← The Josh Hammer Show
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play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. I'm Josh Hammer and this is the JOSH Hammer Show. Well, it's great to be back in the saddle. I was, of course, off yesterday. My gratitude to my friend Mark Davis, one of the consummate gentlemen in this broadcasting space. Mark did a fantastic job filling in yesterday on this program, the Josh Hammer Show. We are deeply appreciative of that. But for now I'm back and there is just a veritable BV of news to get to. So the great Lee Smith will join shortly to unpack what is happening in the Middle East. Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzalez on their sides aisle have resigned from Congress amidst what seemingly is the return of me too to the United States Congress. I'll be honest with you, I didn't have that one on my bingo card. Donald Trump, meanwhile, is in a war of words with, oh yeah, the Pope with, with Pope Leo. That's fascinating. How is that going? And also, Joe Biden's weaponized DOJ has been exposed like it has never been exposed before by the Trump doj. So there is just a ton to get to for now. We're going to begin with this, which is the current state of play on the ground in the Middle East. So again, I was off yesterday there. So this is my first time back behind the microphone since the collapse of the talks this past weekend in Pakistan, in Islamabad. So JD Vance coming on American television late Saturday evening announcing that after grueling, grueling 21 hours, give or take, of negotiations between the United States and Iran, that the Iranians were ultimately unwilling to negotiate, were unwilling to sufficiently give in to American requirements when it comes to their nuclear enrichment. And this, of course, is the least surprising thing in the world for those of us who pay attention to such matters. It raises at least one question as to what was the purpose exactly of sending no less than the vice president himself, the number two figure in the entire administration, halfway around the world to a third world adjacent country like Pakistan to engage in this ridiculous farcical dog and pony show in the first place with the mullahs in any event, I suppose it is a nice thing to do to demonstrate to the Europeans, the Australians, the Japanese, whoever we care about impressing that America is operating good faith here. But again, the problem with this regime, among other things going back 47 years, is that the other side simply does not operate in good faith. They don't. They do not operate in good faith, period. Full stop, end of story. We've mentioned on the show before there is a literal Sharia law Islamist doctrine that the contemporary Shiite fanatics in Iran are known for deploying much more than most of the rest of the Sunni Muslim world. And it essentially says that you are allowed to dissimulate and to dissemble. You are allowed to conceal your true motives effectively. You are allowed to deceive, you are allowed to lie when it comes to infidels, which they, of course, they define as non shri supremacist Muslims, namely Christians and Jews, but also frankly, non fanatical Muslims. According to this part of Shia law and Islamist doctrine, you are permitted to lie for the sake of jihad, for the sake of evangelizing the word of Mohammed and the Hadith and all this. And this is what the moles have been doing for decades and decades, decades. So of course I'm not shot there. The nuclear program has been the crown jewel of all that this regime has been trying to do for decades and decades and decades. Meanwhile, in response to that was actually happening on the ground is that we are now in the second day of a United States Navy imposed blockade across the coast of Iran. So the US Navy is currently engaging in an operation, probably an overdue operation, frankly, to try to ensure safe passage of vessels through the all important Strait of Hormuz, while simultaneously trying to impose a blockade on Iran's various ports. Now Iran is in turn saying that the entire region could go up in flames, that they are threatening to bomb yet again all sorts of facilities, whether those facilities are in the United Arab Emirates or Qatar or Saudi Arabia, Arabia, Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, et cetera, et cetera. Things have been relatively quiet ish when it comes to Iran lobbing missiles and drones over the past week since Donald Trump announced this cease fire last Tuesday evening. But again, this cease fire is extraordinarily, is extraordinarily flimsy, was flimsy when it was announced and it's even flimsier now, now that the talks in Pakistan have died and now that the United States is now back and they are literally blockading Iran's ports, which is arguably, frankly, a Cassis Bellian act of war unto itself. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. We're currently engaged in a war with Iran that should be expected there. But how long this so called ceasefire lasts before the resumption of conventional military hostilities, I think is a question. And we will probably find out the answer to that question, if I had to guess, sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, Israel, which has been America's junior partner over the course of this war against Iran, has been pressing further and further into southern Lebanon. So Israel and Hezbollah had their own very tenuous ceasefire for a while. That ceasefire ended at some point over the towards the beginning of Operation Epic Fury. Hezbollah is Iran's most favorite Shiite supremacist proxy in the Middle east there. So Israel is now doing all sorts of damage there in Lebanon. That is relevant for the Iran timeline insofar as Iran cares a lot about Hezbollah. Hezbollah is not what it was as recently as two years ago. In 2024, Israel went on a Michael Corleone