The Erick Erickson Show

Erick makes the case for Florida voters to throw scandal-plagued Congressman Cory Mills out of Florida's 7th District, walking through the House Ethics investigation into Mills' federal weapons contracts, the assault allegations, and the restraining order, then urging support for challenger Ryan Elijah, who trails Mills by just three points in the primary. He warns Republicans that if they will not clean up their own side, the voters will do it for them, invoking the 2006 wave that swept out Tom DeLay and Denny Hastert. Then a pair of Open Line Friday standouts: Enes Kanter Freedom declaring himself a WNBA prospect under the league's own self-identification rules, and a long free-market debate with caller Alan on why the government taking equity stakes in Intel, U.S. Steel, and IBM cannot beat China.

• Cory Mills (Florida 7th) under House Ethics investigation for steered weapons contracts, assault allegations, and a restraining order, and why Ryan Elijah, three points back in the primary, is the clean alternative in a perfect three-way swing district once held by John Mica and Stephanie Murphy
• The 2006 lesson for Republicans: Tom DeLay, Denny Hastert, and how refusing to police your own side hands seats to the Democrats
• Enes Kanter Freedom declares for the WNBA under the league's self-identification standard, Clay Travis and his "Nashville Balls" bit, and Sophie Cunningham on boys in girls' sports
• Caller Alan and the government's equity stakes in 30 companies: Intel's 10 percent CHIPS Act stake, U.S. Steel and Nippon golden shares, IBM and Watson, Kelly Loeffler, moral hazard, and Erick's "you cannot out-China China" argument
• Caller Michael on international law and the Iran strikes (the Geneva Convention on civilian versus military infrastructure), caller Emily on Zohran Mamdani's New York grocery stores versus food stamps, and the United Auto Workers now counting more academics than autoworkers

Erick takes on the viral "$20 burrito" affordability debate that lit up the right after a Turning Point USA student's tweet, arguing that tariffs, Fannie and Freddie loan guarantees, and the Jones Act (not lazy consumers) are what really drive prices up. He walks through Trump scrapping tariffs on coffee, bananas, beef, and eggs, and tells the story of his Rev Coffee habit and Jura machine to show tariffs in real life. Then he pivots to the Georgia governor's race, contrasting Keisha Lance Bottoms' "we don't have the facts" dodge on data centers with Rick Jackson's local-control answer, and points to Meta's El Paso project and the Hyundai plant in Bryan County as proof of the economic upside.

Topics:

• The "$20 burrito" affordability firestorm, Turning Point USA, and why tariffs undercut the right's own complaints
• Trump reversing tariffs on coffee, bananas, beef, and eggs, plus Erick's Rev Coffee, Community Coffee, and Jura machine story
• Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, student loan guarantees, and the Jones Act waiver that lowered prices after the Iran war
• Keisha Lance Bottoms versus Rick Jackson on data centers in the Georgia governor's race
• Meta's El Paso data center, Hyundai in Bryan County, and the case for local control, property tax relief, and rural jobs

Erick catches the Democratic Socialists contradicting themselves in their own words: Bernie Sanders on Pod Save America swears no serious Democrat wants to defund the police, abolish ICE, or open the borders, while Ro Khanna openly calls to abolish ICE, pack the Supreme Court from 9 to 13, and tax billionaires. He plays Wisconsin governor candidate Francesca Hong refusing on CNN to disavow her deleted 2021 "cancel Thanksgiving" tweet, then a Politico jump-cut interview where she suddenly calls Thanksgiving her favorite holiday. Add a Mike Bloomberg and Jones Act tariff callback, BMW hijacking customers' screens for a Spider-Man promo, and a caller-fueled deep dive on data center cooling and immigration.

