C (7:01)

As the days continue, this is going to continue to get worse. We are certainly grateful, of course, for President Trump, Director Lyons and Boris R. Homan for the ICE support. And they're going to be conducting non specialized security support, you know, manning the exit lanes, crowd management, line control. So we're incredibly grateful again for their support to help alleviate the challenges that our officers are facing, that the traveling population is facing. But we're hopeful, but we're going to continue to focus on the mission. And if this drags on, it's going to continue to get worse.

B (7:31)

But we are certainly hopeful and it might drag on. At this point, what is the incentive for Democrats to end this that they haven't already felt? And part of this is the media bias. The media refuses to place the blame for this squarely at the feet of Democrats. They're trying to ludicrously suggest that this is the Donald Trump, John Thune, Mike Johnson shutdown. In what world does that make sense? Again, Fetterman, literally the only Democrat to vote to fund TSA and other parts of DHS is totally nonsensical and hopefully they do not get away with it, albeit they unfortunately have done so so far. But in the meantime, they're causing a veritable mess for American travelers of all stripes. Was actually just a horrible tragedy, actually. At LaGuardia Airport in New York City just on Sunday evening, a regional Air Canada jet colliding with a fire truck. Both pilots were killed. The air traffic control employee taking blame for that. I'm not necessarily saying that that has to do with the DHS shutdown. That's more of a DOT Department of Transportation issue, frankly, if anything there. But just not good things happening at America's airports. And at a time of just general skittishness and unease, that is not a good thing to play fast and loose with when it comes to the American people. Lots else happening in the world. But for now, folks, just a quick pause while we take a word from our sponsor. You know, I think nutrition has gotten way too complicated. Every week there's a new powder, a new lab created formula, some new breakthrough. But here's the truth we've been told since we were kids to eat our fruits and vegetables. Nobody really explained why when you eat whole foods, you're getting phytonutrients, those natural compounds your body uses to adjust, repair and respond every single day. That's not hype. That's how we were designed. That's why I take balance of nature. They use a tailored vacuum cold process that stabilizes the phytonutrition in fruits and veggies. So you're getting real whole food nutrition, not synthetic substitutes. Their whole health system includes fruits and veggies, plus fiber and spice, 47 ingredients in one simple routine I take in myself. If you want to fight the good fight, go to balanceofnature.com to subscribe and save. Today, hundreds of thousands of customers in one similar team that's changing the world. That's our sponsor for today's show, folks, Balance of nature over@balanceofnature.com so the airports here on the home front are a variable mess. And as we just discussed, it is Democrats that bear essentially the exclusive blame. Really, I don't actually understand the argument that Republicans bear any of the blame for this. You have to recall that these immigration agencies that Democrats are trying to defund, this is the dirty little accounting secret here, they're actually already funded for the remainder of this fiscal year. On government's fiscal year begins and ends around the time of late September, September 30, October 1. That's why there's a big annual funding crisis that that time of year, every year because Congress can't do its job and can't pass like an actual normal appropriations budget. It's essentially funded until then, or at least until very close to then. So what exactly are they trying to accomplish? Well, they're trying to just force concessions. They're trying to force concessions here to make more painful cuts. But again, it's not a blank slate. Typically when you're negotiating and something is already locked in, that is a much weaker negotiating position. If you are trying to force concessions than if it's an open question and you're just seeking to become the first to define it, become the first to kind of define whether there should be conditions or strings attached to funding or this there that's not the Democrats position. That's really not. Immigration is currently funded. Now, Mark Wayne Mullen also appears set to be confirmed as soon as today actually to be the next secretary of Homeland Security. If not, say it will happen imminently that because again, John Fetterman, there's that name again. John Ferman became the only Democrat actually to vote to fund in its entirety the department, the Department of Homeland Security there. So this is looking like an increasingly good political issue for Republicans come this November. Think back to the State of the Union address that happened just about a month ago or so. At the State of the Union address, Donald Trump had this remarkable, this remarkable line where he was just baiting Democrats. And the fools, the blithering fools that they are, they just took the bait, hook, line and sinker. And he says, stand up. If you think that America and that we as representatives, that we are here to support you, the citizen and not the illegal aliens, all the Republicans get up and they're standing there. And the Democrats, no one, maybe Fetterman, I don't remember, but virtually no one. So you take that, you take this ad that I suggested, especially in Atlanta, Georgia, outside the airport blasting Jon Ossoff there, guys, there is your midterm election. Now, there's a lot of chatter about the war in Iran. We'll get to that. Just a second there. How is that going to affect the midterm elections? How is this? How is energy, how is prices, inflation, costs of living, affordability, health care, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah? There's no shortage of stuff happening. It's politics. Welcome to that. Okay, it's the era of Trump. Things are doubly, triply chaotic. But stick to bread and butter, Republicans there. A lot of these issues ultimately were down to your benefit. The only question, frankly is whether Republicans are capable of messaging effectively on it. That, unfortunately is a question that's proven elusive for Republicans far too many times in the past. Folks, time for a quick measure. Breaks down this. We'll be right back on the other side. This is Mike Borlow of Lexicon Valley

