See, there's the money thing too involved in this.

Absolutely.

I mean, I think obviously Elon Musk is a very smart guy.

And by the way, Elon Musk and Sam Altman and Dario have been having this battle for a long time.

I mean, I remember reading two opposing pieces in the Wall Street Journal editorial page like probably five years ago.

And Musk saying that he thought it could annihilate the world.

And I believe it was Altman on the other side saying that he thought it had this amazing potential, which I think Musk believes too.

And they didn't notice for a week until they looked back and they figured everything out forensically what was happening.

See, there's the money thing too involved in

this.

I mean, I think obviously Elon Musk is a very smart guy.

And by the way, Elon Musk and Sam Altman and Dario have been having this battle for a long time.

I mean, I remember reading two opposing pieces in the Wall Street Journal editorial page like probably five years ago.

And Musk saying that he thought it could annihilate the world.

And I believe it was Altman on the other side saying that he thought it had this amazing potential, which I think Musk believes too.

Your thoughts about what's happening now, the state of the straights.

Do you see the similarities?

I do, and I, and I think that we've always seen President Trump in an aggressive mode to use the economy in almost a military way, uh, to, to say, to shake up these relationships and to, you know, look for, for better, um, you know, better trade deals.

Y- you know, we've seen like, uh, so many of our manufacturing sectors really gutted, uh, on the backs of cheap imports.

So if...

And as the president said before, you know, there is pain to go through in this process, but if he can reshuffle the deck on some of these deals, I do think that people can understand the argument over the longer term that it will provide a lot more jobs here in the United States.

I mean, you have obviously the AI element that is, uh, becomes part of this, and some of these jobs are gonna go away.

But, you know, I think Mike Rogers is the, is making that argument to voters.

What kind of crowds do they expect today? Do you know?

Everyone's forgetting how much damage has been done to Iran already.

I, I think it's a great point.

A- and I think that, y- you know, the, the problem is that the only thing that the Iranian leadership cares about is the Iranian leadership.

They'll figure out ways to get what they need to survive.

I'm sure they have water.

Uh, they don't care about the condition of the people in the country.

But I think all of the things that you're pointing to have undermined and knocked the legs out from underneath this regime in a way that I think we all hope could lead, and I don't think people should give up on this, could lead to an uprising of the Iranian people.

How w- and how interested in peace do you think this guy is?

Everyone's forgetting how much damage has been done to Iran already.

I, I think it's a great point.

And, and I think that, y- you know, the, the problem is that the only thing that the Iranian leadership cares about is the Iranian leadership.

They'll figure out ways to get what they need to survive.

I'm sure they have water.

Uh, they don't care about the condition of the people in the country.

But I think all of the things that you're pointing to have undermined and knocked the legs out from underneath this regime in a way that I think we all hope could lead, and I don't think people should give up on this, could lead to an uprising of the Iranian people.

How w- and how interested in peace do you think this guy is?

What do you think?

Well, I think a couple of things.

You know, I think, uh, obviously in California's DNA, they have had very strong Republican governors and mayors in the past.

I also think you look at Rick Caruso, uh, from Los Angeles, who had a pretty good showing and got some celebrity support in the last round.

Uh, he's, you know, not getting support anymore, but, like, it showed that you had that sort of interest by celebrities.

You've got this former Lakers player, uh, who is betting, uh, on, in the betting markets a lot of money that Pratt is gonna win.

So we'll see.

I mean, don't even give them a hor- uh, people are gonna do horrible things to your star on the Walk of Fame.

Including the money from us

... and the nuclear program.

Totally.

So y- you know, I, I just would be super wary of believing anything they say, basically.

And I, I think dealing with this, these guys is, has to be sort of, like, step by step.

Prove that you did this.

Prove that you did that.

I know how crowded it is, and it's got a downside, but there's more upside, and there's a lot of like-minded people in that area.

I mean, really, they kind of have to get out of the Iran war one way or another before people leave for family vacation in summer because it starts to get baked in the cake.

Well, I thought what Secretary Rubio said today was really important with regard to what's going on in the strait.

