Morning Joe - Sen. Paul Tears Into Sen. Mullin at Confirmation Hearing

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

Sen. Paul Tears Into Sen. Mullin at Confirmation Hearing To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You said, and I quote, sometimes people just need to be punched in the face. Is that still your opinion that political disputes can sometimes and often only be resolved by violence? No, I don't always agree with that. I don't believe in political violence. I've made that very clear. But sometimes people do need, theoretically speaking, sir, I get it. It's about character assassination for you. That's the way this game is played. I understand it. And you are making this about you, which is fine.

but that doesn't keep me as sick. It's character assassination when you were the one lauding the assault? Who do you think started that character assassination? An extraordinary moment yesterday for the confirmation hearing for Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, President Trump's new pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security. We'll have more exchanges for you later in the show. And we'll look at whether Mullen has enough support to get the job. Also on Capitol Hill yesterday, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of National Intelligence,

who was grilled about the war in Iran, some of the president's claims, and what she was actually doing in Fulton County, Georgia, during a raid of an elections office. We'll show you what she had to say. Plus, we'll dig into a new piece from the Wall Street Journal editorial board, making the case against the Republican-led Save America Act. A bill the president has repeatedly pushed as critical to combat alleged voter fraud. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Thursday, March 19th.

With us, we have the co-host of our 9 a.m. hours, staff writer at the Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haas, and CEO and co-founder of Axis Jim Vandehi is here with us this morning. So, Joe, this war escalating gas prices and economic pressure around the world as a result. It certainly is. And war of words on Capitol Hill escalating quite a bit there between Senator Mark Wayne, Mullins, and the chairman of the committee. Jim Van High, you covered the hill for quite some time. I think we may have even met up on the hill, if I recall, many a years ago. That exchange between Mark Wayne Mullins said, I understand. how the game's played here, so-called

character assassination. He was cheering for the criminal assault and battery of Rand Paul. And it's just, I guess it's just these days? I don't know. Was Jackson

Brown would sing these days? I don't get it. Why can't he just apologize for a really stupid, insensitive and misguided statement that he made? I mean, it's just, it's one of the rules of when White House officials appear before Congress. Apologize for nothing.

Be combative. Assume that the President of the United States is watching you. That's why so many of these hearings, you would hope they're a little more substantive, and it's not that there's not moments of substance. It's just so much theater, so much pageantry, because they're so self-conscious about appearing tough, appearing like to defend the president in any scenario

under any circumstance. You don't really get to the truth about, okay, how would he actually run the Department of Homeland Security at a time of great tension, when it's not even being funded when you have a lot of attacks and an unpopularity among ICE? You have some really big philosophical decisions to be made about how do you balance, you know, protecting people's individual liberties with cracking down on people who are here illegally. These are big, meaty topics, but they tend to turn instantly theatrical. You saw that with the debate over the hearings on Iran as well about whether or not,

the president knew that there was an imminent threat and whose job it is to actually say that you have intelligence, it's an imminent threat. I don't find any of these to be all that useful, to be honest, because we all kind of know what the president knew going into this war, and we know it was a war of choice, and we know that Israel was going to strike first, and we know that we had pretty much decapitated their nuclear capabilities, and we knew that they still wanted to reconstitute them. None of those things are surprising or new, and nobody is really debating who studies this, whether or not the president. president just decided that now is the time to go and make a move against the advice of a lot of

his advisors. Yeah, which of course sounds an awful lot like Afghanistan, where just about every general and admiral that Joe Biden talked to said, don't take all of your troops out of Afghanistan. Same thing here. The generals very worried about going to war against Iran. And yet, you know, that's what happens when you don't listen to absolutely anybody. on an issue. But, you know, John Lemire, first of all, a couple points. If you're talking to somebody who's going to be running an agency that many Americans believe responsible for the execution style shooting of Americans in the street and brute violence, it's probably best not to have as your DHS chairman, a guy who cheered on.

the assault and battery, the brutalizing, the breaking of what, six ribs? It's probably best not to have a senator who had cheered that on when it happened and still has no problem doing that. I mean, you're going to have somebody that cheers on violence, a guy that's at least polite enough to take off his ring before he was going to go down and try to beat up a union member. By the way, a Boston guy that I don't think any of us would mess around with. I know a lot of guys like that. Yeah, I know you do.

