← The Josh Hammer Show
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- [00:01]
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Josh Hammer
California is still counting ballots over a week later. Is this the final straw for John Finn to get off his butt and pass the Save America Act? I'm Josh Hammer and this is the Josh Hammer Show. Well, believe it or not, California at this point is still not registering in the official Secretary of State's statistics division. They are still not registering a 100% tabulation of votes, which they very fancy way of saying they literally have not counted all of the ballots yet. And the debate continues. It has been over a week now since the primary election out in California. The two marquee races, or at least the two most closely watched races, were the race for governor, where we now know there will be a runoff between Steve Hilton, the darling of the right, the former TV show host who'll be going up against Xavier Becerra, the former cabinet secretary under President Barack Obama. And the other marquee race was the one that is now getting even more attention. That is the Los Angeles mayor race. So Spencer Pratt, who had these viral ads go around the world, the former reality TV star whose home now infamously burned down in the Pacific Palisades fire, he was leading. He was leading when America went to sleep last Tuesday evening. And in classic, dare I even say, reminiscent of 2020 election night fashion, if you recall, on 2020 election nights it was those wee hours of the morning between 2 and 4am that there were some ballot drops in certain states that seemed to give the election to Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Make of that what you will or will not. A very similar thing seems to have happened to Spencer Pratt out in Los Angeles. So the latter batches of ballots to come in in the Los Angeles Merrell race essentially gave the second slot in the two party runoff to Nithya Rahman, who is a very, very, very far left, essentially a socialist, borderline full on Bernie Sanders, communist mayor of the Los Angeles City Council, a relative newcomer to the council. And she will be the challenger to the utterly decrepit incumbent of the city of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, to be the mayor of America's Second largest city. It was looking like it was going to be Spencer Pratt. And Spencer Pratt has been denied. And there's all sorts of questions still lingering as to whether or not there has been, has been unfair play. So Bill Esala, who is an assistant youth attorney actually out in the central district for California, that is the federal district court and the U.S. attorney's office overseeing Los Angeles county, among others, he's actually saying that people, quote, likely will be charged over alleged voter fraud out in California. Here's what he said during appearance earlier this week on the Glenn Beck program. He said, quote, I expect people will be charged, but we need a wide scale audit of the California voter roll. Which is what Harmeet referring to Harmeet Dhillon, the head of civil rights at the doj. Right now, Harmeet is doing a bang up job. So Bill Sil is saying that Harmeen and I have been trying to do this for the last year, trying to get a wide scale audit of the California voter roll. And he's saying that people likely will be charged. By the way, California Democrats actually are on the defensive as well. So even Gavin Newsom to an extent has actually conceded that California counts their ballots way too slowly. What gave it away? What possibly gave way? The fact that we still don't have a full 100% of the ballots count. That it's well into the 90s, but it's not literally at 100%. This is third world banana republic bullcrap. There is no better way to put lipstick on a pig than that. This is simply not how the land of the free and the home of the brave ought to operate when it comes to securing our elections and to provide reassurance to voters that only their legitimate votes and not any illegitimate votes will be counted. California is facing all sorts of pressure, including, frankly, from any number of folks, even on the left. So for instance, there's a political science professor at UC San Diego by the name of Thad Kozer. And this is not a man off the left. If you know anything about the UC University system, he says, quote, we've been having this conversation for four years in California. But I think the intense national focus on California's lengthy period of casting votes, I think it may actually spur action. State officials need to recognize the reasonable voter interest in learning results in less than a week. Who could possibly disagree with this? So the professor continues, there's also the practical reality that in the vacuum created by the lack of results, rumors and conspiracies will fly again. We're gonna talk to Joel Pollock, who actually lives out in Southern California. He's the op editor at the California Post. We'll talk to Joel just a little bit later in the program to get his take there. My take is not necessarily that there is rampant, legitimate fraud, although I'm not discounting that as a possibility, especially if the assistant use attorney there in the California Central District is saying that there likely will be allegations of fraud. I'm not discounting it. Rather, what I'm saying is that that's possible. But what I believe has indeed happened is twofold. One is that, to paraphrase my colleague at Salem Media, Larry o', Connor, I think the Democrats have essentially cheated and stolen an election through legal means, which sounds a little ironic and paradoxical, but that's essentially exactly what they've done. They have deprived Spencer Pratt of a runoff slot going up against Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayoral runoff, and they have done so through technically legal means. In other words, Los Angeles county has motor voter registration where you get a driver's license, you get a registration to vote. They don't bother to ask whether or not you are a citizen. They