The New Trends Reshaping America’s Voters

- Hey everybody, welcome in, this is Next Up.

I'm Mark Calper, you're host here. The editor-in-chief of the live interactive video platform two way, and you're guide to everything Next Up. Really happy to have you here. Great show, featured guests, Cabot Phillips.

Cabot Phillips is a bright young man. Senior editor at the Daily Wire, he hosts their program Wired in Live. And he and I are gonna talk about Iran, the midterms, and the vacuum created by the loss of Charlie Kirk,

“topic we talk about a lot here, but super important.”

And then Rob O'Neill will be here. He's a former seal team six operator. He's the man who's credited with killing Osama bin Laden. We're gonna chalk talk a little bit on the conflict with Iran and what the president's options there are

looking forward to talking to them both and sharing those conversations. But before that, my reported monologue on the failure of American cities over the last 40 or 50 years. You know how many people in America live in cities

or the metro areas of cities, like more than 75%. We talk a lot about the heartland and about rural areas, and I'm not diminishing those super important places, lovely places, great people.

But three quarters of us, basically, are relying

on urban areas for where we make our living, how we spend our time, or recreation time, educating our kids, everything we do. And our cities, our mess, our cities, our mess. And my view of this is, as an American,

as someone who has a voice on national 10 squares, I'm not interested in complaining about it anymore. I'm interested in solving it.

“I'm interested in making sure that kids, in particular,”

who grew up in cities, but also adults who live there, have the opportunity to have great lives. Okay, and three things are true about our cities. Okay, they are a failure. Governance is a failure in our cities.

Number one. Number two, with few exceptions, Democrats have run our major cities, and with few exceptions, those Democrats have governed those cities, along with their city councils, with liberal policies.

Okay, for decades. And three, Republicans have done a horrible job presenting alternatives to governance and winning elections, again, for mayor, and for city councils, to change things, to make things better.

As much as I hear Republicans complain for decades, about how poorly Democrats do running cities, they haven't really stepped up with few exceptions, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, and New York, for instance, to govern in a different way, to present the alternative,

an alternative that voters, parents, especially, are hungering for. So, again, I'm not interested in complaining. I'm interested in fixing. Spencer Pratt, running from mayor of Los Angeles,

one of our most troubled cities, is getting a lot of attention. A lot of conversation around him, because a lot of his media is great. A lot of his videos and the videos made supporting him,

are fantastic. So, the press talks about it. But he's also getting a lot of attention in Los Angeles, and it's not scientific, the very limited polling data here.

But what I find is, a lot of my liberal friends in Los Angeles are going to support Spencer Pratt,

including many have never voted for a Republican for anything,

because the status quo is ridiculous. The governance of that city is ridiculous, and you've got the special case of the fires, and the governance around the fires, not every city's dealing with that.

But all the other issues about the quality of the schools, the quality of life, the homelessness, the crime. All that is there. The most profound lesson that people are learning so far about Spencer Pratt's campaign to try to win this race

on June 2nd, a couple weeks away is make great videos. That's the lesson people are learning. And that's true. So that here in New York City,

Montgomery made great videos. Making great videos is really important in this age if you're going to win elections or compete. But I think there's a more profound lesson in an every election below the presidential level.

You can learn stuff about the location where it's being taking place in the state, in the city, in the congressional district. But if you look hard enough and you look the right way, you can also learn stuff about America.

“And what I think the important thing to learn”

about what's going on in America right now, the right lesson to learn, the profound lesson to learn, about the attention that Spencer Pratt is getting, is about the hunger in our cities for change. A hunger that is existed for the same decades

of failed liberal governance in our cities, but a hunger that not has been met. And what Spencer Pratt has done is to not sit around and accept failure, is to not say, well, I'm a Republican,

and I've got different ideas about how to fix this city. So I can't win. So I'm not going to run for mayor. But to actually run now, on the pressing issues facing Los Angeles, the same issues facing all our big cities,

or almost all our big cities. And this Spencer Pratt have a lot of specific ideas.

No.

But on school, safety, economics, economic opportunity,

homelessness, he's saying the status quo is not acceptable.

“And that's what Donald Trump did to get elected in 2016.”

And again, in 2024, he said the status quo is not acceptable to you. So if you want to try something different, try me. OK. Now, I've been at Spoken and saying,

I think Spencer Pratt has a pretty good chance to win. In fact, sometimes I've gone further and said, I think he's going to win. Is a tall order to win in a democratic city, any Republican? And the person he's running against amongst others,

being incumbent, Karen Bass, whether you think she's done a good job or not, and many people do not. She's the democratic incumbent in a democratic city. And it's going to be hard to beat her. Donald Trump has not made it easier for Republicans right now,

I think, to win mayoral races. Because when Donald Trump talks about cities, he sees the same problems I do. He seems the same problem a lot of people in our big cities see all the areas of decline and problems.

What's the biggest thing Donald Trump's done? I said in the biggest, the most visible thing Donald Trump's done connected to cities in this term. It's on immigration. It's sending ICE and border protection into big cities,

most prominently, first Los Angeles,

and then manyapolis Saint Paul. That has turned the conflict over what to do about our cities from a discussion of education and economics and homelessness into a discussion of ICE and immigration issues. Not good, not good, because it's taken the conversation away

from where it needs to be. Not that immigration and sanctuary cities, not that that's not an important issue it is. But it's one of many. And it's one where Donald Trump was previously trusted

and the polls make clear, not trusted much anymore. Spencer Pratt is not saying the specifics. But what he's saying is, if you don't like the way Los Angeles is now, try something different. Donald Trump had a line that he used when

he was trying to court black voters in 2016.

“He would say, what the hell do you have to lose?”

You can vote for Hillary Clinton and get more of the same,

or you can try something different. And that's what Spencer Pratt's doing. And the challenge that he has amongst others is what people in politics call permission structure. How do you create a permission structure

for a liberal Democrat, which is most of the voters in this election? How do you present a way for them to say, it's okay to vote for a Republican? It's okay to not vote for Karen Bess. It's okay to cast the ballot in a way that would say,

let's go for change. Amongst the many very clever ads that the Pratt campaign or their supporters have made is one that's geared exactly towards this issue of permission. How do you give them permission in their minds

and in their communities to vote for a Republican? A Republican who up until now is most famous for being on a reality show. And the way you do that is to demonstrate that it's safe to do it.

That's why this ad is so brilliant.

“It's another one of the many ads generated by AI,”

which is a whole other lesson about this campaign. This is a bunch of, I don't know if it's Pilates or yoga, but a bunch of moms who secretly all are going to vote for Spencer Pratt and share it, play S2, please. (sighs)

- All right, class, great job today. - Hey. - That's Pilates. - I have to tell you something. Promise you won't get mad?

