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April 19, 2024 - The Ben Shapiro Show
01:04:54
Israel STRIKES BACK Against Iran
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Last night, Israel finally struck back against Iran.
Of course, earlier this week, over the weekend, Iran had struck Israel with some 350 drones, missiles, and Israel was expecting that it was going to have to fire back against Iran in some form or fashion.
There were a few different options that had been tabled, that had been considered.
One was a full-scale attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, for example, completely degrading their nuclear program.
Another option would have been to do virtually nothing, which is what Joe Biden wanted to do.
Israel last night decided on a third option that would be a targeted strike, limited in nature, inside Iran, mainly to show the Iranians as a warning.
Okay, guys, if you decide that you're going to escalate this thing, We are going to get to you much more than you are going to get to us, and that is what Israel pursued last night, which is, in fact, a useful means of deterrence.
It is probably the best available scenario for both America and for America's allies in the region.
If Israel had gone really heavy, there was always the possibility of serious escalation via Hezbollah in Israel's north that could have turned into a larger full-blown war.
Now, would it have been more in Israel's interest to completely destroy Iran's nuclear facility?
Sure, it also would have been a lot riskier.
Right now, the United States and Israel have been in this very fraught negotiation over what the United States will allow Israel to do.
And so, the Israeli government took a sort of Conciliatory middle road by issuing this targeted strike against Iran.
And the goal, of course, was deterrence of Iran itself directly, saying, listen, you guys fired 350 drones, missiles.
We knocked nearly all of that down.
We basically can hit you anytime, anywhere we want.
So you guys better stand down.
That was the goal of the Israelis and it also offered, because it was so limited in nature, the Iranians an off-ramp.
The Iranian off-ramp would be to deny that any of this ever happened, which of course is exactly what Iran did.
Iran had been mouthing off a lot about the idea that if Israel launched a serious strike into Iranian territory, then Iran would up the ante with a broader retaliatory strike and then you would have an escalating conflict.
Israel Issued a strike limited in nature so as to allow the Iranian government the possibility of basically denying that anything had ever happened.
And that's basically what happened last night.
Again, Israel is playing a different game than Joe Biden is used to.
Israel is playing in an area, the Middle East, where what you do matters a hell of a lot more than what you say.
Joe Biden has spent his entire career in places where what you say matters a hell of a lot more than what you do.
And he is completely unfamiliar with the foreign policy realm
where what you do matters an awful, awful lot, which is why reality keeps clocking Joe Biden
directly in the face.
Forget about Israel and Iran for a second.
Think about the Saudi Arabian government.
When Joe Biden was a candidate for presidency of the United States,
Joe Biden was extraordinarily critical of Mohammed bin Salman, who was the heir apparent
over in Saudi Arabia and the de facto ruler of the country.
He was suggesting that he was a mass human rights violator, that he had killed Khashoggi, Jamal Khashoggi, who is a pseudo-journalist member of the Muslim Brotherhood who had written for various American outlets.
And this meant that the United States had to take a very harsh tactical look at our alliance with Saudi Arabia, up to and including giving the green light to the Houthis in Yemen and Iranian proxy group by delisting them as a terror group.
And then it turns out that reality intervened.
And the Houthis, as it turns out, hate the United States more than they hate the Saudis.
It turns out that the Saudis have control over oil supply.
And Joe Biden had to go on bended knee to Mohammed bin Salman and do the thing.
Because what you say in the Middle East does not matter nearly as much as what you do.
And so Israel, without making a big statement, we are going to knock you guys back to the Stone Age.
Israel simply did the thing.
And they let Iran know that if, in fact, Iran decides to escalate, it will do significantly more damage to the Islamic Republic of Iran than it will do to Israel.
All of this, again, was prefaced by the UN Security Council being a completely useless and garbage institution.
So, of course, Israel did what it had to do because the UN Security Council could not even bring itself to condemn Iran for a full-scale attack on another nation.
Remember, it's an active war, definitionally, when you fire 350 drones and missiles at another sovereign country.
The UN Security Council not only did not even table a resolution condemning Iran for that attack last weekend, they allowed Iran to then lecture Israel, suggesting that, quote, Israel must be compelled to stop any further military adventurism against our interests.
That is what Iran told the UN Security Council.
The absolute unmitigated sheer gall of that is astonishing.
Consider that it's Iranian military adventurism that has led to the entire conflagration in the Middle East.
From Iraq, to Syria, to Lebanon, to the Gaza Strip, to the West Bank, to Yemen.
That is Iranian military adventurism that has led to all that.
And the UN Security Council, because again, the United Nations is effectively the most sizely of international politics.
A wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Because of that, the UN Security Council was never even going to take up the possibility of condemning Iran.
They did, however, take up the possibility in the last 48 hours of a resolution to unilaterally declare Palestinian statehood, which would be an incredibly audacious and stupid move considering there is no actual government For a Palestinian state.
The Gaza Strip is currently governed by Hamas, a terror group that is in an existential war with the State of Israel.
The Palestinian Authority has so little control over the West Bank that there is open warfare between Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Palestinian Authority.
You may as well simply declare a state of unicorn land in a random part of the earth that has no government, as declared a Palestinian state, except unicorn land presumably would not necessarily turn into a terror state, whereas a Palestinian state already has turned into a terror state and remains as such.
In any case, Israel decided that it was going to do what it had to do and restore the status quo ante before October 7th, and that is really what we are headed toward.
We'll get to more on this in a moment.
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Remember, October 7th was launched specifically with the green light of Iran in order to scuttle the burgeoning Israeli-Saudi peace deal.
That is what was happening.
Israel and Saudi Arabia were establishing a regional alliance in terms of defense to deter Iran and its proxies in the region.
And that alliance de facto included Egypt.
It included Jordan.
It also included a bunch of the Saudi-sponsored states like UAE and Bahrain.
A variety of these states had basically formed up an alliance, and it was just really a matter of toppling that last domino in Saudi Arabia for the alliance to go full scale.
And if Donald Trump had been elected, there's no doubt in my mind, and by the way, in the mind of the Israelis or the Saudis, that that deal would have gotten done.
Even with Joe Biden as president, though, it appeared as though that deal was very close on the horizon.
Not because Joe Biden is great at this.
But because he sucks at this and because Joe Biden had been so conciliatory toward the Iranians, the Saudis had basically gone to the Israelis and said, listen, we need to make a deal with you now because we don't trust the Americans.
We don't trust that Joe Biden is going to come to our defense if, in fact, Iran attacks us.
So let's form up a regional alliance against Iran.
And that was really, really close to happening.
In fact, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, had spoken openly about it at the United Nations.
Iran saw that.
Iran activated Hamas to go into Israel and kill 1,200 people and take 250 hostages back to the Gaza Strip in the hopes that this would start a conflagration that would burn down the possibility of a Sunni-Israeli deal.
