Goldie Ghamari - The TRUTH About the War on Iran - PART 2

00:00:00.000 Well, hello, everyone. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are.

00:00:07.400 Welcome to today's edition and live stream of The Goldie Show with your host, me, Goldie Gamari.

00:00:14.760 Welcome, everyone. So we're going to continue where we left off yesterday with the congressional

00:00:22.700 hearing where Admiral Brad Cooper, two days ago on May 19, testified before the House

00:00:31.080 Committee on the Iran War.

00:00:33.480 And, you know, it is a three hour video we played.

00:00:38.080 I think I played about, you know, 30 minutes of it.

00:00:40.640 And that 30 minutes basically lasted almost three hours because there was a lot of ranting

00:00:45.620 and commentary.

00:00:47.840 So let's get, you know, let's get settled in.

00:00:51.260 tonight's bubbly flavored drink is raspberry. So I have a raspberry flavored bubbly drink

00:00:58.700 and let's get going. And of course, as usual, in between everything, I will be keeping an eye

00:01:07.340 on the latest updates and developments when it comes to all things Iran, the United States,

00:01:13.340 Israel, and the Middle East. And we're also probably going to do a little bit of a watch

00:01:19.120 party at eight o'clock when Jesse Waters goes live, because I always do appreciate what he says.

00:01:24.980 And then of course, at 9pm when Sean Hannity goes live as well. So don't forget to like,

00:01:32.360 subscribe, share the live stream, and get settled in. And let's get started. So here we go, guys.

00:01:42.360 all right and again again like as a former politician this is like you know i love this

00:01:48.960 kind of stuff i i love watching this kind of stuff so i would be watching this on my own anyway so

00:01:54.240 instead of you know yelling at my tv by myself i can yell at my monitor and you guys can see it as

00:02:02.640 well um kuda says hello gg hello welcome welcome um and then let the ranting start yeah i mean

00:02:12.940 i'll i'll try not to rant too much but uh let's see what happens here so yeah let's uh let's get

00:02:21.240 going thank you general thank all our witnesses uh for being here in that in those testimonies

00:02:28.020 That's very helpful to us.

00:02:28.940 I recognize myself for questions.

00:02:31.640 Admiral Cooper, you have spent the last six years in either senior leadership or command positions in the Middle East.

00:02:38.280 In your expert opinion, was there any time over the last 40 years that Iran or the Iranian regime posed a greater threat to the United States, Israel, and our allies in the region before midnight hammer and epic fury?

00:02:54.360 No, sir. 0.83

00:02:55.560 So are they less capable today than they were before those exercises?

00:03:00.120 They are significantly less capable today than they were before the two major operations. 0.56

00:03:04.020 And what would a nuclear-armed Iran mean for our partners in the Middle East and our presence there?

00:03:09.980 Well, clearly the president has stated Iran will not be nuclear-armed. 0.88

00:03:13.740 It would obviously represent a very highly destabilizing element into the region and have global impact. 0.72

00:03:21.000 So basically, we're safer, our country's safer, and our allies in the region are safer because of what our president's done in Iran over the last couple of months.

00:03:29.440 We are unquestionably safer as a result of U.S. military actions.

00:03:32.840 Thank you.

00:03:34.420 General Anderson, the operation that eliminated global ISIS second-in-command over the weekend demonstrated a growing terrorist threat in your AOR, but also the value of the partnerships that we have there.

00:03:47.420 How are you strengthening partnerships in your AOR going forward to make sure that that threat doesn't make it to our homeland?

00:03:55.460 Chairman, that's an incredibly important point because we cannot operate there and respond to these crises or these threats without the access basing and overflight that is dependent upon the relationships with these partners.

00:04:08.420 So we are investing a significant amount of effort in order to build those relationships and build that credibility.

00:04:14.640 The operation over the weekend built a lot of that credibility of what the U.S. can bring

00:04:18.880 and that those unique capabilities can be brought to bear in conjunction with our partners.

00:04:23.480 The Nigerians have been instrumental throughout the last several months,

00:04:26.640 developing the target, helping us with the intelligence, and providing support in order to do that.

00:04:31.480 So it could not have been done by our own forces that we needed to do that conjunction with them.

00:04:37.220 We are using that to leverage that, to engage with others.

00:04:40.340 So I have a feeling that they're sort of starting with Africa, because Africa will eventually tie into what's happening in the Middle East, right?

00:04:50.400 And like I was explaining yesterday, all of the Islamic terrorism that's happening in Africa and the instability in Africa, it all goes back and it's connected to the Islamic regime that's occupying Iran. 0.62

00:05:04.220 It's connected to the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar. 0.60

00:05:07.280 other nations such as those in the sahel where the terrorist threat continues to grow

00:05:12.960 to try to open that dialogue so we can address this mutual threat is there anything in particular

00:05:18.000 that this committee could do to be helpful to you in developing partnerships that can

00:05:22.960 benefit us in the future yes sir i think some key investments in some of the expeditionary

00:05:29.760 capabilities such as a float forward staging base expeditionary isr is critical to that

00:05:35.440 support for continued engagement with small teams such as our special operations teams or small

00:05:40.720 conventional trainers goes a long way and then the last one i would say that is not as much in

00:05:45.920 the military realm but where we see the security convergence and intersection with economics is

00:05:51.040 encouraging investment and development in africa that allows for that stability to continue to

00:05:57.120 develop because security depends upon stability that allows investment and that leads to prosperity

00:06:02.960 And that eventually helps protect the United States in the long run.

00:06:06.500 So while not directly our role, we can help identify those areas where those investments have security implications.

00:06:12.880 Yeah, well, I do think it's important when we talk about our role there that we make it clear to the larger universe of members of Congress that we do need to be building partnerships in the African continent.

00:06:25.500 And we don't need to be tying that to them changing their cultural values necessarily.

00:06:31.320 we need partnerships. And whether we like it or not, China and Russia and Iran are all down there

00:06:39.000 building partnerships, and they're not judging these people based on their cultural values. So

00:06:42.620 it's something. You know, that's a really good point that he brings up. The Islamic regime

00:06:48.740 occupying Iran, the Communist Party of China, and of course, Putin's Russia, they are allies.

00:06:56.740 However, China and Russia do not view the Islamic regime as an equal ally.

00:07:05.080 China and Russia view the Islamic regime as sort of a pawn on the game of chess that they're playing against the United States and Israel.

00:07:15.600 So the Islamic regime has made the critical mistake of assuming that China and Russia view them as equals.

00:07:29.500 And I think that that miscalculation is also one of the reasons why the Islamic regime is much weaker today. 0.57

00:07:39.620 Because, again, they wrongly assumed that China and Russia view them as equals, but China and Russia don't. China and Russia view the Islamic regime as just a tool, right? Just like another card in their deck, I guess.

00:07:57.720 And up until recently, the Islamic regime was making decisions based on the incorrect understanding that China and Russia would have their backs, assuming that, you know, they're all equals.

00:08:19.460 And I think now they're finally well, they finally realize now that that's not the case at all. 0.76

00:08:26.320 And in fact, China and Russia have just been using them.

00:08:29.980 And, you know, guys, ultimately, there's no honor amongst thieves, right?

00:08:33.660 There's there's no honor amongst terrorists.

00:08:36.440 So the Islamic regime has had a very rude awakening in the last several days, I believe. 0.87

00:08:44.300 But yeah. And Kuda says perfectly stated. Thank you. I appreciate that. 0.97

00:08:49.460 all right let's continue i think we can learn from that and we don't need to be tying

00:08:56.580 that to them changing their cultural values necessarily we need partnerships and whether

00:09:03.220 we like it or not china and russia and iran are all down there building partnerships and 0.99

00:09:09.780 yeah to a degree um and donald you're absolutely right like the islamic regime would have betrayed

00:09:14.820 China and Russia anyway, if they were in the position to do so. I mean, that's, 0.88

00:09:19.040 you're a hundred percent right. That's exactly what the Islamic regime did with like the UAE 1.00

00:09:24.520 and the Saudi Arabia and Oman and all these other countries, right? Like, again, the UAE used to be 0.93

00:09:31.040 one of the biggest hubs of financial laundering for the Islamic regime just up until like a few

00:09:39.820 months ago. And then, of course, when the conflict began, the Islamic regime sent more missiles to

00:09:46.200 the UAE than they did to Israel. And that in and of itself demonstrates that when push comes to 0.85

00:09:53.520 shove, the Islamic regime will attack anyone, even those that have been helping to prolong 0.92

00:10:00.800 its existence. And, you know, the UAE has learned that lesson the hard way. And it's unfortunate 0.93

00:10:08.460 because they actually have risked the safety of their citizens by doing so.