I'm voting for Spencer Pratt. - Get mad? I'm voting for Spencer Pratt, too. Did someone mention Spencer Pratt? - No?

- No. - Oh, because I'm actually voting for him. - Oh, so are we. I just don't know if we can say that too loud over here. - Say what?

Spencer Pratt? He's got my vote. Wait, is everyone here voting for Spencer Pratt? (laughs) (laughs)

- The tagline you are not alone is meant to give that permission structure to parents and others in Los Angeles to say, it's okay. You can vote for Spencer Pratt.

Nothing bad's gonna happen and something good might happen. And the greatest indication that something good might happen comes from California's other big city, San Francisco. Such an interesting story in San Francisco.

Any of you've ever been there or read about it? No, then last year it has been disset by many of the same problems under a liberal mayor's or a city attorneys that we see in Philadelphia

in our biggest cities that have the same set of problems.

“People fleeing the cities, tax-based declines,”

crime, homelessness, et cetera. San Francisco in 2025 elected a guy who's a Democrat, but a different kind of Democrat for most of the mayors we see in these big cities, a mayor who was willing to stand up

to the very liberal of people in the council and board of supervisors, Daniel Laurie's his name. And he has from the day he got elected in his campaign, he has said, what Spencer Pratt says, status quo is unacceptable, let's clean up the city.

Here is Daniel Laurie from his inauguration address in 2025, S4. Starting today, we are treating the fentanyl crisis as the emergency that it is. As we speak, as we speak, the San Francisco Police Department

and Sheriff's Department are rapidly shifting resources

and personnel to bring drug dealers to justice and clean up our streets. (audience applauding)

“- So this guy, what has he done since he's been mayor”

for, you know, not that long, months, reduce crime, lowest level in 23 years, address the tenant encampments of homelessness, figured out a way to fast track responses to people on the streets dealing drugs using drugs, figured out how to modernize the permitting process

to cut bureaucracy, to allow businesses to grow and thrive and cleaned up neighborhoods. All these things have helped him. Well, what a voter said about him. You know, it is approval rating,

is you know, Mayor Laurie's approval rating is in San Francisco, amongst registered voters,

recent San Francisco Chronicle Bull,

74%, 70%, there's not a lot in our society today that's got an approval rating like that. And it shows, as there are a few other examples like Giuliani and Bloomberg here in New York, it shows that regardless of party label,

if somebody comes in and responds to the demands

“of people in the city, regardless of ideology,”

that says to a liberal city council, no, we're gonna have to do things differently. That's a big challenge. You can clean up a city. And once you get that going, it feeds on itself.

Lower crime, more businesses move in, bigger tax base, schools get better funded, draws in people who want to live there, stop the population decline. All these things, if you go to a place like Philadelphia, go to a place like Atlanta where the populations have gone

way down to Troy, although Detroit had a bit of a comeback, 'cause they also had a mayor like this, but Detroit over the last few years. What you see is, people react to that, voters react to that, businesses react to that.

I don't want this debate to be wasted. I don't want Spencer Pratt to lose and citizens from Los Angeles and other cities. I don't want them to say, well, that lesson of Spencer Pratt is big, great videos, but that's not good enough

to change the city. Karen Pratt, the incumbent, has done almost nothing to acknowledge the failures of liberal governance. Nothing serious. And now of course, because God has a sense of humor,

there's more fires now in the Los Angeles area. It's about to borrow the old Mike Dukakis like, it's not just about ideology, it's also a bad competence. Mr. Lori is an extraordinarily competent guy, and he takes the marriage of being competent,

and not being ideologically of the left, just saying we're gonna solve the problem. And people say, there's no ideology about filling a pothole, that's true, but they're camping ideology about dealing with homelessness,

dealing with crime, dealing with bureaucratic rate tape, dealing with bad schools. If America is to be great, America must have great cities, and the only way to have great cities

is to try something different. One of the great failings of the Democratic Party, besides the failure of governance in the cities, is the failure of most of the Democratic elected leaders and think tanks to call it out.

And to say, hey, our party's been in charge in these cities for so long. And these cities suck. In this city, now we've got a liberal democratic mayor, and it's anecdotal, but I see more people

sleeping on the streets here in New York than I've seen in years. Okay, so we'll see if the mandami experiment works. But I'd like to see, maybe if the Pratt experiment could work as well.

The Lori experiment seems to be working great. Mayor Dugan and Detroit, that seemed to work great, because they did something different. So, again, the lesson learned, the conversation to have,

to make them gleaming, and to give kids who live there

chance to be safe and educated and prosperous, is let's be open to trying something new. And I'll say again, Republicans have failed. Republicans like to talk about the failure of Democrats to govern the cities.

What a failure? What a failure that Democrats, I mean, Republicans almost to a city, have failed to take advantage of consumer demand. Consumers are demanding better governance in our cities.

What a level of incompetence, horrible incompetence, that the Republican Party and individual Republicans have not figured out how to take advantage of that. You go to a city, and there's one company,

and they're selling hot dogs, and the hot dogs taste horrible.

They cost a lot of money, and they taste horrible. And people who live there love hot dogs, the parents love feeding their kids hot dogs,

“and yet the only thing they can buy in their city”

is horrible expensive hot dogs. You would think, if the Republican Party had any sense, any ability, any focus, they'd say, well, let's figure out how to make great tasting hot dogs that we can sell affordably.

You would think they'd be able to take advantage of that market. This metaphor, ladies and gentlemen, tells you all you need to know, because with few exceptions, for 40 or 50 years, most Republicans haven't figured out how to take over the hot dog market.

That's the discussion we need to have, whether it's Democrats like in San Francisco, or whether it's Republicans. Let's get some people in city councils and in mayoral positions who can actually make our cities

great for kids. And that's the lesson from Spencer Pratt. He's a flawed candidate, but he's getting attention.

“He's got a chance to win, because he's telling people”

we need to do it differently. All right, there you have it. Let me know what you think. I'd love to know what you think about your city or the city you live near if you don't live right in the city.

What is wrong with your city? Why have no conservatives or competent people stepped up to govern? What's standing in the way? Send me an email next up, Halpernetgmail.com.

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And make sure you always know what's coming next up.

All right, we're going to take a quick break. And then when we come back next up, the great Cabot Phillips, the daily wire senior editor in the host of Wired in Life, Cabot Phillips is next up. From focus features in the Proofsters of darkest hour comes the new movie, Pressure, the untold story of D-Day.

