← The Josh Hammer Show
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- [00:00]
Max Lucado
In times like these, we all need a word of encouragement. From pastor and bestselling author Max Lucado comes the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast. With over 40 years of ministry and more than 145 million books sold in 50 languages, Max shares the greatest story ever told. The living Savior who brings hope for a lifetime. Through rich biblical insight, heartfelt storytelling, you'll be reminded that God is always near, always for you, and always in you. Listen to the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast where hope meets your day. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.
- [00:30]
Josh Hammer
Foreign.
- [00:36]
I'm Josh Hammer and this is Josh Hammer Show. Well, welcome back. Hope that all of you have had a wonderful weekend on this most serendipitous of calendrical overlaps. Yes, this overlapping on the religious calendar of the holiday of Easter and Holy Week more generally for Christians and also for the Jewish holiday of Passover. Common themes of religious redemption and resurrection and all sorts of wonderful stuff happening there. Hope you had a beautiful, restful weekend celebrating with your family and above all, perhaps most importantly, with God himself. There is no shortage of stuff happening in the news. Put mildly there. I was actually off the grid for three days there. We had some shows planned for you so you are not going to miss some Josh Hammer show programming. But I was actually off the grid. This is one of those three day back to back to back holidays. You had two holidays for Passover, then the Sabbath, which comes every week on Saturday there. So suffice to say, I turned my phone back on Saturday night and had a to catch up on there. And that's what we're going to spend a lot of today's show talking about. So we're going to get to the Pam Bondi firing a little bit later there. We've covered doj. We've covered Pam Bondi a lot on this show. Frankly, I actually have mixed thoughts on that one there. I was a somewhat rare commentator in the right of center space. We actually thought that Pam Bondi was doing a very good job. She was getting a lot of criticism there. We'll get to that a little bit later in the show, but for now we don't want to bury the lead here. We want to dive right into what is the massive story of the past 36, 48 hours, which is one of the most stunning military rescue operations, frankly, in the history of the United States of America. I think that is not an exaggeration. When I turn my phone back on Saturday night, I had heard over the holiday some people whispering that there were this downed plane, this downed F15, the first time that Iran had actually shot down an American military plane over the course of Operation Epic Fury. There were two men aboard. The first was rescued fairly quickly there. And the details that have now emerged just from Saturday evening into Sunday morning, so an Easter Passover miracle, if you will, the details that have emerged from this and that have now come to light there shine light on just the amazing, amazing, amazing structure, amazing edifice, and above all, amazing human beings who comprise the United States Armed Forces. And that really is the most important thing to say. Before we get into the details, which we will here, it's important to start at the higher level. We often say, and we speak in terms of generalities and platitudes. We say that America is the greatest nation in the world, the greatest nation in the history of the world, the greatest force for goodness, the greatest fighting force, the greatest military there. And then there are some times when you really, really see it in action. No man left behind is an easy thing to say in the abstract. It is an easy thing to try to instruct, perhaps from a classroom lectern at the US Military Academy, West Point, or the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, or so forth. There's an easy thing to say to your, to your troops, to your brigade, etc. Etc. Is a whole different thing to actually do it in practice. So a frantic, frantic rescue operation put into place to reify, to make real and to bring to light this ethos no man left behind. To ensure the no man left behind is not actually just an abstraction, but really was real. So this happened again very, very late Saturday evening into the wee hours after midnight Saturday evening, Sunday morning here on the East Coast United States, there. So it happened on Easter Sunday, actually, over in Iran, which is where this actually happened there. And this second airman from the downed F15 there was what is known as military jargon as a wso. So he was a weapons systems officer. There's all sorts of summaries here as to how this went down. There's an ex account called War Monitor 3 which provided a nice pithy summary. I'm going to go ahead and share with you some of the details courtesy of War Monitor 3 over on X. So this downed airman, the actual plane lands near Talkunsha, which is in southwestern Iran, around the city of Isfahan, which is where the Iran regime has been hiding their nuclear infrastructure for not just years, frankly, but decades there. And the down airman, the WSO officer, immediately activates his emergency GPS per protocol again One thing to be taught in a lecture hall, nothing to actually do in real life there. Immediately activates his emergency GPS and then proceeds to hike for 24 hours. He hiked a mountain of roughly 7,000ft. He didn't stop hiking, he just hiked. So he sends off this clandestine, more discreet form GPS to try to alert the folks back at the Pentagon, the folks back at Langley where the CIA is, just, just let them know as to where he is there. And then he physically climbed his mountain to evade capture. So U.S. special forces, because of this emergency GPS were able to locate him. And then they realized that Iranian convoys were starting to close in and to engage, engage with large air power while US forces start to move into the region there. A couple of interesting things were happening around this time as well. One is that we are now getting details about some of the local Iranians on the ground. On the ground were actually trying to prevent the Iranian forces from going up into this area in Yemen to try to rescue this guy. So