The Future of Voting: Attorney General Alan Wilson Discusses Election Integrity and State Authority

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So much going on ahead of that, including President Trump laying in on some stories that we did over the weekend. He socialized them, and they're very important to understanding the terror fishing. We're going to get to that in a second. I want to make sure we cover that. We also had some historic news in Mexico where the president of Mexico authorized her military with the assistance of U.S. intelligence to take out the most feared and hated drug cartel leader in all of the world. So that was a big moment, but it's unleashed violence. It shows how deep-rooted the cartels are in America. We have all of that for you in the show, and I'm going to talk a little bit about that. In fact, our guests are going to weigh into that. And then we're also looking, a sand clock is draining down for Iran to make a legitimate deal. The deadlines are as early as this Thursday for the Iranians to get back to us with a real negotiating capability, a real offer. we're going to talk to Fred Flights in the third block of the show, the former chief of staff to the National Security Council and a true expert on all things Iran. He was involved in unraveling the bad deal that President Obama made with Iran in the first Trump administration. He knows everything about this. And then we're going to have a lot of significant capabilities and discussions about that. Before that, we got some other great interviews in the opening of the show. The attorney general of South Carolina, Alan Wilson, who's been this tremendous executor of states' rights, using the power of the states to defeat some of Joe Biden's initiatives and infringed on the rights of states. He's now working on some other really important issues. He's going to kick the show off. And then in between Fred Flights and Attorney General Wilson, we're going to have a good conversation with Derek Maltz, former acting director of the DEA, the Drug Enforcement Administration. And before that, he was the DEA's chief intelligence and operations guy, special operations chief. He has unbelievable insights into this drug cartel called the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The man who was killed was known as El Mencho, otherwise known as the Meso Ruben Esegüera Cervantes. He was killed in the western state of Jalisco under the direction of the Mexico Defense Ministry. The U.S. provided some intelligence support but left the Mexican Army to do the work. What happened afterwards was a massive part of counterviolence that the cartels waged across many, many cities in Mexico, showing their reach and their control. One of the things we heard was proof that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, otherwise known as JNGC, they had missiles, like Stinger-type missiles, the type that could take down planes. That's a very scary thing to know that just to our southern border, just in the south of our southern border, there are that sort of capabilities in the hands of bad, bad actors. To everybody's credit, Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum not always been a fan of the president, clearly a socialist, not in touch with a lot of American values. She has been really expanding the cooperation and her crackdown on drug cartels that grew for years unabated on Mexican soil. her country paid a dear price. 20 to 25 soldiers were killed. 25 members of the elite National Guard in Mexico were killed during the operation. But these are big, big wins for the Mexican people. And downstream, big, big wins for the American people. And that's something that President Trump made a point of saying. He said earlier that Mexico must step up its efforts on the cartels and drugs. And that's exactly what happened after this extraordinary attack and more to come. I think there'll be a lot more. I expect the president to address this in Iran, among many other things, in his State of the Union address tomorrow night. We'll have stem-to-sterm coverage over at justthenews.com and also Real America's Voice. So be sure to be dialed in for that. All right. So the lineup today goes Attorney General Alan Wilson of South Carolina in the block, Derek Maltz, the extraordinary former acting chief and former operations chief, special operations chief for the DEA, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and then the former chief of staff to the National Security Council and an Iran expert, Fred Flights. That's our lineup today. Let me get you to something that's very important. I hinted at this on Friday. President Trump picked up on it. And the way I like to look at this is to use the extraordinary experience we all had this weekend. If you remember a year ago during the Nation of Form hockey tournament, America was in the finals, but it got beaten over time by the very powerful Canadian hockey team. We're all a little disappointed, but the members of the American hockey team didn't see it at the end of the road. They saw it as the beginning of an opportunity to reclaim gold in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. And that they did on Sunday morning in overtime, 2-1. An extraordinary game. Our goalie Hallibuck played unbelievable. One of the Hughes brothers sunk the winning goal in overtime. And the most mighty team in hockey, Canada, fell to the United States. And for the first time since the Miracle on Ice, by the way, that win occurred on the 46th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice team in 1980, beating the Soviet Union against all odds. The United States won its third gold medal in this century, or in the last century in hockey. The way the Olympic hockey team viewed the opportunity after losing in 2024 is the way that President Trump is viewing his loss Friday in the Supreme Court on tariffs. If you remember what I said, I said that all the Supreme Court did was strike down one law that the president used and said he didn't have the authority under that law. But it made clear that what it was looking for was a law or two or three or four where the president was given explicit authority to impose tariffs under certain conditions by Congress. And that we wrote about. And I think it's very important to understand that there are four laws in the history of the company, at least four, that give the president explicit authority. And I think the president picked up on this. So, he socialized that story over the weekend. He then started talking more positively, which is, I've got another way. Congress already authorized me this. I'm just going to find the other laws. And