Well, it appears that the status quo ante is now being Reinforced.
Why?
Because Israel has actually preserved its own ability to deter and militarily destroy its enemies.
The whole reason for a Saudi peace deal with the Israelis is not because Israel and Saudi Arabia see eye to eye on matters of religion.
Obviously they do not.
The reason for that is because Saudi looks at Israel and they say Israel is capable of deterring Iran.
Israel is capable of destroying its enemies on the battlefront.
Israel is an extraordinarily powerful and innovative military machine.
And we want to be allied with that.
And so what Hamas did by striking at Israel was to dent that perception in the Saudis.
Israel has reinforced the perception, the prior perception, in the aftermath by its successful military action in the Gaza Strip, which is why they are now going to go in and finish off Rafa in the south of the Gaza Strip.
And the last two weeks have shown that Israel not only is capable with its allies of repelling a mass Iranian attack, but also that Israel can strike pretty much where it wants to in Iran.
And so Iran had better not escalate because it'll be worse for Iran than it will be for Israel.
And Saudi, of course, wants to sign on to that.
In other words, what Israel just did in Iran is actually de-escalatory.
If Israel wanted to escalate with Iran, certainly they could have.
They could have done that mass attack on their nuclear facilities, for example.
Or they could have tried to kill members of the regime in Tehran.
Because they can hit anywhere in Iran, apparently.
They didn't do that.
Which is why it's so amazing to watch as the media continue to know nothing about the Middle East and yet report on it as though they do.
So, for example, NBC News reporter Matt Bradley suggests that Israel's strike against Iran may have been destabilizing.
It's the opposite.
If Israel had not actually retaliated against a mass missile and drone attack against its own territory, that would have been radically destabilizing because then Iran would have sensed weakness and would have gone forward with, for example, activating Hezbollah in Israel's north.
But here are your typical journalistic idiots completely missing the point.
This could be a deeply, deeply destabilizing move by the Israelis.
And again, not just for the Iranians, but for the entire region.
And it could even draw in the United States.
The United States has said that they are committed to defending Israel's security.
Well, I spoke with the deputy chief of Hezbollah just today.
He said that they are committed to defending against Israeli attacks against Hamas on the Gaza Strip and against civilians there.
So they are ready and willing to fight.
We're hearing a lot of bellicose language from a lot of different groups.
So this is a very, very dangerous situation.
Wait, you mean everybody is bellicose in their language in the Middle East?
This goes back to my point.
Everyone is always bellicose in their language in the Middle East.
If you ever go to a shuk, like a market, any market in the Middle East, Arab country, Jewish country, doesn't matter.
The shuk, Is what the Middle East is.
And there's people yelling at each other, very loudly, in order to quietly negotiate a price on a pack of dates.
That's effectively what the Middle East is, in a nutshell.
And when it comes to what they're willing to do, it's a very different story.
There's a reason Hezbollah has not gone all out against the State of Israel.
They could at any time.
And they have 200,000 rockets pointed at Israel, including 50,000 rockets sophisticated enough to hit actual targets.
The reason they're not going all out is because the minute they do, Israel will unleash its F-16s as well as its F-35s, and there will be no Hezbollah in southern Lebanon anymore.
Because that actually will be an existential battle for Israel involving the possibility of tens of thousands of Israeli deaths, and Israel is not going to go quite as nice as they have in the Gaza Strip.
And yes, they've been going pretty nice in the Gaza Strip, considering that they've sent about 300 of their own soldiers into position to die, going house to house to preserve civilian life in the Gaza Strip.
That will not be the case when you're talking about the necessity for a fast takeout of vast rocket capacity in
southern Lebanon.
In any case, the United States is starting to get the picture.
Tony Blinken, of course, is a smarter person than Joe Biden, but who isn't?
Tony Blinken at least has three functioning neurons as opposed to Joe Biden, who has two.
He is declining to say whether the United States had received advance warning of Israel
strike.
Clearly, the United States did.
There's good information that the United States knew 24 to 48 hours in advance of this attack.
In fact, there's pretty good evidence that the Iranians knew something was coming because they had pulled apparently some of their IRGC activists out of Syria and out of Lebanon in anticipation of Israeli attacks.
Also, they had shelved a few of their naval assets because they were afraid that Israel was going to hit their navy.
The rinky-dink navy.
Anthony Blinken said, I'm not going to speak to that except to say the United States has
not been involved in any offensive operations.
He said, all I can say is that for our part and for the entire G7, our focus has been
on de-escalation and avoiding the larger conflict.
Okay, well now because reality is setting in, even the United States is starting to
act under Joe Biden like, you know, a more rational actor.
Because here is what has actually happened here.
Israel will, in the next six weeks, take out the last vestiges of Hamas's military organization in Rafah.
That's not going to end Hamas's threat in the Gaza Strip.
Obviously, the biggest problem in the Gaza Strip is that any sort of denazification policy that takes place in the Gaza Strip is going to have some pretty steep obstacles to it, considering the level of love of the population for Hamas.
This is not an ISIS situation in which you have a terror group that simply seizes control of the territory.
This was an elected group.
Hamas is, by polling data, still the most popular group of all the groups in the Gaza Strip as well as in the West Bank.
With that said, Israel will establish effective military control of the Gaza Strip, which means there will be no more offensive threat to the State of Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Israel will have negated Iran's direct attack Willingness, which is what last night was all about.
And eventually, after Israel signs some sort of deal with the Saudis, then there will be a move on Hezbollah in the north, unless Hezbollah pulls back.
We'll get some more on this in just one moment.
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Now again, all of this could have happened literally the day after he took office.
All Joe Biden had to do, this is why he's such a fool, all the presidents of the United States had to do when he took office was this.
Go to the Saudis, say, listen, we want you to enter the Abraham Accords.
All that requires of you is to make a mutual defense pact in some form or fashion with the state of Israel and normalize and we will help subsidize that and sponsor that and it will create a really solid ring of fire around Iran.
That could have been done day one.
That's what Donald Trump would have done.
He's openly said that.
Joe Biden didn't do that.
Instead, he decided to orient himself against the Saudis and orient himself, like Barack Obama before him, in favor of Iran as a regional power.
Which is totally insane.
Well, now again, reality is setting in.
So, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration is considering more than a billion dollars in new weapons deals for Israel, including tank ammo, military vehicles, and mortar rounds, at a time of heightened scrutiny of the use of American-made weapons in the war in Gaza.
But let's be real about this.
If you want less death, In this particular region of the world, Israel needs to win and win quickly.
Prolonged wars in the Middle East cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
Short wars in the Middle East kill fewer people.
And usually the right side ends up winning in quick wars in the Middle East.
The proposed weapons transfers would be among the largest to Israel since it invaded Gaza in response to the Hamas October 7th attack.