they're, despite all the bloodshed, the carnage, the mowing down of tens and tens of thousands of their fellow countrymen back in December and January that we covered it extensively on the show, these brave Iranians, again, complete numbers impossible to say. But at least some there in this town, near this mountaintop, tried to block the Iranian military infrastructure from trying to take this American WSO and take him as a hostage. And if you know anything about Iran there, they treat them like absolute garbage. And America ends up paying a huge price for that there. Recall that it was actually just about a week and a half, two weeks prior to October 7, 2023, that Joe Biden paid an extraordinary ransom payment of $6 billion to Iran for five hostages, $1.2 billion ahead. Those were the monetary stakes. Obviously there's a much bigger stake here. It's an American soldier for goodness sake. So at this point there, the Iranians are trying to block the military while the US is also engaged in an elaborate deception operation. So Langley, the CIA, among others, starts putting out there, trying to disseminate through Iranian media channels there and just get out the message more generally that the United States had already recovered the downed WSO and was engaged in a naval extraction there in the Persian Gulf, trying again to safe water likely in Kuwait, which is the closest America friendly Arab country there. So they essentially then engage in a bit of wartime disinformation to try to throw off the enemy, which apparently worked. Apparently it caught the Iranians off guard. And what it did, it is it then allowed for several MH6s to successfully fly to the top of this mountain and physically pick up the down wso under small arms fire to reach a makeshift airfield. A makeshift airfield from which he was ultimately whisked away to safety to Iraq. Now, There were multiple Charlie 130C130 planes. These are old school military planes that apparently the landing gear failed. They got stuck in, in the mud or in the sand there and apparently they had been obliterated, which a lot of folks are saying. A lot of these moral relativists, I saw some French media sources, a lot of leftists in America even are saying, oh my God, why would you blow up all this military infrastructure? Why would you do all this to save one life? Because no man left behind means no man left behind. It's just an extraordinary, extraordinary tale. It is Hollywood film esque stuff. There's a lot more to say on this. Before I do, I want to tell you a quick word from our sponsor for today's show, which is the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. I'd like to tell you about a man named Phineas who as a child survived the Holocaust. He survived because Christians hid him from the Nazis, risking everything to save his life. Today, Phinehas is in his 80s. He can no longer stand on his own or leave his home to receive medical care. And when sirens sound and missiles fall, he doesn't have strength to reach safety. But once again, Christians are helping save his life through the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. A mobile clinic brings doctor's medicine research right to his home, providing care he wouldn't receive, especially in wartime. Christians saved my life during the Holocaust, Phineas says. And now again, they are helping me. As Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches, we honor survivors like Phinehas, not just with words, but with action. Give $45 right now to rush life saving essentials to the vulnerable under fire. To rush your gift, call 888-799 IFCJ. That's 888799 IFCJ or go online at ifcj.org ifcj.org, our sponsor today is the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. A most serendipitous sponsor, I might say, on this calendar overlap between Passover and Easter. So again, just absolutely stunning details there. And another layer to this that I thought about actually immediately because there were a lot of people pushing back. I saw international media, I mentioned the French, a lot of international liberal media, a lot of subversive fifth column leftist types here on the home front there saying essentially, why would you go so far out of your way to try to extract one person there? There are a lot of ways to answer that question. There is of course, the, the biblical perspective. And this shows and is based in premise around nothing other than. Than that. Nothing more than that. I should say. There is Genesis 1:27. The notion that God made man in his image there in the human life is fundamentally on a different level, therefore, than all other forms of life. To say nothing else about money or helicopters or planes there. I mean, that's, that's the most important thing here for sure. But there's another slightly more practical day to day application of this as well. When Pete Hecseth was nominated to be the US Secretary of Defense, this is prior to changing the name from the Defense Department to the Water Parliament there, he was immediately torn through the mud. We were big defenders of him here on the show. And I'm proud to have defended Pete Hextheth. I think that Hegseth has done actually a fantastic job. He's been one of my absolute favorite cabinet picks of Donald Trump thus far in this second term. And one of the reasons that I immediately defended Pete Hecseth from all the people who were trying to essentially do a Brett Kavanaugh operation, say that he was a fellow, an alcoholic, a drunk, God forbid, a rapist, this, that. What I said is that you need a young person, a young man who has served in one or multiple post 9, 11 wars to be able to increase, incentivize and galvanize young men from sea to shining sea of signing up for the United States military. The US Military had missed its recruitment targets prior to Hegset's nomination for multiple years in a row during the Biden administration. Is there any better way to incentivize young men and women to join the US Armed forces than to make clear that no man left behind actually really means no man left behind, Folks, I cannot think of a better way to try to incentivize young men and women in their late teens, early 20s, maybe even a little later than that, to go to their local recruiting office and say, I want to serve. This is a moral military, and this is a military that God forbid if I'm stranded, they will not leave behind.
