Iran KILLS More U.S. Troops. So, Now What?

Summary

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The Josh Hammer Show

Episode: Iran KILLS More U.S. Troops. So, Now What?

Date: July 20, 2026
Host: Josh Hammer

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Episode Overview

The episode centers on the tragic deaths of U.S. troops in the Middle East amid escalated Iranian aggression and ongoing U.S. military responses. Josh Hammer analyzes America's strategic priorities, critiques current military basing, and unpacks the broader geopolitical and domestic ramifications of this crisis. The discussion also extends to related issues—such as free speech, shifts among prominent liberal thinkers, legal debates over sovereignty, and notable developments in the UK and US political landscape.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Escalating Iran-U.S. Tensions and Loss of U.S. Troops

• Incident Recap (00:30 – 06:00):

  • Four U.S. troops killed: Two at a U.S. base in Jordan by Iranian missiles, one in Iraq due to a drone detonation attempt.
  • Hammer highlights frustration at U.S. bases in remote, indefensible locations, calling them "sitting ducks" for hostile actors.
  • Advocates for relocating troops to more secure bases like those in Bahrain or Qatar instead of remote desert outposts.

  “It doesn't make any sense. You are just putting them in a hostile area, waiting for them to be sitting ducks from an Iranian missile.”
  — Josh Hammer (03:05)

2. The U.S. Response: Operation Epic Fury 2.0

• Current U.S. Military Actions:

  • Ongoing U.S. airstrikes on Iran, specifically targeting military assets linked to threats in the Strait of Hormuz.
  • Absence of Israeli involvement in this round of operations (contrasting with "Epic Fury 1.0").
  • Rumors of U.S. preparations for further escalation (such as fueling planes arriving in Israel for possible extended bombing operations).

• Rebecca Heinrichs Analysis (06:06 – 07:53):

  • Strikes focus on Iranian capabilities threatening maritime commerce, e.g., drone and missile production, surveillance towers, and bridges critical for naval activity.

  • Notes Iran’s vast geography and ability to disperse assets, with many targets previously untouched due to ceasefire periods.

    “Iran is the size of Texas plus California plus. So it's a sprawling nation and it has a lot of these deeply buried facilities…”
    — Rebecca Heinrichs (06:52)

• Diplomatic Complexity:

  • Heinrichs advises focusing diplomatic energy on supporting Gulf Arab allies to discourage them from breaking ranks out of fear of Iranian retaliation.

    “I would move away from trying to get a deal with the Iranians right now and focus our diplomatic energy towards those Gulf Arab states that are so important to the United States.”
    — Rebecca Heinrichs (07:38)

3. Iran’s Indiscriminate Escalation and Regional Fallout

• Civilians Targeted:

  • Iran is broadening its attacks, now hitting civilian infrastructure like Kuwaiti desalination plants and other Gulf state assets (07:53).
  • Indiscriminate missile launches across Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, and Iraq. Notably, Israel has not been targeted in this fighting round—yet.

• Regime Instability in Iran:

  • Rumors that Supreme Leader Moshe Khamenei may have left Iran or may even be dead (11:08).
  • Speculation over the regime’s stability and future moves amid ongoing pressure and mystery over the supreme leader's status.

4. Unclear U.S. Strategic Goals

• Hammer’s Calls for Clarity (13:52 – 16:00):

  • Critiques the Biden (now Trump?) administration for lacking clear public articulation of war aims.

  • Hammer’s own proposed fourfold objectives:

    1. Secure and open Strait of Hormuz.
    2. End of Iranian regime’s financing of terror proxies.
    3. End the regional ballistic missile threat.
    4. Long-term resolution to Iran’s nuclear program.

    “It is now past time for the President to go ahead and say, here's what we're doing. Here are the war aims, here are the goals, and then this is how we define victory.”
    — Josh Hammer (15:17)

5. Domestic Political Culture Wars

• Arrest Threat Against Netanyahu—Jurisdictional and Legal Debate (16:00 – 25:01):

  • NYC Mayor Zoran Mamdani considers arresting Israeli PM Netanyahu during his upcoming U.N. visit, citing ICC warrants.

  • Hammer and Ambassador Mike Waltz (U.S. UN Ambassador) dismiss the legality, noting U.S. sovereignty, diplomatic immunity, and federal supremacy.

    “So the notion that the idiosyncratic desire of a mayor or governor… can somehow override something happening at the federal level… that's the exact same argument that John C. Calhoun made… leading up to the Civil War.”
    — Josh Hammer (21:41)

  • Larger philosophical divide highlighted: National sovereignty vs. globalist, transnational legal institutions.

6. Ideological Realignments: Liberals, Free Speech, and the Right

• Bill Maher’s “In Play” Vote (25:01 – 28:00):

  • Bill Maher signals openness to voting for Republicans in 2028, citing fears of communism/DSA policy and disillusionment with the left’s free speech and anti-Israel positions.

  • Parallels drawn with Alan Dershowitz’s party switch for similar reasons (Free Speech, Pro-Israel, Anti-Islamist stances).

    “There is a definition [of communism]… DSA, again, they, they say things like, you know, takeover of key industries, government. That's communism.”
    — Bill Maher (27:20)

• Hammer’s Takeaway:

  • Encourages “team sanity” (supporters of free speech, Western civilization, the nation-state, due process, etc.) to accept political realignment against the hard left—warts in the Republican coalition included.

    “If you are team Western Civilization… team Free Speech… you only have one place to call your home… take the Republican Party, warts and all, join the broader right…”
    — Josh Hammer (33:00)

7. Rejecting Extremists on the Right

• Andrew & Tristan Tate Arrested (36:21 – 39:00):

  • The Tate brothers arrested in Miami on UK sex crime charges, including rape, trafficking, and child exploitation.