D (12:45)

and I'm Bob Garfield.

E (12:46)

Are you one of those people who sometimes uses words?

B (12:50)

Do you communicate or acquire information with, you know, language? Hey, us too.

E (12:57)

So join us on Lexicon Valley to

D (13:00)

chew over the history, culture and many

B (13:02)

mysteries of English, plus some wise cracks. Find us on one of those apps where people listen to podcasts. Welcome back. So while Democrats continue to shut down TSA and by extension shut down at least your convenience at America's major airports, things continue to happen overseas. The war in Iran continues. We are now weeks into this war. We will be approaching the one month anniversary that will be happening later this week. This Saturday will be one month to the day since the initial fatal strike of ali Khamenei, the 37 year old reigning tyrant tyrant of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And it's been something of an up and down affair for the past week or so. I'm not speaking actually just about the actual on the ground military tactics and the operations which continue to go very well for the United States and Israel, our ally who has joined us in this fight since day one. Albeit things did get dicey on the Israeli home front over the weekend, dicer than they had probably been actually since the very early days of the war, there was a terrible, terrible missile blast in a couple of southern Israeli cities. Actually one that was in Dimona, which is where the long rumored, albeit not fully verified but long rumored, Israeli nuclear program was actually in the town of Dimona. It seemed like Iran was potentially trying to hit Dimona. It's maybe trying to make a nuclear reactor go boom. That obviously didn't happen. Unfortunately, there were hundreds injured, at least one or two fatalities in another southern town called Arad. Various other Arab countries continue to be hit as well. Saudi Arabia, various other Gulf states continue to take incoming fire, albeit none of them thus far have actually stepped up to join the fight. These Arab countries, I have to say, guys, we, a lot of these Arab countries that America considers to be allies, Saudi Arabia, the uae, I'm not saying that they're not allies, but man, are they a bunch of cowards when it comes to actually fighting wars. They talk a big talk. They, a lot of them talk behind the scenes to Donald Trump. Apparently Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince in Riyadh, was privately encouraging Donald Trump before the war started to actually take offensive military action against Iran and to bomb them back back to the Middle Ages. He didn't say any of that publicly. On the contrary, publicly he actually was, was doing something of the opposite. If you go back on our show at the time, just prior to the war, we were covering how Saudi Arabia at the time appeared like it was heading in the wrong direction. They had, they had a months long campaign that seemed like it was flirting with the Muslim Brotherhood, which is actually labeled as a terrorist organization in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The, the state sponsored Saudi Arabia TV channels were actually sounding deeply, deeply hostile to Israel at a time where the Crown Prince was apparently behind the scenes saying a lot of pleasant stuff and kind of talking up Trump. I mean, square this circle for me. So these guys continue frankly to be a bunch of cowards. So for now, essentially a month into the war, it really is just a US Israeli operation. Again, there is a verbal commitment from some of these NATO countries, the US, uk, France, Italy, Germany, allegedly Japan, possibly even South Korea, to help the United States and Israel when it comes to what's becoming the battle for the Strait of Hormuz. I have not seen a whole lot of concrete confirmation in terms of that, in terms of actual assets being deployed to the region. Certainly we will update you when we have more information on that. Now. Over the weekend, Donald Trump giving Iran a 48 hour pretty harsh and straightforward ultimatum and saying that you guys have 48 hours to fully open the straight of Hormuz, this crucial 21 mile wide choke point through which one fifth of the world's oil flows. Trump saying in very clear language, you have 48 hours to open this straight or else we are going to strike your power plants. Now, that 48 hour deadline as of this morning, Monday morning was set to expire at some point today. However, very early this morning, before the news cycle really started, Donald Trump took to social media to do truth social and said that he's calling off, that he is calling off these strikes for now on Iran's power network, irrespective, regardless of what happens when it comes to Iran and the street of Hormuz, because negotiations are currently happening behind the scenes when it comes to the US And Iran. These negotiations are potentially going very well. And maybe, just maybe, there actually will be a total end here to the conflict, potentially in full. So, for instance, Donald Trump flew to Memphis, Tennessee today for an event that he is doing with Pete Hegseth. Here was Trump before taking off from Dover Air Base to go down to Memphis. Here he was from speaking on the Iran issue. Foreign Ministry says you're not telling the truth when it comes to productive conversations to end the world.

