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Lefties in meltdown as Donald Trump hilariously trolls ‘crazy’ Democrats on stage
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00:07Hello and welcome to Power Hour. I'm Gabriella Power. Thank you for joining us. President
00:13Donald Trump delivered a brilliant State of the Union address, one of his best speeches
00:18of all time. And it was the longest ever State of the Union address speaking for more than
00:23a hundred minutes. But this is where the President outsmarts the Democrats and the Democrats
00:29walk right into what Donald Trump is setting up for them. He knew that the Democrats just
00:34would not be able to help themselves but to protest, to yell at him, to cause a scene,
00:40to misbehave. They just have too much Trump derangement syndrome to stand up and applaud
00:46at just some very basic statements that any normal American would agree is a good thing.
00:52Because they have to protest anything, everything that he says. So they end up embarrassing
00:58themselves and their party. Just look at this for example. Donald Trump tells everyone to
01:03stand up who believes that the first duty of the U.S. government is to protect American
01:09citizens, not illegals. And just look at how many got up. If you agree with this statement,
01:16then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect
01:23American citizens, not illegal aliens.
01:34Basically no one. I mean, the optics of that for the Democrat Party is just so bad. The funny
01:40thing is, though, some Democrats managed to stand up when Donald Trump called out measures
01:45to stop insider trading, including Elizabeth Warren. She got up. So Donald Trump, of course,
01:51did not miss the opportunity to troll Nancy Pelosi.
01:55As we ensure that all Americans can profit from a rising stock market, let's also ensure
02:01that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information.
02:18They stood up for that. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Did Nancy Pelosi stand up if she's
02:28here?
02:41He's brilliant. Nancy Pelosi, who's been on a salary of around $200,000 a year for most of her life,
02:48yet is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. How did that happen? I'm going to get back to the State
02:52of the Union in just a moment. But here is Nancy Pelosi being asked about that very moment on CNN.
02:59Elizabeth Warren stood up and applauded. Elizabeth Warren stood and applauded tonight when the
03:04president talked about it. Well, we all did. I did, too. We said, did Nancy stand up? Yeah,
03:09I did, too. A lot of people stood up. A lot of Democrats stood up. I think that will pass
03:14depending
03:15on what the bill is. I mean, what we had, we thought we could pass. It was actually a tougher
03:21bill than Governor Spenberger had put for us. We thought it could pass, but it was clear that it
03:27wasn't going to make it to the House and the Senate. But in any event, he gives his shout out.
03:33I don't
03:34pay any attention to him. What I'm concerned about is our democracy, which he is destroying.
03:40Oh, that line. Our democracy, he's destroying. Our democracy is under threat. I mean, how many times
03:46do we have to hear that from the Democrats? It's just ridiculous. Let's go back to Trump's State
03:51of the Union address. He, of course, touted his economic achievements, and he also honoured
03:56the late, great Charlie Kirk. Of course, Charlie Kirk's widow, Erica Kirk, was there with tears in her
04:03eyes. Donald Trump also honoured Irina Zarutska, the young woman who was murdered on a train in
04:08Charlotte, North Carolina, actually just a few weeks before Charlie Kirk's death. And
04:13the media was very slow to cover that incident. And even at that moment, when Donald Trump was
04:19honouring Irina Zarutska, most Democrats would not stand up for her grieving parents. It's just
04:26shocking. The Democrats are doing themselves no favours behaving like that. And even though
04:32the Democrats are warned not to cause a scene, don't do anything crazy, some just couldn't
04:38help it, including Al Green, who once again had to be escorted out. This time, not for shouting
04:45and waving his cane in the air, but protesting with a ridiculous poster.
05:03And we will never go back to where we were just a very short time ago. We're not going back.
05:09I mean, how does that poster help the Democrats? And then, of course, there's Ilhan Omar. She was
05:16on camera shouting a lot at Donald Trump, just filled with rage, so angry, so triggered, especially
05:23when Donald Trump was calling out the out-of-control Somali-linked fraud.
05:27That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious
05:36penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens. In many cases, drug
05:43lords, murderers all over our country, they're blocking the removal of these people out of our
05:50country, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
05:59Wow, she points her finger, very aggressive there, and it's really not a great look for
06:04the Democrats. And other Democrats even held counter events while the State of the Union
06:09was on, and look at this. I'm a mother, I'm a physician, and I have a flag. And I am
06:18the
06:18proud representative for Oregon's third congressional district. Yes, thank you, thank you. And tonight,
06:27I defy Trump and his authoritarian project by standing in joyful, radical, peaceful resistance
06:37with the Portland Prague Brigade!
06:46Joining us now is Jeff Cruair, broadcaster and commentator. Jeff, thank you so much for your
06:51time. Let's start with the State of the Union Address. President Donald Trump, he gave a robust,
06:57fiery and certainly entertaining State of the Union Address from the Capitol. He, of course,
07:02entered the House of Chamber to chants of USA, USA before touting his achievements. Let's just look
07:08at part of his speech. When I last spoke in this chamber 12 months ago, I had just inherited a
07:15nation
07:15in crisis with a stagnant economy, inflation at record levels, a wide open border, horrendous recruitment
07:25for military and police, rampant crime at home, and wars and chaos all over the world. But tonight,
07:33after just one year, I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like
07:40no one has ever seen before. Now, before I get your thoughts on how the Democrats conducted
07:47themselves, can I get your assessment of Trump's speech? I think it was his best. I mean, I think
07:53it was the best one I've seen. Yeah. And I've been watching Trump since the day he came down the
07:59escalator. And it's been, you know, a lot of great speeches. But this one, I really thought was
08:06excellent. He hit all the high points. He trapped the Democrats time and time again. He mentioned
08:12heroes. I mean, there were so many wonderful moments, World War II veterans, heroes who had
08:17saved lives, USA hockey team. I mean, it was just masterful. And he was just loving it. You could tell
08:24he was having a good time. The Republicans were having a good time. The Democrats looked like they
08:29were angry and just upset. And he trapped them. And I do think this was really the high point.
