Speaker 1: And hello, Welcome one and all to the Big Podcast
on this Wednesday, the fifteenth day of July, Year of
Our Lord, twenty twenty six. My name is Tom Sullivan. Well,
I don't know they were working the day on Capitol Hill,
I mean were there were. I can just imagine walking
down the hallways and all the doors were closed and
inside there were hearings. Everybody was having a hearing today.
I mean the Vice President was up on Capitol Hill
schmoozing try to talk them into various things. Todd blanche
was before the committee on whether he was going to
become the official Attorney General. Jay Clayton, former SEC Director,
current US Attorney for the Southern District of New York
he was also on the hot seat today. So we're
going to get to all all of that in just
a minute. Let me let me go back around, because
the whole business about Iran is I'm puzzled. I I
don't know why this isn't a real estate deal. The
President is saying, uh, and I've got a bunch of
clips that I can play for you, saying that yes,
we are going to We're going to hit him harder tonight,
and the harder tomorrow night, and if they don't come
to the negotiating table, we're going to get even harder
next week. I mean, and I'm going wait, wait wait
wait wait wait wait, what's this going coming to the
negotiating table? What's that all about? This is not a negotiation,
mister president. No, no, no, these these are not people
that are trustworthy. Their word means nothing. So I don't
know about you, but I wouldn't waste my time sitting
down at the table negotiating with somebody that I know
is lying, cheating, and will do the opposite of what
it is that the person says in an agreement. I
don't know why, but he's I mean, could you imagine
a FDR. Wow, we need to get Adolf Hitler to
the negotiating table or Emperor hero Hito. That's what we need.
We need to get to the negotiating No, there wasn't that.
The negotiation was I surrender, one hundred percent render. We
cannot continue to let Iran have the same regime. The
only reason I say this, and I hear really smart
people saying I don't understand what this is all about.
I don't understand what the war with Iran is all about.
Iran is trying to build their nuclear programs so that
they can in fact drop nuclear bombs in Israel but
also here. So it's it's not a problem today, but
it's going to be a problem tomorrow. They are they're
already you know where we bombed in all those mountainous locations.
We now have satellite photos of them. They're rebuilding great
big concrete walls, if you will, so that they can
drive back into under the mountain and continue on with
their nuclear efforts. That's what they want to do. You
may not have to worry about this, but your children will.
This is this is literally changing the future so that Iran,
which is crazy, doesn't attack us. But but President Trump
seems stuck and maybe it's from his real estate days,
but he seems stuck on We got to get him
to the negotiating table. Listen, listen to this. This is uh.
He was asked about, are you going to go after
their energy targets? Here's the president.
Speaker 2: Do you anticipate that the strikes were seen this week
against Iran will expand are you considering hitting energy targets
or other locations.
Speaker 3: I'll save the energy targets for last, but ultimately we'll
hit energy targets. Yeah, but we're gonna hit him very
hard tonight, We're gonna hit him very hard. Tomorrow night,
we're gonna hit him very hard the night after. And
then next week it gets really bad for them because
next week comes see power plants, next week comes to bridges.
We're going to knock out all that power plants. We're
going to knock out all that bridges unless they get
to the table and negotiate.
Speaker 1: There, it is, unless they get to the table and negotiate.
You can't negotiate with these people, sir. I just and
oh the other thing is people are going, well, you know,
you know that's a war crime to knock out their
power plants and their bridges, And no, it's it's not.
If they're using them to facilitate their efforts in a war,
we can take out electricity because they use the electricity
to make missiles or drones or whatever else it might be.
So I mean, it's it's, it's it's let's go on.
Here's one of Also, this is the president yesterday when
he changed his mind about charging twenty percent toll. I'm
wondering if you could explain you're changing thinking on straight
form moves to find a twenty percent.
Speaker 4: I was called by different people different countries, kings and
emirs and all of the people that we all know
and we all love, and they've been frankically, they've been
very strong partners, and they said, we'd love to do
it a different way. We would like to invest tremendously
in the United States as opposed to charging the feet.
And I like that actually, because I don't think anybody
should be able to charge your fee for the UH
for the straight.
Speaker 1: I have to kind of chuggle because yesterday he thought
it was fine to charge a toll for the straight.
Brtt McGirk, who has done a lot of negotiating with
the Middle Eastern countries ways in.
