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larry: hello, folk, welcome to "kudlow," i'm larry kudlow. joe biden's mendacious lie about the hunter biden pardon is yet another admission of guilt. plus, president trump picks kash patel to clean up the fbi, and i mean cleanse and clean up the fbi. we've got senator roger marshall, we've got representative the byron donalds. we've got house member claudia tenney if on all of it in just a moment later in the show, senators tommy tuberville and tom cotton will weigh in. but first up, above all, fox news' peter doocy, he's down there the in west palm beach, florida, where it's the not quite as warm as maybe some people thought it would be. peter, what ya got? >> reporter: not quite as warm in it's, like, 70 and overcast it's great. [laughter] warmer than d.c. and, you know, as we're down here, larry, we are reminded that a president-elect cannot conduct foreign policy, but donald trump is certainly trying to apply pressure on america's

adversaries where he can. he just posted a little while ago on truth social in part, if the hostages are not released prior to january 2025, the date i proudly assume office of the president of the united states, there will be all hell to pay mt. middle east. in the middle east. and that kind of pressures has already yielded some results. the threat of tariffs on our neighbors if the border security was not tightened up has prime minister justin trudeau offering to deploy helicopters and drones to beef up security, and the canadians are saying that's what this weekend's mar-a-lago trip was all about. >> the public threat to the social media posting was on monday evening. four days later we were at his residence in florida having dinner to talk about exactly that context. >> reporter: trump allies on capitol hill believe the president's approach will be tough but, ultimately, pretty

simple. >> what you're going to see is, basically, global diplomacy of rock, paper, scissors. it is strength, weakness, appeasement, and strength the wins. they know donald trump is a strong leader. they know if he says he's going to sanction you, if he's going to hold you to accountable, he's going to do. that's that's why you saw justin trudeau fly to palm beach to meet to with president trump. >> reporter: there is, of course, a trump angle to the hunter biden pardon. this afternoon his campaign is fund raising off the pardon, and last night trump wrote on truth social he thinks a pardon like that should also apply to people he thinks are political prisoners convicted of january 6th-related offenses. it's only been about three weeks since i asked the press secretary about the president's insistences, his promises that there was going to be no pardon. i said, okay, if that's true, is he going to have donald trump do

the pardon for him? and i was told by the press secretary for president biden that was a rabbit hole. turns out up none of this was a rabbit hole, it was a broken promise though. larry. larry: peter, you get the forecaster of the year award. that's what you get, the forecaster of the year award. >> reporter: thank you, yes. we'll do traffic on "kudlow." [laughter] larry: thank you very much, peter doocy, everybody. now more than ever, i tell you, we need kash patel to clean out this fbi stable of corruption, and that's the subject of the riff. ♪ larry: so it's no surprise that joe biden lied to us about pardoning his son hunter because biden has lied throughout his presidency. on covid, on inflation, budget deficits, afghanistan, the border crisis, trump tax cuts, the hunter biden laptop. remember that? so here he goes again on his way

out the door with a particularly mendacious lie about a breathtakingly large-scope pardon for son hunter. but here's the key as i see it. incredibly broad scale of this pardon from 2014 through 2024 is really about the -- tantamount to an admission of guilt by hunter and joe biden to all of the influence peddling that financed the biden family crime syndicate. and the fact that the biden justice department tried its hardest to defend hunter and the fact that the biden justice department tried to put donald trump in jail for 750 years with all their weaponize ifed lawfare, a tactic that never had any merit at all, all this shows why it is essential to clean up the justice department and the fbi. now, bring on stage the kash patel. president trump is nominating

for fbi director. kash patel is mr. clean-up. he's a brilliant guy, vast experience in law, national security and fighting crime. he'll come into the fbi not to take revenge or wage some kind of new weaponization, but instead to crens the agency -- cleanse the agency, to clear out all of the deadwood. because right now the fbi is caught in the throes of its greatest corruption scandal since j. edgar hoover, and this must be stopped, must be ended, expect president -- and president trump if knows this. he knows it well. and kash patel is exactly the guy to do it. now, take a listen to this tape from our show, what, two weeks ago. take a listen, please. >> the worst weapon we have in government is a two-tiered system of justice that's been weaponized.