so he actually put up our story, then he commented. And over the last 48 hours, you've seen the president's thinking evolve into what seemed like a loss at the Supreme Court might have actually been an opportunity to come back and win it under a different law. And I think that that's the dynamic we're at, and that's what happened over the weekend. That's how hockey and the Supreme Court and tariffs are tied on this extraordinary moment in history. And I think they'll come into greater clarity on Tuesday night in the State of the Union address. So just some thoughts there. I want to get to one other story. I'm very proud of this story this morning. We broke it. It's been the most popular story at Just the News. The Supreme Court is finally going to weigh in on Russiagate. It's going to come in the form of an appeal from Carter Page, one of those Trump aides that were targeted by FISA warrants that were clearly unjustified. Now, we know that from the investigations that were done. It's been five, almost eight, nine years since that. Actually, it's actually almost 10 years now when that FISA war, 10 years ago this October, coming October, will be the anniversary of the first FISA war. Yes, the wheels of justice turn slowly, but the fact that the Supreme Court could weigh in and decide whether someone like Carter Page, who was wrongly targeted, whose civil liberties were violated by the cheating and other things that went on, the dishonesty of the FBI before the FISA court that allowed the FBI to invade this man's privacy, to tarnish his name, particularly in the news media. It's a big moment. That story has been trending all day because I think people understand it's a form of accountability. And I'm really excited to see where we are in that. Okay. We've got that great show for you. I want to get to a commercial break here in a second, and then we'll get jumping in. But before we do, a big shout out to a brand new partner here at Just the News, Policy Genius. I love these guys because all of us are always shopping to look for a better advantage, whether it comes with insurance. We have car insurance. We have home insurance. We have health insurance. And sometimes it's hard to find the right deal for us. Well, Policy Genius is an online insurance marketplace that allows you to compare quotes with some of America's top insurers side by side, and you get to do it for free. Policy Genius makes dealing with financial planning easier. Their license team helps you get what you need fast so you can get on with your life. That's what we want to do, right? Make a good decision, get what we need, and move on. We've got a lot to think. We're busy people, right? 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You're winning the messaging war and the legal war. Tell us a little bit about your latest ideas for making sure we make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. Well, John, I've been defending election integrity in South Carolina now for over 14, almost 15 years. I was the first attorney general, the first state in the country to successfully defend our voter ID law back in 2012. This is something we took to the D.C. District Court, and we won there when it was challenged. Of course, last week I filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by an organization that was trying to allow ballot harvesting in South Carolina. We have a state law that prohibits ballot harvesting, and we're filing a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that's challenging our election integrity laws here in South Carolina. And of course, I joined a lawsuit, or I joined an amicus brief rather, to support the Republican National Committee's attempts to prevent Mississippi from allowing ballots to come in five days after an election. This is something that I think could be very detrimental. And this is the same position I took on the 2020 election when the state of Pennsylvania was allowing electors to bring in ballots several days after the election was over, waiving the requirement of a postmark and waiving the requirement that the elector actually signed the ballot. These types of attempts to weaken our election integrity laws undermine voter confidence in the very system that we rely on in conducting our republic. So this is something I'm very proud to have supported, and we're going to continue to defend election integrity here in South Carolina and all over the United States. That's so important. And there seems to me there are three cases, two at the Supreme Court, one headed to the Supreme Court that could be the defining new era of election integrity. You mentioned Mississippi. You have to count your ballots by election night because we only have an election day, not an election trimester. Then Louisiana, which could bring us no more racially gerrymandered districts. And then Missouri has filed a lawsuit saying that the census can't count illegal aliens to decide apportionment, representation, of course, federal fund distribution. All three of those are headed to the Supreme Court. Two are there. One's on its way there. If those go the way an original Supreme Court likely is to rule, we're going to have a different looking election system going forward, right? Absolutely. And again, we're not asking for radical things that are designed to discriminate against voters. I mean, we here in South Carolina, we give incredible amounts of accommodations to voters for early voting, for, you know, to accommodate people with disabilities. We go out of our way to make sure that people have an opportunity to get their vote registered and logged during the election season. But the election season has to end. And it seems that people on the left want to continue that election season so that they can count ballots days and not even verified ballots, but potentially fraudulent ballots days after the election is over, allowing illegal aliens to vote. These should not be radical or crazy concepts. This should be very normal for people to understand. And so I believe this could change the makeup of future elections if the Supreme Court rules the way I believe that they will. Yeah. And these very common sense idea going right down to voter ID and citizenship check, 80, 85 percent popular. There's very few things in America that have that level of popularity. Do you think from afar, with all the great examples that South Carolina has proven that you can have good election integrity laws and still have high voter turnout, that there's a pass still to convince the Senate to get past a filibuster and get this passed in time for 2026 election, meaning the Save America Act? Look, election integrity