  • Hammer vehemently rejects their presence in any “right” orbit, noting their misogyny, Islamism, and glorification of anti-Western figures.

  • Critiques right-wing figures who have associated with or platformed the Tates.

    “A big fat smelly wart… I frankly wish nothing but the worst, the absolute worst for Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate… they have no place on the broader quote, unquote, right.”
    — Josh Hammer (36:21, 39:00)

8. British Political Upheaval

• Andy Burnham Becomes UK Prime Minister (39:00 – 44:00):

  • Critiques Burnham’s radical Labour platform: high taxes, increased welfare/asylum funding, and anti-Thatcher/anti-market policies.

  • Burnham apologizes for Labour’s response to October 7, 2023, for not calling a ceasefire quickly enough.

  • Highlights “awkward” U.S.-UK political relations as Burnham previously called for Trump to be banned from the UK.

  • Pinning hope on Nigel Farage’s Reform Party as a future fix for the UK.

    “It's really that simple. You just can't help a people that chooses not to help itself.”
    — Josh Hammer (44:56)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Quote | Speaker | |---|---|---| | 03:05 | “You are just putting [U.S. troops] in a hostile area, waiting for them to be sitting ducks from an Iranian missile.” | Josh Hammer | | 06:52 | “Iran is the size of Texas plus California plus. So it's a sprawling nation and it has a lot of these deeply buried facilities…” | Rebecca Heinrichs | | 07:38 | “I would move away from trying to get a deal with the Iranians right now and focus our diplomatic energy towards those Gulf Arab states…” | Rebecca Heinrichs | | 13:55 | “We need to hear a little additional clarity from the administration as to what exactly we are doing…here's what we're doing. Here are the war aims…this is how we define victory.” | Josh Hammer | | 21:41 | “That’s the exact same argument that John C. Calhoun made in South Carolina in the lead up to slavery… nullification crisis almost 200 years ago.” | Josh Hammer | | 27:20 | “DSA, again, they, they say things like, you know, takeover of key industries, government. That's communism.” | Bill Maher | | 33:00 | “If you are a team Western Civilization… you only have one place to call your home… take the Republican Party, warts and all…” | Josh Hammer | | 36:21 | “A big fat smelly wart… I frankly wish nothing but the worst, the absolute worst for Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate…” | Josh Hammer | | 44:56 | “It's really that simple. You just can't help a people that chooses not to help itself.” | Josh Hammer |

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:30 – 06:00: U.S. troops killed; U.S. bases' vulnerability in the Middle East.
• 06:06 – 09:00: Rebecca Heinrichs’ analysis on U.S. strikes and Iran’s strategy.
• 09:00 – 12:37: Iran’s regional escalation, strikes on civilian targets, and rumors about the Iranian leadership.
• 13:52 – 16:00: Hammer's call for clear U.S. strategic objectives.
• 16:00 – 25:01: Debate over NYC mayor’s threat to arrest Netanyahu; broader legal and political implications.
• 25:01 – 33:00: Bill Maher and Alan Dershowitz’s potential or actual shift away from the Democratic Party; Hammer’s appeal to “Team Sanity.”
• 36:21 – 39:00: Andrew and Tristan Tate’s arrest; Hammer’s repudiation of their association with the right.
• 39:00 – 44:56: UK political developments: Andy Burnham’s policies, Labour’s Israel position, and implications for U.S.-UK relations.

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Summary in Brief

Josh Hammer’s July 20, 2026 episode powerfully blends in-depth geopolitical analysis with sharp social and legal commentary. He mourns and rails against the loss of American lives to Iranian aggression, questions both U.S. strategy and communications, and explores shifting ideological landscapes domestically and abroad. The episode features significant insights on U.S. Middle East policy, the necessity for clear strategic aims, rising tensions with legal globalism, left-to-right political migrations, and the need to firmly exclude bad actors like the Tate brothers from conservative circles. In sum, Hammer’s episode is a call for clarity, resolve, and the defense of Western civilizational values.