The sales would also be the first since Iran launched an unprecedented direct missile and drone attack on Israel just last weekend in retaliation for the killing of a top Iranian general in Syria.
The top Iranian general in Syria, of course, was the organizer, one of them, of the October 7th attacks in Israel.
So, what is happening here?
The United States is recognizing reality, which is that Iran is the head of the octopus in the Middle East, that their terror proxies have been spreading violence and evil throughout the region, and that Israel and Sunni allies should team up together.
So Joe Biden is facilitating that now, which is what he should have been doing all along.
It just took him too long to get here.
Which is why, like, this is an amazing story.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the White House is making a fresh push for a historic deal to forge Saudi-Israeli ties.
Now, the part about this that is truly amazing is that, again, this should not be a hard push.
The Saudis want to make a peace deal.
How bad do the Saudis want to make a peace deal?
They want a deal with Israel worse than the Biden administration does.
How do I know?
The Biden administration, because they cannot let go of the absolutely asinine, imbecilic idea that the central conflict in the Middle East is Israel versus the Palestinians.
They cannot let go of it.
And because they can't let go of it, the United States is trying to cram down on the Saudis a demand for a Palestinian state.
You know what the Saudis don't give two good gosh-darns about?
That.
They don't care about it at all.
Like, zero.
In fact, the Saudis don't want a Palestinian state.
You know why they don't want it?
Because it will be a terror state, as everyone with half a brain knows.
You know who else doesn't want a Palestinian state, by the way?
The Hashemite dynasty of Jordan.
They tried out Queen Rania, who is ethnically Palestinian, to talk about the horrors that the Israelis are unleashing upon the Palestinians.
There's only one problem.
She's a member of the Hashemite dynasty.
70% of the population of Jordan is Palestinian.
You know who doesn't want a Palestinian state?
The Jordanian government.
Because were there to be a Palestinian state, you know what would happen next?
It would turn into a giant terror state.
And Queen Rania's head, as well as those of the rest of her families, would be on the top of pikes.
Everyone knows this in the Middle East.
This is not some sort of speculative game.
In any case, this is, it's so incredible.
The Saudis are more willing to make a deal with the Israelis than the Biden administration is.
Here's the Wall Street Journal quote.
The Biden administration is pushing for a long shot diplomatic deal in coming months.
It's not a long shot diplomatic deal.
I know the press is going to try and play this up.
So if it occurs, then it'll be like, wow, Biden pulled a rabbit out of the hat.
This rabbit was in the hat from day one of the administration.
Donald Trump would have pulled it out the first day.
The Biden administration is pushing for a long-shot diplomatic deal in coming months that presses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a new commitment to Palestinian statehood in exchange for diplomatic recognition by Riyadh, U.S.
and Saudi officials said.
As inducements to recognize Israel, the White House is offering Riyadh a more formal defense relationship with Washington, assistance in acquiring civil nuclear power, and a renewed push for a Palestinian state, a package the U.S.
officials say they are in the final stages of negotiating.
U.S.
officials say the successful multi-country effort to shoot down Iranian missiles and drones on Saturday should make it clear to Israel its security against threats from Tehran can be enhanced through closer integration with Saudi Arabia.
So first of all, Israel knows that, which is why they've been covertly working with the Saudis for legitimately probably a couple of decades at this point.
For President Biden, the gambit offers the chance of a significant diplomatic breakthrough in the middle of a presidential campaign year, one that would expand the Abraham Accords his Republican opponent Donald Trump sealed when he was in office.
Now here's the best part of this article.
So, you notice those conditions, right?
The conditions were that the United States would help subsidize more of a defense relationship with the Saudis.
They would push for civil nuclear power, which again is the predicate to a Saudi nuclear program in all likelihood.
And Palestinian statehood.
And Palestinian statehood is the sort of breaking point for the Israeli government.
Why?
Because no one in Israel wants a Palestinian state.
But here's the thing.
Neither do the Saudis.
The only people in this entire equation pushing a Palestinian state are, wait for it, Joe Biden and his dullards.
How do I know that?
Because buried deep in this article, buried deep in this article is the following paragraph.
It's an amazing paragraph.
Ready?
Here we go.
Saudi Arabia's leaders have said for decades that a Palestinian state is a priority.
And as top diplomats have said, creating a path to a two-state solution is part of their price for normalization.
Now, Saudi officials have privately indicated to the U.S.
they might accept verbal assurances from Israel that it would engage in new talks on Palestinian statehood to secure the other parts of the deal of more interest to Riyadh, Saudi officials said.
Okay, so that's diplomatic speak for we don't give two sh** about the Palestinian state.
That is what that means.
You know how I know that?
Let me read that sentence again because it's amazing.
They've said, oh man, this is such an important priority.
We need a Palestinian state.
Quote, Saudi officials have privately indicated they might accept verbal assurances from Israel that it would engage in new talks on Palestinian statehood to secure the other parts of the deal they care about.
Okay, that is what would be a contingency upon a contingency.
We'll get some more on this in just a moment.
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So, they're saying that if Israel signs a formal deal with Saudi and the United States that allows for normalization and further defense funding of the Saudis and civil nuclear power and all the rest, that they will accept a handshake verbal deal to have a future discussion about a Palestinian state in return for that.
Now, I have a question.
You've signed contracts.
We've all signed contracts.
When you sign a really important contract, like a super important contract, have you ever said the most important part of this deal is the stuff that we don't include in the agreement?
Have you ever done that?
If so, you need a better lawyer because that's not how this stuff works.
If I were to negotiate an agreement with you, And that agreement were to include an incredibly important term, like the most important term, something I've been talking about for decades.
And then at the last minute, I were to say to you, listen, I don't even need you to write it down.
I just need you to say out loud that you want to engage in discussions about this thing two years from now.
Am I very serious about that particular term?
The answer is no.
As always, the Saudis do not care about a Palestinian state.
They don't want a Palestinian state.
By the way, you know who else doesn't want a Palestinian state?
The Egyptians.
Literally no one wants a Palestinian state in this region except for Iran and the absolute... Again, I'm running out of synonyms for morons, but anyone who is low IQ enough to believe.
That a Palestinian state solves the problems in the Middle East rather than creating vast new problems in the Middle East knows literally nothing about the Palestinian population, the history of the region, what the Palestinians have done to literally every state they have moved to, including Lebanon, which used to be a Christian Maronite state.
Beirut was the Paris of the Middle East when Christians were running it.
And then it turns out the Palestinian Liberation Organization moved there after Black September and completely wrecked the place.
No one, you want to know why Egypt is not allowing in Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip?
Because they don't want them there.
I know everybody pretends that the Palestinians are, it's only the Israelis.
Oh my God, it's only Israel.
In the aftermath of the Gulf War in 1991, Kuwait had something like 200 to 300,000 Palestinians living in Kuwait.