laws don't deter people from coming out to the polls. Voter lethargy does. People who are disengaged from a system that they think might be corrupt, might prevent them from coming to the polls. But ensuring the security of an election does not deter people from coming to the ballot. People who say that have an agenda. These are people who want to promote ballot harvesting. These are people who want to undermine voter integrity laws so that they can exploit elections for their own political agenda. We want to protect the legitimacy of elections. The only way to do that is to have common sense laws that ensure only registered legal citizens have a right to vote and to make sure that their votes are actually the votes that the citizen cast and not something that was harvested by some unscrupulous ballot harvester in another community. Yeah, so very, very important. Hand in hand with good elections and election integrity and the ability to vote comes free speech. The very first of the Bill of Rights, you are on a daily basis fighting to make sure that the mindset of big tech companies, which has been overwhelmingly in the evidence that's in the public domain today, aimed at censoring conservative speech, not all speech, but just conservative speech. You are you are policing, watching, pushing back, using your legal authority to do it. Do you feel like the debate has turned a corner that maybe the big tech companies are beginning to feel a little shamed about what they did? I don't know if they're feeling shame. I certainly hope that they are, but they certainly understand that when Donald Trump came in in this unprecedented election, this this unprecedented comeback that he did, they certainly got the message, whether it was sincere and was based on guilt or whether it's based on self-preservation and survival, it doesn't really matter. They are now starting to understand that the American electorate was sick and tired of what they were being force fed in the previous years under Joe Biden. Yeah, no doubt about it. You have been firm in your support of President Trump and his policies. You've helped win some of the big cases in the courts that are litigated from a state's perspective. Today, the Supreme Court knocked down his tariffs. And I think, you know, you look at the initial reporting, it looks like this is a big loss for Donald Trump. But the ruling said you got to have explicit authority. There are four or five other statutes the president could potentially impose tariffs on. If they close the front door, do they maybe open the back window with today's ruling? There's one thing I've learned about Donald Trump is that whenever you think you've knocked him down, that's when he does something that kind of takes that takes it's like jujitsu. He uses the weight of whatever has been thrown against him to his advantage and ends up getting a win down the road. So I wouldn't count him out on this one. Yeah, I think you're right. He's already announced he's going to take another path already today. He didn't need to waste but a few minutes to get a new pathway to his plan. Before we let you go, there are a lot of big issues between the federal government and the states. They're getting better on a lot of those things. What do you think is one of the most important things that will be worked out between the federal government and states' rights over the next few months? It seems like there's a lot of unique things, whether it's the census and not counting illegal aliens anywhere, but there is a much more friendly federal government towards state rights. Do you see some important legal precedent about to be set? Well, I mean, I'm seeing a lot more cooperation among federal and local law enforcement when it comes to immigration enforcement, at least in states like South Carolina, maybe not so much in Minnesota. But, you know, you're seeing a lot more cooperative working relationships between the state and federal governments in the law enforcement arena. That is an area that I care deeply about. So that's something that I'm expecting to get only get better in the weeks and months to come. Yeah, and it should be pointed out, you've done an enormous amount of work by on your own and also in concert with federal law enforcement to combat human trafficking, which once used to be a big scourge in South Carolina. But you've had an extraordinary success there. What lessons do other states take? Can they take from what the work you've done there? Well, look, I mean, I'm incredibly proud of the men and women in the attorney general's office here in South Carolina. We've been able to create a gold standard for combating human trafficking in this country here in South Carolina. We have had unprecedented success in combating against Internet crimes against children, especially child exploitation. We've revamped our laws to go after people who are using artificial intelligence to try to circumvent child exploitation laws. I give all the credit to the men and women that I work with in law enforcement. That's the reason nearly 80 percent of all the elected Republican sheriffs in South Carolina have endorsed me is because the work we've been able to get done to give law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they need to protect families here in South Carolina. And I think if other states would take a look at what we're doing here in South Carolina, they would they would take a page from this book is to get behind law enforcement and protect the families in your states. Hey folks, don't go anywhere when we come back from the commercial break. An incredible interview with Derek Maltz, the former special operations chief for the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA. But before we do, I got a quick shout out. Israel is a hot topic right now. We know that with so many opinions and emotions surrounding it, it can feel hard to know where to start. The Bible tells us, I will bless those who bless you. That isn't just a comforting promise. It's a clear calling from God. And today, with anti-Semitism rising around the world, that calling is more urgent than ever. That's why I really believe that. 