Speaker 5: I think Kevin just said casting about. I think that's
a pretty good way to put it, both the United
States and Ron. I think you just see casting about
on both sides. I think the problem with that threat
is problematic on his face, but also so I'm not
sure the Iranians take it seriously. But if they do
take it seriously, Aaron again, it is the Revolutionary Guard
that is in charge in Tehran, and they will strike
infrastructure in the Golf. I mean that is basically what
they said. I think they've proven the demonstrated willingness and
capacity to do that. So then you're in a war
targeting each other's civilian infrastructure, and that can really damage
the global economy. That's the problem of one of many
problems here.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's a problem, but at the same time, Iran
has no trouble hitting the infrastructure in our allies, whether
UAE or in Bahrain, you name it, go down the
list Kuwait. So this is something that the allies are
most concerned about, is the attacks that they're getting. Obviously, well,
I'd say two things.
Speaker 5: I think the one thing that all the golf states,
including like oh Man that works a little closely with Iran,
they are totally opposed to Iran's claim of sovereignty over
the strait and Iran's claim that they will charge a fee.
So the golf is united kind of with us against that.
So then for the President of come out and say, actually,
we're going to protect it and we'll charge it even
higher fee was completely contradictory and kinnter productive to everything
we're trying to do. I'd secondly say, Aaron, that kind
of that'd be a good problem to have if we
were able to guard the Straight and protect shipping. The
issue here is that Iran is using the kind of
ancient advantage of terrain and the modern advantage of drone warfare.
And these drones can be fired from a thousand kilometers
way even farther away and hit a slow moving tanker,
and that is what they're doing to hold the Straight hostage.
It is very hard to stop. I dealt with this
in the last White House in the Red Sea when
the Huthis and Iranian proxy group was targeting ships in
the Red Sea. We had to naval coalition. It's very
difficult to stop. So I'd like to know how we're
going to be the guardian of the Strait. I think
that would be great if we could do it, but
it's a very difficult. As General Kimin I think knows
extremely well.
Speaker 1: Well, let's listen to General Mark Kimmell to see what
he says.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 6: Well, first of all, I'd just like to make a
comment about bridges and infrastructure. In fact, I think it's
important to note that bridges and infrastructure that are primarily
being used support military forces are legitimate military targets. I
didn't hear anything about civilian infrastructure. I didn't hear anything
about civilian bridges. So let's hope we're going to stay
focused on the military targets. Ground campaign, certainly, I don't
think the President is talking about attacking into taker On,
but at ground campaign could certainly be something like going
into Kashi Mood. It could be going into carg Island.
I certainly hope we don't do that. I think they're
better alternatives. But it's also important to note that what
the president was doing was not ruling in he was
just not ruling out ground forces to keep his options open.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, let's talk ground forces. General Kimmot, by the way,
was under Secretary of State in George W. Bush's administration.
But what did Donald Trump say about using ground troops?
Speaker 5: Are you only not a ground campaign in a limited capacity.
Speaker 3: I don't want to say that either, but I would
say no if I thought it was appropriate. I'd say,
sometimes you need a ground campaign, but we have other
people that will do the ground campaign for US.
Speaker 1: I heard a retired helicopter pilot talking earlier today about
oh no, no, you don't need ground troops. I don't
know how you can win a war without ground troops.
I've been saying that since day one. You can bomb them,
you can do a lot of damage to their bridges,
their energy sources, you can do a lot of damage
to lots of places. But the way you take over
a country is, again, you arrest the leaders IRGC leaders,
just like we did in other wars. You know, one
of the other words. I was thinking about my belief
that negotiations, you don't negotiate. Go to the Vietnam War.
What did we do. Henry Kissinger had negotiations in Paris
with the leaders of Vietnam for at least a few years.
Not a thing came out of that. Nothing. So I'm
still looking at this and going, no, you have to
go in and you have to literally arrest and jail
at the very least the leaders of the IRGC. They
are responsible for the deaths of not only tens of
thousands of their own people, but also American troops. They
were the ones that were making the IEDs that blew
up on American troops in Iraq and other places. Back
to General kimmid.
Speaker 6: Well, I think both Fred and I are concerned about
that significantly, because again, all we need is one mistake
made by an air fence artilleryman who misses a missile
coming in. I mean we saw that in Ala Sad
inside of Irock, where we luckily did not lose a
significant number of troops.
Speaker 1: But when you have a large.
Speaker 6: Concentration of them as we do and kuate out a
data you in Katar and some of the other basonuity
that could certainly happen. Listen, I think it's important to
go back to Bretz Common. It is clear that if
the United States is the unilateral protector of the Gulf
of the straight over movies, that will not work. The
fact is we are belligerate in this conflict and for
us to try to control it is a war situation.
