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- [00:00]
E.J. Antoni
And we're live on matchday as Doug reaches for a buffalo wing. He's got it. Oh, and he's gone for a can of Pepsi, too. What a finish. There's no doubt about it. It just tastes better. Matchdays deserve Pepsi.
- [00:16]
Congressman Marlon Stutzman
Finding great candidates to hire can be like, well, trying to find a needle in a haystack.
- [00:21]
E.J. Antoni
Sure, you can post your job to some job board, but then all you can do is hope the right person comes along. Which is why you should try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com Zip ZipRecruiter doesn't
- [00:34]
Congressman Marlon Stutzman
depend on candidates finding you. It finds them for you. Its powerful technology identifies people with the right experience and actively invites them to apply to your job. You get qualified candidates fast. So while other companies might deliver a
- [00:48]
E.J. Antoni
lot of hay, ZipRecruiter finds you what you're looking for.
- [00:52]
Congressman Marlon Stutzman
The needle in the Haystack.
- [00:54]
Cabot Phillips
See why 4 out of 5 employers who post a job on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. And right now, you can try ZipRecruiter for free. That's right, free at ZipRecruiter.com Zip. That's ZipRecruiter.com Zip ZipRecruiter.com Zip. Well, good evening, everybody, and welcome to Wired In. I'm Cabot Phillips, coming to you live from Daily Wire hq. Thanks for spending your Wednesday with us. I'm a little scared right now because those of you who've been watching for a while, you remember the incident where I spilled an entire glass of water on my computer and fried it live on air. We since gave me a cup with the lid, but today Mr. Pavel has given me a cup with no lid. So I'm gonna have to be an adult and not spill this water. Something to watch out for. We got a lot of news. Let's get to it. President Trump just announced that the ceasefire with Iran is over after the latest string of strikes. We'll tell you how the world is responding and what it means for gas prices and inflation here at home. The White House just released a new report detailing the Biden administration's effort to infuse Smithsonian museums with woke history lessons. We'll talk about the most egregious examples and what's being done to reverse course. President Trump's overhaul of SNAP is beginning to take shape as millions of Americans and countless illegal immigrants are no longer eligible for food stamps. We'll get you the latest on that effort, WNBA star Caitlin Clark has faced years of racial harassment and borderline assault on the hardwood. We'll hear from a congressman who is now calling for the league to protect her. And we'll talk with Senator Tim Scott about Maine Democrat Graham Platner, who just refuses to drop out, angering Democratic leaders across Washington. And as always, stick around until the very end for our live listener. Q and A. If you're a Daily Wire member, get those questions in the chat right now. Go become a member@dailywire.com subscribe to gain access to the live chat. And just a reminder, the best way to help Wired in grow is by giving us a follow on Apple and Spotify and leaving us a five star review. Just leave us a review. Five star would be preferred, but we'll take three or four as well. Just no.
- [03:02]
Lydia Moynihan
1 stars.
- [03:02]
Cabot Phillips
All right, let's get to it. Roll that graphic. And just a reminder for you lovely folks at home, Wired In Live is now streaming live at 4pm Eastern through Thursday. Get daily coverage of the news happening right now. Hear from experts about why it all matters and talk to people who are actually in the story, not just sitting around talking about it. Become a member and join the live chat@dailywire.com subscribe. All right, let's start things off today in Washington where Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olihan is standing by. Mary Margaret, great to have you. How are we doing today?
- [03:45]
Mary Margaret Olihan
I'm doing great. Cabin. How are you doing?
- [03:47]
Cabot Phillips
I'm great. I saw on social media you were partying it up this weekend on a boat in D.C. you were sweating it up at the fair downtown. No sunburn, though.
- [04:00]
Mary Margaret Olihan
Actually, I have a very, very brutal sunburn. It's just on my back so you can't see it. But yes, I was on a boat with our colleague Lyndon Blake and some other friends. We were celebrating the greatest country in the world. Got to go to the Turning Point gala, had a fantastic weekend. And now I'm just sad it's all over and the president's not even here. He's in Turkey or on his way back right now. So I'm just coming to terms with my life and the fact that 250 is sort of over right now.
- [04:24]
Cabot Phillips
Yeah, it's over. But the sunlight, the sunburn will last. You can thank your Irish genetics for that sunburn. Anyways, Mayor Margaret, President Trump on that trip you just alluded to at this NATO summit making headlines with regard to Iran.
- [04:39]
Lydia Moynihan
Yes.
- [04:39]
Cabot Phillips
What is the latest with this ceasefire? What has he said yeah.
- [04:44]
Mary Margaret Olihan
So we had a tumultuous morning Cabot, where the President announced basically that the ceasefire was over. He talked about how he had called off the deal with Iran after they had struck our commercial vehicles in the Strait of Hormuz. He said today he doesn't really want to deal with Iran anymore. And he was pretty serious about this. He called them scum, the Iranians. He said they are sick people. He even said at one point that they're cuckoo, which I don't know if I've heard him say before. And he said that what they'll do, and we've seen this pattern many times, is they'll come to the negotiating table, they'll talk to his negotiators, they will come to terms, they will agree to a deal. And then, as the Americans tell our people, as the President announces the deal, then the Iranians will go out and do a press conference, according to the president, and they'll say, no, the Americans are lying. We didn't agree to a deal. And none of that is true. So Trump is fed up. He's very angry. And he also actually predicted that tonight we might see even more aggressive strikes than we have already seen. And he said this from NATO, Cabot, where he was. You know, he had that Trumpian look on his face as he said that he was giving Iran a warning by sharing that tonight we might see more of these strikes and that Iran should be prepared for them. Now, I should also add the caveat that he did say his negotiators can continue to talk to the Iranians, we can continue to negotiate. But his attitude was kind of he's washing his hands of it. He'll see if negotiations work. But he's pretty angry right now.
- [06:08]
Cabot Phillips
I know this is a very serious topic, but I just can't help but imagine the job of the translator in the Iranian regime where he's translating to whoever is there, whether it's the ayatollah, if he's even alive anymore, and he's saying, president Trump said this and this and cuckoo, and just not knowing. What does he mean when he calls this cuckoo? I don't know if there's a translation for that in Farsi or whatever they speak. So, more broadly, what was President Trump pushing for? We know that there's been a lot of friction with our allies over in NATO. Trump has even threatened to withdraw from the alliance entirely. How have those relations been? Have things been frosty, or did they kind of smooth things over?