00:10:17.380 So they learned the lesson by risking the safety of their citizens.

00:10:23.880 They're not judging these people based on their cultural values.

00:10:26.660 So it's something I think we can learn from.

00:10:29.060 With that, I will yield to the ranking member for any questions he may have.

00:10:32.620 Thank you.

00:10:33.300 Admiral Cooper, you mentioned your opening remarks,

00:10:35.500 the command to preventing civilian harm so just two questions about that one it's been 80 days

00:10:43.820 thereabouts um since the initial bombing campaign that struck uh the girls school in iran oh my god 0.99

00:10:51.580 killed i think over 150 school girls wow so this this idiot is basically repeating islamic regime 0.99

00:10:58.380 propaganda when the truth and the evidence has come out that that school was actually built on 1.00

00:11:05.880 a military base and there was, you know, military bases around it. And the Islamic regime was

00:11:11.940 literally using and still is using schools and hospitals and residential areas and sports 0.85

00:11:19.920 stadiums as human shields. And wow, like this is wild. So the Democrats are literally repeating

00:11:27.100 once again, they're repeating Islamic regime propaganda. 0.73

00:11:33.760 You know what? What's interesting is I haven't commented on this yet because I'm still waiting

00:11:38.020 for more info to come out because, of course, it's very difficult to get all the right info,

00:11:46.240 especially with the Islamic regime having shut down the Internet. But my understanding is,

00:11:51.960 you know, there is a rumor out there. We're waiting to see if it's confirmed or not. But

00:11:56.280 apparently, um, there were two schools and one of the schools, like there were two schools in that

00:12:02.580 area. One of the schools was for the children of IRGC, uh, people. And the other school was just

00:12:09.380 for regular civilians. And apparently on the day of the attack, the school that was for the

00:12:17.380 children of IRGC members, that school was actually closed that day. And the children of IRGC members

00:12:24.560 did not go to the school however um the civilians they were not given a heads up or a warning

00:12:32.140 and so their children were sent so um if that's the case i mean that's just more evidence that

00:12:39.520 what happened was basically the islamic regime um using children as as human shields

00:12:46.600 which is absolutely shameful girls it's really pretty clear what happened there

00:12:53.960 80 days on we have not taken responsibility for that attack the well what what what what makes

00:13:03.080 you think the united states is responsible for that and first of all out of everything that's

00:13:08.560 been going on why are you focused on that one situation how come you're not speaking about

00:13:14.100 the 40 000 people that were mass slaughtered in two days alone like it's it's it's evil it's vile

00:13:21.920 It's actually disgusting and shameful that this Democrat is politicizing the blood of Iranian children to further his anti-Trump and pro-Islamic regime agenda, right? 0.67

00:13:38.840 Like, it's shameful. It's shameful. 0.98

00:13:40.260 And you do not get to talk about schoolchildren unless you've already spoken and raised awareness about the mass slaughter of over 40,000 Iranians on January 8 and 9, right?

00:13:56.160 Like you do not get to talk about that. So it's very obvious that this garbage person is politicizing the blood of Iranian children for his own agenda and shame on him. Shame on him. Shame on you for doing so. 0.98

00:14:14.220 the stalling that's being investigated it's being investigated it's being investigated

00:14:18.900 in the past when we've had these types of mistakes they have been quickly acknowledged

00:14:24.400 even if a further investigation is necessary to figure out prevention methods so can you at this

00:14:30.340 moment acknowledge that that mistake was made and that we were responsible for it it's something we

00:14:35.220 didn't want to do and don't want to repeat congressman to reiterate the united states

00:14:42.700 does not deliberately target us. Got that part. Period. Full stop. Nor are the Iranian people

00:14:49.300 our enemy. The IRGC is the adversary in this case. I've heard. Wow. You know what? That's

00:14:54.880 really important. And I'm really grateful to Admiral Cooper for making that distinction

00:15:01.300 because that evil Democrat, he obviously does not understand the distinction between the Iranian

00:15:08.140 people and the islamic regime or the irgc so you know good on on admiral cooper for very clearly

00:15:16.900 and plainly putting out that distinction because that's important not deliberately target us got

00:15:24.600 that part here period full stop uh and nor are the iranian people our enemy uh the irgc is the

00:15:31.100 adversary in this case yeah i heard that in your opening statement admiral i asked you a very

00:15:35.280 specific question and i'm curious what the answer is so the investigation is ongoing uh as soon as

00:15:40.340 it is complete i'm happy to be so that's possible we will not take responsibility for something we 0.99

00:15:44.820 very obviously did and what what an idiot like the the like admiral brad cooper is clearly saying 0.99

00:15:52.240 that the investigation is ongoing so like what makes you think that you know more than the guy 1.00

00:16:02.300 who's literally in charge of the military operation like does that guy think he has more intel than

00:16:09.660 the military like like like it's it's pretty obvious he's getting his intel from the islamic

00:16:15.900 regime and you know like i've said before with the islamic regime if their lips are moving they're

00:16:21.900 lying like the guy's literally just repeating islamic regime propaganda it's a complex

00:16:27.500 investigation the school itself is located on an active irgc cruise missile base so yeah like

00:16:33.480 that's that's what we've been saying from the beginning the school is located on an active irgc

00:16:39.440 military base which means which means that um it loses all protections under the geneva convention

00:16:48.240 because we iranians we have been saying from the get-go even like months months before months

00:16:56.040 before the military operation began, we Iranians were putting out images and videos and footage

00:17:02.900 of the Islamic regime using schools as human shields because that's what they do. But the 0.99

00:17:12.060 thing is that, you know, like, you put a school, like, the fault here, the fault is the fault of 0.56

00:17:20.620 the Islamic regime. It's the Islamic regime's fault for placing a school next to a military 0.87

00:17:28.180 base. What normal, rational country does that? I mean, think about the United States. Is there 1.00

00:17:35.460 a single elementary school that is right beside a legitimate military target or within a legitimate

00:17:43.420 military target? Absolutely not. It doesn't exist. This is how Islamic terrorists operate.

00:17:51.200 They use people as human shields so that afterwards, you know, they can create a false 1.00

00:17:57.120 flag event. Or even if it's not a false flag event, then they can say, oh, look, like innocent

00:18:03.040 civilians. Yeah. The fault, the, you know, the blame lies at the hands of the Islamic regime.

00:18:12.040 It's the Islamic regime that is responsible for the murder and death of those children, not the United States. 0.87

00:18:24.900 See a few comments here.

00:18:27.700 Kuda says Admiral Cooper is a boss.

00:18:30.680 Yes, I absolutely agree.

00:18:33.020 And Oracle of Hecate says this guy is just a mouthpiece.

00:18:37.900 Healings over facts. 0.95

00:18:38.920 He is entitled and lame.

00:18:41.320 his Willy Wonka tie annoys me there there's a lot of things about him that annoy me I haven't 0.93

00:18:47.940 focused on his appearance but all right let's go to Jesse Waters really quickly let's see what he

00:18:53.600 has to say we have some latest news on Iran welcome to a special edition of Jesse Waters

00:19:00.060 primetime I'm Kaylee McEnany and for Jesse well the DNC finally released their 2024 autopsy report

00:19:07.580 I have it here and it came after Kamala stained their party with her 107 day campaign.

00:19:14.580 They've been trying to figure out what went wrong and somehow it took them almost 200 pages,

00:19:19.740 literally filled with typos to find an answer and they still don't get it.

00:19:24.280 Their biggest takeaways, you can't just be anti-Trump.

00:19:27.680 You have to stay on offense, coordinate strategies and don't take voters for granted.

00:19:32.380 The diagnosis on Kamala, the billion dollars she raised just wasn't enough.

00:19:37.060 They want small donors opening their pockets earlier, but they finally admitted their deep bench is actually pretty thin.

00:19:45.700 The autopsy says they need to focus on the long game, but the DNC didn't want this to get out.

00:19:53.000 Their head, Ken Martin, said that the report wasn't ready for primetime, but even CNN wants more.

