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- [00:01]
Donald Trump
Hey, sweetie.
- [00:02]
Josh Hammer
Your mother showed me this Carvana thing for selling the car. I'm gonna give it a try. Wish me luck.
- [00:07]
Donald Trump
Me again.
- [00:08]
Josh Hammer
I put in the license plate. It gave me an offer. Unbelievable. Okay, I accepted the offer. They're picking it up Tuesday from the driveway. I haven't even left my chair.
- [00:18]
Donald Trump
It's done.
- [00:19]
Josh Hammer
The car is gone. I'm holding a check anyway. Carvana, give it a whirl.
- [00:23]
Donald Trump
Love ya.
- [00:24]
Commercial Announcer
So good you'll want to leave a voicemail about it. Sell your car today on Carvana, pick up.
- [00:29]
Josh Hammer
Fees may apply for years. Donald Trump made his bones as a no nonsense enforcer when it comes to the cancer that is the Islamist regime in Tehran. Now things are shifting. Do we have Donald, Barack Obama? Trump, your opinions may vary. I'm Josh Hammer and this is the Josh Hammer Show. Last we checked in, we were saying that the emerging mou, the emerging Memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran is. Well, we don't really know it is because we still have not seen the text to this day. And our take as of right now is that it is too early to catastrophize and to say this is the worst thing ever. And it is also too early. It is definitely too early to say that it is the greatest thing ever. Why? Because we literally have not seen the text yet. And the simplest explanation as to why we still don't have the text as I am speaking into the camera and talking to you right now. It has now been roughly two days since Trump went on True Social on his birthday, when he turned 80 on Sunday and said that we have reached an agreement with Ron. The simplest explanation as to why we do not have the text right now is because the terms actually have not been solidified. After all, how do you possibly trust the people that you are at the negotiating table with? They have violated every possible deal for years and years and years. And to this day, we still see statements emerging literally by the hour on like, literally today on June 16, we see statements coming out of Iran state media that they will not budge on the nuclear program. Well, Donald Trump is saying that he wants it to be loud and clear that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. He has said this on the sidelines of the G7 summit where he is spending a lot of time this week in France. And Trump clearly hearing some of the chatter, a lot of folks who are not happy about this deal, who think that it looks a lot like, as I just said, Barack Obama's somewhat infamous 2015 nuclear deal. Trump doing what he can to try to dismiss those rumors. So here it was Donald Trump at the G7 saying that this is very, very different than Barack Obama's 2015 JCPOA. Let's go ahead and watch this.
- [02:34]
Donald Trump
Barack Hussein Obama sold out Israel for Iran. He went to Iran. He sold them out. How anybody can vote for this guy or the party? The dumbocrats, I call them because they're dumb. They're dumb people. That's number one how anybody can vote for them. And the second was the B2 bombers just totally deserved. So this deal is a wall to a nuclear weapon. His deal was a road to a nuclear weapon. My deal, they can't have a nuclear. They get blown up. If they have a nuclear weapon, they get blown up. In his deal, they were allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
- [03:13]
Josh Hammer
Okay, so first of all, I don't love the fact that this answer begins by talking about, quote, unquote, protecting Israel. America has its own interest for caring about Iran. This is somewhat of a category error. It's a logical error that a lot of people make when they talk about the issue of Iran. They say that we care about Iran only because of our alliances in the Middle east, both Israel and the more moderate non Islamic Sunni Arab Gulf states. I reject this entirely. I reject this categorically. As we have said repeatedly since Epic theory started on February 28th with the decapitation strike of Ali Khamenei, the so called Supreme Leader, America has ample reason to care about the Islamic Republic of Iran. They have been at war with us literally since the Islamic Revolution, literally since their very first act in Tehran in 1979 was to storm the United States Embassy and commence a 444 day hostage crisis that ultimately undid the Jimmy Carter presidency and brought us mourning America in the form of Ronald Reagan in January of 1981. To this day, right now, as I speak, there is a Pakistani national currently rotting away in a jail cell, a federal prison cell in New York City because he was duly convicted by a jury of his peers in federal court in New York for taking orders from the irgc, from our current negotiating partners in these long Revolutionary Guards War, for trying to assassinate Donald J. Trump. And how do you ignore this? How do you ignore the fact that this is fundamentally who these people are? John Ratcliffe, who is the director of the CIA, who is no slouch when it comes to the issue of Iran, has apparently this was scooped by Barack Ravid at Axios, who gets all sorts of scoops these days when it comes to the administration. Your Mileage may vary as to who you think is the leaker or who are the leakers. Regardless, John Ratcliffe, the director of the CIA, has apparently told President Trump and other senior officials that, quote, evidence gathered by US Intelligence agencies raises serious doubts about Iran's willingness to make the nuclear concessions the US Is seeking in any final deal, according to three sources familiar, says Barack Ravi. Oh, boy. Consider me shocked. Iran is not going to make the nuclear concessions. Well, they've literally said that. The people actually in charge have actually said this to Iran regime media in Farsi, in the Persian language. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out. I have no idea, frankly, what exactly we think we are doing when it comes to who we are negotiating with. Because the fundamental problem is when you try to broker a deal with apocalyptic, eschatologically driven twelfth Imam immigizing Islamists radicals, the fundamental problem is that you're trying to make a deal with eschatological 12th Imam in a tizing apocalyptic Islamist radicals. That has been the problem all along. Nonetheless, Donald Trump still saying on the sidelines of the G7 that this is the deal, that he stands by it. There he is dismissing all the complaints and he says that he's going to hold a press conference and personally read every word of this MoU at the correct time. Here is more from Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 over in
- [06:16]
Donald Trump
France, because the naval blockade was unbelievable. But I will actually, I'll not only release it, I'll probably have a press conference and read it to you word by word so that the press covers it accurately because it's a, it's a very important document. And unlike Obama, who could have destroyed the Middle east with a horrible jcpoa, it is the worst agreement that was a road to a nuclear weapon. Mine is a wall against a nuclear weapon. I mean, I see these people say, but we already had one. He paid a fortune for it. We pay nothing. We don't pay. There was some statement, we're going to spend $300 billion. No, we're not. We're allowed to go and invest if we wanted to someday in the future. We have no obligation whatsoever. It could be that Iran will turn out to be successful when they have oil, but if we left a week ago, just left before the last two attacks, it would have taken them 20 years to rebuild Iran.
- [07:25]
Josh Hammer
So you heard this back and forth there about the $300 billion number. The vice President mentioned this, then he tried to dismiss, tried to walk back what he seemingly had already said there's this big debate as to whether or not there's going to be money given in advance to Iran as a token of good faith measure when it comes to trying to get this deal on the table there, the easiest way, the easiest way to dismiss these criticisms and to make sure that we are all on the same page is to simply release the text. I do not understand why this is so difficult. Actually, there was a leaked, alleged version of the text that came out on social media last night. We don't know if this is the actual version. I will get to that in just a segment. For now, folks, just a quick word from our sponsor for today's show. The sponsor is Angel Studios. You know, we spend a lot of time talking about what's gone wrong in modern culture and modern media and frankly, the way American history is often distorted. That's why I'm genuinely excited about Young Washington, which is the blockbuster film release by Angel Studios coming out this July 3rd. In just a few weeks, the day before this Nation celebrates its 250th anniversary. What makes Young Washington different is that it actually respects the audience and respects the truth. This is the story of George Washington before he became the indispensable man, before the presidency, before victory. It's a young man shaped by hardship, failure and the unmistakable hand of Providence guiding his path. And let's be honest, Hollywood almost never, never tells stories like this anymore. That's why Angel Studios fundamentally matters because you can join the Angel Guild for just $15 a month and you'll get two free tickets to Young Watch Gen plus streaming access and tickets to all future angel releases. Folks, I have seen this film. I watched in advance version. It's absolutely fantastic. I love American history. I admire George Washington and the founding generation greatly and I learned a lot from this. So make sure to go to angel.com hammer today you can join the Angel Guild for only $15 a month. Check out Young Washington in theaters starting this July 3rd. Go to angel.com hammer today so I mentioned that there was a leaked alleged version of this US Iran MoU text that came out online yesterday. Now it has not been confirmed and I do not want to to put so many eggs in this basket. You should take what I'm about to say with a large grain of salt. Nonetheless, this was a very detailed version of the MoU that was scooped by a man by the name of Josh Block who's been a Washington D.C. foreign policy hand for a number of years now, broadly affiliated with the Hut Institute where our Guest yesterday. Rebecca Heinrichs is a senior fellow. It seems to me like this text was translated from Farsi, from the Persian language. So I'm not entirely sure where he's getting this, but some of my sources say that the actual text looks very similar to this. Nonetheless, take this with a grain of salt. So this leaked version of the MoU, which again, Josh Block has released on X from his account at JoshBlock DC includes some clauses, such as the following Clause number 10. The United States undertakes that immediately after the signing of the MOU and until the date of the lifting of sanctions, the US Treasury Department will issue waivers for exports of Iranian crude oil, petrochemical products and their derivatives, and all related services, including banking, insurance, transportation and the like. So it does seem like, to just give one example, there's going to be an immediate use of Iranian crude waivers. It's also going to be an immediate revocation of the US Naval blockade, the blockade that has absolutely suffocated the Iranian oil and natural gas industry. There are all sorts of other clauses in here that don't exactly seem to meet the goals, shall we say, of what the administration announced at