0:00

Lots of channels. Nothing to watch.

0:03

Especially if you're searching for the truth. It's

0:06

time to interrupt your regularly scheduled programs

0:08

with something actually worth watching. Salem

0:11

News Channel. Straightforward, unfiltered, with

0:13

in-depth insight and analysis from

0:15

the greatest collection of conservative

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minds. Like Hugh Hewitt, Mike

0:19

Gallagher, Sebastian Gorka and more.

0:21

Find Truth. Watch 24-7 on

0:24

SNC.TV. And on Local Now,

0:26

Channel 525. I'm

0:35

Seth Leipzen, and today, once again, for Town Hall

0:37

Review with Hugh Hewitt. The Supreme

0:40

Court hears a key free speech case. And

0:42

Justice Kitanji Brown Jackson just gets

0:45

our First Amendment wrong. So

0:47

my biggest concern is that your

0:49

view has the First Amendment hamstringing

0:52

the government. It really

0:54

is concerning. She's got it upside

0:56

down. The question was astonishing. The

0:59

House and the Senate try to force China to sell

1:01

TikTok. It is a giant counterintelligence

1:03

operation here in the United

1:05

States. Congressman Mike Gallagher, the

1:08

chair of the China Select Committee,

1:10

weighs in. This is a basic

1:12

test of how resilient our republic

1:14

is from our communist adversary. Former

1:16

President Trump joins us, addressing his opponent,

1:19

Joe Biden. He's the worst president in

1:21

history. There has never been worse. We've

1:24

got all this and more. I'm Seth Leipzen

1:26

coming to you from Phoenix and AM 960

1:28

The Patriot, where I host a program in

1:30

the afternoon Monday through Friday. Learn more and

1:32

listen to my program at 960thepatriot.com. And

1:36

take a moment to follow me

1:38

on X at Seth Leipzen. That's

1:40

Seth. L-E-I-B-S-O-H-N. And

1:43

follow this program as well at Town

1:45

Hall Review. Town Hall Review

1:47

is part of the Salem Podcast Network. We're

1:49

going to start in D.C. and the Supreme Court. On

1:53

Monday this week, the court heard arguments in the

1:55

case of Murthy v. Missouri. It's

1:57

a First Amendment case to watch as it deals

1:59

with the unprecedented it ended the stifling of speech

2:01

we saw through the COVID pandemic. Justice

2:04

Ketanji Brown-Jackson got the First

2:06

Amendment wrong. So my biggest

2:08

concern is that your view

2:11

has the First Amendment hamstringing

2:13

the government in significant ways

2:15

in the most important

2:18

time periods. I mean,

2:20

what would you have the government do? I've

2:23

heard you say a couple times that the

2:25

government can post its own speech, but in

2:27

my hypothetical, you know, kids, this is not

2:29

safe, don't do it, it's

2:32

not going to get it done. And so

2:34

I guess some

2:36

might say that the government actually has

2:38

a duty to take

2:40

steps to protect the citizens of

2:43

this country. And you seem to be suggesting

2:45

that that duty cannot manifest

2:47

itself in the government encouraging

2:50

or even pressuring platforms

2:52

to take down harmful information.

2:55

Peter Kirsanow of the U.S. Commission on

2:57

Civil Rights responds in his conversation with

2:59

Bob France on AM 1420, the

3:01

answer in Cleveland. So Peter, Supreme

3:05

Court Justice Ketanji

3:08

Brown-Jackson, who might remind everybody,

3:10

did not know what a

3:12

woman was during her confirmation

3:15

because she's not a biologist. Yeah. She's

3:18

concerned that the First Amendment is

3:20

hamstringing the government. I

3:22

could go on and on, but your woe tells me you're

3:24

ready to go. Go. I don't

3:27

even know where to begin, Bob.

3:29

But look, maybe

3:31

she should have tried to be

3:33

a biologist because the law is

3:35

not her specialty. This is incredible.

3:38

That was an embarrassing display.

3:41

I don't even know where to begin. The

3:43

fact of the matter is the First Amendment

3:45

exists not to restrict the speech of American

3:47

citizens, but to make sure the

3:49

government doesn't restrict speech. It is there

3:51

to protect us against the government. In

3:53

other words, what she said she fears

3:56

is what's supposed to happen, that the

3:58

government is being hammed for. Exactly. The

4:00

government is supposed to be hamstrung. Exactly.

4:02

She's got it upside down.

4:04

The question was astonishing. Look,

4:06

in the United States of

4:09

America, there are very, very,

4:11

very narrow exceptions to the unfettered right

4:13

to free speech. And those have to

4:16

do—all I've got to do is look

4:18

at Brandenburg versus Ohio, basically. Brandenburg

4:21

versus Ohio is the central Supreme Court

4:23

case related to what kind of restriction,

4:25

if any, may be permissible, and it

4:27

is extremely narrow, Bob. I

4:30

don't know it off the top of my head,

4:32

but it's only if there's direct, imminent,

4:34

lawless action that is being

4:37

advocated, imminent lawless action.

4:40

When you're saying something such as you

4:43

have a Klan rally next

4:45

to an all-Black school and you're exhorting them

4:48

to go into the school to hurt people,

4:50

that kind of stuff is not protected. But

4:52

that is—when does that happen? And

4:56

then the old saw about yelling, firing a

4:58

crowd at them. I mean, the narrow

5:00

exceptions are extraordinarily narrow. The

5:02

presumption is in favor of more speech.

5:04

That's how we approach things in America.

5:07

If you don't like what somebody is saying,

5:09

you don't stop them from saying it, you

5:11

then promote more speech

5:13

to counter it, and then the

5:15

objective observer can decide which way

5:18

he wants to act upon the

5:20

competing values. Peter,

5:22

before you continue, let me give

5:24

you a quick context for her,

5:27

quote-unquote, hypothetical. She suggested

5:29

that if there was a dangerous

5:31

trend being circulated online on social

5:33

media in which children were being

5:36

encouraged to jump out of windows

5:38

at increasing elevations, should the government

5:40

authorities not encourage or

5:42

coerce the social media platforms to

5:44

take down those encouragements in the name

5:46

of public safety of those kids? That

5:49

was her hypothetical. of

6:00

parents. Exactly what I said an hour

6:02

ago on this program. Okay and maybe

6:04

there's some other you know church whatever

6:07

it may be there are private entities

6:09

that do this kind of stuff. That's

6:11

the job of parents. Unfortunately under the

6:13

progressive vision parents are irrelevant.