08:37So I think this was something that's going to give fuel to the Republicans. Because listen,
08:42the Republicans need help to hang on to the Congress. And this will help them, I think.
08:47I agree. And the Democrats, I mean, they just fell for Donald Trump's trap. They walked right into it,
08:53embarrassing themselves, refusing to stand up at such crucial moments. They even refused to stand
08:59up for the US hockey team. Watch this.
09:10That's the first time I've ever seen them get up. And actually, not all of them did get up.
09:18Well, he points out that not all of them did get up, which says a lot about those ones.
09:23And John Fetterman, he's been filmed as being the only Democrat to shake Donald Trump's hand.
09:37It's just interesting because the Democrats were warned not to try and pull off stunts,
09:41but they couldn't help themselves, could they?
09:44No. And I wrote a recent column, John Fetterman, the last moderate Democrat.
09:49I mean, he has really bucked the party on a lot of different issues. And he showed glass last night,
09:55and at least he stood on a few of those issues. He welcomed the president. So, you know,
10:02the Democrats need to follow his lead. I mean, this Trump derangement syndrome
10:05is not helping their party. They look radical. They look ridiculous.
10:10They were really just angry. And Fetterman doesn't come off like that. So he really does,
10:17I think, belong in the Republican Party. Maybe one day he'll switch parties. We'll see.
10:22But that's the kind of look. I mean, Nancy Pelosi was looking like she was angry.
10:28You know, Elizabeth Schumer, we call her Pocahontas. So it was quite a display. And then you had
10:34the Democrats who were doing that event on the ball. They were even further out there.
10:39So that's the state of the party right now. It's crazy.
10:43It is crazy. And they're really not helping themselves with this branding issue as being
10:49seen. If they're trying to be seen as not crazy, they're certainly not helping themselves.
10:54What do you make of Virginia's new governor, Abigail Spanberger? She, of course,
10:58delivered the Democrat state of the union rebuttal and accused Donald Trump of engaging
11:02in unprecedented corruption. Let's listen.
11:05And so you have to ask who benefits from his rhetoric, his policies, his actions,
11:11the short list of laws he's pushed through this Republican Congress. Somebody must be benefiting.
11:18He's enriching himself, his family, his friends. The scale of the corruption is unprecedented.
11:26There's the cover up of the Epstein files, the crypto scams, cozying up to foreign princes for
11:32airplanes and billionaires for ballrooms, putting his name and face on buildings all over our nation's
11:40capital. This is not what our founders envisioned.
11:44Yeah, just so miserable, really. You know, you listen to Donald Trump, the energy and the
11:49entertainment that he brings. And then you listen to Abigail Spanberger and you just kind of want to
11:54switch off. But just a few points to make. She claims that Donald Trump is part of this Epstein
11:59files cover up. Look, I want all of those files released as well. But the Trump administration
12:04is releasing millions of them. I mean, where were the Democrats calling for the Epstein files to be
12:09released when Joe Biden was president? We know that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris could have released them
12:15or Biden's staff members could have released them using Biden's auto pen. Can I get your thoughts on
12:21that rebuttal speech? Well, Barack Obama delivered zero Epstein files. Joe Biden,
12:28zero Epstein files. Donald Trump, three million. Yeah. So I'll say three million of over zero.
12:33And Spanberger is a liar. She ran for governor in Virginia as a moderate. She has been raising
12:40taxes like crazy ever since she took office. So this moderate is gone. She's into the tax and spend
12:47Democrat philosophy like all the others. So it was a big ruse. So she's the one who's engaged in
12:53deception, not Donald Trump. And all these things that she lists are the typical talking points
12:59of the Democrats. Here's the bottom line. The people are going to vote this November based on
13:04their pocketbook, based on the economy. I think the Republicans have a good policy that they can
13:09point to. There's one big, beautiful bill, which is tremendous tax relief. The Democrats wouldn't
13:14even stand for tax relief in the president's State of the Union address. They wouldn't stand for
13:20American citizens. They wouldn't stand for tax relief. So they're the party of illegal aliens
13:25and tax increases. I don't think that's a winning formula.
13:30You're absolutely right. And Donald Trump was just so smart to get that highlighted. I mean,
13:36the Democrats just fell for it, refusing to stand up for things like tax relief. Just an embarrassment.
13:42Good luck to the Democrats, because Kamala Harris has announced that she is considering a run for
13:47president yet again in 2028. Let's listen to her.
13:52Will you run again? I haven't decided. You're still thinking about it. I might.
14:02That's what I've been saying. That's what I closed the book and I'm like, oh, she wants to. She's just
14:08thinking about it. That was my impression. I don't know if that's what you intended, but that was my
14:14impression. No, the book is about a specific period in time. There was no agenda beyond what we've
14:22discussed already, which is just sharing with people, you know, the reality of of the experience
14:30and the reality of her election defeat. I mean, watching those two, it's like, is this serious?
14:37Is this actually happening? But Kamala Harris has also revealed why she really lost the election.
14:42And according to her, it's all because of disinformation, misinformation, just disinformation.
14:49Who do you regard as your biggest opponent in this election? Was it time? Was it Trump? Was it
15:00the Biden administration? Who was the biggest foe?
15:05Oh, that's a wonderful way to think of it. Um, well, there were many.
15:11Mm hmm. There's one. There was one. Certainly there was the obvious one on the ballot. Um, but
15:18I'd say probably almost an equal measure, time and misinformation.
15:25Mm hmm. Misinformation about what?
15:28Miss and disinformation about a number of things, whether it be, um, anything to do with what we were
15:37challenged with as a, as an economy and what the source of those, what the source of those challenges
15:42are, affordability, um, missing disinformation about who actually had a plan to deal with affordability.