the outset. Clause 6, for instance, has a reference to the, quote, ensuring of the financing of at least $300 billion. This is the $300 billion that Trump mentioned there, that Vance mentioned there. So are we actually going to get to a world where the United States taxpayer is essentially going to be paying the reparations to rebuild Iran? I don't know. I actually don't know because the text I'm reading here is just the alleged text. We have not seen the freaking text. Now, what the administration has done, and this is unfortunate, is instead of releasing the text, presumably because there actually is not a final agreement text, because these people are freaking crazy. And it's hard to actually arrive at a conclusion in light of that, or in lieu of that, I should say what they have done is they have deployed certain talkers, certain talking points, a memoir, and they've put out certain people on social media, people like Alex Brucewicz, who are basically just carrying water for this and are trying to dismiss concerns at any and all costs and saying that you have to be corrupt or stupid or low IQ or this or that or that in order to have any questions. That's ridiculous. We should have questions because the goalposts have indubitably switched when it comes to this conflict. At one point, Donald Trump said that the Iranian people should take to the streets and to throw the yoke of tyranny off them and to reclaim their freedom. He said that there would be, quote, unquote, unconditional. We said that there would be the destruction of Iran's ballistic missile programs, the end of their financing of their terror proxies, the end of the nuclear threat. Is any of that still the case? Again, I just don't know. And fundamentally, that is why I do feel that there is no shortage of schizophrenia when it comes to the current regime approach vis a vis the United States and Iran. I don't get it. I have a lot of questions and the best thing the administration can do is provide clarity by releasing the text ASAP and starting to at least answer or to reconcile with some of these very legitimate questions. Folks, a lot more on this topic and much more on today's show. We're going to a quick break. Stay with us. We'll be right back with more after this.
- [13:03]
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- [13:36]
Josh Hammer
Welcome back. So to reiterate what I've said on the show thus far this week, my basic take is that Donald Trump wanted a PR coup on his 80th birthday. He wanted some sort of announcement on his birthday. It was also Flag day. It was also UFC Freedom 250, this star studded display with the military flyover. He wanted this announcement to happen on this day. The timing nonetheless was not necessarily ready for this to happen, which is why they got ahead of their skis, which is why they said that there was a deal. And we still have not seen the text. So they got a little bit ahead of their skis on that front as well. More generally zooming out a little bit, what is actually happening here is that President Trump is very skittish about the midterms. He is worried that he might lose Congress. He is worried that gasoline prices which of gone up, that inflation which has also gone up, that this might do a number when it comes to the possibility of Republicans maintaining both House of Congress come January 2027. Personally, I think that these fears are a little bit overblown. Republicans are going to net at least 10 to 15 seats when it comes to the Redistricting battle. True, they could have gained more seats. Were Southern Republicans in states like Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, not a bunch of squishes, but neither here nor there for present purposes. The point is, I think this fear is actually a little bit overblown, especially when you look at the utter insanity of the political opposition, namely the Democrats. But those are the numbers that President Trump has clearly been looking at, and he's starting to close the ranks a little bit. The guy who was all in for blowing the crap out of Iran, the guy whose Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, who's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Raisin Cain, had those weekly or bi weekly pressers at the Pentagon in those early weeks of epic fury, and who were just going on and on about the astounding success, how we're going all in with our close ally Israel against Iran, et cetera. All of that seems like it is a distant memory at this point. Really? It was not that long ago, folks. I mean, I am old enough to remember when this happened. It was like three months ago. I presume that you're probably old enough to remember it as well. Nonetheless, Trump is now closing ranks among a lot of skeptics of the deal. So Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, not necessarily our favorite senator here, but nonetheless someone who is generally supportive of the US Israel alliance, someone who is generally skeptical of Iran. You can say whatever you want about Lindsay, but you can't take that away from him. Donald Trump not having it with Lindsey Graham here. He was also on the sidelines of the G7, saying that Lindsey Graham will be made to fall in line essentially when it comes to the Iran deal.
- [16:00]
Donald Trump
Lindsey is skeptical. Yeah, I'll have to talk to Lindsey. He'll be in big trouble. Lindsey's good. Lindsey's fine. He's not skeptical. He's just fine. Look, this agreement covers something very nicely. We're not paying for anything. We're not doing anything. The markets now are higher than they were when we started. Remember that the stock market now is 2,500, maybe even more than that. Points higher than it was when we think it's pretty amazing disagreements about one thing, that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. Never, ever, ever.