• Bernie Sanders (Pod Save America) versus Ro Khanna: the Democratic Socialist lie on defunding police, abolishing ICE, and open borders
• Francesca Hong's deleted "cancel Thanksgiving" and "original super spreader" tweet, her CNN dodge with Kaitlan Collins, and the scripted Politico jump-cut
• Mike Bloomberg, the Jones Act waiver, and a one-year tariff callback: why prices fell in Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and California
• BMW calls its Spider-Man screen takeover a "special surprise," not an advertisement, and Erick calls it what it is
• Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan map (0 of 15 lowest-degree counties, 13 of 15 highest), colleges as "progressive madrasas," killing the student loan system, plus caller talk on closed-loop data center cooling and comprehensive immigration reform

Erick tracks the fast-collapsing Max Miller scandal as both Ohio Republican senators, his father-in-law Bernie Moreno and John Husted, now publicly call on the OH-7 congressman to quit over domestic violence and child-abuse allegations, including the bizarre "bunny" standoff and a daughter's untreated broken collarbone. He lays out the brutal math: an R+5 district against a D+8 generic ballot, where Miller staying on the ballot could sink Vivek Ramaswamy's run for governor and cost John Husted his Senate seat against Sherrod Brown, and he demands Trump push Miller out the way Democrats forced Graham Platner out in Maine. Then the blockbuster: Erick confirms a CNBC report that the Army has burned through nearly all of its ATACMS and precision-strike missiles in the five-month Iran war, walks back a false Washington Post claim of a Camp David blowup between Trump and Pete Hegseth, and warns that a China-Taiwan war is coming while Congress and the defense industrial base stall.

• Max Miller's OH-7 meltdown: Bernie Moreno and John Husted both say quit, the "bunny" story, the broken collarbone, and Scott Jennings and Katie Britt on CNN with Jake Tapper
• The electoral math: R+5 district, D+8 generic ballot, and how Miller could cost Vivek Ramaswamy the governor's mansion and John Husted his Senate seat versus Sherrod Brown
• Moderate Democrats launch a $15 million effort to stop the Democratic Socialists, compared to the 2012 GOP autopsy report, the Trump takeover, and the left writing off Elon Musk
• The missile shortage: CNBC reports the Army is nearly out of ATACMS and precision-strike missiles after the Iran war, the false Washington Post Trump versus Pete Hegseth and Steven Feinberg story, and Trump crying "treason" on the leakers
• China, Xi Jinping, and Taiwan readiness, plus closing headlines on the stalled Iran deal, James Talarico's chief-of-staff scandal, and Ken Paxton slipping in Texas

Erick breaks down Abdul El-Sayed's Democratic Socialist win in the Michigan Senate primary over Haley Stevens, his Morning Joe damage control on Israel, foreign aid, and abolishing ICE, and why the polls oversampled urban white voters and nearly blew the call. Then a blistering hour on Ohio Republican Max Miller, the abuse and drug allegations, father-in-law Senator Bernie Moreno calling him unfit, and how Democrats force their damaged candidates out while Republicans will not. Erick's warning: if Max Miller stays on the ballot, the GOP could lose the Ohio Senate and governor's races too.

• Abdul El-Sayed beats Haley Stevens for the Michigan Democratic Senate nomination and will face Republican Mike Rogers, with Erick warning the GOP not to get cocky
• El-Sayed on Morning Joe: calling Israel's conduct "genocide" and "apartheid," cutting military aid, abolishing ICE, and saying America's founding was flawed
• The polling failure: low rated and Democratic pollsters oversampled urban white voters in Michigan (and the same risk for Francesca Hong in Wisconsin), so trust the averages, not individual polls
• Ohio's Max Miller: three women allege abuse and violence, he admits past illegal drug use to Jake Tapper, and Senator Bernie Moreno calls him damaged goods who needs help
• The double standard: Democrats forced out Graham Platner, Eric Swalwell, Joe Biden, and Mandela Barnes, while Trump, Mike Johnson, and Richard Hudson refuse to move Max Miller, risking Vivek Ramaswamy and John Husted in Ohio

Erick makes the case that the United States simply does not have the electrical capacity to repatriate manufacturing or feed the AI boom, walking through Scott Lincicum's Cato piece on the 1886 Hall-Heroult aluminum cell and why a single smelter needs a permanent, enormous block of base load power that nuclear, coal, and natural gas provide and solar and wind cannot. He then turns to Ross Douthat's interview with Yale Law professor Samuel Moyn, who floats overweighting young voters and handing children's proxy votes to random 20-somethings instead of their own parents, and builds it into a sweeping monologue on college educated white progressives, the 1619 Project, and universities as "progressive madrasas." Plus the Max Miller "permission structure" play and a caller on the coming generational wealth transfer.