15:51Oh, Jeff, many things, according to Kamala Harris. She's had such a long time to come up with something
15:58convincing. And that is what we get.
16:02So the biggest obstacle for Kamala Harris was Kamala Harris. I mean, she was a terrible candidate.
16:09Uh, she didn't do media. She didn't articulate why she was running. She refused to break from a Joe
16:15Biden when people wanted change. All of her accomplishments were fictitious because every
16:21job she was given, she didn't, uh, handle like the border. She was a border czar. Uh,
16:27you could tell Biden didn't like her. A lot of Obama didn't like her. So the party leaders didn't
16:32really get behind her. They were sort of forced to accept her as the VP, uh, moving to the presidential
16:38candidates. And it just was a disaster form. So yeah, she's going to run again because who else
16:43do Democrats have? I mean, Gavin Newsom is turning out to be a disaster. Uh, he's making faux pas after
16:49faux pas. I just came across as racist in a, uh, uh, speech to, uh, black voters, uh, by saying
16:57that,
16:57you know, he shares their little IQ and he, and he can't read. So, uh, who else do they have?
17:03I mean,
17:04they, they really, uh, have a weak bench, so they might have to turn to her again. And that's good
17:08news
17:09for J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio or whoever the Republican candidate is going to be.
17:14Well, CNN is calling the Democratic Party a total mess after Newsom's performance in Munich. Also,
17:21AOC's disastrous performance. Let's just listen to this.
17:24So we see Governor Newsom. He's got a book, I think, which actually publishes today.
17:29He's in the middle of the fray of possible Democratic contenders.
17:32So what do the polls say?
17:34Yeah, they're all running. And this is just a downright clown car at this point on the Democratic
17:38side. I mean, just take a look here. Top choices for the 2028 Dem-Prez nominee. You have a leader,
17:45but it's not really a clear leader. It's within the margin. You have Newsom at 19%. Then you have
17:50former Vice President Kamala Harris at 18%. Quite a weak number for her, given that, of course,
17:54she was the nominee last time around. Pete Buttigieg, who, of course, has run before 13%.
17:58Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at 12%. This is just a total clown car. It is
18:03a total mess. There is no clear front runner at this particular point on the Democratic side.
18:09Who the heck knows who the nominee is going to be in three, two years?
18:12It's been a long time since we've had a Democratic race like this.
18:17Jeff, it's really not a good sign when CNN is calling it a total mess.
18:23Well, he's actually 100% right. It is a clown show. And if the Democrats were smart,
18:30they would ditch all of those candidates. Pick someone who is a moderate, who can appeal to
18:35a broad section of voters, get away from this extremism. But that's not going to happen,
18:40because they're now doubling down on Trump hatred, on socialism. So their next nominee is going to be
18:47another far-left candidate. I mean, they would be smart to follow the Bill Clinton playbook. He was
18:53someone who appealed to people in the middle. He went in there, he cut taxes, he worked with Republicans.
18:58But that Democrat Party is gone. The Democrat Party now is a socialist party. And they're only going
19:04to have socialist choices. And that's going to be a problem for them. So, you know, the Republicans
19:10have their problems, believe me. But it helps them to have a Democrat Party that doesn't have
19:15leadership and it doesn't appeal to a broad spectrum. Just finally, before I let you go,
19:21Donald Trump hosted the U.S. men's hockey team at the Oval Office ahead of the State of the
19:25Union address, let's just take a quick look. Our country is winning again. In fact,
19:31we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it. People are asking me,
19:37please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much. We can't take it anymore.
19:43We're not used to winning in our country. Until you came along, we're just always losing,
19:48but now we're winning too much. And I say, no, no, no. You're going to win again. You're going to
19:55win
19:55big. You're going to win bigger than ever. And to prove that point, to prove that point,
20:01here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud.
20:06the men's gold medal Olympic hockey team. Come on in.
20:24USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
20:35What a moment, Jeff. Can I get your reaction?
20:38I mean, that might've been the highlight of the speech. Those people are super popular now,
20:45the men's hockey team. You had 26 million people that got up early to watch that match against
20:50Canada. And they're now heroes. And it was such a compelling victory. You had the pride,
20:57the patriotism again. That's what we want to see among our athletes. You know, I thought it was
21:02interesting. The women's team also won the gold medal. They were invited, but they did not go to
21:09the stadium, but the president did say that they're going to be going to the White House,
21:12which I was glad to hear. But this was a highlight of the, of the ninth. And it shows that,
21:18you know,
21:19Donald Trump knows how to associate with winners. He's associating with, you know, patriotism and pride in
21:25our country. The Democrats are just on the, on the opposite side. A lot of the Democrats couldn't
21:30even cheer the hockey team. So that's, that's, that's a problem with when we have a party that's
21:37not patriotic and pro-American and that really infects a lot of the Democrat party today.
21:43Yeah. And it's great that we have a president who is patriotic and is putting America first. He made
21:49that loud and clear yesterday. Jeff Crue, broadcaster and commentator. Thank you so much. Thank you.
21:58Joining us now is political analyst, Professor Joe Siracusa. Joe Siracusa, thank you so much for
22:04your time. Donald Trump certainly delivered a powerful, brilliant, entertaining, and patriotic
22:10State of the Union address. According to a poll by CNN, the majority of people watching
22:15say that Trump's policies will move the country in the right direction. That's 64 percent,
22:22according to this CNN poll. But left-wing media hosts are in meltdown over Trump's address. Here's
22:29MS Now host Rachel Maddow calling Trump's address violence porn. He was speaking quickly, even if he was
22:35ad-libbing a lot. But then he ended up slowing down a lot and particularly slowing down markedly
22:41for long stretches of the speech that were essentially sort of violence porn. He talked
22:48about people being covered in blood, gushing blood, blood pouring out of things. He talked about people
22:55being on the edge of death. He went into graphic detail on a number of different people's injuries
23:00of various kinds. And in those moments, he slowed down, ad-libbed a lot, and tried to give seemingly
23:05as much sort of gory detail as he could, talking about very bloody scenes.