So I just don't get it. Why doesn't, Mullen just, I'm sorry. It's so easy. Hey, you know, when I said it, I was shooting off my mouth, the really stupid thing to do. I shouldn't have done it. I'm really sorry. That's all it would have taken. But I'm not going to say he's not mad enough because I don't want to question anybody's

man. I will just say, I have found a lot of guys not man enough to just stand up and say I screwed up. That's, I guess that's, as Jim said, that's a Washington we live in now. Yeah, that is the Washington we live. He might come after you if you do question, in fact, his manhood. This was not a, if he does, he better, he better take off his ring. And I would just say I'm a lot bigger than I look on TV. Oh, yeah.

Sneaky tall, sneaky tall, they tell me in the airports. He's got a bit of a reach, too. Yeah, no, he can do it. You know, it's a six-four reach, you know. Yeah, no, I know. Get your hands. Oh, my God. Okay.

Stop. Yeah. So this was not a... 1880 guys and... Go ahead. Both of one of these. Okay. So this was not a hearing, as usual, to be clear.

Now, there are some real outstanding questions here, first of all. We heard very little of his vision to run through DHS, to be sure. We also, there's questions about some of the money that the senator has made in recent years since taking office. There are questions about some of these apparently classified trips he claims he took while a member of the House in the last decade or so. Those are still things being explored. But of course, the headlines, this confrontation with Rand Paul. And Paul said, we were carrying it live yesterday. Paul came out swinging. It was a blistering opening statement there in which he really

laid into Mullin. And that was a moment. You're right, Joe. Jim Van Nuhai, of course, is right. in Washington passed, the nominee would sit there and say, look, you and I may have our differences, but I'm sorry for what I said. I don't, of course, I don't condone violence, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, the temperature lowers we proceed. That did not happen yesterday because in Donald Trump's Washington, at least for Republicans who want to serve in his administration, you never apologize, period, for anything. And that was the tone that was set yesterday, the main tense. His nomination still seems on track, But Mika, this was an extraordinary moment, not something we usually see in these proceedings. I know, and there's much more to share on that later.

Just one point to make that Teamster leader, that the whole bell buckle thing, they did patch things up. They're friends now. He was sitting right behind him in the hearing. There is that for whatever it's worth. Let's get to our top story this morning. Strikes on major energy facilities across the Middle East are sending oil prices surging this morning. Now 20 days into the war with Iran. Israel hit Iran's giant South Pars gas field yesterday, which is part of the world's largest gas field and Iran's biggest source of natural gas.

Iran is now retaliating, targeting energy infrastructure throughout the Gulf. Qatar says a key natural gas site was attacked, suffering extensive damage from missile fire. Saudi Arabia reporting downing Iranians and drones targeting its natural gas facilities, later adding, that one hit an oil refinery earlier today. Kuwait says drone attacks sent two oil refineries ablaze, and the UAE temporarily shut down operations at crucial energy sites amid missile interceptions over the area. In a social media post last night, President Trump said, quote, no more attacks will be made by Israel on South bars. If Iran stops its retaliatory attacks on Qatar, if Iran does not stop, Trump said. The United States will, quote, massively blow up the gas field.

Elsewhere, Palestinian officials say at least three people were killed and several more injured during an Iranian missile attack that damaged a makeshift hair salon in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The town's mayor said the salon had been full of women getting their hair done ahead of the festival, marking the end of Ramadan. The Israeli military blames an Iranian missile, carrying cluster munitions for the deadly attack. And Joe, as we get up to date and all that's going on, this does not seem to be, this seems to be only moving forward and spreading wider. Well, there was, Pierce Morgan had tweeted something that several thought leaders on the right echoed and have echoed through the the night. And what Pierce wrote was it looks like President Trump is losing control of this war.

Richard Haas, oil facilities and energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, in the UAE, in the UAE, bearing the brunt, quaint, Qatar, keep going down the list. These are areas that the president did not want hit. The president does not want energy infrastructure yet. I doubt I could be wrong, but I doubt it's good for him and the war for Israel to level the southern half of Lebanon. I'm just curious whether Marco Rubio spoke the truth that still seems to be the case that, you know, we had to attack Iran because Israel was going to attack Iran. And it just seems it again, you know, Donald Trump has one goal, and that goal, it seems to me, is to be able to declare victory with the straits open. A BB Net Yahoo's goal, it appears to me to be

forever war and to just continue this war. And it appears, are you talking about I'm wrong or not, it appears that he and the president's interests stopped lining up quite some time ago in this war and Bibi Netanyahu continues to expand the war in places that the president doesn't want it to be expanded. Joe, spot on. If there's a parallel for what Israel is now doing, I would say it's Gaza. This is now an open-ended war. It's to relentlessly go after the leadership. There's not an exit strategy. There's a continuation strategy. The tactics, if you will, are the strategy. You know, Israel is in the region. It is not particularly concerned about global energy consequences or global strategic consequences.