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And without a doubt, it must be seen on the big screen. Sure, the untold's true story of D-Day is rated PG-13, maybe an appropriate for children under 13, only in theaters May 29th. All right, everybody, next up and joining me now, Cabot Phillips is the Daily Wire Senior Editor and Host, because everyone on this show hosts something.

Host of wired and live streams on dailywire.com every day, eight, eight, four eastern time. Not every day, Monday through Friday, because Monday through Thursday, because on Friday's

“Cabot, what are you doing at four eastern time on Fridays?”

I am taking my son fishing in the river behind my house, I'm surviving with a two-and-a-half year old and a three-month-old, so I'm just trying to catch my breath as much as possible on Fridays. Is it the two-and-a-half year old you're taking fishing?

That's fantastic. Fantastic.

That you've got a leisurely four-day a week schedule with the show.

That's great. We'll kind of fish her back there. A lot of people in the south, they think they're gorgeous, trash fish that they throw back, but I love catching a big giant car. And what are you using for bait?

Cut bait. So I have a little bait net that my son loves throwing out, we'll catch some minnows and some sunfish, and he gets a little scared when I have to chop them up to make the bait. But it's important to teach our next generation to, you know, sometimes you've got to see some blood, and so we'll chop the fish up and throw them out.

Yeah, you've lived in urban areas, and you've lived in rural, rural, rural areas. Where are you most like a city boy? I'm most like a city boy in that I wear cowboy boots every day that I very rarely actually use to live the cowboy lifestyle, and so I still like all of my city comforts, but that's

the entire city of Nashville is full of people who fancy themselves as ranchers and outdoorsmen

that none of them actually are, because no one is actually from Tennessee, but it's actually from Nashville myself included. So there's still a lot of city boy things I'm trying to shake off living here. Yeah. When you think about American now, do you think about big cities?

I talked to my monologue about problems in big cities. Like Nashville does it have big city problems that need correcting them? It does. Yeah, there's still plenty of crime.

“That's why we moved out if we were in downtown Nashville for four years.”

And we had our cars getting broken into constantly, our house got paintballed one night by some teenagers. There was a shooting that my wife and I witnessed on the sidewalk, we saw a guy bleeding out on the sidewalk, and that was one of the shocking things for us. We could start out.

We'll get to a red state and the crime won't be there, and the city is still the city,

and not as bad as our neighbors to the west and Memphis, or at least not as bad as it used to be, now that they got to Nashville guard their things have cooled down a bit. But Nashville still has plenty of the big city problems. Yeah. I envy you all out there in Nashville, because if you're going to cover America like

you and I do, you're better off doing it from Nashville than from New York. But I work my artist on two way. I talk to people from all over the country. I try to read media that's not just New York and DC base, but you have an advantage of over me.

And again, I envy you that. If I spend a day with you in Nashville and going about your business, shopping, doing stuff with the kids, talking to your neighbors.

“Would you know there's a big conflict going on with Iran?”

Is that a topic of conversation out there? You would know indirectly, because the gas prices are absolutely a conversation. The economy is absolutely a conversation, which in a way is they proxy if they run war. So very few people are in day-to-day conversation and Tennessee bringing up what's going on.

And it's the eye to hold still alive. And as President Trump going to make this ceasefire permanent, but they're absolutely having conversations about the gas and about the affordability situation and about the cost of housing. And I do think that there is an extension in a way where they're viewing that as, oh, that

actually is related to the Iran war, even if that's not the predominant thing that they're talking about a conversation. But we look at the polls. We see a lot of people are disappointed in the President's decision to start this conflict. They're disappointed in how it's going.

They say the economic effects, including gas prices, impact them, is stated in the extreme just for effect.

“How could any maga person say that this was a good idea?”

What's that branch of maga that says, a foreign expensive foreign adventure to halfway around the world is a good idea? What's that strain of maga besides just blind belief and Donald Trump? I think the answer to that is just, it's the results. I think they're waiting to see the results and right now they still in the maga crowd.

I think a lot of them do still have faith in President Trump. You look at Venezuela, for example, before the conflict, the polling showed that the majority of Americans were not in favor of the idea of intervening. Then after the intervention, you start to get the results coming in and they say, hey, maybe President Trump is different, maybe President Trump is not incapable of avoiding

forever wars and he can actually get in and get out. You saw the polling increase after the fact that Venezuela, where they said, maybe that was a good idea. I think with Iran until you actually see the long-term closure and you see the results, I think you're going to have the majority of Americans saying it's a bad idea, because

there's still this hangover from Iraq and Afghanistan, and one of the things I hear from a lot of maga voters is, is trust the process and they're saying, well, we're just going to believe that President Trump knows things about the situation that we maybe don't. And Trump has been really brilliant, I think, in the messaging of panicans, of framing anyone who doesn't trust his way of thinking is, well, you're just panicking and you're not

having enough faith and having you learned by now that I can do things differently than my predecessors. And that works when the results are there, but I do think that there are going to be

a panicking because I don't really see a light at the end of the tunnel here. I'm not a panicking because I don't want to be paying for $55, $6 for a gallon of gas.

“And so I think that the President's team is certainly starting to realize that the messaging”

on Iran of, hey, this is going to make America safer in the long run. And if we can just deal with this for a little bit, it's going to be worth it. That message works when it's a two, three-week conflict, to see initially said it would be. It doesn't work when it starts to drag out.

And obviously Trump's comment last week, if he's not concerning himself with the economic concerns of Americans, you can frame that as, well, these trying to keep leverage with the Iranians. Of course, he's not going to tip his hand to them and say, yeah, I'm really feeling the pressure for a deal, but I think this is the single biggest factor for President Trump's popularity

with the GOP and we're already seeing the impact it's having with independence and young voters. Yeah. The impact is extraordinary and we'll talk about the polling in a second, but just for the war itself, how do you say, all the time, well, I should hope for the best we should

hope that the United States succeeds, freeze the people from Iran, stops the nuclear threat, stops there being the greatest sponsor of terrorism in the world. So we also have to not be afraid of dealing with the reality that it may not work out. So right now, within the realm of the plausible, the possible, what's the worst case scenario

“that you think is possible that really worries you about this?”

Oh, boots on the ground, undoubtedly, you know, I feel, they'll never, he'll never do it.

I can take, I can delay your worries, he'll never, yeah. Well, I think the, we saw how close we got to that because we did technically have boots on the ground when it came to the rescue of those pilots, which praise God that we were able to get them out. But there already were people that were put on the ground and I don't think it's completely

out of the realm of possibility that we see some sort of movement on Cargailin or at least we know that the Pentagon has those plans together. And I think President Trump is rightfully worried about the consequences of that. But okay, let's take, let's take, let's take both on the ground off the table. Worst case scenario is there's no any, no concessions that are being offered from the Iranians.