- [12:25]
Max Lucado
In times like these, we all need a word of encouragement. From pastor and bestselling author Max Lucado comes the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast. With over 40 years of ministry and more than 145 million books sold in 50 languages, Max shares the greatest story ever told the living savior who brings hope for a lifetime. Through rich biblical insight, heartfelt storytelling, you'll be reminded that God is always near, always for you, and always in you. Listen to the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast where hope meets your day. Subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts.
- [13:00]
Josh Hammer
So around the same time as this stunning rescue operation of the Downs wso, a genuine Hollywood esque story. Frankly, I think a lot of liberals in Hollywood are probably a bit jealous or envious. They did not think of a story with quite as much drama as one that just unfolded in real life over the past few days there. So around the same timeline that this was all going down, Donald Trump was going back and forth with the Iranians, the actual regime, that is to say there, as to Operation Epic Fury, as to the actual military campaign itself. So around the end of last week, last Thursday, Friday, at one point, Donald Trump issued a 48 hour ultimatum to make sure that Iran opened the Strait of Hormuz, which is, as you know by now, this crucial 21 mile at its narrowest point, waterway through which one fifth of the world's oil flows. Iran has been working with select countries, above all Iraq and to an extent Pakistan as well when it comes to working with them to have their flagged vessel essentially go through safely. Otherwise, if you are not a flagged commercial or oil vessel for Iraq or perhaps Pakistan, you are at serious risk, serious risk of being downed by mines or drones or some sort of other conventional military means. It is a really, really, really dicey situation there and it definitely continues to spook global energy markets, which is why the price of gasoline here on the home front has spiked by about a dollar, give or take, since the war against Iran began on February 28 with the assassination of Ali Khamenei, the former so called Ayatollah. Now, the latest, the latest is that Don was actually speaking on this very issue actually this morning at the post Easter ceremony at the White House there. So he essentially says that the absolute, absolute final deadline for Iran to demonstrate in good faith that they are opening the Strait of Hormuz is going to be Tuesday evening. So tomorrow evening at 8pm Eastern. Here was President Trump this morning outside
- [14:55]
Max Lucado
the White House proposal from this morning.
- [14:58]
Josh Hammer
I've seen every proposal you can imagine.
- [15:02]
Max Lucado
Your final deadline is Tuesday at 8:00pm Your final deadline, Iran does not meet
- [15:07]
Austin Shultz
your demands, Mr. President, are you willing to continue the war?
- [15:10]
Josh Hammer
Well, you'll have to watch. The answer is yes, but you'll have to watch that.
- [15:18]
What do you think of the latest
- [15:19]
proposal they made a proposal, and it's a significant proposal. It's a significant step. It's not good enough, but it's a very significant step. They have made. They're negotiating now, and they have made a very significant step. We'll see what happens.
- [15:37]
So we'll see what happens. Look, the number one thing that Trump understands this point better than perhaps anyone in the world is that the Iranian people, well, the Iran people are oftentimes good people. But the people into the regime in Iran, the mullahs, the irgc, the zomb, Revolutionary Guard Corps, the clerici, these are some of the most deceitful, lying people on the face of the earth. Barack Obama, among other liberals, learned that the hard way when they tried to ink the jcpoa, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. This woefully inadequate nuclear deal with the mosque. Donald Trump tore that deal to shreds just a few years later, and he is now going to war against Iran like no president has since the regime came to power 47 years ago. So he knows that better than anyone there. And ultimately, the commencement of the Khamenei assassination and the entire military campaign was predicated, as Trump himself has put it, upon the fact that Steve Wyckoff and Jared Kushner, who were there trying to dialogue and negotiate with Iranians, they both said that this is going nowhere, that they're just vacillating, that they're just buying time. They're not actually going to make any concessions when it comes to conventional ballistic missiles, when it comes to the nukes, when it comes to financial support for terror proxies throughout the region, Hezbollah, Houthis, Hamas, et cetera, they're not negotiating, they're not budging. So Trump knows this. Now, what could this possibly look like by tomorrow evening? There, look, I mean, color me skeptical, but again, I think that Donald Trump really knows that at this point better than everyone, which is probably why he took to Truth Social on Sunday to issue a particularly fiery post that uses some, shall we say, adult language that is not exactly fit for a family friendly program like the Josh Hammer Show. But he was dropping some colorful four letter words and he was really not happy. And essentially telling the mullahs, you must open this bleeping strait asap. He even had a somewhat trolley use of Praise be to Allah. And look, a lot of the politically correct crowd was looking at this and shaking their head and saying, oh, my God, this man is so uncouth. This is. This is like a drunk from Queens, you know, had one too many beers and took out his iPhone and started tweeting. Folks, the folks, the guys who are saying that don't understand the appeal of Donald Trump. The appeal of Donald Trump is that he is Donnie from Queens. His