Godfather esque revenge killing spree, essentially taking off the entire top of the Hezbollah organizational hierarchy, culminating in the assassination of the top dog himself, Hasan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2024. But Hezbollah still does exist and they are still raining all sorts of missiles and drones into Israel. Iran cares a lot about that there. Recall that it was a question whether or not Iran would even sit down with the United States and Pakistan because they cared a whole lot about the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon. That cessation has not thus far happened. But of note, there's actually a meeting that is happening today. Like literally today, Tuesday, April 14, 2026 in Washington D.C. at the State Department. So literally in Foggy Bottom, Marco Rubio's bureaucracy is holding direct, direct talks between Israel and Lebanon, which famously have never reached a peace deal since the founding of the modern Jewish state in 1948. I don't expect this necessarily to go anywhere. That would be incredible. It's notable that the current prime Minister of Lebanon says a lot of anti Hezbollah things, whether or not he is willing to put his money and more importantly his military, the Lebanese armed forces, where his mouth is. That is of course a whole nother conversation, but for now I think it is just a very important thing thing to keep in mind here. Those talks are actually happening today. So all sorts of things swirling, swirling in the Middle East. Lee Smith of course will join us. Lee Smith of Tabl magazine and elsewhere will join us in just a few minutes to break down all of that and much more. For now though, folks, I want to give you just a quick word from a sponsor for today's show, which is A Balance of Nature. Look, if you're like me and you're tired of random stuff getting thrown into your supplements like artificial colors and sugars, you probably would love to know more about phytonutrition. Phytonutrients are the naturally occurring plant nutrients found in whole foods that give them their color, taste and smell. And the presence of these three things is a sure fire sign you're getting real phytonutrients. Balance of Nature's Whole Health System supplements are a value bundle that includes their fruits and veggies and fiber and spice supplements, which gives you 47 ingredients of fruits, vegetables, spices and fibers and all of the naturally occurring phytonutrients that come with them every single day. Balance of Nature takes produce through a specialized vacuum culled process that stabilizes the ingredients. They are then powdered and packaged. No binders, fillers or flow agents. So whether you've been on the fence for a long time or it's the first time you're hearing about them, I recommend that you go to bounceofnature.com and order the Whole Health System supplements as a preferred customer. Today go to bounceofnature.com Bounce of Nature is a sponsor for today's episode of the Josh Hammer Show. So again, there's just a ton of news to get to. We're going to talk a lot about Eric Swalwell, Tony Gonzalez, Democrats involved in a years long cover up. I want to talk about this extraordinary report that was just released actually literally this morning from the Trump DOJ about the state of corruption of the Biden DOJ when it comes to prosecuting and frankly persecuting pro lifers. For now, though, I wanted to say a quick word about yet another controversy that happened over the weekend and into yesterday where I was off, which is Donald Trump posting this AI image of himself as essentially as Jesus. And this is in the context of his standoff with with Pope Leo. So Donald Trump and Pope Leo, unsurprisingly, are staunchly at loggerheads when it comes to the state of play in the Middle East. Now, I typically do not like to get involved when it comes to drama involving the Vatican involving the Pope for the very simple reason that I have a lot of good friends who are religious, sincere Catholics, and I'm always very wary of offending Catholics and I have a lot of respect for the Catholic Church when it comes to all sorts of their core teachings when it comes to things like bioethics, when it comes to things like the right to life, when it comes to things frankly like ivf, I have a tremendous amount of respect when it comes to the church's teachings on all sorts of issues. So I am generally hesitant and reluctant to opine when it comes to controversy involving the Vatican and involving the Pope. I suppose, though I will say this. So Trump essentially comes out over the weekend and says that Pope Leo is weak on crime and weak on foreign policy. And Pope Leo says that this is not what is happening in Operation Epic Fury in Iran is not an application of what the church refers to as just war theory. Just war theory is a long standing principle, I would say primarily affiliated with the Catholic Church, but there are all sorts of evangelical Protestants and others who subscribe to some version of just war theory. It's generally, though part of the Thomistic literature closely affiliated with the writings of Thomas Aquinas. We're not going to do a deep dive here on just war theory, but it is one of numerous ways to view the ethics of when it is proper and when it is improper to get involved in military hostilities abroad. And essentially the argument that we heard from Pope Leo and 60 Minutes, the CBS program, sat down some Catholic bishops to engage in a similar conversation on Sunday evening there, what we heard from these men was that this was an unjust war because there was no imminent threat. And I suppose I would say the following. There are multiple ways to respond to that. On the one hand, I think it takes, frankly some real chutzpah, if we're just being blunt here, to tell Donald Trump as an individual that there was no direct threat from Iran unto the United States. How do I know that? Oh, yeah, because there's literally a Pakistani national, like right now, like today as I'm speaking, who is currently sitting in a jail in a federal jail in New York City because he was recently convicted, not just indicted, but convicted by a federal jury of his peers for acting as an agent on behalf of the irgc, the Islamic Republic, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, for trying to assassinate Donald Trump. Yeah, Iran's literally been trying to assassinate Donald Trump and a whole host of other officials, by the way, whether it's John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, et cetera, et cetera. More generally speaking, Iran has been a tremendous threat to the United States for 47 freaking years. 