate, a candidate who didn't even win her own area, but who was having 100% of late arriving ballots or late counted ballots going in her favor. Can you prove that that's fraud? No. The whole point is that you can't prove anything. Right.
- [34:08]
David Harsanyi
Like, let me, can I ask you something? What is the mechanism to make that happen exactly? Like how, I mean, how would that happen? Do they get rid of ballots that come in for Pratt? Like, I just don't even understand how the mechanism for that kind of cheating would happen. I understand what you're saying before the election, but how can you steer it in that way? How would they do that?
- [34:28]
Molly Hemingway
Okay, so just to give again, like this would just be an example. Okay, so about 10% of the country moves each year. Probably California has a higher percentage than that, which means, and then a lot of people are automatically registered when they register to, when they get their driver's license. You even have, by the way, other issues such as I think a lack some enforcement of whether you're a citizen or maybe even outright support for non citizen voting. You have people who register to vote and give an address of a homeless shelter that they've never lived at. Now probably the people aren't, probably the homeless people aren't doing that themselves. They're doing that with the assistance of Democrat organizations that are involved in ballot chase. So you have all sorts of ballots just floating out there unsupervised. And you can, you can fill out a ballot and claim that you witnessed the person doing it with no signature verification or oversight there too. So there's just like a lot of ballots out there. Just think, just think it through your head like if you were doing an a homeowners meeting and there were just ballots floating around and no checking to see if the person voting was actually a homeowner, it would be very easy to manipulate an election. Or it could be, particularly when you didn't have to be in the room to vote, where people would see each other. You could just say oh yeah, no, I went down to that farm and there are 28 people living there and they all voted for my candidate. And no, you can't ask me for more than that. You know, these are their real names and I verified it. So they've created a system where it's just very easy to do ballot chase that may or may not be connected to real people, but is impossible to figure out if it's connected. It's almost impossible to figure out if it's connected to real people. Plus you're not really allowed to scrutinize any of this so that people are suspicious of how different. The late count. Oh, the late counting issue is also huge. We used to recognize for decades that not counting results immediately was a sign that an election was being manipulated. That would have been. I mean, you could read it in textbooks. How do you know when an election has integrity and when it doesn't? Well, in third world countries, in Venezuela, they take a long time to count the vote or whatever. In this African country, it takes a really long time. A few years ago, when it became a partisan advantage for Democrats, you are now not allowed to say those things, but we all know it's true. Time means less oversight, means less control of the ballots, means less ballot security. And once a ballot is separated from any. Okay, so like take, take all the ballots that vote, take all those votes that came in for the third place, the original third place finisher, once they're separated from any identifying information. What do you do with that? Do you know what I mean? Like, how do you investigate whether someone, how do you investigate whether this particular ballot was really for this person or whether a ballot chase operator filled it out for them and claimed it was them.
- [37:54]
David Harsanyi
There's no way to investigate.
- [37:57]
Molly Hemingway
You could investigate it, but the DOJ tends to view that as racist for some reason or love violation of the Voting Rights Act. It's like you, if you are even going to ask someone about whether their vote really was their vote, that could be viewed as an effort to disenfranchise them.
- [38:14]
David Harsanyi
What I'm saying is you, you can say this is systemically corrupt, but it's very hard probably to chase down a single ballot in some way and figure out each one to make sure that the person is legitimately voting or not.
- [38:26]
Molly Hemingway
Right? Take, take a homeless encampment where everybody registered to vote at the local homeless shelter. And you go to that homeless encampment, just imagine asking everybody if they really voted for the third place commie. Just imagine that. Just like imagine going in there and trying to really nail down in a way that could be prosecutable. Whether there was manipulation there.
- [38:51]
David Harsanyi
We, by 9 o' clock we know who the President is. But LA takes days to count its votes. It seems ripe for corruption. And this is why I don't begrudge people their skepticism here though like you say, it's difficult to prove. I think we also have to come to terms with the fact though that Spencer Pratt was not going to be the mayor of Los Angeles in the end.
- [39:16]
Molly Hemingway
I don't think anyone thought that though, right?