23:10She is such a miserable woman. I think Donald Trump describing things such as Maduro's capture,
23:16it's part of storytelling, parts of bringing emotion to the events that have taken place. But
23:21Rachel Maddow's analysis of Trump's speech is that it was all just too violent. I think she's a bit
23:27unhinged with that analysis. Joe Syracuse, I want to get your thoughts on Trump's address,
23:32but also your reaction to what Rachel Maddow had to say.
23:36Well, Rachel Maddow, of course, is Trump's sworn enemy. And she's suffering what Ellen Dershowitz coined
23:44Trump derangement syndrome. Her comments are not very useful. I mean, you don't have to like Trump or
23:52love Trump. But I'll tell you what, he's the most entertaining president in my lifetime. I mean,
23:59yesterday was my 50th State of the Union address. I've been through 14 presidents. And I got to tell
24:06you that the State of the Union address, up to people like Trump, it's pretty boring. You know,
24:12most people don't watch it. They go to sleep. It doesn't say anything. And, you know, but he's the,
24:19he's not the ringmaster of the mega circus for nothing. You know, he brought a lot of
24:26glamour to it. He brought a lot of little people in there and he handed out awards. Everyone likes
24:30awards night. And he brought in this very popular ice hockey team. I was, I was actually moved by the,
24:38the victims that he highlighted, the daughters or the, the parents of the daughters. I mean,
24:43these are very hard things. I mean, sure, it looked like, you know, a sort of a reality show,
24:51but that's what American politics is. Now, what the president should have been doing and what I
24:56think is that he had to think about the midterm elections before he gave a speech. And he had
25:02to worry about three groups that have slipped away from him. That is the youth vote, the non-whites,
25:09and the, the independents. Those are the people who elect people. Gabriella, there are 255 million
25:16Americans eligible to vote. Only 150 million voted the last time. So it's very important that the
25:23parties are divided. So, but you need to, you need those independent voters to come back. So those are
25:27the, those are the people he, he should be pitching for. And of course, this is his mass,
25:32last major address before the midterms. The midterms are very important as your audience may or may not
25:37know. As soon as the house of representatives gets 218 members from one party, they can impeach anybody in
25:44the place. And if they, Democrats get back in and they're tipped to win. I mean, that tends to happen
25:50when they're, they're not in the White House. They're going to impeach President Trump again
25:55for the third time. They're going to impeach his trade secretary, Lutnik, for his Epstein
26:02relationships. They're going to go after the homeland security lady. And they're going to go after
26:07everybody, as a matter of fact. It's going to be quite unuseful. Now, I think it was an important
26:13speech in this sense. I think the president told everybody what he was thinking. I mean,
26:19I know the, there were important polls before the, the, the talk that said that 70% of Americans
26:25think he's concentrating on the wrong things, going in the wrong direction. Only six and
26:3210 Americans, six and 10 Americans don't, don't think much about him in terms of his popularity.
26:38But then again, uh, you know, uh, they felt that way about the last guy and the guy before that.
26:45So, uh, I think, uh, but most Americans are worried about what Australians worried about
26:49the inflation, the economy and the cost of living. I mean, these are things that normal everyday people,
26:56uh, have to think about. And, and Trump made a pitch for them. He told them that, uh,
27:00things are brighter than they look, uh, that may or may not be true. But, you know, during the, uh,
27:05just before the great depression, the president said, uh, you know, good times are ready to roll
27:10again. Well, that didn't happen. And so the president has to be hopeful. I think it was
27:14kind of a hopeful message, but look what, with, with Trump, I mean, it is, uh, it is just show
27:19business. It's, it's, it's wonderful viewing. It was hour and 47 minutes and you didn't know what
27:25was going to come next. And, uh, you know, this, this, this guy is able to kill people with his,
27:30uh, his entertainment value. That is he can combine politics with television. He is the
27:36master of television. I think his audience was, uh, uh, very disrespectful. I mean, uh,
27:42on the one night of the year, they could at least, uh, applaud for the, uh, ice hockey team or
27:47anybody
27:47else who gets the, this one guy got a congressional medal of honor at the age of 50, a hundred
27:52years old.
27:53I mean, you know, better late than never, I suppose, but you know, you have to stand up for
27:57that one too, but you know, they were quite a, uh, a surly mob and, uh, you know, it's, uh,
28:02these speeches tend to exhibit the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good thing is president tell you
28:07what was on his mind. The bad thing is, is that the audience wasn't, uh, too responsive. And the
28:14ugly thing is that some members of the audience were, were, you know, on the verge of treason.
28:18That is, they were, you know, when you start shouting abuse at the, uh, the head of the free
28:23world, I mean, yeah, you're really out of place as a matter of fact. And I like the snub, Gabrielle,
28:29he gave to the Supreme court, the body language said it all. You know, he, he didn't even shake
28:34a couple of their hands. He just, he walked right by them. But look, this is the president for the
28:38ages. I don't know who would replace him, uh, when he goes on and he's going to fight like hell
28:45to
28:45try to win that, that midterm. But the trouble is he's not on the ballot. So he, what he was
28:49giving everybody yesterday was the playbook. He said, you take this to your voters and he'd tell
28:54them this is what Donald Trump says. Well, they may believe it or they may not. But, uh, you know,
28:58the important thing I think in the midterms is, is for Americans to roll out of bed and vote.
29:04I mean, it's not like, uh, in Australia where you might get the day off or it's a weekend kind
29:08of
29:08thing. You know, you gotta, gotta make an effort. And then college kids have to roll out of their dorms
29:13and go vote for somebody too, if they want to. So, uh, and some Americans, you know,
29:17they might say the hell with it. You know, my interest rates have gone up no matter what I do.
