Nearly all the passengers on the flight were Israelis. During the flight, as they were approaching Israel, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot and apparently tried to crash the plane with everyone on board. Is that unbelievable?
So that is the translation, Benjamin Netanyahu, about what happened. In case you don't know, a flight leaving UAE was attempted hijacking on route to Tel Aviv. They ended up landing in Saudi Arabia miraculously. The theme that's emerging is Flight 93 legacy, and that is: when in trouble, do not sit down. You have to take action.
And the way I understand it, Karl Rove got this information. I heard some of it before I came up to do the show in the six minutes between TV. Radio that there were pilots on board. They call it deadheading. It I think it's called among pilots is right deadhead.
So when you're a pilot and you're just trying to get to another location, go home or whatever, you'll just sit in the back. You know, you grab a seat and you sit in the back. That's who was able to take over because the pilots, one pilot was stabbing the other pilot. With me right now is Martha McCallum. Hey, Martha, welcome back.
Hi, Brian. Good to be with you. Set to host her show at three o'clock today. The story, Martha. First off, we're just piecing this all together, but it looks like hijacking and an attempted hijacking, and this was forecasted.
And to Benjamin Netanyahu, evidently he was briefed. He was told there's something going on. Look out. I mean, on one hand, it's it's not surprising given what's going on in the world, giving the war with Iran, giving the proxies that they always turn to when they're in sort of a desperate position. I mean, all of the indications are that the pressure on them from the Strait of Hormuz blockade is continuing to slowly mount.
There are indications that you know that there are student gatherings that are a bit troublesome to them. There are motorcycle. Um.
Sort of guards and checkpoints that are rising in Iran as they get a little bit more nervous about whether or not people will revolt. All that is in the you know sort of in the background and of this situation, but they have always turned to this sort of asymmetric warfare.
Now we don't know what this is yet. This may have been just a pilot who went crazy and wanted to down the plane. We've seen that before in history too, sadly. But we're waiting. For more information on this, but you know, I mean, I think that history tells us what this that it smacks of things that we have certainly seen before, and whether or not this pilot was a plant on this plane from some.
Proxy organization. What we're going to find out, but you know, we always sort of urge caution as we move forward in this. The passengers are landing now, and we're going to start to hear their story. But as you point out, we see the images of others on the plane. One man in particular who has blood all over his t-shirt, and it it it may be a real heroic story that a pilot who was.
On that plane, on his way back from another, you know, from another route, may have saved all those people's lives.
So a lot to know at this point. Yeah, can you imagine that?
So it went from thirty-three thousand feet to seventeen thousand feet. Seventeen thousand. And then to have to be a pilot, I wouldn't know what that was like. But to get to run to the cockpit and you just try to, you know, it's a it's a plane. Maybe you flew before, maybe you didn't.
Get it instantly and able to correct it right away. And somehow the pilot, one pilot, was in there. Maybe the one being attacked was able to call in an emergency that there was some type of problem on the plane, and they scrambled jets. But what you mentioned is true. The plane now had left Saudi Arabia and has landed in its original intent destination, Ben Gurion Airport in Israel.
So we're about to get that story in detail. And we have Naftali Bennett, who is the former prime minister, speaking now.
So we'll we'll see what. Happens, but it just goes to show you the regions was on fire. I'm just looking at Alexe, Alexeira English, and it says it looks like the U.S. says U.S. has officially responded to the proposal under review with Qatar mediation.
Now, the proposal we saw was a joke. Open up the Strait, unfreeze our funds, and after seven days, we'll talk about a nuclear program. We're not going to touch that. Yeah, I mean that the president indicated as much. It looks like.
I mean, I think that the MOU was the best deal that they were ever going to get. A lot of people were very unhappy, felt it was too lenient a deal for Iran. But then you know they targeted ships in the Strait, and that deal fell apart. And you know the president, as always, would like to solve this diplomatically. But there's no indication that the Iranians are meeting him anywhere near.
Halfway on any of this, and you know, I mean, the idea of unfreezing those funds is something that the Iranian diaspora, the people who are out in the rest of the world and want very much to see this government overthrown in their country, they want to see that those frozen funds used for them to aid the people of Iran, not to put money back into the pockets of the regime. And we know what happened last time in 2008. Everyone said, "Oh, that deal was so great." The deal was so great. They built up their ballistic missile program. They they made Hezbollah and Hamas flush with cash, and they took that cash and they turned it to terror activities.
