Michael Anton joined me this morning. He is Deputy Assistant to the President for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council:
Audio:
Transcript:
HH: Pleased to welcome back to the program Michael Anton. He is the deputy assistant to President Trump for strategic communications at the National Security Council, a friend of the program. Michael, good morning, thank you for joining me.
MA: Thank you, Hugh.
HH: I want to begin with a somewhat obscure but very important issue. Turkey is marching into Afrin, bringing them perilously close to American troops in Manjeb. I’ve talked about this with Admiral Stavridis, with Courtney Kube. What is the situation as you understand it at the NSC?
MA: Well, the President had a fairly long phone call with President Erdogan last week before leaving for Switzerland in which he relayed all of American concerns, and also relayed to President Erdogan that he understands and respects Turkish legitimate security concerns. But you know, he gave him a pretty strong warning that he doesn’t want to see any threats to American forces, and told him in no uncertain terms that American forces would defend themselves if need be, and you know, urged restraint and de-escalation.
Senator Lindsey Graham joined me this morning:
Audio:
Transcript:
HH: In the audience tomorrow night will be Senator Lindsey Graham. Of course, it’s always a pleasure to welcome him back to the Hugh Hewitt Show. Good morning, Senator.
LG: Good morning.
HH: You’re going to vote this afternoon, or late, early evening, on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Do you want to tell people about that, and then we’ll turn to the intel business?
LG: Yeah, so I sponsored this bill in 2013. We’re one of 7 nations that allow abortion on demand in the 20th weeks of pregnancy, the 5th month. Under this bill, it would allow states and federal governments to protect a child from excruciating pain. At 20 weeks, you have to provide anesthesia to operate on the baby, because they feel such excruciating pain. This would outlaw abortion on demand in the 5th month, take us out of the club of 7 based on the theory that you can protect a child from excruciating pain. Nothing’s more painful, I would think, than an abortion. So this is a good issue. It’s a great issue for the pro-life community. The vast majority of Americans support it, and we’re pushing forward.
HH: Now do you have cloture votes? Do you have enough votes to proceed to the…
LG: No, we’ll probably, we’re going to be north of 50. The polling’s about 60. 20 states have a version of this law. It’s kind of like partial birth abortion. It takes years to get there. It’s just a matter of time that we’ll win the day, because it just makes so much common sense.