- [16:37]
Josh Hammer
So if that's true, then that's great. But what if that's just a talking point? And what if by refusing to handle the nuclear weapons now, when the regime was on the ropes, we are just prolonging the inevitable? And what is the inevitable? Is the inevitable actually Iran becoming a nuclear power? Who knows? Who knows? Again, A lot of these questions can be answered by just releasing the text. But Trump clearly not happy with Lindsey Graham. He allegedly also is not happy with those inside of his own administration who have been skeptics of this MoU, of this emerging diplomacy and deal with the Iranian regime. So Israel Hayom, which is one of the major newspapers over there, has an interesting article that US Sources are credited with telling them. I have not seen this reporting replicated elsewhere. So take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary. Nonetheless, according to Israel Hayom, Trump is, quote, weighing a purge of Iran deal opponents inside his administration. The US President continues, the Israeli newspaper, quote, is considering firing senior officials who opposed the nuclear agreement with Iran. Among them War Secretary Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The rumor was that that was going to happen today. As of the time that I'm speaking, neither of those firings has happened. That would be an astounding, astounding move if you were to fire someone like Pete Hegseth or John Ratcliffe. People who have been very senior, trustworthy allies, not just on the Iran issue, but really in essentially everything else they do. Simply for what, Simply for continuing to have skepticism of Iran, whereas the president himself had skepticism just two and a half, three months ago. What exactly has changed? What exactly has changed? And it's really on this front that I just fundamentally don't understand it. And the question of Israel itself does enter into the equation here as well. I mentioned Hegseth and Cain in those weekly or biweekly Pentagon pressers early during Epic Theory. They were praising Israel in the most fulsome terms imaginable. Hegseth saying how it was a breath of fresh air was the direct phrase he used to go into war alongside such a capable ally. He waxed poetically and spoke beautifully about how this is the greatness of having the world's three greatest air forces, which he referred to as the US Air Force, the US Navy, and then the Israeli Air Force. The three greatest air forces. That's what Pete Hex had said. He said it was an amazing treat, a breath of fresh air. Again, to go into war in this situation that is very, very, very different than the way that Donald Trump specifically is now talking about Israel. And Israel factors into this MOU or this deal for a few reasons. One is that Hezbollah, which is currently in Lebanon, is not going to lay down their arms. Hezbollah is a direct proxy of Iran, which might define a little bit more concretely what we actually mean when we talk about what it, what it means to be an Iranian proxy. What it means is that Hezbollah, even though they physically operate broadly inside Lebanon, although Hezbollah is actually all throughout the world, there's Hezbollah operatives in the Western Hemisphere. Tragically, there are some right here in the U.S. including in Dearborn, Michigan, where they actually are the base of support for the leading Michigan Senate Democratic candidates, Abu El Sayed. But neither here nor there. Hezbollah is based in Lebanon, but they are loyal to Iran. In fact, they actually assassinated the prime minister of Lebanon back in 2005. The current president of Lebanon, who, per the Lebanese constitution, is a Maronite Christian, a Kafa man by the name currently of Yosef Ayoun, has said that Hezbollah is an existential threat to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Lebanese state. He has accused Iran of treating southern Lebanon, which is a Hezbollah stronghold, as a pawn, ultimately trying to tear apart the country. Hezbollah is not going to stop firing on Israel. I was just there two weeks ago. We ran to a bomb shelter overnight during one of these Hezbollah drone and rocket raids. So is Israel bound by this? Well, Iran is now saying that they are not going to sign this MoU, whatever the mysterious MoU text is, unless Israel fully withdraws, aka gives up on Hezbollah, even though Hezbollah started this latest iteration of this battle just a few weeks ago. And Trump is not happy either. He is taking out his iron frustration, not on our actual enemy, Iran, but for whatever reason, he's taking out his frustration now increasingly on Israel itself. So here was Donald Trump talking about Israel and Hezbollah yet again on the sidelines of the G7 this week. Go ahead and watch this.
- [21:07]
Donald Trump
It can. And, you know, I consider that the minor war, Iran's a big one, but we have that little pin print out there that constantly rears its head, and that's Hezbollah. And, you know, I was very responsible for Syria. And the man that's running Syria now is a person that I put there along with President Erdogan and some others. He's done an amazing job of pulling it together. He's not a boy Scout, but he's done an amazing job of pulling it together. And he is very good with Hezbollah, does not like them. And I'll tell you what, Israel is fighting Hezbollah too long and too many people are being killed. And you don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they're not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you. And I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah, because to be honest, with you, I think they do a better job of doing it. Job of doing it.