6:15

They may become completely irrelevant because as you've

6:17

seen many of the top progressives out there

6:19

say that kids belong to the state or

6:22

should belong to the state. But

6:24

bottom line here is the government has no...

6:26

Look government can speak all they want to.

6:28

They can go out there and say don't

6:30

do this. Don't jump out of windows. In

6:32

other words the remedy for speech you don't

6:34

like is more speech. It's speech that clarifies

6:36

speech that counters and the government can do

6:38

that if it wishes to do almost

6:41

without restraint and there are certain occasions in

6:43

which it is restrained but what it can't

6:45

do is then restrain your speech. That's

6:48

the problem with KBJ's approach. That

6:50

is I wish I could again

6:52

I wish I could have seen John Roberts face

6:54

or Scalia's face or Thomas almost anybody's face when

6:56

she said that. They

6:59

probably were resisting the urge to bury

7:01

their face in their hands. That was

7:03

stunning. That's stunning. While

7:05

voices like Justice Jackson defend the right

7:08

of our government to throttle speech of

7:10

average Americans in our country there are

7:12

a course of voices defending China's right

7:14

to own an incredibly influential media outlet.

7:17

Of course I'm referring to TikTok and

7:20

the parent company ByteDance. We'll

7:22

turn first to my friend Brandon

7:24

Weikert, author of among other books

7:26

Biohacked China's Race to Control Life.

7:29

Brandon was a guest on my program. It

7:31

seems like a slam dunk common

7:33

sense idea end this thing and

7:36

people seem to be wanting

7:39

to look for some libertarian

7:41

reason that it gives too

7:43

much power to the president. I read the

7:45

whole bill Peggy Noonan

7:48

may have had it right. She said

7:50

okay so on an eight foot stick

7:53

this gets you two feet but how about

7:55

two being better than zero. I don't know

7:57

what do you think? Well Well,

8:00

you know, that's why I've always said libertarians

8:02

are the single greatest threat to the United

8:04

States, probably ever, because whenever

8:06

it comes down to actually getting things

8:09

done, particularly for the right, enter the

8:11

libertarians to suddenly side with the left.

8:14

Right. They are not libertarians.

8:16

They're usually libertines anyway. Right. But

8:18

I digress. My point with this is

8:21

the Chinese have been doing this sort

8:23

of thing to American and Western companies

8:25

that operated China with want and abandon.

8:27

And frankly, on a very basic level, it's

8:29

just nice to do it to them once

8:31

in a while. And so on that

8:33

level alone, we should absolutely do it.

8:36

Who cares about the libertarian argument? They

8:38

don't matter anyway. What elections have libertarians

8:40

won ever? They don't. They're

8:42

like parasites. They latch onto a bigger cause, and they

8:44

use that to elevate their people. And what do we

8:46

have to show for it? 50

8:48

years of China growing, the destruction of

8:51

the American middle class, the destruction of

8:53

America's industry. Yeah, the libertarians have got everything. Rampant

8:56

illegal immigration. That's

8:58

right. Giving cause to our

9:01

leftist enemies, giving them aid

9:03

and comfort. Letting criminals out

9:05

early, not prosecuting, getting

9:07

rid of cash. They're not libertarians.

9:10

They're libertines. Yeah. And they cannot

9:12

be trusted. And

9:14

so they should basically everything they're saying right

9:16

now should be discarded. Beyond

9:19

that, we know for a fact that TikTok,

9:21

and I'll tell you what Oracle has said,

9:23

Oracle engineers have set off the record. Because

9:26

they're reviewing the algorithm for

9:28

TikTok. That's part of the deal that

9:30

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok had

9:32

in order to continue doing business in

9:34

the United States. They had to basically

9:36

let a U.S. firm, in this case

9:39

Oracle, review all their source quote code for

9:41

the last year or so. And

9:43

what multiple Oracle engineers have

9:45

said is that they believe that

9:47

TikTok, as it is run by

9:50

ByteDance, is a giant

9:52

quote counterintelligence operation here in

9:54

the United States. Important

10:00

China Select Committee. He joined Hugh

10:02

Hewitt. Yeah. Gunderson Gallagher If

10:04

we can't do this. I

10:07

don't know what we can do about the

10:09

Ccp. In other words, this one is so

10:11

obvious. This is such an uneasy when this

10:13

is such a pin yada because tic toc

10:15

has been kicked talk for a long time.

10:18

It is destructive of people's lives. It is

10:20

a sock on your data. I won't go

10:22

near and I won't even. And I mean

10:24

like we have my phone near affirmative thought

10:26

on it. But if we can't do this,

10:29

what else you think we can do? Obesity?

10:31

The Ccp. That. This is

10:33

is is a basic tests of

10:35

how resilient our republic is from

10:37

or communist adversary. To your point

10:40

you i'm in a tiny somebody

10:42

could buy your radio station. The

10:44

Good: News We

10:46

are well established precedent regarding for an

10:49

adversary ownership when it comes to traditional

10:51

media. and given the fact that Tic

10:53

Toc is increasingly the go to new

10:56

source for Americans under the age of

10:58

thirty, same President should apply in this

11:00

case and ask for any concerns about

11:02

First Amendment or free speech. You are

11:05

a vaunted constitutional lawyer here. you can

11:07

push back if I'm wrong, but this

11:09

bill doesn't say anything with respect to

11:12

contact or speech we're talking about for

11:14

an adversary ownership. Of a

11:16

social media application. And

11:18

if the ownership changes, people can continue

11:20

to posts whatever they want on social

11:22

media. Now that will have a separate

11:25

to pay which is debate that all

11:27

parents should have about social media in

11:29

general. Whether it's in America, own company

11:31

or Chinese company and the correlation between

11:33

such me to use and anxiety, depression

11:35

and suicide but that is not what

11:37

this bill addresses. This built addresses the

11:39

fact. That. Are foremost adversary now

11:41

has control over what is the dominant

11:43

news platform for Americans under the age

11:45

of thirty that is crazy to allow

11:48

that continue and if we allowed to

11:50

continue at National Self Suicide and basically

11:52

asked surrendering in the early stages of

11:54

the new Cold War. Ah, a

11:56

german gallagher out on if you've seen john

11:59

hates new book be anxious generation, which I've

12:01

been reading this week. I brought it back on the plane

12:03

with me. John Haight is a man of the left. He

12:05

writes for The Atlantic. He's an extraordinary scholar, though.