47 years. I mean, were the 241 killed U.S. marines from Iran directed Hezbollah in Beirut in 1983 was that not a sufficient threat? The estimated 500 to 600American soldiers killed in Iranian devised roadside IEDs in Iraq around 030-40506. Was that not a sufficient threat here? I mean, I just don't buy it. I don't buy it on its own terms there. And frankly, again, I'm open to the argument there, but I frankly just don't find that particularly persuasive. I don't think Donald Trump, frankly, on this, be a little clumsy, especially with this AI image there called idolatry, blasphemy, we can call it that there. It's very clumsy. I don't love it, to put it mildly there. But fundamentally, on the case for the war, Donald Trump is right.
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So joining us to unpack all that is happening in the Middle east and potentially even beyond is a man making his long overdue first time appearance here on the Josh Hammer show, man who I am pleased to call a friend, a brilliant thinker and that is the greatest Lee Smith. Lee Smith is a writer for Tablet Magazine and the best selling author of numerous books, most recently the China Matrix, the epic story of how Donald Trump shattered a deadly pact. Lee has been on top of the Russiagate story since his origins and a very shrewd thinker on all things Middle east geopolitics related and beyond. So Lee, we're really grateful for stopping by the program today. I want to begin with the state of play in Iran. Then we'll talk a little bit about this. Sit down. In D.C. today between Israel and Lebanon, the first such. Sit down. In roughly three decades, what is your assessment, Lee, of the state of play currently in the Strait of Hormuz in Iran? More generally, there is this US Blockade that is now into its second day. Are you expecting the resumption of more conventional military hostilities or do you anticipate that this is the end, for now at least, of the current military operation? In a more vociferous way, I suspect
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that they'll give it a little bit of time, the blockade and see what happens with that. But yeah, I'm pretty certain that we'll return to conventional military operations against Iran because the President wants one thing. All right, The President has achieved virtually all of his goals. What he wants is for the Iranians to turn over the nearly half a ton of highly enriched uranium. Remember that this is a big deal. He's been talking about this for a while. So the Iranians have a choice now and the President's been explicit about this. Either they can give up that highly enriched uranium or the United States will take it. So that's a big issue and that has to be done. And I can't imagine the Iranians handing it over willingly. So I expect the United States is going to have to go in there and get it.
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And there certainly seem to be many pieces of this puzzle that are not quite yet complete. Certainly if the operation were to end today, to be clear, there have been real gains that have been achieved. The Iranian navy and air force are largely non existent at this point. Not entirely, but largely so. But to your point, the enriched uranium remains there. They still seemingly have no shortage of missile and drones. And Lee, that kind of gets me, assuming that you are correct, which I believe you are, I also believe that conventional military operations will resume probably sooner rather than later. That takes then I guess to the logical follow up question, which is how will the President be able to discern that the job truly is complete? How can we define that at some point?
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Well, again, when they get out the highly enriched uranium, I think the President will be more or less willing to say like, we got everything done that we wanted to do. We degraded their missiles program. We further degraded their nuclear weapons program. So we're declaring victory and that's it, we're going home. I think it's important. A lot of people don't understand why this second campaign started, right? People have asked like, well, Trump said he obliterated the nuclear program in June. Why did they need to go in there again? When Benjamin Netanyahu came to see Donald Trump at Mar a lago at the end of December, it was to discuss the ballistic missiles program. The point of the ballistic missiles program was to have a sufficient buildup so that the Iranians could protect their nuclear weapons program. And that was the point right there. They had reached critical mass and both the United States and Israel were deeply worried about it because once they have enough conventional missiles, the idea was, is that they could use that as a curtain to rebuild their nuclear weapons program. This is why attacking the missiles facilities have been such a key part of this second joint U S Israel campaign. And presumably it's been, I mean, we read the stats that it's been very effective. So again, the big thing right now is getting at that.