E (17:45)

They're going to have to get themselves better public relations people. We have had very, very strong talks. We'll see where they lead. We have points, major points of agreement, I would say almost all points of agreement, perhaps that hasn't been conveyed. The communication, as you know, has been blown to pieces. They're unable to talk to each other, other. But we've had very strong talks. Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner had them.

B (18:12)

Okay, so the purpose of talks is to get you closer to a goal. This is one of our big themes here when we talk about foreign policy here on the Josh Hammer show is there is a crucial distinction between means and ends. There is a distinction between tactics and end game. This is one of the greatest criticisms of Barack Obama's Iran foreign policy. I'm not comparing Trump to Obama and Iran. They are very, very different. But in general, Barack Obama and Joe Biden's foreign policy was predicated upon diplomacy with Iran for the sake of diplomacy. In other words, diplomacy was the end goal. The goal was a deal, any deal, essentially, no matter what the cost. That is a problem. In general, that is a problem. Unless you are just negotiating from an extraordinarily weak position and you don't really just don't care about what's in the deal. You just want to get this off your plate. No matter what, period, Full stop and distort. Because the costs of reaching no deal whatsoever are higher than the cost of reaching a deal, even if it is just a total stink bomb and a total crappy turd sandwich of a deal here. Donald Trump is not doing that. He took aggressive assertive action, has kept it up now for close to a month. And that does raise the question here. He's talking here about Kushner, Wyckoff, our diplomats overseas. What is the goal? What is the actual goal of these talks and the goal, as we have said since day one, this conflict with our first show following the assassination of the Ayatollah Khamenei. The goal for the United States is the neutralization of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a threat to the United States and to American interests. Here is the problem. The problem is that that goal on its own terms has actually not been met yet. It hasn't. How I know that? Well, there's a lot of ways to know that, but among the ways to know that is that just over the weekend, Iran did something that a lot of these so called experts swore they couldn't do. They actually flew missiles at locations over 2,000 miles away from Tehran. I'm talking here about Diego Garcia, which is this military base that historically in the Post World War II, Cold War and beyond era has been a joint American British military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Frankly, it looks beautiful. The water just looks absolutely delicious. I'm not sure how much time they really have to go swimming and enjoy it there, but it's essentially in the middle of the ocean there. And there's been a recent controversy because Keir Starmer, the total Adel brained leftist prime minister attend Downing street over in the UK is essentially talking about trying to tell the United states and the U.S. armed forces to get lost. They can't use Diego Garcia. It's been this whole standoff, one of the many reasons why Donald Trump's been talking a tougher game when it comes to the uk. The UK, for what it's worth, has many, many, many more issues on the home front. I suggest they really, really, really ought to focus on, for instance, just this morning or maybe within the overnight hours on Sunday night into Monday, there were four volunteer Jewish ambulances. So the Jewish community worldwide, mostly in Israel, in the US I guess they have it in the UK and other places too, have had this volunteer ambulance services called Hatsala is the Hebrew word for it. It's a very well known organization. These, these blue and yellow ambulances and in a Jewish community in London Sunday evening, four of these ambulances were bombed and was obviously an anti Semitic act. The good news is that they've already raised a half million to a million pounds, British pounds to replace them. The bad news is that my source, my best source there over in London tells me that the popular thought right now that this was activated by Iranian sleeper cells. So Keir Starmer, the UK you guys have a lot to focus on at home. Maybe just leave Diego Garcia, let us here in the United really kind of do what we want with that particular strategic military base. But taking us back to Iran, the issue is that Iran tried to fire missiles actually at Diego Garcia over the weekend. This is 2,400 miles ish all the way from Tehran. That is well beyond the limit that most of the quote unquote experts thought that Iran could reach was they estimated to be around 1250 miles. That would put most of Europe in play, including wink, wink, nudge, nudge, most of, if not at least a good chunk of the United Kingdom itself. So all that to say that Iran still has its capability, they're still launching missiles, apparently trying to launch missiles 2,000 plus miles away there. So the job is not done. It's just not. And I understand that people are starting to get a little antsy there, but we're kicking butt. The United States is fundamentally kicking butt in this conflict. Trump is defanging a fanged mammoth, an animal that has been trying to hunt us down for 47 years. No one said this would be easy. It's not going to be a multi year, moralistic, forever war. Trump is ending the forever war. And in the interim, the interim. It's crucial as always, that this mission be seen through. Folks, stay with us. Do a quick commercial break. We'll be right back. On the other side,

