Townhall Review | Conservative Commentary On Today's News
Salem Podcast Network
The Townhall Review is a one-stop-shop for relevant news and intelligent analysis from the leading talk show hosts in the nation: Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, Mike Gallagher,Sebastian Gorka, and Charlie Kirk.
Episodes
Carol Platt Liebau: An Ally-or-Enemy Test for Michigan Voters
Michigan voters face a stark choice for U.S. Senate: Mike Rogers, a former congressman, state senator, and FBI agent. Or Abdul El-Sayed, whose radical views should alarm Americans. Consider his hostility toward Israel. In last week’s debate, he repeatedly refused to say whether Iran, our adversary, poses a greater threat than Israel, our longtime ally. He’s described Israel as “bloodthirsty” and opposes sending it defensive weapons. There are troubling questions, too, about his family’s associations. His half- sister, a University of Chicago professor, wrote that her family had longstanding ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. That branch is now designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. El-Sayed denies any family ties. Michigan deserves a senator who can tell an ally from an enemy. El-Sayed has no business in the U.S. Senate.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ed Morrissey: Policies and Platforms Matter
Ken Paxton won the nomination to the US Senate in Texas despite personal baggage from the end of his marriage. His estranged wife, state senator Angela Paxton, took the extraordinary step of endorsing the Republican ticket – and reminded voters what really matters in this midterm cycle. “In a general election,” Ms. Paxton explained, “it’s not as much about the individual players on the team. It’s getting the whole team across the finish line.” She never mentions her husband or the Senate race specifically but declares her intention to vote for the full GOP ticket. To do otherwise, Ms. Paxton declares, would be to “hand the future of Texas to the other team” – and the future of the country. Voters have the luxury of debating personalities in the primaries. In general elections, voters face binary choices on policies. With Democrats embracing socialism and Islamist radicals, Republicans in Texas no longer have that luxury. We must stand for freedom with the team we have, and follow Angela Paxton to fight for that future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ed Morrissey: Republicans Must Make Midterms About Marxism
Democrats had one job to do in this cycle: Don't be crazy. But: Rather than offer a rational alternative to Donald Trump, the party has embraced Marxist revolutionaries and sympathizers of radical Islam as endorsed candidates. And voters have noticed. A CBS poll from this summer indicated that 60 percent of Democrats held positive views of socialism. However, two successive polls from Center Square show a majority of voters have serious concerns about Democratic Socialists taking control of the Democrat Party. This data shows Republicans have a real opportunity to get voters to deliver a harsh verdict on Democrats’ embrace of Marxism. Republicans in every midterm race ought to be highlighting the danger of socialist control as the top issue this cycle. There is an opportunity to push back the radicals to the fringe—and only a massive loss will force Democrats to purge the DSA. This is a real Time For Choosing. Choose wisely—and, please, make sure you vote!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Carol Platt Liebau: Polls and Predictions Don't Decide Elections
Pollsters and the media are predicting a blue wave. They point to President Trump’s low approval ratings and Democrats’ lead in congressional polling. But this election is no foregone conclusion. For one thing, summer Senate polls in recent election cycles have often overstated Democratic support. A polling lead isn’t a victory. For another, Republican committees and outside groups have a huge financial advantage. Some major Democratic donors are withholding money from the national party, still angry about how their donations to Kamala Harris’s campaign were spent. That leaves less money for ads and getting voters to the polls. And in close races, those resources can make the difference. Republicans still face a steep climb. Second-term midterms are notoriously tough for the president’s party. But predictions don’t decide elections. Voters do. And this election is far from over.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Albert Mohler: Radio and the Things We Take for Granted
There are certain things we just take for granted, or at least those of us of a certain age take for granted. Among those is the fact that when you get in a car, there’s a radio with the AM band. In the United States, that’s not an accident. It is at least partly because of federal mandates—going back to the early age of radio and automobiles. There are some very important national security issues at stake here: I grew up in Florida. Look no further than the Cuban missile crisis for a reminder of how important communication can be. I recognize that AM radio is no longer as popular as it once was, but AM radio remains important. Our digital transmissions are, technologically speaking, fragile. The House of Representatives recently passed legislation requiring car makers to put AM radio in the vehicles. The United States Senate should take it up next—and I hope they do. The Senate should pass it—and President Trump ought to sign the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act. It turns out. That’s important.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Seth Liebsohn: Democrat Leaders Submit to DSA Radicals
