Welcome to The Beat. I'm Ari Melbert, and we begin this week with a lot going on in America and the world. The president is trying to make what has been a belated case for the war in Iran. It's proved unpopular. He famously launched it without a presentation to the country or the Congress. He has been sort of trying to make up for that on the fly. There's a global energy crisis. Experts say it is the worst in decades,

and we don't have an off-ramp or a quick, visible way out.

That is economic trouble at home that has upended everything lately.

James Carville is standing by to tell us whether it is the economy stupid

or the gas prices stupid or the war stupid or a mix of stupid.

James is here in a moment.

I do want to give viewers, of course, as we start the week, a preview of what is coming.

We know that the president is talking very aggressively, whether it is strategic and you think

it's a threat designed us to get somewhere or a precursor to an escalation of a war

that Americans say they don't want. He held an afternoon press conference. He praised what was

widely seen as a positive. The U.S. military's effective and heroic efforts to rescue that missing

airmen who was shot down over Iran. Again, and we've heard many veterans and experts discuss this,

the U.S. military can get a lot done. The question looming over whether that person should have been at risk in Iran

in the first place, whether we have an exit strategy, what we're doing in Iran, those are all

questions that don't really face the military in our democracy. They face our leaders, in this

case, a president who started this war. And so quickly,

the president then turned to the threats that we've been hearing about and statements that

by any objective measure came across as at times bizarre.

The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.

I have the best plan of all, but I'm not going to tell you what my plan is.

You've said Iranians would be mad if you stop these attacks, but why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure, to cut off their power?

Wouldn't that be punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime?

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