Hans von Spakovsky

Well, a very good Monday morning to you here on the Reed Revolution. I'm John Reed and I'm in New York City today.

I got a couple of meetings done up in the next couple of hours.

So then a big event tonight with bought leaders from a lot of media outlets,

a boss, a man hat.

So this could be an interesting conversation.

The last time I was up here, they were focused on how anti-Semitism is on the rise in the United States.

And in the Republican Party.

And I think that's concerning.

But so many people are beginning to see this. I dismissed it.

I got to be honest with you. I kind of thought.

I mean, I just didn't encounter that sentiment when I was running for Lieutenant Governor.

I was all across the state.

But then I was just in Virginia. Now, maybe it's a good thing that in Virginia,

I didn't see it and I didn't feel it during the campaign.

But I'll be curious.

Once you've been in a cocktail party setting and everybody kind of raises an issue,

maybe that makes you a little more sensitive.

So I can't deny that I've seen some things like that.

As I've been on the internet and interacted with people all across the country.

I still don't think it's a big issue, a pressing issue in Virginia.

Fortunately, thank goodness.

I think we don't need any more of that kind of hostility in our environment.

Now, we are waiting on a speaking of Virginia.

We are waiting on a ruling from the court in Lynchburg related to the gerrymandering issue.

We're going to talk to delegate Tim Anderson a little bit about that.

And then, of course, we are continuing to watch all of the fallout from the attacks on Ron.

Wow. You can tell that I'm kind of rigging this up here.

We're still waiting for the fallout after the attacks on Ron.

And I've been kind of shocked by the reaction from a lot of folks who don't seem to approve of what President Trump has done.

I mean, these are people who are all in for Donald Trump.

And I think they believed him when he said, you know, no more foreign wars.

I don't think we're in a war.

I think he has taken action against an enemy to make sure that they don't get a nuclear weapon.

Which is pretty important because these are the people who have for 47 years a death to America, death to the West, death to the Great Satan.

And I think they mean it.

And if, you know, they've taken out probably thousands of lives of individuals that they have terrorized or had killed over these many decades.

And if they get a nuclear weapon,

normally they'll want a seat at the table where you have to deal with them in a different way.

But listen, I think they're religious crazies.

And they would love to usher in the death of millions of Westerners, of millions of individuals.

And I don't think we have, we've been very blessed in America that we haven't had to deal with the realities of the radical Islamic movement around the world.

Europe has faced it in ways that we haven't had to face it.

But it's been an academic conversation for Americans and with the rising number of adherents to Islam in the United States.

And a percentage of those people, not everybody but a percentage of those people becoming radicalized and becoming of the belief that the Infidel's deserve to be either converted or killed.

And I know that's shocking to Americans because we just don't live that way.

But that is the mindset of a lot of people around the world dealing with Iran in this way.

And the Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah, I think is long overdue.

And I am very pleased that President Trump has taken the action that he's taken.

Is it complicated? Is it expensive? Is it horrible to see the damage?

Yes, but this is, I don't live in a fantasy world. I live in the real world.

And I think that a lot of American leaders haven't had the guts to do what needed to be done to try to protect our people.

Unsponsored Spakowski is with us this morning and he's been following these stories for a very, very long time.

What was your reaction, Hans, when you heard the news that the President? I mean, I think we knew this was coming.

It was just a question of what day and then on Saturday, the action was taken. What would you think and good morning to you?

Well, what I was thinking was it was about time. Look, for 50 years, Iran has been the foremost sponsor of terrorism in the world.

It has killed either itself or through the proxy terrorist organizations. It has kept supplied with weapons and arms, including Hezbollah, thousands of Americans.

And anyone who doubts that if they developed a nuclear capacity that they wouldn't use it, either against Israel, other parts of Europe, or even if they, the US, if they could smuggle it in, obviously has no grasp of reality.

This, this was needed. And for those who say, oh my gosh, we're going to get stuck for years wrong.

What they're doing is they're decapitating the political, military, and secret police leadership of this country and degrading its military capacity to the point where no matter what happens, whether, you know, the military takes over and other dictatorship forms or democracy actually is formed.

They're not going to have the capability to do what they've been doing for a very long time. And that's the key to this.

I think it is a fair question to ask, who does replace this tyrannical religious regime? I mean, is there an heir apparent that is prepared to step in and take over the basics of governance that will be better for the United States?

And maybe even for the people on the ground that are on, or we just kind of betten that the people have had enough and they'll figure it out on their own. That's a big bet.

Look, the key question always in these kinds of situations and revolutions is whether is the military going to use its remaining power to take over and force some kind of military dictatorship.

Are there, is there a big enough resistance to prevent that and try to establish a democracy? I don't know the answer to that. I don't think there actually is an heir apparent. I don't think the son of the former Shaw.

Yeah, maybe he can initially be there for a transition, but you know, he's got no governing experience.

So I just on the ground. Yeah, I just don't think he can do it. But again, yeah, we should be concerned about it. But look, we're not going to put big forces boots on the ground like we did in Afghanistan and Iraq, because I think Donald Trump realizes that was a big mistake.

In both of those cases, we should have done the same, decapitate the political leadership, destroy their military capacities and get out, trying to bring a 14th century culture into the modern world that that is a losing proposition.

Yeah, when you look at the damage that's been done, the, the deaths so far, American deaths so far, how do you evaluate that? It does not strike me as, um, it strikes me as a successful operation, even with those deaths.