- [06:47]
Mary Margaret Olihan
A little bit of both. I mean, the President has been very vocal about his anger towards his NATO allies that haven't pulled through for him. He's talked a lot about the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni. He's been very, very angry with her. But also today, he specifically called out speakers. He had a lot to say on that topic. Pretty harsh words for Spain. He described the country as a wasted cause. That was the president's words. And he said he doesn't want to do any more trade business with them because of how they rejected. And this was the most recent example. They rejected committing to a new defense spending benchmark that the NATO alliance had come up with. And Spain was the only member, I believe, of the NATO alliance that refused to commit to it. Their attitude was kind of that they would like to decide what they would want to spend on their own. So Trump was really angry about this. And he said that they're not pulling their oar, that they're not really doing anything except what they want when it comes to NATO. And I think his direct quote was, Spain is a wasted cause. They're a terrible partner in NATO. They don't participate, they don't pay. And he said he doesn't want anything to do with Spain. So pretty frank on that matter. But I would say in general, as the NATO summit was ending, the President, he had scared some people with comments about Greenland. As per usual, our European allies get very nervous when we talk about Greenland, when the president jokes about taking the country over or adding it to the United States of America. But he did really stress this concept of what he called tremendous unity as he was wrapping up and leaving this NATO summit. And I think in particular, he talked about NATO Secretary General Mark Ruda, who he really praised at length. He doesn't normally offer him too much praise, I don't think. And Marc Rude appraised the President as well. So ending on kind of a congenial note. Obviously, Iran was a huge topic, but Ukraine also came up as well. Ukraine was the war between Russia and Ukraine, with the president sharing some surprise news there that the United States, which has formerly been giving these Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, kind of helping them out in that way, instead of giving them to them, we're actually going to teach Ukraine how to make them themselves. So we'll be helping them produce the weapons. And he revealed this news as he was sitting next to Zelensky. Obviously, Kabat, we know that Trump, Zelensky relations can be rocky at times. So every time these two men are together, I get excited. I want to know how the situation's going to go. But Shanney Vance stayed at home, which maybe helped zillip him. But at the end of the day, these missile interceptors are a big deal for Ukraine. Obviously. They're. They're Ukraine's biggest defense against Russia, and it's one of their best defenses against those Russian ballistic missiles.
- [09:35]
Cabot Phillips
Yeah. Well, it's a lot of great information you just shared. I'm just very proud that you just perfectly pronounced Georgia Maloney. Because in the past, there have been times where you haven't been confident enough, when you've been pronouncing the names of foreign leaders and you've just said, ah, the leader of Cutter or whatever. I'm just proud that you're getting confident. And you know that our audience will not harass you and make fun of you if you slightly slip up.
- [10:01]
E.J. Antoni
So they will.
- [10:03]
Mary Margaret Olihan
Someone tweeted my clip last time and I'm not gonna forget it.
- [10:06]
Cabot Phillips
Okay, well, I will forget it. And please, everyone in the audience, have mercy on Mary Margaret if she ever gets any pronunciations wrong, please. But you nailed that one, and we'd love to see it. Mary Margaret, thank you, as always. We always love having you on.
- [10:21]
Mary Margaret Olihan
Thanks for having me.
- [10:23]
Cabot Phillips
All right. 48 hours after a damning report accused Maine Democrat Graham Platner of rape, he has yet to drop his bid for Senate despite a chorus of calls for his resignation. Across the left here with more, our Daily Wire opinion editor, Ben Domenech and one of our favorite guests from across the aisle, former press secretary to Jill Biden, Michael LaRosa. Gentlemen, great to have you both. Ben, we'll start with you. We're all kind of waiting to get that notification on our phone that Platner has dropped out. He still has not. Have you been surprised that he's waited this long?
- [10:56]
Ben Domenech
No, I'm surprised that everybody thinks he's going to drop out. I'm sorry. This is a classic scenario where everyone seems to be acting as if the establishment in the Democratic Party has a lot more power than they than they currently have. And for Platner, logically, just looking at it and understanding that there can be other things out there, there are things that he might want to avoid, et cetera. Your choice is basically between ending your political career in elected politics effectively or staying in the race being single digits, perhaps behind, at least in terms of the private polling that I've seen, and having a jump ball for a U.S. senate seat in a wave blue year in a blue state against a 30 year incumbent. Why wouldn't you basically say you can offer me nothing, there's nothing you can threaten me with, there's nothing that you can really do Democrat establishment, to push me out of this situation. And you know, if I'm, you know, looking at this, you know, from a very harsh view of the political consultants who are around Graham Platner, I would be saying to him, look, if you want your career to end today, you can put out a hostage video basically saying you're stepping down for the benefit of national Democrats, or you can turn this into a martyrdom effort that will only build your brand within the dsa, within your radical supporters. And guess what? By the end of this campaign, you'll have a podcast contract just there waiting for you that you can use however you want.
- [12:37]
Cabot Phillips
Ben, let me frame the question differently then not do you think he will or should drop out from a, you know, a self preservation standpoint, but do you think he will?
- [12:47]
Ben Domenech
I think it's more likely than not that he will. But I'm just saying from a, from a self preservation standpoint, I don't think that everyone seems to assume that this is just like a foregone conclusion that he's going to drop out. Jay Jones in Virginia, the candidate for attorney general, had one of the worst scandals that I've ever seen. You have these text messages coming out with him fantasizing about the deaths of his Republican colleagues, children. And that's the kind of thing that normally in the past might have made someone drop out of the race. He still won by almost eight points against an incumbent new era of politics. I just don't think the lesson that a lot of people took away from the Al Franken experience, and I'm happy to listen to our friend on the other side on this point, is that the biggest mistake Al made was giving up and resigning as opposed to fighting because if he had fought and he would still be a U.S. senator today. And I think there are a lot of people who took that lesson and are running with it, especially in the Trump era of people who basically say, I don't care what the media is saying, I don't care what the establishment's saying, I'm going to stick it out.
- [13:52]
Cabot Phillips
Michael, what do you think?
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Michael LaRosa
Jay Jones still had the support of the party of Tim Kaine, John, Mark Warner, Abby Spamberger at the top of the ticket. He did.
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Ben Domenech
Well, I got to correct you on that. Spamberger was asked explicitly about him and refused to comment on his situation for the last several weeks that came he
- [14:15]
Michael LaRosa
wanted, which is exactly what he wanted to keep going, otherwise he would have been dead in the water. The other thing is this guy doesn't have a career. He's never had a career in politics or otherwise. I don't think it really matters. The biggest problem that his consultants have is that their other clients are telling him to drop out because they've withdrawn their support. Bernie Sanders and Mum Dami and things like that. Personally, I could care less whether he drops out or not. It doesn't really matter. The seat's not gonna be there for Democrats in the end. He can do whatever he wants. He's from a rich family in New England. He'll be fine. He's always been fine. And look, the bottom line is that Sanders and Mamdani want him out. And that will be the pressure on. That puts a lot of pressure on Morris Katz's consultant, Michael.
- [15:08]
Cabot Phillips
I don't know. You're saying that he comes from a rich family. I have been reliably informed that he is a humble oyster farmer. So I don't know where you're getting that information. But, Michael, I want to get to something that you said this week. You say the socialist wing of the party owes moderates like you an apology over this entire situation. Well, what do you mean by that?
- [15:27]
Michael LaRosa
Not me. They owed Chuck Schumer and the DSCC an apology for trying to avoid the situation we're in today. They used their endorsements, their platforms, their credibility to push this guy, to platform him, to enable him, dismiss his behavior, excuse his behavior, blame it on being in the war or PTSD. By the way, 99% of people that do have PS or veterans that do have PTSD from the war don't do the things that he did or behaved the way that he did. He was an adult who chose a Nazi tattoo or a US Or SS symbol to tattoo on himself. Most people don't behave that way. So that was sort of. What I mean is that they are the ones that owe Democrats and Chuck Schumer and the D SEC an apology for basically putting us in this position.
- [16:34]
Cabot Phillips
Ben?
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Ben Domenech
Well, can I just ask.
- [16:36]
Cabot Phillips
Yeah, go ahead.
- [16:37]
Ben Domenech
The question that I have about this is I agree with your analysis because I ultimately think that Susan Collins is good at a handful of things, getting money and winning in Maine. The thing that I think is interesting, though, about this situation is that, you know, you.
- [16:52]
Senator Tim Scott
You look.