don't bother to ask for a passport or Social Security number or anything otherwise that would indicate that you actually are a full fledged citizen and that your attempts to influence the franchise can and should be legitimate. There's also all sorts of other illicit ballot harvesting operations happening in Los Angeles county and on and on and on. That's 1.2. Is that to get back to what this UC San Diego professor was saying? Thad Kozer it is just the case that the longer these elections go on and you still don't get all the votes counted, people are going to say what the heck is happening? It's just the nature of asking questions. And frankly, we have ample reason to be somewhat suspect of elections that go this on. There is no need for this. My state of Florida, the nation's second largest state, counts ballots in immediately. Jeb Bush signed that law after the disputed 2000 election. Bush versus Gore. Florida counts our election statewide within hours. There is no reason why California should be taking over week. No reason whatsoever. So will this finally be the grist to actually pass the Save America app? Well, Donald Trump is trying to do something very, very interesting. I want to get to that actually in just a second. But for now folks, I want to tell you a brief word about our sponsor for today's show, which is Balance of Nature. You know, I tried to eat a well rounded diet and a meal. I am big on fruits. I am big on veggies. I'm not super big on the carbs, I'm not super big on the sugars. But nonetheless, I'm a very busy person. I'm sure you probably are as well. That's why I rely on Balance of Nature to supplement my already well rounded diet. Balance of Nature has no binders, fillers or flow agents in any of their products. They use a custom tailored vacuum cold process and then the supplements are powdered and packaged and presented in an easily digestible form to you. The patented Whole health gives you 47 different ingredients of fruits, vegetables, spices and fibers. These are Maha approved, at least according to my wife who is something of an RFK Maha mom herself and she loves these supplements. She said, josh, go ahead and take this every day. That's what I've been doing. I feel like a million bucks. So folks, go to balancenature.com check out the whole health system. You can use discount code hammer to get 10% off again, BalanceNature is a sponsor of today's show. Balancenature.com use discount code HAMMER to get 10% off so Donald Trump trying to do something very, very interesting when it comes to the Save America Act. So the Save America act formally just called the Save act, now it's the Save America Act. Not worth the details in how we got from A to B. This is the utterly commonsensical legislation that's being led by, among others, Chip Roy in the House and Mike Lee in the US Senate that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and then national voter ID in order to actually vote in elections. Who can possibly oppose this? And sure enough, if you actually look at the polling on at least those two core metrics, proof of citizenship to register and voter ID to actually vote on Election Day. Overwhelming majorities of virtually every sub demographic of America, whether it's whites, Hispanics, blacks, women, men, Republicans, Democrats, they all support this. Or at a bare minimum, they don't oppose it. Why? Because it's utterly commonsensical. So the problem is that John Thune, the not so solid, at times borderline outright feckless Senate majority leader from South Dakota of the Republican Caucus, has not made a concerted effort to try to get this thing passed. So what Donald Trump is now urging to do is there is he's asking for a $350 billion new defense spending package as part of a new reconciliation bill, which if you know how the Senate procedure works, that is a way of trying to get a legislation, a bill passed with a bare 50 plus one majority. So all you need to get this passed, in theory, if the parliamentarian approves and if the Senate doesn't override the parliamentarian, which you actually can do, that's not very well known. What he's trying to do is to get the Save America act as part of this must pass Pentagon funding statute. Every year the Congress has a big debate where they are funding the Pentagon year in and year out there. It's typically called the ndaa, the National Defense Authorization act there. So they're trying to put the Save America act into this bill. Will that actually work? Well, I don't know. Again, it's going to depend to an extent on the details of the parliamentarian. Is it going to have the effect of reducing the budget? Ultimately, of course, the Senate can actually overrule the parliamentarian. The parliamentarian, as Rachel Bovard, our go to Senate sage here on the show, as Rachel notes, the parliamentarian is something of a crutch, something of an individual to take out your frustrations with. But the Senate does have the power to overrule. So in other words, if there is a will, there is a way, and there really should be a will in this case when it comes to passing the Save America act in the aftermath of all these shenanigans out in California. Finally, before we go ahead and bring on Joel Pollack of the California Post, I want to show you how the Democrats seem to be framing this or at least how the leftists are. So Jimmy Kimmel, the not so funny, very anti Trump left wing late night show host is going off on how Democrats are doing what exactly? Let's go ahead and play this clip from Jimmy Kim. Somehow the Democrats rigged the ballots, but only the parts where people voted for mayor. The votes for governor, they left untouched. It's diabolical. It's a miracle that people who are
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Donald Trump
so stupid can be so incredibly smart at the same time.
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Josh Hammer
You know, in a sane world, that
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Donald Trump
statement would have been the moment where the nurse came in and put him to bed.