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Four US Troops tragically killed by the murderous Iranian regime in the United States pounding Iran for a ninth consecutive night. Where the heck is this thing going when it comes to Iran? Is there an end in sight we discussed today? I'm Josh Hammer and this is the Josh Hammer Show. Well, a terrible weekend by any calculation in the Middle east, at least three likely confirmed ASAP to be four tragically US Troops killed overseas. There was a US Military base in Jordan that was struck by Iran. Stop me if you're having deja vu, by the way. I immediately thought back as soon as I saw this terrible news. I immediately thought back to January 2024. So a few months after the October 7th massacre when Iran started firing at US bases all throughout the region. And if you recall, there was a US Base in a very, very, very remote, far flung region of Jordan near the tri border with Syria and Iraq called Tower 22, if memory serves, where you had numerous American troops murdered by an Iranian missile. So terribly, the exact same thing seems to have happened now over this weekend. So two US Service members killed at a US Base by an Iranian missile in Jordan. There was also a death from a US Service member in Iraq as well. There was a troop there, a service member who was trying to deton an Iranian drone. And tragically that has resulted in the untimely death of these service members. So as always, we mourn their loss and we hope that their deaths will not be in vain. Indeed, we pray that their deaths will not be in vain. First, just a side Note on the U.S. military base point before getting into the broader geopolitical picture, I have been saying for years, and I continue to be baffled why the United States has these military bases. I have been arguing for years and years and years that these bases, they are just sitting ducks. Why? Why does the United States need military bases in these very remote desert parts of northern Iraq or Jordan or Syria or so forth? It doesn't make any sense. You are just putting them in a hostile area, waiting for them to be sitting ducks from an Iranian missile. That's not to make a Tucker Carlson Ron Paul arm of the United States should not have bases anywhere throughout the world. That's not my stance. But you have to be strategic here. You have to recognize that there are some bases in the middle of nowhere where you don't necessarily have a great missile defense infrastructure around you, where you're putting them out there to be sitting ducks, in this case, welding the crosshairs of the murderous Mullah fanatics in Tehran. So I just want to get that off my chest because it's really frustrating. It's really, really frustrating that the United States has these bases in places like this. It makes no sense to me. We can absolutely achieve our regional and strategic aims in the Middle east when it comes to having our troops in sounder safer locations. Places like Bahrain where there's a major naval fleet, places like Al U Dan and Qatar. Holding aside Qatar's myriad issues, that's still a pretty safe and secure location there. So there's plenty of other places that we could do this. Anyway, I want to get it off my chest, but I do not want to bury any further the actual lead here, which is that this thing is escalating with Iran in real time. So on Sunday evening into Monday morning over in Iran, the United States has bombed Iran for a ninth consecutive night. CentCom US Central Command saying that, quote, the strikes will continue degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Straits of Hormuz. Marco Rubio, interestingly so. Rubio attended the World cup final with President Trump in New Jersey on Sunday. Unfortunately, Spain won. In case you saw, I was rooting for Argentina. Personally, I think most Americans probably were because Spain is a viciously anti American regime and Javier Milei in Argentina is awesome. Unfortunately, Spain thoroughly outplayed Argentina, kicked their butt. So in the suite you had had the FIFA president and President Donald Trump next to him and behind him, you saw Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio apparently immediately jetted off to go to the Philippines where he is now he's jet setting because he's Secretary of State. He's presiding over some conference there for Southeast Asian nations. But before that, or at least when he's on, when he's on the tarmac ready to fly halfway around the world, he said that we're not writing off the possibility of getting a diplomatic solution with the Iranians. We're not writing it off. So the door remains open for these crazy, crazy, crazy people if they want to take advantage of it. The problem is that they have shown zero indication that they want to take advantage of it in earnest, zero, none. Because they're crazy, sick, evil, twisted people, as Donald Trump himself has arrived at that conclusion. There's any number of ways to tell that they are totally unserious. One way is to recognize that Ahmed Vahidi, who is the head of the irgc, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the terrorist wing of this terrorist regime, if you will, he is still in charge and he's still calling a lot of the shots. He has bowed to exactly zero pressure from the not really moderate, but at least the less evil, the less terroristy conventional part of the government, the conventional military. FAHITI is still in charge. Vahidi is still calling the shots. Rebecca Heinrich, one of our favorites here on the Josh Hammer Show. We're going to get Rebecca on this week to give the take directly to you. But for now, I want you to listen to her assessments as to where things stand right now. Nine nights back into renewed epic fury 2.0, if you want to call it where things stand right now. Rebecca Heinraz joins Dana Perino and the gang on FOX News morning. And here is how she assessed where we were at at this exact time.

[C]

If you look at what the United States Central Command is hitting now, they're really primarily focused on all of Iran's military capabilities to specifically threaten the Strait of Hormuz. So this targets are a bit different than the first wave of strikes in Operation Epic Fury. We're not going after with the Israeli, the Israelis are not coming alongside us right now. They're not going after leadership. They're not going after the Basij that represses the Iranian people. We are specifically focused on anything that the Iranians have that can threaten the Strait. So we are now striking bridges around Bendar Abbas, this bridge, port city that's critical for its naval capabilities. And we're hitting surveillance towers that they're used for maritime surveillance. And we're going after their drone production facilities and their missile facilities. And for viewers who might be wondering, I thought we hit all this stuff the first round. Remember, Iran is the size of Texas plus California plus. So it's a sprawling nation and it has a lot of these deeply buried facilities that Admiral Cooper had on his target list, the first round. But we paused for this cease fire and now we're back at it.

[B]

And here's a little bit more from Rebecca Hyman this morning on FOX News.

[C]

So I would be focusing all of our diplomatic energy and activity with our Gulf partners, Kuwait, Bahrain, uae, the Saudis, because we need to make sure that everybody holds the line and stays with us. The last time we did this, Dana, where we were doing more muscular strikes, the Gulf states were getting really nervous because Iran retaliates against them and their facilities. So if the United States does not very publicly stand with them and give them what they need so that they're safe, they're going to get cold feet and then we'll see things like, the last time we did Project Freedom, the Saudis denied the United States airspace in their country. So I would move away from trying to get a deal with the Iranians right now and focus our diplomatic energy towards those Gulf Arab states that are so important to the United States.

[B]