00:19:59.740 It does not touch a couple of topics that a lot of people were very interested in and thought were the reasons for.

00:20:04.900 All right. I'll keep an eye on that in case they share something about Iran. But let's go back to the hearing. And Sabre Coaching said school had an IRGC military antenna on the roof. Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's what it does.

00:20:25.760 So guys, I want to be very clear. It's not that we're not upset about the death of the children. We are 100% upset and mortified. However, what we understand as Iranians is that the death of these children lies at the hands of the Islamic regime.

00:20:50.580 We don't blame the United States or Israel. We blame the Islamic regime for putting the children in that situation in the first place and for using children as human shields. That's the issue here. That's the issue. 0.64

00:21:06.020 But the Democrat Party is just politicizing the blood of Iranian people for their own political gain. And that's what's shameful. Because, you know, this guy, he's so, you know, he's so upset about the schoolchildren, but he's silent on the mass slaughter of over 40,000 innocent Iranians on January 8 and 9.

00:21:31.900 And I haven't seen him post anything about the recent executions of innocent Iranians by the Islamic regime.

00:21:40.360 So, you know, when when these people are engaging in selective outrage, that means that like that they're not neutral.

00:21:49.700 Right. Selective outrage basically means that they're just using this as as propaganda to further their political agenda.

00:21:58.660 And that's incredibly shameful.

00:22:00.840 That's incredibly shameful.

00:22:04.260 Okay, let's continue.

00:22:05.580 More complex than the average strike.

00:22:08.620 I'm curious.

00:22:09.760 That's a net.

00:22:10.420 So the investigation is ongoing.

00:22:12.840 As soon as it's complete, I'm happy to be.

00:22:14.680 So that's a net.

00:22:15.540 We will not take responsibility for something we very obviously did.

00:22:19.180 So it's a complex investigation.

00:22:21.880 The school itself is located on an active IRGC cruise missile base.

00:22:25.680 It's more complex than the average strike.

00:22:29.400 As soon as we're complete, I'm fully committed to transparency, given your important oversight role and the other members here.

00:22:35.340 Just so you know, and I have an enormous amount of respect for you and an enormous amount of respect for the Pentagon, I do not trust that answer.

00:22:42.480 What we've seen out of the Secretary of Defense and his callous disregard for any sort of rules of engagement or protecting civilian life make us suspicious.

00:22:51.380 Are you kidding me?

00:22:51.820 And that's the only second question I have for you.

00:22:53.600 Do you think it's ever appropriate for anybody in a leadership position to use the words no quarter when describing how we are conducting our operations? 0.98

00:23:03.200 Yes, yes, it is absolutely correct to say no quarter when you're dealing with a brutal Islamic dictatorship that literally rapes, tortures and executes men, women and children in the name of Allah and Islam and jihad. 0.98

00:23:19.180 So, yes, 100 percent. It is absolutely appropriate to show no mercy for modern day Muslim Nazis. 1.00

00:23:30.040 Yes, it's appropriate. We want the Islamic regime boom, boom. 1.00

00:23:33.860 That's what we want. That we 100 percent appropriate, 100 percent appropriate. 1.00

00:23:39.540 In Iran. So I think it's appropriate as military leaders.

00:23:43.240 We follow the law of armed conflict and our constitutional responsibilities.

00:23:46.560 And that's what we've done. And you would agree that no quarter is not following the law.

00:23:51.040 I would agree. It's our constitutional responsibility to follow the law.

00:23:55.780 Is no quarter following the law or not? I would agree that we follow the law, sir.

00:24:01.800 But you're not going to get specific. The monikers are going to have a general generic understanding of it.

00:24:07.800 And they do whatever we want to do. So. So this is, you know, what this guy is doing, this Democrat.

00:24:14.760 It's actually very sneaky. And it's also very disingenuous because what this like this Democrat is doing, Mr. Smith or whatever his name is, this garbage person, he is taking the statement of an elected official. 0.96

00:24:34.300 He's taking the statement of a politician, and then he's asking someone who is in the military, you know, a nonpolitical role, right? So he is trying to get someone who is a nonpolitical individual to comment on a political statement. And you can't do that, right? Like, it's kind of like, how do I explain this? 0.88

00:24:59.980 So imagine like a bureaucrat, let's say a bureaucrat who works in, I don't know, the Department of State, for example, right?

00:25:11.020 So imagine like asking a bureaucrat to justify and explain and comment on what Marco Rubio said.

00:25:21.360 You can't do that because the bureaucrat is in an apolitical, nonpartisan role.

00:25:28.020 so what he's doing here like this is totally inappropriate um like when i was chairing

00:25:34.860 committees uh politicians tried to do this all the time right like the the politicians would

00:25:40.140 take like a statement from someone and they would um ask a bureaucrat what do you think of this

00:25:46.700 what are your comments on this like how do you interpret this and i would always like i would

00:25:51.340 call it out like i would basically say that this line of questioning is out of order why because

00:25:57.520 you cannot ask a non-politician to comment on a political statement, right? And that's exactly

00:26:08.600 what this guy is doing here right now, right? Like he's trying to put Admiral Brad Cooper,

00:26:16.260 who again, he's not a politician, he's in a non-partisan, non-political position, right? He

00:26:23.880 wants him to comment on a political statement, which is 100% inappropriate. Like, like, just

00:26:33.000 look at how he's trying to trap Admiral Brad Cooper. And Admiral Brad Cooper is like, we

00:26:37.720 just follow the law, right? Like, he, Admiral Brad Cooper cannot comment on, on political

00:26:47.460 statements, because that's not his job. He's like, he's not a politician. So it is completely

00:26:53.020 inappropriate and out of line for this democrat to be asking um admiral brad cooper to comment

00:27:01.100 on a political statement and our constitutional responsibilities and that's what we've done and

00:27:05.740 you would agree that no quarter is not following the law i would agree it's our constitutional

00:27:11.340 responsibility to follow the law is no quarter following law or not i would agree that we follow

00:27:18.620 the law, sir. But you're not going to get specific about it. You're just going to have

00:27:22.860 sort of a general, generic understanding of it, and then do whatever we want to do

00:27:28.300 with no accountability. Look, people make mistakes. It's in a war. Things happen. I get that,

00:27:33.880 okay? And I'm not going to be as overly judgmental as some, but that the arrogance

00:27:38.460 of this Pentagon and their unwillingness to acknowledge any mistake is precisely the reason

00:27:44.620 that we are in the hole that we're in with no way out of. 0.77

00:27:47.940 Somebody in that command needs to own up to the dumb things that are said and done

00:27:53.700 to give us some confidence that they won't keep happening.

00:27:58.260 Mr. Zimmerman, can you explain to me how it works,

00:28:03.120 why it is considered to be intelligent for the president day after day after day

00:28:08.400 to keep saying that Iran has agreed to things that very clearly they have not agreed to,

00:28:13.740 which then becomes obvious to the entire world within some 24 to 48 hour time period.

00:28:19.380 Help me out here. What is the strategy of the president standing up and saying we have defeated them?

00:28:25.240 The war is over. They've agreed to everything.

00:28:27.960 I mean, doesn't that just make us look like a bunch of clowns past a certain point when it becomes obvious that that's not the case?

00:28:33.980 uh congressman the the president's willingness to act decisively to protect americans and our

00:28:42.340 partners and allies has advanced u.s credibility it is not it has not sunk u.s credibility well

00:28:48.460 but addressing this specific issue we could have that debate a different direction but

00:28:53.100 he has repeatedly said that iran has agreed to things that they obviously have not agreed to

00:28:59.080 and let me ask the question this way is the president misinformed no he's not misinformed 0.70

00:29:04.920 it's because the islamic regime will say one thing to your face and then they behind your back they 1.00

00:29:10.600 do something totally different like you idiot you idiot like why are you like why like i 1.00

00:29:19.320 it it boggles my mind it blows my mind that this democrat thinks that the words coming out of 1.00

00:29:28.760 the mouths of islamic regime terrorists are more reliable than what president trump is saying like

00:29:36.040 in what reality in what reality would you think that the islamic regime is more reliable and 0.99

00:29:43.000 trustworthy than the president of the united states like how insane are you like how much 0.52

00:29:49.160 trump derangement syndrome are you suffering from that you actually think that the president is 0.55

00:29:56.680 misinformed. No, we Iranians, we have been trying to tell you from the very beginning that you

00:30:03.680 cannot trust the Islamic regime because if their lips are moving, they're lying. So yeah, of course, 0.99

00:30:09.980 of course, the Islamic regime will say one thing to your face. And then afterwards, they say

00:30:15.920 something completely different. And like, guys, we have been exposing the Islamic regime on Islamic 0.95

00:30:21.080 regime state tv we've been showing like their their messaging their narrative like this is

00:30:27.100 insane this is insane like shame shame on this man shame on this man you know why shame on him

00:30:33.660 because this is not just about like political posturing there are human lives at risk like

00:30:42.160 The Iranian people have been begging for outside assistance for years, for years, for decades.