- [39:20]
David Harsanyi
I don't know. I think some people online did. Like you say, a lot of times online there's excitement about over things that are a little weird, but it's good to, to, for the guy to have a voice. It would have been great for him to run, you know, in the general, the runoff or whatever, so that he could point to the, the problems that were going on. I think the only chance for cities is that in primaries you get more some kind of moderate Democrat to save a city. Republicans aren't going to win. Or is there a big city Republican mayor anywhere? I, I don't even think one exists. Maybe.
- [39:51]
Molly Hemingway
But also think about Los Angeles. Karen Bass, the incumbent is someone with strong communist ties. She was bragging about it during her campaign.
- [40:01]
David Harsanyi
You know, she went to Cuba when she was here.
- [40:04]
Molly Hemingway
Yeah, trained with communist revolutionaries. But her challenger is someone who's like, Karen Bass is the conservative in this race. I'm the true communist. So LA voters have, are going to go from a bad situation to somehow even worse. My husband always calls this the socialist death spiral. The socialists destroy the city, causing all the normal people to leave. And then the people remaining are like, the problem is we didn't try socialism hard enough. And so then they just get more and more radical.
- [40:33]
David Harsanyi
I mean, New York City is the capitalist capital of the world and its mayor is a socialist. Right.
- [40:40]
Molly Hemingway
So last night though, Steve Hilton did advance out of the jungle primary and I think this is a huge achievement by him. Democrats created jungle primary. They're such a one party state, so overwhelmingly Democrat party that they created a jungle primary so that no Republicans would even reach a general election in the areas that they control, including the whole state. And yet Steve Hilton did get out of this jungle primary as one of the two candidates, the other one being the deeply troubled Javier Becerra, the former Attorney General of California as well. And I think what's interesting here is not that Steve Hilton is favored to win. That's certainly not true. The Democrat will almost Certainly win no matter what. Particularly since the Democrat Party invests in ballot operations instead of acting like we're in a free and fair election environment where having the best ideas wins. But what Steve Hilton will do is force the issues about California's horrific governance to a national level. He will have coattails which matter for midterm elections and he will be pushing these issues nationally in a way that I bet Gavin Newsom is not happy about. You know, people will be able to look at what, what has been done to the state through its one party governance. What has been done to a once great state, the state where I grew up. And I'm kind of excited about that. Even while I'm very realistic about his is low odds of winning.
- [42:19]
David Harsanyi
I feel a connection to Steve Hilton. His parents escaped Hungary in 1956. I think they went to Britain first. Yeah. He speaks Hungarian I believe I've seen that him doing that.
- [42:30]
Molly Hemingway
You know, he used to work at Fox, so I got to meet him a few times there and I love, he's. He's a deeper thinker than a lot of what you see on, on typical television things. But we were doing some inaugural stuff on Inauguration Day last year and as you know, the inauguration was kind of canceled, the outdoor seminary ceremony and they just put it inside. But we were going right up to that point. So we were, we're in the middle of D.C. but have nowhere to go. And we ended up actually we headed over to, to Heritage foundation which welcomed us in. And it was very nice to be around people who were celebrating because not Everybody in Washington D.C. as you know, would be celebrating the, the inaugur. He was so focused on this race for years, caring deeply about California. And I get it because it really is a beautiful, wonderful place. And it's sad what has been done there.
- [43:31]
David Harsanyi
It's the most beautiful place. It's incredible. Let's talk about another candidate for just a second. I wanted to bring up is Tom Steyer who lost. Yeah, I lost the money. So this guy's the worst. He's constantly bellyaching about money and politics and billionaires and he spent on this race $200 million. He did not make the runoff. He spent a few years ago. What Was it in 2020? Yeah, he ran for president. I don't know if people remember he spent $300 million. So he spent half a billion dollars trying to win a seat seat and got nowhere. He is a huge dark money, you know, quote unquote dark money spender on all kinds of political, hard left political issues, and it's just nice to see him fail. So I wanted to just mention that he's kind of the. One of the biggest hypocrites in American politics, I'd say. I don't think you get bigger than that. It reminds me of Jared Polis. You know him, the governor of Colorado. So when I met him 20 years ago, he had this group and its whole. The whole purpose of this activist group was to get money out of politics to stop billionaires and millionaires from buying seats. He was a millionaire. He's the. I think his parents started one of those flower delivering companies. He dropped that and then he just bought his seat. Right. He bought a house seat first, I believe, and then he bought with his own money and then he bought the, you know, the governor's seat. These people are massive hypocrites on the left.