So as of this morning, Kuwait and Bahrain were under fire. Iran is lashing out, not just at US Military bases. Here's a bit of a change. So earlier in the conflict, to be clear, Iran does not have precision with their missiles. They kill civilians all the time. But they were focusing, it seemed, a little bit more on trying to target specifically American military assets in the region earlier. Now, they're just firing completely indiscriminately all throughout the region. So a local Kuwaiti media outlet this morning said that Iran was taking out a Kuwaiti desalination plant. A lot of these countries that are, that don't have a whole lot of fresh water, that are on saltwater, whether it's the Persian Gulf or the Mediterranean Sea, they have desalination facilities trying to turn salt water into fresh water. It's actually a bit of Israeli technology, if memory serves. So overnight, Iran struck a Kuwaiti desalination plan. So Kuwait and Bahrain are both under fire, both military and civilian targets. And as we mentioned earlier, Jordan and Iraq under fire as well. Tragically, US Service members being killed in both locations. So Iran is now firing indiscriminately, as they do all throughout the region. Interestingly, and this is a, this is a fascinating data point, they have not fired in this round of fighting yet, at least at Israel. Israel, as you heard from Becca, has not entered this round of fighting. That is a big difference from Epic Fury 1.0, where it was very much a joint binational military operation. It's hard to say exactly why that is the case, but I suspect that has something to do with the fact that Iran is just not lashing out at them. I'm sure if they decide to strike Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, then that calculus will change. But for now, the United States seems to be doing this on its own. Now, recall that last week on the show we mentioned that Barack Ravid at Axios, who is a liberal and very anti Trump and nonetheless gets a lot of scoops from this administration for whatever reason. He scoops last week that there was a White House meeting, an Oval Office meeting, where Trump was considering going really, really, really hard, like really, really upping the ante and doubling down on the United States current assault called Epic Theory 2.0 against the Islamic Republic of Iran. So Barack Ravid has a new scoop up at Axios from this past weekend where the US Is now sending dozens of refueling planes over to Israel and that is now confirmed. So Israeli media reporting that a lot of these American refueling planes have landed on an American base in Israel and in Israeli bases and it's just United States machinery. So what does that mean? Well, you want refueling planes if you're planning on engaging in an extended bombing run. Okay, well that starts to get the message that it looks like the United States is going to up the ante when it comes to this current mission against, against Iran. So what does it actually mean in practice? I think that is the million dollar question. So it could mean bombing additional Iranian infrastructure, power plants, more attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities. There's been a lot of chatter about bombing Pickaxe Mountain, which is one of the only major Iranian enrichment of uranium facilities when it comes to the nuclear program that we have not actually hit. So we hit a lot of the major sites in The B, the B2 bombing run last June, Operation Midnight Hammer, that was for Dao, most importantly, and also Isfahan and one other site. We've not hit this particular site, Pickaxe Mountain, yet. There's been a lot of back and forth, a lot of chatter within the defense community as to whether or not that is going to be coming as well. By the way, an interesting rumor that is not wholly unrelated, recall that the new quote, unquote, Supreme Leader in Iran, Moshe Khamenei, who we have literally not seen alive, like we actually don't know if he's, if he exists. We have heard that he was severely injured. He was lacerated in the laying by the strike that took out his father back on February 28th. We haven't seen any evidence that he's actually alive. So a new report from Israel Hayom, one of their newspapers over there, it's actually a report citing in turn a Saudi broadcaster. So a Saudi broadcaster by the name of Al Hadad reported on Sunday that Supreme Leader Moshe Al Khamenei is not in Iran. They say he's absconded. They say he's left the country. Why? Well, presumably he thinks that his life is in jeopardy. I remain not particularly convinced that this dude is actually alive. I genuinely think this actually he might be dead. Unless until we see evidence that this guy's alive, I'm not entirely sure I buy it. If it's true, it means that the regime is panicking even more than we thought. That's a classic tactic when you think that you're about to get absolutely pummeled if you send your leader overseas for safety and hiding. But zooming out here again, what does all this mean and what exactly are we trying to accomplish? We're going to get to that and a whole lot more as a jam packed show, folks. Don't go anywhere and go to a quick break. We'll be right back with much more after this.

[D]

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[B]