29:21I'm having trouble with the first home. Uh, life is a mess. I can't get promoted. You know,
29:26business is stalled, et cetera, et cetera. And so, you know, what's, what's the point? So a number of
29:31Americans over 110 million, as a matter of fact, have decided just to, uh, stand on the sidelines and let
29:37things play out. I just want to pick up on something you said a little earlier about being moved in
29:42Donald
29:42Trump's speech. And, and I agree. I was deeply moved listening to Donald Trump honoring Charlie
29:47Kirk. We of course saw Erica Kirk, his widow there. Donald Trump was calling out political violence.
29:53He also honored Irina Zarutska, the young woman who was murdered on a train in Charlotte.
29:58Let's just take a look.
30:00So last year, Charlie was violently murdered by an assassin and martyred, really martyred for his
30:08beliefs. His wonderful wife, Erica, is with us tonight. Erica, please stand on that train.
30:22No one will ever forget the expression of terror on Irina's face as she looked up at her attacker in
30:29the last seconds of her life. She died instantly. She had escaped a brutal war only to be slain by
30:35a
30:35hardened criminal set free to kill in America, came in through open borders.
30:42Mrs. Zarutska, tonight, I promise you, we will ensure justice for your magnificent daughter, Irina.
30:57That was just such a powerful moment. It's really hard not to be moved by something like that. It
31:03gives me goosebumps. Yet some Democrats refuse to stand for Irina Zarutska's grieving parents there,
31:08which says so much. Also, Donald Trump gave a special mention to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
31:14Let's just watch this. And I also want to thank the man they report to, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
31:23Thank you, Marco.
31:30People like you. You know, Marco got 100 percent of the votes when he was in confirmation. I think our
31:38next one was about 54 percent. And some of the Democrats are now saying, I can't believe we
31:44approve that guy. And he said it's an honor that they feel that way. Right, Marco? You have done a
31:51great job. Great Secretary of State. I think he'll go down as the best ever.
31:57I mean, the entertainment value that Donald Trump brings, it's extraordinary. People like you,
32:03Marco Rubio. But look, Marco Rubio is certainly emerging as the real star of the administration.
32:09Would you agree with that? Yeah, he looks presidential. Let me say something about
32:14those other guests. And I'm not talking about Charlie Kirk's wife, who could fill a stadium by
32:19herself. It's the mother of the woman who was murdered. He also had another mother whose child was
32:26murdered by an illegal alien. Donald Trump has an ability to do something that I haven't seen in
32:34my lifetime. And that is, he makes people feel like they're being seen. Yeah. Little people. And,
32:41you know, the idea that Americans can actually see these people and identify with their problems,
32:46and they all can, you know, who hasn't been on an elevator or elevated train or subway or bus late
32:54at
32:55night and wondering if they're going to make it to the hotel. But, you know, he makes people believe
32:59they're being seen. And that's a great skill. Joe Biden couldn't do that. You know, he just,
33:05and, you know, George W. Bush couldn't do that and other people, et cetera. But look, you know,
33:11I think he does a great job with that. He's a great communicator in that sense. And, you know,
33:15he might be a little bit over the top, but, you know, American politics is a little bit over the
33:19top.
33:20And in terms of his patriotism, I mean, it's undiminished. He likes the military and he likes
33:28tariffs for the same reasons, Gabriella. And that is, they don't talk back. They do what they,
33:35he wants them to do. He wants them to raise money and he wants the, he wants military solutions to
33:41diplomatic problems that are slipping away. Now, the big problem here, of course, is,
33:46is Iran. You know, do you pick a fight with a nation twice the size of Texas, the size of
33:53Europe,
33:53as a matter of fact? This isn't Maduro in Venezuela, or this isn't Cuba or Mexico. This is 92 million
34:00people, many of whom would fight if you had foreign troops in this world. And he's got a large,
34:06what he calls Armada, and that's what it is, offshore in two different directions, which I understand,
34:13Iran over the weekend, has cost $2.3 billion to keep in place for the last 30 days. That's a
34:21lot of
34:21money, you know, to scare the hell out of your enemy. Now, if I were the Iranians, I would have
34:27a real hard think about what to do next. Now, one of the famous fellows who was kidnapped in 1979,
34:35who was working with the State Department, said over the weekend that he thought that the
34:41the Ayatollah and the leadership there would rather go down fighting than lose ignominiously. What he
34:47meant was, you know, sometimes people just roll the dice. Well, Donald Trump's prepared to do that.
34:53The trouble is, is that the American forces could do this, could pummel Iran for about,
35:00oh, I say, two weeks before they run out of Tomahawk cruise missiles. They have 800
35:04nearby. And you can't beat a nation with Tomahawk cruise missiles. If you're actually going to go to
35:09war with somebody, you have to put in foot soldiers. You can't defeat anybody unless you
35:16put soldiers on the ground. And America's not prepared to do that. But, you know, Israel will be
35:21terribly affected if this happens, as well as America's friends and allies in the Middle East.
35:27If the Iranians can cause enough trouble. So the president has to think very carefully
35:32about what to do next. The trouble is, is that he's on a roll. You know, he was successful in
35:38Venezuela. He's he's done what he wanted to do in Mexico. He's got them to pay attention.
35:45And he he beat the Iranians up pretty badly last year. But he was lucky they did not respond in
35:51kind.
35:52They took their beating and sort of shut up and went away. But this time he wants them to
35:56cough up all the uranium enriched material. He says he never wants them to get a nuclear weapon. Well,
36:05you know, forever and never in diplomacy, Gabriela is really a stretch. He's he's he's
36:13that guy. Treaties only last for about a lifetime. Let's listen to what he had to say about Iran.