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The Pod Millennial with Libby Emmons. Politics, culture, conversation. A production of the Just the News Podcast Network. All right, folks, welcome back for the commercial break. I'm very excited to have this next gentleman back on the show. He is one of the most cogent voices when it comes to national security and specifically fighting the drug cartels, which have poisoned more Americans to death than any other war has taken young men and women from us. We don't talk about it in those terms, but that's how historic the drug cartels on American citizens has been. And he's the former acting administrator of the DEA and its former Special Operations Division chief. Really one of the best on this subject and also one of the best champions for all those families who've lost loved ones to the cartels. He is Derek Malt Sr. Derek, great to have you back on the show. Thank you so much, John. I appreciate the call. It's an honor to have you on. I think yesterday had to be a really significant day in the history of our and Mexico's efforts to eradicate the world of these scourges that are the drug cartels. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, these are the baddest of the bad dudes. I mean, we know cartels going all the way back to the 70s, but these are the most violent and most no-rules-barred drug cartel folks. And losing their leader last night, El Mancho, was a big deal, wasn't it? Absolutely. I mean, the day started as a great day when our USA hockey team won the gold, which shows the perseverance and the strength of America. But in regards to this cartel, like people have to understand that Mencho was the most wanted person in the Western Hemisphere. He's now no longer with us. He can't continue to cause chaos and destruction, not only in his own country, but in America. I mean, he's been flooding the country with deadly substances and these drugs. He's working with the Chinese criminal networks, and he's been a huge national security threat. So as President Trump said in the beginning of his administration on day one, that the cartels are terrorists and we're going to treat them as such. And this is what we're doing. We're taking action. We're working with the Mexican government very closely. As you know, John, they've already sent 92 very high-level cartel operatives to America on the removal ops. I was at the first one at Dulles Airport. but we have a lot of work to do. We do. It seems as though we're getting an increasingly stronger partner in President Claudia Scheinbaum. Obviously, a socialist, wasn't a big fan of President Trump when things got started. But over the last year, they seem to have forged a very important working relationship. You mentioned all the surrenders of cartel members to face justice in America. Taking this guy out is a big deal. Clearly had a little bit of pushback. Obviously Almencho team decided to wage some violence and burn some buses and blockade and go after some resort areas But very quickly Scheinbaum seemed to restore a lot of the order Is she a sort of surprising partner in this at this point? Absolutely, John. And I've been a very big critic in the news for many years now on the Mexican government's soft on crime, hugs for thugs policies down there. And what I've seen is completely the opposite. I was meeting with Omar Hafush when he was in America after the February 2025 removals of the first batch, 29 of them, including the Los Zetas leaders, Z40 and Z42, and Mencho's brother, and of course, RCQ, who landed in New York. But anyway, it was very clear to me that these individuals like Omar Hafush and his team were very serious about going after these cartels and working with America. And you know what, John? Action speaks louder than words, right? We've heard a lot of talk in the past, but now we're seeing action. Those 92 individuals are in our system in America to face justice, okay? And what we're seeing, like yesterday with Mencho, he's out of action, right? And yeah, the cartels, they're going to try to be tough guys, and they're going to retaliate and try to intimidate, but we have a strong team working against them. Yeah, we do. And for the first time, we went from hugs for drugs to maybe a little bit, or hugs for thugs, And drugs to a different posture in Mexico. All right. The first question everyone's going to ask is, all right, you take out the kingpin. That's an amazing accomplishment. You got some lieutenants and had them turned over. That's an accomplishment. But who's the line of succession inside of the Jalisco New Generation cartel? And can we eradicate them so they can't get back to full operational status? What do you think on that? Well, that's already ongoing. And they've been doing that over time. And they have to continue to keep the aggressive actions and operations against them. They're using the best the Mexican military has, the special forces, and they're doing a great job. Unfortunately, I will say that everyone should be praying for the warriors from Mexico that were on the front lines. I mean, right now we've lost at least 20 or 30. I don't know the exact number. But what I would say is that there's going to be a complete struggle for power now because we've made a lot of positive momentum against the Sinaloa cartel, as you know, John. But now it's just looking for power and control and routes into America and around the world. What a lot of people don't realize is these cartels are not just dumping this mass amount of meth and cocaine and fentanyl into America and other synthetic drugs, but they're moving stuff around the world. They're taking advantage of the record amount of production in Columbia of cocaine. They're taking advantage of the world's addiction to drugs. Now, what we need to do, and it's already started because I was at the White House roundtable last week with Sarah Carter, the drugs are. We need to start. And by the way, and the leaders of the different agencies were there as well. HHS, DEA, ATF, all of them, FBI. Everyone was there together. That's what this president has set the tone as we're going to work together. But here's the point. Unless we start getting these kids help and the treatment and the education so they stay away from these poisonous substances, we're going to continue to play whack-a-mole with these targets. Because as long as there are giant demand in the world, they're going to continue to produce these substances, not just in Mexico, but in other places. As you know, you know, the Chinese criminals have weaponized the drugs against our country. So there's a lot of work to do. There is an enormous amount, and yet we're making those inroads on a daily basis. When they did the raid yesterday and they took out this feared drug leader, Al Mencho, there was a cache of weapons they found, which included missiles. So these drug cartels were arming themselves for more than just drug transportation. If they have to, they're ready to have a war. How do we make sure that those capabilities stay neutralized and that they don't get deployed against civilians beyond what we saw yesterday in Mexico? Well, that's a really