So we're still talking about the geopolitical fallout and above all, really, what are our actual goals? What are our aims here? Because right now it seems like we are just bombing a lot of Iranian crap. For what actual purpose? Well, when we recently brought on Lee Smith of tabloid magazine on the show, Lee explained that at this point the the clear goal, the sine qua non, if you will, the indispensable condition is the reopening and the free flowing and transit of commercial and civilian vessels throughout the Strait of Hormuz. No doubt about that. Any off ramp simply has to include a free flowing Strait of Hormuz. Indeed, if the MOU as flawed as was, if the MOU had actually secured that, then maybe the President wouldn't be back at war with Iran at this time. The fact that didn't secure that was just in hindsight one of many structural flaws with that Barack Obama JCPOA like arrangement. I saw a poll just this morning, actually a poll I think the White House actually put out on their own social media feed. And the poll basically said among MAGA voters, do you support a deal with Iran? And the majority of MAGA voters or Republican voters, however they defined the sample size, said yes, we do. Which sounds great. Again, in theory, no one objects to a deal. But need I remind you how we just started today's show. There were American troops killed. Killed in cold blood by this murderous, despotic, tyrannical, Islamist, apocalyptic, 12th Imam, immortizing eschatological regime. So I'm not sure exactly what deal there is to be had. It sounds great to say I want a deal. Who doesn't want a deal? Everyone wants a deal. Deals are great, but unless until you have a partner, you need two to dance, as they say. So there's simply just no deal to be had here. So I will reiterate for the umpteenth time something that I've been saying on this show for months and months and months, which is we need to hear a little additional clarity from the administration as to what exactly we are doing. I was really hoping that it would be in the primetime address last Thursday evening. Of course it wasn't. That address was focused just on election integrity, which is a very important issue. Not downplaying that at all in the slightest. We're a big Save America app boosters here on the show. But whatever the exact medium, whatever the exact time or date is, it is now past time for the President to go ahead and say, here's what we're doing. Here are the war aims, here are the goals, and then this is how we define victory. And then here are the tactics. Here's how we work backwards in order to achieve these aims that is now months overdue in my estimation. To briefly recap, our aims as announced here on the show consistently for months and months are as follows. 1. A free and open stroke for Moose 2 the end of Iranian regime financing to terror proxies throughout the region 3 an end of the ballistic missile threat and 4 some long term resolution to the nuclear threat. So you have to have some resolution to those four categories, but it'll be really, really, really great to hear it from the president of the United States. Meanwhile, in not terrorist news, but in terrorist supporter news, shall we say, or at least terrorist sympathetic sympathizer news, I speak, of course, about Zoran Mamdani, the mayor of the nation's largest city, New York City. So Zoram Hamdani, if you haven't noticed, is viciously, fiercely anti Israel. I would argue he's also anti America, also anti Western civilization, because these things are ultimately all sides of the exact same coin. But he has a particular ire, a particular hatred for the world's tiny soul Jewish state. He's made this clear any number of times. And in the past, what he has done is he has threatened to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, if he lands in New York City because the icc, the shambolic international institution known as the International Criminal Court. Go back and watch our segment with Eugene Kontorovich last week. Eugene is an international law expert who really breaks down why Marco Rubio, our secretary of state, is now declaring war on the icc. It is a kangaroo court and absolutely shambolic body, crucially, to which neither United States nor Israel has actually ratified. There's a treaty called the Rome Statute that actually binds the ICC upon your country. Every country that is bound by the ICC has signed the Rome Statute. Guess who hasn't signed that? Oh, yeah, the United States or Israel for the matter, because we don't want to bring in these ridiculous international bureaucrats to encroach upon our sovereignty, our jurisdiction. So I don't want to get too in the weeds of the legal dispute. But Mamdani continuing to burnish his anti Israel credentials, shall we say. And he doubled down. He doubled down and said that his office, his lawyers are engaged now in active rumination and active thinking and planning as to whether or not when Netanyahu next comes to New York City, whenever that will be, probably for the UN General assembly, which is in September every year. So it's coming up in just about a month and a half, two months. So Mamdani saying that if when Netanyahu lands in New York City, whether he'll land at JFK or Newark, wherever the case will be, before going into New York City to the United Nations, Mamdani saying we're looking at the possibility of actually arresting him, like literally, I guess, having the NYPD go and arrest a foreign head of state. And try to do what? Try to try to extradite him to the ICC through Interpol, the international police Agency Netanyahu came out swinging against this, as you can imagine. He dismissed the International Criminal Court as a kangaroo court and he said it has, quote, no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis. Fact check. True, as I just explained with the Rome Statute. And he called the arrest warrant bogus, which it obviously is. The ICC has never issued an arrest warrant for people like Lang or Putin or Kim Jong Un or all the various world's tyrants. The Ayatollah Khamenei before he was killed never had an ICC arrest warrant. You get the idea. This is a highly, highly, highly flawed and just really stupid, frankly body to which the United States properly has never bound it to we the people. Now, America's own ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz on Saturday had a pretty defined response to Mamdani. So it's not just Bibi, it's also the United States formal UN diplomatic mission. So Ambassador Mike Waltz on Saturday put out on X the following quote, Mayor Mamdani, here's why your threat to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu in New York City during the UN General assembly is not going to happen. So here's Mike Waltz explaining why this is simply not going to happen. Mike Waltz, quote one, the US Is not party to the Rome Statute that underlies the ICC, as I just explained. Mike Waltz 2, the UN Headquarters Agreement grants diplomatic protections to visiting heads of government. By the way, this is me editorialized now, that applies to everyone. So even someone who would be viewed as an international warlord or a criminal under America's own laws, you got that? So if we're talking about someone who we view as a terrorist, the head of Syria, one of Bashar al Assad, whatever, they can come here under the UN Headquarters agreements, it grants diplomatic protection to visiting heads of state. Okay, back to Mike Waltz. Three, he explains head of state immunity applies. And four, federal authority trumps any local mayor's wishes. The fourth point is just a straight up legal point, very straightforward. Under the supremacy clause of Article 6 of the Constitution, which very, very clearly says that this constitution and all laws and treaties passed and ratified pursuant to it trump the states and by extension the localities, like the mayor of a municipality, like New York City, the notion that the idiosyncratic desire of a mayor or a governor for that matter, or anyone, a state or local level, the notion that that can somehow override something happening at the federal level, you might recognize that thought we've discussed it many times here on the show, this notion that, ah, the feds, I don't care what the feds say, they cannot meddle here in my jurisdiction. States rights. Oh, yeah, right. That's the exact same argument that John C. Calhoun made in South Carolina in the lead up to slavery, in the lead up to the Civil War. This was the nullification crisis almost 200 years ago in South Carolina. What the Southerners refer to as the Tariff of Abominations is the exact same thing that you had people like Orval Faubus, the racist, segregationist governor of Arkansas. What he did in the late 1950s when he refused to desegregate the school districts in Little Rock, Arkansas, that led to Dwight D. Eisenhower sending in the 101st Airborne Memory Service to desegregate by force the schools of Little Rock, Arkansas. So this is not a good look, to put it mildly, for the mayor of New York City. And it's a reminder that one of the great divides in our political culture, in our legal culture to this day, is that between the globalists and the transnationalists, those who subscribe to universal government and they actually believe in things like the UN and the icc. And those of us who don't, those of us who are nationalists, who are sovereigntists, who believe in the nation, believe in sovereignty, believe in a thing called civilization is one of our great ideological divides. Zoramdani is on one side of that divide. It's not my side, it's not our side. On the show, we need more leaders who will tell people like Zoram Ghani to kick it and shove it where the sun don't shine. Frankly, when it comes to their attempts to impose globalism on we the people and our sovereignty, I was really happy to see Mike waltz over the weekend do exactly that. Folks, we're going to a quick commercial break. We have so much more to unpack on the other side. Steve, this will be right now.

