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- [00:01]
A
Hey, everybody. We are live and welcome to Sidebar with Katie Fang here at the Katie Fang News Channel. As always, it's a thrill for me to be able to spend time with all of you live. So grateful for the growth, the support and the love that you have shown not only me, but the channel. And I always want to make sure that I also thank you to my brothers here at Midas and my amazing producer who I call out every once in a while while we're here at Sidebar. I couldn't do this without my friends and my family there. So let's get down to business. It's very important. We have a lot of big news to cover. As you know, here at Sidebar, we like to go deeper beyond the headlines. We like to be able to create high information Americans here at Katie Fang News. And I really wanted to make sure that we did not lose sight on one of the most important things that is going on right now that doesn't always get marquee level attention because of the, frankly, the dysfunction, the insanity, the craziness that happens with this administration, and that's this illegal war of choice against Iran that Trump has launched. As, as we sit here today on August 4, 2026, we yet to have an explanation provided to not only members of Congress who have not authorized this war, but to the American people whose ultimately it is us that we need to make sure we know what is going on here. We have yet to receive a credible explanation, if not a consistent one, as to why we are at war with Iran. And now we have 18 active service members who have died during this war of choice. We also have the announcement that there have been billions, billions with a B in profits posted by oil and gas companies, and they are thriving and they are profiting off of this war. There are no coincidences, folks. But I wanted to make sure we understood what is at stake because I suspect, sadly and tragically, that this war is about to worsen for us here in the United States. So I'm going to bring in now our special guest, somebody who really doesn't need an introduction, but somebody who's just word and advice and counsel I couldn't do without. And that is retired United States Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. General Hertling, it's always so good to see you, Katie.
- [02:08]
B
It is a pleasure to be with you again. And I have to first start off by interrupting you and saying thanks for all you're doing with regard to the legal implications of the Epstein files. I mean, it's fascinating what one person can do in, in terms of making sure others see what right looks like. So thanks for all you're doing with that.
- [02:27]
A
Well, I thank you so much for that. And I would be remiss if I did not. 1 thank you for your service. That is an understatement for me to say thank you. I know I express the gratitude of myself and so many others, countless others, for the service that you've always provided and the sacrifice for this country. And number two, I also wanted to make sure that everybody knew that your book, if I Don't A Father's Wartime Journal, that it really is essential reading. And I think, General, that's actually the perfect segue into the conversation we're about to have. I wanted to start with some technical stuff because I wanted to make sure that I and my viewers understood what is happening here. There's some exclusive reporting from Reuters from an incredible reporter who I, I like, Aaron Benko. And this is what she says. She says the United States has used virtually all of its precision strike missiles during this war in Iran, the war that is ongoing. General, she says stockpiles on at ACMs and precision strike missiles are almost depleted and we have used about half of our Tomahawks per new data that is circulating inside the administration. General Hertling, can you explain why this is a cause for concern?
- [03:38]
B
Yeah. First, let me clarify a couple of things, Katie, because that tweet that you just read, or whatever it was, the posting had to do with something called the atacms. ATACMS means the Army Tactical Missile System. It's a typical military acronym, but it's a long range system that has huge capabilities in terms of striking targets at a couple of hundred miles with a great deal of explosives and precisely right on target. I mean, within five meters of where they're aiming, they're going to hit. This is the missile system that the Ukrainians wanted for so long to strike deep into Russian territory to hit their logistics bases. It is a very expensive missile system. The missile itself cost about $3 million to produce. It has recently been replaced by another missile system called the prism, which is the prsm, which is part of that posting you just showed. The precision strike missile is a replacement for the atacm. So when that, don't be confused, when that article says, you know, we've used all our precision missile systems, that doesn't mean all the missile systems in the United States military. That means the newest strike missile, which we didn't have a whole lot of in the first place. So that's an explanation of that. The bad news is that these are something called high demand, low density ammunitions, which means a lot of people want them and there ain't a whole lot of them to go around. So every combatant commander around the world in the Indo Pacific region, in European Command and Central Command and Northern Command, they all want these things because they are very good and very precise. They're the best long range missile system in the world. What has happened over the last five months is, is the military and Central Command has used up a significant portion of them and including in that is some of the ones we've contributed and given to Ukraine as well. But the stockpiles are low and it affects other contingency plans like, I don't know, the defense of Taiwan or the defense of South Korea or some of the other issues within the Middle East. So when you have the stockpiles going low, and as that report claims they have, it puts other combatant commanders in dangers for not having enough missile systems to fight their contingency plans.
- [06:13]
A
Is it unusual, General, to have the stockpiles run so low in such a short window of time of only five months, or is that a misapprehension on my part about the utility?
- [06:24]
B
It is extremely unusual, Katie. And what I'll tell you is to get into a little bit more of the details, please, inside the Pentagon on the Joint Staff, you have this guy called the J4, it's the logistics guy on the Joint Staff, it's a three star official, either admiral or general. You also have someone called the J8. They are the acquisitions people. They monitor basically the delivery of these kind of weapon systems and they should be given warnings to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Kane and, and the Secretary of Defense saying, hey, we're losing up a lot of stuff and we're putting other combatant commanders in dangers of not having in danger of not having enough. I believe, and I've said this from the beginning, when Secretary Hegseth goes on the TV and claims he's having 15,000 strikes across Iran and every day we're going to do more to him and we're going to hit every single target. They're using these very expensive missiles to hit those targets, at least some of them. So there doesn't seem to be any boundary on what kind of systems they're using and how it's putting other combatant commanders in jeopardy. Now I'll tell you something, Katie. When I was a young brigadier general, I was the J7 on the joint Staff. My job was to monitor war plans. And I took that job literally about a month before 9 11. So the chairman often asked me, hey, how are what we're using in Afghanistan and Iraq affecting our other contingency plans, which there are dozens. I won't give you the real numbers, but there's multiple dozens of contingencies. And I would have to give them kind of my assessment of how it was affecting the rest of the world. It doesn't seem like that has gotten through to either Secretary Hegseth or President Trump because they want to continue their fighting and continue striking targets in Iran.
- [08:30]
A
And so my gut, which was concerned when I saw this headline, and I appreciate you explaining the nuance on the definition on the terms here, but my gut about concerns about how it makes us at risk operationally for other potential combat, you know, areas or areas of the world. That seems to be a legitimate concern then.