00:30:52.580 Even when Obama was the president, the Iranian people were asking Obama to help.

00:31:00.620 They were chanting Obama's name in the street.

00:31:03.780 They were saying, um, the chant was Obama, Obama, which means Obama, Obama, you're either with us

00:31:14.920 or you're with them. And by them, they were, they're referring to the Islamic regime. So even

00:31:20.840 in 2009, Iranian people were asking the United States for help and Obama, like the traitor, 0.99

00:31:27.480 garbage person that he is, he took the side of the Islamic regime. He took the side of the Islamic 0.99

00:31:32.580 regime, Obama, the traitor, right? Like, let me, let me find, let me find the, let me find it for 0.90

00:31:40.780 you. Um, like Obama, Obama had an opportunity to, um, where is it? Like he had an opportunity

00:32:04.140 And Obama chose the side of terrorists

00:32:10.200 Wait, where is it?

00:32:18.380 Let me go

00:32:19.120 Let me find it on X

00:32:20.120 Give me one moment, guys 1.00

00:32:21.180 Like, Iranians asking, you know 1.00

00:32:26.060 The president of the United States for help 0.79

00:32:28.420 Is not new

00:32:29.360 Let's find it. Like this goes back to 2009. But it's there.

00:32:51.380 Where's it?

00:32:59.360 Sorry, we're going back like, we're going back quite a bit here, but okay.

00:33:17.880 All right. I need to find this. Give me a moment, but let's, let's continue with the

00:33:22.060 congressional hearing, but I will, I will find that clip because this isn't the first time

00:33:28.100 that Iranians have asked for help. It's not. And shame, shame on this evil man for politicizing

00:33:36.880 this for his own personal gain and shame on him for thinking that the Islamic regime is more 0.98

00:33:41.880 reliable and trustworthy than the president of the United States. Like that's wild. That's 0.86

00:33:47.220 absolutely wild. He has repeatedly said that Iran has agreed to things that they obviously have not

00:33:56.660 agreed to. Let me ask the question this way. Is the president misinformed? Are people doing a bad

00:34:02.520 job of informing him about what's going on? Is he that ignorant about the circumstances? Or is he 0.96

00:34:08.720 just making it up as part of some, I don't know, six-dimensional stress, sorry, chess strategy here?

00:34:15.580 So why? The president has the best information available to any head of state. Why does he keep

00:34:22.840 getting it wrong then the president does not keep getting it wrong uh the their white house is

00:34:28.720 leading these negotiations to find a long-term solution i'm sorry you have 20 seconds left here

00:34:34.100 but he doesn't keep getting it wrong he says literally the strait is open iran has agreed to

00:34:41.180 give up their nuclear weapons iran has agreed to give up their ballistic missile programs

00:34:44.980 that's your basic question is the strait of hormuz open has iran given up their nuclear weapons

00:34:50.000 the straight of four moves is a is a complex situation right now uh where you have a severely

00:34:56.860 degraded look i hope you look back at this and understand how bad this is making you look

00:35:03.000 no look you can answer the question now you can challenge me in a thousand different ways

00:35:06.820 but to just pretend that reality isn't reality and say it over and over again in a public hearing

00:35:12.560 i'm sorry that's not helping our credibility thank you for the indulgence mr chairman i yield back

00:35:17.680 The chair now recognizes a gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson.

00:35:22.780 Thank you, Chair Mike Rogers, for your correct assessment that the American military is unmatched professionalism, as we see with the three witnesses today.

00:35:31.260 How reassuring for the American people and how a deterrence it is to the enemies we have around the world.

00:35:37.300 I've never been more appreciative of the American military than I am today.

00:35:41.940 Let me just go to some of your comments before we start with the new guy.

00:35:46.980 So Kuda says, arrogance is not of the Pentagon, but on Mr. Smith.

00:35:51.840 I agree.

00:35:52.980 Oracle of Hecate says, this hearing is pure political theater. 1.00

00:35:57.180 These people just want to score points with their idiotic face. 1.00

00:36:00.380 It is a complete waste of time and money. 1.00

00:36:02.980 I mean, yes and no.

00:36:04.640 I mean, hearings, guys, hearings are important.

00:36:06.480 So it is important.

00:36:08.780 Yes, the Democrats are looking to just score political points and get, you know, sound bites that they can use to, you know, get reelected.

00:36:16.060 However, at the same time, the responses from Admiral Brad Cooper and others, they are very important.

00:36:23.360 Like Admiral Brad Cooper has said a lot of really important things in last night's live stream.

00:36:28.620 Remember, in his opening statement, he acknowledged that the Islamic regime has slaughtered tens of thousands of Iranians in the last few months alone. 0.60

00:36:37.320 And they're executing people every day. So so that's important. 1.00

00:36:40.800 Like there's a lot of information you can glean, you know, not necessarily from the Democrats because they're useless, but from from the answers themselves.

00:36:51.720 Tom for life. Democrats don't trust the U.S. military. They constantly underfund them and try to discredit them.

00:36:58.500 There was a lot of back and forth today on the negotiations. Your thoughts?

00:37:03.220 Um, I don't think there was any back and forth really. I mean, president Trump has made it very

00:37:09.280 clear, um, what he wants. So, um, I don't know what back and forth there is. I have a feeling

00:37:17.520 that the back and forth is just Pakistan trying to make themselves feel relevant and useful and

00:37:24.020 important in some way, because I mean, president Trump has made it very clear. Um, I mean, let me

00:37:29.080 just go back to what President Trump said earlier today. Let me just find one of the videos and

00:37:36.040 share it. But I mean, like President Trump has said that there's, you know, no nuclear, right?

00:37:43.340 No nuclear. And if the Islamic regime does not agree to the deal that President Trump wants,

00:37:52.720 then that's it. Like they're going to boom, boom, right? So let me just play this really 0.97

00:37:57.400 quickly here for you guys um like this is what president trump was saying

00:38:06.760 right now we're negotiating and we'll see but either we're going to get it one way or the other

00:38:11.880 they're not going to have a nuclear weapon you know when people hear it because oftentimes they

00:38:16.040 won't put up the second part of the sentence having to do with i'll say this is more important

00:38:21.400 than anything that we have to talk about and usually they'll cut it off the fake news i said

00:38:26.920 because this is the nuclearization of a country that some people would say is somewhat crazy

00:38:35.880 and we cannot let iran have a nuclear weapon that's all it is not somewhat crazy the islamic 0.99

00:38:41.720 regime they're utter lunatics they're literally lunatics we can't let it you will have uh a 0.99

00:38:48.360 nuclear war in the middle east and that war will come here that war will go to europe 0.99

00:38:52.360 we cannot let that happen and it won't happen it's not going to happen that's more important

00:38:57.080 than anything else that we can't think i can think of nothing that's more important than the

00:39:01.720 fact that we cannot let iran have a nuclear weapon and and we won't right now we're negotiating yeah

00:39:06.860 so there you go i mean i don't know what these back and forths are i don't know who's reporting

00:39:13.500 that again president trump has been very clear about his red lines and his red lines are once

00:39:20.540 again, no nuclear. United States has to go in and remove whatever nuclear dust is there.

00:39:29.700 The Islamic regime has to end its ballistic missile program. They have to stop their support 1.00

00:39:37.480 of their terrorist proxy militia groups in the region, like Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, 0.57

00:39:43.140 hush to shabby um and others and of course they have to reopen the strait of hormones and the 0.95

00:39:50.660 islamic regime has not agreed to any one of those conditions and so um like that like i don't want

00:40:00.980 to get into the whole analysis but um i would recommend that you go and watch um my video here

00:40:09.060 let me just pull it up really quick. So, um, go and watch, wait, let me show it here.