- [16:53]
Ben Domenech
Go from Maine and you look at a situation like Michigan, which is a much more difficult situation for Chuck Schumer and all the people that you just mentioned who are, again, trying to Prevent their party from nominating someone who they deem too radical to win there? Do you think that there's any kind of consequence for the situation in Maine, any kind of lesson from it that can be applied to the situation in Michigan to prevent you from nominating someone that, frankly, Republicans are eager to run against?
- [17:23]
Michael LaRosa
I think Haley Stevens is going to have to make that case. I'm trying to make it. I don't think Democrats should make the mistake we've made in Michigan. I thought it was interesting last night that Haley came out much more aggressive than most people ever anticipated her to. She performed better. She kind of called him out and sort of went after him on transparency stuff and the celebrity senator stuff, which I think is true. If you look at the history of senators that actually that Maine and Michigan nominate, they're pretty vanilla, they're pretty bland. Those two states both Angus King can
- [17:59]
Ben Domenech
walk through any airport and not get recognized. That's definitely true.
- [18:02]
Michael LaRosa
That's exactly right. And they're serious legislators, by the way. Debbie Stabenow, Carl Levin, these were our chairs. Vanden even going back to Vandenberg and Phil Hart, those guys. These are serious legislators. They weren't running for mics all the time. Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin were not holding court on MSNBC every day. They were chairs of committees doing serious business. And I think you have that in Slotkin. I think that's what Stevens is trying to sell. But she's gonna have to be aggressive. She's gonna have to sell that point that, Ben, that you're making about the disaster we're having in Maine, because this guy's been caught in some lies, too. The whole doctor thing, and I think the whole. Recently, I think yesterday CNN came out with audio tapes of him calling for defund the police, which he's denied. So they're gonna have to start exploiting that stuff a little bit harder, in my opinion.
- [19:00]
Cabot Phillips
Ben, I want to put a bow on the main story before we move on from that. Platner has been explicitly reaching out to the Democratic Party there, saying if I drop out, I want to have a say in who the replacement is. The party has come out with a strong statement saying, we're not going to do that. Where do you see that going if he does drop out? Who do you think that they pick to replace him and what does that process look like? Because they've hinted at. We're going to try and get input from voters. What do you see that looking like?
- [19:28]
Ben Domenech
Well, I mean, who would be a better judge of character than Graham Platner. When it comes to political kingmaker, obviously he would have the best judgment about who would be best to replace him, who could both win and represent his progressive views. Platner, to the point, I think, again, he has not had this political history. That's true. But I think that the thing that people are looking for and desperate for within the progressive left is that they want a more aggressive, masculine, call it like dirtbag left kind of envy. They want somebody who's gonna get in people's faces. And they thought that they had found that in Graham Platner. I think that, you know, the Democrats, if they want to win in Maine, they're gonna nominate somebody who's vanilla. They're gonna pick somebody who's very safe, who doesn't offend anybody, and who is going to be the kind of person who can say, you know, I'm going to be just slightly to Susan Collins left, and you're going to like me because I'm not going to be, you know, out there in the hinterlands and, you know, can appeal to Maine voters. I don't think that they should be listening to Graham Platner, but that. Then again, that's one of the reasons why I think he might ultimately decide not to drop out. You know, look, I could be completely wrong. The reporting could be completely right. You know, he could be in a bunker right now filming an exit video, you know, talking about. Talking about how he's still innocent, but he's going to fight it from the outside or whatever is going to be worked up for him. But I just think that this is a situation that could have been avoided from the beginning if the work had actually been done and if people had actually listened to the old hands within the Democratic Party. They just didn't because they no longer have the authority over things that they used to have. And a big part of that is that they picked Kamala Harris. They gave her their. Their emphatic endorsement, and she flamed out in such a terrible way that so many of them lost that type of reputation for picking winners that they used to have.
- [21:27]
Cabot Phillips
On the topic of the Democratic Party, I saw this really smart guy on Fox last night named Ben Domenech who was talking about the party saying, hey, they don't really. Oh, yeah, Michael, too. Never mind, both of you. But Ben, Ben was making this point. He was saying, look, just kidding. He said. He said the Democratic Party, you know, they're struggling. They don't have a clear standard bearer to unite these different coalitions. I think that's obviously true right now. Michael, is there anyone that you're looking at saying, hey, this could be the bridge between this new socialist wing and
- [21:58]
Michael LaRosa
the more moderate wing, more of a 28 discussion. I think frankly, we gotta figure out how to win power back first. But no, first of all,
- [22:11]
Cabot Phillips
these things
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Michael LaRosa
are so personality based that in the end I don't have an answer of who that might be. I mean, look, I'm probably going to be in the Gavin Newsom or Rahm Emanuel lane, one of them at this time from what I can see. But there's going to be so many people that run and I just don't know the answer to that. These things come down to personality contests. In the end, I do think that the party's gonna struggle on the Israel issue, on the ICE issue. There's so many things to get through. I also think we have to see in Michigan and in Minnesota what direction we really do start to take. And then if the DSA candidates in Michigan and Minnesota or whatever they're called, the progressive lefts, if they win, do they win the general election? And then from there, that's kind of, I think, where the contours of 28 start to be framed. And the people who are going to run on from that wing are going to base their candidacies.
- [23:21]
Cabot Phillips
Well, I could go for another 30 minutes getting both of yalls thoughts on 2028, but that's all the time we have for now. So gentlemen, thank you for joining. Ben dominance, Michael LaRosa, pleasure to have both of you.
- [23:34]
Michael LaRosa
Thanks.
- [23:34]
Ben Domenech
Good to be with you.
- [23:35]
Cabot Phillips
Well, throughout the Biden administration, as millions of illegal immigrants flooded our southern border, Americans were told that not only would the sudden influx of foreigners enrich our culture, but that it would also confer vast economic benefits on this nation. But according to a new report from the Federal Reserve, there are estimates that mass migration from 2021 to 2024 accounted for roughly 20 to 30% of of the total increase that we saw in home prices over that span, along with 20% of the increase that we saw in rent prices. Lydia Moynihan, financial correspondent with the New York Post, joins us with more. Lydia, great to have you on. Thanks for being here.
- [24:12]
Lydia Moynihan
I'm so glad to be here. Such a pleasure.
- [24:14]
Cabot Phillips
So first, just, just walk us through the details here of this really stunning report.
- [24:19]
Lydia Moynihan
Yeah, so to be clear, this is a working paper. So it is the opinion of these authors who wrote it, who are the Dallas Fed. So it's not, not official. I don't Want to overstate that, but they have some pretty, pretty obvious conclusions. I think anyone with a sort of a tenuous grasp of economics understands that when you have a huge amount of supply and, or, sorry, a huge amount of demand, not enough supply, you're going to see prices go up a little bit. And so, of course, we saw, I mean, estimates as many as 15 to 20 million, both illegal and legal immigrants. But they are specifically focusing on what they call unauthorized or illegal immigrants. They say there were about 7 million that came from the southern border between 2021 and 2024. And not shockingly, those people need a place to live. And at the same time, we weren't rapidly increasing the supply of housing. And so as a result, not shockingly, prices went up. And so, again, I think it's helpful to have that data point because for so long, Vance made that comment in the election, Trump made that comment in 20. And immediately he was hit with a fact check by the Washington Post and the New York Times, who were saying, economists disagree that illegal immigration has anything to do with prices going up. And so these kind of reports are really helpful to have the ability to say, no, actually, that's simply not true. I don't care how many economists agree with it. We have new data from the Fed that, yes, in fact, when you have a lot of people coming in, they need a place to live that is going to raise prices. So it's incredibly obvious. But I think it's important to be able to point to that, because otherwise, immediately the media claims that you're scapegoating immigrants, that you're xenophobic, that you're anti immigration or whatever it is. So I think that's obviously a really important thing to have. But what I also want to note as well is that Democratic policies have certainly ushered in this problem in a way that we haven't seen before. But there are solutions are also making the problem worse. And so at the same time that Biden allowed this completely open border, he was then saying, well, I have all of these solutions that are going to be great. And one of the solutions that he pushed was let's have subsidized mortgages. Well, at the same time, he was allowing immigrants to get access to these mortgages. And some of these mortgages, you only need a 3.5% down on a house, which is teeny tiny. Most of the time you need 10 to 20% down. And he was giving those to people who had H1BS, who had green cards. He expanded those resources so that noncitizens could access them.