[E]

For nearly 3,000 years, Homer's the Odyssey has shaped Western imagination. It tells the story of Odysseus as he faces monsters, shipwrecks, false comforts, and impossible choices on his long journey home. As one of the foundational works of Western literature, Homer's epic is more than mythology. It explores permanent questions about courage, duty, loyalty, family, leadership, temptation, and the search for home. In one of the epic's defining moments, Odysseus rejects the offer of immortality from the goddess Calypso, choosing instead the long and difficult journey home. His decision reveals one of the central themes of the Odyssey, that a life of duty, family, and home is greater than a life devoted to comfort or glory. Achilles chose glory. Odysseus chose home. That's why Hillsdale College has released its newest free online course, the Odyssey. Taught by Professor Benedict Whelan. The course reveals why Homer's masterpiece remains one of the greatest works of Western literature. Find this free course at Hillsdale edustartnow the Odyssey from Hillsdale College. Go to hillsdale. Edu Start now.

[B]

Welcome back. So we don't talk a whole lot about Bill Maher of HBO's Real Time here on the show because I'll be honest with you, he's fine. I think he's fine. He makes a lot of good points. Makes a lot of less good points in my judgment. A lot of people just love Bill Maher. They love his show. And I definitely enjoy sedments, but it's not really my cup of tea. But he was in the news over this weekend because he went on ABC's this Week and if you know about Bill Maher, if you know anything about Bill Maher, you like, we know that he really, really, really hates Donald Trump, like really hates him. On the other hand, Bill Maher believes in certain things that the modern Democratic Party and especially the DSA and the left, they just don't agree it anymore. So Bill Maher is a free speech absolutist, a hardcore first Amendment free speech guy. Now he's also an ardent atheist, but he's fiercely anti Islam, really, really, really hard on the religion of peace. Those are two things that the Democratic Party, especially the dsa, which somehow Zorman died before the break, they are on the dead opposite side of Bill Maher. So one of the things that many of us have been wondering for a while now is when will Bill Maher wake up and smell the coffee. There has been an exodus of these anti woke liberals, let's call them, from the left to the center right. Over the years, Bari Weiss, who's now in charge of the free press and also CBS News, is one of the higher profile examples. There have been a lot of examples of anti Marxist anti woke liberals who have made the formal switch from the left to the right or at least the center right. Well, could Bill Maher be next on that list? Frankly, I wouldn't have believed it if you had told me. But he said this weekend to John Carl of ABC's this Week, he actually said that this is a possibility come 2020. So here was Bill Maher over the weekend.

[E]

You told J.D.

[A]

vance, you're open, your, your vote is up for grabs. Yes, my vote is in play because it can't be Trump running. So I'm not living in communist America. I mean, I know that the talking point is that, well, it's not communism, it's socialism. Okay, I've read the quotes from the DSA platform from their own mouths. Don't tell me I'm not seeing what I am seeing. And dsa, again, they, they say things like, you know, takeover of key industries, government. That's communism. You know, there is a definition, by the way.

[B]

Trump's doing that too.

[A]

Of course. Yes, and, and, and, and, and to

[B]

a degree that we haven't seen any other president.

[A]

No better Republican. Great. It's, that's crazy too. He's got a piece of intel, right? A piece of the AI companies. He treats everything like it's a real estate deal.

[B]

So normally one man saying that his vote is in play to switch parties or candidates, not a big deal. It's basically just a fart in the wind. After all, it's one person. And American elections get 150, 160, 70, a million votes. So what does one vote matter? But Bill Maher is obviously not just an American. He is someone with a very sizable platform. And every so often you do get someone who says that they are switching sides or will consider switching sides, and it does tend to resonate a little bit. So Alan Dershowitz, maybe one of the most quintessential anti woke liberals out there. He was a lifelong Democrat for his entire life. Alan Dershowitz is now into his late 80s. He had an op ed for the Wall Street Journal a few months ago saying that he is actually switching parties, that he is now a registered Republican. That does not mean that Alan Dershowitz is a conservative, far, far, far from it. I've personally debated Alan Dershowitz once actually here in South Florida three plus years ago, and we really got into it over things like abortion and the second Amendment and your rights to keep and be, is fiercely pro abortion, fiercely anti gun, very liberal on immigration, totally radically liberal on transgenderism. I think he's absolutely batcrap crazy on that issue. But much like Bill Maher, Alan Dershowitz has two firmly, firmly held beliefs that are completely incompatible with today's modern left. One of which is that like Bill Maher, he is a true free speech absolutist. Two is he's very pro Israel. And the corollary to that is that he is very skeptical of Iran and radical Islam and so forth. So Alan Dershowitz making the decision that because those two things matter so much to him, whatever else he may believe about transgenderism, guns, etcetera he just can't vote for the Democrats, so he's going to register as a Republican. Bill Maher seems like he is on the precipice of making a very similar decision, which is fascinating because this is a guy who is an ardent ordinance atheist who makes fun of religious people and has for a very, very long time a lot of Christian conservatives. Not a big fan of Bill Maher for that reason. I'm a religious Jew. I'm also not the biggest fan of Bill Maher basically for that reason, although I appreciate his defense of Israel and his deep skepticism of the religion of peace. Now, this is kind of the last wing. These guys are a little bit Johnny come lately, right? This, this, this. The ship started sailing many years ago. The destruction of the Clinton era Democratic Party. The destruction of the party that once said the era of big government is over. Bill Clinton said that in a State of the Union address. The destruction of the party that said that abortion shall be safe, legal and rare. These days Democrats just try to shout your abortion. On the issue of marriage, Bill Clinton signed doma, the Defense of Marriage act, clarifying that for purposes of federal law, marriage will be defined the correct and historical and traditional way as one man and one woman. These days, Democrats increasingly support polyamory or transgenderism or they want to abolish marriage altogether or some weird combination thereof. And on and on and on we go. Clinton, they're Democrats back then 30 years ago, very tough on the issue of immigration in many ways. Not as tough as some of the conservatives maybe, but pretty tough for the most part these days. They don't believe in it. They don't believe in borders, they believe in global citizenry. So wake up and smell the coffee, guys. The reality is at this point, if you are a Singh person, if you are team Western Civilization, if you are team America, if you are a team Biblical inheritance, if you are a team skepticism of Islam, if you are team Free Speech, Team Right to King Bear arms. Team due process. Due process. My God, is there a more important constitutional norm than due process? You know, we played here on the show one week ago after the horrific early death of Lindsey Graham. We played Lindsey Graham's all time greatest viral moment in the U.S. senate. But he was indignant, positively indignant against Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Democrats on that side of the century district because of the legal jihad they were waging, they and their media allies against Brett Kavanaugh when he was nominated for the Supreme Court back in September of 2018. That was a ditching a conscientious attempt to ditch five millennia at least, of innocence until due, until innocent until proven guilty, to process civilizational norms. So if you believe in all these basic American ideals, these ideals, these values, these principles that have built Western civilization, if you reject believe all women, oh, by the way, believe all women. Unless it's Graham Platner, apparently. Okay, if you reject the notion that my speech might not be as valuable as your speech because of the content of what I'm saying, which you should. If you reject the notion that Islam is just as compatible with Western civilization as, oh, I don't know, let's call it Christianity, for instance, if you reject all the above, then you increasingly only have one place to call your home. Listen, we are not going to be apologists or boosters for the Republican Party or the RNC or the platform. We're not even boosters for the Trump administration. We call out the administration when we disagree with it, such as the recent MoU in Switzerland, which I was highly critical of here on the shows. We don't carry water for anyone. We're not boosters for anyone. We are independent thinkers coming from a conservative biblical worldview. But if you have sanity, if you don't want to burn everything down, if you believe in the nation state, going back to our conversation about the icc, if you believe in any of that, you only have one place to call your home. You do so better to come over to Team Sanity, come over to Team Not Crazy. And if you have any idiosyncratic views, try to work within that fold, because the other guys, you're not going to save that ship. That ship sailed. It sailed at least as far back. At least as far back as the Biden Harris presidency. I would argue that ships started sailing away from port, really in 2008 when Barack Hussein Obama defeated Hillary Ron Clinton for the Democratic presidential primary. In that particular year, those days are dunzo, dunzo. Sayonara. Bury that Democratic Party bury in cigarettes. Because it's not coming back. This is not a horror film. It's not coming back like a zombie from the dead. So if you're on Team Sanity, take the Republican Party, warts and all, join the broader rights and find a home there, however imperfect they fit for your preferences. It may or may not be. Folks, we're gonna go to one final break. We'll be right back with more on the other side.