- [08:51]
B
Yeah. And we've just talked about the ATACMS and the prisms. We haven't talked about the Patriot missiles or another missile called the Thaad T H A D, which are the air defense missiles. I mean, those things were built decades ago, or the Patriots were built decades ago for aircraft. Well, now we're in a new evolution of warfare. You're seeing a lot of drones.
- [09:14]
A
That's right.
- [09:14]
B
And we're using these multimillion dollar defense missiles not only in Iran, but also in Ukraine to knock down very inexpensive targets like the drones. The drones will cost anywhere from a couple of thousand to a couple of hundred thousand dollars, whereas the Patriots and the Thads are in the millions of dollars, and there's a whole lot more drones than there are Patriots and Thads. So again, it's a dynamic that, you know, this is the science of war. This is not the art of war. Calculating the resources to execute an operation like we're doing in the Middle east, you have to rein yourself in a little bit. And President Trump doesn't seem to want to do that.
- [09:55]
A
So forgive the, forgive me for a second then, because I want to kind of follow this, this train of thought down to a next kind of logical conclusion, I think is, which is when you deplete this type of.
- [10:07]
C
Of.
- [10:07]
D
Of.
- [10:08]
A
Of arms, if, when you deplete the missiles, when you deplete this type of ammunition, et cetera, it's got to be generated somewhere else. I mean, this creates a whole new world of opportunity in the military industrial complex. Has it not to be able to give good contracts to companies to start making all the stuff all over again. Right? Yeah.
- [10:27]
B
Well, I could name the companies that make some of these. You've got Raytheon and, and, well, there, I won't go into that. But each one of them are making these missiles in these different systems. But truthfully, Katie, it takes a long time to build.
- [10:39]
A
I was gonna say, doesn't it take some time to make these things?
- [10:42]
B
These are precision weapons that, you know, you can pump out. Maybe. I don't know what the numbers are, but it's not many a year. It's, it's dozens or literally just about 100. When you're using thousands of them, it's hard to replace them. And that's why we're seeing some of the stockpiles being reported as depleted right now.
- [11:02]
A
You know, General, I want to kind of stay on this topic because part of the reporting includes that due to the reduction in the, in the amount of precision missiles that we have, the United States, quote, may have to turn to methods of fighting the war. The quote, more traditional methods which could bring American lives closer to the front line. Your thoughts about that being a possibility if that ends up being the case?
- [11:28]
B
Well, we're seeing that already, Katie, and I'll give you some details on the four soldiers that were killed just a couple of weeks ago. Two of the soldiers, the two males, were Patriot missilemen. All four of them were air defenders and they came out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. So they had the big missiles, the Patriot missiles that shoot long range. The two young women that were killed were out of an air defense organization in Germany, in fact, a place where I once lived, Ansbach, Germany. And they are shooting Stinger missiles, another different type of missile system which only has a range of between 4 and 6 kilometers. So those are the close in systems versus the long range systems like a Patriot. So you see that we're basically combining the long range stuff with the short range stuff. It brings different soldiers into the fight from different locations to conduct this mix of defenses in our bases throughout the Middle east. And each one of those bases that is subjected to attacks by Iran and they are doing a very good job of threatening our allies and partners in the Middle East. All of the US Military bases which are scattered through the region from Erbil in northern Iraq to Al Assam in Kuwait, and well, several of the bases all over are all being attacks. Every single one of those places need air defense systems. So it's again draining them at different locations, both the long range and the short range stuff. And yes, it does bring our soldiers and all of our military personnel closer into harm's way.
- [13:11]
A
Speaking of, I had a disturbing conversation with United States Senator Tammy Duckworth about what I call the Secretary of Defense and our Department of Defense playing games with the casualty numbers of our dead and wounded as a result of this war. The Pentagon is trying to say that their Defense Casualty Analysis System has a new casualty category that they're calling overseas operations in general. I'm disgusted because we've had 18 active service members die. But they're trying to sit there and say that because there was a, quote, ceasefire in between when armed, when the conflict began or the war began and during that ceasefire and subsequent to when hostilities resumed. They're like, no, you gotta count the numbers differently. So we're trying to not count those numbers of dead and wounded. Is this the first you've heard of them trying to do this? I mean, you served for so long, I can't imagine that they did this before.
- [14:09]
B
Yeah, Katie, this is anathema, to be honest with you. I mean, as a commander in combat, as a division commander of combat, your responsibility to commander at any level is to track your personnel, your living personnel, when they are wounded in action, killed in action, you are also continuing to track them. I mean, I could pull up a slide right now. I had to brief Congress when I came out of Iraq in 2008 on our various operations. And one of the slides I briefed Congress was a month by month casualty chart. It not only said killed in action, it also said died of wounds, died of non battle injuries, which were accidents or suicides or something like that. And then there were different categories for wounded in action. So I was tracking individuals that were not only killed on the battlefield in a firefight, but if a medevac helicopter picked them up and took them to a plane and the plane took them back to Walter Reed or Beaumont, Texas to continue, we tracked them even there to show, hey, are they still okay? Have they died? Their amputees caused them to succumb. So all of those things were trackers that we used to keep. I could go up right now on, I have an unclassified webpage that goes right into the Department of Defense which shows every operation ever conducted by the US Military, all the named Operation Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, Desert Storm, Korean War. And you could see the number of casualties and dead and wounded in action. KIA is wounded in action, prisoners, all that. This new category of overseas operations, first time I've seen that. And it's certainly divorced from the current operation inside of Iran. And I think it's game playing in terms of Numbers. The President wants to stand up and continue to do things like say, well, there were more casualties in Iraq or there were more casualties in Vietnam. That gets into a number crunching game. And I gotta tell you, it's insulting to, to all soldiers, because these aren't numbers as far as we're concerned. These are people. These are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters and Americans who have sacrificed their all in combat. And to play silly games like this, which is almost a shell game, is just anathema to me.
- [16:35]
A
And that's part of the reason why I mentioned at the beginning of our conversation your book, because your book, if I Don't Return, really spoke to me and it really made me think about it when I was having this conversation with Senator Duckwort. You know, she really can speak from active combat as a veteran and somebody who has suffered and loss. And she was so upset with this games playing on these numbers. And to your point, I wanted to make sure that I had made it clear with you that this is something that is unique to this Department of Defense and this Secretary of Defense. Right.
- [17:11]
B
Civilians in the Department of Defense. And one of the things, I think I've shown this to you before. I've got this. Did I ever show you this box on my desk?