- [27:03]
Cabot Phillips
I think the other big breaking news that you just broke on this show is that the fact checkers are not always right. The fact checkers say, oh, it's so evil that President Trump would imply that illegal immigrants are, I don't know, driving up the cost of housing to. Turns out the fact checkers are in need of some fact checking.
- [27:19]
Lydia Moynihan
Now, Lydia, the economists and the experts
- [27:24]
Cabot Phillips
say, I have been reliably informed that we should trust the experts. But in this case maybe the experts were a little bit wrong. And when we talk about this topic of housing and the affordability crisis to that point, there's new data coming out that's showing that 49% according to the Fed of adults under the age of 30 lived with their parents at some point last year. That's a 12 point jump since 2019. What sort of impact does that have on our country?
- [27:56]
Lydia Moynihan
Well, you're exactly right. So a lot of people are moving back home, which you can imagine young women aren't attracted to young men who are doing that. So not great for family formation. And we're also seeing Gen Z increasingly saying I'm not going to live the American dream, housing is unaffordable and they're turning to socialism as a result. So that's, that's an alarming trend and it's not surprising. But I think the positive thing here is that we are seeing conservative policies going into effect and seeing the results of those. Just one other point that I wanted to make as well here. You know I talked about Biden, but as somebody who lives in New York, I do need to talk about Mamdani. And it's interesting to note again the solutions that Democrats are offering are so problematic. So I know you've, you've been doing a great job covering this the Daily Wire, but Madani solution is freeze the rent and shockingly rents continue to go up for everyone else who hasn't had their rent frozen. And what's interesting as well is the people that that's benefiting, about 41% of them are not even citizens. Right. So this is the crazy thing. We, we allow people who aren't citizens to come in and then we cater to them specifically while our own citizens are not accessing the American dream and are facing so much unaffordability. So again, I think Democrats policies are not, not the solution there. And Republicans need to continue explaining why their policies are better. And I think at the end of the day we have addressed one of the root issues which again, when you have so Many people coming in all at once. You don't have an increase in what you can afford them. It's going to, it's going to cause a lot of, a lot of problems. So I think we are addressing the root problem and trying to provide some solutions as well.
- [29:46]
Cabot Phillips
I'm so glad you brought up the impact of the affordability crisis on socialism. I think you could actually argue that the open borders policies we saw under President Biden are one of the leading contributors to the rise of socialism that we've seen recently. Because you have this sort of chain reaction where you have 10, 20 million people flood the country. Housing becomes more expensive. Young people feel like they can't afford housing. Young people start to think that capitalism is the reason that they can't afford it. They start to blame the wrong things for their lack of upward mobility. Then they start to say, okay, well the system must be rigged. What's something we can turn to, to completely upend the system? Great. Socialism. And I think that chain reaction is something that is important and also important for understanding just how illegal immigration has so many downstream impacts that we a lot of times gloss over. But you bring up Zara Mamdani. You are there in Zorwani's New York. Can you just give us a status update on what we've seen over the last few months since he took office for folks who have not been keeping up with the Big Apple?
- [30:50]
Lydia Moynihan
Yeah, so, you know, it's only been a few months, so I don't think we're seeing all of the disastrous impacts yet. But I would note, just as an aside, there was a video that went viral of Sneako, who's the streamer. He was proclaiming that this is now the Islamic Republic of New York. And it's interesting to note that even I was chatting with a colleague yesterday and they were saying they're now awoken by the Muslim call to prayer. They live in Brooklyn. So I do think there's a sense in which people feel more free, especially folks who are seeming to embrace that sort of Islamic extremism that Mamdani seems to be comfortable with. Obviously campaigned with Hasan Piker and people who think that we deserve 9 11. So that's an interesting data point that it was not something that I had seen before he took office. And I also think we're already seeing sort of what the root cause of communism. He wants to take over the means of production. He wants to take over private property. And he's already said basically as much that, you know, he's frozen those Rents. And the end game, he and his housing advisor, C. Weaver, understand, is that the government's going to have to get the property because they understand that the landlords aren't going to want to invest and that ultimately it will give the government the opportunity to swoop in and take that from them. So it's definitely, it's sobering here. And, yeah, it's sobering. I do hope that we're sort of a warning to the rest of America. I guess that's what I would say.
- [32:17]
Cabot Phillips
Yeah. And we all remember Zoram Hamdani, on his official campaign website, had talked about shifting the tax burden to wealthier, whiter neighborhoods. That was an actual thing he said, shifting the tax burden to those white people. So we will see if he moves forward with that. Lydia, thank you so much for coming on. We'll get you back on again in the future, but we really appreciate your work.
- [32:39]
Lydia Moynihan
Great to join you. Thank you so much.
- [32:41]
Cabot Phillips
All right. That was Lydia Moynihan from the New York Post. Well, guys, on Tuesday, Iran once again violated the recently agreed upon ceasefire, striking at least three shipping vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. In response, the US Military launched a series of strikes targeting drone and weapons facilities along the Iranian coast. And this morning, speaking in Turkey at the NATO summit, President Trump said the ceasefire is, quote, over. Have a look.
- [33:07]
Steve Yates
To me, I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum, but they have to come back to me. As far as I'm concerned, it's just a waste of time dealing with them.
- [33:18]
Cabot Phillips
Here with more is Steve Yates, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Steve, great to have you on. Welcome.
- [33:25]
Steve Yates
Thank you very much.
- [33:26]
Cabot Phillips
So President Trump saying there, to me, I think it's over. Do you think this ceasefire is actually over, or was that just a moment of President Trump kind of speaking off the cuff?
- [33:37]
Steve Yates
Well, there's been a lot of back and forth in this process over recent months, so you can never quite say when it's exactly over. We'll see as it plays out. But he's arrived at a judgment. I think a lot of us have lived firsthand. If you've dealt with any depth with these negotiations with Iran, North Korea, the likes of these kinds of regimes, you get to a point where you sort of realize this is a mafia, that's not getting out of the business. We're going to have to take, take other means. So he said that the negotiators can continue to negotiate if they want. He doesn't see Much point in that. But he's sort of leaving the door open if they come back to me and if they come back to the terms that were supposed to be part of the deal, maybe. But at this point, he has to go back to, I think, basics degrading the fundamentals of the IRGC being the tall pole in the tent, making sure that the Strait is operable by everyone except for Iran. He said as much in his remarks today. And I think the treasury putting the sanctions back in place restores the maximum economic pressure. So he's got a lot of cards, as he might say, to kind of reset where we're going from here now to that point.
- [34:47]
Cabot Phillips
President Trump has threatened strikes tonight, saying, yeah, we might go back in again tonight. But he did caution saying, hey, this does not mean that we're returning to war. Do you believe him? Is there a way to leave this ceasefire, continue these strikes without this again devolving into a war?
