Tallerico of Texas thinks he's got a real shot of becoming a sitting senator in that state. Does Ken Paxon's winning the primary make that possible? According to the Cook Report, it went from solid right to leaning right. Mark Thiessen doesn't just lean right, he's solid right. He's a chief former speech writer for George W.
Bush, Fox News contributor, Washington Post columnist, and a fellow at AEI. Mark, welcome back. Good to be with you, Brian.
So Mark, first off, your thoughts. about Tallarico and his chance at keeping that seat. Um he could speak. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's put, you know, you never think that Texas is going to go blue, but it's put Texas in play. And at a minimum, we're going to have to spend tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars in defending that seat that would have been spent elsewhere trying to defend other seats or putting Democrats in play.
So it's a big mistake. I think if Cornyn were the nominee, it would be a safe Republican seat. And second of all, It's broken Donald Trump's majority in the Senate. Donald Trump doesn't have an effective majority in the United States Senate today because look at this. You got Cornyn, you've got Cassidy, you've got Tillis, all of whom Trump has driven out of the Senate, who have absolutely no reason to be loyal to him.
And you add that to the sort of already semi-independent Republicans like Murkowski and Collins, Curtis in Utah. And that's like six votes. That he can't count on. And if we do have a blue wave this fall, which certainly it looks like that in the House, though the redistricting is helping. Then he's got to get through everything he wants to get through Congress that's at all controversial.
He's got to get through using the budget reconciliation process in the next few months. And he's not going to get it through without those Republican senators, three of whom he personally drove out of the Senate.
So it was a mistake to do that to Cornyn. I 100% agree. I'm not a Paxon fan. I mean, the guy's done nothing, but he's been surrounded by scandal. I really don't know what he's been effective on.
He's conservative, fine. But look at what he's done and how he's jeopardized that seat, and he's already been impeached. With 70% of Republicans in Texas House voting to impeach him. I mean, and, you know, but again, It's like so many things in today, you're choosing between two evils, right? And Tellerico is by far a worse evil than Paxton is.
This is a guy who goes out and says that. Mary is is a the story of Mary's uh just conversation with the angel Gabriel, where she said yes to the incarnation, is justification for abortion because Mary had a choice, so so should women. I mean, it's it's blasphemy. This guy is running, he's trying to pioneer a new form of the religious left, which uses the Bible, uses faith as cover for left-wing social policies that would absolutely be disastrous if it was successful. I was just reading some of his notes.
He says, on the eighth day, God created pronouns. And I think that was come from the Revelations. Here's a little of James Tallarico, cut six.
Okay. The American flag is such a complicated symbol for most of us, and in many ways, like Jesus, like the cross, it's been co-opted and And in some ways, its true meaning has been betrayed. Prophetic voices like Jesus have helped me reckon with my own whiteness, my own masculinity. Jesus does talk a lot about whiteness, and I am looking for Jesus' help to somehow explain my whiteness.
So that's really going to come in handy. It's almost comical. I mean, this is what we all thought we got rid of when Donald Trump won in 2024. And this is why my big concern right now, Brian, broader than just the Tellarico race, but he's sort of a canary in the coal mine for this. Is we all thought after 2024, after we put the Biden debacle behind us, that the sky, the clouds parted, the sun came out, all this crazy wokeness was behind us.
And it was a beautiful, sunny day again after the clouds of the Biden years. And I fear that we may just be in the eye of the storm. And that the other end of the storm is going to be much worse and much more and much more devastating than the first one is. It looks sunny right now because Donald Trump is in the White House, but these people are coming back and they're coming back with a vengeance and they're going to be even more woke and more crazy on the second round. Who is it?
It's not Governor Shapiro or Bashir, who don't, you know, they're not as moderate as they claim, but still, I mean, is it you think AOC is going to be the force? You think people like her are going to be the force? You think that Graham Plattner is going to be a force?