and i think it's time that donald trump came in there with a sweeping mandate that the american public gave him to return a singular system of constitutional justice. there is no revenge list. if donald trump is successful, he will make these institutions successful forever. larry: hear that, importantly, okay? hear that, no revenge. kash patel famously uncovered the russia, russia, russia hoax that was financed by hillary clinton, right? supported by the fbi and cooked up by their crooked mouthpiece, christopher steele. remember all that. kash patel has served as senior director for counterterrorism at the national security council. he's been a deputy director of national intelligence. he's been a chief of staff at the defense department. he has tried over 60 jury trials. he has been both a prosecutor and a public defend per. defender. so he nose all about domestic and concern knows all about domestic and international

crime, and that's exactly what the fbi needs. and kash patel will work closely with pam bondi, the the brilliant woman and former florida attorney general, who will become president trump's attorney general running the justice department. and she will work hand in glove with kash and over new officials to clean out the dirty sables of justice -- stables of justice that has regret regrettably prevailed for the past four years if not longer. america wants and needs a fair, neutral and impartial administration of justice that conforms with the founding fathers and the constitution that they wrote. kash patel, pam bondi and let's include john ratcliffe over at the ci -- cia. they are going to show that a successful administration of law and security will, to coin a phrase, make america great again.

and that is the riff. all right. let's chew on all this. joining us now, we welcome back kansas senator roger marshall and house members byron donald of florida and i'm going to say the great claudia tenney of new york. there they are. [laughter] thanks to all of us. of i'm glad you got a laugh out of that. senator marshall, i begin with you. there's so many thoughts here. the fact that biden did this is no big surprise. the fact that he did do it is a rather mendacious lie. but the thing that's interesting to me, the broad scope of this, 2014-2016 -- no, 2024, rather. when i heard that last evening, i said to myself, well, that's an add admission of guilt. that's an admission of guilt. all the things that the house has been looking at and the senate has been looking at, you know, theres. he's covering -- there it is. he's covering 2014-2024. in other words, from burisma on to finance the biden family

crime syndicate. that's the way i look at it. he's going to with get off, okay, it's presidential prerogative to do that, but isn't that sort of, kind of really what's going on here? all the things you all have been going after? i think this pardon proves that you were right. >> yep. yeah, larry. certainly, the first thing the i did when i went back to 2014, what did we all see? the biden corrupt family, the crime family involvement with burisma. burisma is the key to this, and tracing that money to the big guy, right in how else did the biden family afford all these wonderful, beautiful homes, living an extravagant lifestyle? so more than just pardoning hunter biden, he's trying to prevent any type of further investigation that's going to lead back to him. but that's why our job in the house and the senate, now we can subpoena hunter biden, and he can't take the fifth anymore. we've got work to do. larry: claudia, you know, it always interests me the most --

byron, i'm coming to you, don't get lonely out there. but i'm going to the great claudia tenney. the thing that always gets me, the tax evasion finish the gun charge, he may have been in the throes of addiction, and i'm very happy he's five years soak e but, but, but, tax evasion if we'd gone to trial in los angeles or whatevers it is, central california, that would have uncorked, uncovered, i think, all of the influence peddling fees from burisma, from russia, from the ukraine, all the other places. that would have shown you remember these little llcs each biden family member had in and, of course, it all trickled up to papa biden. they did not want any sort of a trial. they did not want anything to do with tax evasion because tax e is vegas would have led them right down the road that actually was happening, and that, in fact, that it was -- >> yeah, exactly. larry: yeah. no, no, go for it. >> larry, we had the

whistleblowers in front of the ways and means mean -- committee, and they've been trying to condemn them. this is, the thing that's so bad about this biden situation is it is the most sweeping pardon in history since nixon. but you could say this, nixon was charged with the cover-up, not the crime. the bidens were engaged in the actual crime. they were admitting the crime. and the other thing is the u.s. attorney allowed and the doj allowed all this evidence that we're talking about from burisma that senator if roger marshall just mentioned, 2014, 2015, they allowed the statute of limitations to run so that we couldn't even get at the worst of the tax evasion so you could see where the money was i flowing to all these corrupt entities, by the way, every one of them named after the finger lakes in my district. [laughter] that's another side. larry: that's a different segment. >> by the way concern yeah. but interesting though, the u.s. attorney, david wise, today just

