Iran Update, Cal Thomas, Goodbye DC Streetcar

What's up, everybody? What's up, everybody? What's up, everybody? Now on 105.9 f m and streaming worldwide on the WMAL app, O'Connor and Company. Good Wednesday morning, first day of April. Thanks for tuning into our Connor and Company at 607. We're going to plow through this new cycle and get you educated, informed, motivated, activated, and 7 0 5 brings us Hans von Spikowski to talk about the birthright citizenship argument of Skotis 7 35 astronaut Clay Anderson on tonight's launch for the moon and at 8 35 Reagan Reese daily color White House news correspondent but that's a lot I'm glad I've got Patrice on. We could help me out on this Wednesday. Good morning Patrice. Hey good morning. Happy. Be Fool's Day or April Fool's Day. We're just, we're just, we're just pretending April Fool's does not exist today. It's for children. I don't like it. Don't like it. Okay. Especially in talk radio. The never mind. I just know I'm when a host goes in there and says, well I've changed my mind. I'm now the supporting Zora Mamdani and let me make the case for it. It's like, it's like stop. And then you know you go to the first commercial break and wow you guys seem really upset. I've got a lot of calls from you. It's just April Fool's. I'm kidding. Yeah, yeah, I don't, I don't like that at all. Yeah. All right. Yesterday, Raisin Kane, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Chiefs of Staff. You know he shares that name with a chicken franchise. Have you seen Raisin Kane? I think he's well aware of that. I've never used it there yet but I've been tempted. Well you know, Avi, he's the Air Force, right? He flutes jets, right? Aviators tend to get nicknames pretty quickly. They're thrust upon them. They are not their own nicknames. You know like Maverick. Maverick. So you get the, you're given the name. You don't, you don't go into it with, I'm the Maverick guys. That's right. You don't come in and say call me Maverick. No, they, they decided to call you something, right? Of course I, Val Kilmer famously played Iceman. I had a different nickname for him but I don't think we should get into that. I can't say it on the air actually. Oh. Okay, you can tell me offline. Yeah. Anyway, Raisin Kane gave his joint press conference with today with Secretary of War Pete Hegsef. Yes. And Daily Caller Reagan-Reece is going to be joining us coming up. Terrific. Asked a question of the general. Take a listen to this and also we'll sort of summarize where things are right now with regard to Iran and the President's announcement that he'll be addressing the nation this evening. Cut five please. Thank you, Secretary Hegsef. A question for you and then a question for General Kane. You said we're a month into the Operation Epic Fury. How long until the objectives are achieved and is there a scenario where a deal is struck before the objectives have been achieved? And then for General Kane, there's been lots of media coverage that suggested ground invasion is imminent. What other purposes might the soldiers and the Marines who have been deployed over to the Middle East serve in this conflict? Well, just like the previous question, it's sort of military 101. Don't tell your enemy what you're willing to do or not do. And don't tell your enemy when you're willing to stop. Especially an enemy that likes to hide in bunkers and try to hoard their missiles and hope you'll wait you out. So that's not a question I'm going to answer or the President has said definitively. We have our own goals and guidance and things were military objectives that we're moving toward and things that we look at. And has he's articulated, you know, he said four to six weeks, six to eight weeks, three, it could be any particular number, but we would never reveal precisely what it is. Because our goal is to finish those objectives and we're well on our way. And the Chairman and I look at this every single day. It will be the President's determination and the President's determination alone when those objectives are complete. And when it serves the interest of the American people to cut that deal, to make sure that Iran doesn't have a nuclear capability and ultimately that our objectives or our interests are advanced. I don't know if you have one. Yes, and he's going to go on a little bit more here and we want to listen to it because as you know, listen, this has been a mostly Navy operation. There are Marines deployed right now, but they're sitting and waiting. Navy gave them a ride over there and now they're hanging out and they're waiting for whatever their orders are. And I believe it's either 5,000 or potentially 7,500. Oh, by the way, it was just announced yesterday that the carrier group, George Herbert Walker Bush, will be heading over there as well. That might be to relieve one of the carrier groups that's been there for quite some time and that carrier would go out. I think that the one