entire life is that of an outer borough New Yorker. If you know anything about New York City, this is really important stuff. Donald Trump was born and raised in Queens. He was not born and raised in Manhattan. This is his personality. The reason that Donald Trump is this gilded Trump tower, gilded toilet, maga populist. The reason that this whole thing works is because he's fundamentally at his core, he is the dude who if random Joe Six Pack, if the guy who's a white plumber, Hispanic farmer, whatever, if that guy got tons of money, struck it rich, hundreds of millions dollars, billions dollars, whatever, they would act like Donald Trump acts. That is the appeal. The appeal is not that Donald Trump is wealthy and out of touch and talks like a finely tuned aristocrat like the Bush family from their compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. No, you're totally missing the point. On a more simple level, simpler note, if you're still talking about the way that Donald Trump comports himself on social media 10 years after he defeated Hillary Clinton in that first election there, I mean, you really need to get a life, really. So Trump just dropping some colorful forward letter words there and trolling them all, is there. We have this deadline now of Tuesday evening as to whether or not some sort of deal will actually be taking place. Meanwhile, a lot happening here on the home front. So I mentioned that there were a lot of leftists here in the home front who were talking about how, oh my God, why is America going so far to try to try to recover this downed WSO from the plane there? Shouldn't they be focused on trying to save the C130 planes or whatnot there? There was also a very bizarre information operation that was happening on the American home front over the weekend, which is why you had a lot of folks in seemingly coronated fashion, a lot of high profile left wing blue check counts that were disseminating the lie, yes, was a lie that Donald Trump was checked in to Walter Reed Medical center and that he was actually not there with hands on the steering wheel during the rescue operation. In reality, Donald Trump was there the entire time. He was there in a situation room. He was tracking both the Iran operation, getting at least hour by hour updates and not even more consistent, while some potatoes are also tracking the launch of Artemis 2, this new lunar space mission that we will touch on a Little bit later in today's show, but around the same time, and I've seen these screenshots there, all these leftists said the exact same thing. Breaking reports claim Trump has been admitted. Walt Reed Medical Center. Is Donald Trump a Walt Reed right now? And on and on it goes. Who coordinated this? This is not the first time that we've seen all these big leftist blue checks gang up all at once. This actually happened just a few months ago. So there was a horrific incident. It could have been worse, I suppose. It was a not good incident at a synagogue in Queens in Donald Trump's home borough, Queens, New York there and there was some event, I don't remember the details there. And there were these horrific pro Hamas, like not just anti Israel, pro Hamas protesters essentially just, just praising Hamas. And the next day all these Democrats from Tish James, I think even Zormandani got in on the act, to aoc Cathy Hochul, some more national figures, they all had clearly coordinated messaging that Hamas is evil. I mean first of all, as if you guys have said anything along those lines there, I mean frankly, you've just, you've praised, you've just praised the so called Palestinian cause which has as its culmination, frankly the Hamas pogrom and attempted genocide. But let's hold that aside for now. The point is, for now, who was Courtney's messaging really? Where's this coming from? Is this coming from Roy Neville Singham, this American born guy who now lives in Shanghai and funds a lot of pro Chinese Communist Party, anti American subversive would say this guy was a major funder of Code Pink, the People's Forum which does these hold the inorganic protests in support of, commenting in support of Nicole Darrell is singing. Behind this corner messaging is Soros, the Ties Foundation, Ford Foundation. I mean, I want to know. I mean this is not the first instance where this has happened there. But more generally speaking, whether it's folks on the idiot so called, right, the Tucker wing, whether it's the corporate mainstream media, there are so many folks here who have outed themselves as rooting against America. That's the most astounding thing to me, folks. We just had one of the most incredible rescue operations in the history of this country. Why are there so many people out there openly rooting against America? America is a great, great nation. Yes, Donald Trump is making it great again for sure. But there is so much to be proud of here. And the folks who don't realize that, frankly you should write them off and never hear from them again is Operation Epic Fury, popular this now month plus long campaign against the Iranian regime. It's a question I think that many people increasingly are asking. Frankly, even within right center circles there really no one wants an extended war
- [23:11]
Max Lucado
in times like these. We all need a word of encouragement. From pastor and best selling author Max Lucado comes the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast. With over 40 years of ministry and more than 145 million books sold in 50 languages, Max shares the greatest story ever told. The living Savior who brings hope for a lifetime. Through rich biblical insight, heartfelt storytelling, retelling, you'll be reminded that God is always near, always for you, and always in you. Listen to the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast where hope meets your day. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.