great question, John. I mean, just look at the drone capability, right? When I was down in Texas in the Rio Grande Valley, the Border Patrol was giving us a briefing about 9,000 drone intrusions just in a very short period of time in 2022. But that since has gone way up, right? So they have sophisticated drones. They drop C-4 explosives on their adversaries. They could do that to Americans tomorrow if they wanted to. Now, I would say that as long as our NORTHCOM and our special operations units are continuing to have a dialogue and communicating with the Mexican special forces and to be able to give them best practices and lessons learned, that's a step in the direction that we need to continue down that path. because we have, as the world witnessed not too long ago with Maduro extraction, we have the best military in the world. So this is not a law enforcement solution. These guys are terrorists, and they have the best military-grade weapons, and they have armored vehicles, and they have RPGs and IEDs, and these guys are going to go after their adversaries. So right now there has been extensive attacks on the military and the law enforcement, So we have to treat them as terrorists and pretty much wipe them off the face of the earth using the best and brightest. And hopefully one day, the president of Mexico, if they're not already asking for U.S. support, at least on the training and the education, I know that we're providing intelligence, but training them and educating them, I believe, is underway and has been underway. So I'd like to see that continue. Yeah. And if needed, I think we're respectful to Mexican sovereignty. We don't want to have to launch anything. But if they needed it because their forces got overwhelmed or got in a tough situation, we have the hardware to help Mexico really do this quickly, don't we? Yeah, I mean, that's the whole point. I mean, I've been calling out, and I've kind of changed my talking points on this, but I've been calling out the use of drones to destroy these chemical laboratories in Mexico. But right now, what we've seen, John, is we know, because I have friends on the ground that have told me that the Mexican government has totally increased their aggressive operations against the cartels, seizing mass amounts of labs and drugs and weapons and assets. So they are demonstrating action. They're not just talking about it. They are doing it. And that's, I think, going to be key with this president, because as long as he sees the results and the support, then obviously he's going to be respectful of their sovereignty, I believe, based on everything I know. And they're a good partner. The Mexican people are great people, but we're just trying to help, you know, this monumental problem that has escalated for years. I mean, President Trump inherited this. It's growing. It's been growing rapidly. And so, unfortunately, the cartels have a lot of power down there south of the border. And they're all over the country, too. That's another thing. No, they've covered the whole landscape in Mexico. Obviously, they penetrated our border a lot before we tightened it up. You talked about the extraordinary lethality of the drug cartels. In the old days, the drug cartels were more interesting getting us addicted on cocaine and the cocaine heyday. Today, they're creating levels of lethality in these drugs that are just insane. Recently, and you shouted this out on your social media, The EA in Los Angeles found a massive seizure. I think it was probably half a million pills with basically elephant tranquilizer, a hundred times more potent than fentanyl. That's the sort of stuff they're bringing in right now. Why are they more interested in killing Americans than just addicting us? All right, so that's a really good question. We have to remember there's two parts of this crisis. We have the Chinese Communist Party and the criminals in China that clearly have weaponized, you know, synthetic drugs and chemicals against our country. That's a no brainer. Anybody watching this over the last 15, 20 years knows that's the case. But then you have the cartels that are primarily in the business to maximize revenue. Right. So these synthetic drugs are very easy to make. They don't require any kind of plants that you have to grow and you have to take care of and make sure the weather and the farmers are out there. These synthetic drugs you make in a lab, and it's not that complicated. I watched the DEA chemist show me how simple this is. Okay, that being said, so you have the cartels are actually the proxy for the nefarious characters around the world that want to devastate our country. So the cartels are not, in my opinion, deliberately trying to kill their customer. They really don't care if the customer dies because it's kind of like the cost of doing business. They're trying to maximize revenue. So if these other synthetic drugs are going to get people addicted to their products, they're going to continue to be innovative and they're going to continue to develop new product lines. OK. And right now, we don't know, John, those six hundred and twenty eight thousand pills that were seized in Los Angeles. We don't know. People would assume they came in from Mexico. But we have stuff that could have been coming over the northern border from Canada. There's a large Chinese population. They seized a record lab in Vancouver area. a year and a half ago in November of 24. We also know that we have people in this country that are buying chemicals, ordering them from China and making their own products in their houses. They're getting pill presses. So we don't know, I don't personally know that particular seizure if that came over the southern border. But what I do know is that carfentanil, according to the experts, is 100 times more potent than fentanyl and the national media wasn't even talking about it. And so now, you know, I had to push that out because it's really, really a huge national security issue. It is, yeah, and it's an eye-opener. Our enemy, these drug cartels, they're trying to create things 100 times more deadly than fentanyl. We've seen what fentanyl's done. They've got missile launchers. They've got drones. They are prepared for an all-out war with America. So let's ask the question. If Scheinbaum has struck the nerve that needed to be struck for a long time, How long do the cartels try to turn Mexico into a violent hub? Do they do it for a while, or can they be extinguished quickly because we come in behind the Mexicans? I think people are wondering, is this like a one- or two-day episode, or is this a six-month war? What's going to happen? Well, that's another great