- [35:07]
Steve Yates
Well, I guess it's weird spot we've put ourselves in and that we're sort of debating what is a war versus what is a major military operation. And, you know, the strikes we had, how many strikes do we have to have before it's a major military operation? We have had no casualties of consequence in these operations in recent times, and we are degrading some of the sources of the instability. The Iranians don't have the ability to strategically change much in the region at this point, but they do have the ability to lash out, and that never goes to zero. And so I think we're sort of stumbling into are we going to have somewhat of a maintenance mode with our allies in the region? Ideally, and I think some of them are quite committed to playing a role in that. But also we still have substantial force in the region to be able to hit when we have to. Some refer to it as kind of mowing the lawn with when the weeds stick up, things grow out of control. You've got to go in to maintain. And that's what we've done last night, perhaps again tonight, and then we see where we are.
- [36:10]
Cabot Phillips
What would you advise President Trump to do that he's not currently doing?
- [36:15]
Steve Yates
Well, I thought it was good to keep the maximum economic pressure in place. They tried. Whether the deal making could give a pause, perhaps the pause allowed for replenishment of supplies on our part and maybe among our allies, too. But I think putting that back in place was really, I would just focus very heavily on the Strait. We have profound naval superiority. That doesn't mean we have zero Risk. And we have allies who really can be pushed into service here. Let's prove that vessels can navigate the strait. The Iranians can try to shoot at a couple or three from time to time, but when they do, then we're going to. If they shoot at three ships, we're going to hit 30 or 300 targets, whatever we choose. Until that that IRGC ability is degraded to where it is incidental.
- [37:05]
Cabot Phillips
When you say we have allies that we can push in to join in here, what do you mean by that exactly?
- [37:12]
Steve Yates
Well, some of our Gulf Arab allies have significant capabilities. They could play a role in making sure that if the Iranians are striking at ships that affect the economic interests of those particular countries, I have no specific knowledge whether our central command to deconflict has asked some of them to stay out of the fray. While America is leaning in Israel from time to time has hit when the nuclear program, if there's evidence of anything grumbling along there, Israel has proven an ability to reach out and touch someone without detection. That should remain an active option. So it isn't America alone, but Europe has some abilities that they could be using in this realm as well. They don't have as many ships as they should. In some cases they don't have any ships. But they definitely have the ability to play in the economic pressure. They definitely have the ability to help support the supply chains that are necessary
- [38:10]
Congressman Marlon Stutzman
for our allies in the region.
- [38:11]
Steve Yates
I think that we're getting to the place where people are realizing this isn't just about Trump in America. This is a global issue that affects global markets and we're not going to just back away and let them be able to, I think, adversely affect the global economy this way.
- [38:29]
Cabot Phillips
Steve, we've talked on this show before about how the Iranians have a long term view of things. Do you believe or do you get the sense at least that they might be stalling with the knowledge that President Trump will want to get something done before the midterms or at the worst case, he'll be out of office within two years?
- [38:47]
Steve Yates
I guess it depends on what long term is. Some people try to talk about centuries or decades. I don't really believe any of these tyrannical regimes think in the long term. We give them, I think, too much cred in that regard. They are free of electoral cycles. They don't respond to the will of their people. In that sense. They can think longer term than our election cycles. But buying for time and sort of this bobbing and weaving or rope, a dope, whatever the right analogy might be is something the Iranians have practiced for many decades. I wouldn't say whether that's cultural or whether it's the Islamist regime that has, I think, taken over as host of the Persian culture for this. But delay is a tactic that many have used to try to see whether we get frustrated, back away or get distracted somewhere else.
- [39:37]
Cabot Phillips
Steve, fascinating stuff. We'd love to get you back on in the future as this entire situation evolves. But we really appreciate you joining us today.
- [39:45]
Steve Yates
Pleasure.
- [39:46]
Michael LaRosa
Thank you.
- [39:46]
Cabot Phillips
Thank you again, Steve. Well, over the last month, as this cease fire with Iran set in and tensions seemed to be cooling, gas prices began to fall, thankfully bringing much needed relief to consumers nationwide, especially over the 4th of July weekend as tens of millions of Americans traveled. But now, with President Trump casting doubt on the legitimacy of that ceasefire, things could be going in the wrong direction once more. Here to break down the latest on the economic impacts of this dust up in Iran and this presumptive end to the ceasefire is economist and commentator E.J. antoni. E.J. great to have you back.
- [40:22]
E.J. Antoni
Well, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me again.
- [40:25]
Cabot Phillips
So, first, I must say I'm a little disappointed we're not getting you in your office because you always have that really cool timeline of American economics behind you. So I'm a little bummed out. I must be honest.
- [40:37]
E.J. Antoni
I'm on the road. I'm sorry. I wish I could take it with me, but it's a little big to fit in a carry on.
- [40:42]
Cabot Phillips
Well, I'm glad you didn't tell us beforehand because I might have just canceled the interview if I'd known because I'd say no, we bring on EJ to get to look at the awesome frame. No, you know I'm kidding. You know you are our favorite economist on the show. So let's get to this ceasefire. President Trump saying it's over. We're still waiting to see what that means in practice. But in the meantime, what are we seeing with regard to oil prices in particular?
- [41:07]
E.J. Antoni
Well, we're seeing future prices go back up. Now, I want to make it clear, and I know we've talked about this before, but for anyone who had missed our previous conversations, the price you're hearing in the news is almost always the futures price. These are contract prices for oil that's going to be delivered typically in two to three, sometimes four months down the road. It depends on each contract, but that's usually what you're hearing. You're not hearing the price to get oil into a refinery Today to make things like gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, home heating oil, et cetera. So those prices are still significantly higher in a lot of markets than these future prices. But even if we just want to look at those future prices, they have begun ticking back up because unfortunately, it's becoming less and less certain that you're going to be able to get adequate supplies of crude out of the, out of the Persian Gulf in the months to come. And the difficulty there is the fact that we have eaten up a lot of our own stockpiles here at home and we have turned a lot of, I guess you could call it infrastructure cushion. That's really built into infrastructure. We have been draining a lot of those supplies as well as using things that you might not necessarily consider to be reserves as reserves. Unfortunately, though, a lot of them are gone at this point. They've run dry.
- [42:28]
Cabot Phillips
So the futures going up, how long will it take for prices to start to be going up at the pump when people drive home?
- [42:37]
E.J. Antoni
You would anticipate, given how quickly you would see prices move from these markets to actual refinery prices, to wholesalers and then to retailers, it's very conceivable that you're going to see these prices up in another week or two. If you get a big enough shock where there's a lot more, much larger price increases, I should say anticipated, you might see some of the retailers even starting to hike before then. Because let's not forget, these guys have to buy gas. And when they do so, they're using it with past revenue. But if the oil, or, excuse me, if the gasoline that they sold in the last tank was relatively cheap and now they're having to pay much more for the next fill up, those guys lose their shirts. They end up having to put a lot of that on credit. It gets very expensive very quickly. That's part of the reason why those retail prices tend to go up faster than they tend to come down.
- [43:32]
Cabot Phillips
Ej, let's go macro for a bit. Back in the spring, the International Monetary Fund warned that a prolonged war with Iran could lead to a global recession. They've since revised that projection following the ceasefire. Actually, last week they were saying, hey, we no longer project a recession globally, but if this war does pick back up, which seems like a real possibility, do you think that we could be in global recession territory?