- [17:19]
A
Yeah. But I want you to mention it again because I always think this box is so important, sir. So please make sure you mention it
- [17:24]
B
again inside the box. I'm going to try and hold it out without spilling card. You'll see pictures and cards with soldiers names on them. These are soldiers, 253 soldiers that were in my command that we lost in combat. Every day I open that box and take two or three out and just say a prayer. Think about where they would be today if they were still alive, what their contributions would have done. Again, these aren't numbers. I just said 253. But these are souls that still rest in that box that I go back to on a daily basis and say, these are the individuals that made the ultimate sacrifice.
- [18:03]
A
This is why I asked you to repeat that, General, because this is always such an important part of these conversations that we have, the context of what is happening here and why it's so, so unbelievably reckless what is happening under this administration. General, sir, I wanted to switch gears a little bit because this was an exclusive. And reporting from cnn, the United States military has now sent out an email, quote, looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran. That's an email sent from an officer in U.S. central Command's intelligence branch to a broad group of military analysts. It is. A senior US Military officer sent the message last week soliciting new ideas for how to deal with Iran. Both the CIA and the dia, the Defense Intelligence Agency, have recently assessed that the kind of bombing that the US has been doing is unlikely to shift the Iranian negotiating position. General, we're now at the point where we're crowdsourcing ideas on how to win this illegal war.
- [19:03]
B
Yeah, I'm going to push back on this one, Katie, a little bit. This is not unusual. These, the people that likely sent that note out are in either the intelligence cell or the planning cell, and it got into open source systems, CNN reporting it. But I got to tell you, I would hope that my intelligence guys and gals, my planners guys and gals, they would be saying, hey, going out to the ecosystem of fellow planners saying, help us out. We've, you know, anybody got any good ideas that that works in any kind of organization? But the fact that it's leaked or the fact that it's gone out to the public, who doesn't understand how we're constantly in the military trading ideas like that is an indicator of failing trust. And that's the part that hits me. I mean, the military does this kind of thing. They want to get the best idea. And in terms of fighting a war. Now, is it because they've run out of ideas within the central command to fight this conflict? I don't think so. They're just looking for perhaps different approaches and courses of actions to apply in this kind of situation. And truthfully, I know I've done it too, where I've sent messages when I was a planner in a division headquarters saying, hey, I'm stumped on this problem. Can anybody out there in my network of planners help me out on this? And sometimes they give you good advice and say, well, this is what we're doing in our area of operations and it might trigger something. So I don't know this.
- [20:38]
A
No, no. And this is, this is why I'm grateful for your candor and for always having the willingness to have these conversations because again, you readjust, right? You adjust the way that we're viewing this through the proper lens based upon your training experience. I would ask, though, if we could have this conversation about this, ask for new ideas against the backdrop of maybe the beginning of the conversation we're having, which is, are we at the point where this conventional use, the bombing and, or the relentless, you know, kind of planning of how they're doing this? It's not working, you know, and so because it's not working, this is the reason why they're forced to have to do it. Because every day we're fed a line of bullshit from this administration. Oh, it'll be better tomorrow. Oh, the war will be over tomorrow. We have a deal. And right now, we all know that that is just, like I said, bullshit, General. And so doesn't that give us some concern that even the tactics and the strategy that our United States military have deployed so far, it's just not working? And so now we're probably looking at yet another endless war with a foreign nation.
- [21:41]
B
You know, Katie, while you're talking, I'm thinking about something you have just described. What the military has taught in all of our war colleges about ends, ways and means of strategy. When you go into a fight, you should have an end state. Here's what I'm trying to accomplish. This is what I think it should look like when it's over. Now, we don't always do that well, but at least we start off saying, here's what we want to do, Dan. That's the ends. In order to get to the ends appropriately, you have to start manipulating the ways and the means. The ways are, what kind of approaches are we using? What tactics, what operational art are we applying? What kind of ideas do we need before we go in to try and reach this end state? And can anybody, our fellow planners or intel officers, give us some ways that they think are better? And I'll explain that in a second. The third thing we've already talked about in this discussion are the means, like missile systems that might run out or how you apply different carrier strike groups. I mean, we've had a couple carriers in the Persian Gulf now for about 11 months. Those things are wearing out, and they're getting to a point where not only the ships, but the sailors on board those ships are reaching a culminating point of their endurance in a combat zone. So those means the resources, the ways you apply them, and. And what you're trying to achieve is the essence of strategy. And based on our conversation so far, it kind of seems like each one of those has been ganked up from the very beginning. Don't you agree?
- [23:23]
A
I would. And then now I'd like to play for you some sound I loathe always playing anything about convicted felon Donald Trump. But I think this is very important for us in our conversation because this is the latest in the state of play coming from Donald Trump. Take a listen, General, And I have a question for you on the other side.
- [23:39]
B
Mr. President, this is at least the fifth time you turned off airstrikes against Iran since April to negotiate. What is your message to American people who are wondering what has changed this time? Why should it be anything?
- [23:51]
C
Well, you don't know. I don't know. I think we're gonna maybe get something, but I want to give them every last chance before decapitation. Very tough to do what we have planned, still planned. We'll see what happens, but it's very, very tough thing to do, I think. I'm very proud of the fact that I will give people. I'll give people a chance. This is a big move to do an attack that big. On a contrary, I'd rather not do it now. We've already through lots of large attacks, but they were normal large. Hopefully, they'll come to their senses because what happened can, cannot have a nuclear weapon.
- [24:35]
A
General, there's, there's a lot there.
- [24:37]
B
There is a lot.
- [24:39]
A
1. I don't know what a, quote, normal large attack is, but when I hear decapitation. You and I have had very serious conversations here at Katy Fang News about nuclear weapons. I'm, I'm, you know, I'm reading and I'm hearing we're depleting our missile, you know, capacity. Are we now going to go and escalate to nuclear. I mean, you know, there's so much here and the stupidity of this man, and again, against the backdrop of loss of American lives. But just, General, please help me here, because I just don't understand what was just said here.