- [22:12]
Josh Hammer
Okay. So there is an astounding amount of disinformation, unfortunately, what the president is saying here. So first of all, Israel is well known, is very well known that when they engage in warfare against Hamas, against Hezbollah, they leaflet and they literally will send text messages and phone calls to individual apartment buildings where there are civilians saying get the heck out because Hamas or Hezbollah is using this building to launch attacks and this place is going to blow. They are well known for doing that. The notion that Israel is indiscriminately knocking down civilian infrastructure and killing civilians, which is essentially saying that they are committing war crimes, indoor genocide is a talking point of the code pink far left is a talking point of the hacks and morons of the so called globalist ruling class. It is not the kind of thing the president United States should be saying, the notion that Syria could do this better, really, Al Jarrah, the head of Syria, is a former Al Qaeda jihadi. So what actually is going on here and why is this narrative so much on the up and up whereby the properly sober view of Iran from just two and a half, three months ago is now declining, declining and declining. Well, we're gonna continue this analysis and much more folks after a quick break. We'll be right back after they stay with us. We'll be right back.
- [23:30]
Donald Trump
Back.
- [23:32]
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- [24:05]
Josh Hammer
Welcome back. It was only three months ago, give or take, that Donald Trump was, as we said here on the show, was settling all the MAGA family business when it came to a lot of his most pronounced skeptics. Vis a vis Saran, he was calling out in no uncertain terms people like Tucker Carlson, Min Kelly and Candace Owens. He was praising the most fulsome terms imaginable, Mark Levin, who is one of the foremost skeptics and opponents of those three other reprehensible individuals. Fast forward to now and the tables have clearly turned. You have the vice president, J.D. vance, who is the lead negotiator the lead architect of this MoU who is going on Megyn Kelly's show today, Maine Kelly, same Maine Kelly who Trump was utterly excoriating repeatedly in public as recently as two and a half, three months ago. The vice president going on her show today to talk about this deal and to promote his new book as well. On the other hand, you have Mark Levin, who is using a lot of his time on social media to try to get Donald Trump's ear when it comes to trying to sound the alarm about the Iran deal. So what exactly has changed? It seems to me that the president thought that Iran would be a much easier job than it was. He was coming off of the astounding success with Operation Absolute Resolve and the extraction of Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela. And he thought that, oh, Iran will actually fall, just like that, we'll be able to get the leaders and we'll be able to turn Iran into essentially another Petro American province, similar to the situation currently in Venezuela under Delsey Rodriguez, who is a Marxist Leninist socialist, very much in the Hugo Chavez, Nicolas Maduro mold. But Delsey Rodriguez, to paraphrase the Godfather, knows. She knows darn well that this is an offer that she cannot refuse, because if she does, then, well, something bad could happen. You know, Luca Brasli, fishes bomb the ocean. If you've seen the Godfather, which I presume you have, because it's the greatest movie of all time, then presumably you get it. So that was then and again this is now. So the Trump overestimated the ability with which the United States could accomplish its goals easily in Iran. He's definitely gone skittish when it comes to gas prices. And for a while there, not just in Podcastan and the various commentators there in the chattering class, but also people inside the administration. So I mentioned earlier in the show, this astounding rumor coming from the Israeli newspaper, Israel Hayom, that John Ratcliffe, the head of the CIA and or Pete Heseth at the War Department, could potentially be fired, which I think would be a tremendous mistake, especially when it comes to Pete Hexth, who's been, I think, frankly, fantastic in this current job. That is a big, big difference. Big difference from earlier in this conflict where you had people like Tulsi Gabbard, the dovish current head, for now at least, of the head of ODNI, and also to an extent, the Vice President himself, J.D. vance, also known to be more dovish. They seemed for a while that they were being sidelined. Now, J.D. vance is the lead architect of this deal. He is placing a massive, massive wager when it comes to this current deal. And if you look at the prediction markets, if you look at Kelshi, for instance, for a while there, JD Vance and Mark Rubio were actually basically tied. It was essentially a coin flip as to who was the favorite in 2028 for the GOP presidential nomination. In fact, in at least some of these markets, Rubio actually briefly surpassed J.D. vance. Well, Rubio has actually really been MIA. He's been nowhere to be found over the past few weeks, let's call it at least maybe even more than that when it comes to Iran. Why? Because he probably knows that his actual opinions are not the opinions currently held by the big man himself, President Donald J. Trump. Which is why JD Vance is opportunistically taking advantage of this opportunity to assert his dovish bona fides and to emerge as the lead negotiator here. When it comes to the nao, he is doing all the media rounds. He is the one who signed this deal on the Sunday talk shows on Fox News with skeptics like Sean Hannity. He was on Hannity last night. He's the one that the administration is trying out there to try to sell this deal. And currently the prediction markets are showing it. So on Kelsey, for instance, just over the over the past day or so, J.D. vance's odds of getting the 2020 nomination have increased by four points. Marco Rubio's have gone down by two because he's placing a very large wager when it comes