Later, the conversation takes a serious turn as it evaluates the United States’ ongoing involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict, examining various viewpoints and ethical considerations. We also touch upon a tragic shooting incident in Minnesota, examining law enforcement’s actions with a critical eye. The episode wraps up with a brief advertisement for the Legal Help Center and a preview of upcoming topics in future podcasts, ensuring listeners stay informed with a range of viewpoints and discussions.
on yesterday’s mark and mike segment we were talking about everybody being 82 biden’s 82 harrison ford’s 82 barbara sanders martin’s course has 82 mccartney 82 not anymore see The great Paul McCartney, one of the iconic songwriters in human history, 83 today. And look, I know what it would be. Hey, Jude, I know. Long and winding road, man. I love the whole Wings era. I love that. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, I know the Beatles are going to swallow up all the oxygen, but as soon as he started making records with Paul and Linda, even weird things like Uncle Albert and Admiral Halsey, Red Rose Speedway, Venus and Mars, absolutely great. All right, let’s hop to it. Have you said anything online about what we’re about to do?
SPEAKER 03 :
I posted the clip and I said, this is rough. Which triggered me.
SPEAKER 06 :
I don’t know if I saw you first or saw this first. Let’s just go right to it. Is it a good idea for Tucker Carlson to invite Ted Cruz? Sure. What could go wrong? This went wrong. I’m just going to shut up.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, it went wrong. What do you mean, what could go wrong? It went wrong.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay, it did not go well. But who comes off at the bad end of this? Let’s just play it. Because I did. I could not restrain myself from posting about it. And then we’ll find out if my talk show… Then we’ll find out if my talk show buddy agrees. So the subject, of course, the thing that’s hanging from every rafter is what should America do with regard to our continuing deepening involvement in the Iran and Israel war? What’s the proper thing? Where does conservatism properly lead us? So Ted Cruz sits down with Tucker Carlson and this happens. How many people live in Iran, by the way?
SPEAKER 04 :
I don’t know the population at all. No, I don’t know the population. You don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple? How many people live in Iran? 92 million. Okay. How could you not know that?
SPEAKER 05 :
I don’t sit around memorizing population tables.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, it’s kind of relevant because you’re calling for the overthrow of the government.
SPEAKER 05 :
Why is it relevant whether it’s 90 million or 80 million or 100 million? Why is that relevant?
SPEAKER 04 :
Because if you don’t know anything about the country— I didn’t say I don’t know anything about the country. Okay, what’s the ethnic mix of Iran?
SPEAKER 05 :
They are Persians and predominantly Shia.
SPEAKER 04 :
OK. You don’t know anything about Iran.
SPEAKER 05 :
So, OK, I am not the Tucker Carlson expert on Iran.
SPEAKER 04 :
You’re a senator who’s calling for the overthrow of the government.
SPEAKER 05 :
You’re the one who claims you don’t know anything about the country. No, you don’t know anything about the country. You’re the one who claims they’re not trying to murder Donald Trump.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, I’m not saying that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Who can’t figure out if it was a good idea to kill General Soleimani and you said it was bad.
SPEAKER 04 :
You don’t believe they’re trying to murder Trump. Yes, I do. Because you’re not calling for military strikes against them in retaliation. And if you really believe that.
SPEAKER 05 :
We’re carrying out military strikes today. You said Israel was.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. With our help. I said we. Israel is leading them, but we’re supporting them. Well, you’re breaking news here because the U.S. government last night denied, the National Security Council spokesman Alex Pfeiffer denied on behalf of Trump that we were acting on Israel’s behalf in any offensive capacity at all.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, we’re not bombing them. Israel’s bombing them.
SPEAKER 04 :
You just said we were. We are supporting Israel. This is high stakes. You’re a senator. If you’re saying the United States government is at war with Iran right now, people are listening. Okay.
SPEAKER 06 :
My online reaction to this, and I’ll just offer it to the public and thus to you, was, what a stupid and sophomoric game being played by Tucker here, to the surprise of no one. Almanac factoids mean nothing if they are not accompanied by policy wisdom. That’s a debate that can be had, but not in a bad faith atmosphere like this. Tucker Carlson in this clip is a king-sized a-hole.