00:40:17.680 Yeah. Let me get rid of the super chat. So go and watch, um, my, uh, video that I posted two days

00:40:25.680 ago. It's called the calm before the storm. So, um, you know, if you just go to my YouTube channel,

00:40:32.200 wait where is it so if you go to my youtube channel it's um in you know the the playlist

00:40:39.480 the goldie show or you know just go to you know go to video where is it go to videos here and then

00:40:46.320 um you want to watch the video here the calm before the storm um it only has like 21 000 views

00:40:54.420 which is a shame because I go into like a 30-minute analysis and I talk about why I think

00:41:02.360 military escalation is inevitable. So go and take a look at that. Go watch that afterwards.

00:41:11.200 I explain a lot and I break it all down. But essentially, at the end of the day,

00:41:17.360 President Trump has five objectives, and those objectives have not yet been met. Even though

00:41:25.000 the Islamic regime has been defeated militarily, those objectives have not yet been met, and that's 0.98

00:41:31.260 because the Islamic regime is still surviving. And as long as the Islamic regime exists, 0.97

00:41:39.840 those objectives will never be met. So that's why I believe President Trump, 0.99

00:41:44.660 when he was coming back from Beijing

00:41:46.920 and people were asking him

00:41:48.920 about the military situation in the Middle East.

00:41:52.200 He said that the United States

00:41:54.660 is about 70 to 75% done.

00:41:57.580 And that additional 25%, I believe,

00:42:01.280 is either weakening the Islamic regime 0.93

00:42:04.040 to a point where the Iranian people

00:42:05.860 can rise up and overthrow the Islamic regime

00:42:08.800 and reclaim the country,

00:42:10.260 or the President Trump will just boom, boom them.

00:42:13.820 It's one or the other.

00:42:14.660 But either way, I have a feeling that military escalation is inevitable. So don't don't listen to like all these like back and forths and in the media. Like there's a lot of, you know, clickbait going around. There's a lot of like armchair experts and analysts who are all of a sudden like pontificating on Iran and the Islamic regime.

00:42:37.460 um but go watch that video afterwards uh because this will give you um a better understanding and

00:42:44.820 again it doesn't have that many views because i'm not like super into like the clickbait like oh my

00:42:50.340 god like you know like you know some titles are like iran is collapsing what's next right like i

00:42:55.820 don't i don't do that it's more just like a well thought out geopolitical analysis of of the

00:43:02.480 situation. So yeah, but definitely check that out because that's going to explain a lot.

00:43:10.380 Pushup said, while Obama screwed up, wouldn't the helping the Green Movement have just replaced

00:43:16.980 Ahmad with Mousavi? What would have changed? So Obama actually did help the Green Movement.

00:43:25.260 That's the problem. Obama helped the Green Movement. What Iranians were saying is that

00:43:31.560 they wanted to overthrow the Islamic regime. And Obama, instead of choosing to side with the

00:43:38.460 Iranian people, he chose the side of the reformists and the quote-unquote moderates, right? So instead

00:43:46.600 of Obama standing with the Iranian people who wanted to overthrow the regime, he instead sent,

00:43:52.980 you know, planes full of cash to the Islamic regime and then, you know, made the JCPOA, 0.91

00:44:00.920 which is a terrible deal that actually helped the Islamic regime accelerate towards building 0.93

00:44:06.980 nuclear weapons. So that's the issue there. And that's why Iranian people were chanting, 0.97

00:44:12.580 Obama, you're either with us or with them. Because 2009 was the first time that the Iranian people 0.98

00:44:20.500 really rose up to try and overthrow the Islamic regime. And then the Green Movement was,

00:44:26.660 it was essentially overtaken by the moderates within the regime and the reformists. And they

00:44:35.600 were the ones who were like, oh, no, no, we don't need to overthrow the regime. We can reform the

00:44:42.120 regime from within. We can just change it. We can make it more moderate, right? And then that's how

00:44:48.400 they fooled Western governments or whatever. And then, of course, what happened is that once they

00:44:56.140 came into power, they were even more brutal than the previous government, and they mass murdered

00:45:03.380 even more people. So yeah, that's a whole other can of worms. But that's why Iranians, like we're

00:45:12.280 not calling for reform. We're calling for revolution. We want the end of the Islamic

00:45:19.520 regime and nothing else will suffice so all right let's continue veteran myself let me go back for

00:45:28.560 pre-deterrence with the three witsmen carolina mr wilson thank you chairman mike rogers for your

00:45:34.400 correct assessment that the american military is unmatched professionalism as we see with the three

00:45:39.920 witnesses today how reassuring for the american people and how a deterrence it is to the enemies

00:45:45.440 we have around the world. I've never been more appreciative of the American military than I am

00:45:51.240 today. As a 31-year veteran myself, I'm really grateful that I've had four sons serve in Iraq,

00:45:57.560 Egypt, Afghanistan, to see the success. And dictators are on the run. It began, I'm grateful,

00:46:04.120 with the dictator Assad in Syria. And he actually, an honor, he declared me an enemy of the state 1.00

00:46:12.360 November a year ago, and then with President Trump's election, he fled to Moscow. And now

00:46:18.040 President Trump is giving Syria a chance. The dictator's gone. And then I'm really grateful

00:46:22.520 that the dictatorship in Venezuela has been removed. Again, what an extraordinary success.

00:46:29.200 I was really grateful to have the opportunity to let President Trump know how much the American

00:46:34.720 military, American citizens appreciate that he showed that the Russian anti-aircraft capability

00:46:39.820 is not very good. Chinese radar fails, and Cuban mercenaries are expendable. And then you get to

00:46:45.200 the ultimate, and it just should not be misunderstood historically, the elimination

00:46:50.260 of Khomeini and his leadership in world history. I'm not aware of any conflict begun where in the

00:46:57.460 first minute, the leadership, dictatorship was eliminated. And how deserving, because he had

00:47:03.600 just murdered 40,000 of his own citizens. And so he deserved what came his way, despite the

00:47:09.120 sympathy of the American media that we should have given notice. With that in mind, too,

00:47:14.160 around the world, from operations in the Western Hemisphere against narco-terrorists to decisive

00:47:20.160 action against the Iranian regime through Operation Epic Fury to the continued efforts

00:47:25.420 against terrorists and malign actors across Africa and the Middle East, our service members

00:47:30.900 have demonstrated extraordinary courage, precision, and unmatched professionalism.

00:47:36.200 As we confront Iran and its puppets who have attacked and murdered the Israelis and the terrorist organizations and war criminal Putin, who wants to resurrect the Soviet Union, the failed Soviet Union, annexing Belarus, leaving troops in Moldova, invading Georgia, rigging elections in the Republic of Georgia,

00:47:58.980 where the correct president, a legitimate president, 0.60

00:48:02.700 is Solomay George Tresvili,

00:48:04.080 and then, of course, the invasion of Ukraine

00:48:07.200 with tens of thousands of people who have lost their lives.

00:48:11.040 With that in mind, the growing influence

00:48:13.460 of the Chinese Communist Party,

00:48:15.180 we need to assure that the Central Command

00:48:17.680 and Africa Command have the posture, partnerships,

00:48:20.640 and capabilities needed to defend the homeland,

00:48:23.600 protect our allies, and achieve peace through strength.

00:48:26.600 With that, Admiral Cooper,

00:48:27.700 you have documented really well the success of Operation Epic Fury, which has been a devastating

00:48:34.940 flow to the dictatorship in Iran and ability to murder Israelis and Americans. In your assessment,

00:48:43.420 has this degraded Iran's ability to generate another October 7th with mass murder of Israeli 0.68

00:48:50.080 citizens? Congressman, first, thank you for your own service and that of your children.

00:48:56.200 My assessment from a military perspective is, as we sit here today, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis have been cut off from the decades-long flow of military supplies, and thus mitigating and eliminating any chance of a future October 7th, based on the circumstances right now.

00:49:16.460 And don't forget, guys, so just today, Scott Besant also announced more sanctions against, more sanctions against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Right? So let me, let me grab the press release. Where is it?

00:49:37.800 news like this was literally today um so they're not just going after the proxy militia groups

00:49:51.420 and they're not just going after the islamic regime from like a boom boom perspective uh

00:49:56.500 operation economic fury is still very much active and like get this so today the u.s department of

00:50:04.960 Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated nine individuals in Lebanon for

00:50:12.940 obstructing the peace process in Lebanon and impeding the disarmament of Hezbollah.