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Agu, you can follow Lee Smith on xmithdc, follow his writings at Tablet magazine and beyond. Lee, you mentioned Israel there, and Israel has been certainly the junior partner in this military operation thus far. Today is actually a very interesting day for the U.S. and Israel because the U.S. state Department, Marco Rubio and his undersecretaries have been presiding over today, these first direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon in 30 years. That is a really, really long time. A lot has happened, to put it mildly, between Israel and Lebanon over the course of these past 30 years. Not all of it has been pleasant. The current leader of Lebanon is very, at least rhetorically outspoken against Hezbollah. Whether or not he's willing to put his military resource and so forth, where, where his mouth is, I suppose is another question. What can you tell us about these negotiations? And I think the conventional wisdom is that this is not really going to go anywhere productive there. But is that something that you buy or are you perhaps a little more optimistic about that?
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Well, it's good for the Trump administration to show some of the things that may happen by eliminating the Iranian threat and by driving down, you know, by dismantling Iranian proxies. And of course, that's been Israel. If you look at what's happening, this has not been written about much and it's not been covered much, but the Israeli campaign in southern Lebanon is really quite astonishing. We see pictures coming out of Bin Jebel, which has been a Hezbollah stronghold for a very long time. So I think it was the commander of the Gavadi Brigade or something like that who's marching through, basically the Hezbollah hall of fame. So that's a big deal. The real action regarding Israel and Lebanon is happening on the ground in southern Lebanon. And of course that's gonna dictate, that will dictate things not only for Israel, but for the government of Lebanon, too. And as you say, Josh, it's highly unlikely that the Lebanese armed forces, despite all the money the United States has poured into the LAF over the years, is going to do anything on its own to tackle Hezbollah. So that will be up to Israel. Again, the talks are good for the United States, for Trump to say, look, here are all the wonderful things that may soon come about from I told you I was the peace president. We may have peace here between Lebanon and Israel someday. There's still a long way to go. There's still a lot of Israeli figures who believe that the way to power, the way to consolidate power is through resistance against Israel. So the idea that we're going to see the fruit of many talks that are happening today, it's gonna take quite some time. And it's gonna change. It's gonna take a change of heart, not only in Lebanese officials, but in the souls of the Lebanese themselves.
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And of course, these topics are closely related, actually. Hezbollah for decades has been Iran's number one most favored proxy in the region. They are a shell of what they were as recently as two years ago, prior to the target assassinations of Hasan Nasrallah and his various underlings. But they still exist. They absolutely do still exist, which is why Israel is currently in southern Lebanon doing what they're doing. And the results of what happened in these talks, the results, what happens more generally, military campaign, definitely will have a huge effect on the state of play when it comes to epic fury and the Iranian military operation as well. Lee, in our meantime, I want to kind of get your thoughts on a related issue, but one also touching domestic concerns here. So there was a recent Pew poll that I saw that I think a lot of people were looking at that showed that there's pretty overall declining support when it comes to the American perception of Israel. This is something that I think a lot of supporters of Israel have been attuned to and have been sounding the alarm about for some time. The overall favorable unfavorable split, to the extent that people care about such matters, is now typically underwater. Republicans are still broadly supportive, but Israel has become catastrophically unpopular, you might say, in various Democratic circles. The irony of this, of course, Lee, is that the recent military campaign has shown the value of Israel as an ally. So I guess one question is one, what does it say about information warfare that this information operation has succeeded seemingly to this extent? And two, I guess even more relevant, does that actually matter when it comes to policymaking and the men in charge of such matters?