- [43:57]
E.J. Antoni
It's possible, although I think it's more likely what you're given the way governments have responded to shocks over the last several years, I think it's much more likely that governments will respond once again. With more spending, borrowing and printing and that's going to equate to inflation. So just like the Biden administration was essentially able to paper over recession, was able to goose the economic numbers through that government spending, borrowing and printing, you could conceivably see the exact same thing this go around. In other words, if the government turns around and writes checks to everybody to pay for their higher gasoline bills, sure, you can avoid a recession that way, but you're going to pay for it with a whole heck of a lot more inflation.
- [44:45]
Cabot Phillips
On the topic of inflation, we're going to get the latest report from the Labor Department next week. Last time we had spoken there were some hopes that we might see some deflation. So negative inflation month over month. What are you expecting to see now when this report comes out next week?
- [45:02]
E.J. Antoni
I think there's a very good chance you're going to see a couple negative prints. So July and then, excuse me, June and then July, rather the June one is probably just going to be very marginal. In other words, the reductions in prices that we saw for energy, chiefly gasoline, to a lesser extent diesel, you're going to see price increases then in other categories which are going to largely if not entirely offset that. So again, probably a slight decrease for the month of June, but I would expect it to only be slight to have that negative inflation or deflation, as you rightly put it, for July, I think there's a chance that you might see something a little bit more substantial. Now again, we're now not even halfway through the month. So if we get another spike in prices at the pump, that that erases the first week of price reductions that we have that we already have in the books. You know, then we could, then we could be talking about a positive print again on cpi. Now, all this to say you're still going to have very hot year over year prints because of the inflation that we saw in March, April and May, obviously.
- [46:06]
Cabot Phillips
Ej, I always encourage our listeners to go follow you on social media. EJ's X account is one of the best there is. You are always tracking all of these different metrics. So I'd love to ask you which metrics are giving you reason for optimism about the economy and our future and then what's one that might be giving you reason for pessimism? Let's check in on that front.
- [46:27]
E.J. Antoni
Well, the thing that gives me optimism especially it's going to be good, I think for the month of June is going to be what we call real average weekly earnings. In other words, this is the Inflation adjusted value of the average American's weekly paycheck. It was doing very, very well in the first year of the Trump administration. It had gained back about half of the losses, if you can believe it, from the Biden administration. So we were still down from January of 21, but we were heading in the right direction. Obviously, with high gas prices from the Iran war, it moved back in the wrong direction. But we should have a very good month for June because again, not only will the CPI be roughly flat for the month, so roughly no losses in terms of purchasing power, but the nominal size of weekly paychecks is expected to have a healthy increase. So inflation adjusted pay, or again, real weekly earnings should definitely be good. On the troubling side continues to be the government just spending way, way too much money. And that's not only is it, is it adding to the debt? Right. We focus a lot on that, but it's also adding to inflation. The more the government spends, the more they have to borrow and the more the Fed usually ends up printing to cover those bills in order to try to keep the yields on Treasuries down. In other words, in order to keep interest rates on the debt down. The kind of perverse side effect then to that is the fact that it's keeping private market interest rates high. So look, if you want the interest rate on your credit cards, your student loans, your auto loans, your mortgage, if you want those interest rates to come down in a meaningful way, believe it or not, it starts with the government spending less money because that means they'll be borrowing less money.
- [48:09]
Cabot Phillips
What I'm hearing here for an Econ 101 lesson, don't spend money. You don't. Have you heard it here first on Wired in ej we always love having you on. Thanks for making sense of everything going on in the economic world.
- [48:23]
E.J. Antoni
My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
- [48:25]
Cabot Phillips
All right, guys. Whether you are a fan of women's basketball or not, you're probably familiar with the name Caitlin Clark. For those few who are unaware, Clark is basically the Michael Jordan of women's hoops. She can drain threes from the logo, she can cross up defenders with ease, and as a result, millions of Americans have tuned into women's basketball for the very first time. You'd think that everyone would be pumped about this, especially the wnba. But not everyone is thrilled with her arrival on the national stage. Since bursting onto the scene in the WNBA in 2024 after a historic career at Iowa and college, Clark has been mercilessly attacked in the media and More importantly, on the court, seems every week there is a new video of Clark being violently singled out by her opponents, who have thrown her to the ground, poked her in the eyes, hit her in the back and neck, you name it. But the WNBA has taken little action to protect their new star. And now there are members of Congress calling for that to change. We're joined now by one of those lawmakers, Congressman Marlon Stutzman from Indiana, home of the Indiana Fever, where Clark plays. Congressman, thanks for coming on.
- [49:32]
Congressman Marlon Stutzman
Thanks, Kevin. Great to be with you this afternoon. Appreciate you having me on.
- [49:35]
Cabot Phillips
Absolutely. I am a big fan of Caitlin Clark. I never thought that I would say that because historically I have not cared about women's basketball, but seeing what she does, it's incredible. And as you have pointed out, there's no protection for her despite these attacks against her on almost a nightly basis. So you're sent a letter to the WNBA commissioner. Tell us what you said in that letter.
- [49:57]
Congressman Marlon Stutzman
Yeah. So we, as a group with the Republican Study Committee, which is a group of conservatives in Congress, sent a letter together with our chairman, August Pfluger, leading on that letter and saying to the WNBA commissioner that they need to look out for every player, but particularly in this case, Caitlin Clark. Caitlin is the Michael Jordan for the wnba. I grew up watching the NBA. Michael Jordan was my favorite player. And, you know, not that the referees need to give them favoritism, but they need to be sure that they're protected on the court. They don't want them having an injury. Caitlin actually had an injury last year that kept her off the floor for several games and was out most of the season. So. So she's healthy. She's back. But I'll tell you what, if the WNBA thinks that they hit a home run here by themselves, they didn't. This was Caitlin Clark who came in and she trains threes, like you mentioned. She has brought a whole new excitement and attention to the wnba. She started this even at Iowa when she played for the Hawkeyes in her NCAA career. But just this last week, one of her opposition players, while she's on the ground, vulnerable, she's already in a spot where she could be hurt. You know, somebody stepped on her. One of the opposing players puts her fist into her neck, and you can tell it was blatant, like she wanted to try to hurt her without it being noticed. And the referees didn't even call a foul. And then they did go back and suspend the player for one game. But they need to protect every player. But they specifically need to not let this targeting continue against Caitlin Clark because of what I think is egos and maybe even some racism in this case. Yeah.
- [51:46]
Cabot Phillips
I have to ask about the race element here, and I hate even throwing out the race thing because we get enough of that in culture. But I can't help also but see a lot of the comments from WNBA commentators going after her because she's a white girl. And we've seen a lot of the vitriol thrown her way. What sort of role do you think Grace is playing here?
- [52:10]
Congressman Marlon Stutzman
Well, you know what, like you said, I hope that that's not what it is. But I'll tell you, you know what, she's such a great player. I mean, she's phenomenal. And the Indiana Fever have built up a great team around her. And, you know, Sophie Cunningham, which is another, you know, phenomenal player, has come in and kind of has been the defender for Caitlin Clark. But they've got a remarkable team. And you know what? You know, there's black white girls on the team, and they played together as a team within the Fever. And so, you know, I'm sure there's a lot of jealousy coming from the other teams, the other players. But. But I do suspect that even some of this is racism because of some of the comments that other WNBA players have made. You know, Dawn Staley, she's one of the, you know, the bigger faces in the wnba. She's made comments that just really bother me that, you know, somehow that white girls, you know, shouldn't be playing in this sport or, you know, somehow that they're not. You know, there's some sort of difference. Well, there's not. I mean, this is a competitive sport, and it needs to be protected. And the referees, especially in the wnba, need to make sure that all of their players are safe. But especially Caitlin Clark. I mean, this is just getting out of hand where she could be hurt because of somebody's. Somebody just trying to take it out on her.