that's been there the longest, forgive me if I get this wrong, but I think the Truman has been there the longest. Right now the Truman and the Ford are there. I think the Truman might come back and the Bush will be there. I think or all three will stay there. I'm not sure, but they've been there. And then of course just last week, the Army Division of Airborne has been deployed. I don't think they're there yet, but they've been announced. So there are some soldiers there too. Here are some of the additional words that he said. General Kane said about those additional troops. These would be boots on the ground. Maybe generally don't have boots on the ground. It'd be Marines and soldiers. Take a listen. No, just to answer your question, Reagan, you know, the range of military options that those forces can offer are extensive, not just limited to what you mentioned in terms of forces on the ground. And I wouldn't want to take away the president's decision space, but there are a multitude of things, not the least of which is Iran should note that they're out there. And that they are at pressure point. And so they should carefully consider, I think, at the diplomatic level. Not my job as a chairman, but at the diplomatic level to consider what's in front of them. Yeah, there's two main tasks right now. The first is to actually, if they are sent in to carry out a mission, none of the forces right there, the ground forces that are poised and ready to go, are an occupation force or an invasion force. They are there to carry out specific targeted missions and hold specific valuable entities, whether it's a military facility or a energy producing facility, oil facility, et cetera, et cetera. But strategic locations, they can go in and they can either destroy it or take control of it. Probably take control because they can be destroyed from the air, right? And I think they're trying hard not to destroy things. I haven't mentioned this on, I don't think I've mentioned this on the air. My son-in-law is one of those Marines. Wow. He's waiting. He's waiting. He was the second wave of, second wave Mew that got sent there from Okinawa. And he's poised, he's ready and he wants to go. By the way, everybody who's, the moms and dads of us, we want them to be there as a show of force to make around knuckle under and blink and then it'll be all over and then they'll all come home. That said, if we got to send somebody there, I'm glad it's my son-in-law because I know what a good man he is, I know how well trained he is. He's an Naval Academy graduate. He knows what he's doing and he's going to get the job done in the most amazing and professional and respectful way possible. That said, there are a lot of people like me right now who are holding our breath and waiting to see what transpires right now. So I'm glad that the question was asked and I'm glad that the answer. I know that they're not going to say, yeah, here's what we're going to do with them, obviously. But it's good to know that when there are boots on the grounds, every pair of those boots, there's a couple of parents waiting to see what happens to those boots. And some wives, maybe some kids. Well, in this case, a wife and a kid on the way. That's exactly what I was thinking. That's exactly what I was thinking. I enjoy whenever we have Secretary Hegseth and General Cain on to provide an update on how the war effort is going and then how the way forward as much as they can or desire to share with us. It's important that the American people see and hear for themselves rather than getting secondhand knowledge from a skewed media about the war effort. And then we get to make a choice for ourselves is whether we think that the campaign is going as planned. And it is. And that's why I think that there has been so much grace, Larry, given by the American people when it comes to the impact on their pockets right now. Because, you know, gas crossed four dollars. I think everybody saw that headline on every news outlet yesterday. But I think the American people are willing to swallow an extra dollar in gas prices per gallon because they're recognizing that this conflict is likely to be short, not years, not months. And the upside is huge. And the upside is huge. You get this terror state off the map and stop, you know, the attacks and the threats that have been going on for over four decades. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase said that on Fox News. Yeah, there's going to be some economic impact short term, but the long term is huge. And I think most people are willing to go ahead with that. You're right. Everybody but Jake Tapper seems to be tolerant of, you know, short term gas prices. Jake, complaining about gas prices under Joe Biden when we weren't involved in a military conflict in the Middle East. The President Trump addressed the latest out of Iran yesterday as he was doing a signing ceremony for an executive order having to do with election integrity. We'll let you hear what he had to say and also the announcement that he'll be addressing the nation tonight in prime time. We'll get to that in a moment. First, though, 615. Action. Next roll with Vernon Davis. I'm your host Vernon Davis. Okay, y'all, thank you. Thank you. That's my... Each of us through my example on the field, off the field during game day in practice. That was one way that I led because then it led to success. Next roll isn't about what's next. It's about why they do it. My man, Bobby Bones. Like I've had a lot of stuff happen, bad and good. And so I don't have any fear of mixing it up. That's powerful, man. Next roll with Vernon Davis. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Couple of amazing moments yesterday. One when President Trump got a little combative while actually the Reuters reporter deserved it. We'll get to that in a moment. But first, here's the president answering some questions about what he thinks now. The end game is with the military strikes in the Middle East. Take a listen. The U.S. would be gone or done with the war until... I think we're two or three weeks. It definitely means that it is... We'll leave because there's no reason for us to do this. Look, probably the straight. A guy can take a mine, drop it in the water and say, oh, it's unsafe. It's not like you're taking out an army or you're taking out a country or you don't... They can drop it. Or you can take a machine gun from the shore and shoot a little few boba's on a ship. Or maybe an over the shoulder missile, small missiles. That's not for us. That'll be for France. That'll be for whoever's using the straight. But I think when we leave, probably that's all cleared up. Today, I heard tremendous numbers of ships were sailing through. We're negotiating with them right now. They've been... Again, we have had regime change. Now, regime change was not one of the things I had as a goal. I had one goal. They will have no nuclear weapon. And that goal has been attained. They will not have nuclear weapons. But we're finishing the job. And I think within maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer to do the job. But we want to knock out every single thing there. Now, it's possible that we'll make a deal before that. Because we'll hit bridges. And we've hit some... We'll hit some bridges. We've got a couple of nice bridges in mind. But if they come to the table, that'll be good. But it doesn't matter whether they come or not. We've set them back. It'll take 15 to 20 years for them to rebuild what we've done to them. They have no Navy. They have no military. They have no Air Force. They have no telecommunications. They have no anti-aircraft systems. They have no leaders. Their leaders are all gone. That's why we have regime change. We have nice new leaders. Yeah, he basically said regime change has already happened. They seem comfortable with the people they're talking to. We'll get into that in a moment. And then I want you to listen to this because somebody said, one of the reporters jumped in. Iran just threatened tech companies, Google, Apple, and all these places. If more leaders are killed, Iran threatened them. And now take a listen to how President Trump handles this exchange. Apple is here. What? What did they threaten them with? PB guns? Well, that's a... They don't have much left to threaten. My question for you is are you... I don't know. I mean, what are they... You made a statement. What did they threaten them with? I don't know. Tell me, how did they threaten them? Well, all I know is that they threatened them, sir. What does that mean? Fair enough. They said something nasty. You have... You use the government. They talked to these companies. You're helping to backstop them. You don't even know what the threat was. What was the threat? I haven't heard it. What was the threat? Did they say they're going to blow them up? They're going to hit them. They're not... You know what they're not going to do? They're not going to hit them with a nuclear weapon. It turned out... I believe that the threat was a cyber attack, which people believe that they still have certain capabilities to do cyber attacks. But so it's just... It's just... It's moments like that where it's like, oh, I'm going to miss this guy. What are you throwing them with? BB guns? That's a good line. That's a good line. It appears as though if there's one trait from President Trump, and I think that there are many that have been picked up by those who are right now on the shortlist to succeed him as the next Republican in that desk, both J.D. Danse and Mark O'Ruby are pretty damn good at sparring with the media as well. So that's a good thing. So the president's going to address the nation tonight. What do you expect to hear from him, Patrice? I expect him to reiterate that the timeline is going to be shorter rather than longer. I think he will run through the accomplishments