Well, I just don't see if you look at, you know, I think it's entirely possible that AOC is the nominee. You know, Newsom, who's been one of the most disastrous governors in American history, could get it. There's a lot. I just don't see any sign that the Democratic Party has looked at the 2016 and 2024 elections and said, you know what? Our crazy policies have elected Donald Trump and the MAGA movement twice and put them into power.
We should go back to the Clinton days of moderation and centrism and triangulation. They're doubling down on Democratic socialism. They're doubling down on woke. And I find it very unlikely that whoever is the nominee, even if it's one of those moderates, so-called moderates, just like everyone told us Spanberger was a moderate, right? There is no moderate left in the Democratic Party.
It's not going to be somebody who's going to be centrist. It's going to be somebody who's woke and left-wing and on Democratic socialism.
Well, we have broken the green fever. I think anyone who runs on oil and gas doesn't have a future in our country. I think that's pretty much a dead issue. that Democrats won't bring up, don't you think? I don't know if they come back into power.
I don't know, especially if they get. Look, think about this. The Democrat, in 2028, the Democrats win the White House, they control the House, and they control the Senate, right? Then they're gonna get rid of the filibuster. And then they're going to pass all this stuff with a simple 50-vote majority.
And they're going to pass the Green New Deal. They're going to pass all the Democratic socialism. They're going to pass Medicare for all. They're going to add Puerto Rico as a state. They're going to add DC as a state.
They could even add Guam as a state. They're going to pack the Senate. They're going to pack the Supreme Court so that they have justices that will uphold all their overreach. They're going to pack the Electoral College by adding people to the House. There's so many things that they can do if they get control over all elements of power.
And they all know that everything they do, Brian, it's a one-way socialism is a one-way ratchet. We never come in and undo what they do. All we do is we cut some taxes for a little while and restrict their programs. And then they come in and pick up where they left off and start moving us towards socialism again.
So they don't mind losing an election once in a while. Greetings homeowner. Repeat after me. If my home system or appliance breaks down, American Arm Shield will help fix or replace the covered item, no matter its age. And exhale.
Oh, and home warranty plan started $29.99 a month. American Home Shield. Don't worry, be warranty. Visit ahs.com slash listen for 20% off any plan. See ahs.com/slash contracts for coverage details, including limited amounts, fees, limitations, and exclusions.
The most interesting stories is Spencer Pratt in Los Angeles. He actually understands the issues. He's extremely aggressive and comfortable. He destroyed the sitting mayor. And now we might in a couple of weeks have somebody that leans right in a major city.
I think that could be the beginning of a positive trend. Here's a little of Spencer Pratt today on Fox and Friends. Cut one. First off, the reason why all that money was raised, that was right after the debate. And they saw me destroy these two terrible politicians for an hour straight.
And everybody realized, oh, finally somebody telling the truth.
So That's where all the money came from. And a lot of it's from all over the country because people forget over 50,000 people a year leave Los Angeles because it's so terrible. First time ever, more people leaving than coming.
So these people see that I'm saying with why they left, so they're trying to get me elected so they can move back.
So he raised $2.72 million, Bass, $283,000. How intrigued are you about his nomination? And he thinks he can win outright in a week.
Well, first of all, God bless him for trying, you know, that and for inspiring a lot of people. I mean, I think he's a good person and he's trying to do the right thing. But as he pointed out, those 50,000 people, they can't vote in Los Angeles. They're voting in Texas now. They're voting in Florida.
They've moved out. The big problem we have with all these blue states is that blue governance has, it's a self-reinforcing phenomenon because it drives all the reasonable people out who would vote to elect Spencer Pratt or someone like that. I mean, is Los Angeles more conservative than New York, which just elected Momdani? Is it more conservative than Chicago that had a choice in the last mayoral election between a semi-normal Democrat and someone who was even worse and chose the lunatic? I mean, I just don't see any signs that in any of these major blue cities for reason.