00:50:19.380 These Hezbollah-aligned officials include individuals embedded across Lebanon's parliament,

00:50:25.580 military, and security sectors, where they seek to preserve the Iran-backed terrorist

00:50:30.340 group's influence over key Lebanese state institutions. Hezbollah's continued military

00:50:36.800 activity and coercive influence over the Lebanese state undermine the Lebanese government's ability

00:50:43.000 to assert its authority over state institutions and disarm the terrorist group. Hezbollah is a 0.87

00:50:50.580 terrorist organization and must be fully disarmed, said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bassett.

00:50:55.740 Treasury will continue to take action against officials who have infiltrated the Lebanese government and are enabling Hezbollah to wage its senseless campaign of violence against the Lebanese people and obstruct lasting peace.

00:51:09.920 So this, right, like this here ties in with what Admiral Cooper is talking about when he's referring to the proxies, right?

00:51:21.700 Because it's all connected.

00:51:23.500 And even though there's no boom booms right now, the economic impact is not just continuing, but it's increasing and it's ramping up.

00:51:36.200 I just agree with your assessment, and it's just remarkable the achievements of our military.

00:51:44.180 And Secretary Zimmerman, I appreciate your North Carolina heritage, and the department

00:51:48.720 has promoted partners in both the Middle East and Africa to assume more responsibility for

00:51:55.160 their own security. How are we achieving this without creating a vacuum against war

00:52:00.760 Putin or the Chinese Communist Party or the regime in Tehran. Thank you, Congressman. And

00:52:08.940 as we are working to find operationally independent partners with shared security

00:52:14.020 interests who can responsibly take up the security burden along alongside us,

00:52:20.360 we are very clear-eyed about the threats across the CENTCOM and AFRICOM theater that these

00:52:27.900 adversaries present. We have not lost sight of those. And indeed, Admiral Cooper, we did have

00:52:35.280 allies come to work with us in Operation Epic Fury. Can you identify key allies that were helpful?

00:52:43.620 Congressman, most notably, we literally serve side by side in this broad Middle East air

00:52:48.300 defense network with five Middle East partners, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar.

00:52:54.860 The gentleman's time has expired. I recognize the gentleman from Connecticut.

00:52:58.380 Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the witnesses.

00:53:02.500 Mr. Zimmerman and Admiral Cooper, in your testimony, Admiral, you in page three stated that one of the priorities of CENTCOM is preserving America's advantage and position of strength relative to China.

00:53:14.840 Mr. Zimmerman, in page one, you said, secondly, we will deter China in the Indo-Pacific region through strength, not confrontation.

00:53:23.080 So the U.S. Navy Naval Institute publishes a weekly ship tracker, which identifies where our surface ships are located around the world today.

00:53:37.380 So last night's tracker shows that there are 25 warships that are in the Central Command region.

00:53:46.380 Two more minesweepers are apparently on the way to join the fleet.

00:53:50.760 In Indo-Pacific, we have one carrier, the George Washington, which is actually just being fitted out for deployment.

00:53:58.320 It's not actually underway with a strike force.

00:54:01.300 And we have one ARG-MU amphibious ship with three accompanying vessels.

00:54:06.280 That's four.

00:54:07.240 That's the total count.

00:54:08.180 That's 52% of the surface of the Earth is in the Indo-Pacific region.

00:54:14.100 And because of this war, we have ships that are home ported in Cusca, Pearl Harbor, that are now situated in Central Command.

00:54:25.080 And I guess the question I have for you, Mr. Zimmerman, the National Defense Strategy states that the U.S. will build and sustain a strong denial defense along the First Island chain.

00:54:35.360 And right now, I don't know how that's possible, given the fact that so many forces, naval forces, have been concentrated in Central Command.

00:54:44.100 How is this policy, this war, aligned with our national defense strategy, which identified China as still the number one pacing threat?

00:54:57.360 Congressman, we remain fully committed to the priorities as you have outlined them there, including denial defense and deterring China peace.

00:55:07.400 With what? 0.67

00:55:07.820 uh we retain the ability to act decisively uh when and where we need to around the globe that's

00:55:16.980 all part of the global force management process the indo-pacific theater is is not part of my

00:55:22.060 theater so i'll be careful uh how broadly i i speak but rest assured the department is 100

00:55:28.220 committed 100 committed to the priorities laid out in the nds and we retain the ability to act

00:55:34.400 to implement all those priorities. Thank you. So I'd just ask that the USNI tracker dated May

00:55:42.140 18th be admitted to the record, which again just shows the incredible imbalance that we have right

00:55:47.200 now in terms of the positioning of our fleet. I would also note, you know, Mr. Rogers correctly

00:55:53.900 stated how important it is to build up partnerships. Right now, you know, we have a terrible energy

00:55:58.860 crisis in this country, which Mr. Smith referred to, Eastern Asia is of a totally bigger, more

00:56:06.200 catastrophic magnitude. Countries are implementing four-day work weeks. They're doing rationing

00:56:13.580 because of the fact that not only is the price is not going up, but because they depend on the

00:56:18.460 Strait of Hormuz, supplies are actually being run down right now. It is not really hard for people

00:56:25.900 to sort of understand who's causing this in terms of countries that we are trying to build

00:56:30.540 partnerships. And frankly, I think that is another strategic harm that this war has created in terms

00:56:38.940 of, again, the number one identified defense challenge that we face, according to Trump's own

00:56:45.800 defense strategy. Admiral Cooper, I have a couple of quick questions for you. Is a blockade an act

00:56:51.400 of war. So we're executing the blockade today consistent with international armed conflict.

00:56:58.120 Well, the international law actually in terms of blockades was established in 1909 at the London

00:57:03.500 Naval Conference, which the U.S. participated in, and the U.S. Senate actually voted to endorse. And

00:57:08.960 it defined blockades as an act of war. Blockades don't work unless you have warships there to 0.71

00:57:15.280 enforce them. So of course it's an act of war. I mean, and again, that's black letter maritime law,

00:57:20.880 isn't it so i i defer to the department as well as the white house and any characterization

00:57:25.360 of how we execute business uh from a combatant command standpoint i'm from my from my perspective

00:57:30.480 execute the orders as given and today the legal uh the the legal uh umbrella that we're

00:57:36.400 operating under is international armed combat well it's it is really as i said not even a question

00:57:40.960 of of law or facts i mean if we had a navy blockading the port of new york new jersey

00:57:46.880 we would treat that as an act of war and the notion that somehow the the ceasefire stopped

00:57:51.840 the tolling of the war powers act um in in april when we put a blockade a few days later uh which

00:57:59.040 is an act of war um again fails the the legal test which you don't need to really get intense advice

00:58:06.800 from office of legal counsel i yield back gentleman's time has expired

00:58:10.160 The Chair now recognizes Mr. Turner.

00:58:14.000 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. General Anderson, in your opening portion of your written statement,

00:58:22.480 you say that, AFRICOM, we work with our African partners and our allies on collective security.

00:58:28.800 You then note that you're facing more demanding challenges with ISIS, al-Qaeda,

00:58:35.840 but also disruptive actors like Russia, China, and Iran.

00:58:40.160 I want to turn to Kenya and Russia.

00:58:44.020 I think I believe that Kenya is a strong ally.

00:58:48.120 You would agree that Kenya is a strong ally, would you not, General?

00:58:50.900 Yes, I would.

00:58:53.160 I've been to Kenya.

00:58:54.460 I've seen and I'm aware of our collective operations,

00:58:59.780 and I was very surprised and very concerned when I saw the New York Times reporting

00:59:05.460 of Kenya's National Intelligence Service report that up to 1,000 Kenyans

00:59:12.620 had been solicited by Russia and had been taken by Russia to fight in Ukraine

00:59:24.720 and that they had taken them from Kenya and they'd ended up in the front lines of Ukraine.

00:59:32.520 What struck me is not just that there were Russians in Kenya that were operating, but that the enormity of what an operation would be to be able to solicit and get, convince a thousand Kenyans to leave Kenya, go to Russia, end up in Ukraine fighting.

00:59:56.160 and the structure, just the logistics of that, and the influence campaign that that is.

01:00:03.940 Are you familiar with that report?

01:00:05.340 Could you speak about that and really the necessity of us to be able to counter that

01:00:12.220 work and assist the Kenyans in countering Russia in Kenya?