D (23:13)

the Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports right now. Now the NBA is heating up, March Madness is here and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I can follow the teams I care about, get real time scores, breaking news and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment.

B (23:46)

Welcome back. So Iran already is and is going to be an issue in the midterms this fall. At this point, it is imperative that Donald Trump Republicans simply just own That I see, I see a lot of folks saying that this is a bad hill, that Republicans are going to get crushed on this issue. Well, with all due respect, that should have been taken into consideration prior to the commencement of the operation. These are the things that you think through prior to commencing a gargantuan, massive, massive bombing campaign of a deeply hostile Islamist regime. So too when it comes to energy, when it comes to oil, a lot of folks saying that, that the United States, Donald Trump, oh, he didn't think through the Iranians were going to shut down the street reform. It was really literally every single war game, every single war game involving the Pentagon and various other military planners involving Iran, every war game involving a simulated standoff between the United States and Iraq. The Iranians first move is to cut off the Strait of Hormuz. So I'm not buying this garbage that Donald Trump's administration did not think this through. Of course they thought this through. They thought through all of it there. Now, as far as what it means specifically when it comes to, to Kharg island, when it comes to two various other natural gas oil facilities there, a lot of this is kinetic. It's a very fluid situation. It's war, for God's sake. It is very case by case, day by day, frankly, minute by minute, minute or second by second there. But the commander in chief fundamentally knows what he is doing because unlike Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as we were saying a few minutes ago, he fundamentally understands that there is a crucial distinction here between means and ends, between enunciate end goals and tactics. And as long as he remains focused, as long as he remains focused on the end goal, on the actual end goal here and not the tactics, that I think all is going to be okay. The rumor for now, for what it's worth, the rumor for now is that the US And Iran might actually sit down at a table, might sit down at a table as soon as potentially later this week. Again, these are all rumors that are happening right now. They're saying the summit could be in Pakistan, which is an interesting place, I guess, for lack of a better word, for hosting this possible summit. The rumor that I saw is that JD Vance could potentially be the US Representative at this summit, which is somewhat of a more defensive posture for the United States. If so, given the fact that Politico had this, this leaked story that he was the most skeptical voice in the room, perhaps unsurprisingly, when it came to the Iran operation there, so there are some potentially, potentially less than aggressive signs you might say from the administration there. But fundamentally, the commander in chief here, I continue to think really, really does know what he is doing. Earlier today at that same press gaggle, when Trump was at Dover Air Base ready to board the plane, Memphis, Tennessee, at some point, a reporter asked him him about the possibility of a deal with Iran. And Trump basically said that they're going to agree because, quote, otherwise we'll just keep bombing our little hearts out. You know, maybe that's playing a little too cute by half when it comes to dropping bombs and military, after all these, these are life and death matters there. But as long as that sentiment remains, what is guiding the operation right now, I think that all is going to be okay here when it comes to the Iran theater now, bringing it closer to home, the other geopolitical issue that we're really starting to follow here on the show is the issue of Cuba. Cuba had essentially a nationwide blackout about a week ago last Sunday. So two seconds ago into last Monday, one week ago, the entire nation was facing a large scale blackout. All 10 million to 11 million Cubans had some degree of blackout there. This has to do with the fact that the United States is essentially blocking the Cuban regime, the failed communist dictatorship, from taking in Venezuelan oil and various other forms of oil as well. The US has been trying to obstruct Russian oil gains of Cuba and various other things as well there. So all of this has led to the latest Greta Thunberg stunt. And it's actually not just Greta Thunberg. So a bunch of just utterly asinine leftists. And yes, there actually are a bunch of them are on this new, this new convoy. They're calling it the Nuestra America convoy. I mean, these are limousine liberal champagne socialists. Use your analogy of choice if there ever were one. So it's Greta Thunberg. It's Hasan Piker, the absolutely disgusting, loathsome left wing streamer and podcaster, a man who would have fit in quite well with the Hitler Youth back in the 1930s due to his just over the top unapologetic Jew hatred, among other just exceedingly awful things that he says and does. The daughter of Ilhan Omar is actually on this trip. Members