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Josh Hammer
But that's not the world we live in, right? Okay. So he basically saying that you're either rigging everything or rigging nothing at all. Again, it does not take a mental level IQ in order in order to dispel this notion, you obviously can in theory choose to rig certain elections. Again, I'm actually not saying that on the show. I'm not saying my stance is not that the Los Angeles mayoral election was outright rigged. There genuinely may be fraud. Again, the assistant U.S. attorney is saying that there will be charges. I look forward to seeing that evidence there. I will resist outright calling it fraud until then, but for now, there are horrific tactics that, at a bare minimum, give the distinct impression to many people of cheating through legal means. And when the American people fail to respect the system, trust goes into the toilet. And when trust in our process goes in the toilet, that's when things start to get really, really nasty. A republic if you can keep it, said Benjamin Franklin. Unfortunately, this is one of many ways the republics can start to go down the pooper. Folks, we're going to a quick commercial break. On the other side, Joel Pollack joins to continue the conversation. Stay with us. For Joel Pollack,
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Josh Hammer
Welcome back. So we're pleased to bring on Joel Pollack to continue our conversation when it comes to the electoral shenanigans and much more out in California. So Joel Pollack is the opinion editor of the California Post, an exciting new publication. You can go ahead and check out their work@californiapost.com follow Joel on X oelpolock. So, Joel, long time, I believe, overdue main appearance here on the show. So it's really great to welcome you in for this conversation, my friend. So you are a Californian, unlike myself, and you are much closer to the belly of the beast. And we were just talking a little bit about how there's an assistant U.S. attorney out there in the central district of California saying that there will be forthcoming voter fraud, actual indictments. That's actually what he's saying there. My personal stance is that I will look for that evidence when I see it. But for now, to kind of paraphrase my colleague Larry o', Connor, it looks to me a lot like cheating through technically legal means. So I kind of just throw that to you. What is your basic assessment as to where we're at right now when it comes to Steve Hilton advancing to the gubernatorial runoff against Xavier Becerra, but Spencer Pratt getting denied for that all important Los Angeles mayor race?
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Joel Pollack
Well, let's back up a little bit. I don't know if the federal prosecutor has said There will be indictments, I think he said there will be investigations. So, you know, there's a long. A long distance between the investigation and the indictment. So I don't think that they have the goods yet on fraud in the election. But the system is set up to make fraud very easy to commit. I'm not sure that accounts for the vote totals, but as Larry o' Connor said, and this is something I've been saying for a long time, ever since 2020, that Democrats have essentially legalized a form of voting that is fraudulent in most other circumstances. And again, it's hard to prove actual fraud. Now, there has been some proof. There was a conviction a few weeks ago of a woman who was paying homeless people to register to vote and to fill out petitions for ballot initiatives. So that had happened, and she had evidently been doing it for years. And apparently it's not that unusual. We've been doing reporting about people on skid row, which is the homeless rundown neighborhood in LA that has a lot of these organizers walking around with clipboards and getting signatures. That could be legal, too, but it could also be illegal, depending on how it's done. And when you look at where the late votes came in for Nithya Raman, the socialist who moved from third to second place, it does seem possible that there was some ballot harvesting in some of these areas, especially because she had a strong personal connection to homeless services organizations. She had started one. So it does give you a mechanism by which she could have harvested boats. And what I mean by that is it's legal in California to turn in an unlimited number of other people's ballots, presumably with their consent. But again, how do you check? How do you really know it's their consent? The signature verification process is a little subject to manipulation. I would argue. It's an inexact science, and it's not really a definitive way of establishing someone's id. It's more assigning a legal obligation to someone who's returning a ballot so that they might fear the consequences of cheating if they did cheat. But I don't think it really screens out fraudulent ballots very well. And we're left with a process that just feels like it's out of the control of ordinary citizens.
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Donald Trump
And.
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Joel Pollack
And it's worth saying it feels like it's out of control of the citizens who pay the taxes. And, you know, we don't have a qualified franchise in this country, and we shouldn't. But what's happening over and over again in California is that taxpaying residents are hit up for more and more money, for worse and worse services, and they don't seem to have any political recourse. The ballot will now be between the incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, who many people believe has failed, and and the socialist, who many people fear will do even worse. And Spencer Pratt, who ran. He lives in my neighborhood. He lost his house in the fire. My house survived, sort of half a house at the moment because it's being repaired. But he ran and he is now out of the running for the general election. He came in third in the end. And so many people feel they don't have a voice for accountability in the election. So it is some of the frustration that is driving accusations of fraud. But there are some weaknesses. The ballot harvesting, the late acceptance of ballots that have been postmarked on election Day but come in up to a week after Election Day. All of that creates vulnerabilities in the system. And Democrats are vigorously denying that anything could possibly go wrong. But that also sounds almost as ridiculous as people saying the entire thing was fraudulent. I think we'll find that the truth is somewhere in between that it may be that Nithya Raman really did win second place. And I said before the election that she could. But it also seems likely that there were some voting practices that don't quite pass the bar of legality.