And it's not me saying that or Martha McCallum. Saudi Arabia says all their intelligence revealed all that money went to terror.
So if we unfreeze their funds, just so you know, if that regime stays in power. We're just delaying a problem to the next president, who might not be as conscientious as this one. I use that term because I think Israel-Iran is a problem. But Stephen A. Smith had a great comment on Bill Maher the other night.
As you know, he's not a Republican, but listen to this. You got a lot of damn nerves to be in the face of American people saying for numerous administrations, Iran is a problem. We they have to be dealt with. Iran is a problem. They have to be dealt with.
And then this man deals with them, and then all of a sudden you're complaining about him now. It doesn't really make sense. It's a lack of decision. And even Bill Maher's, you know, his his audience claps. Yeah, I mean Stephen A.
Smith is a realist, and he's not afraid to look at the situation, regardless of his politics, and tell it like it is. We we've heard this our entire lifetimes, Brian. You know, and ever since nineteen seventy nine, the revolution, that that Iran needed to be dealt with. I think one of the frustrating things is the. Active participation.
I understand that the Gulf states are under fire; that our bases in those areas have been under fire. It's an unnerving situation. They are very close to it. But this is a moment when this regime could potentially lose its footing, and that the people of Iran might get their country back after all these years. And these things take patience and time.
And I always feel like you know when you look at the history of World War One, World War Two. You see that these chips fall slowly. You have to keep sort of you know putting digs in the side of the tree before the tree falls. And I think that there is a lack of patience. And you know if you really look at the undercurrent here, you see that they are, as Scott Bessent points out, they are struggling.
And when you see them putting these motorcycle bands of you know IRGC or Basij forces on the streets because they're getting worried that that. Told you something as well.
So you know, I think that the American people, as difficult as it is, rising gas prices, things, who I am, you know, I think it's very interesting to note that consumer spending really has not cooled off.
So regardless of these price pressures, people are still. You know, I remember Labor Day weekend. It was like highest number of people traveling in you know in history. Like.
So something's not adding up here.
So I think that I think that the message needs to be articulated a little bit better in terms of what this is all about, and patience, and the bigger picture, and fortitude on the part of the American people. I know there are struggles out there, but this this takes time. It takes time, and I but I see indications that it is happening. And then you see this thing today, and it gives you an indication of what a lashing out entity can do. If indeed this turns out to be related to any of this, it could be a crazy person, a crazy pilot.
But you know, we have to keep all these things in mind as we look at this.
So you know, you love the strategy too of of the campaigns. To me, it's like sports, very much like sports. How do you perform in the clutch? What do you emphasize? How how much do you want to hustle?
What do you? How much do you want it? And and and everything so close. That's why I laugh when people say this is done. Really, it's done.
Yeah, come on.
So the Wall Street Journal, I'm sure you've seen the lead editorial, just broke down. Let's just look at what kind of policies Democrats would have should they gain power. Instead of saying, "Well, I want inflation to be less and I want spending to be less," or whatever it is.
So they took, for example, the consumer prices rose on average of five percent during Biden's four years. You know how much it rose under President Trump? Two point nine. First term, one point nine. When it comes to cost.
If you want to build a home in California, it costs 2.8 times as much as it costs 2.8 million dollars on average in in Texas, one million dollars in gas on average, inflation adjusted. Trump's gas is three dollars and forty three cents a gallon for two years. Biden's was three eighty three. All right, and this guy drained our strategic oil reserve because he didn't want to drill. And just so you know, utilities they judge it by the kilowatt.
Average resident retail electricity rates are a national average is high. California is thirty-three cents, Massachusetts thirty cents, New York twenty-nine cents, New Jersey twenty-five.
Now let's look at the Republican cities. You got Florida fifteen, Nebraska thirteen, Tennessee thirteen, Utah thirteen.
So there's a difference in red states. In blue states, and you should somehow, when you're a voter out there, make a decision of the direction you want your country to head. It's not oh, I'm so mad at Trump; he's disappointed me. It's not going as quick as I can. Just so you know, the other guys want to stop drilling entirely off the coast in the Gulf of America.