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Well, I think they're two separate things. We're talking about the left and we're talking about the right. With the left it's not just an information operation. With the left we're talking about this is deeply a part of the Democratic Party's base. There have been college students, you know, where kids who've gone to college for at least two gener generations now
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who
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have been cultivated basically to become part of the resistance. So I don't see that rebounding anytime soon. Unfortunately though, what we certainly saw with the 2024 election is that a lot of people have left the Democratic Party and they came over to the right in large part because of the anti Israel animus on the left. So unfortunately, I don't see that changing much anytime soon. I think if we're talking about an information operation, then we're talking about people like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens and stuff like that. I actually think, actually I'm not convinced that this has been successful at all. It's very thin. We have a number of people on social media doing podcasts who have followed, who have followed this line. But I mean, I sort of look at this as a trend that's very popular to say these things and believe these things. Now. How much relevance will it have? How much relevance will it have in 20 years? I think very little. But something else that we have to consider is the demographics in this country are changing insofar as we've had open borders for quite a long time. And there are lots of people who are coming from the third world, not just Muslim countries, but other parts of the third world where anti Israel, anti Semitic sentiment is part of their monthly.
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It's a very good point. No doubt that was no doubt about that, Lee. Unfortunately, we're out of time. We really appreciate you joining. Follow Lee Smith on Expos at Lee SmithDC. Check out his new book, the China Matrix, the epic story of how Donald Trump shattered a deadly pact. Lee, you're a gentleman, a scholar. We really appreciate you signing by today. Thank you so much.
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Thank you, Josh.
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Here's something most people don't know. When Warren Buffett was just 13 years old, he didn't put his money into a savings account while other kids were earning next to nothing at local banks. Buffett put $114 into a little known investment. Today that $114 would be worth over $15 million. And it wasn't a risky trade. It wasn't even insider knowledge. It was an account that's been around since 1888 and over the last 25 years, it's averaged 29% a year. That's what happens when your money is allowed to compound. Compare that to today's savings accounts paying less than half a percent while inflation quietly eats away at your buying power. Buffett understood early banks are great businesses, just not for savers. If you'd like to see what some investors call the 29% account, go now to secretaccount29.com that's secretaccount the numbers29.com secretaccount29.com.
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So a lot to unpack there, certainly with Lee Smith. We'll get into that more in the days to come. When it comes to state of play in Iran and in Lebanon, all these things are rapidly moving. But for now, there is just so much more to get to in the news. I want to go back to our earlier conversation. Just finish off my thought process briefly. When it comes to this controversial AI image that Donald Trump put above himself, appearing to look like Jesus, a lot of folks have said this is idolatry. That's blasphemy. And you can make a real case that it is arguably all of these things, certainly at least for a Christian. Again, as a Jew, the idolatry question is a little different there. But that's really neither here nor there for present purposes. Suffice to say that this is not the conduct that we should ideally wish when it comes to the president of the United States there. And we should not be ashamed to say that again, we're not here to defend every single thing that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth. We're not here to defend every single thing that he tweets there. We're also simultaneously, on the other hand, we're also not here to clutch our pearls. And we are not here to try to try to persuade anyone that Donald Trump is the greatest Christian evangelizer or a man of truly sincere religious faith. This is the guy famously who back in Iowa in 2016, while talking to a group of Iowa evangelical Protestants, famously said 2 Corinthians when he was trying to cite a Bible verse instead of Second Corinthians. I mean, this is a man who is not known for spending a whole lot of time in a church pew when it comes to Bible study things of that there, God willing, that will change. I would love for Donald Trump to take Bible and religion a little more seriously there. That's just not who he is. And frankly, the way that he fights on behalf of religious people, despite these tactics there, I would personally argue ends up being More important than his deeply, at times clumsy ham fist attacks there because this administration goes to war on behalf of the religious, on behalf of the pious, on behalf of the first mountain, on behalf of religious liberty there. And that goes for all faiths, by the way, Christianity, Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism, even non Shia supremacist strands of Islam. So to me, frankly, that's ultimately more important than really anything else being discussed here. So much more to get to. But for now folks, I do want to just say a quick word about our other sponsor for today's