- [25:14]
B
It gets back to what we were just talking about, Katie. The ends, you know, the U.S. the president continues to think he has a choice between either massive escalation or political extrication. And he thinks that's going to defeat Iran, depending on which one he chooses to do. And unfortunately, Iran has got some cards that they can play, too, as significant control over the economic systems of not only the United States, but the globe with the Strait of Hormuz and going back to the extrication or the escalation, the administration isn't prepared for either one of those. They know that there's full, well, no middle course in this. So this will continue in months of him going back and forth. You know, you talked about atomic weapons. I mean, I was baffled last weekend when the president said the next strike was going to be larger than anything we've seen in World War II. So are you going to conduct a Normandy invasion? Are you going to have firebombing of Dresden Are you going to drop the atomic bomb on, on Hiroshima or Nagasaki? I mean, I, I don't know what he's saying. And if, you know, I would suggest that that's being translated to all the military folks in terms of what they should be preparing to do next. And it is just, it's a, I mean, it's a Star wars bar scene of different options that aren't going to get us anywhere. And he knows that. He knows that. And he's seeing our allies turn away from them. You know, this morning we had Iran suggest that they were making a partnership with Oman to control the strait. We've seen Egyptian ships sunk. We've seen the Saudi Arabian say, please stop. You're only causing more problems for the uae. Qatar, we've seen this morning, by the way, bases in Kuwait, which is a major staging base for US Military forces, were struck by Iranian missiles with allegedly no casualties. But I'm not sure I buy that. And we're not sure what is happening because the Secretary of Defense and the Department of Defense is not allowing reporters to report accurately. And we're going on the word of the president in the Oval Office, who changes his mind every five minutes.
- [27:41]
A
General, before I let you go, though, I wanted to stay on the street of Hormuz issue. I think it's critically important. We all know as Americans, we're feeling that not just as Americans across the globe, we're feeling what it's like to have Iran control and close the Strait of Hormuz. I'd like to ask you, not in the economic sense. I want to ask you from the strategic military sense, if Iran and Oman are reaching a deal where they've frozen out America from dealing with the Strait of Hormuz and Iran saying that the strait would not be charging people atoll, but they charge a service fee to cover environmental impacts on shipping, security for cargo ships and tankers and staffing. And the would go between Iran and Oman. But here's the bottom line. They would be the ones controlling this strait. How is that good for us even militarily to be able to have control over that region?
- [28:34]
B
Well, we wouldn't have any military control, according to the deal that Oman and Iran are trying to strike right now. What Oman proposed was something called a joint maritime management system where they would share oversight of commercial shipping and the transit by merchant ships would gradually return to normal. And both of those countries, because they're on each side of the strait, the northern and the southern side, they would coordinate the vessel clearances. Tehran says no, no no, we don't want to do that. We want to control all inbound shipping entering the straits and we'll allow Oman to control the outbound on the southern corridor. So Iran is attempting to institutionalize what they've been trying to do for decades, and that's de facto recognition of Iranian authority over the strait and political leverage over Gulf shipping. It's also a mechanism to regulate global energy commerce. And again, I'm not an economist, but I know that's important, talking to some of my naval friends. So Iran is not just negotiating how ships move. Their negotiation is. Their negotiation is centered on. They become the traffic cops for roughly one fifth of the world's oil. And you can even up that a little bit if you say that the Baba Mandab Strait in southern Yemen that controls the Suez Canal might also be in bio because Houthis in Yemen might be able to control the passage out of the Suez Canal. So you're talking adding another 20% of the world's oil that go through that route. It is going to be a mess. And I'm not a naval expert either. I'm an army guy. But I've talked to a bunch of Navy guys and they said this would be very difficult to execute over the long term. John Kirby, our mutual good friend, was in the Reagan tanker wars back in the 1980s, and they were escorting convoys of ships for a certain period of time and it was draining the amount of forces they had in the area. And at the time, the US Navy was a 600 ship navy. We now have just a little over 300.
- [30:49]
A
Just speechless, always, always speechless. I'm always challenged if it's incompetence or it's intentionality. You know, I'm always, the jury's out on this. But retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, I am so grateful always for the privilege of your time. It is a privilege. And as I stated at the beginning, saying thank you is just insufficient for the service, your many decades of service to the American people. And I want to make sure that I say this. Number one, thank you. But number two, everybody really needs to read your book if I don't return A Father's Wartime Journal, because it really, it just really strikes a chord. And you do not have to have been a military family or have been a part of a military family to understand really what's at stake. So, General Hartling, thank you for being here.
- [31:37]
B
Lady, I have to apologize, though. I hope I didn't geek out too much on the small tactical details early on in the show. We, we were getting into some weeds there, but I hope it helped your listeners to understand what's going on.
- [31:48]
A
You can geek out as much and as long as you would like. This is exactly what we do here at Sidebar. We go beyond headlines, we dig deep. I like I said, we want to have high information Americans, and they will be able not only to understand what you've explained, explained, but also to be able to talk about this with other people. That's the goal, to have these conversations with brilliant people like you that aren't speaking out of turn, that understand what's at stake. And then we can continue to have these conversations at other tables because I have a genuine fear that this war is going to keep on going and it's going to cost a lot more than just pain at the pump. Yes, I'm very worried about this right now. I really am.
- [32:29]
B
I have that concern, too. But Katie, it's always a pleasure to be with you. Absolutely think you're the best. And again, thanks for all you're doing. Okay.