Now that the Democratic Socialists of America and their allies have engaged a non-hostile take-over of the Democratic party, prepare to see more and more professional Democrats try to deflect and project. This week, Donna Brazile wrote an op-ed saying the DSA is not a concern because House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will have the spine to prevent them from enacting their agenda. That would be much more convincing if elected leaders of the Democratic party told us this. The only denunciations of the socialist growth within the Democratic party are from un-elected commentators—like Brazile. Hakeem Jeffries, himself, has said the socialists will be a welcome part of the Democratic caucus when elected. Indeed, the socialists in the Democratic party have grown precisely because elected Democrats have capitulated to them time and again. If you think elected leaders of the Democratic party will stand up to their extremists, just look at their anemic response to El-Sayed, Hasan Piker, Graham Platner, Ilhan Omar, Zohran Mamdani … and I could go on. The stakes here are high, do not be gaslit.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Albert Mohler: The Ugly Face of Islamic Terrorism
The ugly face of Islamic terrorism has showed that face again. I’m referring, of course, to the attempted hijacking of the FlyDubai plane by the co-pilot. It was an extremely close call, averted only by heroism. This is an enormous worldview issue. It comes down to the fact that civilization is and always is an achievement. Civilization is also more vulnerable than people think. Civilization built this aircraft—able to withstand the stressors put on it in the terrifying descent. And civilization established the rules—rules having to do with which airliners are certified to fly and which are not. And we’re talking about “rules” of moral behavior. This was not in the case of this airplane, a mechanical problem. This was a moral problem. And the moral problem, at its core, can be summed up as the forces of civilization juxtaposed with the forces of anti-civilization. Thank God—this time—civilization won.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hugh Hewitt: Who Really Leads the Democratic Party
Social media influencer Hasan Piker is now the face of the Democratic party. Piker wears his Mao jacket and hoses his Twitch audience down with absurd political takes. Piker uses social media to monetize the worst impulses of the extremes in American politics. In the course of doing so, he personally carried the most radical major-party candidate in memory — Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed—to that party’s nomination for the United States Senate. Piker has now gone so “supernova radical” that some Democratic leaders have tried to rebuke him without even naming him—including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. It’s not going to work. Piker—and the socialist fever he represents—is repelling the moderate Americans who love the country especially in the Democratic party. It should not be difficult to say: voters ought to reject Hasan Piker, Abdul-El Sayed, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and I could go on—by name. They also ought to be rejected at the ballot box.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Seth Leibsohn: Yaniv Hayoun: The World Should Know His Name
One week after Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu reminded the United Nations of the Entebbe terrorist attack, an international pro-Palestinian plane hijacking where four Israeli hostages and Netanyahu’s brother were killed, another hijacking of a civilian airliner destined for Israel was attempted. Media has downplayed it, but it took courage and honor for the civilian passengers to subdue the terrorist and rescue the plane, their families, and fellow passengers. Had the terrorist been successful, no doubt there would have been celebrations throughout the Islamist world—from Gaza to the West Bank, and in New York, just as there were the day after the terrorist slaughter of October 7th, 2023. One passenger, Yaniv Hayoun, was particularly heroic in Wednesday’s rescue. The world should know his name as it should know what he stood for: innocence. Thank God we have Todd Beamers and Yaniv Hayouns among us. Thank God some can still distinguish between them and those that would kill them--and us--in the name of, and for a delusion on behalf of, depraved and malevolent values.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Seth Leibsohn: Restoring an Appreciation of the Things That Matter
Ronald Reagan used to quote the philosopher Montesquieu: “The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principle upon which it was founded.” Reagan cited this point to warn us as more and more policies were enacted violating our principles of self- and limited government. Later in his career, Reagan would also warn about our decayed and degraded state of knowledge about our own history. Indeed, today, Americans’ knowledge about history and civics is at record lows, helping explain our new acceptance and promotion of literal socialist policies and politics in America. Our education system, our schools, have failed us. Thank God, however, a few historians have given us a gift to help us recoup the things we used to know. Particularly beautiful and helpful is Allen Guelzo and James Haskins new two-volume history of Western Civilization: “The Golden Thread.” Enough cannot be said about such a work as Guelzo’s and Haskins’—nor its scholarship, readability, and beautiful presentation. Their work comes just in time, and could not be more necessary.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Carol Platt Liebau: Released and Reassured?