12:07

And what we have done, or not

12:10

done, for Americans

12:12

under the age of 30 is basically abandon

12:15

the field of their attention span

12:17

and their content delivery mechanism to

12:19

a market about which older Americans

12:21

like me, boomers, and even middle-aged

12:23

Americans like you. And that's what

12:25

you are now. You have

12:27

no idea what's going on in the lives of

12:30

young people. And TikTok is what's going on in

12:32

the lives of young people, and it's a disaster.

12:35

Well, I think Jonathan Haight has written

12:37

the best book of the last 10

12:39

years in his previous book, The Coddling

12:41

of the American Mind. He's at the

12:43

leading edge of the research surrounding the

12:46

corrosive impact of social media

12:48

use and its strong correlation

12:50

with anxiety, depression, and suicide. And the

12:52

other thing we've done is bubble wrapped

12:54

our kids and allowed them less time

12:56

to do free play outside. And

12:58

Jonathan Haight has talked about that. Notably,

13:01

in his interview this week on Joe

13:03

Rogan's podcast, Jonathan Haight endorsed our TikTok

13:05

effort and talks about how TikTok is

13:08

unusually malicious in terms of how addictive

13:10

the algorithm is, as well as the

13:12

national security concerns surrounding Chinese ownership. Coming

13:15

up. He's the worst president

13:18

in history. There has never been this.

13:20

Our country is in trouble and our

13:22

democracy is in trouble because of him.

13:24

President Trump, when the Town Hall Review

13:26

returns in a moment, stay with us. This

13:30

is Dennis Prager, and now

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a truly exciting new benefit.

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to pragertopia.com or click the

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banner at Dennis prager.com. Welcome

14:04

back to Town Hall Review, I'm Seth Leibson.

14:07

In 32 short weeks our nation will select

14:10

a president and it really is hard to

14:12

overstate how high the stakes are. We

14:14

have the looming threat from China that we

14:16

just looked at, we have an open border

14:19

inflation unprecedented deaths from drug poisonings and

14:21

I could go on. But I'll

14:23

let Sebastian Gorka pick up on the concerns

14:26

in our very dangerous world and his conversation

14:28

with the GOP nominee for President of the

14:30

United States, Donald Trump. It's

14:32

not just Ukraine however Mr. President, we

14:34

now have a war in the Middle

14:36

East for four years. There

14:38

was no war under your tenure as

14:41

Commander-in-Chief. You have proven yourself

14:43

to be the most pro-Israel, most Philosomatic

14:45

president since the rebirth of Israel in

14:47

1948. You

14:50

moved the embassy, you recognized Jerusalem,

14:52

it's one of my great regrets

14:54

that I was invited to the

14:56

reopening of the new embassy that

14:58

Ambassador Friedman created in Jerusalem, I

15:00

couldn't go. Could you explain

15:02

why is it seemingly that

15:04

this administration, including

15:07

Chuck Schumer in the Senate, so

15:09

hate the man that Israel

15:11

trowse as their Prime Minister?

15:14

Why do the Democrats hate

15:16

Bibi Netanyahu? I

15:18

actually think they hate Israel. Yes. I

15:20

don't think they hate, I think they hate Israel. And

15:23

the Democrat Party hates Israel. And

15:25

the Democrat Party, if you remember when many

15:28

Israeli representatives, including Netanyahu,

15:32

when they came to the country trying, begging,

15:35

begging at that time President Obama,

15:37

please don't make the Iran nuclear

15:39

deal, which is a disaster and

15:41

was a disaster. And I

15:43

ended it, but unfortunately they didn't do anything with

15:45

the ending of it. I ended

15:48

it and would have had a new deal made with

15:50

Iran, it would have been good for everybody and there

15:52

would have been no nuclear weapons. You know, they're very

15:54

close to getting a nuclear weapon right now. And

15:57

once they have that, it becomes a different form.

16:00

of negotiation, much more difficult

16:02

negotiation. But they—I really believe

16:04

they hate Israel, and they also see a

16:06

lot of votes. Don't forget,

16:09

when you see those Palestinian marches,

16:13

even I, I'm amazed at how many people are

16:15

in those marches. And guys

16:17

like Schumer see that, and to

16:20

him it's votes. I think it's votes more than anything

16:22

else, because he was always

16:24

pro-Israel. He's very anti-Israel now. Any

16:26

Jewish person that votes for Democrats

16:30

hates their religion. They hate

16:32

everything about Israel, and they should be

16:35

ashamed of themselves, because Israel would be

16:37

destroyed. With me, Iran was

16:39

broke. They were absolutely stone-cold broke. There

16:41

was no terrorism, because they didn't have

16:44

money to fund Hamas and Hezbollah

16:46

and the other 28 groups. China couldn't

16:48

buy oil from them. None of

16:51

the countries were buying oil from them at my

16:53

order. They didn't buy it. I said, you buy

16:55

it? We're not going to do business with the

16:57

United States of America. They said, we'll pass. And

17:00

they didn't buy oil. Now they

17:02

have $221 billion, including

17:04

the $6 billion that we gave them for

17:07

hostages. Okay? We have

17:09

$6 billion, including the $10 billion that

17:11

we gave them so that

17:14

Iraq could get electricity. How about that?