show, which is Angel Studios. You know, I recently joined the Angel Guild and watched their brand new documentary Death of Recess and I really didn't know what to expect there, but I was quite blown away. So I come from a lineage of teachers. My mother, grandmother and great grandmother were all elementary school teachers and especially my mother towards the end of her teaching career I would hear all about the corruption of the teachers union. So Angel Studios new documentary Death of Recess goes on and on in really powerful fashion about the ways in which the teachers unions, organizations like the NEA have corrupted the classroom experience and ultimately weaponized it to redound to the interests, the parochial interests of the unions and not ultimately to the interests of the students themselves there. So it's really, really powerful stuff and it's exactly why platforms like Angel Studios matter, because they're willing to tell stories that corporate filmmakers and the likes out in California, in Hollywood are not necessarily willing to do. So folks, go to angel.com hammer to join, join the Angel Guild and watch Death of Recess right now. If you care about kids, this is essential viewing. Trust me, I watch this. It is really powerful stuff. Again, angel.com/angel studios is the sponsor for today's episode of the Josh Hammer Show. So a big thing happened this morning from the Trump DOJ. So the DOJ's weaponization working group published a very, very detailed report, a 900 page report. So clearly something that took a lot of time to prepare. And it is prepared meticulously documenting the Biden administration's weaponization of numerous statutes. But above all, the 1990s era statute commonly known as the Face act is the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances act which was passed in the 1990s amidst a height of bipartisan sentiment when it comes to upholding religious liberty. To do that, to uphold your freedom of access to religious house of worship there the Biden administration takes that and they start prosecuting the crap out of pro lifers like literally 70, 80, 90 year old pro life Grannies praying peacefully outside of abortion clinics and the Biden administration starts prosecuting them. So this new Trump DOJ report under the auspices of the Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche basically corroborates what many of us have been saying for years now was that the Biden DOJ closely collaborated with pro abortion groups to track pro lifers First Amendment activity. The DOJ prosecutors under Merrick Garland engaged in inappropriate conduct and comments. They even helped a pro abortion group secure funding that they otherwise would not have been entitled to. They pursued significantly harsher sentences for pro life defendants than for violent pro abortion defendants. And they violated the rights of Americans through their bias enforcement of the FACE Act. So it's powerful stuff. And it just goes to show you the extent to which this administration, the Merrick Garland DOJ, and the Biden administration more generally was just truly, truly sincerely biased against conservatives, against pro lifers. Now, it is true that every administration, every prosecutorial office more generally, going back all the way to the English Common Law, there is such thing. There is such thing as prosecutorial discretion. Put another way, it is here, there and everywhere going to be the case that you simply cannot prosecute every act. You just can't. There's not the time, not the resources, the money, et cetera. This has been something that's been known to lawyers for a very, very long time. But there is a big difference between prudential, strategic and economically required resistance or abstinence, I should say, from trying specific cases there. That's different on the one hand, versus just simply twisting and weaponizing the law for pure unmitigated ideological ends. On the other hand, at some point there ends up being a constitutional issue here. And the constitutional issue is the Article 2 requirements. The, the injunction that the president, quote, take care that the laws be faithfully executed. That is a solemn requirement. It's a requirement that most presidents frankly don't take particularly seriously because if they did, they would direct their Attorney General and their entire DOJ to actually do that, to enforce the law. Equally. The Trump DOJ has been on a mission to end the weaponization of the federal government. Thus far, I would personally argue they've done a pretty darn good job of that. And even when they start to get, you might disagree with some of their, let's call it edgier decisions when it comes to the indictments of Jim Comey or Tish James and so forth there. Our theory here on the show is one of basic game theory, which is that if your end goal when it comes to weaponization of the rule of law is a truly neutral level playing field, or at least something very close to that. That true kind of pristine place, that utopian vision never existed, ever, and probably will never exist. But you want to get back to something closely resembling a truly neutral, equal enforcement of the rule of law there consider the possibility that you actually might need to, might need to escalate in the short term in order to get that result in the mid to long term. Think of it as dealing with a bully because the Democrat law enforcement complex is nothing if not a bunch of bullies, really. I mean, how do you look at what happened under the Merrick Garland doj, the prosecution of the pro life grandmothers, the prosecution of people like Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon, etc. How do you view that? Obviously, Donald Trump himself, for God's sake, prosecuted twice by the doj, twice by local prosecutors, Alvin Bragg in New York City and Fani Willis down Fulton