so far. Really important to take off what's been destroyed. Also, I look forward to hearing him talk about how its response has weakened from the first day of the attacks. You're not hearing the constant bombardment by Iran of its neighbors, because Iran's weapons have been severely downgraded. And then I think he'll talk about gas prices. He absolutely will. And I think maybe he'll make the case and say, hey, folks, thank you for giving us grace so far. And we're just asking for a little bit more grace. And then if he goes off script, then we probably will hear about the Save America Act, and we might hear about the filibuster. But that's what I'm expecting. That's what I'm looking forward to him saying tonight. Yeah, I think you're right. I think it'll be a recitation of all the success we've had laying out exactly how devastating the attacks have been. And the fact that regime change has happened, even though that wasn't a primary goal, there is no regime left in terms of all of the multi-generations of successors for the Ayatollahs. And now it's the chance for the Iranian people to take back their country and take back their nation. And I think he'll talk a little bit about the fact that they've identified some people that they can deal with, that they've talked to, and even the Foreign Minister of Iran. You know all these, all these, like, Trump's lying. They're not talking to anyone. They're not talking to anyone. The Iran Foreign Minister actually acknowledged overnight that, yes, there have been communications with people. He said, you know, we're not really talking. We're passing notes. Oh, for God's sake, people. Whatever. It's communication. Of course it is. It could be through with a pigeon in the air, a carrier pigeon for all he care. And you know, we've got, I think, Larry, and also... Yeah, go ahead. Oh, I was just going to toss in there. He's also going to be speaking to the international community, who have been on the sidelines right now, and I'm sure he's going to have a message for them too. Yeah, and I hope he takes the time to acknowledge about 200 to 350 U.S. surface members who have been wounded at this point, with the random and sort of, you know, last ditch desperate strikes that Iran sent to U.S. bases in some of the countries surrounding the Persian nation. And of course the 15 confirmed killed. I think it's important to note though, considering how long this mission has gone, and how impactful this mission has been, and how successful this mission has been, as tragic as each and every one of those 15 deaths happen to be, if you understand military operations like this, and you understand the dangers involved, and the fact that Iran was the fifth largest military on the planet going in, after five weeks, 15 service members killed with this kind of operation, is a miraculous number. That's a very good point. Six of those were killed in a refueling accident. That's right, yes. A horrific accident that could have happened during a training mission. That's true. So it is, again, I don't, God forbid, God forbid any of my words sound like I'm minimizing the tragedy of those losses. But when you know what our military does, and what the risks are when they do what they do, 15 confirmed service members killed in this kind of operation is truly a miracle. And the tragedy for those 15 families, God knows, but a miracle when it comes to modern warfare, and what has been accomplished here, and I'm sure he will take some time to honor all of those families. It is 625. Oh, I'm pretty sure I haven't gotten confirmation, but I'm pretty sure if past this prologue, you will hear the President's remarks live here on WMAL. It is 625. WMAL app, O'Connor and company. Very busy Wednesday morning, this first day of April here in the nation's capital. Every day is busy, though, with Trump 47 coming up at 705 Hans von Spikowski, gives us a preview of the birthright citizenship argument before the Supreme Court later today. 735, astronaut Clay Anderson, a preview of the moon launch from Artemis to this evening, and then at 835 Reagan Reese, daily colors, White House correspondent Larry O'Connor with Patrice Anwuka on a rare Wednesday. Patrice, you get to join us in our conversation with Cal Thomas. I don't think you ever get to talk to Cal Thomas. I know, very rarely, so this is so much fun. Very rarely. All right, Cal, be on your best behavior now. Well, you know, Patrice, I'm the guest. Good morning, you. Patrice, unlike a blind date, the anticipation is better than the actual event. Yeah, noted. President Trump will address the nation tonight, Cal. First of all, do you think he's going to lead with an April Fool's joke, or do you think he'll go right in? He might, maybe he could lead off with a picture of Kristi Noem's husband that would get the nations attention. Oh, and, you know, happy now. Yes, he's just busting out all over, isn't he? Oh, boy, oh boy. Yeah, there are too many jokes