• The power crisis: Scott Lincicum (Cato Institute), the 1886 Hall-Heroult smelting cell, why aluminum smelters can never power down, and Erick's call for nuclear, coal, and natural gas base load plus small modular reactors
• How Trump's aluminum tariffs backfired by raising the cost of homes, cars, and electronics, and the case for ally-shoring to Javier Milei's Argentina and to Vietnam instead of China
• The natural gas pipeline in Erick's own backyard, Sierra Club opposition, and degrowth activists using blue-state regulators to sabotage pipelines and power plants
• Ross Douthat interviews Yale Law's Samuel Moyn on stripping parents of proxy votes for their children, answered with the Phil Gramm "what are my kids' names" story
• The college monologue: Nikole Hannah-Jones and the 1619 Project, self-loathing white progressives, and the four schools a prominent theologian recommends (Samford, Auburn, Texas A&M, Clemson) versus Erick's alma mater Mercer

Erick tears into the right's $20 burrito panic and the affordability fight between Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, and the Turning Point USA crowd, calling out the writers in JD Vance's orbit who blame corporate greed while refusing to admit Trump's tariffs and the Iran war (not just Joe Biden) drove up grocery, beef, and gas prices, with a Reuters poll now showing Americans blame Republicans. A caller pitches a Pacific Ocean to Lake Mead desalination mega-project with nuclear-powered AI hubs, reviving Erick's Ukraine drones and precision-missile shortage capacity argument. The hour closes with a monologue on democratic socialism as a secular religion, built on Lansing socialist William Lawrence saying non-white voters "defang the white left" and Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan coalition, and Erick's answer: churchgoers should go be their isolated neighbors' friend and bring them Jesus.

• The $20 burrito debate: Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Mark Thiessen, and the Turning Point USA affordability fight, Erick's "learn to cook" pushback, his coming cookbook, and his own story of food assistance, formula, and the power getting shut off
• Why the right keeps circling the wagons around JD Vance, and Erick's charge that tariffs and Trump's half-baked Iran war (not just Biden) raised grocery, beef, and gas prices while a Reuters poll blames Republicans
• Caller Paul in Pinehurst: a Pacific Ocean to Lake Mead desalination mega-project with five nuclear-powered AI hubs run by Google, Amazon, and X, tied to Ukraine building 5 million drones and America running low on precision-strike missiles
• Caller Walter in Ponca City on Saul Alinsky, the book "After the Ball," and the Marxist language war over statues and history
• The secular-religion monologue: William Lawrence's "defang the white left" comment and Meet the Press apology, Abdul El-Sayed losing black, Hispanic, and non-college white voters, and Erick's call for believers to befriend isolated progressives who worship politics instead of God

Back early from vacation, Erick pulls back the curtain on what Republican pollsters, focus groupers, strategists, donors, and corporate money men are all telling him: James Talarico is leading Ken Paxton in Texas right now, and the fortune the GOP must spend to rescue Paxton could cost them Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, and Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed, Haley Stevens, and Mike Rogers set up a nervous primary night. He argues the one thing saving Republicans is a Democratic Party that has lost its mind, from Wisconsin governor hopeful Francesca Hong wanting to cancel Thanksgiving as colonialism to the socialist surge terrifying the party's own establishment. Then a signature comic monologue on the Washington Post dragging JD Vance for raising backyard chickens, complete with a they/them source in Utah and a hen named Karen.