Either they have it or we don't. But as we
did with the counter Piracy Coalition, and we did in
the tanker Wary and nineteen eighty one to nineteen eighty eight,
we used non belligerents in that operation. This is a
great opportunity for or the British, the French, the Germans
to come in and run a maritime escort operation. Through
the straight horror movies, it tells the Iranians you have
a choice you can either let these people take the
commercial traffic through or you can fire on them. Is
the only you now have a war with Germany, the
United Kingdom in France. Now, I think we all understand
why the allies have not been rushing to our assistance
in this. But there are options other than a unilateral operation.
Speaker 1: Well, let's see what what are NATO allies actually do.
They've had all kinds of chances. This might be a
perfect example for them to step up. The guy who
was very much involved in negotiating with Iran to create
the JCP away. Yeah, I know it was. It was
torn up by President Trump. But here's his name is
Alan Eyer, and this is how he thinks about what's
going on.
Speaker 7: Quite simply, the US administration is flailing. It is trying
failed policies. Again, incremental attacks on Iran and its coastal
facilities will not get Iran to change its red lines
closer to US red lines. And again, we do not
have sufficient military force to keep the straight open if
Iran uses threats in the rockets, drones fast attack craft
to threaten maritime traffic in the Strait. Because the maritime
insurance industry, ship owners, cargo owners will not risk it.
So I don't know what President Trump is doing. He
might have a plan, or he might just be going
back to his greatest hits where he blows things up
and says, we sunk the Navy, we destroyed the air Force.
Isn't that wonderful.
Speaker 1: Well, there's not much with Allen Eyre that I agree with,
but he did say one thing about the fact that
you can bomb them, and that's not going to bring them.
That's not going to work. It's not going to be successful.
And again the President wants to wants to bring him
to the negotiating table. Alan Eyer isn't even talking about that.
He says that won't work with them. Yeah, you know,
peace through strength is an element, but the strength has
to be all the way to where you strangle the leadership.
You can't leave him there. Another one from back in
those days, Dana Strau. She was a deputy Defense secretary.
Speaker 8: I think Iran is already immune to what the President says.
He keeps saying things like this, and he really has
no plan here. So escalating to civilian infrastructure, first of all,
opens up the aperture for Iran to respond in kind.
They're already attacking tankers again in the Golf to expand again.
For them to civilian infrastructure across the Golf Jordan and
Israel would be terrible for the region after how much
it has suffered this year.
Speaker 1: Well, no, they're going that's what they're going to do.
They're going to attack infrastructure in our allies backyards. However,
she is I think right that they are immune to
whatever Donald Trump says. He can threaten them all day
long and it just goes in one ear and out
the other. They don't take his threats seriously. They just don't.
So that's what's going on with the war is going
to be continuing on with the presidents that he's going
to do, just keep hammering them meantime, Like I said,
there were a lot of people on Capitol Hill today testifying.
One of them was Todd blanche He's the acting Attorney General,
he was the deputy Attorney General. He was the President's
personal lawyer. Before that, he worked as a US prosecutor
in the Southern District of New York. He's a highly
regarded guy. Here's Jonathan Turley doesn't usually give adaboys to anybody,
but he sure did with Tod Blanche.
Speaker 9: Well, the votes do appear to be there, but we'll
have to wait to see. Tom Blanch is actually the
most complete package of a nominee that I've seen since
Bill Barr. I mean, the fact is that he is
an accomplished lawyer, with both civil and criminal cases on
his resume that are quite remarkable. He worked at the
most prestigious US Attorney's office. Everyone agrees he's an extremely
talented lawyer. He doesn't have that flashy aspect that you
see with some nominees. He's a very serious and competent guy.
And so the expectations is that he will be confirmed. Now,
the Senate does have a role here, and there are
legitimate questions. They have a right to ask, is he
prepared to confront the president if he feels the president's
going too far?
Speaker 10: They're right to look at his record. But his resume
is very impressive and I would say is one of
the strongest in the history of that department.
Speaker 1: Hey, you won't hear that kind of testimony from Jonathan
Turtley very often. So, Yeah, Blanche's highly regarded lawyer. He
worked for the government, he did private sector, He's he's
done it all he's done criminal, he's done civil. So
the hurt the hearing today was I guess necessary. But
the Judiciary Committee, even though Lindsey Graham was a member
of it, there was a majority of two Republicans. So
with Lindsay Graham not on the committee, they still have
a one vote majority. So there might be somebody on
the committee. John Cornyn, who obviously got the shaft by
the President, may be willing to attack back at him,
but otherwise it looks oh And also Tom Tillis is
on the committee too, and that's another one that he
and Trump got sideways on. But it looks like he
will have the votes coming out of the Judiciary Committee.