It is not heavily involved in defending Taiwan or thinking about Ukraine. United States is global, economic, and strategic interests. They are not the same as Israel's. The president last night seemed to have supported the Israeli attack on the South Pars gas field in Iran before he opposed it. there was no reason to green light this. This should not have happened. Israel should not have been allowed to undertake this. This is war-widening in every sense, both geographically, but also its escalation.

And look what's happened now. All the facilities in the region are now potential or actual targets. This was exactly the scenario we wanted to avoid. So instead of thinking about exit strategies or off-ramps, now we've got to think about how to manage or prevent. further escalation. This is becoming now a nightmare. This is a war of attrition that's growing rather than shrinking. And you're right, coming back to where you began. U.S. and Israeli interests here are diverging fundamentally, but also the president needs a strategy. And Israel has one. We don't. And that's a problem. And make no mistake of it, Benjamin Netanyahu's strategy,

as it has been for years, is to keep fighting. keep the war going. We've been saying this for years. The New York Times, I think about six months, maybe another, maybe a year ago, Jonathan Lemer wrote an article, a huge article, quoting people all around Netanyahu. He never wants war to end because when war ends, he faces political repercussions and still may be voted out, are sent to jail. Voted out because, again, I know nobody wants to remember this, but Benjamin Netanyahu was the Israeli leader that allowed Hamas to thrive, funded Hamas indirectly through Qatar, demanded that Qatar pay Hamas billions of dollars, even hundreds of millions of millions, like three weeks before the attacks of October

the 7th. And so his goal, never have that inquiry, never have the, never have the inquiry as to why more Jews were slaughtered on October 7th any day since the Holocaust. And he was prime minister, and it took him 12 hours to respond in some places to these attacks. Why do I keep going on? Because if you want to understand the war, you need to understand what people close to Benjamin Netanyahu and what we've been saying, what the New York Times wrote a massive piece on what his view is of this war. It must continue. It must continue or he will face some music from the courts and the Israeli people,

no matter how popular he is right now in war. And so he doesn't care, Jonathan, whether gas goes up to $200 a barrel. He doesn't care about the things that Donald Trump cares about. So again, he's flattening. It looks like half of Lebanon. And he's attacking all of these energy infrastructures. And what does that do in return? It's Pierce Morgan Road and as many other people have said.

It's had Iran firing back and knocking out, going after energy infrastructure in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and, of course, the UAE. And so, again... Israel's interests are not Donald Trump's interest. Benjamin Etting Yahoo's interests are not Donald Trump's interest here, and yet he just keeps going. Richard asked, Richard said, Israel should not be allowed. Israel should not be allowed. I don't think Israel's listening to anybody right now.

No, in nearly two and a half years since the October 7th attacks, Prime Minister of Nahahu's goal has been to widen conflict, expand the conflict. Gaza elsewhere in the region and now fulfilling some of hope he's had for decades, take it to Iran. And there does seem to be a real divergence here from what's happening, Israel and Washington. And that played out last night. And I woke up this morning to a number of messages from people very concerned that the war has hit a new place, a very dangerous place. So in that same social media post that Mika read from a moment ago, President Trump denied that the United States knew it advanced that Israel would be striking. the Iranian gas field. Several reports, however, contradict that, including the Wall Street Journal,

which wrote in part this. The U.S. was informed the plan ahead of time and had no issues with it. Both American and Israeli officials said Wednesday. The story goes on. President Trump approved of the strike, U.S. officials said, to pressure Iran to unblock the Strait of Hormuz. The officials said Trump believed Tehran received the message and wants to refrain from further strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure. We shall see. And Richard, and you argue in your latest substack, that the Strait of Hormuz, it must be open for all or close to all. So I want you to explain that, but let's just underline what happened last night. The strike on Iranian energy, a big deal. But then Iran's retaliation across the region, particularly the one in Qatar,

which is the world's largest LNG site. And it was apparently per officials there, sustained extensive damage. Some people, some of the messages I woke up to, said this already is going to change the energy picture for the globe for years. What's already happened, there could be more. And we are seeing this morning, oil energy prices skyrocketing again.

