[Applause] okay here we are he's the former CNN anchor who is running for congress in New York's First District John Aon he was the editor-in chief of National Review and host of the editor's podcast Rich Lowry and the former White House National Security advisor under President Trump whose new book at war with ourselves General HR McMaster okay this is for everybody I uh I just mentioned Hitler in the editorial what's with Tucker Carlson embracing a revisionist historian does anybody remember the guy's name I read the story today Tucker Carlson he just he does like to push the envelope doesn't he he had on a guy who introduced something like one of the most important historians of today I'd never heard of the guy he's not a real historian he's not a real well he he believes Winston Churchill was the bad guy and Hitler was the good guy I the real villain I love people who think revisionism is just the way to get attention like whatever you say I can I can undo it and say it's better you know what you think men can't get pregnant oh stop it stop it this is the you think Hitler was the bad guy yeah intriguing concept look this is the kind this is junk history that's getting pedal and and you know there are people who gravitate to this but he elevates it and and I think business model for him you know it's his business model he's a Tucker Carson yeah he a grifter he's a charlatan you know he's uh he's a useful idiot for Vladimir saw him sit across from him and supposed knowledgeable about history but he bought in that whole I call it did you ever see the show Drunk History you know no I love but it's like he bought into Putin's Drunk History you know right okay and and this guy seems to think like Churchill is imp power in in Britain all all in the run up to the war and he was pushing all the buttons and he was making Hitler inv you know England went to him as a war leader because the war had started already because of Hitler and I actually disagree with you I think Tucker sincere in this stuff and I think it goes to a deep disaffection that parts of the right have unfortunately with America at its foundations they've come to believe the country is fundamentally corrupt so every piece of received wisdom and I think you know some narratives are wrong and should be pushed back against but every piece of received wisdom including that H that um I was going to say HR McMaster but that Winston Churchill was one of the greatest figures in Western history has to be questioned which he was but but was not one of the great he was question but but this is this weird like when did when did sort of hating America become hip on the far right this is this Mirror Image sort of like feedback loop between the far right and the far left that's absolutely crazy that people are totally they all meet I mean the sort of the the nativist far right meets the self-loathing far left and you can't tell who says what you say the same thing well I'll tell you what I don't like about Hitler everybody else had to do that salute and he just went like like that I I felt it was very privileging so Superior it was so Superior exactly I think I think it's important to make fun of these kind of you know authoritarian horrible people and this is why I think Mel Brooks's you know work is just so brilliant um was the judge in Trump's hush money Trail right to delay sentencing oh yeah that happened today until November 26 in order to avoid interfering in the election man all those trials and nothing happened nothing it was going to they they indicted him and they wanted to try him on a political schedule they literally if they could have they would have had him in courtrooms from March to October a presidential candidate of the United States and it's just not how the court system works thank God uh uh this this thing shouldn't be sent to now is is absurd they took a misdemeanor that the statute of limitation should have expired on and they bootstrapped it up to 34 felonies and the one and wanted to sentence him to jail for it uh I'm not a huge Trump guy but this this I think is absurd and wrong look I I I the larger issue obviously is January 6th right and and and and the problem is with the immunity to decision history is really clear if you don't hold people accountable when they indulge in political violence then you get more political violence and and I'm I'm really curious about the do you think conservatives end up supporting the Constitutional Amendment to overturn the immunity decision if a Democrat is President I wonder if they will I think this the way these kind of decisions work we saw it with the independent Council statute decision that Supreme Court has in Washington eventually this stuff always comes around and bites the other side so the right now Democrats are so upset the Supreme Court has done this then if KL Harris is elected and some Republican prosecutor somewhere in the middle of red America wants to indict her and prosecute her for some official act the Supreme Court will say no and Democrats are suddenly wait a minute maybe that decision wasn't so outrageous after all is this tendency on both ends of the political Spectrum to you know to score partisan uh you know points at the expense of confidence in our institutions yeah but Trump really does commit crimes let's have to get that little part of it there actual crimes that that that's what we're 60 days out from an election and I think we've normalized this a little bit and it's far too freaking dangerous he he really does commit crimes is one thing and two if if the positions were reversed and a Democrat did this not only the Republicans go after him but they would have done it instead of what the Democrats do talk about feckless General this is feckless you had four years to bring for trials and we get none of them and it's because they were afraid of politicizing look that's the thing is that if if if Democrat did what Donald Trump did you would be opposing them totally and by the way so would I okay so and I think that's the issue I'm so extensively on the record about January completely appalled by but we're we're not so appalled that you don't vote you're not going to vote for Trump no I am a but the difference you're