They all sided with Saddam Hussein.
And you know what Kuwait did?
They forced them out.
You know who doesn't want a Palestinian state?
Anyone with half a brain in the region, because a Palestinian state will be an Iranian terror proxy.
Everyone knows this.
Except for the Biden administration, apparently.
But, a U.S.
broker deal might also aid Israel with a potential exit strategy from the Gaza Strip, according to the Saudis.
Several potential Arab contributors said they wouldn't consider participating without public moves by Israel toward establishment of a Palestinian state.
Okay, that's nonsense.
Israel's gonna say some words, and then everybody's gonna shake hands, and that's how it's gonna go.
All this requires is for the Biden administration to get out of the way.
That is all.
And then you could have, you know, strong allies like the Saudis and the Egyptians and the Israelis as a bulwark against Iranian revanchism.
That would be a very, very good thing.
In fact, Foreign policy is turning out to be,
the alignment of interest in foreign policy right now is actually quite fortuitous for the United States.
Not just because Iranian aggression in the Middle East has created the possibility
of a Middle East peaceful breakout, but also because all over the world,
America's enemies who are on the march are forcing other countries into making a decision
between whether they wish to march with America's enemies or march with America, which is why over the last 48 hours,
my favorite world leader and recent interview subject Javier Mille
has repeatedly said that he now wants to become a global partner in NATO, which is good.
Okay, having more open, overt, Western aligned powers in the world, like Argentina,
would be a very good thing.
Latin America used to be a bulwark of Westernism.
That's what the Monroe Doctrine was.
It was basically the European powers don't get to be involved in South America.
That obviously has not been true for a while.
The Russians are very much involved, and so are the Chinese, in South America.
And so now, South and Latin America is split between a group of libertarian-minded fixers, like Javier Mille in Argentina, or Bukele in El Salvador, And between actual radical Marxists like Maduro in Venezuela.
And the question is which way Latin America is going to go.
The more allies the United States has, the better.
That would be a very good thing.
People are seeking American leadership.
People want to align with America and not with Russia and not with China.
Both fading powers.
All that requires is a little bit of American leadership and a little bit of American strength.
We'll get to more on this in just a moment.
First, the people of Israel are once again under attack.
Last weekend, the Islamic Republic of Iran launched a wave of suicide drones followed by ballistic and cruise missiles at Israel.
The situation in northern Israel has been tense for months.
The region has been subject to repeated rocket attacks from the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists operating out of Lebanon.
Now the situation is coming to a head.
Israel needs your prayers and your support now more than ever.
The entry of Iran into the war directly is an extremely serious development.
It means that Israel could be fighting with Hamas terrorists in the south, Iran back Hezbollah in the north, and Iran itself, which has military capabilities beyond either Hamas or Hezbollah.
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has been responding to Israel's emergency needs during the war by supplying protective gear for first responders, emergency supply kits, bomb shelters, reinforced ambulances, and other critical needs in northern Israel.
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God bless and thank you.
So, with all of this happening, you got the Biden administration, which is totally incapable of world leadership, and meanwhile, you have a Congress that is busy farting around.
I mean that absolutely literally.
Let me explain.
There is a thing that has now been declared.
I am not kidding you about this.
The Freedom Caucus, which is sort of the more extreme right-wing caucus in the Republican Party.
It includes a bunch of people I like and some people who I think are frankly clowns.
The Freedom Caucus is trying to uphold the stupid rule that I've been railing against for weeks at this point.
That requires that the Speaker of the House be allowed to be essentially ousted after the call of a vote by a single member of the Republican Party.
So there can be a motion to vacate the chair by any member of the Republican Party.
This is the game that Marjorie Taylor Greene is playing.
It's the game that Matt Gaetz played against Kevin McCarthy and all the rest.
Well now, Mike Johnson is looking at the possibility of fixing that, so that you can't have three members of the Republican caucus who oust the Speaker of the House, as opposed to the other 215 Republicans who don't want to do it.
So the Freedom Caucus has decided that they are going to stand up for their right, apparently, to continue to hold the Speaker of the House hostage in some form or fashion.
They have now created what they call the Freedom Caucus Floor Action Response Team.
The shorthand is FART.
I'm not kidding you.
I mean, just genius level stuff here, guys.
Like, just branding genius.
So, I'm glad that you created the Freedom Caucus Fart Click.
Their job is to guard against an unannounced request to pass resolutions that would stealthily limit their leverage against leadership, according to two Republicans with direct knowledge, who are granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Members don't want to be caught flat-footed if a GOP colleague tries to seek unanimous consent or a voice vote for resolution that would change the House's structure.
So, if Mike Johnson tries to call a vote that gets rid of this dumb motion-to-vacate rule, then the fart team will jump into action.
The fart team will explode into action.
The fart team will let loose with the stink of truth.
This is all so deeply stupid.
And all of this is because, again, there's a group of Republicans who actually want to prevent governance who have an interest, apparently, in a Republican minority.
Some of this battle broke out into the open yesterday during a apparently rather colorful conversation between a Wisconsin freshman named Representative Derek Van Orden who confronted Florida Republican Matt Gaetz and called him tubby.
Things are going great.
The confrontation occurred as a group of GOP hardliners, according to the Journal Sentinel, including Gates, Representative Lauren Boebert, who loves Betelgeuse and getting felt up at Betelgeuse, and Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett, huddled around Mike Johnson to voice their displeasure with his plan to put a $95 billion package of foreign aid bills to a vote this weekend.
Now remember, what Mike Johnson is doing is he's putting up each of these bills as a separate piece of legislation.
If they garner majority support, they will then be packaged back together and sent on to the Senate.
A majority of Republicans will likely vote in favor of each one of these bills.
But this makes Matt Gaetz very, very mad.
And so, he apparently was going after Mike Johnson on the floor, and Van Orden said, fine, you want to ask the speaker, do it.
Like you keep threatening to do it, do it.
He said, they've been trying to blackmail the Republican conference now for a long time.
Just do it.
Show the American people who you really are.
The American people can't see really what takes place all the time.
What they can see is a motion to vacate.
It'll show their true colors.
They're not here to legislate.
They're not serious legislators.
Gates then called Van Orden a squish.
So Van Orden called Matt Gaetz tubby.
Things are going well.
Van Orden, who's a retired Navy SEAL, said, I said people who have not been to combat and been shot at, who have not held one of their friend's hands as they died, probably shouldn't be calling other people squishes.
And then he did it again.
And I said something along the lines of, stow it, tubby.
Okay?
And here is Matt Gaetz then, sounding off to the media as he loves to do Lauren Boebert in his wake.
I think a motion to vacate is something that could put the conference in peril.
And Ms.
Bobert and I, we're working to avoid that.
Our goal is to avoid a motion to vacate.