For years, people have to understand that energy facilities are remarkably complex and vulnerable. It's not also as though you have massive warehouses next door with spare parts. So when things come out of Commission this way. You're looking at months or more likely years. And this has all sorts of implications for inflation. It's going to make it much harder, among other things, for the Fed to do what the President wants when energy prices go up. Politics. Food prices around the world are going

to skyrocket. Why? Because fertilizer, which it depends upon access. It's made in large part in energy is going to go up. So this will have ripple effects. The Gulf countries themselves are going to take years to recover. Their sovereign wealth funds, big investment vehicles are going to have to increasingly invested home to rebuild facilities. The knock-on effects of this are just enormous. So basically, this war now, which was a regional war, has become a global war with all the knock-on effects of that. What happened last night, I hope you're wrong, but I fear you're right, Jonathan, may have been a turning point, because now we've got to, in some ways, what metaphor is put the genie back in the bottle. We've got to stop this war, widening geographically

and this war escalation. Ideally, you'd have no attack on water desalindization. plants and no attack on energy fields. And what I'm worried about is that barrier now has been broken and it's going to be very, very hard to restore it. Yeah, for sure. Much more ahead. We've got other news to cover as well. Still ahead on Morning, Joe, will turn to the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's testimony on Capitol Hill yesterday and show you what she had to say about whether Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States. Plus, Democrats are trying to push through legislation that would fund TSA amid the partial government shutdown. We'll take a look at that effort.

And as we go to break, a quick look at the Travelers forecast this morning from Accuethers, Bernie Rayno. Bernie, how's it looking? Lingering chill across parts of the Northeast on our Thursday, Mika, but the warmer air is dry in 55 in Chicago. It's 51 degrees, your exclusive ACUther forecast in Pittsburgh, but only in the lower 40s. Boston, New York City, there'll be clouds, a couple of spotty showers won't be a big deal today. Flurries this morning across New York State.

Just sunny, comfortable in Atlanta, but the heat continues to build in Texas. Here's the good news if you're flying weather-wise, there won't be any delays. To help you make the best decisions and be more in the know, download the Accuether app today. Welcome back. We're going to get back to the war in Iran in just a moment and the impact on world economies and the price of basically everything, and Richard wants to talk about options of opening up the straight-of-form moves.

We'll get to that in a moment. But first, TSA agents continue to work without pay as a partial government shutdown continues, and the extremely long security lines at some airports around the country are not likely to improve anytime soon. Data obtained by ABC News reveals nearly 10% of TSA agents called out sick on Tuesday.

Atlanta and New Orleans were hit. the hardest, with nearly 40% of agents calling out at those two airports for context. Typically, only about 2% of TSA officers call out on any given day. Democrats, meanwhile, are taking new steps to fund the TSA amid the partial government shutdown. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries unveiled a discharge petition yesterday aimed at forcing a vote on legislation to fund the TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard. This is day 33 of the Trump Republicans shut down of the Department of Homeland Security.

Why is this happening? It's because Republicans have decided to force TSA agents to work without pay. Inconvenience, millions of Americans across the country and create chaos at airports rather than get ICE under control. So ICE is being funded, and TSA, at a time that we possibly need them the most, when the threat of terrorism is looming, not paid.

The effort is a long shot as Democrats will need at least four Republicans willing to sign the discharge petition to force the bill to the floor. So, Joe, Republicans, I think they benefit from TSA agents as well in terms of the safety of their travel. This is insanity. Well, you know, they have to be hearing from the White House, kill funding. Do not allow Democrats to fund TSA agents for their work. Do not allow Democrats to fund Coast Guard workers for their work, because that's exactly what's happening. Democrats keep going to the Senate floor asking for unanimous consent to allow TSA workers to get paid, to get paid for the work

that they're doing. We've been through this before. Republicans shut down the government and we're getting their paychecks six months ago, whatever the government shut down was, getting their paychecks when they weren't working while Americans who were working weren't getting their paycheck. It's happening right now. Now, just so you to that, Sometimes things are complicated and confusing. I understand, you know, in the age of accent. Sometimes. This is not confusing.

This is not confusing. Democrats keep going to the Senate floor. And all the Democrats call for unanimous consent. Everybody in the chamber, hey, let's all agree right now, we're going. to pay our TSA agents. Republicans kill it. I just want to say it again for you. I want to say it again because people,

sometimes there's so much coming at you, it's very easy to be confused. If everybody agrees on something, they can pass it with unanimous consent. So Democrats keep going to the Senate floor. Yesterday it was Senator Warnock. Stand up and ask,

hey, can we all just agree? here, please, that are men and women who work for the TSA get their paychecks today. Stop having to work for free. Can we just all agree on that? Republicans stand up and say no, and kill the paychecks. Stop them. Not only for them, but for the Coast Guard, for the federal emergency management agency. Like, at a time, we need the Coast Guard and the TSA and FEMA the most Republicans keep killing it. Why? Why?