I mean, you have the representatives of the Iranian government referring to the new regime that controls the strait.

They're basically saying, so we came in, and as Rubio said, we're going to lay mines in the strait, and we're going to control it.

We're going to charge you $2 million if you want to come through to get your vessel through.

This should outrage the entire world and everyone who uses that straight.

It should be absolutely inflaming to every single country that uses that straight.

You've written about veterans and what they put on the line in World War II, and that's part of the case, too.

So what do you think?

So I, I also thought it was very interesting because we remember the president saying, "Help is on the way," and clearly signaling to the Iranian people that w- that the goal was to overthrow this regime and to bring in a much more, uh, a, a country that countries around it can feel safe around and deal with and, and do commerce with and all of that.

And then in the last few weeks, there's been very little discussion of the humanitarian side of this.

And also, you know, it's our understanding that people were told, "Look, stay in your houses.

Do not come out and protest right now while we get through this stage of all of this." So I thought it was interesting, and I know there's been people who've been trying to communicate to the president, "Please put these people on your list.

Please make this a point in the negotiation process." Uh, so that message got through, uh, clearly to the president, and now he is talking about these eight to 10 women who are scheduled to hang.

Two of them are 16 years old

I mean, what are they doing?

President's speaking optimistically today.

Yeah.

You know, I think that's his, I think that's his way, you know? I think he always wants to keep thinking about the diplomatic, uh, prescription for what could happen.

He- he's been wanting, uh, to do what's happening now in the Gulf I think since the beginning of this exchange.

I remember, uh, I did a phone interview with him several weeks ago, and he wanted a presence in the waterway.

To me, this is an indisputable issue, right? Anyone who believes in the free passage of transit and cargo and economies around the world, as Mike Waltz was just saying, should be able to support this, right? No matter how you feel about anything else related to the war, I cannot understand how France and England can look themselves in the eye, because that's what he wanted.

He wanted presence and numbers of ships in the strait to prove, and in the Gulf of Oman, to prove that whatever else is going on, you cannot use this area.

Do you think that's a smart move on their part?

This is not good.

Yeah, it's not good.

I, I think one of the...

Y- you know, I, I found it really interesting that the president talked about the regime change and the more reasonable people to deal with in Iran.

And then, you know, as we learned more, it turned out that it indeed was the person that for a couple days it looked like he hadn't made it, or we didn't know if he was incapacitated, uh, Moqtada Khamenei.

So he is in charge.

He was passing messages to work on this deal.

So what are your thoughts about what his numbers say?

I mean, not, there's not one word of this we'll sign off on.

Uh, th- uh, th- that's exactly the issue.

The Islamic Republic constantly lies, and, uh, the sad thing for the world is that both the world and the Islamic Republic itself believes those lies.

They have portrayed themselves as this nat, uh, rational actor that wants a ceasefire, but that's a total lie.

We are dealing with a death cult that its existence is tied, uh, to eternal war against the world.

The Islamic Republic is going to remain a threat to the United States, to Israel, to all of its neighbors.

Since the ceasefire was announced, the regime has struck Israel, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the strikes are continuing.

So what are your thoughts about what his numbers say?

They're not coming out unless this besieged militia can be repressed.

I think that's true.

And, um, people in this country, Iranians in this country who are in touch with people on the ground there tell me that they will not come out until there's a clear signal that it is safe for them to come out.

They have recently watched 30,000 people be massacred in the streets.

They had to come...

They had to pay for the bullets that went into their bodies in order to be shown their loved one's body.

So I think people have to sort of just take a breath.

Don't e- You're never gonna get what we have, probably, for-

I, I cannot believe Senator Warner, Senator Kelly, uh, Senator Shaheen, they're all against this war even though they know that for the last 47 years Iran's been the problem they've been afraid to confront.

Well, I think that's exactly right.

I think that everybody who has been able to call out the Iranian regime has been afraid to confront it.

I think President Trump sees, uh, y- you know, that the clock ticks on his time in office, and that he wants to be a consequential, historic president, and I think that he puts that before his concerns about the midterms at the moment.