But we are not going to surrender that accountability tool, particularly in a time when we're seeing America's interests subjugated to foreign interests abroad.
And explain what was going on with Mr. Van Orten.
He kept demanding that we file a motion to vacate, and demanding that we do it in a privileged way.
And what does that mean?
I mean, does it surprise you in this climate that people might be saying that?
And we've heard this from Mr. Massey, we've heard this from Ms.
Green.
The only thing I gleaned from it is that Mr. Van Orten is not a particularly intelligent individual.
What did you, you spoke to the speaker, what was that conversation like?
Tense.
Why?
Because we don't want to pass this bill.
We do not.
The only way.
Yeah, the only win we've got in the House of Representatives is blocking the Senate
supplemental.
And so if he's ready to throw in the towel on that, what are we doing here?
I mean, the answer is that you challenged one speaker for no apparent reason in Kevin McCarthy, and now you are holding the motion to vacate over Johnson's head so as to, what, hold up a vote that a majority of Republicans are going to vote for?
And I'm going to point out, as I did yesterday, that when it comes to this foreign aid package, It's too big.
There's a bunch of stuff I don't like in it.
Also, it is worth noting at this point that that foreign aid package is in fact necessary.
Israel is in the middle of an existential war with a variety of opponents in the Middle East, all sponsored by Iran.
Ukraine is in the middle of an existential war with Russia.
Donald Trump put out a statement yesterday suggesting that the European allies need to give more money to help Ukraine.
He said, why isn't Europe giving more money to help Ukraine?
Why is it the United States is over a hundred billion dollars into the Ukraine war more than Europe and we have an ocean between us as a separation?
Why can't Europe equalize or match the money put in by the United States in order to help a country in desperate need?
Now, as I pointed out, I'm supporting President Trump.
This happens to be factually wrong.
The fact is that the European Union and their 27 member states have agreed to commit at least $54 billion more on 1 February 2024 as part of their new Ukraine facility.
Their commitments to date are over $155 billion.
$155 billion.
The United States has not given $155 billion.
$155 billion. The United States has not given $155 billion.
This includes, by the way, over $51 billion in financial and budgetary support and in
humanitarian and emergency assistance.
It includes $36 billion in military assistance and increasing ranging from ammo to air defense systems.
That includes $11.5 billion from the European Peace Facility in addition to $25 billion in bilateral contributions from member states.
It also includes $18 billion from the EU budget to support Ukrainian refugees who have fled into Europe.
So again, the basic idea, which is that the EU has not been stepping up, that's not true.
Donald Trump successfully forced the EU countries to step up with regard to their defense commitments with regards to NATO, and the EU has in fact been stepping up with regard to the amount of aid provided to Ukraine.
The real question, as I keep asking for Matt Gaetz, and for Lauren Boebert, and for Thomas Massey, and for everyone else, is how is it in America's interest for Russia to stroll into Kiev?
And if it is not, what level of support do you think would be necessary in order to prevent that?
Because the answer is not zero.
The same thing holds true in the Middle East.
How is it in America's interest for Iran to continue to gain regional power?
This is the point that Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, was making yesterday.
Here he goes.
Why are you willing to risk losing your job over this Ukraine funding?
Listen, my philosophy is you do the right thing and you let the chips fall where they may.
Look, history judges us for what we do.
This is a critical time right now, a critical time in the world state.
He is not wrong about all of that.
And again, posturing ain't gonna do it, guys.
It ain't gonna do it.
If you want to do what, for example, Chip Roy has done in the past,
and issue a list of specific gets that you want from Mike Johnson,
and then we can see whether those are gets that are gettable, that's something that's useful.
But if you're just gonna rail against the wind, and then just randomly shout motion to vacate,
those rules need to change, and they need to change forthwith.
Okay, in just a moment, we'll get to the daughter of Ilhan Omar, who it turns out, apple not far from tree.
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Okay.
Also this Sunday, brand new episode of the Sunday Special with Sage Steele, former SportsCenter reporter on ESPN.
She's fantastic.
I've known Sage for quite a while.
She's entertaining and she is courageous.
Here's a bit of the trailer.
How was it working as a woman in this world?
Because obviously there's a lot of controversy, especially at this time in the 80s, early 90s, about women being in sort of the sporting world.
I remember there were a lot of conferences about women in the locker room and this sort of stuff.
How did any of that impact you?
What it did for me was it made me better.
Because when you're in the, you know, you call it the Media Scrum, and it's an NFL Media Wednesday, and you've got, you know, 20 reporters, you know, gathering around Shannon Sharp or Ray Lewis or whoever it was.
And, you know, Warren Sapp, difficult people like Warren Sapp, and you have to, like, you know, you're in there, you're trying to get your mic in, and all these big, fat, smelly male reporters, and I was like, okay, that's helpful, number one.
one, but number two, because it was all male voices, I knew that when I spoke, it would
sound different and it would maybe stop some people.
And so what came out of my mouth better be damn good.
Remember, that episode drops this Sunday.
You're not going to want to miss it.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the apple does not fall far from the anti-American, anti-Jewish tree.
Ilhan Omar's daughter has apparently now been suspended from Barnard College for her involvement in pro-Hamas protests, according to the New York Post.
Her daughter, Isra Hirsi, revealed Thursday she has been suspended from Barnard College over her involvement in disruptive anti-Israel protests on Columbia University's Morningside campus, at which scores of demonstrators were arrested.
They had set up a bunch of tents basically in the middle of the Columbia campus, sort of like Occupy Columbia, in order to say that they hate Israel.
The 21-year-old wrote, I just received notice.
I'm one of three students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.
Well, I doubt that that's really what it was about, since most Columbia students are far to the left on this.
Hersey was one of more than 100 protesters hauled away in cuffs by the NYPD Thursday afternoon after they erected a tent city on the campus of the $90,000 per year Ivy League school.
By late Thursday afternoon, the protests had dispersed.
Cleaning crews were brought in to disassemble and remove dozens of tents that littered the campus.
Percy has spent much of her life attending demonstrations.
Apparently, she attended her first protest at the age of six.
At 12, she joined a Black Lives Matter protest, forcing the Mall of America to shut down.
And then they received, she and two other students, notice of their suspension from the Barnard Dean.
Apparently, the Dean's statement said, the decision is based on information related to the Columbia University Public Safety.
You've been involved in an unauthorized encampment on the Columbia University campus.
You've not ceased participation in this unauthorized encampment.
Well, that of course is correct.
She is just as anti-American and anti-Israel as her mom is.
But it's good to see campuses actually starting to demonstrate at least a little bit of fealty to basic concepts of order.
That would be good.
A shout out to actual, a rare shout out to a legacy media figure today.
Jake Tapper over at CNN actually did something good on his show a couple of days ago.
So, there's been a lot of coverage of a terrorist named Walid Daka, who had died in Israeli prison, and he was portrayed by the media as some sort of victim of Israeli aggression.