Just continues to drag on. We know President Trump likes to have a clear point that he can make and say, hey, this is what I got out of this entire conflict. And I don't think there's a clear example of what that looks like right now. We know that he wants to get a deal, so he can say, yeah, I forced him to come to the table.

They're not going to get nukes anytime soon. But without a deal like that, it almost forces his hand, where he has to go back in and has to kickstart the, the military strikes again. And I think that's a very real possibility. And I would say short-term worst case scenario is that this thing is not wrapped up by the midterms.

And with every day that goes by, that does seem more possible. Yeah. When cabinet Philips reads a poll that shows what every public and private poll shows and you alluded to it earlier, loss of support of the president over the start of his presidency and from the campaign with young people, young men, independence, Hispanic voters.

When you read those polls, what do you say to yourself? I'm an internal optimist, and so initially I tell myself, well, these polls are clearly skewed. You can't trust these polls. Look at them.

“As a conservative, that's what I tell myself.”

But the realistic side of me says, okay, this is natural. The party in power, we know it's a, it's a cliche for a reason.

The party in power is never going to be as popular to longer their in power.

And I tell myself that, but the more I look at this, the more concerned I am, because I do think that this is a real trend, and what gets even more concerning is when you, up until April, if you looked at those polls, there wasn't a clear sign in the polling that people were leaving their supportive president Trump and then embracing Democrats on generic ballots.

Start of April, that's started to shift, where you do now see folks who are saying, hey, I'm not really sure what President Trump is up to these days, and the Democrats are looking more appealing. They are starting to gain ground on generic ballots. That is the most concerning element for me, and I think for a while, a lot of Republicans

said, I told ourselves, hey, the good news for us is that Democrats are still deeply unpopular. And yes, they have plenty of problems, and if you actually hone in on a specific candidate, especially some of their senatorial candidates, yeah, they've got some problems. But there does seem to be traction right now for voters in the middle who are starting to shift to the Democrat party.

And that's especially noticeable for young voters, but I always like reminding people that even

like in like generations, for example, they're not a monolith, and if you look at some of this polling data, there's a fascinating breakdown between 18 to 22 year old, sort of the younger Gen Z, and then 22 to 29, where the younger Gen Zers, they're not breaking for Democrats, even if they are abandoning their supportive president Trump and higher rates. The 22 to 29 year olds, they are leaving president Trump and going over to the Democrat

party, the latest poll from Yale, they have 14 point shift towards Democrats. And so I think that's another thing that I've been tracking very closely is what the young

Yeah.

Speaking to that, you and I, not spoken ever about Charlie Kirk, but I know just from knowing

about you that we share a lot of thoughts about him, and one is, he's not really been replaced because he's not replaceable, that he was a singular talent, but also played a singular place in the world in his relationships with others from the president to grassroots. And his capacity to engage in politics and running organization, but also think about the future and particularly this issue of young men, and how to give young men a combination

of spiritual hope and economic hope. And his absence, I just, I worry about it every day because that's not going to, they know sign that that's going to be replaced. And it has implications for the Republican party and the MAGA movement, but it's also as a implication for millions of young men.

So where can that come from?

“Where can what Charlie talked about to give people hope to be able to buy a home, for instance?”

Where can who, who are where can that come from now? Yeah.

You bring up a great point.

That is, I think the biggest vacuum that's been left by Charlie has not just been the impact that the attorney point had on the ground and the impact he had when it came to motivating people. It was also his ability to build coalitions. I think he did a fantastic job of holding together all of these different factions within

the GOP. And he really was sort of the conduit between a lot of different groups that otherwise would be at war as we're seeing right now on the right. There is this huge war that's taking place between these different factions. And I can't help but wonder how much of that is because Charlie is not here to sort of

hold those different groups. Almost, almost. Get all of it. Almost all of it. Yeah.

“I think it's impossible to overstate the impact that his murder has had on that.”

That's for who is filling the void. Obviously, you have groups like ours at the daily wire where we're looking at our audience and saying, hey, we want to re-season people and give them a hopeful vision and ensure that they're not falling victim to this black pill mindset of hell. What's the point?

Nothing matters anymore. But it's going to have to be people that are giving people not just the aspirational side because I've been to a hundred plus college campuses in the last three years. I talked to literally thousands of college students, many of them young men. And I think they get a little frustrated at being told the bootstrapped story of, hey,

well, my generation, we just figured it out, there's this bootstrapped mentality and there's still just as much opportunity in America today as there's ever been. And I do think that frustrates a lot of young people, young men in particular. And they're saying, hey, we're dealing with unique problems that you guys were not dealing with.

They're looking at the job market. They're looking at AI. That's one of the most common things I hear from young people. I say, we're really scared about being able to get jobs because of AI.

“You look at the cost of living and how much more money you have to make today to afford”

buying a house. And many of them are saying it's just not going to happen for me. And you look at the cost of student loans and just being able to get a degree in the first place. And there is this hopelessness.

And I don't think the solution to reaching those young men is saying, when, when, when, I cry some more every generation has had it hard, because I don't think that's frankly fair because they are up against a unique set of circumstances right now in this generation.

And I think the solution is to say, yeah, there are some real problems you guys are facing

that past generations even mine as a millennial that I didn't have to put up with. I would rather not cuddle them, but say, hey, there are real issues you guys are dealing with. Let's talk about those. Let's talk about how conservative ideas are the ones that are the best to change those.

But I think that there are a lot of people on the right. It's kind of this old guard mentality of just saying, suck it up, just work harder, deal with it. And I don't think that is going to be the message to the resonates with them, because I hear that from them directly, they are tired of that, they are put off by that.

I'm a little bit between the two poles there, and I'm sure you would be too. I mean, they, they, they shouldn't coddle them, but you also shouldn't be indifferent to the reality of, of how they're experiencing the change circumstances. But I'd lean a little bit, I'd be a little bit more lean a little bit more into this notion that, you know, it's not going to be easy, but one easy for previous generations

for different reasons, but I do worry about them. And this is, again, one of the geniuses at Charlie Kirk is he, he challenged them. He didn't, he didn't coddle them, he challenged them. Even as he expressed intellectual and emotional sympathy for how they were feeling, they've got to be challenged.

It's not going to be easy. AI alone, AI alone, and, and the long-term trend towards the challenges of, of, of, of the 40 homes and, and school, they're going to have to work for it. It's not going to be handed to them. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think that's also, that, that sentiment that they're feeling is also, I think, why you are seeing the rise of this nihilistic, you know, called deep, also anti-Semitic, you know, the Nick Fuente style, you know, message that's resonating with them.