- [53:27]
Cabot Phillips
Yeah. And we've seen a number of folks in the league and commentating on the league saying that. That this is an example of white privilege and that she somehow had an easier go of things getting to the league. But moving on from that front, Congressman, I'm sure you're aware that there are people who have responded. If you go look at the comments sections, as I did today on this story, there are people saying, why does this require intervention from Congress? So what's your response to someone who says, hey, do we really need our lawmakers intervening in a sports league?
- [53:59]
Congressman Marlon Stutzman
Well, you Know what? We represent our constituents. I represent Northeast Indiana. I have a lot of fans of the Indiana Fever. And you know, this is a workplace environment, first of all. Yes, it's entertainment, it's basketball, it's a sport. But these players, this is their job. They sign contracts for paychecks to be out on the court playing. And you know, just like in any other business, out on the, the construction site or out on the farm or in our schools, firehouses, wherever our people that are working. And it's an unsafe environment. If somebody would have fallen on the floor out on a construction site and somebody else kneels down and pushes somebody in the throat, they would have been charged with harassment or assault in some cases. And so I think that that's why this matters. It's why it matters to me because I want to be sure that first of all that the players are safe in the wnba. And we've already seen this hatred towards Caitlin Clark, whether it's between Angel, Reese and Caitlin, you know, which is a rivalry, that's a good rivalry that could really be built on rather than, you know, somehow letting it out of getting out of control where it's just an ugly fight. It doesn't have to be that it could be a good competitive rivalry rather than something ugly. So I think that that's why it matters to me and to my colleagues and it does matter to our constituents because they want to see the best talent out on the floor playing competitive basketball.
- [55:34]
Cabot Phillips
While on the topic of protecting athletes who are being attacked in the NBA, I'm a Washington Wizards fan and they have been just brutally beaten time and time again on the court. Can you please step in and intervene and protect my team? There's been no violence, but they've just gotten beaten. So if you could just do something to help me on. I don't know, I'm just talking about
- [55:54]
Congressman Marlon Stutzman
Michael Jordan was even there to help and it didn't help then. So if not even, I don't know
- [55:58]
Cabot Phillips
what If MJ can't save your franchise, there's no hope for you. I want to jump across back to D.C. and get your take on just a wild story. The Trump administration just released a new report highlighting ways in which the Biden administration pushed woke ideologies. In various Smithsonian museums there were transgender displays with drag queens and crotch harnesses and chest binders, diaries from the gender confused girls. And on top of all that, we know the anti white exhibits that trash the founding fathers. The list goes on. So what are your thoughts on this report showing what was happening at the Smithsonian.
- [56:34]
Congressman Marlon Stutzman
Well, first of all, I'm glad the report was released and that the American people can see what certain people are doing in our nation's capital as we're celebrating America 250 this year. I mean, thank God that President Trump and Republicans are in charge of America 250, because instead of it being red, white and blue, you know, we'd be pushed with rainbow colors all over us, because that's who they are, that's what they are. And, you know, that's not the way it needs to be. Look, if you want to be gay or straight, that's fine. That's what you can do in America. But you don't have to. Our government doesn't have to be pushing it down people's throats. And I think that that's what they were doing at the Smithsonian and how they were displaying history. And they should be focusing on it from a broad perspective and people's accomplishments in the sense of building cars or building spaceships or building, you know, a business that changes the way the world, you know, is able to handle health care issues. There's so many things that bring people together and unify us as a country. They're focusing on transgender ideology and these sexual orientation that, you know, many of us, we don't need to know. It's too much information. And it's not something that the federal government, or any government for that matter, should be pushing upon the citizens of its country. Let's focus on the accomplishments of what happens, you know, outside in our communities rather than focusing on drag queens.
- [58:05]
Cabot Phillips
Congressman, we have one more minute, but on this topic, do you believe there's any action that Congress can or should take to ensure that this sort of thing, this anti American rhetoric in many ways is not something that's being pushed in museums like this?
- [58:21]
Congressman Marlon Stutzman
Well, you know what, that's a great question. And sadly, I think with the way the Republican and Democrat numbers are right now in Congress, I don't know that we could get any Democrat support to stop this sort of woke aggression in our public institutions. So. So I would say that Congress should do something, but unfortunately the Democrat Party, unless we can find a couple of Democrats that would say, you know what, this stuff, this is not the place for it, leave it out of the front the eyes of children and families that are visiting our nation's capital, but I know Republicans would. Democrats are in a very different place right now as a party.
- [59:01]
Cabot Phillips
And one final question, just before I let you go, I have to ask you. We've Been talking about a lot about the SAVE act that's going on in Congress. We're about to have Senator Tim Scott on. I want to ask him about that. It's made its way through the House, it's stalling in the Senate. What is your message to your colleagues over in the Senate about getting the Save America act through?
- [59:21]
Congressman Marlon Stutzman
Well, you know, just like of all the issues that we're talking about, we need common sense, conservatism, we need, you know, even if like the Bill Mahers on the left, you know, they're at least using conservation, common sense about what should be happening out on the basketball court or in the girls locker rooms. But the SAVE act is what's going to determine the elections. And, you know, the policy can't happen until you have the right people in place. And when you have cheaters in California or Michigan or in Illinois, New York that are have an advantage from, for one, just the illegals that they count in the census gives the Democrat states more districts. But two, we need to be sure that illegals don't vote and that we protect the integrity of our election process. And there's four senators over there, Murkowski, Collins, Tillis and Mitch McConnell, that if they would vote yes, we could get this passed. But those four are the ones holding it up. I hope they come to their senses.
- [60:20]
Cabot Phillips
I think a lot of voters do as well. Congressman, thank you for joining us and jumping all over the place. We covered a lot. We really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us.
- [60:29]
Congressman Marlon Stutzman
US Great to be with you today. Thanks for having me.
- [60:31]
Cabot Phillips
Absolutely, Congressman. All right, let's jump over now to the great state of South Carolina, where we've got Senator Tim Scott standing by. Senator, thanks for coming on.
- [60:41]
Senator Tim Scott
Absolutely. Good to be with you. I hope you're doing great. Listening to your conversation with Marlon from the House.
- [60:47]
Cabot Phillips
We love getting both chambers represented here. Senator, I have to start with some breaking news that we have coming in. Just in the last, I believe, 15 minutes, U.S. central Command announcing that there are new strikes taking place in Iran. President Trump had hinted that he might be moving forward with more strikes. They came out today saying that a director at the direction of the Commander in Chief, CENTCOM forces have started conducting additional strikes against Iran to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. I know this is just coming out in the last few minutes, but your rapid reaction.
- [61:21]
Senator Tim Scott
Well, my quick reaction is that the ceasefire holding was really miraculous because President Trump is the deal maker. The truth of the matter is when you can't make a good deal, and frankly, it's very hard to make a good deal with bad actors. And no question about it, the Iranian regime are bad actors. Consistently throughout history, for the last 47 years plus, we've seen nothing but neglect, denial, dysfunction, and then destruction consistently from the Iranian regime. So President Trump stopping the concept of negotiating with bad actors on a deal that has not been able to hold is a good thing. If we're going to have the Strait of Hormuz open, the president has to take the type of action, the kinetic force that he's now using to actually ease pressure on the Strait of Hormuz to allow commerce to happen. Simply put, in the bottom line is President Trump is doing what he knows is in our global best interest and specifically in America's best interest. And by doing so, we should support his actions. And frankly, I hope that we find a way to negotiate a conclusion on this situation there. It's going to be very, very difficult for us to figure that out because what we're seeing from Iran is what we've always seen from Iran, which is these folks are actually involved in, in a religious war. Their goal is the elimination of Israel. The little Satan in America, the big Satan. How we thread that needle. Only President Trump can get that done. If it can be done.