17:16

We gave them $10 billion so Iraq gets electricity, and

17:18

Iraq wants to throw us out. The

17:21

whole thing is crazy. These people are

17:23

the worst. There's

17:26

something wrong with them. They are the

17:28

worst negotiators. All they're good at is

17:30

evil. They're evil people. They're

17:32

sick. They're evil. They weaponized the

17:34

Justice Department to get Trump. But

17:37

Russia and all these other countries can do whatever

17:39

they want to the United States. China.

17:42

China is like, we're like a puppet for

17:44

China now. He doesn't know anything with China,

17:46

because they gave him so much money. He's

17:48

a Manchurian candidate. Look, he's the worst president

17:51

in the history of our country by 10

17:53

times. There's never been

17:55

anything like it. Jimmy Carter is the only

17:57

one happy, because he is a brilliant man.

18:00

President compared to Biden. Do

18:02

you think that it's actually because they're

18:05

compromised, the likes of shifts that you

18:07

mentioned, Biden, do you think the Chinese

18:09

have something on them? I

18:11

think they have them on Biden, yeah. I think

18:13

they have it on Biden, probably have it on

18:15

shift too, but I think they have something on

18:18

Biden. I think there's no reason that Biden could

18:20

be so weak with China, there's no reason. It's

18:22

pathetic. And frankly, until they did

18:25

the, I would never speak

18:27

in such harsh tones about the presidency

18:29

because I have such respect for it.

18:31

But when they indicted me on all

18:34

of this nonsense, including local stuff, everything,

18:36

you know, they you saw where Fani,

18:39

or the boyfriend or both, went to

18:41

the Justice Department and the White House,

18:43

had long meetings, eight-hour meetings, numerous

18:46

days. This was all planned.

18:48

This was all done by the White House. And

18:51

when they did that, I say, well, now

18:53

I can just talk freely in the way

18:55

I want to talk. He's the worst president

18:57

in history. There has never been worse. Our

19:00

country is in trouble and our democracy is

19:02

in trouble because of him, for a number

19:04

of reasons, including the fact that he's incompetent.

19:07

But for a number of reasons, our

19:09

democracy is in tremendous trouble because

19:11

of Joe Biden. Well, let's

19:14

talk about- He's weaponized the Justice

19:16

Department against his political opponent, something

19:18

that was unthought of for our

19:20

country, very, very commonly used in

19:22

third world countries, by the way.

19:24

It's police state tactics. That's why,

19:26

you know,

19:29

the FBI now stands for fascist

19:31

bureau of intimidation, truly. Let's

19:34

talk about our side for a moment. The last

19:36

time we met in person at Mar-a-Lago, I asked

19:38

you about Rona Romney McDaniel and you swore

19:41

me to secrecy. You said, we're getting rid

19:43

of her. Finally, Lara

19:45

has taken over. I'm very

19:47

excited that the person I mentioned to you,

19:50

Scott Pressler, has been hired by Lara in

19:53

the RNC. But I have to ask

19:56

you, are we there, Mr. President? Have

19:58

we arrived? Is the report- Republican Party

20:00

now MAGA. Is it America first

20:02

finally or is it still full

20:04

of rhinos? I think it's 95%

20:06

MAGA. And you know, when

20:09

I get a kick out of it, you

20:11

saw how quickly we disposed

20:13

of my competition. That's because it's a MAGA

20:15

party. It's Make America Great Again. We

20:17

want our country to be great again. We're

20:19

not a great country right now. We're a

20:22

left-at all over the world. We owe

20:24

$35 trillion. The whole thing is crazy. We are not going

20:30

to. When I see us giving billions

20:32

and billions of dollars to Taiwan and

20:34

other countries, you know Taiwan, don't forget

20:37

Taiwan stole our chip industry. We

20:39

had 100% of the chip industry.

20:41

Now they have 95% of the chip

20:44

industry. They're a very wealthy country. And

20:46

I'm all for Taiwan. I'm

20:49

all for everybody. But why are we giving

20:51

them $16 billion? They should be

20:53

giving us $16 billion. Why are we

20:56

giving them $16 billion? I'm

20:58

for Make America Great Again. It's

21:00

very simple. Make America Great Again.

21:02

And I'm not handing out parsley

21:05

money. We had the greatest

21:07

border, the strongest border in the history

21:09

of our country. We had the greatest

21:11

economy in the history of our country.

21:13

We rebuilt the military. We had no

21:15

wars other than I finished the ISIS

21:17

war. We took over, as you know,

21:19

better than anybody. You speak about it better

21:22

than anybody. We took out 100% of the

21:24

ISIS caliphate. I did it in four weeks

21:26

instead of five, six, seven years, which is

21:28

what I was told it would take if

21:30

we could do it at all. I did

21:32

it in four weeks. We have a great

21:34

military. And you don't have to worry about

21:36

our military going woke. They're not going to

21:38

go woke. But the top

21:40

people would like it to. But they don't have

21:42

the strength to make our military. Our military is

21:44

not woke and it's not going to be woke.

21:47

But they would like to try. And they are

21:49

trying. They had a million of these guys. They

21:52

are trying. Amazingly, they're trying

21:54

to make our military weak.

21:56

Talking of your your picks, I've been told who

21:58

you are a consumer. I've been told

22:01

I can't announce it until it's

22:03

official. When are you thinking

22:05

of making that announcement, sir? No

22:07

hurry. And there is no

22:09

one person. I mean, I'll tell you, there

22:11

are numerous people. But we

22:14

have a lot of great people in the Republican Party.

22:16

We have a lot of great people that nobody ever

22:18

heard of in the Republican Party. You know, that are

22:20

excellent senators that not a lot of people know. I

22:23

think it's probably good to have somebody

22:25

with some political experience because you

22:27

learn a lot about

22:29

a person that's not, you know, this

22:32

politics is a cleansing action. You understand

22:34

what I mean, Sebastian. It's a cleansing

22:36

action. For the complete conversation

22:38

with President Trump, go to Town Hall

22:40

Review dot com. Coming

22:42

up, Senator Schumer's unprecedented

22:44

act. The fourth major obstacle

22:47

to peace is

22:49

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

22:52

When the Town Hall Review returns in a moment.