vote for for if January 6th didn't happen you would still oppose Trump you don't like him on policy right where from where no no no no from from where I sit first mostly no but you support Trump's policies I said I said no mostly I think mov you consider voting for absent January 6 no right so well consider yes if he conceded elections he would not be the boogeyman he is he would just not be the villain he is that's the main thing he politicizes the justice department and he does not concede elections these are two very new things now you can carp all want and you can you can what about the about well the the Democrats say that he wasn't a legitimate president that's different than actually trying to stay in office he is completely unprecedented and it's completely disqualified it is to even consider him voting for how anyone can well how we we've got we've got an election lie being used as a litmus test for Party Loyalty and everyone's acting like it's normal it's not it can't be all right what do you think of trump announcing plans for Elon Musk to lead a commission on government efficiency to cut regulations and spending there is a lot in there isn't [Music] there there I mean government is inefficient we I mean I remember when Al Gore was going to reinvent government remember that he was given that task Al Gore you go reinvent government how' that go did did we reinvent we have we have a lot of we have a lot of really dedicated civil servants but in most government agencies you could randomly kidnap people out of them and nobody would knows difference the Secretary of Defense disappeared for like a week no one knew I think this is a good idea though I mean if you look at Elon I he's revolutionized the the the US satellite program right NASA has been remade by injecting kind of this this private sector and entrepreneurial energy into it so I think we could use that across government yeah I mean but to your point I remember I forget who it was maybe it was Bolton somebody like that said years ago if you took out 10 stories from the UN was would we know or would it might even be better it's it's an America hating the Hoover Comm but it is true all that is the ho Comm by the way not that this is a a a pattern we should follow but yesterday I was driving to work and as sometimes happen happens here the light goes out on a major thorough fair and everyone just coped MH like we oh okay you go and then I go and then we just ad lived it and I'm not saying that's how you should run still a amazing resiliency to American Civil Society matter how you know we our dagger dra over politics most people it doesn't matter they treat each other fairly and honorably and as fellow Americans that's still lot of dirt bag too we can't we can't wait for the political class to do it I don't think they're going to do it so I think we all need conv discussions who fires themselves that's the problem but let's start taking action stepping up building guard rails to strengthen American democracy and take it seriously because this is important um I got one what are the panel's predictions for the debate next week I think Trump's going to be an that's my I'm going out on a li well you know foreign policy doesn't decide elections usually but foreign policy is really critical at this moment I believe there is this as you mentioned earlier this axis of aggressors that is supporting each other they're supporting each other in ways that are unprecedented and I believe we these cascading crises from Europe to the Middle East have a very high potential of cascading further into the indopacific before inauguration I think we're entering a period of Maximum Danger we have a president who sadly has diminished cognitive capacity we have ourselves at each other's throats then we're going to have a period maybe after the election I think this Russian report this is a setup for postelection because the Russians what they really want is most of us to doubt the result of the of the election yes so so I think that period between election Ag and inauguration is very but with the next 60 days to your point right I mean part of the goal of Russian disinformation and foreign autocratic disinformation is to divide our democracy to make it dysfunctional and that's why that Division and dysfunction is something we need to confront and and the stakes of the election do determine the trajectory of 21st century it is about autocracy versus democracy at home and abroad yeah okay um but I hope you get asked those questions what will your policy be on around what we were discussing earlier I think Bill though it is key that the whole debate over the the mic's being open or closed and it's obvious why K Harris wanted them open if the the mics had been open in the first debate there's no way Joe Biden ever in this course of rambling answer with lots of pauses would have finally been able to sayl we finally beat Medicare Trump would have inter interrupted him like five times before he got it and saved him and by the way if if if Trump loses to kamla Harris that debate victory for him in June will be the most catastrophic Su success in American politics he won the debate Biden leaves and he gets a much tougher opponent yeah they really screwed themselves he should not have debated Biden that early that dumb because Biden revealed himself would have said let's do it in October and this is the thing all the people now who acknowledge you know Biden Biden's not up to it all those same people on Democrats they'd be insisting right now the way they did the entirety of the year he's great he's hail and Hardy he didn't wander off so would you if it was your guy what's and so would you if it was your guy don't make it sound like maybe but this was like this he's not up for the job I mean can't do it and told us he was speaking as an American historian you know I think this is was one of the most significant coverups in recent American history you know the talk about to to perpetuate we did it to ourselves the appearance that the president was you know was fit you and go inter not unable to be president he's unable to run for president correct he's unable to do a debate he's not a vegetable who can't think or make decisions he