36:19He certainly laid out his case for a possible attack on Iran during his State of the Union
36:24speech to Congress, saying that he would not allow the world's biggest sponsor of terrorism
36:28to have nuclear weapons. My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy.
36:35But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror,
36:40which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can't let that happen.
36:45Also in news today, the Australian government is urging the families of diplomats to leave Israel
36:51and Lebanon amid rising fears of military conflict conflict, rather, between the U.S. and Iran.
36:56So that certainly gives potentially an indication that a strike could be soon. But I want to get your
37:03thoughts on this decision and how it's being kind of thought out within the Trump administration,
37:10because this prospect of an attack on Iran is generating concern and division at the top levels
37:16of the Trump administration reportedly about the best way forward, because sensitive discussions about
37:22the risks of military action is being leaked to the American media.
37:25There are reports that Vice President J.D. Vance has concerns about a military operation and
37:31and potentially going wrong. Is that causing Donald Trump a headache?
37:35Not really. I mean, Trump's trying to put a positive spin on this.
37:40Gabrielle, I'll tell you that we're the worst kept secret in Washington,
37:44and that as America has been at war with Iran since 1979, since the Ayatollah's followers
37:50kidnapped those American citizens at the embassy in Tehran. Then we had, I think, a failed rescue attempt.
37:59We should have gone to war with them, crushed them. But we've allowed them to go on for 47 years.
38:05He's right. The president's right. They are the world's number one exporter of terrorism.
38:10They have funded Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis, and they have killed Americans,
38:17but I'm sure Australians indirectly, as a matter of fact. These are people, these are the bad guys.
38:24Now, you know, the Iranian people, the Persians who've been there for thousands of years,
38:28they're putting up with the mullahs because they seem to be the only people who can direct
38:32traffic and deliver the mail. Sometimes nations get stuck with governments they just do not want.
38:38And of course, we have, if the president's right, that the Iranians, the Iranian government,
38:45he said they have killed 38,000 protesters. I think he mentioned that phrase,
38:50he had that phrase in his speech. That's an enormous amount of people who protested. And I
38:55thought the president was going to use some of these forces a couple of weeks ago, at least in January,
39:01when we had the first uprisings that we saw on television. Right now, it's going to be a little
39:06harder because the mullahs have cleaned up the streets. And of course, you got the Revolutionary
39:10Guard who cut on the mullahs for their paychecks. So you don't know which way that's going to go.
39:15But look, I think if he goes in, he's going to hit them very hard. He's not going to try
39:20to
39:20decapitate them. What he's going to try to do is break the place up. I mean, if you can't get
39:26the
39:26leadership, you break the place up because there's always a new leader to take over in a place like that.
39:32But the thing is, is that the president realizes that if he's able to deliver a victory here,
39:39it might help everybody in mid-November. Now, keep in mind, you can win a war and lose the election.
39:46You know, don't ask me, ask Winston Churchill. He got turfed out before the Second World War was over,
39:52but after he'd won the war in Europe, George H.W. Bush got turfed out after he won the first
39:58Gulf
39:58War. Sometimes nations, you know, they just don't put that much stock in foreign victories because
40:04they're worried about those other things we talked about. Inflation, cost of living and affordability.
40:09But the president, if he gets in, he's going to get in all the way. And this idea that
40:13you can get in and not expect to be hit back, I think, is sort of a fantasy. That's what
40:20the
40:21Secretary of Defense or Secretary of War is worried about, is what happens when they hit back. And I'm sure
40:26the Israelis are very worried about this. I'm sure the so-called, is it the Iron Dome? Is that what
40:32they call it? That it has to be replenished from time to time. They may not have enough to do
40:38that.
40:38And the Iranians have plenty of ballistic missiles. And then, of course, they don't have to have ICBMs.
40:45They just need short-range ballistic missiles to get where they want to go. So they can do a great
40:49deal
40:49of damage to America's allies in the area. And of course, there are 30,000 to 40,000 Americans
40:56and their allies in the Middle East anyway. So they might want to hit pipelines in Saudi Arabia.
41:02So the price of gasoline and petrol goes up. And they might want to close the straight up Hormuz.
41:08Then you've got all hell to pay for it. So Trump has to be very careful here between
41:12the reality of what he's dealing with and the headiness of the success he's had. He's had
41:19enormous success so far. He certainly has.
41:23And he's got that military on side. We hear a lot of jumping up and down in the military,
41:29but those guys, they are four square behind this president, because this president is four square
41:35behind them. He's got unfitished business. Joe Siracusa, political analyst, thank you so
41:42much for joining us. Really appreciate all your insights and analysis. Thank you. Thank you.
41:50Joining us now from the UK is writer and broadcaster Esther Krakow. Esther,
41:54thank you so much for joining us. Let's start with this news revealed today. Shocking emails
41:59showed that Jeffrey Epstein allegedly blamed King Charles when Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor lost
42:05his job as UK trade envoy. So Andrew, of course, became the UK special representative for
42:11international trade and investment in 2001, but resigned in 2011 over his relationship with
42:18Jeffrey Epstein. So on July 21, 2011, which was the day that Andrew's resignation was made public,
42:26Epstein allegedly sent an email to one of his associates saying, I assume he knows this is
42:31Charles is doing. Esther, I mean, that's pretty extraordinary. What more can you tell us?
42:37Well, from that email exchange, it's clear that Jeffrey Epstein was so confident that
42:42Prince Andrew was in his pocket. And actually, at the time, it was alleged that he resigned
42:47because of his links to Jeffrey Epstein and because of that infamous picture of
42:51Prince Andrew or the former Prince Andrew coming out of Jeffrey Epstein's flat in New York.