maybe an hour ago, i just grabbed the line out of the brief, just filed a demotion to dismiss the request for pardon. so they're going to fight this. they're saying this is not something that's going to happen. so it's very interesting that -- you know, look, pardons can be add broad as possible, but the scandalous nature is like nothing we've seen in american history. we have never seen such a corrupt family, and this is why these whistleblowers and everything we've done on the ways and means committee and everything they've done on oversight is really important, and i know byron's going to add inslight as well because he serves on that committee. larry: byron, you can put in as much details as you want because you're byron. in all seriousness, this men if days, lie, this biden syndicate, illegal, phony financing and so forth cries out for a guy like

kash patel to clean the stables at the fbi, byron. and also my very dear friend, the wonderful pam bondi, to clean out the stables at the justice department. and i'm so annoyed at some of my conservative cousins at least in one newspaper who will go unmentioned here who think that putting in carb pa if tell is, you know -- kash patel is some act of retribution. that couldn't be further from the truth. he, bondi, john ratcliffe at cia, president trump who got a mandate to do it, they want to clean out the corruption and get back to a faired administration of justice -- the fair administration of justice instead of the lawfare weaponization we've had, byron. that's my thought. this cries out for kash patel and pam bondi and john ratcliffe, byron. >> well, larry, i don't have much to add in terms of detail. it's been covered.

but let's be very clear, hunter biden avoided paying taxes with money that he earned, quote-unquotes, because of his dad's involvement in the top of our politics. it was the essence of pay to play. now joe biden is finally coming in to clean up the mess that hunter biden created. it's tax evasion. i don't want to hear democrats lecture us about anybody if paying their fair share anymore, larry, because the president's own son was not paying his fair share. he was evading the taxes. but what does it mean for where we go forward? kash patel, you're exactly right, john ratcliffe, pam bondi, their job is exceptional right now because they have to clean out the political brass at these agencies. if these agencies are going to survive as well as the constitutional republic that is the united states of america, our agencies cannot be political. hay cannot just be -- they cannot just be covering up. they have to do their jobs for better or for worse for

everybody in our country. that's the bottom line. the american people want agencies that are doing their job upholding the constitution and upholding the rule of law. not picking and choosing when heir going to apply the -- they're going to the apply the law. because our country will not survive that. that's why donald trump the has a made these appointments. he has the mandate to do it. he's doing it as we speak. and the people he has chosen are going to do the hard work but necessary work of cleaning out these agencies and restoring them to their former glory. larry: senator marshall, i'm coming to you in a second, but i want to play some sound from president-elect trump. listen to the tape, please, sir. >> what they've done is use the fbi, and they've used the department of injustice to go after their political opponent, and it has never if been done in this country. and people say am i going to do that, and the answer is, no, i don't want to do that.

whatever, i don't want to do it with hunter either. and i'll bet you the father probably pardons him. i don't want to hurt people. i really don't. larry: i mean, that's a pretty good summary, senator marshall. it's very interesting. that was president trump, i don't know, a couple weeks ago or sometime shortly of after the landslide election that he got. the point is this is a time for cleansing. this is a time to restore our legal system, and, you know, the justice department a very important department, okay in it helps to stop -- okay? it helps to stop crime. the fbi is a very important agency to investigate and stop crime. the cia is another one to investigate and explore crime on the international front and any kind of terrorism to damage our security. this is long overdue, senator marshall, it seems to me. long overdue. that's the key point. we could spend three hours beating up on biden for this

veto, for this pardon, rather, and all the things that go with it. but to say what byron said about looking ahead, which is what i'm particularly interested in, i think trump is exactly right. he will straighten out and cleanse this badly-soiled system, and that's exactly what a americans want. and trump's ratings, favorable ratings will go up 20 the points as he does this. don't you -- i mean, 20 points. if i'm wrong, his ratings will go up 30 points -- [laughter] because people know how corrupt and badly soil ised. i mean, think of it. j. edgar hoover in some sense was a piker. all he had was a drawer full of sex pictures. these other guys played for keeps. what do you think, senator? >> on november 5th the american people said we do not trust the fbi that the has been weapon needed, and we need a change, we need to klein the house. director wray has been there. he's been responsible for that. he's overseen all of it. th time for a big change. kash patel is the person to do