like that. Now, I've been calling for this since time. I think the importance of an address from the Oval Office solidifies the problem that we have, that communication is not getting through to the people. The President's ratings, approval ratings are down in the 30s now. I think he needs to say, look, this is what would have happened if we hadn't gone in. They would have built a nuclear weapon. They would have put it on top of a missile. Those missiles would have been able to reach Israel and many other nations, including in Europe, and possibly the East Coast of the United States. And the big mistake of World War II, which we cannot make again, is that we cannot turn a blind eye to what our enemies are trying to do. Otherwise, they're going to do it. And that's some of what he ought to say, and I think that will get through to the public. Well, you know, Cal, I'm thinking he may also mention that he was at the Supreme Court earlier in the day, listening to oral arguments in the case of birthright citizenship. You know, what are you expecting coming out of that case? And I know there are lots of other Supreme Court cases we'll try to get to, but specifically this birthright citizenship case. Well, all the courts where this has been adjudicated before, Patrice, have upheld the language of the Fourteenth Amendment. But as has been said by many commentators now, including the great Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Law School, this amendment was written to protect the children of freed slaves. It was specific for that reason. Now it's been gained. You've got plain loads of pregnant Chinese women coming to small islands that are owned or protected by the United States, and their children get instant American citizenship. This has been gained by illegal aliens, same thing. So the intent of the founders was for something entirely different than how it's been used now. You've heard the old joke, just because I'm born in a garage doesn't make me a car. I actually haven't heard that, but I'm glad you have heard it now, Cal. Was that the pitch session there at the network for My Mother Was a Car? Well, you know that was before my time, so I'm not sure. Understood, understood. So, you know, Cal, specifically on the Supreme Court, again, today's arguments will be important, but going back to the first part of this session, we're getting some important decisions. And yesterday's 8-1 decision, except for Katanji Brown Jackson, which is noteworthy, it's hard to get the Supreme Court to agree to something 8-1. But they agreed that if a child is brought before a therapist or a psychologist or what have you, and they are having feelings of gender dysphoria, that, you know, the Colorado law was that that therapist was not allowed to tell a boy that they are a boy, or that a girl that they are a girl. And the Supreme Court rightly said, yeah, that's kind of a free speech problem. Well, you know, Justice Brown is still trying to figure out what a woman is, you may remember. He was very confused by the argument. Yeah, so that's a problem. But yes, and imagine if they said this about Tiger Woods, who now says he's going to seek help again. No, you can't tell him that driving while under the influence of a foreign substance is wrong, because he might think it's right. This is the problem we have had in America since the 60s. There is no right or wrong anymore. The Gallup poll, your personal feelings, not any kind of objective standard. I remember something the late Bishop Fulton Jay Sheen said, which is so, so great. He said, America is not bigoted, as some say. America is too broad-minded. We tolerate everything now. And if you say anything is wrong, then you're a fundamentalist, you're a bigot, you're one of various kinds of fobs. And we get into this problem now. I think it was G.K. Chesterton said, the problem with not believing in God is not that you'll believe in nothing, but that you'll believe in anything. And that's where we are. I think it's good for the foreign substance. Fulton Sheen and Chesterton in the same hit, Cal. I'm blown away. There you go. Cal, to that point, President Trump in the White House put out a statement yesterday, and it was entitled, President Trump Ended Democrats Transgender for Everybody Insanity. And if you remember, they mentioned two years ago, two Easters ago, instead of celebrating the resurrection of our risen Lord, even celebrating the Easter Bunny, they were celebrating transgender, the day of transgenderism at the White House. Talk to us about, you know, going into this Easter season, we're in holy week right now, just the importance of having leadership change in America that embraces religious protections and also fights back against this transgenderism. Well, you know, Democrats have become largely a secular party. They've tried on occasion to try to win back some of the especially Christian vote, but have failed miserably. I remember that Al