Jake Tapper fully dismissed that, and that, of course, is good for him.
Amnesty International had called for DACA, who was in his 60s, to be released on humanitarian grounds after he was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in 2022.
Amnesty issued a statement saying, quote, death in custody of Walid Daka is a cruel reminder
of Israel's disregard for Palestinians' right to life.
It's an interesting turn of phrase there, a disregard for Palestinians' right to life.
Much of the news media coverage of Waleed Daka's death after his 38 years in prison was along these lines.
Many stories barely, if at all, even mentioned why Waleed Daka was in the Israeli prison to begin with.
He was in prison because he was part of a militant group that killed this 19-year-old, Moshe Tamam.
It is heart-wrenching that Walid Daka has died in Israeli custody, said Amnesty International.
Heart-wrenching?
I ask this sincerely.
Does it wrench the heart of anyone at Amnesty International that 19-year-old Moshe Tammam was murdered?
Anyone?
By the way, Moshe Tamam wasn't just murdered, he was mutilated before his murder by Walid Dhaka.
But that again is how the media have treated the Middle East historically.
Good for Jake Tapper for disabusing people of that notion.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden continues to stumble around aimlessly.
So we played yesterday a clip of Joe Biden explaining that his uncle was once eaten by cannibals.
Which was a thing he actually said.
Because our president is no longer with us and has not been for quite a while.
Yesterday, the White House was forced to admit that actually, in fact, Joe Biden's uncle was not eaten by cannibals.
It was a little bit awkward.
Can we just see the cannibal tab in your book?
There's no cannibal tab!
What are you talking about?
Is that what you're asking me about?
Can you finish it?
Yeah.
Okay.
Look, I'll just, and I think we shared this with some of you, so I'm just going to kind of repeat.
Look, you saw the president.
He was incredibly proud of his uncle's service in uniform.
You saw him at the war memorial.
It was incredibly emotional and important to him.
You saw him respond to all of you when asked about the moment yesterday and his uncle who lost his life when the military aircraft he was on crashed in the Pacific after taking off near New Guinea.
The president highlighted his uncle's story as he made the case for honoring our sacred commitment to to equip those we send to war and to take care of them and
their families when they come home.
And as he reiterated that the last thing American veterans are are suckers or losers and he wanted
to make that clear he wanted to make a story. I mean look I don't have anything beyond about
what I just laid out but it was a really proud moment for him. It was a proud moment when his
uncle was eaten by cannibals. That was a that was a proud moment that didn't happen.
I just love that Joe Biden's stories are, as I've said before, one of my favorite things.
That's when my uncle, uncle, we used to call him uncle, and he was in flying World War II, and his plane went down, and suddenly a bunch of native savages jumped out of the bushes, and they started chomping on his legs, and he said, whoa, whoa there, bucko!
You know things are going well when the Biden campaign has to run an ad.
They literally did this.
They ran an ad saying that he is not mentally unfit.
Joe Biden, not mentally unfit 2024.
Even CNN was like, guys, this is not good.
I just want you and our viewers to see a brand new ad from the Biden campaign.
And the name of the ad is sharp.
I love to tell the story about meeting President Biden because when you meet him, this guy's as sharp as a knife.
They have nothing else to attack because they can't attack the things that he's doing that are so good for this country.
Joe Biden gets things done.
That's just who he is.
I mean, that says it all again.
That is from the Biden campaign and the name of the ad is sharp.
Yeah, man.
This campaign is not going well for Joseph Robinette Biden.
Things are bad.
We'll get to more on this in a moment.
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Well, meanwhile, when Joe Biden isn't telling weird stories about how his uncle was eaten by cannibals or weird stories about how his dad once informed him about homosexual rights on the streets of Scranton, Pennsylvania in like 1956 while watching Two Men Kissing, when Joe Biden isn't telling weird stories like that, he's now attacking RFK Jr.
So, when you are the candidate who's issuing ads saying, I'm not senile, Biden 2024, When you are the candidate who's attacking the third-party candidate, you got a problem.
If you're so weak that your campaign is now dependent on people not voting for the third-party candidate, this is not a good sign for your campaign, which, right now, Joe Biden's campaign in a lot of trouble.
The new Fox News poll has Donald Trump leading Joe Biden in Michigan.
So despite Joe Biden's best attempts to appease the pro-Hamas crowd in Michigan, it isn't working, unfortunately, for him.
Well, now, Joe Biden, in an attempt to, again, Cudgel, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
supporters into supporting him has dragged out the entire Kennedy family to endorse him.
Here's the problem.
No one knows who any of these people are.
I'm sorry, unless you are like deeply, deeply ensconced in politics and Democratic Party politics in specific.
Name three members of the Kennedy family.
Seriously, like three.
Go.
Ain't got nobody?
That's what I thought.
So Joe Biden brings forth, he's like, and here are random people named Kennedy who are related to JFK and RFK, but are not RFK Jr.
They support me, shouldn't you?
Here is Kathleen Kennedy, the maker of the new Star Wars series.
She supports me, shouldn't you?
Okay, so here was Kerry Kennedy, who is RFK Jr.' 's sister.
Who cares what Kerry Kennedy has to say?
Who are the voters who are like, well, now that Kerry Kennedy has endorsed Joe Biden, I guess I'm back on the Biden train here.
Here's Kerry Kennedy.
What we need in the United States is not division.
What we need in the United States is not hatred.
What we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness, but love and wisdom and compassion toward one another and a feeling of justice towards those who still suffer in this country, whether they be black or they be white.
Joe Biden's every decision is informed By his love, his wisdom, and his compassion towards those who suffer.
That is why we are so happy today to pledge our unwavering support to President Joe Biden and President Kamala Harris.
God bless all of you.
God bless America.
And please welcome President Joe Biden.
If you are deeply dependent on Kerry Kennedy to save your campaign, you got a problem.
And Joe Biden has himself a very, very large scale problem for certain.
And meanwhile, Alejandro Mayorkas was let off the hook by the Senate of the United States.
Democrats in the Senate decided they weren't even going to hear the impeachment charges against him.
They just dismissed them right away.
However, According to Breitbart, President Biden's Department of
Homeland Security approved a work permit for Jose Antonio Ibarra of Venezuela, who was
accused of murdering 22-year-old Lakin Riley even after discovering he had a prior criminal
history, according to federal documents detailed by Senator Josh Hawley. America was grilled about
that yesterday by Hawley on the Hill.
Here was the exchange.
Senator, I will not speak to the particulars of the case, given the pending criminal prosecution.
Well, you certainly, of course, you don't want to because it is an absolutely damning indictment of your policies.
Let's just review Jose Barrera and how, Ibarra rather, and how he came to be here.
On September the 8th, 2022, he was encountered by United States Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas and was paroled into the United States due to lack of detention capacity.