22:56

Hi, it's Mike Gallagher. I start every

22:58

day by reading through the stories at

23:01

Daybreak Insider. In just 10 minutes, I

23:03

can zip through 10 stories that help

23:05

me start my day and help shape

23:07

where I go with the Mike Gallagher

23:09

show. Over a quarter million people get

23:12

Daybreak Insider by email daily. And it's

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available to you at no cost. Go

23:16

to daybreakinsider.com and simply plug in your

23:18

email. That's daybreakinsider.com. In five minutes, you

23:21

will be the most informed person in

23:23

the office. That's daybreakinsider.com. Welcome

23:27

back to the Town Hall Review with Hugh Hewitt. I'm

23:29

Seth Liebson. There are certain big

23:31

events in history that have a two-fold significance.

23:34

On one hand, they have a shaping force

23:36

on the course of events in and of

23:39

themselves, and then a related but different point.

23:41

They serve to reveal how bad things

23:44

have deteriorated right in front of us

23:46

without many of us even recognizing it.

23:49

I'd say that was true in the COVID pandemic. And

23:51

I'd say that was true in Israel and the

23:53

terror statelet in Gaza with events that began on

23:55

October 7. There are a

23:58

host of things that are distressing. For

24:00

Exhibit A, I'll point to the Senate Majority Leader,

24:02

the New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, on the floor

24:05

of our upper chamber last week. The

24:07

fourth major obstacle to peace is

24:10

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

24:13

And now, as a result of

24:15

those inflamed tensions in both Israeli and

24:17

Palestinian communities, people on all sides of

24:19

this war are turning away from a

24:21

two-state solution. We're going to

24:23

turn now to Dan Sinoar, host of the Call

24:25

Me Back podcast, and a guest of Hugh Hewitts.

24:29

Has President Biden has

24:31

Secretary Schumer thrown Israel

24:33

under the bus? I

24:35

don't think, from a pure policy standpoint,

24:38

Hugh, and as you know, in our

24:40

last episode, the one you're citing with

24:42

Aviv Reddykur, Aviv and I, who are

24:45

quite, are very close personally and usually see

24:48

events similarly. We typically

24:51

share the same analysis. The first

24:53

time we got into kind of a little bit

24:55

of a respectful but heated disagreement, is

24:58

we both have been of the view that

25:02

what President Biden has done for Israel

25:04

post-October 7th was extremely important and supportive.

25:06

And I think it's important just to

25:08

rattle off a few of those things,

25:10

right? One, he made a very powerful

25:12

statement right after October 7th in support

25:14

of Israel. He made it clear

25:16

which side he was on a number of

25:18

ways, not the least of which is. He

25:20

flew to Israel, sat with the War

25:23

Cabinet, you know, most powerful leader in

25:25

the world. The man

25:27

who leads the most – the commander in chief of the most

25:29

powerful military in the world goes to Israel,

25:31

deploys military assets to the Eastern Mediterranean,

25:34

sending a signal to Hezbollah,

25:37

gets munitions going to Israel on a pretty

25:39

steady clip, which was impressive because of the

25:42

dysfunction in Congress and the White House worked

25:44

around it. And he gave Israel

25:46

diplomatic cover at the UN, redoing

25:48

bad UN resolutions. He

25:50

deserves credit for all those things. Aviv and

25:53

I in our podcast every week

25:55

had been basically saying that. Where

25:57

I took issue with Aviv is he

25:59

– He believed

26:01

that if Biden at some

26:03

point has to ding Israel

26:05

rhetorically, not substantively, but

26:07

ding them rhetorically, to

26:10

hand her to his base, as Havi would say,

26:12

if he's got to do some things to win

26:14

Michigan at Israel's expense, we can handle it. And

26:18

I was willing to not protest

26:20

Havi's take. I was sort of along for

26:22

the ride. I saw what

26:25

President Biden did at the State of

26:27

the Union address and the criticisms unprecedented

26:29

for him or for any president for

26:31

that matter, the

26:33

criticisms he made against Israel were to

26:36

me over the top to use his

26:38

phrase, and unfair and very

26:40

damaging. And then a couple

26:43

of interviews that Vice President Harris did over the

26:45

subsequent days and even an interview the president did.

26:48

And my argument to Havi was it

26:51

is true that at a substantive level the president

26:53

has been doing the right thing on the policy

26:55

front. But rhetoric

26:57

has consequences. And

26:59

when you unleash the kind

27:01

of criticisms against Israel that

27:04

Biden was doing, it

27:06

provides jet fuel, rocket fuel

27:09

for Israel's critics, for Israel's

27:11

opponents to include the UN,

27:14

to include many capitals throughout Europe,

27:17

to include many countries in the

27:19

broader Arab Muslim world, to

27:22

include the media. And

27:25

not that they were holding back, but Biden

27:28

validated their criticisms. And

27:31

so if there is a pile-on on Israel, President

27:34

Biden added to it, contributed to

27:36

it. He provided rocket fuel for it. And

27:38

I thought it was outrageous. It

27:41

is outrageous. The hubristic moment of

27:43

the millennium is when Chuck

27:45

Schumer stands up in the well of the

27:47

Senate and tells Bibi Netanyahu that he's the

27:49

problem. I actually don't have a

27:51

precedent for this in American history. I don't

27:53

think we've ever, maybe the appeal to King

27:55

George that was filed before the Declaration of

27:57

Independence, but it's just the idea that that

28:00

our majority leader in the Senate

28:03

would lecture a democratically elected leader

28:05

of our ally who's been invaded,

28:07

savaged, pilloried, and has hostages

28:09

is astonishing. And the fact that the president

28:11

didn't mention anti-Semitism in America and has stated

28:14

all of that. But I want to get

28:16

to my bottom line and test it on

28:18

you. This is a political

28:20

calculation that they do have weakness

28:22

on their left. I think you and Habib and

28:24

I agree on that. But I

28:27

believe it's gone so far now that he

28:29

is going to suffer loss of

28:31

his Jewish American voters and his friends of allies'

28:34

voters. And I want people to know the numbers.