it. he's a man of intreg -- integrity, he believes in truth and justice. he has an incredible resumé, and he'll have the backing, i believe, of the full senate when he come through this process. we look forward to supporting him and making america great again. larry: i tell you what -- yes, sir, thank you for that. claudia, i'm unabashedly for kash patel. i make no bones about it. he is a friend of mine, he's been with a fabulous contributor to this television show, to the radio show that all of you have come on and so forth. but i just think you listen to what ka shrks -- kash, his experience, to me, the criticisms from both the left and the right are just a bunch of nitpicking, okay in they're a bunch of ankle biting. everybody knows he's a tough guy with vast experience. that's why i'm pushing him and endorsing him on the show. what are you thinking about this now? >> i think he's great. i mean, he's fantastic. when he worked with kevin nuñes, he's the one -- devin nuñes,

he's the one that gave the memo that gave everybody the bread crumbs to exactly what adam schiff and hillary clinton and all these people were doing under obama trying to frame president trump and destroy his presidency. and remember, when you get back to all this forgiveness from president trump, he forgave hillary clinton, lisa a paige, peter strzok, all hose people, mccabe. all those people should have been prosecuted. i know trump wants to be sympathetic to hunter biden, but let me el you, david weiss, he's not sympathetic to hunter biden. he said 11 article iii judges appointed by six different presidents don't buy the argument that bind is making saying, oh, this was an attack and vindictiveness against hunter biden. these whistleblowers were not political. they discoclosed, they were the beginning of disclosing this horrible misjustice, miscarriage of justice, unequal justice under law that we're seeing in all these agencies.

that's why i love all the picks we're seeing, kash patel, pam bondi, john ratcliffe. this is an amazing team. the people in our country want accountability. it isn't just republicans, everybody wants accountability. larry: yes. >> some of those people are criticizing kash patel, i don't know, i think he's going to be fabulous. he's brilliant and he's strong, and he's going to do the job. larry: so far what a i've seen from both the left and the right on kash, byron, i'll give you the haas word, and by the way, thanks, claudia, for reminding us that it was kash patel who assisted devin nuñes and busted the russia hoax business. but, you know, byron, we'll follow this story to see what david weiss and cannot do. we will follow that. but i just think, byron, you know, my hat's off to you because your instinct in the first question i asked you was to look ahead, and i think that's the key point. let us look ahead. the country has given many trump basically a landslide -- mr. trump basically a landslide mandate to change, to change the

economy, to change the border, to stop crime and so forth and to change the perversion of the justice system, byron, you know? people want to live safely and calmly without it. give you the last word, sir. >> for people who are clutching their pearls about kash patel and any other picks by donald trump, it's about fixing our nation first, second and third. president trump says it best, success will be our retribution. [laughter] there you go. >> success for the american -- larry: are there you go. >> success for the american people and both here and abroad. larry: claudia, i've got to give him one great on the show. you always get a good grade -- >> that's amazing. he never disappoints. larry: he never disappoints. mete do you. senator roger marshall, hang ever so much for what you're cooking up in the senate. we appreciate it. coming up on the show, president trump is vowing to use tariffs to protect king dollar. wow. we'll talk about it with steve forbes and our very own brian

brenberg right here on the set next up. and please remember, i've been away for a week, you know, a little vaca. got a couple night ifs of sleep. you still can catch "kudlow" monday through friday at 4 p.m. right here on fabulous are fox business. and if for some reason you can't get us at four, please, text your favorite 9-year-old, and she will show you how to dvr the show, and you will never miss a great house member or a great senator. i'm kudlow. we'll be right back. ♪ if ♪(voya)♪ there are some things that work better together. like your workplace benefits and retirement savings. voya helps you choose the right amounts without over or under investing. across all your benefits and savings options. so you can feel confident in your financial choices. they really know how to put

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larry: here's a new one, does king dollar need a 100% tariff in order to protect itself? very interesting from mr. president trump. anyway, we've got steve forbes, "forbes" media a chairman, editor-in-chief k can and brian brenberg, cohost of "the big money show" right here on fox business. that that's on fabulous fox business. steve forbes, let's see. we've got to get -- he's amendmenting at the so-called bricss, right? bra brazil, russia, india, china, but there's also what i

would call little brics,s, knew jeer yarks algeria, uganda, belarus, kazahkstan, a malaysia, thailand, turkey, uzbek instant, vietnam -- uzbekistan, saudi arabia and the united arab emirates. now, we know where trump's going, but is this the right way to go about it? we do want king dollar, i think you would agree, the world currency. >> he's giving them too much power. they'll be begging for dollars. the world will do it. the marketplace will do it, not these people. i almost wish they'd start a currency, because then we'd have a good joke. you could put it on "saturday night live" and have a good laugh. the dollar is what it is because of the strength of the u.s. economy. we've abused the dollar, we've abused the economy. that's going to the change. we've seen in the past do it right, and the world wants the dollar. that's the whole thing. value is a function of demand.