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Josh Hammer
Yeah. And the middle ground is basically our stance here on the show as well. So, folks, you can follow Joel Pollock on X oelpolik. Joel, I wonder your thoughts also on the other marquee race out in California. Steve Hilton hasn't de qualified for the runoff. He's going up against Xavier Becerra to try to replace Gavin Newsom come January 2027. I think a lot of folks really want, at least in our broader sphere, a lot of folks really want Steve Felton to win. He seems to be running a very California Republican sty race focused on affordability, gas prices, inflation, et cetera, et cetera. The real quality of life issues, I think, resonate as opposed to the more culture worry issues. Having said that, Joel, let's just be kind of candid here for a second. Does he actually have any chance of winning this race?
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Joel Pollack
The only way he wins the race is if Javier Becerra is indicted for corruption, which could happen because his aides have been indicted. And he said he knew nothing about it, but the scheme that they concocted was designed to benefit him by allowing him to overpay his chief of staff when he was HHS secretary in Washington. He says he didn't know anything about it. It's not really credible to me. So I think he has some legal risk. But even then, it's possible California voters would vote for a Democrat facing criminal investigation over the best Republican that had ever walked the planet. I think we're just a very partisan state and I think Steve Hilton's going to be a great standard bearer for other issues. There are other issues on the ballot, most important of which is the billionaire tax. You've got the voter ID initiative, which is also almost equally important, I would say, and some other initiatives that will help shape the future of California and maybe try to bring it back from the brink. But LA voters who complain about the cost of living voted for a half percent increase in sales tax, ostensibly to fund county health care services. And when you have that kind of mentality, failing really to connect cause and effect. And of course, you can't generalize across the electorate, a lot of people probably did realize the tax hike was going to affect them. It's not a tax on rich people. It's a tax on everybody. It's a regressive tax on poor people especially. And it's possible, just a small group of activists, maybe the same people who pushed Nithya Raman over the top at the end, also pushed the tax hike over the top. But as stupid an idea as billionaire tax is, it could pass, because anything is possible like that in California if you frame it the right way. I mean, they framed the sales tax measure as an attack on Trump. If you read the text of the ballot initiative that passed in la, you know, they didn't describe it up front as a tax increase. They described it up front as a rebuke to Donald Trump and the Republicans, and that made it through on the text of the ballot. So I think Steve Hilton will be good in the sense that he's going to be captain of the team and the team needs a captain, otherwise nobody shows up. But I think it's very hard for him. And also what Becerra is going to do is probably ignore him as much as possible. And that's what Jerry Brown did when he had a very good challenger in 2014. He had a guy named Neel Kashkari. Neel Kashkari was a fantastic, brilliant challenger. He did some really cool things with ads and got some media attention. But Jerry Brown just refused to debate him. They had one debate, Kashkari wiped the floor with him, and nothing changed because this is a Democrat state. Kashkari left California to take up a position as head of the Federal Reserve in Minnesota. And he is today one of the country's most brilliant economists and central bankers. But, you know, that's the kind of person that loses a race in California to Jerry Brown at the age of 80 bazillion. So it's kind of where we are.
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Josh Hammer
Yeah, fair enough. And to be honest with you, I totally forgot about the Xavier Becerra legal trouble. So it's actually a very interesting wrinkle in the mix, folks. Follow Joel Pollock on X oelpolak. Joel, just about a minute left, but before I let you go, I do want to just change gears here in our final minute. We're also covering on the show today the big news overseas. Donald Trump talking about seizing Kharg island, hitting Iran hard. These negotiations, Joel, seem to be completely falling by the wayside. What is your prediction as to where things go over the next week or month, perhaps when it comes to the Iran situation?
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Joel Pollack
My prediction is that the Iranian team is going to get a very hostile reception from the expatriate Iranian community in Los Angeles when they show up to play in the coming days at the World Cup. So you're going to see some focus there. I think the regime is done. I think that Trump is going to win this war decisively, and I think the regime is going to collapse. I mean, that's, that's what I think is going to happen. I still think it's going to happen, even though it's taken longer than some people thought it might take. But I think the blockade has been very effective. The war has been very successful. You can't say that without Democrats rolling their eyes. And, you know, you're not allowed to say that. I mean, someone said to me on CNN last night when I made that point, very nice, very intelligent person. But she said, how can you say Trump's winning the war? Look at the polls, you know, not how it works. I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure good polls are a good thing, but it's not, you know, you don't judge the success of a war by, by whether the polls are good. I mean, Winston Churchill won World War II and then was voted out of office. I mean, it's, you know, we are winning, it has a political cost, but we are winning the war quite decisively.