And they're feeling like, hey, everyone's just telling me, I suck. I grew up in the George Floyd era where I was told, and I was bad for being, you know, a white person, or I grew up in the Me Too era where I was told I was being, I was terrible person just for being a man, and they're looking at the environment they're

“coming into and saying, does anyone actually care about me?”

And they're also looking, I think, for many of them, for an excuse for why they feel like they haven't been more successful. And I think that is one reason why you see this enormous rise in anti-Semitic, you know, mentalities among that group is because it's very comforting for them to be told by a figure on the right, hey, it's not your fault that you're not succeeding.

It's actually people who are controlling our entire economy and people who are controlling our government. You see that control everywhere you look, and I think it's comforting for them to be told, oh, it's, it's actually the Jews, it's actually Israel, it's actually these elites that, you know, that President Trump is embroiled in with the Epstein scandal.

And it kind of takes away that ownership from them and makes them feel relieved. And I think that it's another reason why that message has worked with a lot of them, and

it's something that we have to constantly fight against because we know where that ultimately

leads. Leaving aside your colleagues at the Daily Wire, many of whom legitimately would be candidates to be, to be the right answer, but leaving them aside, who's someone who you think has got a platform now, elected official, podcaster, activist, whoever, who you think speaks

“persuasively and courageously to young men on these issues?”

From elected standpoint, JD Vance is the one that sticks out the most, and I think that it's refreshing for a lot of young people because every single young person that I meet on these college campuses, I like to ask them as a sort of icebreaker, hey, you get to snap your figures tomorrow, who do you want to be president? JD Vance is probably top one or two candidates that I hear if people say I love JD Vance.

And one of the things they like, they say, he doesn't seem so dogmatic. He seems realistic. He seems like someone who is talking a lot about the stuff I care about, and he's talking to them about the affordability crisis. He's talking a lot about their desire to become parents.

He's talking about the virtues of marriage, and he's saying, hey, I'm not going to be so dogmatic on some of the old school, you know, Reagan style, like, free market adherence that where I'm not going to say the government has no role in supporting the formation

of family, and that the role of the government, ultimately, should be to create human flourishing

and to create families and make it affordable for them.

“And I think he does a great job of empathizing them without coddling them, and I think”

that he absolutely, as a young father, himself, has a special way of relating with young people, young men in particular, so he would be the one that's six out the most. Yeah. What a puzzle device president is, because what you just enunciated beautifully, I hear from so many people who know him well, and I think it's a perfectly, to say at

least, reasonable way of describing how the device president relates to people. But as you know, there are people in media, Democrats, but in Republican circles who have a totally different view of them, a phony, you know, incidents here, you know, all of the things that go along with that, and I just find it such a puzzle. And I know that's not unprecedented for people in public life, but it really strikes me,

because we're all looking at the same data, we're looking at the same guy or the same public events. And yet, every time he's on stage, I hear just extremely favorable, and again, what you said was lovely, and I think accurate for the minds of tens of millions, including a lot of young people.

And then I hear people say, Marco Mentum is about to steam roll the device president in 28, it's over, you know, what a horrible phony is, is he am I am I overstating the degree to which he has this incredibly polarized view, or is that true of everybody in public life, the sun. I think it's, I think to some extent, it's true of everyone, and we'll see how much that

sentiment lasts with JD Vance, if he is the front runner, because again, I think a lot of young people, there's sort of this, this, this, this leading, you know, understanding of him, and they've seen a few clips of him here or there, but I don't think there's like a total widespread knowledge of his background, and I think if more of them start to learn about, hey, he seems to have really changed senses, like National Review 2016, 2017, 18 days,

and that could absolutely be something that shifts on him. It's funny, you mentioned Rubio, I worked on the Rubio 2016 presidential campaign, and I remember the week where we coined that term, Marco Mentum. We were all, we were saying, to as many people as we could, hey, use the term Marco Mentum, that's going to be the new thing, so it blames my heart ten years later and see

that phrase still being thrown around there. Just to be clear, I use it ironically, but I take your point. Yeah. Cabot, we'd have you on the show twice a week, if you're available, I know you got your own show and other stuff, you got to go fishing with your kid, but let's see if we

can free you up to be on here.

We're only on twice a week, so you'd basically be my co-host.

I'm happy to do that, and then you can join me on my program as well, because can we

And then we can tell people the relationship between wired and live, and next up is

“the special bilateral relationship in all of programs.”

Cabot, grateful to you. Thank you for being on. Thank you, Mark. Really appreciate it. See you next time on my national.

Cabot's programs on, as we said, it's called wired and live Monday through Thursday for Fridays for Fishing for Eastern Time on the Daily Wire website. Thank you, man. Great to see you. Absolutely.

Alright, next up, we look at a new match, a new interview being counted by Candice Owens,

the identity of the person sitting down with Candice Owens, will surprise you.

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Get to getacregold.com/mark and subscribe today. Alright, next up, something surprising takes a lot to surprise me, but this did out of the blue on Monday. Candace Owens dropped a trailer for an interview she plans to air earlier or later this week.

It's her sit down with an unexpected individual, Hunter Biden. This is a spectacle, it's certainly a lot of action on X and elsewhere, people laughing about it wondering what's up, and as you'll see in a moment when I show you the trailer, there's a certain camaraderie between these two, and they certainly not necessarily from the same team, or are they?

“I think beneath the spectacle, there's something going on important here.”

On the conspiratorial left, and on the conspiratorial right, there's common cause, distrust for elites, anger at the status quo, and a desire to shape public image in the case of both Candace Owens and Hunter Biden by teaming up and railing against the stuff that don't like. So I want you to watch this, everyone I've showed it to so far over the last day, see

a lot of mouths wide open, gaping mouths, and wonder what is this all about? Here is the preview of the upcoming sit down, the tent at that between Candace Owens and Hunter Biden. So, the FBI has had physical possession, Hunter Biden's laptop, which reportedly contains, well, a lot of disturbing material.

You have access to that actual f***ed laptop. Uh, jury found Hunter Biden guilty of three felony gun charges. I said I'd buy by the jury decision, and I would do that, and I'm not part of him. Oopsies, he lied, he parked in a crack at. Hunter Biden, welcome to the Candace Owens show.

I heard you call me a crack at many times, and the truth of the matter is, I was a crack at. The quote-unquote laptop, which, by the way, you know what the laptop proved, but you were a crack at. There you go, my marriage fell apart, and it just started a really, really dark cycle.

My brother called me and said, this has got to stop, and it forced me into a choice.

“And the choice was, do I get out of bed and live or do I die?”

