The Erick Erickson Show

Latest Episodes:

S15 EP159: Hour 2 - Football is Back Sep 04, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson opens football season with Ben Sasse's Wall Street Journal case for high school football as one of the last institutions still forming young men, then makes his own argument for keeping politics out of sports, out of movies, and out of your hamburger. He plays the viral supercut of the words Candace Owens cannot pronounce, takes a caller on Reza Pahlavi and whether the exiled Shah's son can actually lead a post-theocratic Iran, and reads new intelligence reporting that a more confident Iran is preparing to escalate around the Strait of Hormuz. Plus the Rick Jackson ad out of Georgia that Erick says shows Republicans exactly how to win this year.

Ben Sasse in the Wall Street Journal: family, religion, work and war have faded, and why football is the character forming institution boys have left
Why the NFL recovered from the Colin Kaepernick years and the NBA and WNBA did not, plus Steak n Shake MAGA meals and the politicization of the Odyssey movie, restaurants and food
The Candace Owens mispronunciation account: bureaucracy, monstrosity, caricature, statute of limitations, price gouging, and the cream of the crop
Caller question on Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Shah's son, his coalition of Iranian democratic parties, and why he still needs Washington and Israel to destabilize the regime first
New York Times and Politico intelligence reporting on a more confident Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, 30 to 40 boats a night, 300 percent inflation, Patriot missile shortages, and unconfirmed reports of new launches
Rick Jackson's Georgia governor ad: 800 foster kids whose college tuition he paid, why Erick was told not to raise it in the primary, and why running on your own record beats running on an endorsement

S15 EP159: Hour 3 - SAVE Act Won't Save the GOP Sep 04, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson tells the online right the hard truth about the SAVE Act: most Americans have no idea what it is, and no election bill is what stands between Republicans and November. He argues gas prices, wages trailing inflation and grocery bills are the real problem, then plays James Talarico on white privilege and blinders, Abdul El-Sayed telling Stephen A. Smith he wants a secure border while he abolishes ICE, and Michigan's Will Lawrence on ending heterosexual households. Plus the Missouri Supreme Court blowing up the state's congressional map 60 days out, Paul Ryan and Andrew Ross Sorkin on the debt, Social Security and the retirement age, and Mark Thiessen's plan to let Ukraine build its own Patriot interceptors.

Why the SAVE Act is not a silver bullet: Erick's blunt case that voters have never heard of it, and that the midterm damage is about gas prices, wages beneath inflation and groceries, not election law
The mitigation strategy for November: play the Democrats' own words back at them, James Talarico on blinders and white privilege, Abdul El-Sayed refusing to disavow Hassan Piker, and the "he's for you, they're for they/them" ad Erick wants resurrected
Abolish ICE, explained: El-Sayed says ICE did not exist before this century, and Erick's answer that ICE is INS with a new name and a Homeland Security address
Missouri Supreme Court redistricting mess: primaries already run on a 7 to 1 map, the general ordered back to the old 6 to 2 map, and Erick's equal protection argument for taking it to the US Supreme Court
Entitlement reform as a second term legacy: Paul Ryan and Andrew Ross Sorkin on populism killing debt reduction, the automatic cuts coming by 2032, raising the retirement age, and a lame duck window after the midterms
Ukraine, Iran and one privacy warning: Mark Thiessen's PAC-2 and PAC-3 co-production plan for Ukraine, "go finish Iran," and the Krebs on Security report that scans of 153 million driver's licenses are for sale on a Russian forum

S15 EP158: Hour 1 - Believing So Much That Is Not So Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

Erick opens with a hot dog stand anecdote from New Way Weiners in Macon that matches the polling data: a Trump voter who is not angry, just disappointed, with diesel over six dollars a gallon. He walks through Karl Rove's Wall Street Journal warning that a Trump rally a day in October and an ad blitz built on the president himself will sink Republicans at 39.6 percent approval, then takes apart Joe Rogan's claim that ending poverty would end crime. Also: Sam Altman and Howard Lutnick at the G20 Asheville summit, the vitamin K shot panic, and the death of Gloria Steinem.