01:00:17.480 Yes, Congressman, I agree.

01:00:19.000 And it is disturbing how many Africans from across the continent are being recruited by

01:00:24.200 Russia to fight in Ukraine.

01:00:25.160 so it's not solely a kenyan problem to the point in kenya i agree the concern has been

01:00:30.920 and i think it was highlighted in that new york times article as well is that it's not been clear

01:00:35.160 that they were recruited to go to ukraine often using other reasons to recruit them whether for

01:00:40.520 work or for other jobs not necessarily articulating the fact that they'd end up on the front lines

01:00:46.040 in ukraine so one of those things that we have done to help counter that is just implement the

01:00:50.760 truth by being able to inform other partners of what's happening uh has been very powerful but

01:00:56.360 this is not just disinformation them being told what they're going to do and then they're ending

01:01:00.440 up in ukraine but that there's this infrastructure that that russia has deployed and a thousand out

01:01:07.080 of kenya is is pretty enormous so you're you're up against a pretty enormous uh structure that

01:01:14.680 Russia has deployed within Kenya. Russia is using many different means in order to recruit 0.53

01:01:22.840 folks from across the continent, and you are correct. They do have the network in order to

01:01:28.760 bring them back into Russia. Thank you. Secretary Zimmerman, first off, congratulations on your 0.99

01:01:35.840 answers to the ranking member. They were excellent in the manner in which you handled those questions.

01:01:41.260 In looking at the admiral's testimony, he indicates that ISIS has been marginalized

01:01:49.660 thanks to the Iraqi security forces and Kurdish Peshmerga. He speaks of some of the accomplishments

01:01:59.220 that occurred. I'm concerned, though, however, that when you look at the overall funding for

01:02:03.500 counter-ISIS-trained-equipped funding, what the impact might be for Iraqi Kurdish allies. Could

01:02:09.800 you speak for a moment as to our support for the Iraqi Kurdish allies and what the support

01:02:15.780 might be there? Congressman, thank you. We have the greatest appreciation for our Iraqi Kurdish

01:02:22.340 partners. It's hard to find a more willing, capable group to work alongside, and we welcome

01:02:30.940 the support. Yeah, that's not what President Trump says. Funding that Congress has provided to

01:02:38.520 continue that partnership. This has become particularly stark, and I'll be maybe more

01:02:45.000 general how I speak here, but Operation Epic Fury has shown that the Shia militia groups in Iraq 0.94

01:02:53.800 have a lot of agency and independence to act in ways that are harmful to the United States,

01:02:59.340 which has only showcased how helpful the Iraqi Kurdish partners are.

01:03:05.240 gentleman yields back the chair now recognizes a gentleman from california mr garamendi

01:03:11.600 thank you mr chairman and thank you very much for attending this and your testimony

01:03:17.560 and our appreciation for the hard work and the sacrifices being made by the men and women in

01:03:24.280 our military as they operate in the centcom area mr zimmerman the administration formally notified

01:03:32.920 congress on or about may 5th that hostilities against iran had been terminated is that correct

01:03:40.920 my understanding is as you say that notification went out

01:03:46.280 you have a real difficult time answering questions directly don't you

01:03:51.480 wow you notified that it was terminated correct correct all right now admiral cooper have you

01:04:00.760 Would you reduce the state of preparedness for our troops in the region?

01:04:05.520 Congressman, consistent with my responsibilities as a combatant commander, I'm prepared to

01:04:12.240 execute a broad range of contingencies.

01:04:14.680 Where we sit today, we're executing a blockade, and we're prepared for further direction depending

01:04:18.620 on how negotiations go.

01:04:21.680 So the state of preparedness remains at its highest level?

01:04:26.640 It does.

01:04:27.640 Thank you.

01:04:28.640 Are American troops still in harm's way?

01:04:30.760 Depending on a variety of contingencies, yes.

01:04:36.020 Are American forces defending against Iranian threats?

01:04:40.520 When threatened, we always defend ourselves.

01:04:43.420 Did CENTCOM fire on Iranian tankers running the blockade on May 6th and 8th?

01:04:49.420 We fired on, after going through a series of de-escalation measures to get tankers to stop,

01:04:56.080 consistent with the blockade, we disabled those tankers.

01:04:58.760 So you did fire on Iranian tankers on May 6th and 8th.

01:05:03.040 We disabled them, yes.

01:05:05.560 We fired on them, and as a result of the fire, they were effectively disabled.

01:05:11.780 Did the U.S. launch strikes against Iranian military strikes?

01:05:17.580 Sorry.

01:05:18.920 What's wrong with that?

01:05:20.100 I don't understand this.

01:05:21.820 I don't understand this line of questioning.

01:05:24.600 Sites on May 7th.

01:05:27.100 So the United States forces in the execution of defensive mission in moving destroyers from the Arabian Gulf back in the Gulf of Oman were fired upon dozens of times.

01:05:40.660 We defended ourselves.

01:05:42.360 American forces were fired upon by Iran and you fired back. 1.00

01:05:46.140 That's exactly right. 0.99

01:05:47.340 Thank you. Is it your military assessment that hostilities have been ceased since April?

01:05:53.520 We remain in ceasefire. Yes.

01:05:55.800 That's not my question.

01:05:57.100 my question was military assessment that hostilities have ceased since april my

01:06:04.700 military assessment is the ceasefire has set the foundation for military hostilities to cease

01:06:09.060 iran pushes it so the hostilities have continued well iran clearly attacked our ships

01:06:15.860 as you described dozens of times obviously the hostilities are continuing the islamic regime

01:06:23.480 is literally putting out propaganda of their TV broadcasters holding firearms and shooting

01:06:33.560 at images of President Trump on live Islamic regime state TV. If that's not considered

01:06:40.200 hostilities, I don't know what is. In what planet does this guy live it? Of course the

01:06:47.260 hostilities continue the islamic regime is chanting death to america every day 0.93

01:06:52.300 what reality is this guy living in yes sir i'm really very very sorry for the two of you

01:07:01.100 you just cannot answer a question correctly and directly but you're doing the best you can't

01:07:06.600 wow it's incredible to me that this department has such disregard for the congress

01:07:10.540 and the u.s constitution that the u.s military forces are not still engaged in hostilities

01:07:17.060 and still deployed against the war and ignoring the World Powers Act and the Constitution.

01:07:26.080 I'm going to let it go at that.

01:07:27.040 The fact of the matter is that hostilities continue.

01:07:30.060 And I would like to enter into the record, Mr. Chairman, 10 different press releases from the Department of Defense

01:07:38.780 that specifically discuss the continuing hostilities.

01:07:43.880 I'd like now to turn to Africa. General Anderson, you indicated a 75% reduction of military support in Africa. Is that correct from your testimony?

01:07:57.920 In the POSCA in West Africa, yes, sir.

01:08:00.480 Is USAID a critical element in the African strategy going forward?

01:08:06.960 Sir, there is a rule for targeted aid that supports security and stability

01:08:12.120 that is part of the many tools that the government uses across Africa.

01:08:15.640 Is USAID available to do that?

01:08:19.340 It doesn't exist, does it?

01:08:20.640 It does not exist today, sir, no.

01:08:22.940 And is there a famine in Sudan?

01:08:29.660 Conditions are becoming quite dire in Sudan when it comes to food support.

01:08:32.820 Okay. The fact of the matter is that the U.S. military, question to you, can the U.S. military carry out its activities in Africa without the kind of support that USAID was providing to the African people and African economies and communities?

01:08:54.740 So the military is still able to continue its execution of military objectives and military activities on the continent?