just can't do the kind of thing and by the way once all of a sudden it wasn't a Biden Trump rematch all of a sudden the whole election changes because it's about new versus old it's about hope versus fear and that's been energizing needs to connect her to the current Administration which has disasterous approval ratings and say you're this unacceptable status quo not the future but this thematic U debate will have a huge uh role in play who wins November have Democrats succeeded in reclaiming the Patriotic label well they con yes they're convention yeah much better I mean it's interesting if you had called me before the convention that I would hear kamla Harris say the word privilege I would say oh I'm sure and it was going to be about the usual you know white privilege no she said it's a privilege to be an American I mean she said those kind of things that Obama used to say about you only in this country is my story possible and let me tell it was music to my ears because I like America I don't care who knows it it is absolutely essential you know I I've been big on reclaiming the American flag because it belongs to all of us and it can't be a partisan signifier but the smartest thing Democrats have done is take back Freedom right it's about reproductive Freedom it's taking back the word Freedom taking back the flag taking back patriotism and all of a sudden actually she's refusing to take the bait on identity politics and Trump is the one who's focused on it that flipping the script is very healthy be clear though that this really is is a is a group of party that has been pushing identity politics extensively yes the government and so you what they've tried to do is valorize victimhood and I'm afraid of what of this ideology this postmodernist postcolonial Neo Marxist kind of ideology it robs our young people of agency we act against you have to tear it down and so what does that leave young people with a toxic combination of anger and resignation so let's like restore agency and the ironic thing is this is where the whole Sho comes the far right is now resembling the far left in this I'm going to say it's hard to take to here Tim wals given his record in Minnesota which had nothing libertarian about it whatsoever to to portray himself as his great champion of Freedom it reminded me Bill Buckley had this this uh old line that liberals don't care what you do so long as it's mandatory and that's that's how Tim wall that's sorry the guy the guy the guy the guy represented one of the most Republican districts for six terms but once he was governor with a unified legislature behind him all bets were off and it'll be the same thing with KLA she sounds like a a moderate now she's flip-flopped on like 10 things without explanation but if if she gets a unified Congress they it she'll be the new FDR and the new LBJ that all once they're in there they they they convince themselves they have to be transformational president oppos the alternative being Donald Trump is a totally different ball game that's rewarding someone who tried to overturn an election on a lie that led to an attack on our Capital that's the Stark choice so but one of the problems with the patriotism issue I think that we're just to talk about with the Democrats is goes back to what we were talking about in the show with education yeah you see interviews with young people they think like America is very often like the worst country in the world yeah and they think it's the worst time to ever be living in yeah this is just rank ignorance yes they are not again common sense they don't teach the kids basic things in school they don't know that this is the best time to be alive the average person alive today lives like kings did like just a hot shower a 100 years ago was a giant luxury the amount of entertainment we have the amount of caloric intake we have the speed of travel communication porn on the phone right we do need to think about education partly is we're educating students to become active citizens in a self-governing society right Washington says enlightened opinion is necessary to a self-governing society so we need to actually start teaching them all history The Good the Bad and the Ugly but that we're a great you got to acknowledge right it's the far-left that pushed this ahistorical thesis that our country was founded to preserve slavery rather than found it on principles that made that criminal institution unsustainable and so I but don't think we should replace that with you a contrived Happy view of History you instantly had school districts around the country adopting that as part of curriculum it's a lie about we're the first societ what listen I'm not a partisan guy what parties are pushing that agenda this is but that's I think where we get to the Revolt of the reasonable right let's start teaching Ken Burns in school let's start having a sense that we are we are in perfect people trying to form more perfect union but educating folks about the full capacity of our history is a good thing what what Daniel Patrick moan used to say he used to say he said do I apologize for defending a less than perfect democracy I do not find me a better one that's how I feel but he's right it is one side that did that yeah and that's and that's the weakness on the far left I completely agree and what I worry about too we were talking about military Rus military service you know if you teach your young people that your country is not worth defending who's going to defend you right he's going to defend you and I think this is this is related to some of the recruiting just the attacks on the founding fathers who of course were imperfect by the way at this time that they were doing what they did they were not that different than anybody else in the world including including people of color in other parts of the world who had slaves it it's not like we invented it slavery was endemic to The Human Condition all human history what was new was when we began to turn against it the British trade and we our most destructive war in our history to emancipate 1 million of our fellow Americans now then you teach the failure of reconstruction you teach the rise Jim Crow and the separ inequal unequal but then by the