D.C. has dropped, politics has dropped, but something changed in this. It's not left to right, the D.C. elite of the, of the left.

They crushed my dad because he was never part of that club.

He was never part of the Epstein class. You know, one thing he didn't do, he didn't green light to turn Gaza into a Trump golf course with the Major D being Jared Kushner. War in a ran that they started. That every president before him was pressured for by the Israelis.

I do think there was something about the Charlie Kirkus assassination that everyone just sort of looked up. The people that Charlie Kirk made, the level of disloyalty, or fear, I don't know what it is. And the criticism of you for asking the questions for someone who was like a brother to you, it's like, what the f-re you talking about, I listen to you and I go, right on.

The acts of John, there is a thing that Chris has, you must learn to suffer as I do.

And that is the greatest lesson of everything. More than one person in my life has called this a match made in hell. And truly, it's easy to mock and it's easy to even in the brief clip there. It's easy to listen to Hunter Biden and Candice Owens.

“And wonder, you know, what this is about, why did she do it, particularly why did he do it?”

What's in it for Hunter Biden?

And the reality is Hunter Biden wants to reshape how people see him, how people see his family.

And for whatever reason and the proof will be in the interview, he thinks Candice Owens is a platform is a vehicle to get people to think a new. And they both have extraordinarily similar views, even though their politics aren't the same about the status quo, about elites, about power, about conspiracy. It's important that everybody listens to this, not as spectacle, but to understand what

I continue to believe is one of the most important and dangerous dynamics going on on our national town square now, which is the belief that if something's not right, if you something you don't like about what's going on in America, it's because powerful interests are trying to screw you. And there's a lot of that in reality, but it is not the explanation for everything.

It is not the explanation, for instance, for why Joe Biden didn't win the election. And what we need to do, those of us who don't instantly go to conspiracy theories about everything, is try to understand why so many of our fellow country women in country men, that's what they do. If you don't like the status quo, if you don't like something, it's because paraplegents

are trying to screw you and it's amazing to see common cause, not just to send down to the

interview, but apparently expressing a lot of similar views between these two folks. So watch it, enjoy the spectacle, enjoy the just the free show nature of it, but also

“let's use it as an opportunity to again do something that I think is so important if we”

want our kids and grandkids to have a better future in this country, which is to understand that you cannot cry conspiracy theory, you cannot blame elites for everything you don't like about America, they have their share of responsibility, and I'm not minimizing it. And I know from economics to culture to politics, elites have a lot to answer for, but they don't exist, but their behavior doesn't explain everything.

And I think you're going to see with this interview that their common cause may be a common problem. All right, there you have it, and we'll talk more about this interview once it drops. Next up here, Rob O'Neill, a former seal team, six operator, a man with a great podcast and a great story to tell about Osama bin Laden, Rob O'Neill is next up.

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Again, bank on yourself.com/mark, give it a try, go to bank on yourself.com/mark. Our next step in joining me now, Rob O'Neill, a former SEAL Team 6 operator, the main credit with actually killing Osama bin Laden, of course, like everyone else in America. He's got a podcast, but Rob's is worth listening to. It's the operator podcast comes at every Wednesday on all your favorite streaming platforms

Rob. Welcome to next up. Thanks for having me, Mark. I appreciate it. Thanks for the plug.

Yeah, sure. That's a great time. Yes, sir. What are your aspirations for it? What do you hope it achieves?

Just, I like to share opinions with people who do stuff. I call it the operator because I used to be a special operator, but that term goes with anyone who does anything that helps other people and the ones I key on are like the any mom, a mom that raises kids an operator and anyone that does any kind of work.

and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

“So, the platform is just that, here's what I think, what do you think?”

And then sometimes I'm able to have fun, yes, I interview a lot of special operators. Just a bunch of printers. Stuff like that. Yeah. Awesome.

Well, grateful to you for being here. As we sit in here, talk today. There's a little bit of uncertainty about what's going to happen in Iran. So, I want to ask you some things that are applicable whether or not there's conflict or a kinetic activity or not.

First of all, as someone who's served in the armed forces, as you watch the coverage of the

conflict, what is the media tend to get wrong because most people in the media haven't served? Well, they seem to get a lot of things wrong, because right now they are saying they're up to negotiations in Pakistan as mediating without considering their entire military's wiped out.

And Iran doesn't even know who's who anymore. And if someone thinks they're negotiating their debt, their navies on the bottom of the ocean. So, what the media is doing is they're trying to pretend that this is a big catastrophe. When we're just beating someone up right now, and it's just a matter of how long we can

they can take it, it's like their will is for the media to make our populace obsess. That's about it. Like Baghdad Bob tried it, it will be over random and all three, and we're doing it now,

“just so I mean, the issue is you need to verify everything even with video you can't tell”

what you're real.

So people believe what they want and believe.

And right now, a lot of people out there hate Donald Trump so much, they want anything but a victory for him anywhere. So they're going to believe that they're real negotiations when this is just a beat down until we get every single dotted eye and cross to you that we want. So if the president decides to bring kinetic action back and the ceasefire and start to hit

high value targets both human and military and energy infrastructure, how can the Pentagon evaluate in advance? The capacity Iran has to strike back the salination plants, energy, maybe under underwater cables for communications, how can the Pentagon make that evaluation? Well, that's hard to say, and that's again up to the people in the intelligence arena.

And they've been really good with their intelligence as far as I know. I mean, one thing they're excellent at is not really telling anyone what they're doing and they don't, they don't telegraph anything. So it's hard to say, I mean, Iran all they can do is put out false narratives and then destroy their own stuff, like try to, you know, mess with the streets of Hormuz or their own infrastructure,

whatever they don't, they don't have any capabilities really. This is precisely why they want to get the potential for nuclear weapons away from them,

just because you never know what they're going to do.

I mean, the people in the high-end religious minority who happen to be in charge of crazy people and they really believe that the moms are already on Earth, they're going to bring them back by world destruction, so you can't, you can't let them have a nooth. And I'm not here arguing for war.

“I'm just saying what I think is happening.”

I've also been on the, you know, I've seen two weeks away from weapons of mass destruction for basically my entire career in the military and I find a lot of wars and kill a lot of people because of stuff like that. So I'm not saying, here's what should happen or what what I, you know, this is what I think is going on.