- [32:38]
A
Thank you, General. Thank you so much. Take care, folks. This is why these conversations are so important with somebody like retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, literally somebody who has decades of service and our American military who understands the value of just even one life that is wasted not because of the service and the patriotic duty, but because this asshole in the Oval Office doesn't appreciate the value of that life. And now we hear a lot of good context behind the depletion of our missiles and the fact that control of the Strait of Hormuz is not just economic or financial. It has military strategic value. And we're really up shit creek as the United States. Very quickly, before we shift gears and talk about Blanche Corn Untillis and that unholy, unholy trinity there, just want to say here that this A senior advisor to Iran's lead negotiator Mahdi Mohammad Mohammadi, said on state TV last night that Iran and Oman have been negotiating for a while on a resolution on how to manage the Strait, which means despite what Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump and dumbasses in this administration want to sit here and promote, they know what the hell is going on because they are not allowed to sit at the adult table. They're not even at the kids table. They are out in the parking lot with the doors locked. They're not even looking in through the fucking windows. And so when you have Iran and Oman negotiating control of the Strait of Hormuz, this is a big deal, people and Iranian officials Saying the strait will remain closed despite any agreement until the US lifts its naval blockades against Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf. And the countries return to that 14 point plan that was put out by Trump and Iran in the Islamabad Memorandum of understanding. Remember that MOU we talked about here months ago? Well, people have wiped their asses with that. That plan a few months ago was a nuclear accord to be negotiated in 60 days. Have we forgotten about the nuclear capabilities of Iran? I haven't. Right. Remember we were supposed to have a nuclear accord negotiated in 60 days. Remember I told you that under legal terms you don't have a binding contract when you agree to agree in the future. Here we go. There was no obligation by Iran to do anything at this point. That deadline, folks, runs out on that 60 day window in two weeks. And now officials have conceded that any negotiations will now go far into the fall, probably beyond November midterms, FYI and beyond. Privately, officials doubt there will ever be a nuclear accord. And Trump is just going to say that Iran stockpiles are going to remain buried under the rubble created when he attacked Iran back in June of 2025. But we all know, because we've had experts here at Katy Fang News that have told you, experts that actually have training and experience and atomic capabilities that the United States cannot concretely say with any certainty what the nuclear capabilities remain for Iran. Anybody telling you anything otherwise is full of shit. And that is the reason why we have to have these important conversations with people like Mark Hertling. I gotta tell you, I got a little choked up when he talked about the box he keeps on his desk with the lives of the men and women that were lost under his command and how he takes out two or three of their pictures and prays for them. You don't have to be religious to understand why somebody like Mark Hertling, retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, why, that is a real American patriot. That's a real patriot. Not this cosplay bullshit from Kegsbreath in the Department of Defense. Alrighty, let's shift gears. This is important. As we know, Todd Blanche, personal counsel to Donald Trump, voted out of Senate Judiciary today on a very tight vote, 12 to 10. Why is that number so important, folks? Well, think about it. If Cornyn and Tillis had kept their balls and they had actually voted no, you wouldn't have had the advancement of Blanche's nomination out of Senate Judiciary. And again, why does it make a difference? Oh, because now it goes in front of the entire Senate for a vote. And we also know that Republicans in the Senate are ballist wonders as well. And so that is the reason why it's important to talk about everything that remains at stake involving Todd Blanche. But here is John Cornyn saying the really quiet part out loud as to why he voted yes. Take a quick listen. I was saying as recently as yesterday likes the idea of this fund that he wants to find some way to pay these people. Does that concern you as someone who's tried to fight against getting this anti weaponization.
- [37:26]
C
Well, there's nothing we could do to
- [37:28]
B
to to rein in the President when he said he likes the fund and he wishes still exists. But the fact of the matter, it's dead. And that's all we could do under these circumstances. See you all.
- [37:42]
A
There was nothing we could do to reign in the President. I said yesterday here at Katie Fang News in one of my episodes, please do not hold up John Cornyn and Thom Tillis as profiles and fucking courage. Because last I checked, John Cornyn still serves as a United States Senator and he could have voted no. Myriad of reasons. One, Tom Blanche is the Acting Ag Senate confirmed last year in March of 2025. That SOB could continue to serve as the Acting Ag. He didn't have to get nominated and make it out of Senate. Judiciary number two. Gosh, has everybody forgot about the Epstein files? You know I haven't. I guess John Cornyn did because all Cornyn was obsessing about was the $1.8 billion slush fund which don't listen to him. I don't care if he served as an Attorney General in Texas and he was a Supreme Court judge or some bullshit like that in Texas. I don't understand where his lawyer brain went because that BS that Tob Blanche posted on X Sidney, if we can bring it up right now for our viewers, that ish is not enforceable. What you're looking at on your screen right now, folks, that is non enforceable shit legally. So I don't understand why John Cornyn seems to think that that slush fund is dead. It's not dead people. They're paying out of that judgment fund already to a whole bunch of people that claim that they've been punished by the DOJ under Biden and expect that number to grow. Not like they even needed the $1.8 billion slush fund anyway to pay out. Because remember that judgment fund is already paying out, right? So think about this for a second. The only utility behind that $1.8 billion slush fund was for Trump to get what brownie points with Insurrectionists. Right. Because you were still going to have to go through this claims process through the DOJ and this committee or commission that was set up to be able to get the money out of the slush fund. But really that money for the slush fund was going to come out of the judgment fund. So the money was already there. So it's a lot of theater. But all of it was to justify Donald Trump suing himself and the irs. Right. And the Treasury Department down in Florida in order to justify that collusion lawsuit, perpetration of fraud on the court lawsuit. That's the reason why he did it, so he could do this and give himself a victory lap with insurrectionists. But it's the tax immunity issue that I gave Cornyn credit for because I was like, wow. During the Senate Judiciary confirmation process, Cornyn picked up on the issue that you have to have a written agreement signed by all parties to be able to modify anything with regards to that settlement agreement. And it didn't exist. And last I checked, if you look at that piece of paper that Tob lynch posted on X, it wasn't signed by the parties to the lawsuit and it only has actually it doesn't sign by what I'm looking at right now on your screen. This has to do with the slush fund, that second piece of paper that dealt with the tax immunity issues. Nobody signed that, did they? No. Nope. And if you look at the May 19 document and I invite you to go to Katie Fang News where you are here, maybe go check out this episode I did yesterday because I went by one by one, by all the documents, including the settlement agreement. That tax immunity provision is very damn broad. And it's not just Trump, it's his family, his business entities and it's not just the IRS and the Department of Treasury. Many of you eagle eyed people love you people. You also picked up that the language in that release looks like it goes beyond IRS and Department of Treasury. And once again, I don't have to take Tob Blanche's word for it. Remember how a federal judge has been pressing Todd Blanche and Stanley Woodward, the number three in the doj, to sign things under penalties of perjury, that there's no slush fund and all that other stuff and they've refused to do it in that federal lawsuit. That's also why Tom Blanche is like any of those lawsuits that have been brought. He's like, those need to go away because that's one of those lawsuits that a federal judge in. I forget which jurisdiction. I think it's maybe in New Jersey. Maybe. But anyway, that federal judge has said, where's your written sworn under penalties of perjury document stating that there's no slush fun, etc. They haven't done it. There's a reason why. Because that thing ain't dead. Zombie. Everything is zombie in this administration. But the reason why I bring up the Epstein files, for obvious reasons is do you guys remember this exchange with the amazing Danny Bensky, Epstein survivor and Senator Thom Tillis? Because he got caught with his pants down on this one. Take a listen.
- [42:04]
B
Yeah. Because you know what I. What I'm hoping to do is I wanted to meet.
- [42:08]
C
Yes.
- [42:09]
B
Not with the attorneys, but with the survivors.
- [42:11]
A
You would love that.
- [42:12]
B
And have a discussion about that stuff. Because the only thing I didn't hear in there, I want to see specific action items.
- [42:20]
A
Yes.
- [42:20]
C
And some of that could even have
- [42:21]
B
to do with the investigations.
- [42:23]
A
Exactly. So that's why we have.
- [42:25]
B
My office is right around the corner.
- [42:27]
A
Okay.