question. I mean, obviously, the United States has the power of our D.O.W. to wipe them off the face of the earth. It wouldn't happen overnight because, of course, we don't want to put our own people in harm's way. So there'd be very strategic operation, very well planned and organized using the technology that they have. So it wouldn't be overnight. But there's so many cartel members now that have flourished in Mexico for so many years. They wouldn't go down without a big fight. Like, that's my opinion based on the amount of money. This is their livelihood. Right. And so it's going to take time. And I do think that if that's the case, if that's the plan, the Mexican president would definitely need the help of the U.S. government because DOW and our law enforcement and intel community is very, very powerful. They're working together right now. So it'd have to be a collaborative effort. And in my opinion, would be very effective. It just would take time. But we want it to be strategic because we don't want to lose innocent lives. That's right. Yeah. And I think we saw the strategy when it came to taking Maduro out. It was so well planned. It was so well thought. And the enemy had no idea what hit him until hours afterwards. And boy, that has turned into a domino effect of success for the Trump administration because now Cuba, Iran and Russia are hampered in our hemisphere by the change in leadership. As you look out, what are some of the most important things we as everyday Americans can do to help in this moment. I've said this for some time now. I felt like Donald Trump was about to create a moment in the drug wars that would be transformational, that after years of nipping and tucking them here and there, that obliterating them or literally reducing their size was a real possibility with someone who would take the bull by the horns. And that's what Trump seems to have done. What can we all do as everyday Americans? What do we need to do with our children? What do we need to do with our families? How can we be part of the solution? So obviously, President Trump and this administration has taken this to a whole new level by declaring the cartels as terrorists, by designating fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction, by supporting the Angel families. They had a press event today. Obviously, the government is doing a tremendous amount to decimate these cartels, shut down the chemical pipeline, shut down the financial incentives. But we have to recognize this is not your typical drug problem that we've been talking about for years. Most people in America, when they hear drugs, they hear fentanyl, they basically take that attitude that it's not going to happen to my family, not my kids. I have good kids. But we're seeing, you know, babies dying. And so what we have to do is everyone just has to start paying attention and get educated. With all the resources today available to us, you know, between all the AI that's out there and between the, you know, the Google searches, it's all out there in the media. You could find it and you can actually, you know, talk to your kids at a different in a different way. This is about life and death. This is not about getting high. You know, it's like it's like, John, you know, what drives me crazy right now is that in America, we've taken this attitude that marijuana is OK. Marijuana is safe. Vapes is safe. Vapes. OK. Well, the Chinese criminal networks are behind the growth operations all over America, and they're spraying the plants with Chinese pesticides, and it's 30% THC. And the vapes that are coming in are illegal, and God only knows what's going in those vapes that are getting into the kids' lungs, right? So they have to wake the hell up, and they have to start talking to the kids. But one big thing, John, and you know I've been screaming from the rooftop on this. I want to make this clear. We got to get the biggest social media influence that this country has, and not old people like me, because I'm not a big influencer, right? I'm a law enforcement guy that's been trying to help save lives. But you got to get those young influences, role model celebrities to start understanding this problem, getting on the social media sites, talking to the kids in 45-second reels so they learn. Because right now, where are the kids learning every day on social media videos? How come America is not, and how come Americans not smart enough to realize if you wanna educate them you gotta go to where they are How come we not going into schools and getting the kids in elementary school These are basic things that we haven done and maybe we can do that to wake people up and get people to understand And this is not about alarming the public or fear It's life and death. Simple as that. It is a life and death question. You're 100% right. You have done it better than anyone I know, Derek. I think of all the times you brought attention to the families who lost loved ones when they were forgotten. All the times you called out what China was doing when others wanted to capitulate to China. You have been a clarion voice in waking this country up. And we are so grateful for your determination, your ferocity, because you are tough. And that's what we need now. We need tough people to go out and make a difference. And today you helped educate us in great ways. I really appreciate having you on, my friend. All right. Thank you. And call me anytime. I love being on your show and you're doing great work yourself. So thank you. Thank you, sir. Great honor to have you on. And wow, what an amazing moment, folks. Don't lose sight of this moment. This is a historic moment in the drug wars in America, and it could be to our great advantage soon. All right, folks, one more good one to go before we wrap up the day. Fred Flight's one of the smartest guys in the security space, former chief of staff to the National Security Council, former CIA analyst, true expert on Iran. He's going to bring us up to speed on all those issues right after these messages. All right, folks, welcome back for the commercial break. I want to stay on the topic that we kicked off the show on. We are in a moment of extraordinary opportunity. One could say a little bit of concern as well. Russia, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela already collapsed. An opportunity to realign the world, particularly amongst our biggest antagonists. And then on top of it, what happened on Sunday in Mexico can't be underrated. The effort by the Mexican military to get rid of the most dangerous and ruthless of all the drug cartel leaders, which has unleashed some subsequent violence in Mexico. Still