- [23:46]
Josh Hammer
Look, polling in general is infamously all over the place. Polling on foreign policy, perhaps even more so, because when it comes to things like Iran, Americans will simultaneously say they want the Iranian regime taken out or they want the Iranian nuclear program taken out, or some variation thereof, while on the other hand they will say that they wholly oppose boots on the ground, a long campaign. Well, you can't really have it both ways, right? I mean, this is polling a lot of issues, especially on domestic issues like abortion, where the polling is famously schizophrenic. But on foreign policy, you definitely see this a lot as well. And to be clear, we absolutely do not want boots on the ground here. That is not our stance. We have never once called for that and we are certainly not advocating for that. But we definitely do believe that now that this war has started, that the war must be finished on its own terms. And we have long defined those terms along the lines roughly of the way that Donald Trump defined them in his national address last Wednesday evening, which is that it is the neutralization of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a threat to the United States and our interests. That is the hard headed, clear realist maga America verse definition of success of epic fury on its own terms. And it's with that in mind, with all of this increasing souring of the war in mind, that I noted this poll this morning that came across my desk. It's a very fascinating poll courtesy of a well known pollster known as Tip tipp. And they essentially asked, do you support or oppose the US Military action against Iran? So most of these recent polls, thumbs up, thumbs down, a binary choice, have been net thumbs down most of the recent polls. Overall Republicans strongly support. Most of them still show though that most Americans oppose. This poll this morning actually had support 46% oppose 45% Republicans, according to tip, this new pollster are 62 points net in favor of the war. That's a lot. Democrats 52 points opposed independence, 16 points underwater. But overall on net, that comes out to one point ahead. The racial and ethnic splits were arguably even fascinating. Again, it's just one pulse crosstab. I mean, take for it what you will. I mean, sample size is pretty large for what's worth roughly 1500 people there. White Americans plus 5 on Epic Fury. Black Americans minus 17. Hispanic Americans plus 8. Really fascinating. I I Hispanic Americans are apparently, according to this pollster, even more support of the war than white Americans. Make of that what you will, but just a fascinating thing, if nothing else, to kind of file in the back of your head. We'll get some more data on that. One final word. When it comes to, to Epic Fury here, a lot of talk certainly as to what the end game is. And the end game is what we just defined it as, which is the neutralization of Ron as a threat. And the more abstract outcome that's always lurking in the background is this notion as to whether or not there actually will be full scale regime change. Now we had on the show last week Rebecca Heinrich, who essentially corroborated what her colleague Mike Dran told us in the first days of the war, which is that you should not expect full scale regime change. That's been my stance, frankly, since day one as well. One of the only ways that that could ever happen, as I was discussing with a friend just a couple days ago, is that you would have to get small arms into the hands of people. This has been a problem since day one. These poor Iranians just watch tens and tens and tens of thousands of the countrymen just get blown to smithereens by this most evil and despotic of Islamist regimes back in December to January. How can you possibly get them to make like the Soviets did during World War II and literally send out four men with one gun and say, oh yeah, go fight the Nazis with your bare hands? I mean, how can you expect Iranians to go do that? You can't. They need weapons. So this has been a problem since day one. And what I've said since day one is that it's my hope that maybe CIA, Mossad or some other agencies are able to better vet and get into select people's hands weapons, if that's even a thing. I'm not even sure it is, frankly. It might be too logistically difficult. But if anyone can do it, frankly, it would be the CIA andor Mossad. So that's why I noted with interest Donald Trump speaking again. I believe this is actually also this morning during the same post Easter oppressor, while he was talking earlier also about this 8pm deadline for tomorrow night there he talked about how we actually have sent some guns to some people and these guns ended up actually into the wrong hands. It was kind of lost in the transfer there. I think it's actually a very, very important detail there. So let's go ahead and play this clip courtesy of i24 and C span.
- [28:19]
You know, we sent some guns, but the group that was supposed to give, which I said would happen to my people, I said it, I called it exactly. We sent guns, a lot of guns. They were supposed to go to the people so they could fight back against these thugs. You know what happened? The people that they sent them to kept them because they said, what a beautiful gun. I think I'll keep it. So I'm very upset with the service, certain group of people and they're gonna pay a big price for that.