Karl Rove's midterm warning: make 2026 about the Democrats, not Donald Trump
Trump at 39.6 percent approval, the "they/them" ad, Troy Jackson in Maine and James Talarico in Texas
Joe Rogan's poverty and crime take, and why the data does not back it
Sam Altman and Howard Lutnick at the G20 Asheville statement on light touch AI regulation
The algorithm versus AI: vitamin K shots, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Gloria Steinem's death

S15 EP158: Hour 2 - Iran and Cruz Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

Erick tracks the Iran war as Brent hits 95 dollars and West Texas crude hits 91, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claiming the Strait of Hormuz is flowing and the regime is finished, while Iranian missiles hit Kuwait and possibly a hotel in Jordan. He then reports the growing revolt inside the Pentagon against Pete Hegseth after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll's resignation, and lays out his full theory of why the Republican Party keeps nominating the runner up, which points to Ted Cruz in 2028 if JD Vance stumbles. Breaking at the end of the hour: Maria Bartiromo is out at Fox Business after 12 years.

Iran escalation, the Strait of Hormuz, Chris Wright on 17 million barrels a day, Scott Bessent on the iron wall blockade
Brent at 95 dollars, West Texas crude at 91, diesel over 6 dollars a gallon, and Howard Lutnick on tariffs and GDP
Pete Hegseth losing the officer corps: Dan Driscoll resigns, Sean Parnell responds, House and Senate Republicans prepare tough questions
Erick's theory of everything on the GOP: Dick Cheney, Reagan, Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and why Ted Cruz should be the 2028 nominee
JD Vance, Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, and the anti-Semitism problem with southern evangelicals and the donor class
Breaking: Maria Bartiromo out at Fox Business, speculation about White House Press Secretary

S15 EP158: Hour 3 - The China Problem Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

Erick knocks down the viral photos of the rusted USS Abraham Lincoln as left wing propaganda, pointing to the HMS Hermes coming back from the Falklands in 1982 in worse shape, then takes a call from Tom, a Navy pilot's father who says the fleet is simply broken and that 62 percent of jet pilots and 58 percent of helicopter pilots will not re-up under Pete Hegseth. The hour turns to Tom Homan on Fox laying out three straight record breaking months of ICE arrests and the national security case against birth tourism from Russia and China, Marco Rubio sanctioning Raul Castro's grandson and Banco Exterior de Cuba, and Erick's question about why the ICE protests vanished exactly when Cuban money in American shell accounts got frozen.

USS Abraham Lincoln rust photos debunked: HMS Hermes, the Falklands, and why every ship at sea corrodes
Caller Tom on the broken Navy: General Dynamics maintenance contracts, MH-60 helicopters, and pilot attrition under Pete Hegseth
Dan Driscoll out, General Randy George purged, and the Army drone program Hegseth sidelined without telling Donald Trump
Tom Homan on record ICE deportation arrests in June, July and August, plus 25,000 to 30,000 birth tourism cases a year from Russia and China
Marco Rubio sanctions the Castro financial network as the ICE protests quietly disappear
Ayanna Pressley calls birth tourism enforcement great replacement theory, and the Michigan land acknowledgement that set Erick off

S15 EP157: Hour 1 - The Bubble and the Message Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

Erick returns from break with good scan news for his wife, then breaks down why Army Secretary Dan Driscoll walked into the White House, told President Trump how many generals and admirals Pete Hegseth had quietly purged, and resigned on the spot. He also takes on Laura Ingraham by name over her "never Trump" attack, walks through Harry Enten's numbers showing Republicans running ahead of Trump's own 37 percent approval, and explains why the first Secure America PAC ads are aimed at exactly the wrong voters.