British police arrested five young men near an air base used by American forces. They were suspected of explosives offenses and preparing a terrorist act. Today, all five are out on bail. Authorities call them British nationals but won’t release their names. Police are investigating possible foreign-state involvement. Iran denies any role. The public’s been told almost nothing. And while investigators are still working out what happened, every suspect has been released. Police say bail conditions are strict. But armed officers responded. Bomb disposal experts examined the scene. If the threat was serious enough for that, why is releasing all five safe? These men certainly deserve due process. But official secrecy and pompous reassurances are no substitute for protecting the public. This kind of politically correct, cowardly complacency is how once-great civilizations die.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Albert Mohler: Islam or Islamism
25 Years After 9/11 The Americans and British are still wrestling with the big challenge we face and a crucial question: Is the big challenge Islam?—or Islamism? The Economist magazine recently published a notable cover story. Where they argued —and I quote: “Islam poses no serious danger. But Islamism and the fear of Islam do.” Then they argue Islam is not a threat, but Islamism is. They define it as a fringe ideology in Islam, the belief that government and society should be guided by Islamic principles. The problem for that theory is that central to Islam not just Islamism, but Islam, is the combination of Islam as a religion and a government. It’s not a peripheral idea to Islam. It’s not a misreading. It’s in the Quran. When you look at Islam, you are looking at a civilizational project. You are looking at a civilizational challenge. And quite honestly we had better recognize it as such.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Carol Platt Liebau: Corruption of Our Judiciary
We all learned it – or should have – in civics class. Congress makes the laws. The executive branch enforces them. And judges interpret them. But some federal judges in Minneapolis have forgotten it. Patrick Schiltz, until recently chief judge of Minnesota’s federal district court, just gave a remarkable 90-minute interview to the New York Times. Schiltz and other judges were sharply critical of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. And as cases poured in, the judges met, consulted, and developed templates for court orders. Consider that. Judges personally opposed to administration policy were coordinating their rulings on cases challenging it. Judges must rule against any president when the law requires it. But judges shouldn’t become a coordinated opposition to policies just because they personally oppose them. That undermines faith in an impartial judiciary — and in a fundamental safeguard of American government.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Albert Mohler: A Win-Win-Win
In New York City this week, the United Nations is hosting 81st session of the U.N. General Assembly. World leaders, you can count on this, will be discussing the deal President Trump announced with Denmark and Greenland they will allow the U.S. to deploy military throughout virtually all of the nation of Greenland. President Trump posted: “The United States will forever have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland.” This is a big win for the U.S., Greenland - which is a semi-autonomous region of Denmark – and it’s big for Denmark itself. As we watch the world order being re-shaped so dramatically, the polar ice cap becomes a place of vulnerability and military strategy particularly as we see the northern seas become more navigable for sea vessels. This is the work of serious statesmanship. So: When the ink is cleared on this one, let’s be thankful. President Trump is right on this one. This is a three way win. Let’s take it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Carol Platt Liebau: Death Without Dignity
Canada legalized Medical Assistance in Dying, or MAID, in June of 2016—with promises of compassion. More than 100,000 assisted deaths later, the reality looks far different. Last year, Canada had more MAID deaths than America had gun homicides -- despite America’s much larger population. And now troubling questions are being raised about MAID. The family of eighty-three-year old Bridgitte Stegemann says she rejected assisted suicide because of her Christian faith. Later, they say, she lacked the ability to consent and wept inconsolably after learning she was scheduled to die. Forty-eight hours later, she was dead. Her family says she never gave final verbal consent. They describe her dying with her hands clasped in prayer, covered in her own blood after a botched attempt to start an IV. That isn’t “death with dignity.” It’s something far darker.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Seth Leibsohn: The End of Hypocrisy
With CNN, Politico, and MS NOW in high dudgeon over being denied access to the White House, you’d think it was the end of democracy. What it is is the end of hypocrisy. For years, CNN and her confederates have been unified in distorting the news when it comes to Donald Trump, and burying news about the Biden administration. So much so that their behavior hardly gives them any moral high ground. We should recall well their efforts to stifle reporting on Joe Biden’s mental condition as well as their complicity in covering up the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop, including uncritically platforming the 51 intelligence experts who abused their security clearances to further conceal political damage to the Biden presidency. They were silent when the Biden administration tried to create a disinformation board and said little else about the exposure of the manifold Biden efforts to censor social media. As they preen over their rights to report truth to power, let us not drown in their crocodile tears about their commitments to truth and free speech.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Carol Platt Liebau: Massachusetts' Family-Destroying Legal Move
The Supreme Court has long recognized that parents — not the state — have the primary right to direct their children’s upbringing. But Massachusetts apparently wasn’t listening. In December 2024, the state took a 15-year-old girl named Sophie from her home. Her school had been helping her socially transition. When her Catholic parents refused to use a male name or support a gender transition, they lost custody. Her family says they’re now barred from contacting her. This is un-American. Massachusetts doesn’t care more about Sophie than her parents do. And holding traditional Catholic beliefs shouldn’t cost parents their child. How Sophie chooses to live once she’s an adult will be her decision. But while she’s still a minor, disagreement with her parents — even over something this profound — isn’t sufficient reason for the state to replace them. Sophie belongs with her family.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hugh Hewitt: Seeing Past the AI Panic Mongers