• Texas Senate reality check: James Talarico leading Ken Paxton, three nonpartisan pollsters, the Ted Cruz versus Beto O'Rourke comparison, and the "suicide plot" that could hand Democrats the Senate
• Michigan primary night: Abdul El-Sayed versus Haley Stevens, Bernie Sanders and AOC versus Gretchen Whitmer, Gary Peters retiring, and Mike Rogers hunting a rematch after nearly beating Elissa Slotkin
• The corruption problem on the right: Democrats now trusted more on the economy, anger at the Trump family getting rich, tariffs, and why Erick says "I told you so"
• Francesca Hong, Zohran Mamdani, and the socialist meltdown: the deleted "cancel Thanksgiving" tweet, her "proximity to whiteness" CNN interview, and why the far left keeps rescuing Republicans
• The Washington Post versus JD Vance's chicken coop: Tim Carman, Carolina Coops, a $100,000 donated hen house, a they/them named Danny Bowers in Utah, a chicken named Karen, plus 86 percent of new jobs going to women

Erick argues the United States is losing to Iran by choice, driven by an isolationist wing embedded around President Trump and Vice President JD Vance that wants a "tripartite" world carved up with Russia and China, even as war torn Ukraine out builds all of NATO with 5 million drones a year while America cannot manufacture a single Patriot missile. He then hammers Ohio Republican Max Miller to drop out over the Daily Mail's syringe and marijuana gummy photos (with Senator Bernie Moreno calling it a "seventh level of hell") and calls on Florida to primary Cory Mills. The centerpiece is a deep dive into a $5 billion foreign dark money machine: Hansjorg Wyss, Christopher Hohn, the Oak and Hewlett Foundations, Indivisible, and Oren Cass funneling left wing cash into groups on both the left and a co opted "right."

• Iran "losing by choice": the isolationist right around Trump and JD Vance, Pat Buchanan's multipolarity, Catherine the Great and Putin's Soviet nostalgia, the China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba axis learning to coordinate, and Turkey, Pakistan, and Qatar quietly backing Tehran
• The manufacturing collapse: war torn Ukraine building 5 million drones this year (more than all of NATO combined) versus a U.S. arsenal under 100,000, plus Erick's new piece on handing the profit motive back to the private sector to build missiles, refine oil, and desalinate water
• Max Miller's scandal and Ohio's 7th District: Daily Mail syringe and 150mg gummy photos, Bernie Moreno's "seventh level of hell," the Graham Platner contrast, Trump defending Miller as "a good guy," and a call to primary Florida's Cory Mills
• The $5 billion foreign back door: Hansjorg Wyss, Christopher Hohn, the Oak Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, Indivisible and the No Kings protests, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, Code Pink and China, and 19 state attorneys general pushing a FARA investigation
• The captured "right": how Hewlett Foundation and American Compass money reaches Oren Cass, Sohrab Ahmari, and Compact to sell social conservatism with socialist economics, plus Ireland's anti Israel jet that can no longer land in fog

Erick makes a full throated defense of America's data center boom, playing a Mike Rowe clip about Plano, Texas electricians under 30 making north of $240,000 debt free, debunking the Erin Brockovich water panic from Bill Maher's show, and explaining why Caterpillar is suddenly the hottest stock in the Dow. Callers Keith, Max, Chet the Jet, and Ed dig into the skilled trades gold rush, canteen empanada six figure incomes, and the non-disclosure agreements that are breeding data center conspiracy theories. He closes with breaking Iran news as Trump, Scott Bessent, and Marco Rubio claim progress on reopening the Strait of Hormuz while Tehran denies any talks and a cargo ship is struck off the coast of Oman.

• Mike Rowe's viral clip: Plano, Texas data center electricians under 30 earning $240,000, debt free, poached three times in 18 months
• Erin Brockovich, Bill Maher, and the data center water myth: golf courses, Permian Basin water recycling, and West Texas selling cleaned water to data centers
• The degrowth movement, Chinese funded left wing groups, solar panels on farmland, cobalt mining in Africa, and the case for nuclear base load power
• Caterpillar's Dow surge on gas turbine generators, plus callers Keith, Max, Chet the Jet, and Ed on the skilled trades boom, antifreeze cooling, and data center NDAs
• Breaking Iran news: Trump, Scott Bessent, and Marco Rubio claim progress reopening the Strait of Hormuz as Tehran denies talks and a ship is hit off Oman