SPEAKER 03 :
Why don’t you tell us what you really think? I just have. I mean, I hate how you hold back. I really do. You’re so restrained. I’m shy. Well, look, let’s stipulate you’re not a fan of Tucker. You never have been.
SPEAKER 06 :
I’m an enormous fan of Tucker. I miss the guy he used to be. I have found occasional moments of weirdness that you have then said that I’m out on him completely, which I’m still not. I think there’s wisdom to be found in there. Sure, sure. But there’s performative… You talk. It’s your turn. Don’t tell me I’m not a Tucker fan. I have been and I remain when he doesn’t engage in BS like this.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, respectfully, I think your audience might disagree with your characterization of being a self-proclaimed Tucker fan. But nonetheless, put that aside. Honestly, I also have to stipulate that. The gotcha style interview is the lowest, cheapest form. I’ve seen people do it, and I always cringe every time. It’s easy to do, by the way. You come up with facts that you think are going to blindside your guest. And you try to make them look stupid. And and incidentally, there was another that was a clip that was released pre-released from the actual full interview that’s going to air today on Tucker’s platform. There was another clip he released about Israel spying on us. And he challenged Cruz about why we provide all this kind of financial aid to a country that spies on us relentlessly. And, of course, Ted Cruz rightfully said, well, true, they do. We spy on them. They spy on us. Everybody spies on everybody. But then Tucker pushed back on that. It was another form of the gotcha game. Look, I don’t dispute at all. It was uncomfortable and unpleasant to watch and to listen. It’s not my favorite thing to see. I will express admiration to Senator Cruz. Because he had to know he was going to walk into that lion’s den. It’s not like Tucker’s position on this is a mystery. And Tucker’s position, or Marjorie Taylor Greene’s position, a lot of MAGA are uncomfortable with the idea of us actively engaging Iran in a war. And we can debate the merits of it. I happen to agree that we ought to drop that bunker-busting bomb and decimate the nuclear facility and end it. We meaning we, meaning us, you, us, as Paul Harvey once said? Yes, we. I believe that. Let me play this out. Let me play this out. Let me play this out. The strategy? I happen to believe that we are right to end the mullahs and end the reign of terror and step up because we’re already involved with Iran in this war, whether we like it or not. I don’t understand what the problem is to finish it. However, let’s not.
SPEAKER 06 :
I will tell you.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
Let’s not ignore the other faction of MAGA that helped get Trump elected who are very uncomfortable with that.
SPEAKER 06 :
100% correct. And what you’ve just done, and what we’re going to do some more here in a couple of minutes, is very, in good faith, evaluate what folks over here say and what folks over here say. You have so many great points, and there are some pretty great points that can be made in reply. Because you’re right, there’s just a glowing moral imperative to, oh man, let’s take these people out. They’ve been a thorn in our side and trying to kill us and our president.
SPEAKER 03 :
They want to kill us. Exactly. They want to destroy us. This is not Ukraine. This is a different story.
SPEAKER 06 :
The other side of this that folks like Charlie Kirk have brought is, yeah, we can sit here and glibly talk about regime change, but the chaos, the refugee crises, the additional violence, this regime may be the devil you know that may be… somewhat better than the devil you don’t know if we be careful what you wish for with regime change and what you and i are doing right now is sort of presenting not even in disagreeing about this presenting all sides which tucker just to end this i don’t need to dwell forever on tucker and cruz had no interest in doing he had no interest in a good faith exchange tucker is a performative clown in this clip i do still value what he brings to the table he absolutely can bring things to the table.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and right now he’s bringing to the table, he’s bringing a counter narrative to the, look, the neocons are very excited about this. The neocons attack anybody who pushes back. And I don’t like that. I don’t like the attacking and the attempt to marginalize an opposing point of view. But look, this is all going to come down to President Trump’s decision. Sure. That’s all. I mean, we can sit around and scream from the sidelines until we’re blue in the face. It’s not going to matter. And look, it depends kind of on how Trump feels when he wakes up and says whether he’s going to do this or not. I mean, I think Trump, though, is very cognizant of the Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Charlie Kirk sort of pushback. A lot of his voters. He sure is. bingo so let’s just not let’s not attack them the do you see mark levin screeching on fox news last night holy moly do you see any of this i well i’m gonna yeah i’m gonna play some of it later and well let’s play a little bit of it now christian hit it let’s listen to mark let’s let mark hear a little bit of of mark levin who’s got the the position that you and i both hold look we stand with israel and if iran gets their hands on a nuke um israel’s gone and then we’re next So let’s not let’s not ignore that. But Mark Levin took it up a few notches, as he will do.