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Josh Hammer
All right, well, from your lips to God's ears when it comes to downfall of the regime, folks, one final time. Follow Joel Pollock on X oelpolak is the opinion editor at the California Post. Joel, wish you the best of luck with the new gig. And the new publication. We appreciate you joining the show. Thank you. Thank you folks at quick commercial break. We'll be right back with more on the other side.
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- [24:26]
Josh Hammer
welcome back. So it's funny. I was in Israel last week, as I mentioned earlier this week on the show, and I was able to interview a number of people over there, not for the show, but just as part of the trip that I was leading. And among them was Amit Seagal, who is one of the state of Israel's best known journalists. He is on their network called Channel 12. And in our conversation, Amit Seagal actually said to me exactly what Joel Paul just said to us here on the show today, which is that he anticipates that there indeed will be regime collapse in Iran simply due to the blockade, simply due to the pressure, simply due potentially to the seizing of Kharg Island. So this notion is starting to get out there and that's kind of our TN to what is happening today, what is happening tonight and what will be happening, I guess, let's see, over the next few days, potentially over the next few weeks, which is that this thing seems like it is about to really start to take off again. So Donald Trump went on to social this morning and said that there's going to be heavy bombing in Iran tonight. The United States is going to seize Kharg Island. So Carg island is an island just off the coast of Iran. It is in the Persian Gulf, a little bit north of the Strait of Hormuz. Kharg island is home to the Iranian regime's petroleum refining and exporting facilities, notably Carg island, has been on, on Donald Trump's radar for literally 40 years. There is an interview that Donald Trump gave with the Guardian, the British newspaper, back in 1988. I believe the year is towards the tail end of the Reagan administration and at that time, in the context of continued Iran tensions In the late 1980s, at that time, Trump told the Guardian that if he were president then that he would actually go ahead and seize Carg Island. So Potentially, let's see, 38 years later, potentially, this actually could happen. So Trump, as part of seemingly doing this bit of this pivot towards the resumption of kinetic activity when it comes to the Iran issue. Trump phoned in to Fox and Friends this morning and was chatting with Brian Kilmeade and company as to what we can expect. The first thing I think that's worth noting is that Donald Trump was talking about how Iran really have anything going to them right now other than fake news. So here was Donald Trump this morning on Fox News.
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Donald Trump
One of those things. They have no defense. They can't do anything about it. The only thing they have is fake news. You know, they have the New York Times writes stories like they're doing great and they're not. They've been wiped out. CNN and that Ms. Now or whatever they call it nowadays, NBC had to get rid of it because it was bad for their reputation. But the publicity they have is incredible. It's almost like they're doing well and they're getting decimated, just decimated. And they're dying to make a deal. They want to make a deal so badly. But, you know, you read the New York Times and you read the Wall Street Journal, which is so fake. I mean, I know you guys own it, but it's a real piece of garbage. And you read the Wall Street Journal. It's like they did an editorial today about we're not hitting them hard enough. I mean, it's just not hitting them hard enough. We dropped $250 million worth of bombs on them last night. You know, the whole thing is crazy. But. And they're, and they're really in submission.
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Josh Hammer
Okay, so a lot of bombs last night, but let's be honest here. The Journal was correct, as was the New York Post in a very similar editorial, as was Mark Levin on his show a few days ago. Many of us who've been saying it's time to, to recommence epic fury, I think at this point have probably been proven right because that's exactly what it seems is about to happen. So here is more from Donald Trump this morning with Fox and friends. He's saying that there's going to be heavy bombing in Iran tonight.
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Donald Trump
Yeah, there will be more bombing tonight. It'll be bigger, bigger, more powerful. Don't forget, we've knocked out all of their anti aircraft. They don't have any anti. They have nothing. I mean, they may get lucky with the shoulder weapons or something, but for the most part, you know, they have no defense.
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Josh Hammer
What did the representative say in your phone call?
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Donald Trump
They're finished. Excuse me? They're finished. But the papers, the media refuses to write it. They're finished. We can walk in there tomorrow. We could take soldiers. I don't want to have boots on the ground, but if I wanted to, we could put a small group of soldiers and take over the whole place. They're finished. And the media is crooked. They're just like our elections, the media is crooked.