- [45:09]
Molly Hemingway
I love when people are like, like, Donald Trump is a liar. And I'm like, oh, it's distinguishable from 99% of the other politicians out there.
- [45:20]
David Harsanyi
People get mad at me. I do think Donald Trump lies like every politician, but I also think he has this weird way of exaggerating things that I almost think he actually believes is so. Like when he says this is the greatest economy we've ever had under Trump, whatever. I actually. Facts. I think he's convinced himself that that is true. And he just. Yeah, that's not good. It's not good because it's not. And he should deal. Deal in reality. Okay. Do we.
- [45:51]
Molly Hemingway
I just want to say out of South Carolina, there was also a primary there, and there were a bunch of people running for governor, including, you know, like, Ralph Norman, who I think has been a really good member of Congress. Nancy Mace, who I would not say has been a really good member of Congress. There was a Trump endorsed person, Yvette or Evatt, and Joe Wilson's son. The last two were the ones who made it to the runoff, but Nancy Mace did not. She came in fifth, so not much of a constituency there for her.
- [46:34]
David Harsanyi
Can I just say this? Nancy Mace is a clown. I, I know this is going to upset some of my Twitter friends. She is an absolute clown. She's just wildly goes from one end of the spectrum to the other. Do you remember? I think she was one of the only people to vote for that dumb contraception act where she was. Where, where, where Democrats were pretending that condoms were going to be banned because taxpayers should no longer have to.
- [47:02]
Molly Hemingway
Yep. She.
- [47:05]
David Harsanyi
I forget on abortion, I think she's. She's sort of all over the place as well. I'm not surprised that that people which would not want her to be running. I don't know enough about South Carolina to know why I assume do you know were there just better candidates she's not conservative enough. Like why did they reject her?
- [47:24]
Molly Hemingway
I actually don't know but can't say that that was a, a disappointing thing. I do feel like South Carolina tends to elect people who are less conservative than they could. I don't know. I don't know the details why although I have a family member who recently moved there so I've been developing a greater interest in South Carolina politics.
- [47:45]
David Harsanyi
Beautiful state, beautiful state.
- [47:47]
Molly Hemingway
Interesting results there out of the, out of the Tuesday primaries. So onward and upward.
- [47:57]
Podcast Advertiser
A multi billion dollar CEO says this is deeply triggering 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. McDonald's drive thru prices through the roof. Groceries at Target skyrocketing. Ken Griffin is sounding the alarm on inflation. We need to be strengthening the US dollar. 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 on Apple St. Spotify or wherever you get your podcast.
- [48:31]
David Harsanyi
I guess we haven't really spoken about this so we should just do passing, pass some mention of it because we just mentioned Donald Trump's mercurial ways. You know, we're still in Iran. We're still waiting. I am troubled by, by the path that we seem to be have taken. You probably disagree with me. I think you fight wars, you win wars. We're going down the same path that Barack Obama went down, trusting that we can make a deal with, with apocalyptic Islamic nut jobs. But unlike a lot of people who have turned on Trump on my side of the, of this issue, I think we need to wait to see what happens. I'm not, I'm not. There are lots of conflicting messages coming out. I don't know what's going to happen. I think in the meantime we're choking off their economy and, and, and we've really hurt their military and their leadership. I, I am still giving him somewhat of a benefit of the doubt of how this comes out. We'll see what happens. When I see a bad deal, I'll, I'll call it what it is. For political reasons. I think he's, he's taken this path because it, it is not a popular war with the American people. There's A midterm coming up. I understand all of that, but once you're in, he already owns this and he should, should be winning. I think American people like to win, and in the end that they will support things that they see as victories. So I don't know if you, you know, where you stand on this. We haven't really spoken about it.
- [50:03]
Molly Hemingway
Oh, well, you do know where I stand on this.
- [50:06]
David Harsanyi
I mean, generally, I don't know about the recent goings on, like, what your thoughts are.