Why? Why? Because do you know why they keep killing those paychecks? Because they simply refuse to agree to the reforms needed to get past what happened under Christy Kno. What many people in the White House want to continue. And that led to what looked like execution-style murders. of Americans in the streets of our very own country at the hands of this agency.

And Republicans are saying we would rather ICE agents not get paid. We would rather are men and women who bravely serve in the Coast Guard not get paid. We would rather FEMA workers not get paid for their work. Right. Not get paid for their work. We would rather basically tell them to drop dead to go to hell than actually ask ICE agents to reform. You know, Jim,

Mika sent me a video. It was a Fox News video. So let's just go straight to the source here. A Fox News video of a bomb threat in Central Park. Somebody started screaming, bomb, bomb while they ran out of the park. Yeah. As we have been saying all along, you compare what ICE agents did.

up in Minneapolis with what the NYPD does every single day it puts ice to shame every time. This guy's running, a group of people, people yell bomb, bomb,

instead of five ice agents going like this and like tuggling and pushing women into the snow. A New York City cop tackle the guy, had him on the ground, had his arms behind his back, other cops surrounded him quickly, And if the guy had a bomb, they knew they would be blown up.

But they all ran to it. And then what did the other cops do? They formed a circle. And what did they do? They didn't scream, get back, get back in their mask. They politely asked people go, hey, can you move back? You don't take pictures, dangerous situation while some guy screaming, bomb, bomb, bomb, bum. It was just again, it was just the ultimate professionalism.

What you would want to see from law enforcement officers that we all see, most of us see in our hometowns. But man, not ice. And yet Republicans are willing to kill payment for TSA agents, Jim, because they don't want ICE to reform. I mean, if you wonder why people think politicians suck and that government is useless, just look at the last couple of days. Like, the average person is now trying to go to the airport. And some of these airports, you have to get there four or five hours in advance. Like, who knows intuitively to get there that early? Now you're also going to be paying more for your airport.

because it takes fuel to fly a plane. Then you go to get in your car and gas is soon going to top four bucks for a war that wasn't completely explained to you or maybe explained at all to you. So no wonder people are frustrated. And Republicans can say, well, it's Democrats, sorry, like you own the government. You run the White House, the Senate, the House. With power comes responsibility. With responsibility becomes blame. And I think that's why Republicans are having a hell of a time in a lot of these elections. It's why they're worried that they're going to lose the House, now might lose the Senate. It's why the President's favorable ratings hover around 40%.

Nobody wants this. People want competence, whether it's at the local level, at work, or from government. Just do your damn job, and then people are happy. If you're not doing your job, people are hacked off. And make no mistake, Mika, this could end today. If when Democrats stand up and say, hey, can we all agree? Can we all agree that our TSA agents need to be paid? That our Coast Guard members need to be paid.

All they have to do, because all Democrats support that. And the Republicans keep killing these opportunities to pay these people for the work they're doing to keep us safe. In the air? On the seas? I mean, this is not hard. Again, all of this is to allow ICE to continue being the out of control, reckless agency that it was under Christyne-home. And just for the life of me, I don't understand why Republicans are screwing their own constituents every single day. Business people that have to fly, families that have to get home to see their mothers or their fathers or the grandmothers or the grandfathers,

Parents that need to get to the kids to help with a child that may be sick. I mean, why are Republicans doing this? Why are they stopping this? I don't know. I'm so important to them that they are screwing their own constituents to protect guys in masks. It's not worth it. Take the masks off. Look and see what the NYPD does and maybe train.

for a little while. But the problem is, Joe, this is a matter of life and death in terms of funding TSA. I know. Yeah. I know. But with this war widening, with this war that I don't think anyone saw coming or predicted or understands, this is a matter. It's not just about paying people for the work they do and the economic suffering of the American people,

which is, of course, politically incredibly important. But this is a matter of life and death. This is going in the wrong direction. Someone needs to wake somebody up and say, listen, you're going to have a reaction to this war that you started on American soil, and you aren't going to have the people in place to deal with it or prepare for it or prevent it. It is a massive disaster waiting to happen. Wake up.

We still need to talk about the straight of hormones. Use will do that ahead and also still ahead. Joe mentioned Democratic Senator Rafael Warnock of Georgia will play for you some of his floor speech, calling out the Trump administration over the so-called Save America Act. Why the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board just might agree with him. That's coming up on Morning, Joe. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community

that there was an imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? The intelligence community assessed that you, Iran maintained the intention to rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment capability. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no? Senator, the only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president. False. This is the worldwide threat searing where you present to Congress national intelligence, timely objective and independent of political considerations.