[D]

For nearly 3,000 years, Homer's the Odyssey has shaped Western imagination. It tells the story of Odysseus as he faces monsters, shipwrecks, false comforts and impossible choices on his long journey home. As one of the foundational works of Western literature, Homer's epic is more than a mythology. It explores permanent questions about courage, duty, loyalty, family, leadership, temptation and the search for home. In one of the epic's defining moments, Odysseus rejects the offer of immortality from the goddess Calypso, choosing instead the long and difficult journey home. His decision reveals one of the central themes of the Odyssey, that a life of duty, family and home is greater than a life devoted to comfort or glory. Achilles chose glory. Odysseus chose home. That's why Hillsdale College has released its newest free online course, the Odyssey. Taught by professor Benedict Whelan, the course reveals why Homer's masterpiece remains one of the greatest works of Western literature. Find this free [e-mail] that's charlieforhillsdale.com read the classics study the west the Odyssey from Hillsdale College. Go to charlieforhillsdale.com welcome back.

[B]

So, speaking of warts and all on the broader American rights and frankly, it pains me to even think and talk about some of these individuals as being on the quote unquote right at all. But speaking of a big fat smelly wart, a pimple on the rear end of those who call themselves quote unquote conservatives, we probably should talk a little bit about Andrew and Tristan Tate, some of the most disgusting individuals in the the Western hemisphere who were arrested this Saturday, this weekend in Miami, in my neck of the woods here in South Florida, after British prosecutors. So from cps, that's not Child Protective Services, that's Crown Prosecution Services. So it is the, it is the arm of the British government that is tasked with prosecution. So Britain's CPS got in touch with the United States because they dropped new charges against the Tate brothers. So they were arrested in Miami for British charges because the uk, despite all they're going through, is still a very close ally and they are going to be extradited. So it seems they have not been extradited already to the UK to face charges. So what exactly are these new charges that the Tate brothers, Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate are facing? So they are, they're, they're facing all sorts of horrific sex related charges. We are talking here about one counter sexual saw, two counts of rape and three counts of arranging or facilitating sex trafficking. And that's for Tristan Tate, for Andrew Tate, seven additional counts of rape, three counts for ranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitations, three counts of assaults and 19 charges for offensive relating to indecent images of a child and extreme pronouncing, child pornography and rape. I mean, ah, the, some of the most repulsive individuals out there. I, I, I will never forget how it was on Benny Johnson's show, how Alina Haba, the Trump friendly lawyer, went on and said that she was such a big fan of Andrew Tate. These people are disgusting, disgusting, self described misogynists who talk about how men should not get married but should basically copulate and to have sex with as many women as possible to spread your seed far, far and wide. By the way, they are converts to Islam. Andrew Tate has literally tweeted that he looks forward to the day when London formally bows the knee to isl. It becomes part of the global Islamic empire and London is renamed Londonistan. You think I'm making that up? I'm not making it up. By the way, he bemoaned, he bemoaned also Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of October 7. When Sinwar was taken out by the IDF in October 2024, he calls him a martyr. May we all be as righteous as this guy. These people are sick. They are sick. And for whatever reason there have been some people in the right of center orbit who have been playing footsie with them. I remember when Tucker Carlson flew all the way to Romania. This is shortly after he was fired from Fox News, one of his first big interviews. After getting fired from Fox, Tucker flies to Romania to sit down with Andrew Tate while he was under house arrest there for, well, engaging in sex trafficking and grooming and rape and all these terrible charges. I don't even really know exactly how they ended up in Florida this past weekend. That is unfortunate in my judgment. They were here briefly in Florida about a year ago and it was a big hullabaloo at the time. I'm not. Or why they were giving a visa back into the country. But the broader point is this. Without getting into the legal details, these are very, very, very bad people. In case you can't hear me emphasize that point enough, they have no place on the broader quote, unquote, right? Bill Maher, if he wants to become part of the quote, unquote, right, whatever his beliefs may be about atheism, whatever he in my judgment is much, much more welcome than someone like Andrew Tate, who promotes misogyny, who promotes sex trafficking, child pornography, rape and Islamic takeover of Western Christian civilization, how in the world does that utter garbage fit on the right? So I frankly wish nothing but the worst, the absolute worst for Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate. I of course believe in due process and all the above there but hopefully they're ex dried. Hopefully they will face justice ASAP in the UK for these additional accounts that have been dropped from their former stint in