- [50:11]
Molly Hemingway
I am, I think, skeptical and defeated, but somehow, oddly enough, not black pilling. I was skeptical of this idea that we would go to war with Iran, particularly at this moment when I think our country has so many major issues that need the full attention of the administration. And then I also realized that if Donald Trump would do something like this, there is no exit from Constance war, that this is just what. This is just what it's going to be. So I'm just admitting defeat and understanding that we will always be at war. And in fact, the longer the war, the better, is sort of the idea of the people who run wars. It's just what it's going to be. And then not blackpilling. I just mean by that that I try to retain an open mind about this possibly working out or, or even I've never questioned that there could be an upside here to this, to reordering things in that region, to dealing with Iran as the threat that it is. So I'm not, you know, I'm not naive about those things. But inflation and results just came out while we're talking, and they're bad. And I worry about handing over the government to Democrats as a cost of this war is a very high cost to pay. Maybe that won't happen. Maybe it will. Maybe it won't be that bad. But I worry about this country. I worry about our borders. I worry about the left and their violence. I worry about our own vision for ourselves. And I also think it's interesting. Like, I like that you said that you're not so down on Trump right now, but when he decided to do this war, it seemed he was saying there were a lot of people who kind of brought me to this place, and I'm now siding with other people who want to do this war. And I kind of wondered how long those friendships would last. And I kind of thought, well, I hope the people who really like this war are able to carry you through all of the difficulties that you might face going forward. And you're being a loyal and committed person, and that's great, but I haven't seen that from a lot of people.
- [52:51]
David Harsanyi
Donald Trump's been talking about doing this since the 80s. So I think the people who brought him here all should have known that he sooner or later is going to deal with the Iran situation, especially in the second term. Yeah, maybe, But I don't think anyone likes war. I think they gave Iran tons of chances to make any kind of deal that ensured that they wouldn't have a nuke program.
- [53:15]
Molly Hemingway
You, I want to say on the hel, there was an Apache helicopter that was shot down this week with an absolutely amazing from the future rescue operation. An actual drone came and rescued the two. They both survived the helicopter getting shot down. But, you know, you hear Trump say, oh, we completely obliterated their military operations. And then you also hear they shot down a helicopter. I want more realistic messaging for this war.
- [53:50]
David Harsanyi
I think those things are in conflict at all.
- [53:52]
Molly Hemingway
Well, no, I don't. I'm not saying they're necessarily in conflict. I'm talking about about how you maybe don't be so. I know, I know it's Donald Trump. So it's silly to even say this way. But don't be like so extreme in what you say the success of an operation is. So last June, when we hit Fordo, we were told that we had ended any hope of a nuclear program for the long term. But now we're told that we need to go in and get the quote, unquote, nuclear dust because it actually wasn't so successful.
- [54:24]
David Harsanyi
You know, if I may answer these things. Well, okay, Trump obviously exaggerates, but we have obliterated their military in any sort of historical sense. This would be called an obliteration. Of course they can shoot down a helicopter here and there. Of course they can launch a missile here or there. You can't get every single weapon out of their hands unless you land troops, which no one I believe really is is going to do. And I don't think there's any appetite for it. He also exaggerated on the nuclear sites, but most people who spoke at the time knew the dust wasn't going anywhere. There was. It was going to be there. And they could excavate that site at some point if they wanted to, but they clearly haven't done it. It's a serious issue. And even at the time when we discussed this, I think Donald Trump was pushing and talking about regime change. But most people in the administration elsewhere that thought that that was kind of a long shot, I still think, think it is possibility in the long run, because you have a very, very weakened regime. But I just don't think these things are in conflict. What, you know, what I think the problem is that Donald Trump thinks everything's a real estate deal, you know, that the other side's going to be reasonable, that the other side's going to come to the table and meet in the middle or whatever. These are not people who see the world. They see the world in a cosmic sense. They keep breaking the ceasefire, they keep shooting at us, and Donald Trump does nothing. I think that's a problem. Come home, then. If you're not going to fight a war and win, just come home then. I agree. Let them do what they want. Let the Israelis and the, and the, you know, the Saudis and everyone else deal with it on their own if they have to. There's no real other other way around it. They cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. They never will. It's going to be a war there. We can do. Deal with it now or let them deal with it or deal with it in the future. Those are the choices.
- [56:19]
Molly Hemingway
What do you think about the. I know that probably a lot of listeners to this show and a lot of people on the right just totally support the Iraq war operation. Why do you think so many people in the country don't? And do you think that's like a political problem?
- [56:39]
David Harsanyi
You mean the Iran war?