- [28:45]
Okay, so that's, I mean, talk about bearing the lead. That's a pretty big deal. Now, there was a lot of back and forth earlier in this war as to the extent to which the United States was trying to arm Kurdish factions in western Iran near the border with Iraqs. That seems to be who Trump's calling out. He seems to be saying that, yes, the CIA did, cuz this is, this is debated. He seems to be corroborating that yes, the CIA did arm Kurdish fact. And I think he's saying that the Kurds essentially swallowed up the guns for their own purposes, which there's a lot to unpack there. There's also different Kurdish groups. Some of these Kurdish groups are very pro America, pro Western. A lot of folks around Erbal in northern Iraq, a lot of debate as to whether they should have their own state, Kurdistan. There are other Kurdish factions that are more radical, that are more Marxists or more Islamist. Turkey, for instance, has infamously fraught relations with a lot of Kurds. And some of these Kurds are better, some are worse. So I saw this clip and again, I'm kind of reading between the lines here. I mean, I'm thinking to myself, did someone arm the wrong Kurds? Did we attempt to get weapons into the hands of the pro America Kurds, the anti Islam Republic of Iran Kurds, and instead end up arming pro Islamist Kurdish factions like pro terrorist Kurds? I don't really know. Again, I'M just reading between the lines here, but not great. Definitely not great. I'm not trying to kind of sully the mood here, but we're just trying to give you a full perspective as to what is going on there. Certainly the biggest story is this rescue op, and that is just an astounding story. Democrats taking to the Sunday talk show circuit to vent their various forms of frustration. Meanwhile, with Operation Epic Fury there didn't always go well for the Democrats, I would say. Rokuhanna Rokahana, the Epstein Files obsessed presidential presidential wannabe out of California. He went on NBC's Meet the Press to talk about war crimes. Go ahead and watch this.
- [30:49]
Max Lucado
Would you be okay though, with leaving Iran without the Strait of Hormuz being reopened? President Trump has set that deadline for Monday, saying they're going to be significant consequences if it's not reopened.
- [31:01]
Josh Hammer
Let me tell you what won't reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Threatening war crimes, of bombing indiscriminately, power plants, cursing at Iran. Well, we need a statesmanship like President Obama had. What we need to do is to stop the bombing, have a cease fire and then to work with Oman, to work with China, to work with the Gulf allies and European allies to have a solution to allow Hormuz to be open. But it's not going to happen by massive escalation.
- [31:29]
So I am sick, I'm officially sick of people who do not know what the heck they're talking about. Talking about war crimes. We had Judge Roy Allman on the show this this past Friday while I was off for pants, we had Judge Almond on talk about this same charge in the context of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza after October 7th. By the same token, why the heck is Rokuhanna charging Donald Trump with war crimes? With war crimes? Dude, we all know that you love Barack Obama's nuclear deal. We all know that you would love to do anything in the world to get a deal with. The mull is there. Just because you don't agree doesn't make it a war crime. Sometimes words actually mean something. You should probably be a little more careful, frankly, with how you're going about and saying it. Jake Ochenkloss of Massachusetts, a white dude who's really trying to make a name for himself in this woke intersectional party, had similar criticism over on Fox News on you. Let's go ahead and play that.
- [32:23]
Max Lucado
Do you doubt that we will get the straight reopen or that we have the ability to?
- [32:28]
Austin Shultz
Yes, I do. And as always with this president, it's, you know, it's all hat, no cattle, right? I mean, he's blustering, he's threatening, and yet he always backs down. And the reason is because he misunderstands the nature of grand strategy. The nature of grand strategy is about choke point control. It is not about the raw exercise of power. So last year, this president tried to pick a trade war with China. He lost it. And he lost it because China choked off critical minerals. This year he's picking a war, a kinetic war with Iran. He's losing it because Iran has choked off oil transit through the street.
- [33:02]
Josh Hammer
With all due respect, Congressman Austin Kloss, I think Donald Trump knows a thing or two more than you do when it comes to how to defeat the Iranians. I always trust the guy who took out Qasem Soleimani, the guy who took out, oh yeah, Ali Khamenei, the guy who's taken out the entire upper echelon of the Iranian regime, military and radical clericy hierarchy. I will trust that guy over, oh yeah, I don't know, a dim witted backbencher of congressman of Massachusetts. I don't know, me, it's just me. But I think the American people would probably agree with me on that one as well.
- [33:32]
Max Lucado
In times like these, we all need a word of encouragement. From pastor and best selling author Max Lucado comes the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast. With over 40 years of ministry and more than 145 million books sold in 50 languages, Max shares the greatest story ever told. The living savior who brings hope for a lifetime. Through rich biblical insight, heartfelt storytelling, you'll be reminded that God is always near, always for you and always in you. Listen to the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast where hope meets your day. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.