of Code Pink, which United States intelligence has ascertained at various times is a, at least a Chinese Communist Party sympathetic organization there. A lot of folks say there are closer than just Smithies, that there actually are some coordinated messaging tactics, things like that happening between Code Pink as well. So they all basically are on this convoy and they're staying actually at these Five star lavish hotels in Havana and it's all just a big PR stunt. They're there in Cuba, in communist Cuba. A place that I've seen with my own eyes. It stinks. Cuba stinks. Now the, the nature is gorgeous, the hills, the rivers, the ocean and it's Ernest Hemingway. Only on the sea, it's beautiful. I remember when I was walking around Havana, Cuba when I, when I was there seven years ago now, just for four or five days or so, you see this and you think, oh my God, this is gorgeous. In theory there should be hotels and there should be this and that and restaurants and beach and luxury condos, casinos if you're into that kind of thing. We're not really into that here on the show, but like that kind of stuff that, that should be there and sure. What does Havana actually look like? It looks like a bomb went off. It looks like Al Anbar province, Iraq, circa 2006 at the height of the Petraeus counterinsurge. It looks like a bomb went off in the middle of the city. There's stray dogs, there's skeletal looking people who look they haven't had a proper meal in weeks or months. So now you have these posh left wing quote unquote influencers there while the regime is on the brink of destruction. They are begging Raul Castro, the 94 year old revolutionary, Fidel Castro's brother, who is the titular symbolic head. There's an acting day to day quote unquote president as well, something of a Potemkin president and name only. They have both confirmed that they were actually talking with Marco Rubio and the Department of State when it comes to trying to get some sort of off ramp to the United States economic embargo on Cuba that we have had in place now for literally almost 70 years. The regime in Cuba is on its freaking knees. This is potentially its last breaths, its last hours. And these idiots, these absolute idiots, these moral putrid, ah, little piece of garbage. Hasan Piker Greta Thunberg, Illinois Mars daughter Codepenk. They're there trying to symbolically or potentially even literally bail them out. So they're staying in all these five star hotels. This stupid Irish band Kneecap actually played a concert. There's all these images coming out of them, traveling in these air conditioned buses all while the country has no ac. The country's blackout, there's no power, there's barely any electricity whatsoever. So the hypocrisy is just utterly through the roof. And they're there and they're saying free Cuba. F. Trump F. Netanyahu. I mean, as if the Middle east has anything to do with your pregamen guys. I mean you guys willfully impose communism yourselves. So don't blame the Middle east frankly for, for your problems at home. And again, these images are just nuts. There's, the whole stage is totally black down Havana and these guys are just in these air conditioned buses, Flagstar Hotels. Hasan Piker again, the scum that he is actually, actually affirming, yet he actually admitted that he's breaking the law. This is kind of another funny twist to this whole story. So Hasan Piker went on a stream. Much of the stream is from Cuba or elsewhere. I've been to Cuba, trust me, the Internet is really, really, really terrible. Something you probably could stream a show from there. Maybe he's got some fancy Internet at these py hotels. Because Hasan pike actually saying in one of these live streams, this Hamas loving socialist nincompoop says, quote, the government makes it illegal for us to stay where we want in Cuba. We have to stay in five star hotels. So as a guy by the name of Gabe Hoffman, who's a finance guy working in Palm beach, as he correctly points out, Hasan Piker is literally admitting that he is breaking American law. So there's a thing called the United States State Department's Cuba Prohibited Accommodations List. You can literally look it up for yourself@state,state.gov Cuba sanctions and then it's the Cuba Prohibited Accommodations List. There's a whole link, there's a whole page for this there and I'm just going to read a snippet of it. Below is the U.S. department of State's Cuba Prohibited Accommodations List, a list of properties in Cuba at which the Cuban Assets Control Regulations generally prohibit persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction from lodging, paying for lodging or making any reservation where. So you can't stay there, you can't stay at these hotels. And there's a whole list, a long, long list. A very, very long list actually. So these five star hotels are, are there? I mean, dude is literally admitting that he's breaking the law. So holding aside the fifth column subversion, when these guys return to the United States, how about we have US Coast Guard interdict them before they actually arrive at a dock or a port because they violated the law or at least have the FBI possible charges, recommend charges to a U.S. attorney. These guys are literally breaking the law. So that's another quite humorous twist to this story in frankly one that I hope some of