42:58Now, we've also heard from the UK's current Secretary of Trade that he actually lobbied
43:04for Prince Andrew to have that role removed because he showed utter disrespect and disinterest in his role,
43:11particularly one kind of striking moment where he was engaging with some schoolboys as part of his role
43:19as trade envoy. And he was allegedly very disinterested and kind of showed a level of disdain that was
43:26not acceptable for working royal. And you have to understand how big a deal that is, because all the
43:30royals do is PR. All they do is engage with the public. They're basically professional ambassadors.
43:35For it to be said that Prince Andrew showed a level of disdain and disinterest in the people that he
43:40was
43:41engaging with in his capacity on behalf of the royal family and as a public servant is quite damning.
43:47And so it shows, one, that he was ill-suited to the role, but two, he was more interested in
43:51serving
43:52himself than actually serving the country. And his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein has kind of laid that
43:57bare. Now that all these sort of allegations have come up and Prince Andrew or the former Prince Andrew
44:02has now formally been arrested, you also hear people, individuals that were actually part of his personal
44:08protection. So security officers and all of that coming out and saying that, you know,
44:12members of his protection team didn't have a high opinion of him and that his nickname amongst his
44:19security personnel, I will leave you to guess, but it rhymed with punt. So he wasn't thought of very
44:24highly. And this is just shows that, you know, his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein clearly
44:29was more important to him than actually doing his role in serving the country.
44:33Well, King Charles's brother, Prince Edward, was supposed to be joining King Charles for a major
44:39event, but he was forced to pull out at the last minute. This comes just days after Andrew Mountbatten
44:44wins his arrest. So Prince Edward was expected to join his family at an awards ceremony at St James's
44:49Palace in London, but was unexpectedly absent after being struck down with a health issue. But Esther,
44:55what are your thoughts around this? Because royal experts say that this really would have been
45:00comforting, particularly for King Charles to have more of his family around him during this hugely
45:05challenging time. Yes. And I think what this laid bare is how just how thin there are in terms of
45:12working royals on the ground. There are very few of them. You know, this goes to show again how much
45:16of a blow Harry and Meghan leaving the royal family were because it wasn't just a PR crisis. It was
45:21who's
45:21actually going to do the work that we need to. We know that Prince Edward's wife has been in Somalia
45:27with her charity causes. They're drawing attention to the rights of women and girls,
45:32and particularly women and girls who have faced sexual violence. So she's busy all over the world,
45:37and they've been doing tours to Canada and all over the world. So really, it's not surprising that
45:42with an alleged cold, something as simple as a cold, he had to be taken out. I think it's probably
45:47more to do with the exhaustion and just the fact that the few members of the royal family that are
45:51working
45:52are kind of pushed to the limit. We know that Princess Anne is the hardest working royal,
45:56and she engages in the most engagements of all royals. But you know, this is someone who
46:00does quite a glamorous job. She goes to a chip factory in the Midlands. She opens schools on a
46:06rainy day in Wales. It's not the kind of glamorous work that most people associate with the royal family,
46:11but that is the overwhelming majority of what they do. And unfortunately, coupled with the former
46:17Prince Andrew's arrest this week, a lot of attention has been diverted from their usual duties to this
46:22disgraced former prince who has no judgment and was just basically fulfilling his role in public
46:29duties in a way to just line his own pockets, really. Let's talk about the disgraced former
46:34prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. He's now reportedly been banned from horse riding following
46:39his arrest. Royal aides fear that the former Duke of York being photographed on horseback would be
46:44a bad look while he remains under police investigation. Look, I tend to agree with that.
46:49But prior to his arrest, it was common to see Andrew riding around Windsor estate, but not anymore, Esther.
46:56Yes, the former prince is basically in royal prison. I mean, the last step is really to lock him up
47:01in
47:01the Tower of London. And you know, to put it bluntly, the public sees the Yorkses, so the former prince
47:07Andrew and Sarah Ferguson as a pair of sucking leeches that were in any sort of capacity of royal
47:14family roles just to basically make money for themselves. And it's not a surprise that Prince
47:20Philip, after the former Prince Andrew's divorce from Sarah Ferguson, described her as odd and
47:25pointless and banned her from being seen with the royal family on public engagements. And the royal family
47:31has basically decided to say to Prince Andrew, or the former Prince Andrew, without all but banishing
47:36him to the Middle East, that you have put this family in such disrepute that you will take everything
47:42that we're giving you. You are lucky we're providing your home. You will cooperate and corroborate
47:48with the police, so much so that you have police basically storm the King's private property in Norfolk to
47:58arrest the former Prince Andrew, which he obviously would have known about. You don't just go onto the
48:02King's private property without his knowledge. So, you know, and the last thing that the royal family
48:07wants is pictures of the former Prince Andrew looking pleased for themselves and happy and riding horses
48:13and living in La Bida Loca when there are real questions about not just his association with Jeffrey
48:17Epstein, but how far this really goes. Because we know that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has lied to
48:24the public before in his disastrous news night interview with Emily Maitlis. And so no one can
48:29take his word for it. So it is now that the royal family's duty to manage this as far as
48:34possible to
48:35be completely transparent, not just with the authorities, but with the public and try and sort of cauterize
48:40this wound that is the Yorkses. And they absolutely must. I mean, if they want to win back any kind
48:47of
48:47support or move forward as a modern monarchy, they absolutely need to be transparent and handle this
48:53the right way. The Speaker of the UK's House of Commons has revealed that he told police he believed
48:58that Peter Mandelson was a possible flight risk ahead of his arrest. So we know that, of course,
49:03Peter Mandelson was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office and he's facing accusations himself
49:09of leaking information to Jeffrey Epstein. He was released on bail on Tuesday morning after more than
49:14nine hours of questioning. Esther, can you bring us up to spade? What are the details here?
49:20Yes. So it was quite surprising that the former Prince Andrew was arrested, but Peter Mandelson wasn't
49:26because from the details of the email exchanges that were released to the public between him and
49:31Jeffrey Epstein, particularly during his time as deputy prime minister and during the peak of the 2008
49:36financial crisis where the British government in particular was bending over backwards to try and
49:42reassure the public amidst sort of financial crisis and mass unemployment in the country.