I think he is probably, you know, wants to make sure that oil prices come down, and perhaps that they have enough time before November to kind of make the conversation about something different by the time we get closer to that.

Um, you know, you're always gonna have anti-war isolationists in any point in history.

We certainly had them before World War II.

So I'm wondering, I, I hear the Trump people say, "We don't really need them in the fight," but I think for their population, it would look good, I believe, if they were in the fight, sticking up for themselves.

... to fund ICE? I mean- [chuckles]

Well, I think that was glaringly obvious in Munich this week, not to get off topic from the economy.

But I think that when asked-- I think that the agenda that you saw AOC and Gretchen Whitmer and the others, Newsom on that list as well, go into Munich with was just like, "Oh, this is easy.

We just show up.

We just bash Trump all day long." And then when someone actually asks them a question about their own take on foreign policy, um, you know, AOC can't articulate anything beyond um, um, um, about it, and I think that speaks to the economic side of the equation as well.

One area...

You know, it, it's not a good thing that the average age for the first-time homebuyer in America is 40, okay? We need to-- If we're gonna be encouraging people to have families, to get married, to, you know, dig in on that part of life, which I, I think is a huge problem in this country, I think we need a lot more of that and a lot more optimism in that area, we have to make it possible for people to afford homes at a younger age.

What do you think? I know it's impactful, this trial, 'cause it's gonna cost a lot of money.

He is an assemblyman, but, um, you know, how is he qualified to run the biggest city in the, in the country? Did you get a sense that he has enough of a plan to try to make things happen? Although, as you note, it, it does depend, in part, on state government.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of things that happen in New York City have to get the approval of the state government.

There are certain things that he can raise money from in, in New York, um, certain levies and adjustments that you could make where he could, you know, pick up some of that money.

But it's, it's difficult to find, you know, nine billion, which is about what it would take.

One of the biggest parts of the program is free childcare for everyone, I believe it's up to the age of five, because that's when they would go to school.

So, that's a h- that's a huge... that's a huge bill to pay for, so that, that's gonna be very tricky.

And on the experience issue, you know, I think it's an obvious question, so I don't...

Is there any sense of how Democrats feel about a potential Mamdani victory, especially in terms of anything they could try to translate to a purple state or district, you know, moderate Democrats, for instance, and not just the progressive ones?

Yeah.

... just so, so devastating.

It, it truly is.

This is a heinous, heinous crime.

It's an assassination of a political figure.

And we have to look at it in the context of assassinations of political figures across this country.

You know, I think about the years in 1968 when Bobby Kennedy was shot and Martin Luther King was shot and there was a lot of tumult in the country and, you know, I, I don't wish that on us again ever, but I think that we have to understand the context of what we're living through right now and it is...

Hmm.

Yeah.

... just so, so devastating.

It, it truly is.

This is a heinous, heinous crime.

It's an assassination of a political figure, and we have to look at it in the context of assassinations of political figures across this country.

You know, I think about the years in 1968 when Bobby Kennedy was shot and Martin Luther King was shot and there was a lot of tumult in the country.

And, you know, I, I don't wish that on us again ever, but I think that we have to understand the context of what we're living through right now.

Hmm.

I mean, like even Colbert, who since his notice of being canceled two weeks ago has had 100% liberal guests on, feels the need to confront Pritzker and say, "You know, the map, it's pretty crazy these districts."

Yeah.

Um, uh, I, yeah.

It, I, I mean, it's em- it's embarrassing, and it's embarrassing that Pritzker has made himself sort of the centerpiece governor for this issue and, "Oh, we're gonna welcome all of these lawmakers from Texas who aren't gonna do their job, who aren't gonna address the flooding issue," things that are important that are before their, um, before their assembly right now.

So, i- i- you know, this is the kind of irony and hypocrisy that makes people hate politics, and I think they probably think it stinks on, on all sides.

The thing that matters is how, you know, w- is representing your state in a way that breaks it up into logical geographic districts, which is the way they were originally figured out, but the states decide this issue.

