Episode #2200- Hammer and Nigel Full Show

**Nigel** (0:00)
Hammer and Nigel. Can you believe these characters?

**Donald Trump** (0:02)
They're weirdos.

**Nigel** (0:06)
My name is Nigel.

**Nigel** (0:07)
Jason Hammer is out. Ethan Hatcher is in. My man, what's going down?

**Ethan Hatcher** (0:15)
How's it going, Nigel?

**Nigel** (0:16)
Daily Iran Update. By the way, when you and Jerry were doing the show, you had some great back and forth on this subject. I'm not interested in having some sort of long overblown debate about Iran, but we do like to give updates here and there.

**Ethan Hatcher** (0:30)
Oh, absolutely.

**Nigel** (0:31)
It's top news. It was like you and Jerry on the air together, Jerry Lopez, who I'm talking to. That was must listen. I didn't get out of my car.

**Ethan Hatcher** (0:39)
That was dynamite.

**Nigel** (0:39)
That was my driveway moment. I will say that for people, I don't know where you're at in this whole thing. I don't really believe that Israel is leading the United States by the nose. They've got some sort of leash on Donald Trump. And this is another story that was in The New York Times in Axios, not exactly Trump-friendly outlets, right? And so Donald Trump personally intervened yesterday to stop Israel from carrying out more larger military operations against Iran, even bigger than the ones over the weekend, Netanyahu further escalating.
Trump telling BB, hey, look, dude, you keep going, and you are not going to have our backing in any way, shape, or form whatsoever.

**Ethan Hatcher** (1:28)
To simply boil down Israel's pressure over the United States as direct control, I think, is an oversimplification here. Because what we're talking about is diplomatic pressure. What we're talking about is foreign policy pressure. Remember, all the way back at the beginning, when our Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the whole reason why the Trump administration attacked Iran was because they had solid intelligence, likely from Israel, that they were about to attack Iran, they were about to launch an assault, that would result in retaliation against American forces in the region. Therefore, the administration led with a preemptive strike. So that's what we call diplomatic pressure. It's not that Benjamin Netanyahu picks up the big red phone and calls the White House and says, Mr. Trump, you do as I say now.

**Nigel** (2:18)
But that's what the media portrays, though.

**Ethan Hatcher** (2:21)
Well, that's an easy way to oversimplify it, but it's not accurate. We're talking about foreign policy pressure.

**Nigel** (2:29)
Netanyahu had approved a bigger follow up operation.
They were targeting some strategic sites across Iran. Again, Trump stepping in yesterday after he was already pissed about what they did over the weekend in Lebanon and trying to take out the Hezbollah.

**Ethan Hatcher** (2:47)
When he called Benjamin Netanyahu, he was f***ing crazy and said the only reason why he wasn't in a jail cell was because of Donald J.

**Nigel** (2:54)
Trump. I didn't have the damn it. I'm pissed off because one of my favorite clips is when somebody was asking Donald Trump months ago, like Israel got squirrely, he goes, they don't know what the f*** they're doing. And then he just turned around and got on Air Force One and flew away.

**Ethan Hatcher** (3:12)
That is classic Donald Trump.

**Nigel** (3:14)
Meanwhile, back in the homeland, Ethan, I'm curious to get your perspective on a primary night. It's primary night again, as several states across the country, everybody keeping their eyes on Maine and this guy named Graham Plattner.

**Ethan Hatcher** (3:30)
He seems like just a peach, doesn't he? Well, even The View, the ladies of The View thought this guy was too toxic, they wouldn't touch him with a 10-foot pole.

**Nigel** (3:41)
No, and the Nazi tattoo and the sexual...

**Ethan Hatcher** (3:44)
Well, he got it covered up.

**Nigel** (3:46)
Oh, OK. Well, he lived with the death camp Nazi tattoo for 18 years before he finally decided, well, all right, fine.

**Ethan Hatcher** (3:55)
Maybe this is a bad look.

**Nigel** (3:57)
Maybe.
So we'll see how he does. I don't think... What's her name? Collins?

**Ethan Hatcher** (4:04)
Susan Collins. She's running unopposed. So she advances to the November election. She'll be fine.

**Nigel** (4:08)
So it's going to be her and him.

**Ethan Hatcher** (4:10)
Yeah. Well, he's still the front runner, apparently. And I want to know, what do the Democrat voters of Maine see in him that the rest of civilized society does not? OK.
What kind of hold does he have over these people? He's no great orator. He seems like just a whack job. And then his personal life is a total disaster.

**Nigel** (4:32)
Sexting and texting and misogyny and accusations of abuse.