And that I hope I'm expressing appropriate sympathy for our fellow Americans who have been in the military who've been killed, but this looks like a successful operation to.

Oh, oh, yeah, and look, it's still going on, but it clearly already is been very successful. Yeah, they are launching missile attacks on our embassies and other locations.

But they could only do that for a very limited amount of time, one, because of the overall damage being done to them. And in particular, because of the damage being done to their control over those features.

Look, every time they launch a missile, we have the capacity to find out where it was launched from and then destroy that area. They only have a very limited capacity to strike back.

And we're continuing to damage and destroy that.

What's been your reaction to other nations and their statements about the American action here?

Well, you know, I thought it was interesting that the United Kingdom finally cleared the use of our American bases and the United Kingdom for this.

And, you know, they have a fairly liberal government over there and yet they, I think, finally agreed.

You know, you've even had a small number of Democrats speak out and say, look, this has been needed in the president's doing the right thing.

Anyone who objects to this does not have a grasp of reality, the dangers of Iran and its achieving a nuclear capability and all of the deaths it has caused by being such a sponsor of terrorism.

You know, anyone who's against this probably thinks that Neville Chamberlain was a great Prime Minister in England.

If they even know who Neville Chamberlain was, I think.

I have to tell you, Hans, watching the reaction from younger Republicans and younger conservatives who, you know, want to be careful here because I'm not trying to be overtly rude.

But I had to check a few of them and say, how old are you again? You're 28 years old. No disrespect, but you haven't been tracking what's happened for 47 years.

You haven't traveled around the world and suddenly found that there have been terrorist warnings that have caused you to have to change your business plans or your vacation plans.

Because somebody from Iran decided that they put a fatwa on you or someone you knew or that just generally Americans had to watch themselves.

You can't name the names of the Americans like Robert Steedham and Mr. Klinghofer and these people that we watched murdered over these decades.

What do we do with that group though that I think is very sincere and passionate in their desire for the United States not to be aggressive overseas with military action.

Certainly not long-term military action and their reaction to President Trump is to feel betrayed by this.

I think all we can do is try to educate them because they obviously have missed the kind of education they need in history and particularly looking at what happened in the 1930s when the Allies could have acted very early to stop Hitler and refuse to do it.

That's the kind of re-education, frankly, that they need to make them understand that the term piece through strength, that's a real term.

It's one that really applies to history and if they don't know that history then they are going to repeat the terrible mistakes that occurred in the past that led to the unnecessary deaths of millions of people.

I mentioned I'm in Manhattan today for a couple of meetings I got here yesterday afternoon and I was walking around with my head on a swivel because I do think at some point they're going to be acts of retribution in the United States maybe from people who are here already who I don't know why we haven't taken their threat seriously over the last few years.

But it appears to me that there's a rising group of radical Islamists in our own population and this may be an opportunity to ferret them out and invite them to leave the country in my opinion.

Look, I agree that it might be an unfortunate and tragic lesson for those who think we ought to have a completely open border and completely open immigration policy and realize that we need a much stricter one that is much more interested in security and ensuring that individuals who are going to become domestic terrorists do not get into the United States.

Is there an appropriate legitimate legal way to vet people to understand that and this is controversial say other than saying we're not going to allow anybody of this faith from this part of the world into the country.

Is there a legitimate reasonable way to try to figure this out before something bad?

Well, yeah, I mean, one of the ways is something I don't know if you recall this prior democratic administrations told the Department of Homeland Security, for example, that it was not allowed to review social media posts by individuals who are applying to come in.

The Trump administration fortunately changed that but that's the kind of investigation you know a lot of people they're very revealing in what they post and frankly anyone who you find social media posts who are praising, for example, Hamas and other terrorists that they should not be led into the country that's just plain common sense and that's the kind of thing we need to be doing in the immigration area.

Yeah, maybe maybe some retrospective reviews of that would be important when I worked hearing Manhattan Hans, you know, I was doing a radio program up here on occasion.

I was shocked by some of the people who were working for the sister station.

I was doing conservative talk and there were a couple of other stations and I remember on 9-11 the anniversary of 9-11 one of the young women came in and said oh I bet you're going to talk about a 9-11 today and I said well.

Yeah, I mean that's it's it's the big anniversary and I would think people here in Midtown would kind of be mad if you didn't talk about all the lines that were lost and she went on to talk about what a glorious day it was for the martyrs.

Not Americans but her comrades or allies and I remember kind of being shocked here's a woman who has a good job who's living here in the United States in Midtown Manhattan who is bold enough to tell the guy who's about to host a radio talk show on 9-11 that what happened there was good and just and that we deserved it.

That always has been in the van this is year this 15 years ago this is always been in the back of my head.

How did this woman get in and how is she meant to stay and how many of how many people like her are living right down the street that I don't know.

I mean look that is a problem John and what's even worse is all of the advocacy organizations for example you know that have gone to court to try to prevent the current administration from removing individuals aliens who are here on visas and otherwise who are vocal supporters of terrorist groups like Hamas.

And and and unfortunately judges have been giving in and refusing to enforce immigration laws which allow us to remove aliens with those views that that is an ongoing problem that's going to feed into the kind of potential attacks that that you were just talking about.

Hans I really appreciate the chance to talk to you Hans von Spakowski advancing American freedom we'll talk again soon thank you great thanks John thanks very much.

All right let's take a break and we'll be back with more of the read revolution in just moment.