And I'm not saying it's, I mean, well, the summer will tell when gas prices go down if it's good or not, and that's basically how people judge anything. Right. But do you say there's a low or no probability that if the United States struck again, Israel's struck again, Iran could do damage to disalination plans, the Ritz Carl Lindow,

how you're saying, they absolutely can't, or they can't do it, and all depends on who's, has which stockpiles of what weapons, because there's going to be a rag tag. There's, there's no infrastructure as far as their chain of command, regardless of, I mean, and again, it's, it's, even my sources are, or I don't know what the percentage of being correct is, but as far as on the ground, it's going to be either our intelligence

or intelligence with whom we agree. So it's hard to get a straight answer, but what I can tell from experience and in that part of the world, especially with overblown militaries and opposing defenses, they're not as good as you think they are, and then once you start destroying, there's nothing, but for some reason, they're acting like there's a red carpet, a white tablecloth, where

people are negotiating, they're, they're getting, they're getting beat down. They so control the straight though, and they still haven't turned over their nuclear material. Those seem to be the two things that have to occur. So as, as much as their beaten down, they still have the capacity to hold out, at least for a while, it seems.

Now, well, I mean again, probably, if you had to go in and get something, that's when you get into the whole mission creep and everything, and we saw this stuff with the aviators that we had to go get to. There were, I mean, have you, have, do you know if they've released the names of those guys yet?

I don't think they ever did. Now, that's a big, big package of the flying to Iran to get to aviators. Don't you think? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

“I mean, this is something that, you know, undercovered both for the Israelis, you know,”

it states and people talk about whether they're, quote unquote, boots on the ground. They're been Americans and Israelis on the ground from the beginning. You haven't, they're been. Oh, of course. Yeah.

I mean, I think we have, I don't get it. I'm not there.

So as we talk right now, Mark, this is basically my information in forms, in form speculation.

Yeah. I'd say that too. I mean, yeah, we, we have abilities to go into places with boots on the ground again, nuclear material. That's, that's, we haven't forgotten about that too, just because we don't talk about stuff

as it means. Yeah. So what's the mission for Americans who are on the ground secretly and Iran now? What, what kinds of things? Oh, that, I don't know.

I mean, I, I, I, I, I've been out of the game for a while. I'm assume it's a, it's a long game, like a chess match where they've had boots on the ground for a long, long time and they're working on some sort of what I would call a soft who even though it's not soft anymore because we've been bombing them for about a year.

“But just to get, because you need to get the right people in power and that doesn't necessarily”

mean the right people for us, but the right people in the region. We, we made this, this mistake time and time again. We did an Iraq where we thought they're, you know, we just got rid of the bath party when we should have kept him in place because there's an infrastructure. And now you kind of want to do the same thing, but you want to get the crazies out, because

you're any people want to, you know, they want to live the life like they had it in 19, like the first half in 1979 and before. So right now the boots on the ground should be with the infrastructure and, and, you know, I don't know how many times we need to prove with boots on the ground, we can go in an attempt to build schools for 10 times the price for people who don't want them, but you need to

people and then, so I hopefully they're working that infrastructure. One of the challenges of this for now is either opening this trade entirely, opening it partially. And, and the president says the Navy's destroyed, he says the Air Force is destroyed. He says a lot of the small craft are destroyed, but then we hear that a lot of capability

on the Iran side still exists along the coast. And again, it's a very narrow waterway. So if you control the coast, you can, you can keep ships from passing through. Well, they don't control, they don't control the coast. That's ridiculous. Well, they haven't had their assets on the coast now.

Yeah, but just because we've decided not to destroy everyone yet.

“Okay. So that's my question. Why not? Why not just destroy everything they have on the coast?”

It's almost like it's, it's a, it's a big jungle cat playing with a mouse right now. I, I don't know, I have the answers either. I mean, we, there's probably ways to get it over land. You don't even, you can bypass the streets of almost, we just haven't decided to do it yet, or we can take the streets of Ramus and we can just sell our new oil to Europe if we wanted to, right? We just haven't yet. And I don't know.

These are questions that I'll have to ask the Secretary of War. I mean, we could, because they're using the military the way we should. You can beat someone up and you don't need to put boots on the ground. You can negotiate that way, because I think even if on Clashwood said that, it's, it's still a political means just at the end. And that's the way they're doing it, we don't need to commit. We don't need to pretend we're nice

and we're not pretending we're nice. We're going to beat these guys up until they leave. And this is the first time I've seen this forum policy. And I'll be honest, I kind of like it. What's the longest you are ever deployed someplace we had to sit around and wait for orders? I, well, I think that's forever. Even when I started deploying before 9/11, we would, we would go even into Europe. You know, we, I remember one of the first things

I ever did was protecting an award ceremony in Albania. And that's in 1998. And they even mentioned the name Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda at the time. I was fresh at a sniper school

like three months and I was in Albania. So you never, I mean, even when you're there

for contingencies, anything could happen, Bosnia, Kosovo, there's stuff in Liberia. We've swam into there to try to get people out of the embassy. So you're always on call for something like that. And it could happen. Not at the level of CO team six, CO team six right now is ready for anything to pull up. And they'll have guys there at a certain amount of time. Right. I'm thinking of the folks who are deployed now on ships, for instance, who

have been there for a while, since the ceasefire went into effect. Just what's the psychology of that? How did they stay ready? How did they stay engaged with whatever mission? They might get, if they get another one. I would imagine for the sailors on the ships, its business is usual because even during peacetime, they're running fly-dops and they're doing everything into different contingencies. And for the Marines, they're doing the same stuff, too, because

they'll be on the big amphibious landing ships, which are just big, like even when you see in the movie Top Guns, a top gun, like running up and down the hallways and stuff like that and areas for soldiers and Marines and seals and stuff like that. And they can work on their gear. They can work on their craft. There's classrooms, there's all kinds of stuff. We even have gyms, which can be entertaining during high seas, but their mission

prep has always been that when they're there now, they're forward to play. They're ready

for what any time. And it really doesn't matter which environment they can do it and Iran, they can go into the mountains of Afghanistan if we need to go fight over in the islands they can do it. Is it hard psychologically to just be sitting there not really being right, knowing what's coming or that's built into the job? I don't think it is for them and it wasn't really for us. Whenever there's a chance, I mean, you're kind of just chomping

at the bit and waiting to see what happens. They have better technology on all these ships now, so they're able to stay on the internet, so they can sort of see what's happening.