Gore in his book on the environment said that the first instance of pollution is in the Bible, where Abel's blood, where Cain's blood, cried out from the ground. That was just ridiculous. I mean, that's just stupid. Or Bill Clinton at the 1992 Democratic Convention in New York who said, as the Bible says, I has not seen nor ear heard what we can do when we put our mind to it. Well, that is a total misquote. They don't play the game well. You know, it's like me going into the Final Four. Yeah, I played high school basketball, but there's no way I'm going into the Final Four. Well, I believe you're quoting from the Gospel according to James Talerico, which we do not respect here as an actual piece of scripture. Who do you got in the Final Four? Who do you like? Who do you like as the national champion now that we're down to four? I got to tell you that UConn Duke game was unbelievable. I was on the edge of my seat. I love games like that. I think you got to go with UConn. But the neat thing about March Madness is that anything can happen. And that's what's so exciting about it. I just wish we'd had the whole thing in Washington instead of going to Indianapolis. But that one game I think really helped revitalize the city. I agree. You're right about UConn making it to the Final, but sadly they will be defeated by Michigan Wolverines, Cal. Okay, well, we'll put a quarter on it. Thank you, Cal. It's 6.44. I hope you didn't mean a quarter million. I think every week would be dope to folks on the golf channel. I want to get a lot of guests on here. Salim's going to take a leap. I'm down to be in it. It's not really work to play golf. Join the party on the golf course. I was like, let's go to the range. So what are we putting on it? We said 10K, right? 10K. All right. We probably bet more than all the other golf channels, right? 10K, 9-ohls. Those guys bet for cookies. I'm going to shank it. This guy's been trading like a Navy Seal when it comes to golf. I'm very, very excited. You excited? Yeah. Bullsend Golf. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. It was always such a romantic notion. Wasn't it the DC street car? We're going to have a trolley. It's fantastic. It was the train to nowhere. We had years of delays, political wrangling, a little bit of corruption. Ended up opening in 2016 for $230 million, operating costs of about 10 million a year. Critics, like myself, at the time said, no one is going to ride this thing. It's going to snarl traffic. It's going to be a trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap trap the streetcar and now ten years later it is being euthanized. It will be dead after all of this waste. It will quietly fade into the night. The last ride I think was yesterday. No more DC streetcar. Goodbye, good riddance. We will not miss you. For any of us Marylanders who use H Street to get into the city and out of the city, the DC streetcar has been a nightmare. It has torn up a beautiful road, a great access point and created a mess to try to get around. I have traveled it many a time and H Street did not need it. H Street has come alive, it is certainly gentrified to the point where the Nike store is now there along with Ben's Chili Bowl. A fine Ben's Chili Bowl by the way. That is my Ben's Chili Bowl. A fine Ben's Chili Bowl. Definitely folks, it is a great place to check out lots of restaurants, nightlife and all that stuff and daytime stuff for the family friendly folks. But at least maybe we will get some parking back and maybe we will get another lane back because they have these awkward stops or awkwardly bumping out of the road. It is just so strange to me and it is a waste. So good riddance and turn the road back to normal. As we look up north to New York and then we look at our current mayoral race where you have one candidate that keeps promising you free stuff. This is free, it is going to be free. I just want to remind you one of the most exciting points was that the DC streetcar was going to be free to all riders and it was free. It cost $230 million and the cost of the city for every passenger was estimated to be a little over $19.50 per ride. But that is free everybody. It is free. Think of all of that money that was spent and what it could have been spent on. $6.53. Quick correction I said earlier that the Truman and the Ford are in the Middle East right now. I apologize. The Lincoln and the Ford are in the Middle East and yes the bush is now heading that way and it is to relieve the Ford. I have been corrected properly and I appreciate that correction. I am going to stop at Crazy Prank. Pranks, parties and viral culture at its wildest. Just seeing the guys that you brought in and seeing their different personalities and stuff. It has been entertaining dude. This could be the greatest content build of all time bro. The Full Send Podcast. Dude let's get ready to rumble. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Let's do it.