It seems like every morning lately brings a new warning about artificial intelligence along the lines of, “We’re all going to die!” Dario Amodei—Anthropic’s chief executive—struck the panic chord in a recent essay, arguing AI was advancing too quickly for researchers to continue building it safely. Then billionaire tech investor David Sacks struck back. In a post on X, Sacks rejected the “AI doomerism,” landing a roundhouse punch: “Stop pretending you need anyone else’s permission,” Sacks wrote. “Stop pretending antitrust law has to be suspended so you can form a cartel. Stop pretending you need a regulatory approval process that supersedes product liability.” China’s President Xi is not going to be satisfied with a silver medal in the AI Olympics. Neither should we. Unless and until Congress says “stop” and the president agrees with a signature, the private sector gets to run with the AI ball as far and as fast as it wants.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hugh Hewitt: Leave the Court Alone
205 Democrats voted early this month to leave the door open to packing the Supreme Court. Everyone needs to be paying attention. The original Constitution was silent as to the number of justices on the high court, but from 1866 to 1869, a combination of three statutes and one constitutional amendment put a constitutional imprimatur on the number nine. The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified on July 9, 1868, by the necessary number of states then, and Secretary of State William Seward formally proclaimed the Fourteenth Amendment as part of the Constitution on July 28, 1868. Less than a year after ratification and certification of the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress completed the work of the Reconstruction Era with regard to the Supreme Court with the passage of the Judiciary Act of 1869. When he came into office, President, Ulysses S. Grant, promptly signed that law. Like the pro-slavery Democrats of antebellum America, the Democrats of today would rather wreck the Constitution than abide by it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Seth Leibsohn: 9/11 Lessons We Did Not Learn
After commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11, let’s remember the adage: when you lose something, do not lose the lesson. Did we learn the lessons of 9/11? Those lessons include understanding the difference between good and evil, and never to confuse the two—calling evil good or good evil. That has not been learned. There are vast networks of terrorists in the world—all who want to destroy America and her allies. Much of the terrorist intellectual mindset now has great support in America, itself. Whether we are speaking of allies of the Muslim Brotherhood on our campuses or in Senate and House races, or in the fulminations of too many political activists, pro-Islamist anti-Americanism is more accepted and embraced in America today than at any other time in our history. The lesson now? We cannot abandon the courage of our convictions from our other anniversary—that is: 1776. Those convictions, and the teachings about them, in our schools and in our politics, have never been more needed. We must do everything in our power to reinfuse them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Carol Platt Liebau: Lessons of 9/11
Last week, Americans commemorated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks carried out by Islamist extremists. Afterward, our leaders rightly emphasized that America’s quarrel wasn’t with Muslims generally. And millions of peaceful, patriotic Muslims have made America their home. But tolerance can’t require us to ignore a legitimate question about assimilation. Some beliefs found in significant parts of the Islamic world — about the treatment of women, Jews, religious minorities, or those who leave the faith — are completely at odds with American principles. America has always welcomed immigrants of every faith. But immigration only works when newcomers are willing to embrace our fundamental values — not when they seek to remake our country according to values Americans have rejected. Twenty-five years after 9/11, asking whether we’re doing enough to encourage assimilation isn’t bigotry. It’s common sense.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hugh Hewitt: Who Really Leads the Democratic Party
Social media influencer Hasan Piker is now the face of the Democratic party. Piker wears his Mao jacket and hoses his Twitch audience down with absurd political takes. Piker uses social media to monetize the worst impulses of the extremes in American politics. In the course of doing so, he personally carried the most radical major-party candidate in memory — Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed—to that party’s nomination for the United States Senate. Piker has now gone so “supernova radical” that some Democratic leaders have tried to rebuke him without even naming him—including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. It’s not going to work. Piker—and the socialist fever he represents—is repelling the moderate Americans who love the country especially in the Democratic party. It should not be difficult to say: voters ought to reject Hasan Piker, Abdul-El Sayed, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and I could go on—by name. They also ought to be rejected at the ballot box.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Carol Platt Liebau: A Legacy Divided
When Gloria Steinem died last week, she was mourned across popular culture as a feminist icon. But her legacy was a mixed one. Many feminist reforms of the civil rights era were necessary and right — including laws against sex and pregnancy discrimination. But Steinem’s brand of feminism also had an anti-male streak that still poisons relations between the sexes today. She popularized the line: “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” Steinem promoted the idea that women find their greatest fulfillment through work outside the home—and Generations of women and children have paid the price. She also advocated for the abortion on demand culture that has shaped the course of our nation. There’s no question: Gloria Steinem lived an influential life. But on her impact? The jury—like our country—is split.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Albert Mohler: Remembering 9/11, Reflecting on America
The morning of September 11, 2001 was stunningly beautiful. It was a promising day as it started, and yet it would end as a day of horror that would be indelibly etched into the American psyche. Those beautiful skies carried mass murder and terror. Through those skies flew airliners turned into massive bombs, carrying human passengers who were exploded into dust. The sight of the airliners flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, smoke rising from the Pentagon, and then the towers burning and twisting and falling—all of it shown on television screens over and over again. Americans were shocked and declared that the world would never look the same again. The 25th anniversary of 9/11 demands serious moral reflection. Sadly, the anniversary also underlines massive questions about America’s role in the world, about the war on terror, and about the stark moral realities of our times. We know this, we need to pray. May God bless, guide, and protect the United States of America.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ed Morrissey: When Did We Stop Rolling?
