Episodios
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For the first time since 1892, a former president has regained the office he lost. President. In a landslide victory, Donald Trump won an extremely diverse coalition worried about the state of America’s economy and southern border. The Democratic Party, meanwhile, lost ignominiously and will have some soul-searching to do in the wake of failed identity politics and attempts to cast Trump and his supporters as a threat to American ideals. Who are the voters that drove Trump to victory? How might Trump’s second term differ from his first? And what can American leaders on both sides do right now to unite the country?
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President Donald Trump has routinely said he supports immigration, as long as it’s legal, including when Marc interviewed the former president for the Washington Post. Then in the pages of National Review, Marc’s AEI colleagues Michael Strain and Ramesh Ponnuru debated the extent to which Trump supported legal immigration during his presidency and now on the campaign trail. So, we are bringing Strain and Ponnuru onto the pod to debate the extent of Trump’s support for legal immigration, and how he might and should address immigration reform in a potential second term.
Ramesh Ponnuru is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies politics and public policy with a particular focus on the future of conservatism. Concurrently, he is the editor of National Review, where he has covered national politics and public policy for 25 years, and a columnist for the Washington Post.
Michael Strain is the director of Economic Policy Studies and the Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also the Professor of Practice at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, a research fellow with the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, a research affiliate with the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and a member of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group. Dr. Strain also writes as a columnist for Project Syndicate.
Read the transcript here.
Read Marc’s interview with President Trump in the Washington Post here.
Read Michael Strain’s article in the National Review here.
Read Ramesh Ponnuru’s article in the National Review here.
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On this episode of WTH Extra! Dany and Marc speak to Fred Kagan about Israel’s strike against Iran over the weekend, retaliating against Iran’s unprovoked October 1 missile barrage against the Jewish state. Israel’s strike, involving over 100 aircraft, effectively took out Iranian air defense systems and decimated Iran’s missile production capabilities. However, either because of Israel’s strategic calculation or pressure from President Biden, Israel chose not to target Iran’s nuclear or oil production. Did Israel effectively put a halt to the tit-for-tat escalation with Iran? Or did it miss an opportunity to prevent a much more dangerous Iran down the road?
Frederick W. Kagan is the director of AEI’s Critical Threats Project and a former professor of military history at the US Military Academy at West Point. He is the author of the 2007 report Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq, which is one of the intellectual architects of the successful “surge” strategy in Iraq, and the book Lessons for a Long War (AEI Press, 2010). His Critical Threats Project, alongside the Institute for the Study of War, releases regular updates on Iranian activity in the Middle East, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and transnational terrorism on the African continent.
Read the transcript here.
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On October 27, 1964, Ronald Reagan launched his political career with his “Time for Choosing” speech, a moment so famous it simply became known as “The Speech.” Ushering in a new era of conservatism, future President Reagan argued that Americans were at a pivotal moment and had a choice to make: Did they want a massive welfare state or lower taxes, government, and greater capitalist innovation? To stand up to the enemies of freedom and American ideals or let Communism spread across the world? To let the government be run by elites or run by the people? On the sixtieth anniversary of this speech, one thing is clear: Reagan’s principles are timeless, and as relevant now as they were sixty years ago.
Peter Schweizer is an investigative journalist and author of five New York Times bestselling books. Peter is also the founder and president of the Government Accountability Institute, host of The Drill Down podcast, and was previously a consultant to the Office of Presidential Speechwriting in the White House for President George W. Bush. He is the author of Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty-Year Struggle and Final Triumph Over Communism (Knopf 2003).
Read the transcript here.
Watch Reagan’s Time for Choosing speech here.
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Find Peter's podcast here.
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After a year of fighting between Israel, Iranian proxies, and now Iran itself, it’s still unclear how this war will end. Hezbollah and Hamas are militarily devastated. The Iranian regime has never looked weaker. But the Israel-Hamas war is also nowhere close to being settled, Israel is only now beginning its operations in southern Lebanon, and the world is still awaiting Israeli retaliation for Iran’s October 1 missile attack. In this episode of WTH Live! Elliott Abrams, David Deptula, and Eyal Hulata join Dany at AEI to discuss what the future of Israel’s de facto war with Iran should and will look like.
Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He previously served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House, and as Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela in the administration of Donald Trump.
Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula (Ret.) serves as the Dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Gen. Deptula was the principal attack planner for the Operation Desert Storm air campaign, commander of no-fly-zone operations over Iraq in the late 1990s, director of the air campaign over Afghanistan in 2001, and has served on two congressional commissions charged with outlining America’s future defense posture. Gen. Deptula retired from the Air Force in 2010 after more than 34 years of distinguished service.
Eyal Hulata is a senior international fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Eyal previously served as Israel’s national security advisor and head of Israel’s National Security Council (NSC). During his tenure, Eyal coordinated the national effort on Iran, coordinated the maritime border agreement with Lebanon, and co-headed the Strategic Consultation Group with his American counterpart, Jake Sullivan.
Read the transcript here.
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Chinese companies control 80% of the shipping cranes in U.S. ports. And the People’s Republic of China is now the largest foreign investor in U.S. shale gas. And Chinese companies operating in the U.S. are regularly caught stealing American intellectual property, personal data, and even genomic data. Why should we care? Because Chinese companies are legally beholden to the Chinese Communist Party, and have given the CCP the opportunity to cripple critical American infrastructure in the event of any confrontation between the U.S. and China. In this episode of WTH Live! the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party outline the threat certain Chinese companies operating in the U.S. pose to national security, and how to combat it.
Congressman John R. Moolenaar represents Michigan's Second Congressional District and serves as the Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. Rep. Moolenaar also serves as Michigan’s senior member of the House Committee on Appropriations and as the Co-Chair for the School Choice Caucus. Prior to joining the House, Rep. Moolenaar served in the Michigan State Senate and Michigan House of Representatives.
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi represents Illinois’s Eighth Congressional District and serves as the Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, making him the first South Asian American in history to lead a Congressional Committee. He also serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
Read the transcript here.
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One year ago today, Hamas perpetrated the worst massacre of Jewish people in a single day since the Holocaust. In this episode of WTH Extra! Dany and Marc discuss Dany’s article in the WTH Substack, WTH 10/7: It's not just a war on Israel. In the year that followed October 7, 2023, Jews have been the subjects of antisemitic attacks around the world. Iran and its proxies have opened up a seven front war on the Jewish state. And Western leaders have routinely failed to address the problems exposed after October 7, at home and abroad. The time for action was yesterday. But it is never too late to speak out against hate and reject tribalism at home, and the time is now to stop Iran and support American allies abroad.
Read Dany’s article in the WTH Substack here.
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General (Ret.) Frank McKenzie was the Commander of United States Central Command when the U.S. took out Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. What can we learn from Gen. McKenzie’s time as CENTCOM Commander? It’s simple: America’s enemies respect our strength. And when we fail to punish bad actors, stand by our allies, or uphold our commitments, our enemies – from Iran to Russia to China – are emboldened. In our conversation with Gen. McKenzie, we discuss his new book, lessons from his service under multiple administrations, and the decision making leading up to America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
General (Ret.) Frank McKenzie the former Commander of United States Central Command. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the University of South Florida’s Global National Security Institute, the Executive Director of the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, and as a Distinguished Senior Fellow on National Security at the Middle East Institute. He is the author of The Melting Point: High Command and War in the 21st Century (Naval Institute Press, 2024).
Read the transcript here.
Subscribe to our Stubstack here.
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In this episode of WTH Extra! Dany and Marc discuss Dany’s article in the WTH Substack, #WTH Meet the President of Iran. Amid the Israeli campaign against Hezbollah leadership, munitions, and anything a Hezbolahi has ever touched, Dany went to New York to meet with the president of Hezbollah’s financier and personal trainer, Iran. Sitting in a room with an odd group of Iranian regime fanboys and some serious people, Dany noticed something interesting: The claims coming from Iran’s president sound an awful lot like what we often hear on college campuses, read in major American news outlets, and see pushed by Western Middle East “experts.” What has happened to the world that Iran can play the victim and not be laughed off the stage? You know the answer to that.
