Today's Guests

Nick Kangadis is Senior Content Creator at MRC Video, the video arm of the Media Research Center. He joins Jake for the 9:00 show open and returns at 9:20 for the White House media fight and the worst media quote of the week.

9:00 · Show Open · Sunny Hostin's Holdout Juror Claim, The View, and Hasan Piker

Jake and Nick open the show with the story everyone is talking about: The View cohost Sunny Hostin says she was the holdout juror whose stand kept Daniel Rakowitz, the Butcher of Tompkins Square Park, from a murder conviction in 1991. Accounts from that trial tell a different story.

• On Tuesday's episode, Hostin said she was the lone holdout who swayed the jury toward a verdict of not responsible by reason of insanity.
• In 1991, jurors told The Post, Newsday, the Daily News and the Associated Press that the holdout was an unemployed man who wanted deliberations to drag on so he could keep collecting the $15 a day juror fee and free meals.
• A law enforcement source from the time told The Post this week that the holdout was a man.
• Does a story like this help Disney as it defends its local station licenses before the FCC?
• The View weighs in on the Lindsay Clancy case and Patrick Clancy. Jake takes a look at the marital résumés around that table, including Whoopi Goldberg, who has been married three times.
• Hasan Piker wants the Democrats to go full Beijing. Aren't they already there?

Sources: The Gateway Pundit: Sunny Hostin holdout juror · MRC Video: Hasan Piker

Guest: Nick Kangadis, Senior Content Creator, MRC Video

9:20 · The White House Media Ban and the Worst Media Quote of the Week

A federal judge ordered the White House to temporarily restore press credentials for CNN, MS NOW and Politico. CNN then told viewers during a 9 AM hit that President Trump was defying the order. Jake and Nick sort out what actually happened.

• Did the administration defy the court, or did CNN get ahead of the facts?
• The worst media quote of the week. The nominees: Sunny Hostin, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Laura Barrón-López of MS NOW, who called President Trump a dictator.

Sources: The Gateway Pundit: President Trump did not defy the judge's order

Guest: Nick Kangadis, Senior Content Creator, MRC Video

9:35 · Iran Denies Nuclear Ambitions, Offers a Hormuz Deal, and the Squeeze on Global Shipping

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Bret Baier on Fox News' Special Report that Tehran does not want a nuclear bomb, "not at all," citing a religious decree from its late supreme leader. He blamed Washington for the nearly seven month war with Iran, said Iran would submit its program to international inspection, and offered to dilute its enriched uranium.

• Why did Pezeshkian sit down with Bret Baier in the first place, and what about his claims on the MOU? Wasn't it Iran that violated the MOU almost immediately after signing?
• More reports overnight of armed resistance inside Iran. What will it take to weaken the IRGC?
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters at the UN General Assembly that Iran has offered the United States a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days.
• Araghchi said it would be better if it is done before the midterm election, while insisting Iran is in no hurry. Did he have the blessing of Iran's National Security Council to make that offer?
• Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan will hold an urgent high level meeting under their joint defense pact as the kingdom faces attacks by Yemen's Houthis.
• Ship to ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman have hit their limits after Saudi Arabia diverted exports from the Red Sea. What about the threats to shipping in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal?
• Neria Leiter, son of Israel's Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, was critically wounded in a West Bank ramming attack. Hamas praised it. Was it a targeted attack?
• Will Iran ever return to the community of nations?

Sources: Fox News: Pezeshkian interview · Jerusalem Post: Live updates, September 25

Guest: Ludovic Hood, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute's Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East. A former foreign service officer with 20 years of service in the Gulf and Washington.

10:00 · The Race for Maryland's 1st District

Democrat Dan Schwartz is challenging Congressman Andy Harris, who has represented the Eastern Shore's 1st District since January 2011. Jake presses him on affordability, spending, energy, immigration and the redistricting fight on Maryland's November ballot.