an extraordinary opportunity to realign what's been a 25-year surge by the drug cartels. Joining me right now is someone who understands the security apparatus, understands the strategy of what an America first national security platform looks like. He's the former chief of staff to the National Security Council. Before that, a very well-respected CIA analyst. Today, he does some of the most important policy writing anywhere in the security space. He's our good friend, Fred Flights. Fred, great to have you back on the show. Hey, John. Good to be here. All right. Let's start with Iran. There were a little bit of negotiating last week, a lot of posturing by Iran over the last few days. My sense from talking to people in the last 24, 48 hours is the American side reads that there is a little bit of desperation and maybe even a little bit of nervousness that we haven't normally seen among the Iranian mullahs who usually play it cool and often just drag things out? I think there's nervousness in some areas of the Iranian government. They think that there will be a devastating American attack. And they realize that President Trump is sincere. He really would like to make a deal with the regime. He does not want to use military force. But to date, there's been no interest whatsoever by the Iranian government, no legitimate interest in a deal. They're trying to drag out the talks. Now, one U.S. official familiar with the talks called them a hamburger stuffed with nothing. And I think that's what we're seeing. They have played previous administrations with endless talks. This did not work with President Trump last June. It's not going to work now. Unless the Iranians make significant concessions, I think there's going to be a major military strike. Yeah, that's what it feels like right now. That first strike, what is the scenario? Is it two weeks, three weeks out? Is it this week? Because the president wants to show he's impatient. Based on all the aspects of what we see lining up, obviously all the assets are there now for something that could be really significant. It can't wait too long. Our aircraft carriers have been at sea too long. I believe the president will wait until after the State of the Union. I think he's going to explain to the American people what he's planning on doing. And then the clock starts ticking. Right. That makes a lot of sense. Makes a lot of sense indeed. The Iranians have capabilities in the region. We've seen it. We could neutralize those pretty quickly. The Israelis did before the 12-day war and getting air defenses down and lowering the missile battalions that they had. The thing that I think is the wild card when I talk to people on this side of the pond is how many Iranian sympathizers, Hezbollah, sleeper cells are on our soil and could they carry out warfare on our soil to try to weaken our resolve? What's your thinking on that? I think this is always a risk. I'm not really concentrating on that. And I'm thinking about efforts by the Iranians to shoot at American ships, maybe with cruise missiles and other weapons and drones to try to take out American ships. And I've seen a lot of pundits in the media talking about that. What I say in response to that is that the U.S. military has been wargaming attacks like this for a long time. We know what the Iranians have. If they think they're going to surprise us with some missile along the coast in the Strait of Hormuz, they're mistaken. because the U.S. knows about that, the Israelis know about that, and we have military capabilities the Iranians do not know about that I think will be quite devastating. Yeah, I think that's right. They may get to meet some new warfare capabilities that have never been deployed before. That's my sense of things. Do you worry about their ability to activate on our soil? I think it's always a concern. They have done some of this already. We know an awful lot of illegals and criminals and probable terrorists snuck into the country during the Biden administration. So I hope the FBI has a high alert up to keep an eye out for that kind of thing. Yeah, that's really, really the key. All right. We unleash a very powerful attack on Iran, which seems very plausible given the assets we have there. The leadership is embarrassed. They're more wounded than they think. They didn't see their general getting knocked out a few years ago. What is the aftermath of that first attack look like? Is it a return to more meaningful negotiations, or is it a covert operation to make sure that the mullahs are thrown out? This is an important question, because in all likelihood, there'll be a major attack against Iran that will devastate the Revolutionary Guard, maybe the siege militia that's being used to attack the Iranian people, probably arms depots and other things that are being used to execute Iranians. You know, almost 30,000 Iranians were killed. That's the estimate that I believe is accurate. And I think what's going to happen here is we're going to see an upsurge in demonstrations. We may see some defections. We may see some military units that decide they're simply not going to support this effort by the Iranian government to kill their people. It's encouraging that there were demonstrations this week on Iranian universities, because I think they see an American attack coming. But I believe the White House, President Trump has to be clear, this is a long-term strategy. This is the beginning of a long struggle by the Iranian people. And we're trying to put them in a position to overthrow this regime that's been at war with our country for 40 years. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And that explanation is so important, the history of this and going all the way back to the hostage crisis of 79, which half of America more wasn't even born when that occurred at this point now, is important. Do you think there's a moment where the mullahs say, ah, I'm packing it in. It's not worth getting killed? Well, let me first say that when the Iranians portray themselves as victims, remember, this is a regime that's been trying to kill our president. They're not innocent victims here. They've killed American troops in Iraq. They sent operatives to kill and kidnap an American journalist in New York City, an Iranian American. It's a criminal regime. And frankly, they've gone too far. So how far this is going to go? Will the Iranians be willing to negotiate? I agree with Marco Rubio. They're such fanatics. They will never agree to a deal. They're going to go down in flames. They're obsessed with radical Islamist ideology and hatred of our country. All they want to do is just to waste time. I don't think