25 years ago this week, radical Islamists slaughtered nearly 3000 people in New York, Washington DC, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The deaths took place in Shanksville when a few dozen Americans stood up to fight the Islamist terrorists and thwarted their plans to drive Flight 93 into either the White House or Capitol Hill. Let's roll became a mantra to fight back against extremists determined to destroy America and Western values of freedom and self-governance. The question we face now is, when did we stop rolling? This somber anniversary arrives as radicals make serious inroads into American politics. In New Jersey, just across from ground zero, a Democrat nominee with previous ties to Al-Qaeda and the Sheik behind the first World Trade Center bombing will likely win a seat in Congress. In Michigan, a Democrat spent the weekend at a conference held by an unindicted co-conspirator in a money laundering scheme that benefited Hamas. Ronald Reagan warned that freedom is only one generation away from extinction. Let's roll.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Kevin McCullough: Ground Zero Is Not a Political Stage
September 11 is not a normal day on the calendar. Nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered by Islamist terrorists. Yet 25 years later, retired Port Authority police officers are asking Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to stay away from the commemoration at Ground Zero. Thirty-seven Port Authority officers died that morning. Now their surviving brothers are pleading: “Please allow us to remember in peace.” Hochul angered the 9/11 community by illuminating One World Trade Center for Muslim American Heritage Month. Mamdani faces a petition opposing his attendance signed by more than 96,000 people—including grieving families. Both intend to attend anyway. Ground Zero—especially on the 25th anniversary of that dark day—does not belong to politicians. It belongs to the dead and their families, the cops and firefighters who walked into hell while everyone else ran away. They do not owe elected officials a backdrop or a lesson in tolerance. One day. One place. No politics. They’ve earned that. Let them have it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Carol Platt Liebau: The Danger of Forgetting
As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, Americans who remember that day also remember its aftermath. Along with the shock, horror, suffering and death, there was resolve: We would never forget what happened. And we would never let it happen again. Thankfully, nothing on that scale has happened since. But too many Americans seem less alert to the threat of radical Islamism. A for-profit sharia finance industry operates across America. A North Texas school was established and staffed by relatives of convicted Hamas operatives. And New York’s current mayor has been photographed with an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. For those of us who remember the terror of 9/11, these developments are almost unbelievable. And they’re frightening. Because we know what happens when people forget the past. They risk repeating it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Seth Leibsohn: The Sin of Moral Equivalence
“Some people did something,” one prominent Islamist member of Congress put it. An Islamist candidate for US Senate wrote: those we killed in our response to 9/11 were equally to be mourned as victims just as the Americans killed on 9/11 were. He has also campaigned with a popular broadcaster who claimed the US deserved 9/11. The Islamist Mayor of New York has posted on X there is no moral difference between those who were killed on 9/11 and those we killed in response. This is how we lose the distinction between good and evil which, many thought, would never be confused again after 9/11. Elie Wiesel wrote, “history is to civilization what memory is to individuals.” For those of us who remember 9/11 accurately, we can never forget it, nor the fact that vast numbers of people with a medieval ideology still want us dead. Those engaging in moral equivalence about it are the handmaidens of hate. If ignored, they will be the authors of our destruction—which, Abraham Lincoln reminded us, can only come from within.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Kevin McCullough: Ground Zero Is Not a Political Stage
September 11 is not a normal day on the calendar. Nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered by Islamist terrorists. Yet 25 years later, retired Port Authority police officers are asking Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to stay away from the commemoration at Ground Zero. Thirty-seven Port Authority officers died that morning. Now their surviving brothers are pleading: “Please allow us to remember in peace.” Hochul angered the 9/11 community by illuminating One World Trade Center for Muslim American Heritage Month. Mamdani faces a petition opposing his attendance signed by more than 96,000 people—including grieving families. Both intend to attend anyway. Ground Zero—especially on the 25th anniversary of that dark day—does not belong to politicians. It belongs to the dead and their families, the cops and firefighters who walked into hell while everyone else ran away. They do not owe elected officials a backdrop or a lesson in tolerance. One day. One place. No politics. They’ve earned that. Let them have it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Michael Youseff: Danger of Socialism
Now, you probably grew up knowing that socialism doesn't work. It sees its control and most importantly seeks to replace God with government. But this ideology is now moving to the very center of our nation's political life. I was born under socialist Islamist regime. I remember when my father's company was taken over by the government. I couldn't wait to turn 18 and escape and find freedom in the West. As these ideologies gain an even stronger foothold in America, we must respond with calm courage and biblical conviction. Silence in the face of evil is not faithfulness.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Carol Platt Liebau: Remembering 911... Forgetting Everything Else
As the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, New York Governor Kathy Hochul is among the leftist Democrats who seems to have learned nothing and forgotten everything. Last week, Hochul visited the Islamic Cultural Center School of New York — whose imam blamed Jews for destroying the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks. What’s more, Hochul appeared wearing a hijab. Perhaps she thought she was just respecting a religious tradition but she’s dangerously misguided. The hijab is a symbol of female submission, reflecting the view that women’s bodies are sinful and must be covered lest men be tempted. Our Constitution protects religious liberty, so Muslim women are free to wear hijabs. But it’s ironic and outrageous that left-wing women — who accuse conservatives of plotting a real-life “Handmaid’s Tale” — embrace a symbol of the very female oppression they claim to fear.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ed Morrissey: Strategic Patience in Iran