- [56:41]
Molly Hemingway
I'm sorry. You have the lowest approval ratings that we've seen, I think, for.
- [56:49]
David Harsanyi
Oh, yeah.
- [56:50]
Molly Hemingway
I wanted to mention that maybe either term. And you think that ramping up the war is the way to handle the situation going forward.
- [57:01]
David Harsanyi
If you were, if you're just worrying about political repercussions, you should come home. You should never have gone in the first place. I think a lot of the, the, the negativity on the war is, is real. I think people don't want to be involved, some people. But I also think a lot of it has to do with Donald Trump himself. There's just simply nothing. If Joe Biden had done this, Chuck Schumer would be up there and he would be telling us that we needed to do it. But because Donald Trump has done it, all the Democrats say, or most of the Democrats say it's a mistake. Take this idea that Donald. I think maybe it's hit a couple of points on. I just don't think Donald Trump's been popular at all. And I don't buy that we, that the, that the Republicans were going to win or keep the House even if we hadn't been in Iran, they're going to lose the House, probably. And that was probably going to happen anyway. The Senate. Yeah. I still think Republicans are going to keep it. And I don't know that things would be very different if we weren't in Iran. Politically here, I don't, I'm not saying there's. It's not anything. I think it plays into the inflation, like you mentioned, that's for sure. Part of this. Even though I think inflation and oil prices or gas prices haven't been as bad as they could have been.
- [58:18]
Molly Hemingway
Oh, my goodness.
- [58:19]
David Harsanyi
No, I really do. I mean, everyone was talking about 200, 200 a barrel for oil and all of that, but. But because of technology and other ways, an American domestic production, it just hasn't been as bad as it could have been. I'm not saying it's good. I know it's bad. I go to the gas pump. But it's not as bad as it could have been. Definitely part of it. I just don't buy that. Oh, if it weren't for Iran, Donald would be, you know, we, if it weren't for Iran, the Republicans would keep the House and easily when the Senate. I don't buy that. I think there are a lot of other factors involved and I don't think Donald Trump's very popular right now. I don't know if they'll ever be a popular president again. Honestly, I, I just wonder how much Iran has to do with that. I'm not saying it's nothing. I'm not, not naive, but I do wonder. Yeah, I think ramping it up and getting it over with and getting it, winning and getting out of there would be helpful than this constant, you know, stalemate and negotiation. Treating Iran like we're on equal footing, like we didn't just annihilate, which is a good word, their entire military infrastructure. We're acting like we're on the. We're acting again, like we're on the same plane as they are, which is just insanity to me. I don't know what's going on there exactly.
- [59:31]
Molly Hemingway
I do think, though, that wanting to end a war is different than being able to end a war. And I do think it's clear that Donald Trump feels that he has accomplished what he wanted to in Iran and would like to end the war and recover the situation here domestically. But that doesn't mean he'll be able to.
- [59:48]
David Harsanyi
You can't leave there and not deal with the nuclear question. The other questions or, you know, I don't know, ballistic Missile programs, proxy army is obviously, Iran thinks that Hezbollah is its personal army in another country and all that. I don't know how you deal with that. But the nuclear question, if he leaves without dealing with that question and squaring that away, then this has been an immense failure.
- [60:13]
Molly Hemingway
Yeah, I've noticed that all the people who were huge supporters of Donald Trump going to war in Iran are like, he's just like Barack Obama. He's going to be just like Barack Obama here unless we do much more here to defeat Iran.
- [60:28]
David Harsanyi
And, and yeah, they're right. If he makes a deal where, where we went to war and we didn't get, we. And, and we still have no way to check that the Iranians are upholding their end of the deal, especially when it comes to nukes, then what was the point of this? But that was one of his three. That was one of the three reasons he went in his initial explanation that he sent out and destroying their navy and, and ballistic capabilities. We've done a pretty good job there. They don't have a navy anymore. Really. I mean, it's ridiculous. I, you know, someone could shoot down a helicopter here with an rpg. Doesn't mean that they have an army that is functional. Iran is, is been really, their military capabilities have been degraded, but the new question remains, and they use that for leverage forever. That has to be dealt with. And once that's dealt with, I think you can come home and say, you won.