waiting and I mean, every Marine out there's ready to fight, whatever, they don't even need

a reason. Yeah. America has extraordinary capability for special ops, obviously. The is really seem to also, what do you know about what the Israelis are good at regarding stuff on the ground? They seem to have been able to over the years and in this conflict assassinated, eliminated a lot of Iranian officials. What's the, what's the, what's, what do they do well to to be able to have that capability? I mean, it seems they're human intelligence

is the best on the planet. They, they can get people anywhere. It seems like they have massade agents born in other places and they're raised there to get to a certain level of certain agencies. They're, as far as intel, they're the most oppressive that I've ever seen. I mean, I don't even know, I wasn't an intel. I was at the end of the spear where the package comes together. They kind of delivered us. I was a guy that would pay attention

to go through, go to that, you know, through that alley to that house. That's where the bad guys are, but they're really good at the intel. We've seen it with, I mean, considering where Israel lives and they're surrounded by enemies, they've got to have human intelligence and signal intelligence everywhere. Again, not my forte, but they seem to be really, really really good at that. And then the idea for whom I've worked, the Special Forces, just sharp

dudes that get it, I always, I always say that one thing Special Forces have in common is

a great sense of humor. And that's true with the Israeli Special Forces. What I would say about them is just they're a touch more serious. It seems like they're, they're in it more than, well, I mean, historically, obviously, everyone's fighting now, but it seems like closer to home, they're fighting it. Yeah. I want to ask you about something that gets reported all the time, disputed by the administration at times, which is the, the drawdown of

munitions in this conflict. Clearly, there's been some, how, how can a citizen know what

“the truth is on that? When a lot of press reports, a lot of accusations from Democrats,”

some are Republicans that this is dangerous drawdown, and others say it's not. Well, I mean, getting any reports, you need to, you need to verify everything. Everyone's got their own interest in mine and even reports that come out to say there's something, even videos that

come out to say, here's what I was doing this, it could be someone doing counterintelligence.

So I cannot overemphasize the verification of everything that you can possibly get. And if you can find any kind of freelance people on social media that are on the ground, that are, again, the verification and multiple different platforms. It's hard to get the truth anywhere, because even, look at the algorithms, look at the bots, we even catch ourselves arguing with that aren't real people, just based on the history they talked to us. So it's

tough when I, I mean, I like to, I like to get outside and talk to people. I'm forced into travel a lot, so I kind of get the pulse out of it, but just, you know, just, even with AI lying to you on purpose, try to find different sources. Yeah. And on this particular question, where do you come down? Do you think the drawdown of the initial supplies is, but it puts the United States in a precarious position regarding Asia, or just even in

Iran itself? It all depends on his plan in the cards, because I've been a drawdown for everyone that'd be fine in a vacuum, that'd be great. If it gets people to the table and get them to sign what we want, that's, that's fine. I don't think a drawdown ever happens.

“I think it's just like a government program, you start giving them to them, they're never”

going to relinquish them. But do you think United States is in a precarious position now or not? No, I think United States is after we'll want to be, I think United States has deterrence and the flexibility behind it. Yeah. Lots of back and forth in the context of Iran, but also overall between the US and Europe about the role of NATO, the contributions to NATO. If you could just start from scratch and design NATO, what would it look like? That's

the tough one right now, because it would almost be, I would step out of it, and I would let them handle the invasion they've already given themselves. If I was in charge, I would back off and say there you go, actions have consequences. Do you deal internally, and then I would look for different, obviously, we have interests in the Europeans, but they've really been taking advantage of us for a long, long time, and with their politically

correctness and being overrun right now, I'd let them deal with that. I'd be more concerned with with continents to produce, so especially place like Venezuela and places in Africa. That would be because it's a western hemisphere versus the eastern. The end game is preventing China from winning the A. I worry if that's where we're at, that involves many Taiwan. So we're more interested in the Iranian oil and the Venezuelan oil and climate change

“in Europe. What would you do with the American forces that are currently in Europe?”

I would draw down there. Yeah, that. When I wasn't sure if we're talking Middle Eastern or NATO, I would definitely draw them down now. Completely. Not completely, but that's a lot of bases over there. Yeah. What's the purpose of having anybody there in Britain

I mean, I'm assuming it's for the, you know, for forward defense as far as nuclear defense

against Russia. That's probably the point there. I'm not sure. I mean, again, other people making these decisions. Yeah. Lastly, you know, the presence asking for a big defense buildup. And obviously, AI is scrambling everything drones, scrambling everything. What are the, what are the sort of fundamentals? Do you think of the future of warfare as it pertains to, depending on what, what are the things that will matter most in the next five, ten years for defending

“the United States? Cyber warfare, I think is probably the biggest one just based on the way AI”

is rewriting code the way the general artificial intelligence is getting here faster than we anticipated.

Even when you have AI check on AI, I recognize each other and helps fool you. So I think a cyber war, I'm not projecting terminator, but that's, it is, it is crazy that every day we think closer to that. The AI, and then as far as human on view, and I think it's going to be the drone warfare, which on, unfortunately, AI comes with that too. Even, even looking at lines in TSA right now when you're getting on an airport, that's just for you to look

at because if anyone must take an aircraft down, it's going to be even the drone. Even

“trench warfare's gotten different. It's not even as vast as World War One, because you can't”

be the house to drones attack you. So it's definitely changing. I'm to a point now where I'm glad we only had the drones we had when I fought and they were big ones that were flown by the Air Force, not once you can buy anywhere now. So yeah, electronic warfare, robots, drones, all that fun stuff. I'm not trying to sound very more, but I'm actually enjoying talking with you. Yeah, who's the best Pentagon Secretary of your lifetime in

why? Pete Hecksett, because, and that's not just because he's a friend. He's a friend of mine. I was saying for years before he was even picks that we really need a mid-level officer with combat experience that played a college sport, because he had been in combat with troops that are there right now, and a college sport means he worked as butt off to get to where he is, and he understands not he being Pete, but the person understands how hard

work will pay off, and when you're with a team, it doesn't matter who gets credit as long as we win. And Pete did fill all those. And I, you know, I worked with Pete at Fox News.

“I didn't even realize I was talking about him at the time, but I think Pete's doing a”

bang-up job. Any time, a sec war will show up Pete with the troops, and he just knocked out three, 15 on the bench press right there. The way he looks, the way he sounds, he doesn't back down, and he's, you know, he's articulate, he's got Ivy League, so that not that it matters to him, but I think that's a good check in the, a good box check right there, too. So I think Pete right now is knocking out of the park as far as the, especially since the

fluid environment we're in with this fifth, sixth generation warfare that we're on, you're generous to include the Ivy League as county is college sports. So thank you for that. You know what, and I would have pressed me about Pete there too, was how they said he was known for busting his ass just to make the travel team. That says something. That's really cool. Yeah. Rob O'Neill, former seal team six operator and the host of his great

podcast, the operator drops every Wednesday. Rob grateful to you for coming to the next time. All right, that's it for today's show. We'll be back on Thursday with a brand new episode. Subscribe now to next up everywhere you get your podcast and on YouTube. So

you always know what's coming next up.