Desperate times call for desperate measures. And the IRGC may have never faced a situation as desperate as its predicament at the moment. Yes: The conflict with Iran has gone on longer than Donald Trump anticipated. The shock and awe campaign in March did massive strategic damage, but the regime has managed to survive. Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have gone nowhere. Trump finally landed on the most rational approach left. The naval blockade has eliminated Iran’s income from black-market oil. Scott Bessent’s economic D-Day has stripped the IRGC of any other financial resources. The Iranian rial has collapsed. Domestic discontent with the regime will keep increasing to existential levels. The siege of Iran provides the best chance for success in eliminating a regime that has waged war against the US for 47 years. Trump needs to exercise strategic patience to see this strategy to a successful conclusion – and so do the American people.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jerry Bowyer: The Package UPS Doesn't Want to Talk About
UPS will not ship human embryos. But it will ship the drug designed to destroy those innocent human lives. A shareholder proposal asks UPS to examine the legal, regulatory, and reputational risk of distributing abortion drugs, particularly mifepristone. The company's answer is that a carrier cannot know what is in every package. UPS ships firearms under dedicated accounts, contractual agreements, shipper verification, adult signature, and direct-delivery rules. It plainly knows how to identify a product category and apply scrutiny when it decides to. The Comstock Act has been federal law since 1873, and bars common carriers from transporting drugs intended to produce abortion. More than twenty states now restrict these drugs, including Georgia, where UPS is headquartered. Firearms are constitutionally protected. This shipment of abortion drugs is already addressed by federal statute. What a strange moral code. UPS needs to get out of the abortion business.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hugh Hewitt: Watching a Desperate Regime
The Islamic Republic is reeling as summer closes. Operation Economic Outcast is squeezing an already flustered and failing regime. As that regime grows increasingly desperate, there are warnings that Iran may well be considering one or even many “October surprise” attacks on Israel, the United States or anywhere that its weapons or terrorists can reach. America’s military is certainly prepared—but the public ought to be braced, too. Aging revolutionaries in Tehran whose dreams and fantasies lie in ruins around them are unlikely to surrender power and go quietly into exile. So: the idea of a grand gesture through suicidal attacks has to appeal to the remnants of the once powerful but now nearly spent regime. Fanatics with nothing to lose pose a specific kind of threat—and it’s not a rational one. Americans should support Trump, the efforts of Operation Economic Outcast and the military as the Islamic Republic plays out its last few, desperate moves.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Seth Leibsohn: Islamism in America?
Since the election of the first Islamist to Congress eight years ago, few have wanted to speak candidly out about what Ilhan Omar was saying and stood for—lest they be labeled Islamophobic. Since that time, political Islam, Islamism, has grown and grown—from the election of a mayor in New York City to several congressional candidates from the East to West Coasts, some of whom win their elections this year. This includes a congressional candidate from Flight 93 Todd Beamer’s hometown who was the righthand man to the Blind Sheikh. In Michigan, Democrats have nominated an Islamist, looking to serve as U.S. Senator. El-Sayed has defended Sharia law in America, campaigned with Hamas supporters, and is speaking at a Muslim Brotherhood aligned conference next month. Islamophobia is the irrational fear of Islam. We do not fear a religion whose adherents give this country their effectual support, as George Washington put the test of religious tolerance. But there’s a growing number who wish to exploit our political system for their Islamist subversion. That fear is not irrational.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Michael Youssef: A Troubling Question
While I was visiting the Middle East several years ago, a highly placed government official who's a Muslim himself asked me a troubling question. Why is the Muslim Brotherhood outlawed as a terrorist organization in Saudi Arabia, in Bahrain, in the United Arab Emirates, in Jordan, in Egypt, and yet allowed to flourish in America? Founded in Egypt in 1928, the brotherhood's history is drenched in blood. It was spawned and inspired groups like Hamas, Al-Qaeda, ISIS. Now Congress designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist entity. This designation act would finally name the brotherhood for what it is and disrupt its financial networks. Contact your representatives, senators, ask them to support this bill.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ed Morrissey: The WNBA Banishes Freedom
Freedom stood up for reality—and the crowd went nuts. Enes Kanter Freedom attended a WNBA game with a T-shirt that defined a woman as an “adult human female.” The shirt provoked a profane response from Chicago Sky players, leading the league to eject Freedom from the arena. In every possible sense. When was the last time anyone saw a player in the NBA, NFL, MLB, or NHL lose their minds and their focus over a T-shirt in the stands? This is the second time in a week for the WNBA in which a team either threatened to expel or outright expelled fans for wearing T-shirts that only expressed support for biology as the definition of "women." This isn't a sports league. It's a struggle session with cardio. It is the cult of progressivism in microcosm, where dissent has to be silenced and truth banished. It may be a clown show at the WNBA, but writ large, it really is a danger to freedom … not just Enes Kanter Freedom.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Albert Mohler: Smitten by Socialism