like the swiss franc. small country. why does it have a big money supply? because people want the currency. larry: yes, exactly. that's well put. brian, i'll just read you, this is from mr. trump. the idea that the brics countries are trying to move away from the dollar while we end stand by and watch is over. we require a commitment from those countries that they will neither create a new brics currency, nor back any other currency to replace the mighty u.s. dollar, or they will face 100% tariffs and should expect to say good-bye to selling in the wonderful u.s. economy. so as steve said, you cut tax rates, you lower regulations, you keep your prices level, etc., etc., the demand for the dollar will be strong, we won't have to worry. by the way, these bric currencies have go nowhere -- >> you want the brazilian real, the indian rupee? >> i don't want any of those, i'm with you.

i think we can defend the dollar with a strong economy. but i will say, i kind of like it when trump goes out there and says to these bay finish guys, don't get on that train. who wants to hitch themselves to this anyway in don't do it, because you've got those little bric countries, and a lot of them are oil-producing, and you know they may be thinking about it. for once in four years we have somebody going out in the world saying the dollar's king, this is the best economy in the world, it's going to continue to be the best, get onboard with us. quit messing around with these guys -- larry: don't mess with us. >> i don't think we're going to get the -- larry: there's a new sheriff in town. >> but, you know, some of those members, do you know why they joined? because of a weak u.s. larry: exact ifly. >> they were worried. saudi arabia, do you think they want to go with in bed with russia, china, iran? no way. when the u.s. gets itses act together together again, which it will in a few weeks, are started, you're going to see a

very different attitude just like in the 1980s when ronald reagan revived the -- larry: dollar soared. no, no, that's a very good metaphor. brian, though, we must say trump, i'm calling it the trump, scott bessent stock market rally. i mean, stocks love this. they like trump. they like his policies and they like his treasury man. what you think? >> i agree. you call it the blue collar boom, and that's the piece i like the most. i think the stock market is looking at a strong, growing, profit-creating u.s. economy, and that is, as you always say, the mother's milk of the stock market. so to me, the story is -- we'll talk talk all about the tariffs and it's going to be a tax on people, the heart of the trump agenda is massive growth. larry: growth. >> unleashing possibility. larry: yes. >> and, yes, you've got a lot of different perspectives there, but at the end of the day, you've got a guy at omb who wants to -- larry: russell vote, fabulous.

and kevin hassett's going to be the new kudlow at the nec, and i am so happy to have him running the nec. i mean that sincerely. steve forbes, word. the dollar exchange rate has done very well since trump's election november 5th anyway. >> well, again, hay see, the markets, as you know, try to anticipate the future. not what's happening now. they anticipate we're between to get a good tax cut. i hope they include capital gains -- larry: yeah, i like that. >> -- right away as well as help the economy. get a good tax bill, serious deregulation which those two, elon musk and ramaswamy, are going to do and, guess what? if the economy is going to surprise the world. larry: yeah. >> but they've got to get that tax cut. and the bigger the better. larry: the tax cuts should be first. >> absolutely. larry: number one on the agenda. >> absolutely. and ignore these crazy rules that say you have to do this, that and the other thing. the congressional budget office,

send it to north korea. [laughter] larry: i will say, i will say bess sent at treasury, has set at nec, russ vought at omb is very good. these guys are are proof growth budget conservatives, supply-siders on tax rates, drill, baby, drill, it's a very good combination. and i think that's a big reason why markets are responding. i'm sorry we've got to jump. steve forbes, brian brenberg, appreciate it. remember, you can catch brian along with jackie deangelis and taylor riggs on "the big money show" weekdays, every day at 1 p.m. eastern right here on fabulous fox business. see, coined that, fabulous fox business. they're even starting to write it into the teleprompter -- [laughter] coming up, senator tommy tuberville who just met with pete hegseth, he joins us next on "kudlow" on fabulous fox business. ♪