County, Georgia. How do you look at that and not conclude that these are bullies? And sometimes a bully, the way to stand to a bully is frankly to punch the bully in the face. I'm not saying punch Merrick Garland in the face. Okay, not a good idea. What I am saying is that legally speaking, legally speaking there, sometimes short term escalation actually is appropriate. So a lot of folks say, oh my God, Trump is just weaponizing the DOJ in the opposite direction there. Well, first of all, he's really not. Most of it is very clean, neutral enforcement. But even some of these kind of edgier cases that maybe you disagree with, maybe you don't, maybe you do agree with it. This is part of what I perceive to be that process of trying to get us back to a neutral state of play. And that, frankly, is where we should all, all want to be. So we're going to carry this conversation over into the final few minutes of the show. But the other big story that is breaking over the past few days is the return of MeToo. So the MeToo movement really started in earnest around 2017 with Harvey Weinstein and his horrific downfall. And it was a big deal. It was a big deal in the early Trump years, prior to the rise of Black Lives Matter, which seemingly supplanted it as a cause celebra for many on the left. I didn't necessarily have the return of MeToo on my bingo card. I really, genuinely did not have that one coming there. And then all of a sudden it came out of nowhere and now it's happening really, really quickly. So Eric Swalwell who was one of the leading candidates for governor in California. The Democrat congressman is gone from both out of the campaign trail in California and now out of Congress as well. Tony Gonzalez, a very scandal plagued, very squishy for that matter. Also Republican from Texas in Congress. He is out too. So MeToo has returned with fury to Capitol Hill. Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzalez are now out. Tony Gonzalez is the one of these two who is generating less in the way of headlines and that's probably justified. He was more of a backbencher. Eric Swalwell was considered more of a rising star for the past couple decades by the Democratic Party. He was a leading candidate for governor out in California. Tony Gonzalez. Some of these screenshots have come to light recently and they are truly appalling. Tony Gonzalez was basically sexually harassing his staffers. That's essentially what happened there. He was texting all sorts of outrageously inappropriate things to people in his congressional office. Tony Gonzalez is someone who is a real squish when it came to his actual voting record, especially on immigration. He was always one of the squishiest members of the Republican caucus. I'm sure he was a major co sponsor or heavily involved behind the scenes. If nothing else in this Maria Salazar pushed legislative atrocity called the Dignity Act. This piece of massive amnesty that God willing, will never see the light of day and get signed into law. So Texas Texans will not miss Tony Gonzalez. My conservative friends in Texas, I think are nothing short of thrilled, frankly, that Tony Gonzalez is now out of Congress and that his political career is done. It's just another reminder certainly that slimy behavior is slimy behavior, period, Full stop, end of story. And that more importantly, you are judged for things like this. I think there is a tendency among a lot of people to think that if you can get away with it, if you can hide it, then there's no one looking and that no one's going to judge you for it. That is not the correct and is certainly not the biblical way to view personal ethics and personal morality. There is someone always watching, and that's God. God is always watching. God is always judging. There is not a thought that you have that he is not aware of. There is not an action you take that he is not aware of. In fact, in the Talmud, which is one of the great early codes of Jewish law, essentially it's the oral Torah, the oral word as transmitted from God to Moses. Stand there at Mount Sinai. There's all sorts of parts of the actual Talmud that will prescribe harsher sentences when the individual thinks that he is trying to conceal what he is doing. So in other words, if you're trying to act so overtly and publicly, the sentence actually might be lower than you were trying to conceal it. And the reason actually, is this. The reason is because you will be judged even more harshly for thinking that you can get away with it when God himself actually really, truly is watching. So that's just something I think, certainly to bear in mind. Eric Swalwell, for what it's worth, there were apparently all sorts of victims here. And look, we are not of the quote unquote, believe all women strand of thought. That is ridiculous. We have innocent until proven guilty as a civilizational norm for a reason. The MeToo left has been trying to abolish innocent until proven guilty for a very, very long time. That argument reached its apex, its zenith during the public persecution of Brett KAVANAUGH during his September 2018 Supreme Court nomination with Christine Blasey Ford. And then that outrageous article, the New Yorker, the accusations of, of gang rape. I mean, to me, it was one of my personal, deeply red pill moments. I was already conservative. I've been conservative since I was 12 years old. But to me, what happened to Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 convinced me that the American left is not even purporting to operate in a place where they subscribe to any liberal norms, any civilizational norms. Incident until proven guilty goes back at least three to 4,000 years. I mean, at least since the Bible, arguably, since what, Hammurabi's code in Mesopotamia. And they just threw it all out. They threw it all out there. So we are not of the quote, unquote, believe all women