- [62:53]
Cabot Phillips
Well, for our audience at home, we're gonna be tracking this story as new details come in. But I wanna get to one of the big races that could determine control of your chamber in the U.S. senate. That's up in Maine. Graham Platner. Everyone at this point knows about all of the. Just the avalanche of negative press. He's refused to drop out of this race, though. Have you been surprised that he's still on the ticket?
- [63:17]
Senator Tim Scott
I have not been. Listen, Graham Blattner is the poster kid for the New Democrat Party. They are socialists heading towards communism. They are immoral heading towards amoral. What we know about the Democrat Party today is that anyone that grew up with a centrist Democrat Party, this ain't your granddaddy's Democrat Party. We need to take them as they are coming to us. Gordon Platner, El Said and beyond this is, these are the candidates that this Democrat Party continues to usher to the front. Mamdani was not the end of liberalism. Unfortunately, as liberal as he is, as dysfunctional as New York City is under him. What, a $7 billion bailout from the state and he's going to celebrate it as if his policies are working. This is what I would consider the beginning of this new wave of liberalism, progressive policies, and politicians who want to change the very DNA of America. They are thirsty for power, not for progress. And that is, in my opinion, the simplest way to distill why Graham Platner is still in the race. Because they are hungry for more power and not for common ground in America. They don't like America. Frankly, they might even hate America.
- [64:38]
Cabot Phillips
Yeah. Senator, anyone who's covered DC knows that you're widely considered one of the nicest guys in politics. So I know that you must have friends across the aisle. I know that. I'm sure you do hear. What do you hear from your Democratic colleagues about this rise in socialism? Are they scared? Are they thinking, you know, we've got to cut this thing out? Are they saying, you know what, this is just a different faction of the party, to each their own. What are you hearing from those folks?
- [65:06]
Senator Tim Scott
You know, having fewer and fewer friends on the left is part of the challenge of staying on the right. And frankly, what we're seeing in D.C. is this coalescing around crazy. I mean, listen, even Chuck Schumer ditched common sense. If there was any shot at common sense in Maine, it was Governor Mills. Thankfully, she is not on the ballot. Frankly, they shifted all their attention to Graham Glatner, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren Kohan. What you saw is this major, massive shift towards this one candidate in spite of allegation after allegation after allegation, proof after proof after proof, evidence after evidence after evidence. The one thing we gotta say about the Democrat Party, they're not tone deaf. They just don't care. They do not care that their representative in the great state of Maine is so antithetical to Mainers that he jeopardized their chance of winning. Frankly, I gotta tell you that this story plays out all across America. This is not a simple one off. The Democrats in D.C. are silent, which makes you complicit to this radical transformation of the Democrat Party that my grandfather, and frankly, at this point, my great grandfather, grew up with.
- [66:30]
Cabot Phillips
Yeah, I can't help but wonder how many of them are simply scared for their political lives seeing this happen. But that's not an excuse for not speaking out. Senator, let's get to another piece of legislation, this bipartisan housing bill. President Trump wants to get the Save America act through, so he's. He's sort of holding the bipartisan housing bill hostage, saying he won't sign it, but he doesn't have to sign. It can still go through because you guys have enough votes, so it can still become Law. Do you expect that to happen whether President Trump signs it or not?
- [66:59]
Senator Tim Scott
Well, let's bifurcate the issue because we should hit the most important issue first, which I think is recognizing that voter integrity is incredibly important. It's one of the reasons why we've all been, at least from South Carolina and beyond, fighting for the pieces of Save America Act. Let's just run through three Voter id, common sense, mail in voting. I'm not a fan of it, but the fact of the matter is we have Republican states, Utah and Montana and beyond that hold onto that. And frankly, why is it frustrating to some? I don't understand this, by the way. Why is it frustrating to anyone that we just want Americans voting in American elections? That is not just common sense. It's called justice. It's called taking responsibility for our country as American citizens in a way that foreigners cannot, should not, and in my opinion, will not. And so President Trump's just passion, passion for Save America act. I share 100%. And frankly, Democrat voters share it too. 71% and climbing Democrats say voter ID is like common sense. Every single demographic in the country supports the Save America act when you distill it down. Unfortunately, not a single Democrat will support the Save America Act. And today we do not have enough Republican support. I think we have 48 or 49 Republicans, and you need 50. We are one or two votes shy of having Republicans supporting. In my opinion, something like changing the rules of the Senate, whether it's a talking filibuster or eliminating the filibuster in order to get Save America act done. And because I can count to 50, I know that this is really challenging for us and I cannot see a way forward if we can't get to one or two to change. I don't see how that happens, especially between now and this election. But the truth of the matter is the most important issue we should be thinking about is voter integrity. Save America act would help. But let us remember, 36 states already have voter ID in place, and that's great news. States like Pennsylvania and Georgia that let us down in the past. They've changed their laws now requiring signature verification in Georgia for mail imbalance. That's a great step in the right direction and something we can be proud of as Republicans. But the truth of the matter is this is something we should be able to take care of. Unfortunately, we are stalled with four or five Republicans not supporting the Save America act in the Senate. And frankly, change leadership or not, that is not the answer. It's frankly having those senators change their minds individually and no one has been able to do that. Not me, not the leadership, and not even President Trump has been able to change the minds of those Republicans who are just opposed to changing the filibuster. Second, the housing bill. The two out of three voters say clearly that they are more likely to support a candidate who supports housing legislation like the 21st century housing bill passed out of the House, passed out of the Senate. We would love to see President Trump sign it. I believe it increases Republicans chance of voting on, chances of voting on to the House and the Senate. It is in America's best interest for us to try to tackle both these issues separately if possible, but without any question. Keep the pressure on Save America act, but do not give the Democrats one more issue during this year, the year of affordability to run against Republicans on. Especially since we're the ones that leading on the bread, the bread and butter issues that the American people care so much about right now in this election cycle.
- [70:57]
Cabot Phillips
Senator, we only have 30 seconds left. I had a million follow up questions, but I'm going to keep it short. We're both Dallas Cowboys fans. Is our defense going to be any good this year? Are we going to turn this thing around?
- [71:07]
Senator Tim Scott
Hey, we drafted a quarterback. My goal and my hope is that the answer is yes. Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs at least through the second round. And I'm praying that you'll see a Super bowl ring on Dak Prescott's finger, frankly, before he's too old to throw that ball.
- [71:22]
Cabot Phillips
Yeah, as a US Senator, maybe you could pull some strings and get your own super bowl ring, but I'm just throwing ideas out there, you know. Senator Tim, we really appreciate you making time for us. Thanks so much for joining.
- [71:33]
Senator Tim Scott
Yes, sir.
- [71:34]
Cabot Phillips
God bless you soon and thank all of you in the audience for making time for us today. If you guys are on Apple and Spotify, I will see you tomorrow. Don't forget to subscribe and follow Wired in there. But if you want to keep the show going and join our live member chat, go to dailywire.com subscribe. The show is going to keep on rolling over there. We'll see you guys tomorrow.