Read Dany’s piece in What the Hell is Going On? here.
Bonus: Learn more about secondary explosions in Lebanon here.
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In this episode of WTH Extra! Dany and Marc discuss Marc’s column in the Washington Post, Trump disavowed Project 2025. But Harris still owns her Project 2019. Donald Trump has regularly disavowed the Heritage Foundation’s wish list of proposals in its Project 2025, but Kamala Harris has failed to properly explain her shifts away from the far-left policies she campaigned on in 2019 – call it her “Project 2019.” Voters deserve to know why Harris has changed her policy positions so dramatically, and which of her 2019 positions she is actually abandoning.
Read Marc’s column in the Washington Post here.
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With one page, Israel was able to take thousands of Hezbollah operatives off the battlefield. When Hezbollah feared its modern communications network had been compromised, the Lebanese terrorist organization decided to dole out old-school pagers and two-way radios, hoping they would be more secure. In an operation more reminiscent of James Bond than reality, Israeli intelligence managed to infiltrate Hezbollah’s supply line and implant explosives throughout Hezbollah’s new “secure” communications network. The result? A crippled adversary, boosted Israeli morale, and all with historically low civilian casualties.
Marc Polymeropoulos is a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Polymeropoulos worked for twenty-six years at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) before retiring in July 2019 at the Senior Intelligence Service level. He was one of the CIA’s most highly decorated operations officers. He is the author of Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA (HarperCollins, 2021).
Read the transcript here.
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Free speech is under attack on America’s college campuses. 2023 was already set to be the worst year for de-platforming – speakers being canceled or shut down because of their views – even before October 7 unleashed waves of antisemitic protests that worked to silence anyone attempting to support the Jewish state. Absent serious reform that protects all voices in our academic institutions, this school year will blow last year out of the water. What can schools do to protect free speech on campus? How are students taking matters into their own hands by rejecting self-censorship? And what are the best and worst schools for freedom of speech?
Greg Lukianoff is an attorney, New York Times best-selling author, and the President and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). He is a regular author on free speech issues and was executive producer of the documentaries Can We Take a Joke? (2015) and Mighty Ira: A Civil Liberties Story (2020). Lukianoff earned his undergraduate degree from American University and his law degree from Stanford.
Read the transcript here.
Read FIRE’s 2025 College Free Speech Rankings here.
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More thoughts on that debate, and we cover the fascinating question of the Jewish vote, which traditionally leans heavily Democratic. Following a year of Biden administration equivocation over antisemitic, anti-Zionist, and anti-American protests, Jewish voters in swing states may swing the election in Trump’s favor – if he can focus on policy over cat-related conspiracy theories. How is the debate fallout impacting the election? Will Harris be able to maintain the Democratic Party’s Jewish contingency? And how are fringe voices shifting the messaging of both parties?
Josh Kraushaar is the editor-in-chief of Jewish Insider and a political analyst for Fox News Radio. He was previously a senior political correspondent at Axios, editor-in-chief of the Hotline, and a co-author at the Almanac of American Politics.
Read the transcript here.
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In this episode of WTH Extra! Dany and Marc discuss the disaster that was the first and likely only debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris came into the debate well prepped, articulate, and managed to dodge the few attempts to make her explain her flip-flopping on a litany of far-left policies. Trump, meanwhile, succumbed to his worst temptations, failing to take advantage of opportunities to knock Harris’s record. Worst of all, the moderators showed a clear and unabashed bias for Harris all night long.
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Summer is over and the election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is right around the corner, with early voting starting this month in some states. Today, the election is in effect a tossup with highly possible paths to victory for both candidates. But this election is either’s to lose, with Trump struggling to stay on message and Harris unwilling or unable to speak alone and off script with the American people. What are Harris and Trump’s chances come November? Will the GOP keep the House and re-take Senate? What would a Harris administration mean for America?