- [34:02]
Josh Hammer
So the other huge news from what I can tell that I missed while I was off for the beginning of Passover was that Pam Bondi was fired by Donald Trump. This happened on Thursday. Initially it was just a lot of rumors. New York Times, another source is reporting it there. Ultimately, Pam Bondi was, was let go and Todd Blanche is now in as the acting Attorney General of the United States. I think very highly of Todd Blanche, actually. I think Todd Blanche is a very capable attorney there who has been a super hardcore loyalist to Donald Trump there. Recall that the number one thing that Donald Trump most wanted in Attorney General and still most wants is loyalty. And that is a very, very reasonable thing in general to want out of what is arguably the most important cabin position in your entire Cabinet. It is a doubly reasonable thing to want if you are Donald Trump who just saw your entire DOJ try to subvert your agenda in no small part, at least until Bill Burr was the Attorney General. Bill Burr, I should say, during the first Trump term. Term. So he wants loyalty. And Todd Blanche is absolutely a loyalist. I happen to think very highly of Todd Blanche. But Pam Bondi is out now. Trump didn't necessarily give a whole lot of color. Essentially, both he and Bondi said in their respective statements that she is transitioning out to a job in the private sector, making it seem like that this was mutually agreed upon. There Trump putting in a statement. Pam Bondi is a great American patriot and a loyal friend who faithfully served as my ATT general over the past year. We love Pam. And she'll be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector to be announced at a date in the near future. A lot of folks in the right have been very critical of Pam Bondi. She's found herself in the crosshairs of many conservative commentators. I have not necessarily been one of them. The one area where I have freely criticized Pam Bondi is in her handling of the Epstein files. If you go back and look to last February, shortly after the administration came back in power, the there she had this one appearance on Fox News where she's talking with John Roberts, not the Chief justice, but the other John Roberts, who's the Fox News anchor. And she says that the Epstein files are literally on her desk. And then you fast forward to July and the DOJ and the FBI. Pam Bondi and Cash Patel essentially release this joint statement where they say that, no, we actually don't have a thing called the Epstein files there. There's just a lot of redact material. And then this confusion then leads to Congress passing this full transparency statute. And then you end up getting all these millions and millions, this mass trove of documents that has come out just over the past few months. That's how we see a lot of people's names come up over and over and over again. Was Congress actually passed a statute to force the administration's hand? Now, we've said that Bondi did not handle this portfolio well. Epstein was a really, really, really low point, certainly, and perhaps it is ultimately the reason why she is out as Attorney General in all other areas. Frankly, though, I thought that Pambani was doing actually a very good job when it comes to the core functions of enforcing the president's legal agenda. Enforcing this nation's laws, homicide, violent crime. This country is at a 125 plus year low. The National Guard operation in Washington, D.C. has been a staggering success. The DOJ has been deeply, deeply helpful when it comes to helping to enforce Donald Trump's immigration agenda. There's been a lot to like. John Sauer, the Solicitor General of the United States, was fantastic, frankly, at oral argument last Wednesday in the Birthright Syndicate case Trump versus Barbara. Trump's not gonna win that case, unfortunately. The votes simply are not there. We'll talk about that a little bit later this week with my colleague Mike Davis, who I think has a lot of thoughts on that particular one. But Sauer nonetheless has been an outstanding oral advocate for the Trump administration in the U.S. supreme Court. So there's just a lot to like in general about this doj, but nonetheless, Pam Bondi is out and Todd Blanche is in to Bondi is now the second of the original Trump Cabinet picks who is who is out. She falls closely on the heels of Kristi Noem, who I have much less pleasurable things to say about Krissy Noem. I have never been a fan of Kristen Noem. I said since day one that that was Donald Trump's single worst cabinet pick. I am not the least bit surprised that she has been the first to go. There was also this, shall we say, New York Post Page Six style piece in the Daily Mail last week about the somewhat unusual private, intimate affairs of Kristi Noem and her husband. We will not elaborate because again, this is a family show there. Kristen Noem has a lot of skeletons in her closet and frankly a lot of skeletons that are not in her closet, such as her open, candid admission that she shot and killed a dog. There's a lot to say more about Kristen Ome that it's really neither here nor there there. But I'm pretty happy frankly that Kristen Ome is no longer in this position. I never liked her, she was always a garbage pick and I wish her the best. I don't wish anyone other than horrible people anything other than the best. But DHS is better with Mark Wynne mole in charge than Chris Noem. The doj. Again, I think very highly of Todd Blanche and I think that he's a loyalist. He's a very capable attorney there. I personally actually really have enjoyed Todd when I've talked to him and gotten to know him a little bit in our limited interactions there. So I think very highly of him there. But I will push back a little bit when it comes to the haters and a lot of folks in the right who were kind of spiking the