- [61:29]
Molly Hemingway
I was talking to someone who was not super enthusiastic about the war, probably has very similar ideas to me, meaning not super enthusiastic, but not 100 opposed. And she was saying, I mean, I guess like, since we did this, we should now just finish the job. And it reminds me so much of the Iraq war when I was not a fan of going to war in Iraq. But then when there was the question about whether to do the surge or not, it was like, well, we're already there, so we might as well like actually win this thing. So I had that position of being anti the war, but pro the surge. But now hearing people be like, we just gotta, we just gotta like, really ramp it up here. And that's the only way forward, or else you're Barack Obama. I'm like, yeah, I've done this before. And I'm just, to me, it's like, okay, just do whatever you're going to do, because it's going to be done anyway. And the people don't really get much of a say at all.
- [62:27]
David Harsanyi
They could have say they elected the president who said he was going to hit Iran if they didn't abide by certain rules. Now, should Trump have gone to Congress. Yes. Before doing this sort of thing? I don't think the American people want this. I think it's the right thing, personally, but I don't think they want it. And you asked me about elections. I don't really care that much. I mean, I care. I think Democrats are a danger to the country. But I think at some point, if you say you're going to do something, even if it's unpopular and you think it's right, you should do it. That's how it works. This is not. We don't run the country on polling.
- [62:58]
Molly Hemingway
I'll just say that New York Times story where it went through how everybody in Trump's inner circle was discouraging him from the strike and he did it anyway. Even though I disagree with him, I found that to be admirable. I don't, it's a little weird to say it that way, but he clearly believes deeply in this. He clearly sought the counsel of people he trusts. They didn't agree with him and he said, we got to do it anyway. That is a mark of leadership. But it also means that it needs to go very, very well. And we'll see how they that how
- [63:33]
David Harsanyi
that goes or never goes very, very well. But I will tell you another thing. I don't believe that these New York Times Axios leaks that are always trying to frame everything as Donald Trump going at it by himself and everyone else, being against it, that he's constantly, him and Benjamin Netanyahu hate each other now and all of this stuff. Yeah. Donald Trump probably yells at that guy sometimes because they are, we do have of, you know, our interests aren't always exactly aligned. That doesn't mean we're enemies like all these Israel haters want us to believe. But all these leaks are very, they feel very selective. I don't know what's really going on, but it seems unlikely to me that there's no one around that wanted to take care of the Iranian problem and he just went by it on his own.
- [64:24]
Molly Hemingway
Let me just say it was clear that this was not a leak. The New York Times story, it was clear it was authorized from the White House in part because also after the story came out, not a single person said that they'd been misquoted or that it hadn't been an accurate portrayal of events. And this White House is very quick to do that. Also, the level of conversation they had, the level of insight they had, it was clear that Trump or Susie Wiles said, feel free to talk, talk to these people.
- [64:54]
David Harsanyi
That's fine. I don't mean that story in particular. In general.
- [64:58]
Molly Hemingway
I'm not, I don't think it's fair to compare it to an Axios, which is like frequently clown town stuff. New York Times also frequently wrong. But Jonathan Swan tends to be a good reporter there. He tends to be accurate. I will at least say that when, if he says someone said something, he's, he's, it's my experience that he's right about that.
- [65:18]
David Harsanyi
I do, I do like him. But I will say this is the newspaper that put out the dog rape story not long ago. So my, my trust level of that paper is very, very low.
- [65:28]
Molly Hemingway
It should, it should be below whatever it is because they're that bad.
- [65:32]
David Harsanyi
The first story they ran right after, I'm sorry to interrupt after October 7th was that Israelis had bombed a hospital when it was Islamic Jihad that did it. And they basically never even corrected that story. And they put up a picture of another bombing on the front like so. I don't trust the New York Times, even though I think that he's a good reporter. Actually. He was with Axios, I think, initially, but I was very surprised in an interview with him that he has an Australian accent. Jonathan Swan But I also want to
- [66:00]
Molly Hemingway
point out it wasn't that everybody was opposed to Trump. It was definitely most people, including, you know, there were, there were concerns levied by Susie Wiles and Stephen Chung and Marco Rubio and J.D. vance. But Pete Hegseth was pushing very much for the this. And so I'm just pointing out that Trump is doing what he strongly believes in.