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larry: all right, senator tommy tuberville has just come from a meeting with pete hegseth on capitol hill just a few moments ago. mr. leg hegseth nominated to be defense secretary. senator the p as always, great to see you. give us your capsule on pete hegseth. what do you think here? right choice? wrong choice? how do you see it? >> 100% right choice. president trump's not interested in business as a usual was it's gotten us in -- because it's gotten us in trouble. pete is a patriot. he understands the military. 20 years. but he's done other stuff. he's been in business, he's well educated, well spoken. what i like about him, larry, is he's -- the age. he's going in running the military, and we need somebody close to the age of lot of these war fighters. they can relate. this is a different military. this is a different time, a different era.

and we need to build our military back because we have really degraded our military because of the woke, the dei, the critical race theory. all these things are being pushed at all of our war fighters, and they're getting out right and left. we have got to build it back, and pete's the guy to do the it, larry. larry: 100%. i read in the left-wing media all a these attempts to smear pete hegseth, and i also read in the conservative media that there are police reports that essentially let him off the hook, okay? it's much ado about nothing many years ago. again, it's more ankle biting coming from the left. it's very much like the other stuff we've seen. so you think that's going to be an issue in the senate hearings? i mean, to me, it's open and shut, for heaven sakes. the police report is this, it says nothing happened. they didn't bring any charges. now let's get to the agenda you just talked about, and pete put it in his book, "war on warriors." >> exactly. and you can read about that, as you just said, larry.

the thing about pete, he's well spoken. it's all out there. people can look at it. a lot of this stuff was years a ago. now, again, you've got to be responsible for your actions, but pete has done everything he can possibly to to get it out there, to talk to people. again, when we get to the hearings probably somewhere around january 9th or 10th, larry, it's going to be about the military. the democrats are going to do everything they can to croix probably one of the better -- destroy probably one of the better people we've ever had as a possible appointee as secretary of defense, but that's all they have. and they're going the try to destroy can him. it's not going to work. he's going to work well with the military. he's going to build it back. he's the type of person we have to have for all military. not just the army, the navy, the air force, he was in the marines. he did exactly what he needed to do when he first stepped into this role saying, listen, we need to work together. and the democrats can work with us if they want to, but if not,

that'll be fine. pete hegseth and the republican party can push this, and we can get our military a back to the way it should be. larry: and, senator tuberville, i'd just add, he's a highly decorated vet rah iran, as i recall. two bronze stars, fought in, i believe, to two theaters of war. combat service, by the way. we haven't had that in quite some time. my other point is this the, you're going to get to these hearings. i don't see why the fbi in its present constitution in the fbi, i don't see why they should be allowed to vet anybody. they don't deserve it. they haven't earned it. putting in kash patel and pam bondi and others to clean the corrupt stables of the justice department and the fbi. why can't the senate without the fbi, let the senate do its own job with its own staff and come up with its own questions. that's my last question to you, sir. >> we pretty much do do that

anyway, larry. we're not going to listen to the fake bureau of investigation. they've been off the rails now for the last four or five years. we need to make sure we do our own due diligence, and we're doing that. we're not going to listen to a bunch to of -- of people that are going to go after former presidents, raid people's homes, try to put people in jail. kash patel will be an excellent fbi director. he's the type of person that we need, larry. if you look at all the appointee, most of the people are younger, they're diverse. president trump knows exactly what he's doing. he's going to need these people to be working 15, 16, 17 hours a day if not more. and if these are the type of people that he's picking because we've got a lot of hard work to do and a lot of hills to overcome. larry: yes, sir. senator tommy tuberville, thank you, sir. we appreciate your wisdom, as always. speaking of wisdom, joining me on set, mirandaty the vine, rich rowly, ace editor in -- lowery. i use the word great way too

much. miranda, you know, when i got this thing, and you written a great column about hunter biden's pardon today. i heard it last might, and i heard the scope from 2014-2024 which, apparently, is unprecedented or almost unprecedented. kind of tells me that this is an admiration mission -- admission of guilt. this is an admission of guilt by hunter, by his father joe, it's an admission of guilt that burisma money and china money and russian money and all these monies and all these l will lcs by biden family members, it all happened. they just don't want to mess with any of it. that's what i thought. you've got other angles, but what do you think? >> you're absolutely right. that's probably the most glaring aspect of this pardon that makes it very different from any other pardon we've ever seen. it's not a pardon for the crimes which he's been convicted and pleaded guilty, it's for stretches back11 years. not 10 years, but 1 is years.