persuasion here. Nonetheless, there are a lot of people who have now come out and accused Eric Swalwell of doing really bad things when it comes to sexual harassment, when it comes to various other forms of sexual misconduct and forcing himself on staffers and others. Listen, we knew about Eric Swalwell, that he had a Chinese Communist Party honeypop by the name of Fang Feng. And Fang Feng, yes, that really was her name, was a Chinese spy. And Eric Swallow was apparently such a horn dog that he just fell hook, line and sinker for the Chinese spy. Maybe he even knew about it. So at best, he was just really, really stupid. At worst, he just really, really could not control his sexual libido that much in Bill Clinton like fashion, that he literally fell for a Chinese spy. I mean, this a guy who was a powerful member of Congress from the nation's largest state, the state of California, So earlier today, there was a press conference from an Eric Swalwell accuser. All this started breaking from the San Francisco Chronicle starting on this past Friday evening. It was a story that carried over the weekend. And now Eric Swalwell has dropped out of both the California gubernatorial race and also his position in Congress. And it led me to go back actually to this article that was written in 2017. This article was written amidst kind of the height of the MeToo wave in 2017. It's a CNN article. I'm going to read to you a paragraph and I'm wanting to just digest this paragraph from this article that CNN wrote almost nine years ago. Now, more than a dozen interviewees independently named one California congressman for pursuing female staffers. Another half dozen point to a Texas congressman for engaging in inappropriate behavior. CNN is not naming either of those lawmakers because the stories are unverified. So more than a dozen interviewees independently named one California congressman for pursuing fearless efforts. I wonder who that could be. So, yes, this was known. This was clearly known. CNN is writing about, after over a dozen interviews, all sorts of other people out there saying, yes, we knew about this. Yes, it was known. Yes, we knew Swallow was a pervert. Yes, we knew he was a creep. Unless your name apparently is Nancy Pelosi, who claims that she had no idea, despite being part of that whole same San Francisco Democratic Party cabal, here actually was Nancy Pelosi on C Span. Go ahead and watch this.
- [41:20]
B
Some of some Republicans and others are
- [41:22]
A
saying that Democrats turned kind of a blind eye, that they knew what he was up.
- [41:25]
B
No, it's not.
- [41:26]
A
That is absolutely positive and it's true that they may say that, but it is absolutely not. You had no idea whatsoever. None whatsoever. I had none whatsoever. What happens in California now? He was in many of the polls, the leading.
- [41:42]
B
Yes, he was.
- [41:43]
A
That's gone. There are, there's a, an army of candidates out there. And California has this quirky law because
- [41:50]
B
it's ranked primaries, right.
- [41:51]
A
Where you could end up with two Republicans on the ballot.
- [41:54]
B
Well, it is.
- [41:55]
A
How does that.
- [41:55]
B
I agree that it is a quirky law.
- [41:57]
A
I do not agree that there'll be
- [41:59]
B
two Republicans at the top.
- [42:01]
A
Okay, so she's admitting that she's either stupid or just lying or that she's a liar. I mean those are the only two possibilities in town. And I guess Pelosi would rather be stupid than a liar, but frankly, there is really no good option there. Now, the interviewer mentioned the polls. So California has this kind of hilariously complicated but also Kind of silly, frankly, but they call it a jungle primary. So basically there are no partisan primaries. There's just one massive mess of a primary where all the people go up there. And long story short, the Democrat field was so divided between all of these people, whether it's Katie Porter, whether it's Chad or Xavier Becerra, whether it's Eric Swalwell and others, that for a while the top two polling candidates, or at least two of the top three in California were Steve Hilton, the former Fox News personality who's now running for governor, and also Chad Bianco, who was the Republican sheriff of Riverside County, California. They were in many polls, the top two polling candidates and therefore the most likely to make it to November. So you had a world in which the Democrats were so possibly going to ship each other and essentially nullify each other's votes that you could potentially get a Republican versus Republican mano a mano matchup to be Gavin Newsom's successor in Sacramento at the ballot box this November. That was a real possibility. So how much of this is just deeply opportunistic? How much of this is really just Democrats trying to take one out? In this case, that one being Eric Swalwell, even though this was known for years and years and years to me, that's all that's going on here. That is all that's going on here. I don't believe for a second that these women suddenly just found the courage to come out. No, no, that's not how it works. The San Francisco Chronicle, the California Democratic Party, maybe even other Democrats, who knows, maybe Katie Porter, I mean, maybe others are involved here there, but they want to take out Eric Swabl, who was the top polling Democrat. It's disgusting. The whole thing is politics at its worst. The COVID up of horrific sexual misdeeds, or at least many seeming sexual misdeeds there, the opportunistic motives there. It's awful. It's awful, awful, awful. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully it will fail. Wouldn't that be amazing? A Steve Hamilton vs Chad Bianco matchup for California's this November, frankly, would be the best possible ending to this story, folks. Have a great rest of your evening. Josh Hammer signing off for now. We'll be right back.