- [66:30]
David Harsanyi
And let me ask you this, right? I don't know if this is the case, but I imagine to some extent it is. If we are together in on a project and you want to make and you're in charge and you're about to do something really big, wouldn't you want your underlings to challenge you and show you what the negative side sides of this or outcomes could be? And I think that that is probably part of this as well, which is, is good. It's good to have a cabinet like that or it's good to have advisors who will do that for sure. Okay.
- [66:59]
Molly Hemingway
It's also good that when they don't win out that they accept the results and they keep advancing the agenda and if they have a problem, they can step down and otherwise they're all good
- [67:10]
David Harsanyi
or they can write a book. Anonymous. All right, let's do culture. What. What do you got? Anything?
- [67:22]
Molly Hemingway
I have continued to watch that thing we talked about last week, the four Seasons.
- [67:29]
David Harsanyi
Yeah.
- [67:30]
Molly Hemingway
And I do continue to like it less.
- [67:33]
David Harsanyi
Yeah.
- [67:34]
Molly Hemingway
But I'm probably gonna stick it out for the final three episodes. And Mark and I, on D Day went to see the new D Day film called Pressure, where Brendan Fraser plays Eisenhower. It's about meteorologists, which it did make me laugh. The whole time I was sitting there like, we're talking about people who are analyzing the weather in this movie here. But it's a really well done film with an excellent cast. I didn't love the. I didn't love everything about Brendan Fraser's portrayal of Eisenhower. He kind of got the physical down, but he was a little. Little too emotionally raw or weepy. It didn't match for that, but it was. It didn't take away from the film. And then Andrew Scott, who. I think he plays Moriarty in Sherlock. Does he play Sherlock? I can't remember. I can't remember. I remember he was in Sherlock. Sorry.
- [68:33]
David Harsanyi
No, he plays Moriarty. Yeah.
- [68:35]
Molly Hemingway
Yeah. He plays the. The key weatherman, James Stagg. And Kerry Condon is in it. Damian Lewis is amazing as Bernard Montgomery. And I love Damian Lewis. I think he's. I think he's dreamy and great. So it was a good cast. There are many other people in there as well. It's a very brief film. It's efficient. Mark was talking about how he likes that the weather guy is married and cares deeply about his wife, but we don't get any backstory because we don't need to to. We just know he's married and loves his wife. And so it's just done with this economy. That's really great. And then it does just. That's. Of all. Of all the things in war history, that invasion just continues to boggle my mind about how brave these men were, how courageous.
- [69:30]
David Harsanyi
So the movie's about figuring out the weather to know when we could land. Land our troops. Is that. That's what the movie is about?
- [69:38]
Molly Hemingway
Yeah. Weather operations are a big part, obviously, of choosing when to go. And they had a very limited window based on things like full moon and other things that were coming in. You know, parachute things being parachuted in and keeping the opponents from knowing what we were doing. And it later they have, at the end of the movie, a quote from Eisenhower. I think it's Eisenhower. Yeah. Being asked, like, what was the key ingredient to success that day? And he said, we had better meteorologists than the Germans. But the day that they wanted to do. It was not June 6, it was June 5. So it kind of hinges on all of that.
- [70:25]
David Harsanyi
Let me ask you this question. How do you think things would have gone in the modern age if you had a battle where you lost? Were you at 10,000 thousand American casualties in one or two days? I think around 4,500 deaths. The war would be incredibly unpopular. Immediately. We would have pressure to shut it down. Right. I mean, it would be. It would be a disaster here.
- [70:49]
Molly Hemingway
I think so. But I also think everything kind of depends on context. It's not like this was a pop. That World War II. It was popular to enter the war until we were attacked. Once we were attacked, then it became an absolute cause that almost everybody supported. And they did understand that we were fighting an enemy that was very difficult. And so. And it was just a different environment, too, in terms of how long it took for news to get home, the type of culture we were in, the support that mothers and fathers and wives received when someone died. And we have lost so much of that culture. We. We actually have a huge percentage of the country that's not patriotic at all and does not believe in dying for the country.
- [71:36]
David Harsanyi
I mean, you would have people saying that the Germans never attacked us. That's what that, you know, that the Germans don't threaten us. That's for sure what you would hear. Why are we doing this? I mean, that's what Pat Buchanan's book was about that came out. I forgot what it was called. Even now, people make that argument.
- [71:53]
Molly Hemingway
I mean, it was Japan that attacked us.