these attorneys take up, take us up on sooner rather than later because it would be a really, really fun and indeed a noble thing to do as well. Folks, one final commercial break. Stay with us. We'll be right back with some final thoughts on the other side. Welcome back. So it was actually oral argument day at the US Supreme Court earlier today. The case being argued earlier today is a case out of the of Mississippi called Watson versus rnc, Republican National Committee. Now, if you follow case style guides closely, you might be a little confused here. Why is there a versus RNC out of a very, very red state like Mississippi? Well, what actually happened here is that there is a state law, there is a state law in Mississippi, in the Magnolia State that essentially says that a ballot, so a mail in ballot that is postmarked, that has the correct postmark on or before election day, but is actually received, so received by the local election office or whoever is tabulating and counting ballots is received after the election day. Is that okay? Is that permissible or does that violate one of numerous federal laws? So the rnc, again, it's very interesting because it's actually a Republican state, your Republican governor, they're all Republicans in Mississippi there. They are actually now in litigation with the RNC because the RNC is now defending these federal statutes, saying that these federal statutes preempt, which means that the regulations and the way that two US Code Section seven, two, US Code Section one and three is Code Section one. All of these federal statutes essentially preempt and prevent the states from legislating in this exact arena for what's worth, the U.S. government. So John Sauer, who is our exceptional solicitor general, he is actually intervening on behalf of the rnc. So basically have the RNC for what the excellent lawyer Paul Clement argued earlier today. You have Paul Clement for the RNC and then John Sauer for the US Government, essentially against Scott Stewart, the Solicitor General of Mississippi. So it's basically a very it's a very interesting conservative versus conservative type of litigation. Scott Stewart, the solicitor General of Mississippi, had a miraculous victory four terms ago in the Dobbs case. He actually was the winning lawyer to overturn Roe versus Wade. So do not discount Scott Stewart if you are counting your legal aches of home. As far as the actual issue is concerned here, it's somewhat of a technical preemption analysis there. There's all sorts of methods that lawyers have devised for whether to determine whether or not Congress has clearly spoken in a manner so as to preclude the states from doing so. It's somewhat of a strong argument from the rnc, to be honest with you. And by strong, I don't necessarily mean strong on the merits. It definitely has some merit for sure. But it's an aggressive argument because the overarching constitutional assumption is that the way of choosing the regulations, manners and times and procedures for elections, as article in the Constitution very clearly says, are determined by the states. So this lawsuit with the RNC leading it is actually very similar to the Save America act insofar as Republicans and the Trump administration and their allies at the RNC are now trying to assume a greater role, a greater role for elections. Your mileage may vary as to whether or not that is a good thing. Surely there is only so far that that states can go. We absolutely need some some uniformity here. My own personal $0.02 on this, especially dealing with the whole mail in ballot, voter ID debates and the whole election Day versus Election month debate thing. I happen to think that that that early voting is absolutely terrible. Early voting is garbage. Why? Because it literally defeats the purpose of holding a national election day. Election day is Election Day and not election week or election Month. Because it is a snapshot in time. Think about the 2016 election. You could have cast your ballots a month and a half in advance and you wouldn't have known about that stupid Billy Bush NBC video. Donald Trump Graham by the what? Or for a more pro Trump counter to that, think about the 2020 election. How about if you would cast a month for Joe Biden and Kamala if you cast a ballot a month before the election for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and then oh wait, then oh wait, the Hunter Biden laptop comes about there. In fact mrc, the Media Research center did a poll at the time and showed I forgot the exact number but something like 15 to 18% give or take of Biden Harris voters said and they the same as was Biden Harris voters who did not know about the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. They said that if they had known about it they would have voted for Trump. So early voting defeats the purpose of voting. Voting is a snapshot in time. It is a straight up thumbs up, thumbs down referendum when there is an incumbent running. When it's an open slate, there's a two way thumbs up, thumbs down announce going on there. But it's not supposed to be a moving target. It is literally a snapshot. It is not the kind of thing that you have months and months and months to to to make up your minds. You have a whole season taking information. Make it make up your mind there and then you cast your freaking