The federal government, the Constitution, I heard the RNC chair this morning saying it was unconstitutional what was happening.

Crazy.

... you know, could be a contributing factor.

Absolutely.

I, I mean, think about it.

Do- do you... (laughs) I'm not sure how much more we need to understand about TikTok than the fact that the Chinese government doesn't allow their young people to- to use it, and instead they're fed...

And we don't live in this kind of government thankfully, in a communist leadership, but they just fed information about Communist China, about the great points about China, and math and science.

I mean, you know, we- we have given up a lot of our, uh, responsibility, I would say, to teach young people why they should...

Why should you love America, the story of this country.

... um, are having fewer kids, they're not getting married, they can't find- they- they can't imagine ever buying a home, and that has to play a factor in pride in- in your country, no matter which country you're in.

That's one thing we were talking about when we were kicking this, this, the idea for this segment around and, and brainstorming on it was not just the attention span part of it, but just the constant negativity of the doom scrolling when you're looking at, when you're looking at social media could, you know, could be a contributing factor.

Absolutely.

I, I mean, think about it.

Do, do you... (laughs) I'm not sure how much more we need to understand about TikTok than the fact that the Chinese government doesn't allow their young people to, to use it, and instead they're fed, and we don't live in this kind of government thankfully, in a communist leadership, but they just fed information about Communist China, about the great points about China, and math and science.

I mean, you know, we, we have given up a lot of our responsibility, I would say, to teach young people why they should, why should you love America, the story of this country.

I'm working on a very big project right now which I hope is gonna just do a small part in helping, um, our young people to understand our history.

And I, and I think it does change them when they know these stories.

Th- they, th- they can't imagine ever buying a home, and that has to, uh, play a factor in pride in, in your country, uh, no matter which country you're in.

And by the way, what do you think about on at Times Square them rallying for Iran against us in Times Square all weekend?

You know what I really think more than anything, Brian, when I look at this? I think it shows the terrible lack of education in this country.

We are not educating our children.

Now you can- you can support Iran if you want to.

You have a right to do that in this country.

But I think that what we've done is educated an entire generation of young people who just are picking up their information off of TikTok, and they didn't learn it in school.

They didn't learn about the 1979 revolution.

Joy Reid, a primetime anchor on a major network, has that dim view of America that we can't be more trusted than Iran.

in order to try to stop the president for a- for taking part directly in this war.

I, I don't think that...

I don't think they have a leg to stand on.

Th- the thing that I think is very misunderstood at this point is that a strike is not entering into the war.

Think about what the president did in Syria.

It was also his first foreign action as president in the first term, and he brought in McMaster and, uh, and, uh, Mattis, at that point, and talked to them.

"What are my options?" You know, after we all saw the heinous biological weapons attack on children, he said, you know, "Look what they did to babies." And it...

President, you don't know what you're doing."

Martha MacCallum, will you have, and as anchor of the story, will you have any time to help Karen Bass clean up the city?

Yeah, uh, y- you're gonna get out there with your scrub brush-

I've got, I have two sponges.

... and help clean up, clean up the city (laughs).

Um-

There was a bounty on his head.

$10 million on his head in December, and now we're in May.

But you have to make decisions in these moments, right? And you see the influence of Russia and China, particularly Russia, but also China and Iran, in the region.

And what I see at work here is that President Trump is empowering some of these other players who he believes that he can deal with, help to become more prosperous, and doing, in many ways, exactly what China has done in regions around the world, where you build economic prosperity, you invest in the country in order to make them somewhat beholden to you.

And, and so you see the minimization on this map of Russia, of Iran, and of China.

And I think if you're Bashar al-Assad and you're sitting in your exile home in Russia right now, and you're Putin looking at this meeting tomorrow, you're feeling a little unsettled by what you're watching unfold over the last few days.

And the level, the profile of it, with President Trump in the region, has to be unsettling to Putin, I think, and probably to Xi as well.

Uh, the other thing that was mentioned that I heard in crosstalk two weeks ago when I was in the White House is that they're looking at the Central Bank, and they say that s- sanction the Central Bank will cause pain.