But they have to go through all the questions and
a lot of it, a lot of it was about
Epstein and his role as deputy Attorney General. He was
supposed to be overseeing that. Why did he do why
didn't he do this? Why didn't he do that? There
was a lot of questions all around Epstein. But when
all was said and done, it looks like Todd Blanche
will be able to get the full votes and move
on to become the real acting not acting but the
real Attorney General. Another person on Capitol Hill today was
Jay Clayton. And here's another guy with a great background.
He was highly regarded when he was the Securities and
Exchange Commissioned chairman Wall Street. The business community, the banking community,
they all thought that he was a smart guy and
used a lot of common sense in regulating the securities industry.
While he went from there to being the head of
the US Attorney He is the U S Attorney for
the Southern District of New York, the most prestigious office
by far, and now the President has tapped him to
be the office of Director of National Intelligence ODI and I.
This is Tulsea Gabbard's old office. This is the one
that Bill Poulty has been occupying for a little over
a week when he's in there firing people, which was
supposedly that what he was assigned to do. So Jay
Clayton went before the committee today and it's interesting because
John Mossoff, who was a Senator from Georgia Democrat, decided
to ask him not about the role of D and I,
not about National Intelligence, but he asked him did Donald
Trump was the election in twenty twenty. Here's asof did
Joe Biden won the twenty twenty election.
Speaker 2: Senator, I'm not an election denier. Joe Joe Biden was
certified as the President of the United States who won
the twenty election. I have answered to answer it. What
is your answer?
Speaker 1: Well, he said, I'm not an election denier, but I'm
you know, Joe Biden with the president. These are the
games that they play to rattle each other. They're ass off.
The Democrat Jay Clayton is a Republican. John Kennedy, the
Senator from Louisiana, was asked about this and why does
it happen? And Kennedy always has a straightforward answer.
Speaker 11: No, But there's this little game if you followed all
the committees. It happens every time we have a nominee
in ju this year or the Democrats try to get
a nominee by the President to say that the president
actually won the election and President Biden didn't, and they
want the nominee to use the magic words that Trump
lost the election, and the nominees, understandably in my opinion,
don't want to play that game.
Speaker 9: I haven't, But that was it a game. I mean,
it's just what happened.
Speaker 1: No, it is a game case. If you if you
look at.
Speaker 11: It's a game of words by my Democratic colleagues, and
I have not heard one single nominee by the president
say that Donald Trump won the election and Joe Biden lost.
But the Democrats don't like the words they use, so
they play these games, and I do think it is
it is a game. I'm not I do not know
a single nominee by the President that I personally believe
thinks that Joe Biden was not the president. I mean,
Kennedy's right, he understands why. But the Democrats are playing
it so they little grade school game if you go
to work for somebody and they're paying, they give you
a good job, and they're a good boss and everything else,
and they say, you know, I am absolutely dead set
that the sky is green. I believe the sky is green.
So if somebody asks you in front of your new boss,
what color is.
Speaker 1: The sky, Oh, I don't know. It looks kind of
green to me. I understand why they're doing it.
Speaker 11: Well, look, I'm biased, but I think the Democrats have
made it hard. I don't think there's any doubt about
the fact that Joe Biden was the president. And I
haven't heard a single nominee by President Trump. Say Donald
Trump won the election. Joe Biden did, but the Democrats
want them to use the magic words so they can
get then go spin the press, most of which will
suck it up like a Hoover Deluxe, that this guy
called Donald Trump a liar and he's Donald Trump's nominee,
that it is a game that's being played. I've been
in dozens of hearings where the Democrats did that, and
I don't think the American people have any doubt about
who the last president was. It was Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, I mean, I know there are a
number of people that are absolutely convinced that Donald Trump won.
And one of the people that think that he won
in twenty twenty is in fact Donald Trump.
Speaker 9: It is about the Democrats.
Speaker 11: No, I think the I think persident Trump thinks he
won the election, and I think he was cheated, and
he's entitled to have that belief, and the American people
are just are entitled to draw their own conclusions about
the truth or magendacy of what he says. But I
just to me, it's all a game of words like
them between the Democrats and Republicans, because I think if
you if you go ask the average American who was
last president, they're going to say Joe Biden. And I
just think that to me is raality. And all of
this other stuff about well you're not using the magic
words that the Democrats want us to use is just
a lot of inside Well, who won in twenty twenty four?
