Jim Geraghty of National Review and guest host Gregory Knapp praise White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham’s actions to protect the press from North Korean interference. They cover the announcement from Iran that they have resumed enriching uranium. And they discuss the Democratic Party’s sudden embrace of busing to resolve racial disparities.
Listen to “Democrats, Health Care, and Your Freedom” on Spreaker.
Some Democratic presidential candidates want to pursue a single-payer, government-run health care system. Virtually all who don’t want to go that far endorse adding a public option to the existing structure.
Seems like a compromise, right? A decade ago, a public option was dropped from the Affordable Care Act because even some Democrats thought it was putting too much power in the government.
In this podcast, Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner explains why adding a public option wouldn’t bring more competition to the health care market but simply grease the skids for single payer. She also discusses the looming cost to taxpayers if the U.S. goes down this road. Finally, she lays out the financial of Democrats wanting to extend taxpayer-funded health care to people in the U.S. illegally.
Listen to “GOP Border Bill Passes, Kamala Shines, The Mystery of Marianne” on Spreaker.
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America celebrate the passage of the Republican border aid bill and pop the popcorn as Nancy Pelosi and AOC butt heads again. They go over last night’s second Democratic presidential debate and the standout performance from Sen. Kamala Harris. And they chuckle at the presence of Marianne Williamson in the Democratic primary.
Listen to “What to Expect from the New Sanctions on Iran” on Spreaker.
President Trump opted for additional sanctions against Iran in response to the shooting down of a U.S. drone last week, and one expert says the new economic penalties will make Iran leaders even less popular among its own people.
The new sanctions are aimed at key individuals inside the regime, including Supreme Leader Ali Khameini as well as military officials and even Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.
“This is an attempt by the administration to hit back at Iran for its escalation of tensions in the Persian Gulf but do so in a non-military fashion. There’s been a lot of ink spilled in the media about how President Trump is rushing to war, but it’s very clear that he doesn’t prefer military confrontation,” said American Foreign Policy Council Vice President Ilan Berman.
“He wants Iran to pay but he wants Iran to pay in a way that doesn’t escalate actual physical hostilities,” added Berman.
But while Iran avoided military strikes, Berman believes the sanctions could do even greater damage for the long-term health of the regime.
“This is a very shrewd move by the administration because it plays on a fault line that is very visible within Iran but much less so outside. Ordinary Iranians understand very well that the supreme leader and the unelected clergy that run Iran have enriched themselves tremendously at the expense of ordinary people,” said Berman.
“The administration is trying to widen that rift that exists between the Iranian people and the Iranian leadership by highlighting just how corrupt that leadership is,” he said.
Listen to the full podcast to hear Berman explain why he thinks the sanctions will force Iran back to the bargaining table and why he believes Trump’s decision to pull back military strikes sent the wrong message.
Listen to “SCOTUS Rules on Gerrymandering” on Spreaker.
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that federal courts do not have the constitutional right to interfere in partisan gerrymandering claims. Julie Mitchell reports for Radio America.
Listen to “Beto’s Bilingual Bomb, SCOTUS Blocks Census Question, Tulsi & Ryan Clash” on Spreaker.
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America relish watching Beto O’Rourke get exposed yet again as an empty suit who only knows platitudes and pandering. They also cover the Supreme Court’s decision that will likely keep the citizenship question off the 2020 census. And they discuss Tim Ryan and Tulsi Gabbard clashing on the Afghan War while summing up the rest of the candidates in the first Democratic debate.
Listen to “GOP Voters Want No Moore, NRATV Signs Off, Mayor Pete Feels the Heat” on Spreaker.
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are glad to see Roy Moore a distant third in the GOP race for U.S. Senate in Alabama.. They also cover the National Rifle Association’s decision to shut down NRATV. And they discuss Pete Buttigieg facing new criticism for his handling of police and race issues as mayor of South Bend.
Listen to “Istanbul Elects New Mayor, Sestak Joins Democratic Race, Founding Fandoms” on Spreaker.