It is not the intelligence community's response. to determine what is and is not an imminent threat? That's what you get paid for. Of course, in 2019, she is attacking Donald Trump because she feared he would go to war. In Iran, that was Senator John Husser, over that line of questioning yesterday. The Director of National Intelligence

and Georgia Assistant Supervisor of Elections, Tulsi Gabbard. I'm curious, how bad, Richard Do you believe the situation is right now in the Middle East and the Straits with this energy war that now appears to be going on? Just to set the stage for 10 seconds, Joe, the Strait of Hormuz is the narrow passageway through its one, you know, basically 20 percent, one-fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas and oil travels. one-fifth. It is central to the global economy. It is closed. Iran is only allowing tankers through it taking a small amount of oil to China, Turkey, Pakistan, and India. It is closing it to the oil of any other Gulf country can't go and to any other recipient can't get it.

Iran has basically become the tollkeeper of an international waterway. Totally unacceptable. So, you know, we've talked about different ways of reopening this strategic waterway. Some are talking about attacking this island where Iran, Karg Island. I think that would be militarily to occupy and hold that would be a bit of a nightmare operation. Administration, if you notice, floated the idea the other day of escorting, convoying tankers. It would take so many naval ships to do it and put them at risk. The Europeans said no for lots of reasons, but they had a point. My view is what we ought to do is simply announce a new policy. The Strait of Hormuz is either open to all or close to all. It's that simple. And the way we can enforce it is not in the straits but outside the

straits. If we had a map here, you'd see the Gulf of Oman. It's about 200 miles wide. U.S. naval forces could operate safely. And we would basically draw a line. And we would say, yeah, if you look on the map there, basically, where you see Muscat, you see Oman all there. You'd put a 200-mile line there, naval assets, air assets there. And we'd basically say no one's going there unless everybody can go there. and that would put enormous pressure on Iran because their economy depends totally on these exports of energy. We wouldn't be attacking oil fields. We wouldn't have a repeat of what we had last night, which is nightmare. And also what I'm hoping is countries like China and India and the rest start putting pressure on Iran.

They would like this oil to get to them. So I want the United States to be on the side of opening a waterway and get other countries to isolate and put pressure on Iran. I think this is militarily as well as diplomatically, much smarter way to go about it. Essentially, again, open for all or close to all. Your choice are wrong. So far, though, Jim Veda-Hy, the president has had real trouble getting buy-in from any other nation. We saw his angry post and then Oval Office appearance. They're bashing NATO allies because they won't help, at least not yet, in securing the straight there. And let's get your thoughts. It does feel like another inflection point is coming. As we talked about about 45 minutes ago,

the war seems to have entered a new phase last night with these attacks. Teasing, Perhaps another one coming is the reports that more military assets, including potential ground troops, are heading to the region, U.S. forces, heading to the region. So the president has the option. He could be, if he wants, he'd be ready to give the okay to have some sort of invading force. That is against everything he's ever said about the powers of the commander in chief. But this feels like he's about to come to a major decision. Yeah.

And the president's trapped. Let's, let's be blunt. This is the first time since COVID. where things are actually out of his control. On any other decision that he's made in the course of his two presidential terms, he's been able to turn it on, turn it off. You might not like tariffs, okay, I'll turn one on, I'll turn one off. You can't just turn off a war.

As you guys have already discussed, the Israelis have a much different strategy than we do. They have much different things to protect than we do. They have their homeland there. They have the constant threat of terror in their backyard. We don't have that. You also have an Iranian regime. We don't know what's actually left of the Iranian regime. We don't know who's going to substitute the previous Iranian regime. It's not even clear the president has said who the hell you would negotiate with if you wanted to negotiate them with. But we do know that if Iran just leaves and cuts a deal from a position of weakness, you don't have to read the art of war to understand that you're going to live under the constant threat that anything you do will just come strike you the minute we don't like it. And so they have every incentive to make sure that they continue to inflict pain. Right now that pain is on energy prices. So yes, the president would like to get out.

He'd like gas prices to go down, but he's trapped. And there's not going to be an easy off ramp. The easy off ramp ended a day or two after the attack. And now we have more troops. We have more munition going into the region. And because you have these low-cost drones, the balance of power and warfare has changed. The Ukrainians wouldn't still be at war.