to this. Ultimately, that wager will, among other things, make or break his 2028 candidacy. Vance is in essence placing a bet that this deal will actually hold, that it will not become rudenessly unpopular within the Republican Party base, similar to Barack Obama's 2015 deal. And above all, that America will actually get something out of it, that the Iranians will not just blatantly violate it as they have seemingly every other agreement that we have inked over the years. That's a very, very risky, high stakes gamble. I'm not sure it's going to pay off. Frankly, Rubio, whose opinions on this matter, although assuredly are different than the Vice President's, is choosing to stay silent. He probably does not want to risk the wrath of the President, does not want to become a possible hegseth or Ratcliffe like target of the President's ire. But again, to sum up here, before we move on to other topics for today's show, the easiest thing this administration can do to try to assuage all of the critics and all of the skeptics is release the darn texts. Stop sending out Alex Brucewicz and people like that to just dunk on skeptics and say you're stupid, you're corrupt, you're dumb, blah blah, blah blah blah. That's not going to work. It's bad. The best path forward is to release the text. Hopefully that happens asap. So in other news, we just learned over the over the past news cycle that the FBI and other law enforcement partners disrupted a massive drone attack that was set to happen this past Sunday at the UFC Freedom 250 event in Washington D.C. so this was supposed to be a horrific attack. There are now five people currently in custody. Investigators identified at least 23 other people as well as part of a sweeping broad network of plotters. So the alleged plan was a two step plan. The first step involved explosive laden drones, reports Fox News. To hit buildings nearby the UFC fight ultimately to force a mass evacuation and steer crowds into a pre stage sniper team. So very elaborate. You got drones, snipers. And then the second wave was allegedly to storm the White House. Yes, that is apparently what happened. So this plan was disrupted. The Secret Service said it worked closely with the FBI. This was on the FBI's radar for a while. They became aware of it on June 10th. So four days prior to the actual attempted event itself, the day of UFC Freedom 250. And thank goodness that they were able to stop what God forbid would have been likely a mass casualty event. Now one suspect allegedly told investigators that his goal was to target, quote, capitalist elites, billionaires or politicians who received donations from aipac, the America Israel Public Affairs Committee. So this targeting of people trying to kill them because of their quote unquote capitalist leaders or billionaires is this Luigi Mangione style leftist class hatred? This class warfare, this class envy, this same grotesque envy that we've been talking about recently when it comes to the left hating Elon Musk from becoming the world's first trillionaire, this notion that you can hate someone simply because he or she has been successful and has accumulated wealth and has created jobs. It's awful. It's awful, awful, awful, awful. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins. And thou shalt not covet of course is the 10th, the final of the 10 Commandments. So if this is evil, evil stuff, we know from the Kohelet from the book of Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun. And sure enough we are now seeing this horrific resurgence on the far Socialist, Marxist Left when it comes to class envy, which is the evil twin of this oppressed oppressor dei. Intersectional envy. It's evil stuff. Again, thank goodness that this plot actually was thwarted. Notably, though, I mentioned that it was not just quote unquote, capitalists, elites and billionaires who these plotters tried to target. It also was politicians who received donations from aipac. Folks, I'm actually not even a big fan of aipac. I know that's probably gonna surprise a lot of folks, but I'm not. I've been a critic of them for a very, very long time. Because in many ways, historically, it's changing a little bit now. But historically, one of the biggest things that AIPAC did on the Hill year in, year out was they would try to pass this 3 to 4 billion dollars annual foreign aid package from the United States to Israel. And by the way, the people lobbying are Americans. This is such a common misconception. They say, oh, register AIPAC under fara. They're not Israelis. They're literally Americans. The same way that cufi, Christian United for Israel. They're Americans too. They happen to care about a certain alliance for a lot of reasons. There's a lot of reasons, frankly, to care about it. But they're Americans. Anyway, AIPAC for years and years was trying to pass this package. I actually didn't even support them because I don't agree with the package. For a decade now I've been saying wind down this foreign aid, which by the way, Netanyahu was now finally saying that as well. And Marlin Stasman, the congressman from Indiana, has introduced legislation to that exact effect. We're trying to get Marlon Stutzman on the show to talk about that. We hope we'll make that happen for you sooner rather than later. But as my friend Carol Markowitz put it on X just this morning, she said, quote, democrats have turned support for a middle of the road American Jewish pact into a reason to murder people. That's where we're at right now, folks. And that's not just an anti Semitism problem. It is absolutely that. But it is just a political violence problem at its core. You can't try to kill someone because you disagree with them. This is how republics die. That's not an exaggeration. And if nothing else, in this summer of America 250, that is a really, really, really important lesson to try to intuit. Shouted from the rooftops from sea to shining sea. I'm not sure if that will make it into the left's brain between the ears but certainly it's what we must try to do. Folks, one final break. We'll be right back with more after this.