Jim Geraghty and Gregory Knapp of National Review discuss the impact of the Istanbul mayoral results on Recep Erdoğan, President of Turkey, and his party. They cover the entrance of Joe Sestak, former congressman from Pennsylvania, into the Democratic presidential primary. And they discuss the emerging rivalries between fans of different Founding Fathers in response to Alexander Hamilton’s exploding popularity.
Listen to “Iran Provoking U.S. to Distract from Domestic Crisis” on Spreaker.
A leading Iranian resistance group urges President Trump to demonstrate strength and resolve in confronting Iran over its provocative actions against the U.S. and others in the region, insisting that such pressure will assist the Iranian people in toppling their own government.
Alireza Jafarzadeh is deputy director of the Washington office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which is the Iranian parliament in exile. He urges Trump to keep the pressure on Tehran.
“The last thing you want to show is indecisiveness, to give them concessions, to give the ayatollahs what they want,” said Jafarzadeh, who says he is not suggesting Trump’s decision to call off an attack qualifies as indecisive.
Critics of a hawkish policy towards Iran suggest it could spark a brutal war in the region. Jafarzadeh says those people are too late because Iran has been waging war for the past four decades.
“The rest of the world looks at 40 years of the regime’s terror and hostage-taking and creating proxies in the whole Middle East,” said Jafarzadeh, pointing to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran sponsoring deadly aggression in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
He says Iran’s unrelenting aggression in the region is now seen as “part and parcel” of the reality in the Middle East but it doesn’t have to be that way.
So why is Iran continuing to provoke the United States by attacking tankers, flouting uranium enrichment limits and even shooting down an American drone? Jafarzadeh says the mullahs in Iran are desperate to change the subject with their own people.
“The Iranian regime is facing a lot of domestic problems, first in terms of the uprisings that began a year-and-a-half ago that has continued. There is a huge amount of corruption going on that has translated to political unrest because the people of Iran hold the people responsible for their misery and hardship for the mismanagement and how the resources of the country are being plundered,” said Jafarzadeh.
Listen to the full podcast to hear Jafarzadeh detail the depth of the frustration by the Iranian people toward their own government and what the U.S. can do to best facilitate the people taking back the power in Tehran.
Listen to “Nash: Trump Put Gun to Iran’s Head” on Spreaker.
President Trump authorized military strikes against Iran but cancelled the attack just minutes before the missiles would have launched, a move that retired U.S. Navy Capt. Chuck Nash says sent an unmistakable message to the mullahs in Iran.
“I think this was putting a gun to their head, cocking the hammer, and then pulling it off and uncocking it and saying next time I may pull the trigger,” said Nash, who is a longtime expert on the Iranian regime.
Trump says he called off the attack after learning approximately 150 people in Iran were likely to die, a toll he considers disproportionate to shooting down an unmanned U.S. drone.
Nash believes there will be no kinetic response to the drone attack but Trump is leaving no ambiguity as to what will happen if Iran’s provocations result in any loss of life.
“If anything else happens, it’s all on the ayatollahs. It is now. But clearly, for the world, [Trump] pulled back. He got the message across. If they do anything else, Trump has free rein,” warned Nash.
He says Iran is left with a tough dilemma.
“If they do anything that causes the loss of life, this president will literally explode on them. If that happens, they are facing the end of their regime. So they have to weigh in the balance of trying to hold on to the regime over severe public discontent over the economy and the way the country’s being governed – and balance that against losing the regime catastrophically,” said Nash.
Nash says Iran was hoping to prompt Trump to overreact or not react at all in order to distract its people from their domestic disaster. U.S.-led sanctions and Iranian government corruption have Iran in major economic trouble.
“Here’s what’s going on inside Iran: there are demonstrations against the regime weekly. They don’t get any press. They’ve got crushing unemployment,” said Nash, who also detailed the soaring Iranian inflation.
Listen to the full podcast to hear Nash explain more of Iran’s domestic woes, why Europe has no choice but to side with the U.S. now, what we may have learned about Iranian defenses by starting to launch an attack, and how he was once poised to carry out airstrikes as a naval aviator before getting orders to stand down just before takeoff.