A provision, a proviso, a rule that is not permitted under the statute.
You and I both know you know this.
You knew it when you were talking to Congressman Bishop.
You knew it when you were testifying to Senator Britt, and you know it today.
You just never wanted to cop to it, because the statute doesn't permit it.
And so you lied to Congressman Bishop, and you lied to Senator Britt.
And now you are hiding behind the ongoing prosecution excuse, because it's the last one left to you.
Because you testified falsely under oath.
Well, Josh Hawley has some dead rights on that one.
I mean, the fact of the matter remains that it is Joe Biden's immigration policy that has in fact gotten American citizens killed.
Meanwhile, Alejandro Ramirez continues to claim that the southern border is as secure as we can make it.
Here he was yesterday.
Why did you say the border was secure?
Was that a lie?
What do you mean by that?
Senator Romney, allow me to assure you that I have honored the oath of office that I have taken.
more than five times in my 22-plus years of federal service.
Let me go back to the question.
That's as accurate as it is irrelevant, which is, my question is, you said the border was secure.
What did you mean when you said the border was secure?
Is that not a lie?
Senator, you've asked me now if that is a lie, and I have assured you Sure, sure.
It's just as secure as it can be.
There's only one problem.
As Rand Paul points out, you already have the powers you need to shut down the border.
With the resources and authorities that we have, it is as secure as it can be.
Sure, sure. It's just as secure as it can be.
There's only one problem. As Rand Paul points out, you already have the powers you need to shut down the border.
What exactly are you waiting for?
All of the laws that existed under the Trump administration still exist under the Biden administration.
You have all the powers that you need.
The laws on accepting migrants to this country says the executive may admit migrants.
It doesn't say the executive branch shall admit migrants.
You can simply say we're full up and we've got too many criminals and we've got the horrendous thing that happened to Lake and Riley and to others.
And we're just full and we're just, we're going to stop taking migrants for a while until we can sort out the mess we have at the border.
You have every power to do that now.
You just don't utilize those powers.
But it isn't about really being good at utilizing the power, we just think you're not obeying the law.
He happens to be correct about all of that.
Meanwhile, folks, we've been discussing the chaos in the Republican House.
We are joined on the line by Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
So on Friday morning, the House voted on debate rules that advance a series of foreign aid bills to the full House for final passage on Saturday.
Broad bipartisan support for these bills, 316, 294.
But there are people, as usual, screaming and crying about it.
Speaker Johnson, thanks so much for joining the show.
Great to talk to you.
Ben, great to be with you.
Thanks for all you do.
So why don't we start by talking about what's actually in these bills.
These bills, as always, are not perfect.
It turns out there are these things and they are called Democrats and they exist in the House and they also exist in the majority in the Senate and also one of them is sitting in the White House able to veto things.
So what is in these bills that is good?
What is in them that's bad?
Why are you advancing these bills to the floor?
Well, we're at a point of pivotal decision.
I mean, this is a dangerous time on the world stage, as you and I know, and Israel is in great jeopardy fighting for their existence.
Ukraine is close to being overrun, and they're estimated to be out of ammo by the end of this month, literally, which would allow Vladimir Putin to roll through the country, take Kiev, and set up on the borders of NATO countries.
Of course, Iran and its aggression of Israel has continued, and Xi is watching this from China, and all of the axis of evil is empowered.
So what are we to do?
We're in the midst of this dynamic where we have divided government, and as you noted, the Democrats control the White House and the Senate, so we in the House here, with the smallest majority, For the Republican Party, smallest majority in U.S.
history, one to two vote margin on any given day.
We have to address these matters.
We have to meet the moment.
And so the House is fixing the Senate supplemental bill, the foreign aid bill that was sent to us a few months ago, with better policy and better process.
And so what we've done is we've taken, for example, the Ukraine funding elements that are controversial, of course, on our side.
We've added a loan instrument.
We have added the Repo Act, which is the use of corrupt Russian oligarchs' seized assets to support the effort there.
We've added oversight, accountability, and a strategy shift to force the White House to give us the information and the endgame and all the rest.
We have an amendment process so we can address each of these measures on their own merit in four separate bills instead of having them sandwiched together.
And everybody can vote their own will and their own conscience and their own constituents.
That's the way this place is supposed to work.
And we included tough measures on Russia, China and Iran, including sanctions and some other innovations.
So a very important change in both the process and the policy.
And if we had not done this, Ben, and this is very important, we would have had to eat the Senate supplemental.
If we had not taken this step, there would have been a discharge petition.
And that means that a handful of Republicans would have crossed over and gotten on board with the Democrats to force it out of my hands and make us take the Senate supplemental as is.
That was not an acceptable outcome.
And this is the best possible outcome that we can achieve.
You know, Speaker, that last phrase that you used, the best possible outcome that we can achieve, that's the one that so many members of sort of the House Freedom Caucus's right have been focusing in on.
They suggest that there is a better deal that could be made if only there was the will, then suddenly Democrats would collapse on a bunch of these issues, or suddenly there would be in Israel only a bill that would go forward without any sort of humanitarian aid to Gaza, or maybe the Ukraine bill could be pared down much smaller than it currently is, but you're the one who's actually in the negotiating room Is there a lot of wiggle room here with Democrats that's been left?
There's not.
And part of the reason for that, Ben, is that they know that our House Republican conference is not sticking together right now.
There's a lot of division and difference of opinion.
And, you know, that's part of the process.
Democracy is messy.
But when you're in a negotiation and you literally have the smallest margin in the history of the United States Congress, The other side obviously knows that, and they're watching the dissension among our ranks, and that takes away our negotiation ability.
Look, on the Ukraine piece, this is really important to point out.
You know, there's a lot of angst about, you know, quote-unquote, sending more money to Ukraine, but 80% of the funds that are in this package for Ukraine are literally to replenish American weapons and stocks and facilities.
This is America's defense industrial base.
This is building weapons here at home and refilling our stockpiles.
Really, really important thing for us to do.
Ukraine is in a position where they very likely would fall.
And so this is going to allow them to at least hold the line.
And I believe, Ben, that President Donald Trump is going to have another term early next year if this is continuing to that point.
I think he's the one that has the strength to go in and negotiate a peace in this,
but not if Russia rolls through the country.
I mean, this is really important.
As I said in a press gaggle here the other day, to be blunt, I would rather send bullets to Ukraine
than boys, you know, American soldiers.
We don't want boots on the ground.
We're not the world's policemen.
If we can invest this small amount right now and achieve the desired outcome,
that is better for us in the long run.
And it saves us a lot of money and of course, blood and toil.
Now, Speaker Johnson, it's honestly bewildering to me why there are so many people in the Republican Party
who don't seem to understand or want to understand that strong American allies,
force stalls direct American action.
That's the history of America's foreign policy.