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Josh Hammer
So if you actually are willing to commit some unlimited troops to taking Carg island, which is exactly what it sounds like Trump is now advocating, you'll have some special forces in the Navy, Marines, etc. To take, try to take Carg Island. What you're looking at is potentially a similar arrangement as the United States has to Venezuela right now, which at the United States comes in essentially controls their oil and petroleum exporting, which is what we are currently doing on the ground right now. When it comes to Venezuela, which is currently something as currently operating as something of a de facto puppet regime of the United States now, where the rubber meets the road when it comes to stretching the limits of the Venezuela Iran analogy is that unlike Venezuela, Iran is a fanatical, eschatologically trying to bring the 12th Imam style, 72 virgins in heaven, Shiite supremacist clerici. So there are limits to this analogy. But in announcing this plan to seize the indispensable, crucial refining facility of Carg island, that is essentially what Trump is trying to do. He's essentially trying to do the Maduro play all over again. When it comes to Ahmed Fahidi, who is the head of the i3C when it comes to Mashaba Khamenei, the lacerated, grievously wounded, current quote, unquote supreme leader there, he's trying to do the same thing all over again. Will it be successful? Well, I guess we'll see. Notably again on the same interview, Trump's saying that a deal is still possible, but what Iran has to do, and this is totally correct, Mr. President, what Iran has to do is to wave the white flag of surrender. He spot on this. Here was more from this morning's interview.
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Donald Trump
You know, the deal is a very good deal. The problem with the deal is that it could be the greatest deal in history. They could wave the white flag of surrender. They could say, we surrender, we surrender, we're finished, we've had it, the United States is the greatest power, praise be to Allah. And they could do all of this. They could say it loud and clear and the fake news would say it was a great victory for Iran. I mean, it's the craziest thing I've ever seen.
- [30:46]
Josh Hammer
So earlier in the war, Donald Trump said unconditional surrender or bust. That was correct. That's what he's saying again now. Now it's a bit of revisionist history to pretend like this has been his stance all along. It is definitely true that at various points since the premature April 8 ceasefire went to place, it's definitely true that there have been times when Donald Trump has come across as more desperate for a deal. We saw that with his various expletive laden phone calls at Netanyahu over in Israel, for having the temerity to respond to direct incoming fire from Hezbollah and Iran. At the time, it seemed like Trump was more interested in a deal, any deal, than perhaps in defeating the regime or as he puts it, unconditional surrender. But Mr. President, you are now correct yet again in calling for the white flag of surrender and calling for that. That is the only possible, acceptable outcome here. The only acceptable possible outcome is Iran is no longer a threat to the United States and to our national interests. That has been the goal of this operation all along. If a deal was possible to achieve those ends, fantastic. If a deal is not possible to achieve those ends, also fantastic. Just keep on going. And by the way, keep on going here can mean one of any things. Surely there is going to be some continuation, as Trump just said, of more kinetic pressure, more bombing, more military action, bombing actual hard, fortified IRGC targets and the like. But crucially, there will continue to be other pressure as well. Economic pressure, diplomatic pressure, sanctioning the naval blockade. At some point over the course of past two months, a deal was floated whereby the United States would essentially stop the naval blockade in exchange for Iran opening the straits. That's horsecraft. That is terrible. Again, he's changed tunes here. He's trying to say he's not changed tunes. He's absolutely changed tune. Because seizing Carg island is the complete opposite of taking your foot off the gas pedal when it comes to the US Naval blockade. So he did go soft for a little while. And I have to conclude, frankly, that the pressure has at this point worked. Now, will it continue to work? Well, I don't know because this is very complicated stuff. And you heard Joel Pollack and I dismiss the polls when it comes to this there. And it's true that you don't fight wars for the sake of getting a boost in polling. Anyone who does is frankly just an utter moron. That's not why wars should be fought or not fought. You actually have strategic goals and so forth in mind. But, but, but it is just the political reality that this is a midterm year. Having said that, I, I'm on the topic of gas prices and inflation there. This was a huge deal that kind of flew way under the radar. Donald Trump also going on Truth Social yesterday. Do you remember Project Freedom? Project Freedom after Epic Fury or towards the end of Epic Fury, around the time of the ceasefire, was this, this vessel escorting service whereby the Navy and Marines were going to escort these oil export commercial vessels through the strait. For the past two months it seemed like that was done. Now, Donald Trump says no. He said, quote, last month, again, this, this was not known to the estate. He said, last month I directed our military to execute a secret mission to support oil tankers and other commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz. And he's now announcing that this has resulted in more than 100 million barrels of oil making its way into the strait, therefore into the old market. So a lot happening when it comes to trying to stabilize gas prices. Can the sweet spot be met of stable gas prices and ultimately securing our goals in epic fury? When it comes to the Iran regime, I believe the answer is yes. Increasingly, it appears over the past few days, it seems like Donald Trump thinks the answer is yes as well. That's good news for America. That's good news for everyone, folks. One final break. We'll be right back with much more after this. Welcome back. So earlier on the show this week, we were talking about the possibility that there actually could be a real rupture when it comes to the United States and our ally Israel, when it comes to the future course of conduct in the Middle east and especially the Iranian regime. Above all, for a little while there when Trump was yelling at Netanyahu, saying, don't respond, you're crazy, you're this, you're that there, which by the way, is not really how an ally should treat one another. But neither here nor there. It looked like there's a possibility, actually of the much anticipated, at least from the Tucker Carlson crowd, the much anticipated rift in American Israeli relations. Now, to paraphrase Mark Twain, it appears that the rumors of a rift or rupture might have been greatly exaggerated. Perhaps it's a little too early to tell, but I did find it fascinating, actually that someone who is known to be a supporter of the state of Israel is a supporter of the IDF and so forth. Jerry Seinfeld, one of the greatest known comedians in comedy in general, probably one of the greatest known Americans, frankly, for that matter, over the past three and a half decades, give or take, he was actually on the streets of New York City and was approached by a somewhat infamous pro Palestinian online streamer and had a really, really funny response that could potentially be a bit of a cultural inflection point. Let's go ahead and play this clip from Jerry Seinfeld.
- [35:49]
Donald Trump
What up, Seinfeld? What up?
- [35:51]
Josh Hammer
Can we get a free Palestine?
- [35:54]
Donald Trump
Can we get a free Palestine?
- [35:55]
Josh Hammer
Come on, give us one free Palestine. It doesn't exist. Okay, so you can see how just utterly stunned the interviewer was there after Seinfeld just laughed all the question and said that Palestine does not exist. He's technically correct if we want to really get into details. So Palestina was the name that the Roman Empire gave to the Holy Land after the destruction of the Second Temple and the ethnic cleansing of the Jews in the year 70 of the common Era. And that name more or less stuck for the better part of two millennia while the Holy Land was transferred from Roman rule ultimately to Ottoman rule, and on and on and on. After the victory by the Western European powers in America in World War I and the modern carving up of the Middle east map, you have the creation of Mandatory Palestine, which was then divided between the Mandate for Palestine, which was the land of Israel, and then the Emirate of Transjordan. So they were keeping this name just as a reference to the historical Roman name for the terrain. So actually, back in the day, if you want to go back and look at it, you can actually look at photos of the old quote unquote Palestinian soccer team for the 1930s. And you'll see a lot of Jews in blue uniforms with gold stars of David. Their names were not Mahmoud and Ahmed, their names were Shlomo and things like that. So that was what it meant to be, quote, unquote, Palestinian, actually, for a long time. In fact, my wife's father's mother was born in what is now the state of Israel prior to the founding of the state. So she was born in the late 30s, early 40s. She was given a quote unquote Palestinian passport because again, Israel did not exist there. And to this day there actually is no quote unquote Palestinian state. That's actually the entire crux of the controversy when it comes to Judea and Samaria, AKA the West Bank, Gaza. Anyway, the point is that Jerry Seinfeld is technically correct, but the other point is that wow, dude is being red pilled. He is. And it's not the first instance of that. There's actually a quote that Jerry Seinfeld gave a few years ago where he basically said that he's going to stop touring on American college campuses because he has stopped enjoying doing comedy shows to college kids because they're so woke and he hates the shout down culture. He hates the cancel culture culture. If I'm mistaken, his daughter Sasha actually now works for Barry Weiss over at the Free Press as well. Barry, not a conservative, but she's definitely an anti woke liberal. And the Free Press runs conservatives. I've published there. Josh Hawley in Missouri just published there. So Seinfeld trending in a right leaning direction now. Notably I, I think it's somewhat humorous to note that his former co collaborator on Seinfeld, Larry David, the exact opposite. Larry David is as far left as it gets there. But overall, look, are some celebrities starting to move to the right a little bit? It depends. Depends. Seinfeld again is very pro Israel. He is a Jew at a time where the left is increasingly rapidly and unapologetically anti Semitic. Like a Grand Platinumer's Nazi tattoo, the blind chic defending candidate in New Jersey, on and on, on there. Anyway, good for Jerry Seinfeld. So a lot happening in the world of sports and I want to talk about that a little bit as we begin to close out show