- [42:27]
B
If you go right in this first door here.
- [42:29]
C
I gotta rush. I'm trying to meet.
- [42:30]
B
Senator Bradley's on the floor.
- [42:32]
C
Okay.
- [42:32]
B
But I want to have that meeting.
- [42:34]
A
Tillis was so desperate to get into that elevator. Right. But a lot of us were like, there we go. Thom Tillis, remember he told Todd Blanche to meet with the Epstein survivors. Blanche sat down with them, was rude and dismissive, told them, hey, just get to the point. And he was just a horrible person who also admitted that he had never read the Epstein files, which is a whole other problem for Todd Blanche. But Thom Tillis stated that he would meet with Danny Bensky and the other survivors and think about how important that was. Because this was before the vote happened today. So there was an idea of maybe being able to reach the decency, the humanity, the integrity of Thom Tillis to tell him why he should vote no on Todd Blanche. I'm going to pull up for you right now a photograph. This is Danny Bensky and other Epstein survivors and other advocates, including sky and Amanda Roberts, Virginia Giuffre's brother and sister in law. This is them last week, Wednesday in Thom Tillis's office, if you can believe it. They're waiting for that meeting with Thom Tillis. They're waiting to be able to sit down and meet with him. They waited more than 45 minutes and then they were finally told, he doesn't have time to meet with you. They were told by Tillis's scheduler, he doesn't have time to meet with you. Now, these survivors, they are undeterred they are relentless, as you have seen. They are brave and courageous people. So what did Danny Bensky do? Let's pull up this email. Danny emails the scheduler for Senator Thom Tillis and says to Angela, it was great to meet with you today. It's very important that we meet in person with the Senator before the vote. Most of us are in town until tomorrow night. We would love to use the time that we would have spent at the vote with you in your office. We truly hope that we will sit down together sooner than later. Please let me know when the senator can meet. Many thanks. Best Danny Bensky. That was not the only email sent by Danny Bensky. She sent several follow up emails. Several of the Epstein survivors sent emails, called and attempted to get some type of contact from Senator Thom Tillis's office to be able to meet as he promised. We all saw it. We all heard him promise to meet with them. As of today, August 4, 2026, 6:17pm Eastern, nobody has called them back from Thom Tillis's office. No one. No one's replied. And of course Thom Tillis voted Blanche through. So that meeting that Thom Tillis promised never happened. This is why I say do not hold up John Cornyn and Thom Tillis in Profiles of Courage. They are not Profiles in Courage. They were people that did this bizarre little kabuki dance with Todd Blanche, making it seem like they were some badass Republican senators that were standing on good and standing on the right side of this. And they never extracted shit from the DOJ and from the White House. They didn't get anything. They didn't get concessions. They didn't get jack. And if they think they did, then I have a bridge to sell you. But. But we can always use this information when you reach out to your senators because now it would be on Senate Judiciary. Now it's up for the full Senate vote. Use this information to talk about why the vote should be no on Blanche by the Senate. Alrighty. Now some good news involving the Trump DOJ Olympic canoeist, Davey Hearn. As you know, lawsuit. Excuse me, Indictment. The Trump DOJ moving to dismiss through whom? Janine Box of Wine Pirro has now filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against Davey Hearn. Davey Hearn is the canoeist who was indicted for the felony of damage to the reflecting pool. And as we know, there has now been an admission made through Janine Pirro's office that the damage to the reflecting pool was caused by, you know, that contractor who got that lucrative multimillion dollar deal to do the reflecting pool, who had never had a federal contract before, but had done work for Donald Trump's golf clubs. Anyway, Davey Hearn is now looking at having this indictment dismissed. But here's the wrinkle. Pirro has filed a motion to dismiss without prejudice. And for those of you that have always been along for the ride here as we go to law school at Katie Fang, News, without prejudice means what it means. They can always bring back and revive that indictment. Remember, we talked about this zombie doj. So here's the thing. Davey Hearn is now moving on his own to dismiss the indictment with prejudice. And this is very important because Davey Hearn is also exploring all legal options available to him to get recourse for having been arrested, held in custody, and all of the horrific, nasty, defamatory things that were said about him publicly by Jeanine Pirro and others in the doj. He wants justice. Ironies abound. He could get money from what, the Anti Weaponization Fund? But you know what's going to happen. He can also get money from that judgment fund. He can get money from that judgment fund. Again, ironies abound. In addition to Davey Hearn's felony indictment, Pirro has also moved to dismiss three misdemeanor cases involving, quote, alleged damage to the reflecting pool. Three people have their charges dropped after the one that was done for Davey Hearn. I think one thing we're going to keep our eyes on here, and I know you all pay attention to this as well. Davey Hearn's indictment was the return of a true bill that came from a grand jury. So my dear friend Norm Eisen is one of Davey Hearn's lawyers. And Norm has spoken about getting their hands on the transcript and the records from that grand jury presentment. Because just like Lindsey Halling got in trouble when she made the presentment to the grand jury in the James Comey case, if you recall, she made misstatements of fact and law to the grand jury and got that original indictment returned that eventually got dropped or dismissed by a federal judge. This is separate than the stupid 8647 seashells one. We need to know what happened with Jeanine Pirro and the representations that were made to a grand jury to get them to return an indictment against Davey Hearn for this reflecting pole fiasco. Because we need to continue to show that this doj, because remember, this is a DOJ under whom? Todd Blanche. That Todd Blanche, as the acting Attorney general, he has out of control US Attorneys. And it has out of control US Attorneys Like Janine Box of wine, who couldn't litigate herself out of a box of wine. Alrighty, we're going to take a really quick break. We're going to hear from some of our sponsors here at Katie Fang News. You know, we love them. They support Katie Fang News and this channel. And then we'll have a little bit of a brief discussion on the other side about Bernie Moreno and Max Miller. You know, a lot of skin care makes big promises, but they can't deliver. One Skin though, is different. And that's why I've been loving their products. You know that about me. They are founded by four PhD longevity scientists that focused on one thing, skin aging. They tested all those best selling anti aging products on the market and found none of them are working on the actual cause of aging. They were all just working on the surface signs. 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And as you age and for a limited time, try OneSkin with 15% off using the Code Fang at Oneskin Co. Fang that's free. 15% off OneSkin Co with Code Fang. After you purchase, they'll ask you, where did you hear about them? Please support our show and tell them that we sent you. Everybody's talking about weight loss injections because the results are just so dramatic. They work by lowering blood sugar and reducing appetite. So what if you're looking to lose weight but you're not interested in those painful weekly injections, especially when you hear about some of those intense side effects. That's why doctors created a weight loss supplement called Lean. And the results are frankly remarkable. The studied ingredients in Lean have been shown to Lower your blood sugar, burn fat by converting it into energy, and curb your appetite and cravings so you're just not as hungry. But listen, lean is not for the casual dieter with only a few pounds to lose. The doctors at Brickhouse Nutrition created Lean for frustrated dieters with 10 or more pounds to lose. Let's get you started with 20% off and free rush shipping so you can add lean to your healthy diet and exercise plan. Visit takelean.com and enter Fang P H A N G for that discount. That's promo code fang@takelean.com. as always, thank you to our incredible sponsors here at Katie Fang News. My incredible producer, Sydney just sent me something that made me laugh. Senator Susan Collins has just announced that she will vote no on Todd Blanche. I can't even finish saying it without laughing because we all know the value of. Susan Collins has to say. She'll just be concerned all the way to voting yes. She'll change her mind. She'll be like, oh, like Brett Kavanaugh. He promised me he'd be okay. He promised me we wouldn't have a slush fund. He promised me wouldn't have broad tax immunity. Susan Collins saying no. Whatever. Oh, and here's the other thing. I actually totally missed this. And I. And I apologize because Sydney spends all this time helping me prep to hang out with you guys here at Side By Live. Donald Trump said that he was disappointed with Janine Pirro. Said she folded like an umbrella. Sydney, can we play that? Because I always love that sound. Anything to shit on. Jeanine Piro. I'll listen to. Go ahead, play it.