• Why replace Andy Harris?
• Many economists on this show blame the Inflation Reduction Act for the affordability crisis. Would he have voted for it in 2022?
• What should Congress do about the deficit?
• Social Security and Medicare face projected insolvency by 2032 according to the CBO. What is his plan?
• Maryland voters will decide a constitutional amendment that would loosen the standards for drawing congressional maps, opening the door to a map that could target the 1st District seat. Where does he stand?
• Maryland's congressional districts are already gerrymandered. What are Republican voters supposed to think when they are being targeted for minority status?
• Offshore wind, natural gas, nuclear and clean coal: would he support an all of the above approach if it lowered electric rates for Maryland homes and businesses?
• Where does he stand on the Democratic Socialists of America, and would he work with them on Capitol Hill?
• Mass deportations and ICE enforcement in Maryland, including Montgomery County, which has seen violent crimes by illegal immigrants against American citizens.

Guest: Dan Schwartz, Democratic Candidate for Congress, Maryland's 1st District

10:30 · Rare Earths, Refineries and the Permitting Chokepoint

Can the United States regain its lead in extracting rare earths and expand refining capacity in a country this litigious? Who is working to restrain American rare earth and energy production, and is the situation any better in President Trump's second term? Has Lee Zeldin made headway against the groups putting the economy and national security at risk?

On rare earths:

• Despite significant deposits of the minerals needed for smartphones, electric cars and critical military systems, the United States has imported about 70 percent of its rare earth supplies from China.
• Until the late 1990s, the United States was a major extractor and processor of the world's rare earth elements.
• A wave of restrictive federal regulations, set against China's near absence of them, let Beijing undercut the American industry and capture the market.
• China now accounts for about 70 percent of global rare earth extraction and 90 percent of processing.
• The United States cannot let an overly burdensome regulatory process block innovation or weaken its geopolitical position.

On energy:

• Energy supply and delivery systems must keep pace with surging demand without unfairly burdening consumers.
• The permitting system is a chokepoint, with projects taking an average of four to five years to win approval.
• Weaponized litigation: roughly 70 percent of lawsuits come from national advocacy groups rather than local residents, turning the courts into a bottleneck even after approval.
• The longer approval takes, the more energy costs ratepayers. Was the Keystone cancellation an eye opener for most Americans?
• The United States has not built a major oil refinery since 1977. That needs to change, fast.
• Is China behind some of the groups tying up rare earth and energy applications? China certainly benefits.

Guest: James Morrone, Energy Policy Analyst, Americans for Prosperity

11:00 · Todd Starnes on The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America

Award winning journalist and Newsmax host Todd Starnes joins Jake to talk about his new book, The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America, and the political fight ahead of the November midterms.

• Will low information voters head to the polls in November thinking about gasoline prices instead of the long term vision?
• Fox joined the rest of the networks in declining to air White House coverage over the press credential fight with CNN, MS NOW and Politico. What did he make of it?
• Have some Americans already forgotten what life was like during the Biden years?
• Frustration with federal judges and the absence of DOJ prosecutions over the Russia hoax. Is it hurting the President?
• Life in America is better, safer and more secure than it was on January 19, 2025. Is that why he wrote this book?
• Is the left's hatred of the Trump Ballroom really about the name that will always be on it?
• Has President Trump returned God to the White House and the presidency?
• With about two and a half years left in the second term, what priorities does he want to see?

President Reagan told the nation in 1984 that America's greatness does not begin in Washington but with its free people and the values they live by every day. President Trump understands that returning to the Golden Age means returning to the faith of the Founding Fathers.

Guest: Todd Starnes, author of The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America and host of NEWSMAX The Todd Starnes Show. His book covers how President Trump led the charge to restore our schools, families, sovereignty and military. Get the book

11:30 · John Amos on The Call of the Bugle

In 1854 a young war correspondent watches the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, 600 British cavalrymen riding straight into Russian guns. He survives, and one question haunts him for decades: why did they ride? Author and former professor John Amos joins Jake to discuss his new novel, The Call of the Bugle.

• Years later the aging reporter, battling alcoholism, sets out to uncover the truth through forgotten diaries, hidden letters and interviews with the daughters of the fallen.
• He pieces together the life and death of General Robert Dryden, who seemed to be smiling as he charged into the guns, and confronts the general's unquiet ghost and a love he refuses to name.
• A sweeping multigenerational saga of the Crimean War about valor and folly, memory and masculinity, and the hidden costs of war.
• Modern war correspondents carry the same wounds from covering combat.

Guest: John Amos, author of The Call of the Bugle

11:50 · Salute the Troops

Jake closes the show honoring the men and women who serve.