They want to stop pipelines. They want to go back to solar panels. They're just not admitting it. They're not going to have the same immigration policy. The caravans are going to start again.
They're just not admitting.
So you just have to say to yourself, "What is the alternative?" Instead of I wish things were better, I'm not sure the Republicans have made that case or made Democrats say what they would do. Yeah, I agree with you, and in a way, I think so much of the platform of Democrats has been sort of the oxygen has been sucked into these you know Democratic socialists, and I think that they do represent. The sentiment of a certain part of the population. I thought it was very interesting in those Wall Street Journal pieces as well that there are a lot of areas where, according to these polls, Republicans and Democrats and Independents want government price controls on things like pharmaceuticals. There are certain things that, according to this poll, anyway, people seem to want the government to take care of.
But they also, the same people, want a very secure border. And I think it's interesting that you know that the shift that we've seen and how quickly people forget what the border situation was like over the past four years, and that and how quickly just defining the southern border of the United States changed it, and how quickly allowing Border officials to do their job instead of sitting at a desk and pushing papers changed that situation.
So you know, I mean, I think voters and American people have very short memories, and so as politicians, you have to be super agile. You have to keep telling them, you know, what you're doing for them lately. But I do think that it's not being well articulated as we head into the weeks, you know, the most important weeks of the midterm races. You know, what do you do? You want to go back to the way that it was, and and I don't.
I think it's these races are super close because people are not sure about that answer.
So, who do you have on your show today? Or are you thinking about? I know you still got plenty of time.
So we are going to be. I think we're going to end up watching President Trump and Howard Lutnick make an announcement at three thirty this afternoon, which of course is going to be of great interest because. We all watched the fascinating post meet the post press conference after the AI group was all there. I mean, it's pretty extraordinary to put all of those individuals in a room and say, "Look, we don't." Essentially, my takeaway is we don't want to regulate you. The White House is saying, but we want you to be responsible and to regulate yourselves.
Whether or not that's going to work, I'm not. I'm not sure, but it. At least the president he is a man of action and a man of talking, so he got them all in the room. I mean, I'm trying to think like other presidents and how they would handle this because it is a huge issue, and he wants to unleash the ingenuity of all these people. But we also need to make sure that you know that these machines don't get out of every guardrail.
Because people say, "Oh, just put in guardrails." The problem is they've tried to put in these guardrails as they've been working on these models and. Agents keep hopping out at them. I mean, it's it's a bizarre situation to even discuss, but that's a real thing.
So I think what you see is President Trump looking for that balance.
So I'm hoping that we're going to get a little bit more. On that and what happened at the meeting from the president and Howard Lutnick at three thirty today, so we're looking forward to that. We're also obviously going to be leading with this airplane story as we get more information on what happened here. Also, Vice President Vance is in Texas this afternoon campaigning. It looks like Texas and Ohio are the two places where the biggest amounts of money is going into these campaigns.
So those are races we're going to. Absolutely, and I know you're excited.
Next month, your book of Valor comes out. You have a great audio book. You were kind enough to have me allow me to participate, and and that book comes out next month. Great job! I mean, your love of history.
Brian played William Dawes, so people are playing and narrating each of these characters, and Brian did an amazing job on William Dawes, who also rode with Paul Revere that night, except he took the southern route to Lexington. That is true.
So that's going to be great next month because we have two hundred and fifty years of America, and you were kind enough to endorse my book, and that is. United States: The Six Crucial Moments That Forged the American Miracle. That comes out in two weeks, so we're going to be talking a lot about history, Martha. I hope we can. I can't wait to read a mutual history of your books at my house.
And we're really excited for the new one, Brian. Absolutely.
So it's going to be great. We can you can order that right now. You go on Amazon wherever you can pre-order. I don't know if you have you set up your own website yet or absolutely. Yes, MarthaMcCallum.com, and you can go to Amazon or anywhere and purchase the book of.
It's a beautiful book, and it's the history of America, and it's American stories strung together from the Mayflower women all the way through the war in Afghanistan, and includes five Medal of Honor recipients telling their own stories.
So it's pretty, it's it's pretty cool. I'm really excited about it. Yeah, you should be. Thanks a lot, Martha. I will see you at three o'clock today.
You, Brian. Look forward to it. You got it.