The most amazing development on the American political landscape right now is the emergence of socialism. Yeah, I said it, socialism. Just recently, CBS News launched a major investigative study looking into political support for socialism. Among the key takeaways are the fact that among those who identify as Democrats, 58% have a positive view of socialism. 58% positive view of socialism. Only 32% of Democrats said they had a positive view of capitalism. It gets worse. Among respondents with a college degree and even higher 71% say they have a positive view of socialism. The most obvious influence over these students is leftist professors teaching leftist ideologies, The culture of elite education is teaching university students wrong lessons about the economy, and it's doing so in so many different ways. Students increasing support for socialism shows it, as do the polls. It's a seismic development when you think about the future of civilization and the future of the United States of America.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hugh Hewitt: Abdul El-Sayed Is Hasan Piker
Abdul El-Sayed is Hasan Piker and Hasan Piker is Abdul El-Sayed. That’s the bottom line for Michigan voters considering the race for the open Senate seat in the upcoming election. El-Sayed is the Democratic nominee. Piker is the progressive, regressive, transgressive Twitch streamer—a vulgar, hate-filled, racist “streamer,” an online ranter who hates Blacks, Whites, women with seemingly equal passion. He thinks the United States deserved 911, None of this is a hidden secret. El-Sayed attached himself to Piker’s hip in order to win the Michigan Democratic primary. If El-Sayed somehow fools the Michigan electorate into sending him to D.C. in November, Piker will push aside Bernie Sanders and AOC as the key “kingmaker” in the Democratic Party. El-Sayed is going to be facing GOP nominee Mike Rogers, a seven-term congressman from Michigan. Working in Rogers’ favor, Michigan doesn’t want to become known for the craziest hater in the Senate since the Civil War.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Seth Leibsohn: Abortion and the Pang of Conscience
Massachusetts recently passed an abortion law, becoming the 10th state that allows for an abortion to take place right up to the moment of birth. Let us step back to consider that the entire abortion movement and language used to justify it is shrouded in lies and code words. The word abortion, itself, is a euphemism designed to obscure the killing of a child; the word fetus is used to disguise the object of that procedure, to keep clear a conscience from fully considering what—and who—is being “ended” … or killed. Reverend Jesse Jackson once asked: “What happens to the mind of a person, and the moral fabric of a nation, that accepts the abortion of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience?” He said, “It is that question, the question of our attitude, our value system, and our mind-set with regard to the nature and worth of life itself that is the central question confronting mankind.” Let us pray it is not too late to ask, and answer, that precise question.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ed Morrissey: Reds Clues: El-Sayed and Marxist Infantilization
“There are no normal Democrat men,” Clay Travis observed about a recent campaign video from Abdul El-Sayed. The Michigan Democrat wants to ensure that. El-Sayed’s campaign produced a “Blue’s Clues” themed video to promote mail-in voting. It reveals something profound about the contempt with which El-Sayed and Marxists see voters and citizens in a free society. Marxists infantilize everyone as part of their claim to power. The proletariat cannot be trusted to act in their own interests, which is why private property must be abolished and the means of production seized. This is a pure form of Marxist expression. The Democratic Socialist platform reeks with infantilization. Don’t like paying your bills? The government will do it. Don’t like to work? The government will feed you. Don’t want to pay rent? The government will seize property and shelter you—as the Marxists in charge see fit to do so. American voters need to see this for what it is: Contempt for people who make their own choices. Call this video what it is—Reds’ Clues.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Albert Mohler: The Culture of Death in Massachusetts
August 10, Massachusetts became the 11th state in the union to pass legislation with absolutely no limits on abortion. Democratic Governor Maura Healey hosted a signing ceremony and a lengthy press conference. We need to understand what we’re talking about here: There’s a basic worldview collision between the culture of life and the culture of death. In the culture of life, every single human life is respected from the point of fertilization until natural death, making something like abortion not only wrong, but morally unthinkable. The culture of death is so absolutely enraptured with personal autonomy that it can be used to deny or even take the life of others. Just days before Governor Healy signed this radical abortion legislation, she signed a Family Welfare Act that included expansions for child welfare in Massachusetts. The governor said then, and I quote, "Every child deserves the opportunity to grow up safe, supported, and set up to succeed." Understand this, she actually means every child outside the womb and no child inside the womb. This is just haunting.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Carol Platt Liebau: What the WNBA Is Lacking
A furor erupted in the WNBA recently, after Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham called it “common sense” to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. The league’s collective bargaining agreement says that only women are eligible to play in the WNBA—but never defines what a “woman” is. The commissioner calls the issue “nuanced,” while the players association calls for diversity and inclusion. Now they’re being taken at their word. Two former NBA players say they’ll declare for the 2027 WNBA draft—exposing the absurdity of rules that refuse to acknowledge biological reality. The WNBA has brought all this on itself. It’s time to define “woman” — or risk sidelining female athletes in the league created specifically for them. There’s nothing “nuanced” about protecting women’s sports. It requires only courage, clarity, and plain common sense.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Carol Platt Liebau: Corruption Exposed at Cambridge
Americans already suspect that higher education is a politicized grift. And Jason Arday’s story won’t convince them otherwise. Arday was celebrated as the youngest black person ever appointed to a professorship at Cambridge — despite a history of fabulism that defies belief. He’s claimed to have been nonverbal until age 11; unable to read until 18; to have run 600 miles in 65 days; raised more than $7 million for charity; survived a coma; and beaten cancer. Neither Cambridge nor Simon & Schuster, publisher of his autobiography, apparently thought to verify his claims. He’s resigned after a plagiarism scandal and a pending investigation about his academic qualifications and honorary appointments. Here’s the lesson: Rather than making academia more inclusive and equitable, DEI has exposed just how corrupt the whole enterprise has become.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Seth Leibsohn: Beware of Woke 2.0
Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez recently told a credulous Jonathan Karl of ABC that “Woke 1.0 was crazy,” when asked about certain Democratic Socialists of America candidate positions from the recent past. She then went on to state “[D]uring Covid, there was a huge opening of the Overton Window. We were shut down….I think that during lockdown…rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.” It didn’t occur to Karl to ask what Covid had to do with nostrums like abolishing the police, men could be women, Thanksgiving should be cancelled, riots (if from the left) were peaceful. Of course, the answer is: Nothing. And if Woke 1.0 is now passe, why? And is it better than Woke 2.0, which now includes defending and marching for terrorist organizations, including the day after they slaughtered hundreds of innocents, including dozens of Americans? AOC is a member of the DSA. Their party has a number Marxist caucuses today. If Woke 1.0 is outdated, beware of Woke 2.0. It’s better labeled Marxist-Islamism. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hugh Hewitt: A Test for Collective Commonsense in Michigan
Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's recent primary for the United States Senate seat that is open in Michigan. He's the most radical Democratic nominee for the Senate since the Civil War. He'll face GOP congressmen and army veteran, FBI, special agent as well, Mike Rogers in the fall. El-Sayed campaigns with an Islamist supporting extremist by the name of Hasan Piker, who's also a racist and a misogynist. That El-Sayed hates the state of Israel is not open for debate. He does. Most Jews and many non-Jews believe that El-Sayed is antisemitic to the core. Rogers v. El-Sayed is the most important race of 2026. Michigan's collective common sense will be tested over the next three months. Will they vote for an experienced, responsible, serious legislator who understands the world and America's role in it and support Mike Rogers? Or will they vote for the radical who cares for “from the river to the sea” more than he does the national security of the United States? My money is on Mike Rogers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Carol Platt Liebau: New York City and the Jewish Question
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently announced the people will advise him on his judicial appointments. Notably, not even one of the mayor’s 18-person Judicial Advisory Panel is Jewish. This is no small feat in a city where one in eight residents is Jewish – and between thirty-five and fifty percent of the city bar is Jewish. In fact, the odds of this omission of a single Jew occurring by chance has been estimated at four ten-thousandths of one percent. Alone, this exclusion would be disturbing. But it’s part of a broader pattern. Mamdani has reversed orders barring city agencies from participating in boycotts or divestment efforts targeting Israel, and omitted historic Jewish neighborhoods from a map highlighting immigrant enclaves. Antisemitism is the canary in the coal mine for a sick society. It’s rearing its ugly head in New York City.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Albert Mohler: Brace Yourself
The Democratic Socialists of America want a revolution. They want to eliminate the police, empty jails, socialize medical care and housing, and eventually take their revolution through the entire society. As for the nation's constitutional system, nothing less than a new revolution will do. They're demanding the abolition of the Electoral College. They want to eliminate the Presidency. They want to eliminate the Senate. On their website, they also have an article promising to rip up the “old rulebook.” That “old rulebook” is called the Constitution of the United States of America. Brace yourselves for a political transformation that has the potential to reshape the entire American political landscape, throw away the U.S. Constitution, destroy the free market, eliminate private ownership of corporations and real estate, and build a brave new world. Comrades, you have been warned.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hugh Hewitt: Trump’s Legacy and Iran
Reliable reports from a variety of sources confirm President Trump had ordered a major escalation of combat with Iran for this past weekend only to call it off Saturday night. President Trump knows the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps lies and that they cheat. There’s no reason to believe that they’ll not lie and cheat again. It is who they have always been. Since the revolution in 1979, the Iranian regime’s negotiators have fooled both Presidents Carter and Obama in comprehensive fashion, other presidents to some degree, but they have never fooled Donald Trump. Until this past weekend at least. Can we still pull of a win against the terrorist regime in Tehran? Yes. But only the president can do that. Not our allies. Not his advisors. Certainly not the legacy media. Trump has been surprising and indeed startling his critics for his nearly dozen years in politics. I’m hoping he has at least one more huge surprise in store.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Seth Leibsohn: El-Sayed and the Marxist-Islamist Axis
With Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan, the Democratic party has gone from Barack Obama denouncing those who said America deserved 9/11 to campaigning with those who say just that, like Hasan Piker, the left’s most famous podcaster. As the political philosopher Jerry Garcia wrote: “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” El-Sayed is the latest success endorsed and campaigned for by the Marxist-Islamist axis of the Democratic Socialists of America. This juggernaut is proving unstoppable in taking over the Democratic party. A generation ago, a real political philosopher, Harry Jaffa, pointed out: That with the fall of the Berlin Wall, utopian communism would no longer be seen as simply a threat from abroad—but a more “deadly and dangerous phase” here at home could follow. Quite right—a wall can stop people, but not their ideas. That enemy is here, and potent. The two-party system is now looking Republican on one hand and Marxist-Islamists on the other. We cannot simply wish this away or ignore it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.