If you didn't have $25,000 to $75,000 drones that you can send. and do mass amounts of damage at a relatively low cost without humans. You see the same thing unfolding in Iran where they can go after these different targets, whether it's energy targets or it's military targets or its U.S. embassies. You can use low-cost drones. They learn from our last attack that if you withstand that initial surge of artillery, obviously we have the use of overwhelming force where a million times more powerful and sophisticated

than they are. But when you have these little drones, you can wreak havoc for a long time. And because they've dispersed their power throughout the region, through their proxies, which are a constant threat to the Israelis, they're able to do this probably a lot longer than the American people realize, and maybe a lot longer than the American people will tolerate, particularly if gas prices go and stay above $4, especially if your airfare goes up 50 to 60%. Imagine those TSA lines, if they're still blocked when people are going off the spring break. A lot of people are going to realize that there's been a lot of consequences for things that are happening in Washington. And we get to Jim's point about how long this may last.

The Washington Post reporting last night, the Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund this war. $200 billion. On the same day that the deficit reached $39 trillion. Okay. Safe to say, not headed in the right direction. Jim Van de Haifaxias, thank you very much. President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haas.

Thank you as well. His latest piece for Substack is online right now. Debate continues in the Senate on the so-called Save America Act. President Trump and Republicans claim the bill will fight alleged voter fraud by non-citizens. The president has even said he will not sign any other legislation into law until it is passed. Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia yesterday called out the president and his administration on this. It was a cabinet official in the White House herself who said that we just want to make sure that, quote, the right people are voting. The right people.

The right people are voting. That was the argument in the 1960s. And had those who wanted to make sure that the, quote, right people were voting, had they prevailed, I would not be standing here today. We know that this will disenfranchise thousands, if not millions of Americans. We have no evidence that this is a problem that actually needs to be solved, and yet they have shut down much of the business of the Senate in order to do this. They are hell-bent on getting this done. Donald Trump said that this is his number one priority, and so it begs the question, why is this his number one priority? With all the things going on in our country, why is this the main thing that he feels he must get done?

Why is he afraid? I'll tell you why. It's because that he knows that he has broken every promise he made. I mean, this is very obvious. You know what they'll say is, oh, well, everybody supports federal. Yeah, yeah, bring your driver's license. I think that's a great idea. Bring your driver's license or another ID, photo ID.

And by the way, this is a wonderful opportunity for the federal government or for the state government, not even the federal government, state governments, to provide that from the voters' office if they want an ID. It's a great way for people that don't have picture IDs to get picture IDs. But here's a crazy thing. I mean, Republicans want to take over states constitutionally protected position and voting. Now, they want to do the same for IDs. Again, let me say this again. Republicans, Republicans, they don't even allow your driver's license to be used.

as a way to be able to vote for your mayor, for your county commissioners, for your state senators, house members, governors, presidents, I mean, they're, I mean, you talk about standing, not in the court house store,

standing like in front of a voting booth, doing everything you can do to ensure that your unpopular party can somehow figure out a way to win in the fall. It's not going to work because it's absolutely outrageous. The requirements are outrageous. They're trying to kill the ability for vets who may have been injured in war

and may not be able to go, to not be able to vote by mail. They're trying to do everything they can do to stop older Americans who may not be able to go down on election day because of the physical problems. To not vote, workers who travel, I can't tell you how many times. I was traveling on business on election days, just like millions and millions and millions of Americans

do on election day. And they're trying to get everybody to re-register. Is this a joke? Is this a joke that 51 senators actually support? to debate? Are you kidding? Like, it's a horrible idea. Conservatives like me, and I know there aren't many left, who were small government conservatives, who actually fought to balance a budget four years in a row and did it, who actually fought to push back every way we could on Russian aggression and imperialism, and we did it?

conservatives like me don't like poll taxes. You know who else doesn't? The Wall Street Journal editorial page, Republicans. The Wall Street Journal editorial page. They've got a new piece out today, say, Why the Save America Act won't. And it reads in part this. Mr. Trump now wants to expand the Save America Act.

One of his ideas is the Counterman dozens of state laws on mail voting by stopping such ballots to people who are sick, disabled, serving in the military. Let me say that again. I had to fight in 2000 to make sure that every military ballot was counted in that race. Because people are trying to disenfranchise men and women in uniform. Now, that's what this act does. It disenfranchises members of our military, are those, as I said, who actually work and are traveling. As an election policy, this has a real upside. Yet, many GOP states let anyone vote absentee. Republicans, do they really want to endorse having the federal government overrule the election laws?

In Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Kansas, and more? Those aren't blue states, folks. Although Mr. Trump insists that voter fraud is endemic, his big claims aren't backed by hard evidence. By the way, it's not backed by any evidence. I remember reading a Wall Street Journal editorial page a decade ago saying the same thing that this bullshit about voter fraud is so overblown. It's not real. And by the way, not saying it. And the Wall Street Journal is not saying it now because history began on January 20th, 2025. It did not. We were saying this a decade ago when Donald Trump wasn't even in politics.

This is a political party creating a crisis that does not exist. Because they know that they're historically behind in the polls. They know if voters are allowed to freely vote. Republicans are going to lose. They know that. Then they know it big. You know when you're going to get wiped out. That a friend that wanted to run is a Republican 2006.

I said, buddy. I don't care if you're Abraham Lincoln, you're going to lose. Don't run because it was bleak. It's that bleak for Republicans now. So why do we... They don't want to change the policies. They want to change the law. They want to stop you from voting.

They want to stop men and women in the military from voting. They want to stop the elderly from voting. This is what the Wall Street Journal editorial page says. If I'm making you mad, don't take it out on. me, take it out on the Wall Street Journal editorial page, those lips, those commies, those leftists. They continue. The Save America Act wouldn't turn blue states red, and it can't save Republicans from voter angered unpopular policies. In the MAGA era, the bill actually, just like that stupid redistricting in Texas, Wall Street Journal says this could actually hurt the GOP. Kamala Harris in 24,

when college graduates and voters earning over $100,000 a year. Mr. Trump carried those with no degrees and low salaries. Which coalition is the most likely not to have passports and burn certificates, Andy? I know where mine is. Do you? Let's bring in right now opinion writer at the New York Times Morgan. There's just a couple things Republicans are doing that are just so stupid. I mean, you talk about taking a bad situation and making it so much.

You talk about taking a popular party and say, yet we know it's a historic gap between us and Democrats, but I've got a jolly good idea. Let's make it twice as bad. Let's make, first of all, let's make it twice as bad by refusing every day to pay TSA agents. So all these things we hear about threats of terrorism coming from Iran will make sure that we aren't paying the people who are fighting on the front line. And the Coast Guard, Oh, we won't pay the Coast Guard either, which is what they're doing. Why? Why? Because they're so desperate not to have real reforms passed for ICE agents, for ICE agents. This is, they would rather Americans, they're the own constituents sitting airports for four, five, six hours and actually face more threats in the airport on the planes, because they're not going to pay the people who were supposed to be protecting them. I mean, and then you have the SAVE Act, Maura. They got the SAVE Act that even the Wall Street Journal editorial page saying, guys, this is really, really stupid.

Really? And yet, I don't know. Maybe they want to take their approval rating down to 10%. Listen, Maura, you went to a really good school, even though I will never forgive Michigan for beating us to the Rose Bowl. But I'm a simple country lawyer. I do not understand these strange Republican ways. Could you explain to me why they're trying to push two bills?

Like, while they're trying to push a bill that will never pass and why they keep refusing to let our TSA agents be paid? I mean, it's hard when you think about the list of policies that the Republicans are pursuing, it's hard to find anything that is popular at the moment with the American people. And I think there's a growing sense of concern among American voters that, you know, if the Republicans aren't interested in voter sentiment, and they don't really care that Americans don't want to go to war, that they don't want a nation build, that they can't afford gas, they can't afford rent,

they can't afford health insurance, but yet we're expected to spend $200 billion on war. I guess the question then becomes, what is driving Republican actions? And more and more, I think voters, and you see this in the polls, are angry because they feel like Republicans are doing the work of billionaires. And they're not delivering on what they promised, which is affordability and immigration policies that are rational. I mean, so it's hard to kind of tick off the Republican policies and think about how dizzying and exhausting it has been, but from masked agents on American streets to now an attempt to remove the ability of Americans to vote. You know, this is a campaign that is not tethered to democracy. And I just, I'm glad we're talking

about the SAVE Act. I think we should also be thinking about the kind of pressure that the White House is going to be putting on the secretaries of states. and on the states and the swing states who are going to have to move heaven and earth to protect this midterm election. So there's going to be multiple points of pressure put on these midterms. And the SAVE Act is only one of them.

I also just want to point out the Brennan Center has said about 9% of eligible voters in the United States do not have immediate access to prove their citizenship. That's over 21 million Americans. it costs $165 to get a passport. What are we doing here?

We don't have a history in this country of fraud in which people are voting when they shouldn't be. We do have a history, a very recent history, may I add, of preventing Americans from voting who have every right to show up at the polls. And that's what we should be concerned about.

So I think we should take this extremely seriously. And at the same time, it's a joke to your point, Joe, that this is even being debated in the Senate.