28:37

In 2000, Al Gore got 79 percent

28:39

of the Jewish American vote. In 2004,

28:41

John Kerry got 76 percent. In

28:45

2008, President Obama got 78 percent. In 2012, that

28:47

dropped to 69 percent for President Obama.

28:52

It went back up for Hillary Clinton to 71 percent

28:54

in 2016. And in 2020, Joe Biden only

29:00

got 68 percent of the American Jewish

29:02

vote in the general election. I

29:04

think he is putting a lot

29:07

of that 68 percent at risk

29:09

ban. I really do because American

29:11

Jews are afraid right now. They

29:13

actually feel fear. Coming

29:15

up, his policy in Gaza,

29:18

his policy in taking on Hamas

29:20

is the policy of the war problem when

29:22

the town hall review returns in a moment.

29:25

John Solomon provides exclusive reporting

29:27

and newsmaker interviews on John

29:29

Solomon reports on the Salem

29:32

podcast network. We broke the

29:34

start because we got the documents early. They

29:36

put out this new information and

29:38

it affirms our report. That this

29:40

Democrat donor gave about five million

29:42

or more in assistance to Hunter

29:44

Biden, basically paid off his bills.

29:47

Subscribe to John Solomon reports today

29:49

on Apple, Spotify, Google, Robo or

29:51

at Salem podcast network dot

29:54

com. Welcome

29:57

back to the town hall review. I'm Seth

29:59

Leibson coming to you from... AM 960, The

30:01

Patriot in Phoenix. On November

30:03

4, 1979, a group of radical

30:05

Islamists stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took

30:07

66 American hostages. Let

30:10

me just remind you, older folks, and tell

30:12

those of you who are younger, it was

30:15

all over the news, every day. The

30:17

Carter administration was communicating to the nation

30:19

the elite news outlets were covering the

30:22

hostages with names and pictures and bios.

30:25

I bring that up to point out

30:27

Americans are being held hostage by Hamas

30:29

today, right now, approaching 170 days

30:31

in captivity. And why, why don't we

30:35

hear anything about them? Let's

30:38

pick up on Hugh Hewitt's conversation with

30:40

Dan Senor. George W. Bush was at

30:42

the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda. Israel

30:44

is the most dangerous nation in the

30:46

world today, according to W. And

30:48

I believe Americans know that, and I believe

30:51

they know that we've got Americans held hostage

30:53

and the president doesn't name them and he

30:55

doesn't name the Abigail victim. He doesn't name

30:58

the three Jordanian soldiers who were killed over

31:00

there. We're not stupid. We all see the

31:02

world and Iran is moving chess pieces around

31:04

and we don't know what's going on. This

31:07

point about hostages is

31:10

interesting to me. So Bill McGurn with

31:12

the Wall Street Journal, columnist for the Wall Street

31:14

Journal wrote a very good column in which he

31:17

said, why don't Americans know

31:19

the names of the Americans, of

31:21

their fellow citizens who are being

31:23

held in tunnels under Gaza hostage?

31:25

Why aren't they household names? And

31:28

by the way, what happened at the State of the Union is the

31:32

families of the American

31:34

hostages were there in the

31:36

chamber, but they were invited there not

31:38

by the president. They were invited there

31:40

by members of Congress. It was bipartisan.

31:43

Some Republicans, some Democrats brought these Americans

31:46

and that forced the president's hand. I'm not sure

31:48

President Biden would have at least, he didn't mention

31:50

their names. At least he mentioned that there were

31:52

Americans being held. I'm not sure he would have

31:55

had the parents nuppet in the chamber

31:57

and the only reasons the parents were in the chamber.

32:00

was because members of God was a problem. Let me

32:02

play for you a cut from that State of the

32:04

Union, cut 17. Israel

32:06

must do his part. Israel

32:11

must allow more aid into Gaza to ensure

32:13

humanitarian workers aren't caught in the cross-cross. But

32:17

our announcement was

32:20

on a cross in the northern Gaza. The

32:23

leadership of Israel, I

32:25

say this, humanitarian assistance cannot

32:28

be a secondary consideration. Stop.

32:30

Dan Sienour, that is an insult.

32:33

Israel has never used humanitarian aid as

32:35

leverage. And I can't believe that line

32:38

got into the speech. I've done a

32:40

lot of bad speechwriters. The presidential speech

32:42

goes through about 50 pairs of

32:44

hands. Everybody sees what's in

32:46

it. Not a mistake. I told you, I

32:48

said to, I said to, I said

32:50

to Haviv, I said, Haviv, I've been involved

32:52

with this process. The number

32:54

of eyes on a presidential

32:57

speech is just

33:00

staff, cabinet secretaries that

33:02

work on the issues that

33:04

are addressed in the speech draft. I

33:07

mean, it's just endless, the number of

33:09

people see it. Errors are extremely rare

33:12

in a State of the Union address,

33:14

or at least factual errors. That was

33:17

a glaring factual error.

33:19

Sometimes the most compelling stories come

33:22

from the most unexpected places. Picture

33:24

this. You're just a 14-year-old boy, abruptly

33:26

awakened by a solemn priest at your

33:29

boarding school. Your father's been shot, and

33:31

you're rushed to his side in Los

33:33

Angeles. But as you stand by his

33:35

bedside, witnessing his final moments, you can't

33:38

shake the memories of another tragedy years

33:40

before when your uncle, the president, made

33:42

a similar fate. As you journey back,

33:44

the train moves sludgely, every inch weighed

33:47

down by a nation mourning your father's

33:49

loss. Life throws

33:51

curveballs, and for Robert Kennedy Jr.,

33:53

it was a journey marked by

33:55

highs and lows. His story is

33:57

one of resilience, tragedy, and redemption.