- [34:17]
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- [34:50]
Josh Hammer
Welcome back. So prior to the break, we were talking about this horrific would be attack that, thank goodness, was thwarted by the FBI and other law enforcement entities that could have been a mass casualty event, God Forbid at the UFC Freedom 250 fight a drone attack. By the way, I have to say this, billionaire capitalist elites, politicians on the AIPAC dole, maybe it's just low level random leftists, people inspired by Luigi Mangione and the Charlie Kirk assassins and people like that. Maybe that's the case. Or maybe actually there's something more nefarious here. Is it possible I'm just going to ask questions as Tucker does. I'm just going to ask a question. Is it possible that there actually was a broader plot here, that maybe, just maybe a country like Iran was involved? There is a lot of history for Iran trying to engage in assassinations here on American soil. They tried to kill Trump, they tried to kill Ivanka Trump and on and on and on. Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, you name it. I'm just saying that in the course of trying to learn about this, that would be a good thing to look into right now in the context of this emerging mou, the deal and on. Now this attack or would be attack does also shine spotlight on the FISA Section 702 debate. So we've not spent a lot of time on the show talking about FISA section 702. FISA is a statute from the 1970s. There are these special FISA courts that it has to do with wiretapping and government surveillance in general. It was expanded under the Patriot act, which was passed in the post 911 context. The tea Party Arab Republican Party became very, very skeptical of this, especially in the context of the Edward Snowden NSA revelations, things like that. Trump for a while was pushing to make sure that Section 702 did make it back into the Congressional Record and ultimately was recodified as law. Section 702 essentially allows warrantless data surveillance on foreign nationals. But certain Americans do have their data, or at least their metadata swept up in it. We had Congressman Brad Knott of North Carolina on the show maybe about a month ago or so, a former federal prosecutor talk a lot about Section 702, what it does, what it does not do. 702 is a controversial legislation. What Congressman Brad Naunt basically said, and this is basically where I'm at as well, is that it is a useful tool, but it has to be tailored and narrowed a little more to do a better job of protecting Americans data. Nonetheless, these tools are important because we are currently facing an onslaught of attacks from all sorts of factors when it comes to radical Islamism, when it comes to far left terrorism, and on and on and on. So surely there is some sort of compromise to be had here when it comes to section 702. Now for a while you had Democrats that were objecting, that were objecting to reauthorizing section 702 of FISA because they were not happy with the fact that Donald Trump nominated Bill Pulte to replace Tulsi Gabbard, starting potentially as soon as this Friday, as the acting Director of the of National Intelligence at the odni. The Office of Director of National Intelligence, Bill Pulty is a strange pick to put him on wildly and that is why his nomination got a lot of bipartisan backlash. Nonetheless, what Donald Trump did in response to the bipartisan backlash, because his administration does often listen to its critics, which is why it's very important for people to speak out about this Iran deal and so forth there, what Donald Trump did do was he announced that his permanent nominee would be a man by the name of Jay Clayton. So Jay Clayton is a former federal prosecutor, former U.S. attorney, in essence, DNY, the Southern District of New York, which is one of the most well known U.S. attorney's offices in the country, focused above all on white collar securities, crime, financial crimes, things like that. He's been very, been very involved with the sec. Not necessarily someone who spent his whole career in the intelligence community, but does have a lot of white collar experience. So Jay Clayton is the, is the administration's pick to head up the office of the dni, which is kind of a superfluous position, by the way. There's really actually no need for the office of the DNI to exist. It's essentially something of a switchboard when it comes to controlling the communications between the CIA office and the NSA and various other parts of the ic. But it does exist for now. And what they're hoping to do is that John Thune, the Sen. Majority is hoping to get Jay Clayton confirmed as soon as this Thursday. He's trying to get him out of committee on Wednesday. Potentially he's looking for a potential unanimous consent, hundred vote confirmation on Thursday. Don't ask me how that's possible. That's just what he's saying. I don't know, to be honest with you. I guess his thought process is that he thinks that Bill Pulte was so utterly anathema to Democrats they would just line up to vote for Jay Clayton. Maybe, maybe not. But the point is that if you can get Clayton confirmed by Thursday, that would actually prevent Bill Pulte from becoming the acting director of DNI in the first place because that was started actually on Friday. Trump threw a bit of a wrench, as he often does into these plans by coming out over this past weekend and saying that he wants the Save America act, this bill that we talked a lot about on the show, that would secure voter integrity when it comes to voter id. They'll make sure that you have to have a passport to