When we have weak allies who are unable to take care of themselves, very often we end up sending our own troops, sending our own resources in much greater numbers than would have been the case if we had simply supported our allies from the outset so that they were strong enough to actually I've yet to hear any Republican actually explain what the alternative to, for example, aid to Ukraine would be.
I've heard some people in the Republican caucus call them principled libertarians who just say that we should spend no money at all.
Okay, that's consistent, although I think that it does not have the virtue of wisdom.
But that's not a lot of members of the Republican caucus.
Many of the people who are sounding out in the Republican caucus and in the commentariat about aid to Ukraine Can't seem to express why exactly it would be in America's interest for Russia to actually overrun Kiev, which would be the predictable result if in fact no aid gets moved to Ukraine in the middle of this.
I think you stated that very well, and you're right, they don't have an answer because there isn't one.
And I'll point out too, to my real frustration, I mean, some of my colleagues who are the most adamantly opposed to this and who have, in some senses, mocked the arguments of why this is so important, have not availed themselves of the, you know, the defense briefings that are available here.
They've not gone to talk to the generals, they've not gone into the The confidential classified briefing on exactly what the status is on the ground.
And they're making monumental decisions with global implications, not completely informed about the facts.
And I think that's dereliction of duty.
And I've said it as much, and I'm not naming anyone, but there are some people that have just refused to go on the skiff.
And I think it's a dangerous thing.
Look, you and I are children of the Of the Reagan era.
I was.
I grew up.
I'm older than you.
But look, I believe in peace through strength.
I believe in what Ronald Reagan said.
It does not mean that we're the world's policemen.
It does not mean that American troops should have boots on the ground everywhere.
That's not what we're for.
But to your point, Ben, and you've said it well, a strong America is good for stability around the globe.
What does that mean?
It means the perception of a strong America.
We're the last great superpower.
You know, we're the greatest nation in the history of the world.
It's not even close.
We're the most free, most benevolent, the strongest, the most powerful.
And if we don't act like it, then terrorists and tyrants take over.
The reason that Iran and China and North Korea and Russia right now are acting so provocatively is because we're projecting weakness on the world stage.
Joe Biden's foreign policy has been an absolute disaster.
And that's what's got us in this situation.
And if we do this little bit of investment here, we can stem the tide, hold them off, hopefully, until we get a new president.
And that day cannot happen soon enough.
You know, Speaker Johnson, one of the things that has come up in this context, obviously, is the ridiculous motion to vacate.
Obviously, you inherited a set of rules that were originally negotiated by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who then had his speakership vacated by some members of the Republican caucus who never really specified why McCarthy was doing such a terrible job, but they just decided that he had to go, and then he couldn't actually Get enough Democrats to vote with him to preserve his speakership or he couldn't get enough Republicans to vote with him to preserve his speakership and he ended up ousted and then leaving Congress.
Now you have a similar group of people, smaller it seems, who are attempting to challenge your speakership.
They keep threatening a motion to vacate.
I noticed they haven't actually brought one formally yet because I think that they are afraid they're not going to get nearly as many votes as they keep trumpeting.
With regard to the media, these are unworkable rules.
I mean, right now, the situation, as you mentioned, in the House of Representatives is that you are presiding over the slimmest majority for the Republicans in modern history, and that majority could theoretically be thrown into complete chaos by a couple of attention seekers at any time.
Those rules, I've been pushing for you to try to change those rules.
Is that coming?
Is there going to be a move to go back to what was a sense of normalcy, which is that you needed a significant percentage of the caucus to actually challenge a speaker in order to oust a speaker, and then go back to what is the way the Republicans used to govern, which was the Hastert rule, which says that you don't bring forward a bill unless a majority of the caucus supports it.
By the way, again, worth noting, a majority of the Republican caucus supports these foreign aid bills.
They do.
The rules package that just went forth was voted by Republicans 151 to 55.
The notion That a minority of Republicans ought to run the House of Representatives seems bizarre to me.
It is bizarre, and it's not workable.
It really undermines the way the institution is designed to work by the founders, and it's become a problem.
Look, we're in the age of the modern Congress.
Newt Gingrich famously said a few days ago that being Speaker is now impossible.
I challenged him on it.
He's a friend, but what Newt was suggesting there is that we now live in the age of the 24-hour news cycle and social media, and so every member of Congress has their own You know, media outlet and platform and they can go online and tell the American public every 5 minutes what they're disgruntled about and why they don't get 100% of what they want.
It makes it a real challenge to, you know, to get things done when the margin is as small as ours is.
But look, on the motion to vacate, It's not something I'd walk around being concerned about.
I can't.
We need to unify this conference and we have to do our jobs.
And we cannot send the house into chaos in the middle of an election season.
I mean, obviously, these are commonsensical notions.
You can't show to the country that we can't keep ourselves together and then expect them to vote for us to keep and grow this majority.
And let me point out why that's so important for the obvious, if anyone has a question
about that.
If we don't have a majority in January in the next Congress and Donald Trump wins for
president, which I believe he will, the Democrats will impeach him in the first week of his
office.
They will try to investigate everyone who even thinks about serving in the cabinet.
They'll subpoena every visitor to the White House.
Everybody in the president's orbit will need their own army of lawyers.
That's where we are in the country, and we can't allow that to turn this disastrous policy around.
Foreign policy, domestic policy, every metric that's a disaster under Joe Biden.
We have to have the majority in both chambers, the Senate and the House.
We have to have the White House.
Ben, I think we're on track to do that, but we can shoot ourselves in the foot and take the victory away from ourselves if we're not careful here.
You know, Speaker Johnson, that is, I think, the main point is that if Republicans wish
to govern and actually make the sort of major changes that are necessary, they are going
to have to run all three elected branches of government.
They're going to have to run the Senate.
Republicans have a good shot of winning back the Senate, given the map this year.
They're going to have to have a much larger majority in the House.
Right now, frankly, none of this would be a problem if Republicans had an additional
15 seats in the House.
The truth is that the entire House would have been run differently if Republicans had an
additional 15 seats in the House.
And if Donald Trump is the president, I mean, the reality is that in a presidential race, you know what he's not going to want to have to deal with?
A completely dysfunctional Congress that Democrats are going to be running against, including President Joe Biden.
So, the idea that the Republican conference should actually, you know, do their jobs as opposed to grandstanding for the cameras in the name of a purity that they never seem to achieve, that is absolute foolishness.
So, Speaker Johnson, I'm glad that you're doing what you're doing.
I appreciate it.
I think it's good for the country.
And thanks so much for standing strong in favor of an actual strong America on the foreign policy stage.
Thank you, Ben.
Appreciate it.
Great to hear your voice and glad for all your work.
Appreciate you.
Thanks, Peter Johnson.
Really appreciate it.
All right, guys, the rest of the show is continuing right now.
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