34:00

the real RFK Jr. The

34:02

most important documentary of the year. Witness

34:05

his incredible journey and his legacy. For

34:07

a limited time, watch it free

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at the rfkmovie.com. The real

34:12

RFK Jr. A story that

34:14

needs to be told. This is

34:16

the rfkmovie.com now. Sometimes

34:19

the most compelling stories come from

34:21

the most unexpected places. Picture this.

34:24

You're just a 14 year old boy,

34:26

abruptly awakened by a solemn priest at your

34:28

boarding school. Your father's been shot,

34:30

and you're rushed to his side in

34:33

Los Angeles. But as you stand by

34:35

his bedside, witnessing his final moments, you

34:37

can't shake the memories of another tragedy

34:39

years before, when your uncle, the

34:41

president, met a similar fate. As

34:43

you journey back, the train moves sludishly, every

34:46

inch weighed down by a nation mourning your

34:48

father's loss. Life

34:50

throws curveballs, and for Robert Kennedy Jr., it

34:52

was a journey marked by highs and lows.

34:55

His story is one of resilience,

34:57

tragedy, and redemption. The real RFK

35:00

Jr. The most

35:02

important documentary of the year. Witness

35:04

his incredible journey and his legacy.

35:06

For a limited time, watch it

35:08

free at the rfkmovie.com. The

35:11

real RFK Jr. A story that

35:13

needs to be told. This is

35:15

the rfkmovie.com now. That

35:18

Chuck Schumer was a flare. That

35:20

was not an uncoordinated speech. Do you agree with

35:23

me? The White House knew what Schumer was going

35:25

to do. I believe the White House asked Schumer

35:27

to do. Right. Okay. We do agree. I

35:30

don't think Chuck Schumer came up with this on his own. I

35:32

think it was completely coordinated and

35:34

requested by the administration. We can talk a

35:36

lot about that. I have a lot of

35:38

thoughts on what Schumer did. I

35:40

thought what Schumer did was really damaging.

35:44

Fortunately, he's now backtracking. Well,

35:47

he better or he's going to lose New York.

35:49

I mean, there's one way for Chuck Schumer to

35:51

lose New York, and it's to lose his Jewish

35:53

supporters, and there are a lot of them. And

35:55

I'm so stunned by that speech. What

35:58

is your red line? with

36:00

Prime Minister Netanyahu, do you have

36:03

a red line? For instance, would invasion

36:05

of Rafa, would you have urged him not

36:07

to do? Would that be a red line?

36:10

This is a red line, but I'm never gonna leave Israel. The

36:13

defense of Israel is still critical. So there's

36:16

no red line I'm gonna cut off all weapons

36:18

so they don't have the iron dome to protect

36:20

them. They don't have, but there's red lines that

36:23

if it crosses and they can't, you cannot have

36:25

30,000 more Palestinians dead

36:28

than the consequences going after. There's

36:30

other ways to deal, to get to, to

36:33

deal with the

36:35

trauma caused by Hamas. And

36:38

it's like, well, it's the first time I went over. I

36:41

sat with a man, I sat with a work cabinet. I

36:43

said, look, don't make a mistake America made. America

36:45

made a mistake. We went after bin Laden till we

36:48

got him. But we shouldn't have gone into

36:50

Ukraine. I mean, we shouldn't

36:52

have gone into the

36:54

whole thing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

36:56

Wasn't necessary. Dan,

36:59

we have never imposed a red

37:01

line on an ally, much

37:03

less an ally that is fighting a war

37:06

of survival, not an existential war anymore, but

37:08

the existential war is coming with Hezbollah. What

37:11

do you make of this? And why

37:13

would Chuck Schumer agree to do what

37:15

he did as their cat's paw? There's

37:18

so much to unpack there. First of all, I don't

37:20

even know what he was talking about, a red line.

37:23

He didn't even talk about what

37:25

exactly the red line is. Going into Rafa or

37:28

going into Rafa in a way that the

37:30

administration doesn't want Israel to go into Rafa,

37:33

what is the consequence of the red line?

37:35

I mean, it was so garbled. I

37:37

honestly don't even know what he was talking about.

37:39

A, B, soon before

37:42

Israel launched its ground invasion, senior

37:45

military officers from the US were asked

37:47

by the administration to go brief the

37:49

Israeli War Council and warn

37:51

them based on

37:53

the US experience in Iraq

37:55

and Afghanistan. How

37:58

difficult counterinsurgency fighting is. is

38:00

and let them know you're going to have a lot

38:03

of casualties. Is it really worth it? A version

38:05

of what he was saying right there. And

38:07

from what I understand, the estimates

38:10

that were provided to Israel would

38:13

have resulted in 10 times the casualties

38:15

that Israel has experienced in Gaza so

38:17

far. Now, it's not to say that

38:19

the casualties in Gaza are awful. Every

38:22

one of those lives are heroes and

38:24

it's a tragedy. But I got

38:26

to tell you, Hugh, the numbers are

38:28

a lot lower. Obviously,

38:31

these things can change. So I don't want to sound too

38:34

overconfident or cavalier about this. But the

38:36

numbers are a lot lower than

38:38

the U.S. had

38:41

forecasted. Like I said, 10 percent of what

38:43

the U.S. of the casualties will be. So

38:45

I don't even know what – so he's

38:47

wrong about comparing the Israeli experience, the U.S.

38:49

experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. And we can

38:52

have a whole separate debate about whether he

38:54

was right about Iraq or at least about

38:56

Afghanistan. As for Chuck Schumer, I

38:58

thought what Schumer said, I'm perplexed

39:00

by it. I've never – I rarely hear Chuck

39:02

Schumer weighing on a foreign policy banner. I

39:05

rarely hear him call – I don't think I've ever

39:07

heard him and I'm happy to be corrected. I've never

39:09

heard him call for a change of government in any

39:11

country. I don't think so. Even if

39:14

he is such a problem with the

39:16

policy and not Netanyahu, just keep in

39:18

mind Netanyahu is an

39:20

unpopular leader today in Israeli

39:22

politics. But his policies aren't.