they're ever going to negotiate a deal. Do you think that a decapitation strike is possible, meaning you could take out the majority of their leadership and then they're leaderless? No, I don't think so. I think they probably are aware of that. I understand there also is a plan in place where they are splitting up management of the government into various districts. So district leaders of different parts of Iran will run the country of communications to the capital is disrupted, or let's say the capital is destroyed, if all the governing buildings in Tehran are destroyed, basically the government of the country will go on. And I think that Khamenei has many deeply hidden layers within Tehran, and we can't reach him in them. Yeah, no, I think that that's exactly right. They've planned for this moment for a long time, because they plan to be dug in, I guess, is really what their long-term strategy is. They're cowards. And they're cowards. Earlier today, or I guess it was yesterday, Steve Whitcoff was on television saying, listen, they have enough material to do some sort of a weapon within six weeks, I think he said, if I remember correctly. He's probably talking about a dirty bomb or something hastily put on top of a missile as opposed to a fully developed nuclear weapon. Is that correct? Well, I've done a lot of work on this, and I've written a book on it. It's coming out next year. President Trump destroyed Iran's uranium enrichment program and the facilities that would be needed to turn enriched uranium into uranium metal to put into a weapon. I believe that Iran's nuclear weapons program has been set back five to ten years. It concerns me that they're rebuilding it right now. They'd like to get access to nine to ten weapons worth of near weapons-grade uranium. I believe that in rich uranium is deeply buried. So I think we could talk about a dirty bomb. But in terms of an operational weapon or prototype weapon, I believe they're years away from having one, which I think is fortunate. Yeah, and I think that's really from my intel sources. They agree with that assessment, just talking to people in the agencies today. That is a prevailing prevailing. It wasn't right away, but it seems as though they've learned a lot in the last six months. And they have a much clearer picture of the setback that was afflicted. I want to turn just briefly to what happened in Mexico. The Jalica New Drug Cartel is perhaps the most brutal of all the cartels, certainly ruthless, powerful, behind the super deadly synthetic opioids that are coming out. Things now that are 200 times more deadly than fentanyl, which is almost hard to imagine. How important a moment, how consequential a moment was it yesterday that Mexico's army, using some of our intel went and killed their extraordinarily bad leader. Two things to say. First of all, I think the world was shocked at President Trump's action to take out Nicolas Maduro, to capture him out of Venezuela because he's an arco-terrorist. The second thing is Trump has said to the president of Mexico, either you take care of these cartels or I will. And that led to the extraordinary action by the Mexican government to go up against cartels, which they never do. But right now, the government is at war with two of them. And we can see what happens when you go after them. This is a reaction to Trump's strong leadership. Yeah. Yeah, there's no doubt. There's no chance that Chimebom was volunteering to do this without the extraordinary pressure and moral clarity of what the administration put in front of her over the last few weeks. Does Mexico have the capability to survive this sort of nascent warfare with its cartels? And And does it perhaps require, if asked, us to add some military might from the skies to help them? I think the violence we're seeing across the country shows how powerful they are. I'm concerned that the cartels have control over the Mexican government probably more than we think. I'm worried about the fate of American tourists who are trapped in these resorts. that we were previously told that they're sort of immune to the violence in the rest of the country because the Mexican government defends them and cartels have agreed not to attack them. I think all bets are off for those resorts. I think the Mexican government will need help. But frankly, our heads are spinning at what happened recently. And some of us are still trying to figure it out. Yeah, no, we came out of left field with so many other things that we were watching. This wasn't probably one we were expecting to crop up on a Sunday morning in February of 2026. That is the Trump world we live in. change occurs much faster than any of us could imagine. Fred, for all the great work you do, where you write and you analyze all day, what's the best way for people to stay in touch with you? If you go to the America First Policy Institute website, americafirstpolicy.com, or you can follow me on Twitter at Fred Flights. Yeah. And one last question, because I've been dying to ask it. Is the Cuban regime in grave danger right now? It feels like it is. I think it's in significant danger and more danger than it ever has been before. Its economy was in trouble after the pandemic. Now it has no energy. And as you know, this is a very important project for our Cuban American Secretary of State. So I hope he succeeds in bringing freedom to the people of Cuba. Yeah, it'll be an amazing moment in world history and certainly in our hemisphere. Fred, it's always amazing to talk to you. I always come away a lot smarter. Thanks for joining us today. Good to be here, John. Yeah, thank you so much. Folks, go read all the great work that Fred does. Oh, my gosh. I read them day in and day out and share their stories. They're just some of the best in the security space. Level-headed, fact-based, with great analytical intelligence behind it. All right, folks. That wraps up our Monday edition of John Solomon Reports, the podcast from, you got it, Just the News. A big thank you to Attorney General Alan Wilson, to Derek Maltz, formerly of the DEA, and, of course, our good friend Fred Flights. What a great conversation. A lot of breaking news. We got it all covered to you at JustTheNews.com. Back tomorrow. Be sure to check out ifcj.org for that great information on how Christians can be blessed supporting Israel. And also, a big thank you to our good friends who've been with us for a few weeks now, Policy Genius. If you're going to get a great life insurance policy with the best prices, go to policygenius.com. All right, back tomorrow with a new edition of John Solomon Reports. Until then, God bless you and have a great night.