ballot on election day so my proposed solution to this, which I've been saying for years now, is very straightforward. Democrats for as long as I've been alive want to make Election Day a national holiday. Republicans want to minimize early voting, mail in voting and all of the above. My very easy solution, proposed solution here, and it's a very straightforward one, is to do both. Let's we on the right, conservatives concede to liberals concede to Democrats. Let's make Election Day federal holiday. It's fine. It's ideal. Probably not. I mean, it's America, free enterprise. We want business to be running stock market. Okay, blah, blah, blah. Okay, fine, let's give them that. And in exchange for that, Democrats are going to have to concede that there will be no early voting or mail in voting except for XYZ exceptions. There always will be dispensations. Exceptions to a rule rule active service, active duty, military, obviously overseas, if you're physically bedridden, a hospital there. There will always be some specified dispensations. And a lot of the congressional debate will get hashed out there when it comes to the exact nature of what those dispensations will be. But that's the, that's the basic overview of the proposed compromise. It's very much a quid pro quo. Give Democrats what they want when it comes to making Election Day a national holiday. Then give Republicans what they want in turn about minimizing, severely minimizing mail in voting and early voting. Frankly, I think that would go a very, very long way towards solving our election problems. In the meantime, fascinating argument, let's say at the U.S. supreme Court in this Watson vs. RNC case, this very much conservative intramural skirmish between Paul Clement and John Sauer on the one hand and Scott Stewart on the other hand there. And we will see ultimately who gets the better of the argument. I, I think I like the federal government's odds, but frankly, it's a somewhat technical case there and we'll see which way it blows. Now, in other news, to round out today's show, I was somewhat struck by a clip that I saw on the show of our Salem colleague Aaron Milan, who was wonderful. I love Aaron. And Aaron will be guest here on the Josh Hammer show very soon as well. So this clip that I saw on Aaron's show, which I was pre struck by, was my friend Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, who was also a recent guest here on the Josh Hammer Show. Actually, Rabbi Wolicki lives over in Israel and Rabbi Wolicki and I have multiple things in common but among the things that we have in common is that we were both in this somewhat infamous WhatsApp chat that Charlie Kirk had started for purposes of trying to secure Jewish Christian relations, US Israel relations, amidst all this rising nonsense and rising Jew hated hatred. And this was a chat that was infamously leaked, infamously leaked to Candace Owens and Rabbi Wolicki, saying to ER Milan that we can now verify that it was Joe Kent who did this leaking. So it was Andrew Colvett, who was Charlie's longtime right hand guy. Now Andrew's one of the hosts of the Charlie Kirk show. Andrew has actually publicly admitted that these screenshots came from him. And when Andrew told us, including me, was that he did so before they actually apprehended Tyler Robinson. Because he wanted no stone unturned, he gave them to what he said was some senior high ranking intelligence or counterterrorism officials. I forgot the exact language. This was our phone call from now, months ago at this point and we can now confirm and they won't allow our details. But it is now beyond a shadow of a doubt. The person that Andrew sent those texts to was Joe Kent. Which means that Joe Kent sent those messages he leaked to Candace Owens. Disgusting. Disgusting stuff. Donald Trump was asked about Joe Kent earlier today and did not have kind things to say. Here was President Trump.

E (42:32)

Look, I'm not a fan of the guy. If you look at, and you never cover this, if you look at his truths or whatever he went on, if it's X or truth, if you look at his truths or his statements, he was all for everything. All of a sudden he wasn't. He was a man that I met at Dover. He came and his wife was killed. He remarried fairly quickly. His wife was killed. And I felt badly for him. He ran for Congress, he lost. He ran for Congress again and he lost. I said, you know, he's a guy, nice guy. Seemed like a very nice guy. I met him, he was pretty heartbroken, pretty. But I said, you know, it's a shame. He ran for Congress twice. Call him up, give him a job in the White House. He's smart. They gave him a job in the White House. And this is what he does to

B (43:26)

me, you know, and this is what he does to all of us. He put us in danger by leaking that chat to a deranged psychopath by Candace Owens. I know because I've been facing death threats from it. Joe Kent personally put me and my family in danger and all of us in that group chat. For that, I hope that he pays and frankly, moreover, if he was actually doing what it really seemed like he was and leaking sensitive information to outside people in a national security context, he frankly should be prosecuted. Folks, have a great rest of your evening. Josh Hammer signing off for now. We'll be right back. Tomorrow, the Josh Hammer show is a member of the Trust Project.