- [52:46]
C
Graffiti all over it. I won't say what was on the sidewalk, but horrible, horrible, horrible, disgusting sound. And not only did we fix it, we have military standing there watching it. And if anybody touches it, we. That was the one mistake with the reflecting pond. They hadn't put up the cameras yet. They had enough up because you see what's happening. But if they would have had them up, we would have had a lot of. It would have been a lot easier. But. And I was disappointed with Jeanine Bureau. Really disappointed with Jeanine Bureau. She. She folded like an umbrella. And people get away with things. It's a disgrace.
- [53:27]
A
Do umbrellas fold? Do you fold an umbrella? Don't you just, like, close and open an umbrella? And by the way, for the President of the United States, like, ostensibly the most powerful, like, office position in the world, his desk is always clean. Have you noticed that? There's never anything on his desk. If you guys were to See how absolutely out of control my desk is? You would probably pass out, but I feel like this level of chaos on a desk is a sign of genius. There's no stable genius there. His desk is too clean. Okay, quickly, let's talk about Bernie Moreno and Max Miller. Okay, I'm gonna let y' all know something about me. So I still actively practice law again, but not as much as I did before, but I still do. And part of what I did before, especially at the end, before I went to msnbc, is I did a lot of high net worth family law. And when I tell you I spent a good portion of my career as a prosecutor and I dealt with murder cases, like somebody on death row kind of energy. Right. I can tell you that the family law cases were insane. And it was really sad because these are marriages and they are children. And when children are involved, you have to be incredibly vigilant as a lawyer to make sure you're doing right by the kid. To hell with the adults. Let's make sure the kid's okay. Kid or kids, plural. This situation involving Max Miller, his ex wife, which is Bernard Raynau's daughter, and more importantly, the little girl. The little girl, Emily Moreno, I believe is her name, her daughter, Bernie Moreno's granddaughter, I could not care less. I want to make sure that it's the granddaughter that we're focusing on here. Right. Of course I care about the mom if she is the victim of domestic violence. So anyway, these cases are really complex. They're emotional, they're difficult to navigate. I wanted to say that to you all as we go into this conversation about Bernie Moreno, Max Miller, because I'm not privy to all the evidence. And unlike what Max Miller has posted in that Dropbox, that doesn't work for me either. So let's start with this. Now we have Republicans, including Senator Marshall, saying that Max Miller should resign. Take a listen to what Senator Marshall had to say.
- [55:35]
B
Should Max Miller resign, given what he did to Bernie Moreno's daughter?
- [55:40]
C
Based upon what I know, yes. Based upon what I know, yes.
- [55:44]
B
I heard his side of the story. No, I'm not. But I certainly trust Bernie and his family. Such a good family. I've met quite a few of them. They have such high values.
- [55:52]
C
I can't imagine.
- [55:53]
B
I mean, the Reno family wish this
- [55:55]
A
would have never happened. Okay, so Senator Marshall emphatically, definitively saying that Max Miller should resign from Congress because he knows Bernie Moreno and the family. Okay, now listen to what Rick Scott had to say. It's like, you know, the man who was it?
- [56:14]
B
The.
- [56:15]
A
The person who. The thing that shall not be named. Whatever. Listen to what Rick Scott had to say about Max Miller, though. Take a listen.
- [56:21]
B
First off, he shouldn't be in office. Right? And everybody should be held accountable. So are you saying that Max Miller and these should resign or what to do to get them out of office? But the best. The best thing is the public's going to take them out of office. Okay, so you're very much against what they've done and you believe that Bernie Moreno's daughter.
- [56:37]
A
I think.
- [56:38]
B
I think it ought to be very transparent and that the voters make a decision.
- [56:41]
A
So Rick Scott wants the voters to decide. Rick Scott doesn't think that Max Miller should be thrown out of Congress. So we already see that the Republicans, they're not on agreement on this, despite their brother, Bernie Moreno, United States Senator out of Ohio, despite his position that Max Miller has no business being in Congress. Bernie Moreno said, get Max Miller out of Congress. In fact, what did he say? He said something to the effect of he fails to meet the minimum standards to hold office. Sydney, can we play that sound for Moreno on Max Miller and his daughter?
- [57:17]
D
Truly the seventh level of hell. This has been a horrific experience for my entire family. My daughter lives in constant fear of this man. Not like something that. That's existential, but deeply in her heart, she fears what this guy is capable of. You can't, you can't fathom what that makes me feel like when the dad's number one job is to protect your kids. This has been brutal, beyond comprehension. And if there's any minimum standard for being an elected official, as I said, he fails to meet. Meet that minimum basic standard. I don't care about the politics at all. Don't think about it. Doesn't enter my consciousness.