49:46You had Peter Mandelson, from what it looks like from these emails, allegedly passing on sensitive
49:53markets information to Jeffrey Epstein and his acolytes, which is such a huge breach of office
50:00and of judgment. So it was actually expected that he would be arrested before Prince Andrew because
50:05that's far worse, well, from what we can see than anything that Prince Andrew has,
50:10the former Prince Andrew has seen to have been done with or engaged in with, with Jeffrey Epstein.
50:17But they've now just got round to it because he actually agreed to give the police an interview next
50:22month. But according to the Speaker of the House of Commons, he felt like after an overheard conversation
50:27of some kind or through sort of more private information sources, that he thought Peter Mandelson was a flight risk
50:33and that he was going to leave the country. And so he tipped off the police who then seized Peter
50:38Mandelson's passport to make sure that he can't actually leave the country pending investigation.
50:43So this whole thing is quite tawdry. I find it quite incredible that Peter Mandelson's only defense is that
50:48he doesn't recall anything of this kind. He doesn't recall any sort of inappropriate communications,
50:52even though there are there are actual emails. It's quite incredible. You know, from a lot of these revealed
50:57documents, his own husband was on Peter Mandelson's payroll and receiving a stipend of four thousand
51:03dollars a month. I find it incredible that Peter Mandelson doesn't remember any of that. But again,
51:07this is a live investigation and the authorities do their job. It's just to the public. It just looks
51:12very, very unsavory. Let's talk about Keir Starmer. So Keir Starmer is facing pressure to halt funding
51:17for French Channel patrols after new data revealed that around two thirds of small boat migrants
51:24successfully reach Britain. So just to repeat that, two thirds of small boat migrants successfully
51:30reach Britain. Wow. Prime Minister is expected to approve fresh payments to France when the current
51:36agreement expires. But Conservative and Reform UK figures are demanding that no further payments be
51:42handed over without evidence of tougher action from France. And again, Esther, just to look at how many
51:48people have crossed the channel in small boats. Last year, it was more than forty one thousand.
51:54That's an increase of thirteen percent. Yes. I mean, so far, the UK has handed the French authorities
52:00over seven hundred million pounds, which we are still wondering what has been done with that, because,
52:07again, their success rate is so low. There have been allegations that police, French police have actually
52:12been bussing these migrants to sort of the points on the beaches where they're actually getting onto these
52:17dinghies to cross the channel. And I think what I find quite spectacular is how naive this government
52:22is in not assuming or not even deducing the inherently political role that this whole crisis
52:31has taken on. The French don't want a lot of these migrants and they're happy to wring their hands of
52:35them and send them to Britain as Britain's problem. This whole issue of migrant crossings didn't just start
52:40in the channel. It started in the Mediterranean and many Mediterranean or European countries bordering
52:44the Mediterranean have had to deal with this. Italy, for example, has had to deal with a lot of
52:49influx of migrants. Spain, France, many of them are considering, you know, offshoring migrants
52:54to third world processing countries. So it's a significant problem for France as well. And it's really had a
53:00huge impact on their own domestic policy situation. You've seen the rise of the Front National in France,
53:06mainly because of this not only unprecedented wave of legal immigration, but also illegal immigration.
53:11The only saving grace, I think, for the French is it's more difficult for illegal migrants to work
53:15in France because it's a more document heavy country. In the UK, there's no such thing. We don't have
53:20national ID cards, for example, even though they've been tried to implement it twice, first under Blair
53:25and more recently under Keir Starmer, even though that failed and it was another of the government's
53:30incessant re-turns. So the French are quite happy to wash their hands of this. And I think for Keir
53:36Starmer to not notice that and for his government to look poised to approve more payments without
53:41demanding even more rigorous policing is quite incredible and just shows his lack of judgment
53:46on this matter, as well as many other matters across the country.
53:50Just finally, the Gorton and Denton by-election is shaping up to be potentially a turning point in
53:56Starmer's tenure. Of course, the Gorton and Denton areas have been a Labor stronghold for decades,
54:00yet it's a three-way race. What can you tell us about this? What are you expecting?
54:05Well, the mathematical formula is quite an interesting one. On this particular constituency,
54:11you have, on the one hand, sort of urban settlers alongside a very large,
54:18significant ethnic minority, mainly made up of Muslim voters. And then on the other hand,
54:23you have white working class individuals that reform is targeting quite heavily, arguing that
54:28they've been left behind by the government and by successive government. So that's quite,
54:32that is the interesting split. What reform is banking on is that the Green Party will actually
54:37split the Labor vote, which will allow reform to roam to victory. But this by-election has descended
54:42into something ugly that people weren't expecting. You know, you're seeing this unholy alliance between
54:46traditional, like, blue-haired, green supporters, and actually traditionalist Muslim voters that are
54:52basically voting on sectarian lines, voting on a pro-Gaza platform. Would you believe that the Green Party has
54:58been releasing ads in Urdu and Bengali in order to woo these voters? And what does it say about the
55:04state of Britain when a national party is campaigning, not just on such tribal and sectarian lines,
55:09but is literally putting out campaign adverts in foreign languages to secure the vote? I mean,
55:15Britain is becoming like an airport lounge where you have people from all sorts of different walks of
55:18life just sharing a geographical location. And unfortunately, this by-election says something much
55:24deeper about the state of Britain, not just the fact that the country is overwhelmingly unimpressed
55:28with the Labor Party at the moment. You're spot on. Writer and broadcaster Esther Krakow,
55:33thank you so much. Thank you.
55:38And that is Power Hour. Thank you for your company. We'll see you again next week.
55:42Make sure you subscribe to Sky News Australia on YouTube.
55:45We'll see you again next week.
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