Speaker 1: And that's the rest of the back and forth regarding
twenty twenty election was did Donald Trump win in twenty sixteen?
Speaker 11: Yes?
Speaker 1: Was he supposed to have Actually the people predicted that
Hillary would have won, but he won. And even before
that election, he was saying it's going to be rigged,
but w obviously Whenty won, he said it wasn't rigged.
Twenty twenty, he said it was rigged. Twenty twenty four,
he won again. Republicans have been winning a lot of
elections in some how they're not rigged, only certain times,
only when Republicans win. But anyway, I gets see how
it gets. It gets childish. It just does. I want
to talk about ice, the traffic stops. This is getting
pretty dirty because they have a bunch of complaints now,
especially in Maine. There were two shootings this past week,
one in Houston, one in a little town in Maine,
and the people in Maine are saying that the ice
officers do not have cameras body warn cameras. And what's
interesting to me about that is they do have they're
not wearing masks. All the videos of the shooting in Maine,
all the ice officers did not have masks, which I
thought that was a big contention, but apparently it's not anymore.
The other thing about it is is that the body
worn cameras. I don't know why they're not wearing them.
It worked both ways. It protects the officer, it protects
the citizens. It really shows it helps to show what
really happened. One of the problems with the shooting in
Maine is that they came out and said that the
officer that shot the young man in Maine said that
he feared for the public safety. Well, it's more specific
than that that you unless you fear for your own
or somebody else's safety, you're not allowed to shoot. So
that was kind of a lawyerly wording about the fact
that it was considered about public safety. The problem was
it is there are other videos, There are security videos
on cameras, and the guy wasn't a police officer was
walking next to the guy's car as it went in circles,
So I don't see a chase. I don't see him
trying to run down any officer. But that's only from one,
one or two videos that looks very suspicious and they've
got to come forward. So today the President chimed in
on this, and the President has come out and apparently
is unhappy, so shade a press that he's furious over
the pause on most vehicle stops conducted by ICE and
the blowback from his base. Prominent MAGA voices suggested that
the administration was weakening its immigration enforcement. Well, I don't
know if they're weakening it or not. I don't like quotas.
Quotas are apparently this is a self imposed goal of
two thousand arrest today. It was more than that before.
But anytime you put quotas on police officers, that's not good.
You just don't want motivations and incentives for police officers
to find somebody that committed a crime. They'll find they'll
find criminals, just not with a quota police. And the
other part about this is is there's something that appears
to be lacking in their training. How many of videos
and recently where there are protesters that are standing there
and the ice officer takes out looks like a bear
spray and two feet from somebody's face just sprays them
with the spray. There's no reason for that. They don't.
I don't know if they've ever been trained on traffic stops.
They look like they are not up to speed with
what most police departments know how to do. So I
know the President's upset about it, but and I'm fine
with them going back to doing traffic stops. But train them,
give them, give them the typical four, five, six seven
month academy training that most police officers get before they
go out with a gun and a badge. That's all
we talk. Well, no, we've got got some economy numbers today.
This is the producer price index. That's the wholesale inflation.
Yesterday we got the inflation that had dropped down to
three and a half percent from over four percent. But
that was because of what what prices dropped in the
month of June. That's right, boys and girls, that was
gasoline energy prices. Well, so the producer price index, same thing.
Producer price index wasn't inflation, it was minus three tenths
of one percent. The court rate was up three tenths
But in other words, inflation was next to nothing in
the month of June at the core level and at
the wholesale level. And that is that's not surprising because
you take a look at it, and most of the
drop at the wholesale level of inflation was due to
gasoline prices. So it's not a big surprise. But I
thought we'd throw that in as inflation in the month
of June has taken a big pause. My concern is
we're halfway through July and we're back to shooting in
the Middle East, and oil prices and gasoline prices are
sneaking back up again. So let's take a look at
Wall Street, starting with the Dow. The Dow was up
one hundred and fifty to close at fifty two thousand
and six fifty eight. It actually took a dip mid
session into the minus territory, but came back with one
hundred and fifty point gain. The S and P up
twenty eight, the NASDAK up one hundred and sixty two.
Price of gold fell three dollars to four thousand, sixty
six and oil up another buck today, a little more
than eighty dollars now for one barrel of oil. That's
it for today. Thank you for coming by. We will
be back tomorrow. I hope to see you then.