the uk living there and hopefully, hopefully at a bare minimum they never find their their way over to American soil because I do not understand how they were here or why they were here. But hopefully the folks at State and DHS are taking some profilata measures to fix that going forward. Probably. Speaking of the UK it is now a new Prime Minister taking over at 10 Downing Street. So Tutier, Keir Starmer gave his farewell address to the Parliament this morning and then he went over to Buckingham palace and formally resign with the King, King George or King Charles. Excuse me, I have a thinking Declaration of Independence. King George, King Charles. Excuse me. So. So Kirsten goes over to Buckingham palace and resigns before King Charles iii and then as of this morning you have a brand new Prime Minister named Andy Burnham. So Andy Burnham is the new Prime Minister. Who is Andy Burnham? Well he is a leftist radical because who else would the Labour Party in the UK possibly bring to power other than a leftist radical? Andy Burnham is someone who arguably, arguably makes Keir Starmer look like a relative moderate. Which is crazy because Keir Starmer was also a total goon. A goon and a loon. Andy Burnham was at one point the mayor of Greater Manchester. Manchester in northwest England, one of the broader urban sprawl areas in the uk. He was the mayor. He is going to bring far left policies to the uk. Recently he's been talking about trying to undo Thatcherism. I am not making it up. He's trying to undo Thatcherism. What was Thatcherism? Oh yeah, Thatcherism was the 1980s like Reaganism here where they made the economy less socialized, they cut taxes, they balanced budgets. Who can oppose such things? Oh well, apparently the current Labor Party. They're trying to bring it back to the Stone Ages. And by the way, in the current budget, just to give you an idea as to what exactly is happening here when it comes to Andy Burnham here is just part of what he's doing. His plans include potentially introducing a 50% top marginal tax rate, equalizing the capital gains tax rates with income tax rates, instituting a land value tax for all homes, introducing an exit tax which an exit tax which would deem any departure from the UK to be a trigger event for taxing all unrealized gains accrued as of the date of departure, a 10% social care death tax on top of the British inheritance tax and a 2% wealth tax on all assets over a 10 million pound threshold, while at the same time not reducing spending by a penny. Actually, he is boosting spending, including more funding for the welfare budget, the asylum budget, because Lord knows the UK doesn't have enough, quote, unquote, asylees. Right, I'm saying that fully tongue in cheek, of course. So it looks like things are not getting any better when it comes to 10 Downing Street. By the way, one of the first things that he did, because of the just utter obsession that the global left now has for the Israeli Palestinian conflict, one of the first things Andy Burnham did is he has apologized for the Labour Party's initial response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas pogrom in Israel. Andy Burnham said that Keir Starmer was not quick enough to call for a ceasefire. Why? Because they waited at least like a month, month and a half, while the blood was still drying to call for a ceasefire. Andy Burnham says you should have called for a ceasefire. Well, basically immediately, maybe, maybe, maybe in like mid to late October 2020, 2023. It's basically the exact same stance as Darieliza Avila Chevalier. The. The Mamdani endorsed DSA candidate who knocked off a venerable incumbent in a Manhattan congressional district and was last seen marching in Times Square on October 8, 2023, to celebrate the murder of 1200 Jews. So that's basically who Britain is getting as his new. As his new prime minister. Now, as my friend Harry Cole, a British broadcaster, sardonically noted this morning on X, there is some error to clear between Donald Trump and his new counterparty over at 10 Downing Street. Why? Because as Harry Cole puts on X in 2021, Burnham said any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed. Okay, interesting. In 2017, Burnham demanded the deeply troubling leader of the free world, that's Trump, be banned from Manchester when he was mayor of Manchester because of, quote, extreme views emanating from the Oval Office. He also called for the state visit. This is Andy Burnham. For Trump's day visit to the uk, Burnham called for it to be canceled as, quote, many different communities who will feel deeply unsettled about this president's visit to the uk so awkward. Gonna be very awkward between Donald Trump and Andy Burnham when they hop on the phone. Listen, I'm an Anglophile. I root for England in soccer. After the United States, I was really upset to see them blow that against Argentina last week. I lived in London briefly. I have lots of war and fuzzy feelings about the uk. But you can't help a people that chooses not to help itself. It's really that simple. It just is. God willing, Nigel Farage and his Reform Party take over the next general election. They're polling really, really high in the polls polls because more of this Labour Party self implosion governance and this Tory party controlled opposition, that's not going to fix the uk. The solution needs to be big and bold. I say that means Nigel Farage come next British general election folks. Have a great rest of your evening. Josh Hammer signing off. You'll be right back tomorrow.

[E]

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