SPEAKER 02 :
And we have morons, fools running around the country. This isn’t Magna. This isn’t MAGA. This isn’t what I voted for. Donald Trump is a forever war president. How so? He’s going to do what every president before him since Carter didn’t have the guts to do. He’s going to put an end to this damn thing. And that’s what needs to happen. That’s not a warmonger. That’s a peacemaker. That is a man who’s going to make sure this generation and future generations are protected. from nuclear missiles coming out of the Middle East, from barbarian primitives from the seventh century. That’s what he wants to do. And then I hear the question.
SPEAKER 06 :
I mean, he’s not wrong, Mark. He’s not wrong. And I don’t want to put you in bed with Lindsey Graham, so to speak. And the Levin point there is all in favor of some definitive action that has the very noble goal of taking out a regime that has been a scourge to us into that region forever. The point in reply, and I think it’s a worthy point in reply, is it may not be that simple. It may not be, hey, if we just do that bunker buster, they’ll go away with their tail between their legs. Have you met these people? Who comes in to be the next regime? Does it suddenly turn into a Jeffersonian democracy? No.
SPEAKER 03 :
But there are millions of people in Iran who crave democracy. There sure are. There is a resistance. And why can’t we help that resistance? We’ve done that before with many nations. We have. We can do that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Not by bombing the existing regime deeper into the Stone Age.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’ve usually done sort of things within the networks. Eliminating. Wait a minute. You’ve got to eliminate the regime, Mark. If the people are going to rise up over there and the resistance is going to have a footing, you’ve got to take out these barbaric mullahs who want to bomb everybody else out of existence. So, you know, look, this is tough. I continue to pray for the president. 100%. Can we do a quick 30 seconds? We haven’t covered this. Did you see what they revealed about the Minnesota shooting? How the police showed up at the doorstep of the woman who was murdered? Yep. They got there before the guy got into the house. They saw him on the porch. Did you know this? No. This has been not really covered in the mainstream media, but it’s true. They had a hunch that she could be in jeopardy. They go racing over her house. They see this fake… patrol car in the driveway with this fake lights blinking, and they see the guy with the scary latex mask and the cop uniform standing on the front porch. They realize right away this is bogus. This guy’s, they get into a shootout with him. And he gets away. No, he gets into the house and then murders the state representative, her husband, and the family dog, a big, beautiful Irish retriever, just breaks my heart, and escapes. Now, wait a minute. The cops are there already before any of that carnage began. I’m pro-police, but my gosh, Mark, you talk about a failure? Some Barney Fife action going here, maybe? There’s some Barney Fife action there. I mean, my gosh. You see him at the front, go around to the back. I mean, surround the house, stop him. They’re in a shootout. I think these guys ducked for cover. And in the time when they’re out in the driveway… He’s murdering these poor people.
SPEAKER 06 :
Is it possible, 60s, is it possible that 2020 hindsight and we weren’t there.
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh, I know.
SPEAKER 06 :
They see this guy, suspicious guy. They exchange fire. They didn’t hit him. Oops, they should have. And then he’s able to go in and ply his evil trade. It may not be as inept as we think. Well, that’s what happened.
SPEAKER 03 :
I mean, that is what happened. And I’m not trying to say it’s nefarious. But if you’ve got the police, how would you like to be their loved one? And I think about those poor kids. Oh, man. Those children who are now orphaned by this monster. And I wonder, and I just have to put it out there, is the left going to Luigi this guy? They’re going to be a GoFundMe for this guy?
SPEAKER 06 :
He’ll have love letters from confused women immediately. You know how grateful I am for you, because here comes the Mike Gallagher show and the rest of mine, where we’re going to welcome all the views on this very complex field of war. Just thank God for you and your show, because that’s what we’re here to do. Back at you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Back at you. I love you, too. Have a great one. See you. That is Mike.
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s always a great one when he plugs in as soon as we’re done.