football and saying that Pam Bondi had this coming. That's not my stance there. And I wish Pam Bondi, frankly, nothing but the best, certainly as well. Now, there were a lot of rumors after the Bondi firing as to whether or not there would be other people who might be fired by the Trump administration as well. There were a number of people whose names were brought up there. Now, the interesting thing there is that the administration has actually, through numerous channels, has actually tried to swat down these rumors. So, so Taylor Rogers, who was a White House spokesperson in responding to rumors that either Labor Secretary Laurie Chavez Dreamer or Commerce Secretary Howard Ludnick could be next. You had the White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers say, quote, secretaries Chavez, Dreamer and Ludnick are both doing a great job standing up for American workers and they continue to have President Trump's full support. Similarly, Stephen Chung, who is the White House comms director, sent a statement on X on social media there that the president has total confidence and everyone left to us here. Jason Miller, very close administration, said a lot of similar stuff certainly there as well. We'll see. For what it's worth, I actually would not be surprised if there are going to be additional, additional firings that are going to happen there. And we'll see. I say that because this is all in the context of Donald Trump really trying to settle MAGA family business, really trying to clean out the Augean staples from his administration. So I would not be the least bit surprised, frankly, to see more firings take place beyond just Kristin Noem and Pambondi. I would be a little hard to say exactly what they might look like there. All I will say is that it's not going to be Marco Rubio and it's not going to be Pete Hexseth because they have been just exceptional, absolutely exceptional. And for what my money is worth, probably the two most exceptional of all of Donald Trump's cabinet picks here in this second term term. Another very fascinating thing that happened earlier today was that Artemis 2 reached the moon. So you might not be a huge space person. I'm not sure I'm a huge space person. So I was kind of at an earlier stage in my life there. So the United States, in case you've been living under a Rock on April 1st. So, so last week launched, launched the first manned lunar mission via NASA in a half century, in a very, very, very long time, since the Apollo missions ended more than 50 years ago. And your first thought Might be. How is that possible? I feel like they do this all the time there and it's possible. I'm telling you that that is what happened. I had the same thought, Frank. I was like, really? I mean, I feel like, I feel we do this more often, but no. In more than 50 years, the first manned lunar mission. So Artemis 2 is going to see parts of the moon that apparently we've actually never got on, on photography before. And one of the most amazing parts of this mission there has been the lead astronaut, man by the name of Victor Glover, who is a black man. So the woke intersectional crowd really should love the fact that he is a diverse man of color, but they don't like him because he's explicitly rejected being categorized as black many things. As well. As just an American, an astronaut, he's also a man of deep faith. Talks about his Christian faith, talks about the beauty of exploring the cosmos on behalf of God's creation of the heavens and the earth, per Genesis. It's a very old school understanding of science. It was the understanding of science, frankly that characterized Isaac Newton, all of the great scientific revolution thinkers, the men who understood themselves as dedicated to trying to explore God's creation. That's how Artemis II understands their mission. It's a really, really old school, really biblically inspired interpretation as to what they are doing there in space. And as a man of faith myself, I just absolutely love that. I think it's beautiful, frankly. Beautiful. A lot of folks though saying why are we doing this? What are we there? What's the goal of this trip? We've been to the moon before, Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Folks, this is MAGA at its finest. This is the quintessence. Even more so than immigration or trade or whatever. This is the quintessence of Trumpism and maga. A great nation should do big and great things. We should land on the moon, we should patrol our own hemisphere. That's Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. That's possibly Cuba being next. In the event there, we should push back its enemies like China. We should make stuff, we should reshore supply chains and we should do big stuff like land on the moon. I love it. It is symbolically important a time like this to unite us around common symbols upon common imagery and reality of greatness that is Artemis 2. Wish these astronauts the best there. Space travel inherently, inherently dangerous. They are, God bless them. And as Victor Glover himself says, they are indeed doing God's work. Folks, have a great rest of your evening. Josh Hammer signing off. We'll be right back.
- [44:09]
Tomorrow,
- [44:16]
Max Lucado
In times like these, we all need a word of encouragement. From pastor and bestselling author Max Lucado comes the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast. With over 40 years of ministry and more than 145 million books sold in 50 languages, Max shares the greatest story ever told. The living savior who brings hope for a lifetime. Through rich biblical insight, heartfelt storytelling, you'll be reminded that God is always near, always for you, and always in you. Listen to the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast where hope meets your day. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.