I hope he does. I hope he does, but I just I just don't get the sense that that's where the electorate is in these cities because all the people who would have you know, the days where we elected Rudy Giuliani to clean up the city and where Democrats cross over to vote for a Republican, seem to be behind us. I mean, I hope he proves me wrong. I'd love to I'd love nothing better than to see someone like him running the city of Los Angeles. It would be fantastic.
But all those people as he pointed out on your show, those people have left.
So they want to come back. They'll come back if he's elected. But he needs them to come back first to elect him.
So he doesn't believe there's going to be a big turnout, which will work to his advantage. He said to us on camera, off camera, he goes, I'm over 50. I go, what does that mean? He goes, that means I win June 2nd, and I plan on taking vacation next week.
So that would be amazing.
So I want to talk about Iran. The U.S. military carried out new strikes in Iran yesterday, targeting a military site that threatened American troops. They shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones, and then they blew up a control station at Bandar Abbas. If you're now, I know it's impossible to get in Iran's head because they have so many different factions.
But If they are that desperate economically, why would they do something that could jeopardize talks that could go in their favor or could bring back some economic relief? Um, because there's no Delsi Rodriguez in Iran. There just isn't. There's no there there th you're you're ta this is the Nazis. There were extreme Nazis and moderate Nazis.
You know, were the moderate Nazis moderate? There's no such thing, right?
So the everybody there is. I mean, the people that we are negotiating with who seem reasonable are absolute lunatics. as well. Um, and they are their military is broken, their command and control is broken, their military capacity is broken. I mean, if you just look at my column, I'm about to hit send on in a few minutes to the Washington Post.
Just goes through the battle damage assessment of what we've accomplished in Operation Epic Fury. I mean, we've just decimated their ballistic. Where'd you get your information? From Admiral Cooper, from Israeli military assessment, battle damage assessments, the stuff is out there. Admiral Cooper testified before Congress the other week.
You know, people say, well, we didn't hit eliminate all their ballistic missiles. Yeah, but we eliminated their ballistic missile production capacity. They can't rebuild.
So what was Iran doing before Operation Epic Fury? After Midnight Hammer, they decided that they were going to go on a crash course to build 8,000 ballistic missiles by 2027 in order to create a shield that would make them impenetrable because they could overwhelm Israel's defenses in a war and make it impossible for us to take out their nuclear program again. And so we've decimated that. We've destroyed 85% of their production capacity. We took out their space program, which was their cover for their long-range ballistic missile program.
We've just decimated their leadership, their command and control, their Navy, their air defenses, their air force can fly sorties. These are all major military victories that have set the Iranian regime back dramatically.
So this was important to do regardless of what happens now. But the question that is facing President Trump now is: are these temporary achievements or are we going to make them irreversible? Right? And the problem with a deal, even a good one, is that it gives the regime a lifeline. to survival.
Right now, they're on the ropes.
So, what would you like to see happen, Mark? I know we only have 90 seconds left. What would you like to see happen? Very simple. I'd like to I'd like him to finish the last two weeks of the bombing that he suspended, which is what Admiral Cooper needed to finish the target list.
I'd like him to open the Strait of Hormuz by force. I'd like him to maintain the blockade and arm the Iranian people to overthrow the regime. That's my plan. How equipped are they to do that? I think that it depends on the Iranians.
I mean, in a way, the Iranians, if the Iranians were smart and organized, they would cut a deal with Trump, give him what he wants, and wait him out until Gavin Newsom or AOC or some weak Biden-esque figure is in the White House and then break the deal and go for it again, because they would see beyond the horizon. We need a permanent Victory, not a temporary one. All right, Mark, I look forward to your column today. I think people have to understand the success we have because we can't see it. We don't see it.
And so we go and okay, that sounds good. But we don't know. You know, how are they still standing? Maybe we overestimated. And Mark will outline that in the Washington Post today.
Mark, thanks so much. I appreciate it. Take care.