Karl Rove is a Wall Street Journal columnist and a Fox News contributor. He is the former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush and is known as “The Architect” of President Bush’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns. Rove is the author of The Triumph of William McKinley (Simon & Schuster, 2016) and Courage and Consequence (Threshold Editions, 2010).
Read the transcript here.
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Ukraine’s cross-border counterattack into Kursk Oblast, Russia, flipped the script on those who thought Ukrainians were losing in a stalemated war. Not only is the operation a brilliant tactical move, forcing the Russians to move troops to defend their own territory, but the invasion of Kursk also gives Ukraine leverage in any future negotiations. However the war is not won yet, and it is now up to the Biden administration to finally put an end to disastrous policies and restrictions on Ukraine that have only prolonged the fighting.
General Jack Keane is a retired 4-star general and the former Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army. He is also the Chairman of the Institute for the Study of War, a Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst, and a member of the Secretary of Defense Policy Board. General Keane has previously advised four Defense Secretaries and was a member of the 2018 and 2022 Congressional Commission on the National Defense Strategy.
Read the transcript here.
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The Democratic National Convention is full steam ahead in Chicago as the Democrats enthusiastically rally around their new nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. However, amidst celebrity performances and impassioned speeches by former presidents, it can be easy to forget that Harris’s approval rating trailed even Biden’s dismal record up until recently. Moreover, Harris’s sole policy speech of her candidacy baffled even those in her own party. Will Harris be forced to define her policy platform before November? Or will she continue to climb in polls by running off of “vibes and joy”?
Jessica Tarlov joined FOX News Channel as a contributor in 2017 and serves as a rotating co-host of The Five. She also offers political analysis across FNC and FOX Business Network’s programming. In addition to her role on FNC, Tarlov serves as the Vice President of Research and Consumer Insight for Bustle Digital Group. Previously, she served as a senior strategist with Schoen Consulting and worked as a Democratic pollster.
Find the transcript here.
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In today’s WTH Extra! episode, Dany and Marc discuss Marc’s latest Washington Post column, Two data points explain why voters hate the Biden-Harris economy. Kamala Harris’s previous attempts to defend Bidenomics have bombed with voters, and for good reason. During the Biden-Harris administration, Americans’ household savings have plummeted while personal debt levels have skyrocketed to the highest levels ever recorded. Yet instead of learning from her mistakes, Harris’s recent economic proposals double down on the policies that unleashed the very inflation Americans are struggling with today.
Read Marc’s column in the Washington Post here.
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Closing out What the Hell’s summer book series, Brad Wilcox discusses his book Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization (Broadside Books, 2024) in front of a live audience of the very people on whom Wilcox hopes to impress his message: College students. Today, Americans are getting married and starting families older and older, if at all. But America’s youth might be surprised to learn that not only are married people more likely to be more financially stable and successful in their careers than their unmarried peers, but they are generally happier and feel more fulfilled as well. The data is there, we should all Get Married.
Brad Wilcox is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he directs The Home Economics Project. Wilcox is also a Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, where he directs the National Marriage Project, and is a senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies. He is the author of Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization (Broadside Books, 2024).
Find Get Married here.
Find the transcript here.
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In this episode of What the Hell’s summer book series, the WSJ’s Meghan Cox Gurdon discusses the wonders of audiobooks, reading aloud, and her book The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction (Harper, 2019). The idea of the “talking book” has been with us for almost a century, so why do so many consider audiobooks or books read aloud to us to be cheating? Not only does reading aloud to children and adults bring people closer together, but hearing a book out loud makes it come to life in a special way for the listener. Reading aloud also has incredible benefits for young children and audiobooks have allowed literature to become more accessible to us all.
Meghan Cox Gurdon is a weekly columnist for the books pages of The Wall Street Journal, covering children’s literature as well as a range of titles for adults. A former foreign correspondent and a magna cum laude graduate of Bowdoin College, Meghan has five children with her husband, the English journalist Hugo Gurdon. She is the author of The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction (Harper 2019).
Find The Enchanted Hour here.
Find the transcript here.
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