- [58:06]
A
I'm a little bit doubting Thomas here. Mona. I see your Message here at Mona 2004 6. Why didn't he come out with it sooner? Meaning, why didn't Bernie Moreno come out with it sooner? By Bernie Moreno's own admissions, he's known about this for at least the last two years. The allegations that Max Miller, a sitting congressman from the same fucking state of Ohio, has committed domestic battery and violence against his daughter, Bernie Moreno's daughter, as well as his granddaughter. Allegations, including holding a gun to his granddaughter's head and allegedly breaking the granddaughter's collarbone. And yet Bernard Moreno said nothing. He's allowed the conversations to swirl the news to be put out there into the Internet and into the world. And yet Bernie Moreno has said said nothing. He didn't say anything until after he did this performative the other day with Anthony Fauci. Take a listen.
- [59:06]
D
Sell them all. Run for office. Run to the United States Senate. Here I am sitting in front of you six years later saying, who the do you think you were for doing that? It is a total disgrace what you did to this country. And if my Democrat colleagues are standing there defending you, I hope the voters, the United States of America, watch the clips of every one of you doting on a guy who was more interested in being a celebrity than saving American people.
- [59:40]
A
So after he did that with Dr. Anthony Fauci, several people said, you're showing a lot of anger and a lot of righteous indignation with Dr. Anthony Fauci, but you don't do anything and you don't say anything about the Congressman who's alleged to have committed domestic battery against your daughter and your granddaughter. So the calls for Max Miller to get out of Congress have grown louder and louder. Just a couple of days ago, Max Miller, incumbent out of Ohio who is currently running to defend his seat, did this on X. He posted a 22 something minute video. He called it a special announcement. He put it on X on August 2nd, and he basically said, I refuse to resign and I will not withdraw out of this race. Then Miller created and released a Dropbox that he posted on X. Again, I don't know why they're putting this shit on that cesspool of X, but he put this on X. He says, here's the Dropbox and the reason why it says Dropbox back online. Take a look. Is because somebody accessed the Dropbox and noted that he had actually posted pictures of his daughter, his very, very minor daughter is only a couple years old, naked, and that he had to take them out anyway. He reposted the Dropbox and in the Dropbox folks are links to police reports, incident reports, filings in his divorce and his child custody case, etc, and to be clear, he filed for divorce, I guess, and then they settled their divorce case and they were having shared custody. But there's been a lot of back and forth and allegations on both sides as to what is going on. Again, I'm not a part of this case. I don't know. I don't stand for violence in any way at any time, in any capacity. But I also know that there can be the weaponization, especially in family law cases, of allegations against a parent when it comes to a child. Here's the problem I have with the Dropbox and The documents and the links that were provided by Max Miller, he's cherry picked certain things and he's put them in the Dropbox. I believe that all of it should be out there. I frankly don't think that Miller should continue to serve in Congress. I do think that it should all be released. If you're going to sit there and you want people and the public to judge what has happened here, I think it should all be released. There are, there's apps that are used in these family law cases. In this instance, they use this one called our Family wizard of W. There's another one called Talking Parents. And you should release all the conversations. But the problem is it'll put so much more out there, especially about this minor child. And again, now this ends up being litigated in the public, right? All of this ends up being litigated in the public and worries me because it involves a little girl. A very, very little girl. So now Max Miller has said that he is filing an ethics investigation complaint pretty much against himself because he wants to have the paperwork filed for an ethics investigation into himself and whoever this person is in the chat. You can go fuck yourself about my eyeglasses. And then apparently, though, the House Ethics Committee will be conducting an investigation into Max Miller. So this is independent of what Max Miller has said that he wanted to have done. House ethics now announcing, this is according to Politico, that it will probe Max Miller's allegations. It really ends up getting very complicated. Right. But ultimately we just want to have the truth. We just want to make sure that we know. But I would invite you and please chime in in the chat because I always want to kind of discuss this and probe this with you. You know, we see a lot of people in the Democratic Party stepping down and resigning when allegations are made. And yet Corey Mills still serves right in Congress. He's the embattled Republican from Florida who's been facing a series of very serious allegations about abuse, etc. Now we have this about Max Miller. I mean, there's a lot going on here and it makes me wonder, are we now going to have a four year health House ethics investigation that's going to reveal what the hell is going on? I don't really know if that's really going to be the case. Somebody said. And so I wanted to kind of explore this and I looked it up, that part of the reason why Bernie Moreno did not speak out earlier is because Max Miller allegedly knew that Bernie Moreno had posted on a LGBTQ or some gay website to look for to work, to look for a gay lover or something. So check out this article from the Guardian. This is from 2024. So let me be clear about this. Bernie Moreno's ex, Internet back in 2024 said that he had used Bernie Moreno's email address as a prank and had put it on that adult website, looking men for one on one sex. And yet I think it's worth mentioning. But the AP found out when it was doing its research into this and I want to share this with you because I think it's important. So apparently this intern says that it was a quote, aborted prank he pulled on Bernie Moreno in late 2008. And that's the reason why Bernie Moreno's name and email was found on adult Friend finder website where Moreno appeared to be looking for young guys to have fun with and men for one on one sex. But the intern donated about $7,000 to Bernie Moreno's campaign and that is the excuse that was given. But this is actually more important, I think here. Previously, Bernie Moreno showed support for LGBTQ plus issues. He showed support for the gay games in Akron and Cleveland. In 2014, he mentioned in an interview how a TV sitcom, Modern Family, helped change his perception of same sex marriage. Bernie Moreno said that his eldest son is gay and he condemned homophobic and transphobic behavior at Cleveland State University. But then Bernie Miranda changes tune. Now he is against the, quote, radical trans agenda and he opposes LGBTQ rights. Kind of makes you wonder what people will sell themselves for. Do they really need the endorsement of MAGA and Trump so badly? I guess they do. Does that also mean that you would be silent about somebody like Max Miller who is a Trump endorsed candidate? I don't know, maybe you would. Alrighty. Thanks for joining me here at Sidebar Live. I invite you to spend some time checking out some of the other episodes that I've posted, including, like I said, the one yesterday where I walk through all of the legal fallacies and flaws in Tob Blanche's claim that that slush fund and that tax immunity provision have been limited or dead in any way. At this point, I think that I can only say thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support. You guys have shown incredible, incredible energy for this channel. We have grown huge, huge numbers in terms of subscribers. If you like what you have seen and heard like and subscribe, share this channel with others so they can subscribe as well, so we can get the truth out. As I like to say a lot these days, I have an obligation to be truthful to all of you, but I don't have an obligation to be neutral. And at a time when everything is at stake, we have to make sure that we don't. We don't leave anything out. Right. We put it all out there. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Thanks for being with me tonight.