and why is 2014 so crucial? it is because that was the year in february of the revolution in ukraine after which joe biden became, basically, the emperor of ukraine as the vice president, and he installed his son hunter into this corrupt energy company, burisma, earning a million dollars a year. he also was involved in firing the prosecutor that was investigating burisma. so he has successfully buried and put out of reach all of that the malfeasance. larry: and, rich lowry, you look back on this, the house impeached trump -- [laughter] on the ukraine -- [laughter] okay in all this other stuff that miranda has gone through and written eloquently about it for several years now, notwithstanding the hunter biden laptop where the fbi and everybody else lied about. i mean, that's extraordinary, the whole thing. >> first of all, let me say it's an honor to be on a panel with one of the most influential

journalists. if the pulitzer committee were playing it straight, miranda would be at the front of the line. i really mean that. larry: terrific. >> the statement biden put out was so self-pitying and dishonest. it referred to a carefully-negotiated plea deal, which it was. it was carefully negotiated to give hunter every single consideration. and as soon as a judge looked at it, it immediately fell apart because it wasn't on the up and up. he lied about not giving -- he wasn't going to give hunter this pardon, and at the end of the statement he said because i've always been committed to telling the american people the truth. it's so galling. larry: i know. >> how can he sleep with himself? he could have just said when asked about this, no comment or i'm not going to deal with a hypothetical which is kind of a yes without saying -- instead, he lied. and all his allies repeated the lie and said heath not going to do this because he's so upstanding and believes in our institutions and norms, and all that was a rank deception. larry: miranda, so let me get

this right. in this statement to which rich lowry refers, he talks about politics, it was bad politics. hunter was a victim of bad politics. joe biden is the king of weaponization and lawfare: aimed at his political rival, donald trump. i mean, that's, and that's how history is going to portray this. >> the only politics that inflect effect -- inflect -- infected the justice system was joe biden's politics. he has demonized and weaponized the justice system against donald trump and his supporters. all those january 6th people languishing in jail, 1500 under some sort of issue, and 5 of them have committed suicide because of that of. he caused immense damage, and it's just an irony that this guy came into office in 2020 the promising to uphold the rule of law -- larry: i'm sorry, i'm up against the wall, 7:against the clock, but thanks, both of you.

you're very kind, mr. allow arely. coming up, mr. trump says there'll be hell obey in the middle east if the american host hostages are not released. we're going the talk about that with arkansas senator tom cotton next up. thank you very much, i appreciate it. ♪ ♪ after careful review of medical guidance and research on pain relief, my recommendation is simple: every home should have salonpas. powerful yet non-addictive. targeted and long-lasting. i recommend salonpas. it's good medicine. ♪ hisamitsu ♪ it's time. yes, the time has come for a fresh approach to dog food. everyday, more dog people are deciding it's time

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larry: all right, jobing us now, arkansas senator tom cotton. welcome back, sir. ask i just read you real quick, i want to read it, president trump, truth social. quote, if the hostages are not released prior to january 20, 2025, the date that i proudly assume office as president of the united states, there will be all hell to the pay in the middle east. end quote. senator cotton, what do you make of it? >> it sounds like all those terrorists and their patrons in iran better turn those hostages over. this is how you get hostages back in the middle east. this is exactly what happened when ronald reagan became president in 1981. now you have an equally weak and failed president in joe biden who is going to leave office with hostages still being held unless these terrorists take president trump at their word, i suggest they probably should. larry: and it's not dissimilar, senator, is it from telling mexico and canada if you don't

help me close the border, we're going to slap 25% tariffs on you? >> not at all. it's negotiating from a position of strength and confidence to protect america's interests whether you're dealing with economic matters or dealing with hostages. again, that's what's been lacking in the white house for four years. larry: i mean, it shows strength, power, leadership, you know, all the things that have been lacking the last four years, don't you think? >> yeah. i mean, for the last four years uncle sam's had a kick me sign on his back because of joe biden's weakness. with donald trump back in office again, the world knows that america has to be feared and respected. larry: and trump will follow through on this, don't you believe? i mean, he has in the past. >> there's no question he'll follow through on it. just look what he kid in his first term, for instance, in ordering the strike that killed iran's terrorist mastermind. again, these terrorists better take president trump at his word and release the hostages.

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larry: that's it for "kudlow." thanks for watching, folks. ♪ ♪