for today. So Joel Pollock in our conversation earlier on today's show mentioned how the World cup is starting and how the Iranian team is actually set to play out in Los Angeles. Query whether or not the Iranian national team should even be allowed to play in the United States. So FIFA, which is the governing body for international soccer, I'm sure has done a lot of work to try to get Iran diplomatic clearance when it comes to actually playing in the United States and to a lesser extent perhaps in Canada, because this World cup is being, is being co hosted by Mexico, Canada and the United States. Team USA for what's worth, will actually be starting tomorrow evening out in Los Angeles. They'll be playing Paraguay Trump won't be there, but Marco Rubio will be there in Donald Trump's stead. So the World cup is starting this week and it's a great opportunity for America yet again to be the eyes of the world on the global sporting stage show Los Angeles. Speaking of la, Los Angeles will actually be hosting the next Summer Olympic Games that's coming up actually just in 2028. And now LA will be kicking off the World cup as well when it comes to Team usa. So that that is going on on the one hand as well. Personally look, soccer, not necessarily my sport, but I do enjoy the World Cup. I think it's a great opportunity to to just enjoy the world's most popular sport even if it's not necessarily my own preferred sport happening or taking place at a very very, very high level. Someone who just appreciates pure athletic excellence. I think it's worth just paying attention to these next few weeks. I think it's a great thing. By the way that the World cup is not in Qatar. If you remember, that's actually the country that hosted the World cup four years ago. That was just insane. Like absolutely positively insane that Qatar, freaking Qatar hosted a World Cup. Something that I have not forgotten. I hope you've not forgotten that either that FIFA allowed that to happen. Of course there were dozens, perhaps even hundreds of migrant workers were killed working in 120 degree heat trying to construct these stadiums from scratch. The whole thing was just disastrous, disastrous. Anyway, good that's happening in the United States in the NBA finals. I don't know how many of you are basketball fans. I'm a bigger college hoops fan than an NBA fan. I have to say I grew up with big New York Knicks fans. I haven't lived in New York since I was 18 years old. So my New York sports loyalties from my youth have attenuated a little bit over the years. But I've gotten back a little bit into the Knicks the past couple years. This NBA Finals. Wow. So the Knicks won the first two games on the road in San Antonio and then at the star studded game the other night, Game three in New York City. The one that Dont attended, they lost last night was game four. I went to sleep at halftime. Okay I admit I went to sleep at halftime when the Knicks were down by, what was it, 27 points. In the early stages of the third quarter that lead expanded to 29 points. I woke up to go to the bathroom around 2:30 in the evening. A little probably TMI, but whatever. I checked My phone for the score. I saw the Knicks one by one point. My jaw dropped. I literally could not fall back asleep. So I Woke up at 2:30am Because I saw the scores. I was just how, like literally how absolutely insane. Biggest comeback in NBA Finals history. This is a team of destiny. This is absolutely a team of destiny. You don't want to call it until the proverbial fat lady sings, but hard to believe that this team does not end up winning the NBA finals there. Game 5 will be back at San Antonio this Saturday evening. It will be the Knicks first championship since 1973. My goodness gracious. Well before I was even born. Finally, there was also the Congressional Baseball Game. Rounding out our our little mini sports center recap here towards the end of today's show. So the annual Congressional Baseball Game, always good fun. It takes place at Nationals park in Washington D.C. that also took place last evening. Now Republicans won the Congressional Baseball Game for gosh, many, many years in a row. Now the Republicans have won, which makes sense because these are typically, well, you know, great percentage of more athletic men from the heartland, you know, military veterans, etc. There's as opposed to Democrats who just don't really have any of that in the percentages that the Republicans have. But the, the star of the show was Eric Schmidt. Eric Schmidt, the senator from Missouri who had a bona fide, bona FIDE top 10 ESPN SportsCenter worthy catch out on left field. Let's go ahead and play this clip of Eric Schmidt at the Congressional Baseball Game. That one struck to left field and what a dive. Oh, what a great, amazing catch down the left field. The Redbirds would be proud of a play like, like that. Look at the nose. Wow. And he roughed himself up here a little bit when he hit the, hit the warning track on the side there. Eric Schmidt with a genuine SportsCenter esque catch, as the announcer said there. Sign him up for the Red Birds. He's wearing that St. Louis Cardinals cap. The Cardinals. The pride and joy of the show me state one of the pride, pride and joys of the American Midwest in general for many, many, many years now. Good fun. Just a reminder folks that as tough as our political battles are, sometimes sports always has the ability to unify. We will see if the World cup does that again. The World cup starting tonight, Mexico starting tomorrow night for Team USA out in Los Angeles. Folks, have a great rest of your evening. Josh Hammer signing off. We'll be right back. Tomorrow.