way that was all the Democratic party it at the time they were conservative but it it explains a lot right if you understand reconstru we need to study more because the resistance to multiracial democracy is also a defining factor of our country we are a great country I am a very patriotic guy the fullness of American History is what we need because because we're the First Nation founded on idea not a tribal identity we need unifying stories so we need to teach those stories and that's where we've been screwing up right oh uh what are your thoughts on Dick Cheney saying that he'll be voting for comma yeah L Cheney said she would and then she great what do you think come on when you lose Dick Cheney Rich come on come on man politics funny though if someone had told you 20 years ago Dick Cheney would be endorsing the Democratic candidate for president look I I get their uh you know they they can't stand Donald Trump and not being on board with Donald Trump I do not get conservative Republicans supporting comma Harris that does not hold on but let's work through it it's not just about right it's about one person wants to strength the and all the multilateral security Arrangements that have helped keep the peace for the best part for the most part since the second world war the other wants to sell out to a lot of these autocratic countries that's a personal not political decision I I think that's actually consistent also I think it's healthy because who you know I think you get more Republicans endorsing Democrats it makes the point that this election is about something bigger it's about building a broad patriotic Coalition again the US military was Stronger not weaker when when Trump was done with his first term and he was actually he said a lot of dumb things about Putin but he supported Ukraine more than uh Obama did and he was harder on China than any prior president and now that position has become we have someone this is this is big part of the book I mean he actually did he's the first one who provided defensive capabilities to I try to tell you guys but we don't believe until HR says it no but then but then he did he did suspend that assistance to get dirt on the bindes I mean so so you know you said I would say I would say I wouldn't say re said I would say inconsistent erratic versus fecklessness and I do think that when you talk about like you know coddling authoritarian regimes look at what this Administration has done with the Iranians I mean the supreme leader has gotten an easy ride from the B Administration they didn't even want to acknowledge Iran's role in October 7th at the beginning they still have not really reimposed or or or actually uh you know enforced the sanctions uh against the Iranians since October 7th and with them having the whole Middle East on fire so I think it's a more complicated situation is what I'm saying you know you can't you can't just make these hold on HR I love you man but hold on like we've got one guy saying we should we should pull out of NATO right we should not Donald Putin can do whatever the hell he wants basically giving a yellow light to China on Taiwan I mean that you know the the autocratic Alliance you warn about is is is in many cases rooting rooting for Donald Trump because they think it leads to American Division and decline tell me where I'm wrong well what I'm saying is there were some things right there are some things where Donald Trump's right I mean there's some things where he's right there are some things where he's completely erratic and inconsistent uh where where does he right on I think he's been right on energy security for example I think he's been right on reciprocity and trade he's been right on burden sharing but then again with Donald Trump he's so disruptive right he disrupts what needs to be disruptive sometimes but then he goes on to disrupt himself and he becomes kind of the antagonist in his own story so I mean so you got a choice right in this election people have to make the choice between what what I would say are really self-destructive policies at times for the B Administration on the Middle East on the the war in in in Israel but really the war in the region uh but and and kind of the erratic nature of of President Trump but these are the questions these candidates have to be asked what are their positions on these issues on NATO on Ukraine on on the on the on the war in in the Middle East but I I think this you you know more than I do but the the hit on solomani I think was shocking it was wasn't a major war one hit one guy I think everyone with American blood on their hands around the world slept less easily after that hit and it just went to the fact that he had deterrent force people were scared or worried about him in a way they haven't been of Joe Biden look Amica the bipartisan sens American foreign policy we should stand up against tyrants and terrorists right and I do believe that and I do think that that there's we learned a lot in the wake of of of of the Iraq War but the fact is is that right now you're strong on National Security one party part's leader seems to be trying to weaken NATO and the other party has has expanded it and strengthened it a lot of that is try working them to try to get them to spend more but I don't I don't see what the Afghan withdrawal does this compute at all in in your there's no reason Pompeo should have negotiated with the Taliban alone in but it was it was a conditions based thing Biden didn't accept anything else that Trump did except he supposedly forced by Trump to do a withdrawal totally incompetent dishonorable disgrace his presidency has not recovered from it since and our position abroad hasn't require I think you can draw a direct line from that disastrous humiliating withdrawal to the reinvasion of Ukraine in February 2022 I mean I think what's weakness is the per what's what is um you know provocative is the perception of weakness so what I would love to hear from both candidates is there and if I may uh 61 Americans were killed when Trump was an office in Afghanistan 13 under Biden so there's that good luck with the campaign you're running is a Democrat I am commense Democrat thank you good luck at home with us all right