Dan Driscoll out at the Pentagon, the Washington Post readiness leak, and how many officers Pete Hegseth fired without telling the president
Why the president's super PAC ads fail: Harry Enten's data on Trump's 37 percent approval, the generic ballot, and the Republicans who are not motivated
Erick versus Laura Ingraham, the Dominion discovery text messages, and why he will never say privately what he will not say on air
Ken Paxton, James Talarico, and the Texas Senate race: run on the opponent's own words, not on your own record
Max Miller, Brian Poindexter, and the best campaign ad of 2026, plus Ann Richards' 1996 warning to Bill Clinton about campaigning on the past
Post Labor Day polling shifts, summer's Democratic bias, and the case against leaving the mentally ill on the streets

S15 EP157: Hour 2 - Dangers of the Algorithm Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

S15 EP157: Hour 3 - The Law Around the Clancy Trial Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

S15 EP156: Hour 1 - Amy Coney Barrett Did It Again Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson opens by answering Laura Ingraham's Twitter attack over his Ken Paxton column, then defends Amy Coney Barrett for siding with Clarence Thomas and Donald Trump in the 5 to 4 White House ballroom ruling while tearing apart John Roberts and his "aesthetic injury" dissent. The hour closes on the deadlocked Lindsay Clancy jury in Massachusetts, with Erick and attorney Chad from Montgomery arguing the prosecution overcharged the case and that jurors, not social media, should decide it.

Ken Paxton trails James Talarico in Texas, outraised 10 to 1, and Erick answers Laura Ingraham's "never Trumper" attack with the 2020 Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani text messages
Amy Coney Barrett sides with Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to let White House ballroom construction continue in National Park Service v. National Trust for Historic Preservation
John Roberts dissents on "aesthetic injury" standing, and Erick argues the Chief Justice keeps making the Supreme Court more political every time he tries to keep it out of politics
Every president since World War II wanted a ballroom: Erick calls it overbuilt and gaudy, but says it is the president's house and the historic preservation crowd has no standing to stop it
Lindsay Clancy jury deadlocks after 80 witnesses and 300 exhibits, and Erick refuses to attack the nine women and three men, defending American juries and the insanity and manslaughter questions in play

S15 EP156: Hour 2 - Florida and the Flock Cameras Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

Erick Erickson breaks with much of the right on Flock cameras, taking apart Ron DeSantis and his move to pull every license plate reader off Florida's state highways, and laying out three fixes he says beat an outright ban: prohibit facial recognition in public rights of way, mandatory prison sentences for police who abuse the system, and a private right to sue Flock Safety when it shares data a city told it to keep local. Caller Troy asks what "papers" actually means in the Fourth Amendment, and Erick walks through persons, houses, papers and effects, the Supreme Court holding that a license plate carries no expectation of privacy, and how the FBI already used cell phone tower data to build the January 6 cases without a single camera. The hour then turns to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shutting down 110 driving schools over English proficiency violations, illegal aliens holding commercial driver's licenses in California and New York, Ken Paxton, Lake America, and a personal update on ten years of a drug keeping Erick's wife alive with stage four lung cancer.

Ron DeSantis moves to strip Flock cameras from Florida rights of way, and Erick argues the license plate readers have solved hundreds of thousands of crimes and recovered kidnapped kids and wandering dementia patients, while wondering aloud whether DeSantis is grabbing a populist libertarian lane ahead of JD Vance and Marco Rubio for 2028
Three fixes instead of a ban: ban facial recognition in the public right of way, mandatory minimum prison sentences for officers who abuse Flock Safety data, and a private right of action against Flock when it shares data across jurisdictions that opted out
Caller Troy on the Fourth Amendment and the word "papers," with Erick explaining persons, houses, papers and effects, the Ben Franklin liberty and security quote everyone misuses, and why anyone can legally photograph your license plate from the roadside
Sean Duffy shuts down 110 driving schools tied to 5,000 English proficiency violations, and Erick credits the Transportation Secretary on air traffic controller hiring and FAA GPS upgrades that Pete Buttigieg never delivered, while calling the new FAA ban on pre flight drinks pure nanny state
Erick on Ken Paxton, James Talarico and being handed crap sandwiches by both parties, on Lake America as bot bait, on his Swedish grandfather learning English in Coral Gables, and on his wife hitting ten years on a stage four lung cancer drug she was given two years to survive

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