- [71:57]
David Harsanyi
Correct. I know. And then Germany declared war on us,
- [72:00]
Molly Hemingway
I believe allied with Germany. But that doesn't mean Germany attacked us.
- [72:03]
David Harsanyi
I'm just giving you what the arguments would be from the people here who were progressives, probably, or even isolationists.
- [72:11]
Molly Hemingway
Right. But I think the art. I mean, most of you know, a lot of Americans did not see this being our war. War until Japan bombed us.
- [72:21]
David Harsanyi
True. I mean, I. I will give you this. You know, I've been listening to a book on World War I, which I don't think was our war. And I actually don't think we should have been involved in allowing a stalemate to. To happen. There probably would have met no Nazi Germany in the future. World War I. Whenever I think about it, I realize that it led to, like, almost every bad thing that's ever happened since. But like, I was listening, in Gallipoli, you had like 300,000 casualties, and I. I just. I can't imagine today that kind of thing. I guess it's happening in Ukraine and Russia right in. But just in general, I just.
- [72:54]
Molly Hemingway
It's very weird that we don't get regular updates on our war against Russia in Ukraine. It's weird even the way that they. That the media were so obsessed. Like you just mentioned this hospital bombing that was actually done by the Palestinians accidentally and that was blamed on Israel. Israel. We were getting pictures, huge descriptions in that immediate. During the. During the wartime there. And it seems like the Ukraine, Russia war, you'll just get these random updates every once in a while with huge casualty numbers. Kind of find it weird.
- [73:30]
David Harsanyi
Well, there's, there's most wars. There is some level of censorship even we censored things. But I would say we can't know what's really going on with the Russians. And honestly, we probably can't know what's going on because of censorship of the Ukraine on the Ukrainian side. But it seems odd how obsessed people are with knowing about everything that goes on in the wars in the Middle east, especially when it comes to Israel, but don't care that hundreds of thousands of people have been dying in a land war in Europe. And it doesn't bother. Seem to bother anyone really. Anyway, I don't know how we got here. Back off culture, back onto serious topics. Oh, that I wanted to tell you. So it's funny that you mentioned Damian Lewis because I've been watching a show called Billions. Have you ever seen that show?
- [74:24]
Molly Hemingway
Yes, I did, yes.
- [74:26]
David Harsanyi
It's on for like 7. 7 seasons. I never even heard of it until recently. I don't think Damian Lewis stars as a billionaire and his. I've only. I'm on like, I'm in the second season. I just. I kind of need empty calories. I used to watch Suits, which is kind of a similar show to this one. This one's a little more adult. There are kind of, I would call it basically pornographic scenes, which I don't think are necessary. You know, honestly, I just don't think they're necessary. You could have a broader audience, but, you know, they do this because they want it to be adult and for people to feel edgy watching it, that's what I feel like. But it's got Paul Giamatti in it, who's always, I think, good. And it has a character in it in the second season who's a they. Them pronouns, person and it. People are going to be so mad. Write letters. It actually works in the show they because she. She. It's a she enters this world of a lot of Masculine. A lot of testosterone and masculinity. And they are weird. They're a weird person. They talk about themselves as being weird, you know, And. And. And they're kind of autistic. Great with numbers. And it's such a cla culture clash that it's actually fun to watch. And I like those scenes. I can't help it. The person is not depicted as a normal everyday person that they're just calling they them. People are weirded out by it. They don't know how to deal with it. I don't know it. It's somewhat interesting. Probably went on about that the woke stuff too much this episode and how everyone's gay. Might have to cut that, say, but Damen Lewis. Oh, that's what I wanted to say. He's fantastic.
- [76:17]
Molly Hemingway
So talented.
- [76:18]
David Harsanyi
He. He was in Wolf. Wolf Hall. He played Henry vii. Was it Wolf Hall? I think it was called the show. I don't know if you've ever seen that. That. It's really well done.
- [76:29]
Molly Hemingway
Good friends with one of my friend's husbands. He was at their wedding.
- [76:35]
David Harsanyi
Really? Obviously he's British. Yeah. Wolf Hall. He played Henry vii. Okay, I think we're done. Right. If you'd like to reach the show, please do so atradio the federalist.com. we'll talk to you next week. Until then, be lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray.
- [76:54]
Podcast Advertiser
It.