register to vote. Trump is trying to make sure that the Save America act gets into the FISA Section OH2 reauthorization. Thune in turn is saying that that will cause this bill to not pass. So the rubber kind of meets the road and we'll see which way it goes. If I had to guess, this is Trump just spouting off a little bit and this is probably not going to happen there. That's just what Donald Trump does. But in short, session 702 should pass. Ideally it should pass, though in a more tailored way. It should be refined relative to the status quo, which again, Congressman Brad Knott told this recently, and I believe the same based on what I can tell as well, has swept in way too much of actual American citizens data. We will see what happens on that front. In other D.C. administration or administration adjacent news. Kevin Warsh is the new chair of the Federal Reserve and he is going to provide over a meeting that will be very closely watched and analyzed tomorrow. So these Federal Reserve meetings are so funny to me because people pay super close attention to every single sentence. These are the most carefully scripted and carefully analyzed press conferences probably in America where the markets are reacting based on every period, every comma, every crossing the T, every dot of the I. Oh, is this going to be an inflationary statement or a deflationary statement? Are rates going to go up? Are rates going to go down? Now the big debate between Kevin Warsh and those on the other side, which might be Donald Trump, actually, despite the fact that Trump endorsed Warsh, is the direction of interest rates. So Kevin Warsh has made his bones over the years as a higher interest rate, tough on inflation guy. As an inflation hawk, to use the nomenclature of the Fed, Trump is a low interest rates kind of guy and always has been. He's always supported a weak dollar, always supported greater American exports, balance of trade, mercantilism, et cetera. So Trump has said, and he actually said this earlier this month on Meet the Press, he said, quote, kevin is fantastic and I want him to do whatever he wants, but there's no reason to raise rates. So will will actually raise rates. Well, the most recent monthly inflation data came in actually at 4.2%. That's the highest that the monthly number has been in about three years. So there's some reason to actually consider raising rates. Really? There is in the abstract, but with the presidential pressure being what it is, the most likely outcome is that rates go unchanged. My $0.02 on this is that I think the Fed exists above all really to maintain price stability and to control inflation. I understand a lot of folks that want the Fed to be engaged a little more hands on when it comes to quantitative easing, printing money, lower interest rates, economy stimulation. That's really more the bailiwick for Congress when it comes to fiscal policy, when it comes to monetary policy, when it comes to the central bank, the number one thing that a central bank can and should do is to control price stability. Speaking of political violence, political violence is one way that republics die. Another way the republics die is massive inflation. The Fed must be ever, ever, ever on the lookout for that. Finally, I want to end with another sports related story. This time it's not talking about the World Cup. This time it's actually talking about baseball. So a somewhat controversial thing happened this past Friday out in San Francisco. So the San Francisco Giants, the baseball team, hosted their annual Pride night and they rainbow themed San Francisco Giants logo on the baseball caps. If you know anything about San Francisco, it is a very, very, very, very liberal, very LGBT friendly city, shall we say. So you had a few players, four pitchers specifically on the Giants who are Christians, who inscribed variations of the book of Genesis on their rainbow hats. And it's very interesting what they did. It's not like they went to Leviticus, okay? They didn't say homosexuality is a sin. They didn't do that. They actually put references to Genesis chapter 9, verses 12 to 16, which is a reference to when God uses the rainbow after the flood and Noah and that whole story with Noah's Ark to say that he will never again destroy mankind by flooding the earth. So they were trying to essentially take the rainbow and make it more biblical and not more, well, a little more pagan. And of course the left is not having it. The left is saying, oh, how can you politicize this? Well, isn't so called Pride Night politicized in the first place? Really, it's just another reminder, as if we needed it, that these people will never, ever, ever be satisfied unless they have full scale cultural hegemony. As Eric Gargan said all those years ago, you will be made to care. We traditionalists, we conservatives, have been made to care. That's why some, including these pictures nobly, even if through somewhat meek means, are fighting back. We all must fight back through the means at our disposal. Because without that, and without an end to political violence and other factors, we will not have a country for the June 50 years after this coming July 4th, folks. Have a great rest of your evening. Josh Hammer signing off. We will be right back. Tomorrow. As always, Most people don't realize how much personal information is bought and sold daily. Data brokers collect your data from public records and the Internet, selling it without your consent to scammers and telemarketers.
- [45:15]
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Josh Hammer
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