39:25

His policy in Gaza, his policy in

39:27

taking on Hamas is the policy of

39:29

the war cabinet. So what's Schumer complaining

39:31

about? Schumer says Netanyahu is the problem?

39:33

Sounds like they have a problem with

39:35

the policy, not with Netanyahu, but they

39:37

don't want to stand up. Coming

39:41

up. Two things can be true. They're worried about

39:43

losing 2024 and the campaign is run by stupid

39:45

people. A couple more minutes

39:47

of Hughes conversation with Dan Seymour in the

39:49

final segment of Town Hall Review. Stay with

39:51

us. depend

40:00

on AM radio for news, weather,

40:02

and opinions. AM is also

40:04

the backbone of the emergency alert system,

40:06

keeping you advised of threatening weather conditions

40:09

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40:14

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40:17

cars. Again, text AM to number 52886. Standard

40:21

message and data rates may apply. I

40:24

love my friends. Welcome

40:30

back to the Town Hall Review. Sometimes the

40:32

most compelling stories come from the most

40:35

unexpected places. Picture this. You're just a

40:37

14-year-old boy, abruptly awakened by a solemn

40:39

priest at your boarding school. Your father's

40:42

been shot, and your rush to his

40:44

side in Los Angeles. But as you

40:46

stand by his bedside witnessing his final

40:49

moments, you can't shake the memories of

40:51

another tragedy years before, and when your

40:53

uncle, the president, met a similar fate.

40:56

As you journey back, the train moves

40:58

sludgeously, every inch weighed down by a

41:00

nation mourning your father's loss. Life

41:03

throws curveballs, and for Robert Kennedy Jr., it

41:06

was a journey marked by highs and

41:08

lows. His story is one of resilience,

41:10

tragedy, and redemption. The real

41:13

RFK Jr. The

41:15

most important documentary of the year,

41:17

witness his incredible journey and his

41:19

legacy. For a limited time, watch

41:21

it free at the rfkmovie.com. The

41:24

real RFK Jr. A story

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the rfkmovie.com now. I

42:31

don't need to remind you that we are in

42:33

the midst of an election cycle, but as we

42:35

look at how our current administration has treated our

42:37

embattled ally in the Middle East, it is worrying

42:39

to think that this could all really be

42:42

chalked up to raw political pandering. Let's

42:45

return for a few minutes of Hugh Hewitt with

42:47

Dan Sienor, host of the Call Me Back podcast.

42:50

They are engaged in campaign 2024. They

42:52

are worried about a few percentages

42:54

of votes in seven swing states, but two

42:57

things can be true. They are worried about

42:59

losing 2024 and the campaign is run by

43:01

stupid people. Because we

43:03

sometimes think that campaign people are wizards and

43:06

sometimes they turn out not to be wizards.

43:09

People can botch a campaign. They are

43:11

botching this campaign, Dan. I

43:13

want to ask you, do you think the

43:16

American Jewish community and its friends, like Irish

43:18

Catholic Zionists like me, which is a funny

43:20

way to say it, but it is true,

43:22

should we all go back to

43:24

the mall to remind them that 300,000 people

43:27

can show up on three days notice? Look,

43:31

I don't quite understand the

43:33

campaign strategy, the Biden campaign

43:35

strategy, because they are

43:38

so, I think, overly concerned about

43:41

this progressive base, this pandering base, this

43:44

uncommitted vote that showed

43:47

up in Michigan for the primary, which I

43:49

think they are overreacting to, because

43:51

A, as a percentage of the Democratic vote

43:53

that turned out in Michigan, it was about

43:55

the same as the non-committed vote that showed

43:58

up for President

44:00

Obama, so it wasn't way off. It

44:02

was worse than Minnesota and Washington state.

44:04

It was 20% of Minnesota and 20%

44:07

in Washington state did not vote for Biden. But

44:10

either way, Hugh, these are protest votes without

44:12

consequence. Agreed. So it's easy if someone wants

44:14

to register a statement and say, all right,

44:16

I'm going to make a statement. I want

44:18

to send a message that I don't like

44:20

president Biden's policy on Israel

44:22

and Hamas, so I'm going to vote non-committal.

44:25

Fine. Go ahead. Do it. But in November,

44:27

they're not going to do that. Do you know

44:30

why? Because they think, well,

44:32

if I do it then I get Donald Trump as

44:34

president. In other words, the

44:37

protest vote in November has consequences. It's

44:39

hard to imagine, but there's a point

44:41

where they're going to convert Democrats into

44:44

Trump voters. Yeah. And they're getting

44:46

very close to that point. I didn't think it

44:48

would be possible. I thought it would be a

44:50

turnout election and that, you know,

44:52

base from base against base 2004 all over

44:54

again. But

44:57

this is unprecedented. Did we drop supplies

44:59

into Mosul? Did we ever think about

45:01

the German innocence in March of

45:04

1945? Did we drop

45:06

supplies into Tokyo after we burned it to

45:08

the ground? We've never done

45:10

this before. Hamas is an evil

45:12

actor. They have to be defeated.

45:15

And I believe in unconditional surrender when

45:17

you've got evil actors who killed 1200

45:20

people on a bright sunny

45:22

day at a music rave and an associated

45:24

kibbutz. This is not someone with whom he

45:27

negotiates. It's not Napoleon. It's not

45:29

the great league. It's evil. Thanks

45:32

for joining us for the town hall review.

45:34

There's more of this very important interview with

45:36

Dan Sienor. Get it at our site, townhallreview.com.

45:39

And if you enjoyed this program and podcast, do us

45:41

the favor of sharing it with a friend. Let

45:43

me point out you get Hughes podcast

45:46

and this program town hall review and

45:48

many more podcasts, all at Salem podcast

45:50

network.com. Special thanks

45:52

to executive producer Russell Shubin and producers

45:54

David Kushan, Alex Perez, David Dahl and

45:57

Jeremy Siegel. I'm Seth Liebson. Great

45:59

to be with you. Thank you.