01:09:03.620 The gentleman's time has expired. The chair now recognizes himself for some questions,

01:09:09.860 and gentlemen, thanks again for joining us today. Admiral Cooper, I want to begin with you

01:09:13.540 and get your perspective on the Iranian regime's attacks against civilian targets both in the Gulf

01:09:18.420 region and neighbors in the entire vicinity. We know historically they've used proxies,

01:09:25.620 proxies like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, to maim, torture, and kill innocent civilians,

01:09:32.180 including Americans. We know that now the regime has blood directly on their hands and things that 0.66

01:09:37.480 they've done most recently. And we've seen that. It's pretty alarming as to how they're escalating

01:09:43.460 things within that realm. To me, it's pretty clear that the destabilizing force in the Middle East 1.00

01:09:50.140 is Iran, and they intend to continue that. There's also very distinct differences between 0.81

01:09:56.840 how the united states operates and how iran operates in this uh time of conflict in in

01:10:02.840 that region i wanted to though to rewind a little bit and go back to where things started and that

01:10:08.360 was last december and get your perspective on how you were monitoring uh so i just also want to add

01:10:14.840 like um i've seen your comments about usaid and yeah like i find it wild that he's um you know

01:10:23.000 asking about usaid like first of all this is the american military completely separate from usaid

01:10:29.400 and usaid it turned out was just basically a slush fund for terrorist groups and uh you know 0.51

01:10:36.840 ngos and commies and like the woke progressive left to just take advantage of american taxpayer 0.62

01:10:42.840 dollars like usaid was one of the most corrupt programs out there uh the anti-regime protests

01:10:51.640 and efforts there in iran conflict in in that region i wanted to though to rewind a little bit

01:10:57.320 and go back to where things started and that was last december and get your perspective on

01:11:02.600 how you were monitoring uh the anti-regime protests and efforts there in iran what was

01:11:09.080 your assessment of that what did you what did you find what did you see and then how many civilians

01:11:14.280 do you assess were killed or hurt in those counter efforts by the government against its civilians

01:11:21.640 Congressman, we'd assess that number to be in the tens of thousands of civilians killed by the regime.

01:11:27.140 And what was your assessment when you?

01:11:28.960 And guys, I'm telling you right now, the 40,000 number, that's a minimum that like it's 40,000 minimum.

01:11:39.960 Some estimates actually put the number put the number somewhere between 70 to 90,000.

01:11:48.160 We just don't know.

01:11:49.740 We don't know the actual amount because the Islamic regime has cut off the internet.

01:11:56.640 A lot of people are still missing. 0.89

01:12:00.400 And yeah, they've also silenced a lot of people from speaking out.

01:12:05.440 So 40,000 is like the lower end.

01:12:08.300 It's much, much higher than that.

01:12:13.060 Yeah, it's, let me put it this way.

01:12:17.380 There's a reason that the internet is shut down. 0.98

01:12:19.160 There's a reason that it's now been 83 days and the Islamic regime still has not brought the Internet back up because they don't want the truth to go out there. 0.96

01:12:30.220 And it's incredibly shameful that there are people who are denying this very real slaughter and massacre of the Iranian people. 0.88

01:12:41.760 Evaluated that back in December as far as what the Iranian government was doing against its civilians.

01:12:46.520 As things started in December, you could at the infancy of protests, you could be you could see Iran initially, the regime initially addressing this in the in the teens and low hundreds eventually evolved by January into the killing of tens of thousands.

01:13:05.260 Yeah. And for those of you who have been watching Iran Revolution Live from the beginning, from December 28, that's exactly what we saw. We saw, you know, very, very little. And then all of a sudden, they shut down the Internet and then they mass slaughtered over 40,000 innocent, unarmed Iranians in two days alone.

01:13:29.880 um all right let me go to some of the super chats and then we'll continue so oracle

01:13:35.240 of hecate says i pray this will all be over before mad yoshahem gahan bar one month from today

01:13:46.820 may the people of iran be able to share meals together in peace thank you i appreciate that

01:13:53.060 yeah we're all hoping for a resolution sooner rather than later from your lips to god's ears

01:14:00.600 And Wyatt says, Democrats are trying to get a judge to step in and rule on the WPR.

01:14:11.240 They want to end the fighting on the grounds that the conflict is an illegal war.

01:14:18.420 I know about that, but based on my understanding, and I've dug into this a little bit and I've

01:14:25.680 looked at, you know, I've researched a little bit. My understanding is that no court is going to

01:14:30.080 touch this. No court is prepared to touch the War Powers Act. So let's see what happens. But

01:14:39.520 even if they're going to do this through the judicial process, that's something that takes

01:14:47.000 years. So it's not like a judge is going to make a determination tomorrow because, you know,

01:14:52.900 it has, you know, it has to go to the court and then, you know, there's going to be,

01:14:56.980 you know, delays and, you know, whatever. And then whatever decision or the outcome is,

01:15:02.720 if there's a decision or outcome, then that's going to be appealed and then that's going to

01:15:07.680 take more time. So what the Dems are doing, the Dems already know that this is going to

01:15:14.920 be a very like long and drawn out process. They're doing it more for the PR aspect of it

01:15:22.020 than for the practicality of it, right?

01:15:24.740 Because like from a practical perspective,

01:15:29.220 I have a feeling the conflict is going to be over

01:15:32.020 well before the court makes a decision.

01:15:34.680 And then whatever decision the court makes,

01:15:36.940 that's going to be appealed regardless.

01:15:39.900 So, oh wait, is this something

01:15:42.240 that would go straight to the Supreme Court?

01:15:44.880 Is that what you're saying?

01:15:49.760 It would go straight to the Supreme Court?

01:15:52.020 Well, if that's the case, then I don't think the Supreme Court is going to even, like, touch it, right? Because the Supreme Court, they have refused to comment on this since it was introduced.

01:16:07.460 So, I honestly don't see the courts being able to stop this because that would be a breach.

01:16:16.960 Like, there's division of powers for a reason.

01:16:21.340 There's division of powers for a reason.

01:16:23.900 And, you know, there is a very strong argument to be made that that particular act is unconstitutional.

01:16:33.460 And it's just, it's there to basically be a thorn.

01:16:37.460 the side of you know whatever president and whatever party is in power at that time so i

01:16:43.540 honestly i don't see the court being able to prevent president trump from doing what he wants

01:16:50.420 to do um because ultimately he is the commander-in-chief right and the commander-in-chief

01:16:56.580 um makes a final call that's how i see this playing out um mark so mark levin actually

01:17:05.380 spoke about this. And I shared that. President Trump even posted it on his Truth Social. Do

01:17:12.700 you remember that post by Mark Levin where he literally spoke about this? Let me pull it up

01:17:19.020 for you guys. Because Mark Levin, he can explain it much better than me. I'm just kind of going

01:17:23.140 off of memory from what Mark Levin has said. So give me a moment. Let me pull it. Here we go.

01:17:31.040 So, this is it.

01:17:38.280 So, this is what Mark Levin posted.

01:17:47.100 Come on, what is this?

01:17:50.120 There we go.

01:17:52.620 How does this work?

01:17:55.480 Come on.

01:18:01.040 why is this not working okay here we go so oh my gosh this is so annoying

01:18:07.880 what is happening okay guys sorry like this is just

01:18:13.920 i want to like zoom in and it's giving me like issues

01:18:18.360 wow it's not even letting me zoom in okay let me do this instead

01:18:25.640 open image in new tab

01:18:29.700 Okay, here we go. Now it's working. So this is what Mark Levin wrote about the War Powers Act. And President Trump shared this. So I know I've shared this before, but let me share it again, because it provides a bit more context into what I'm talking about. And, you know, Mark Levin knows this stuff way more than me.

01:18:50.400 so um mark levin wrote the truth about the war powers uh the truth about war powers declaring

01:18:58.560 war making war the constitution and the war powers act fact no president of either party

01:19:06.320 has accepted the constitutionality of the 1973 war powers act every president has viewed it

01:19:13.360 as a violation of separation of powers the president's article 2 plenary power to run

01:19:19.840 foreign policy and his authority as the commander-in-chief. Fact, the Supreme Court has

01:19:27.700 never ruled on the act's constitutionality and likely never will. Indeed, Congress itself is

01:19:35.480 split on the issue, with Democrats supporting Democrat presidents and Republicans supporting

01:19:41.440 Republican presidents. The War Powers Act is nothing but a political tool used by members

01:19:47.460 of Congress typically against a president of the opposite party, and their arguments mostly switch

01:19:53.880 from one side to the other depending on who is president. Fact, the first draft of the Constitution

01:20:00.940 provided that Congress would have the power to make war. The delegates at the Constitutional

01:20:08.760 Convention rejected that language and changed it to declare war, intentionally watering it down

01:20:15.280 because they did not believe a body with numerous members was institutionally capable of making such

01:20:22.080 decisions. Fact. To declare war does not result in making war. Example, if Congress were to declare

01:20:30.740 war and a president refused to accept such a declaration, Congress cannot force the commander

01:20:36.960 in chief to execute such a war. Congress declaring war, which it has done a mere 11 times, mostly

01:20:44.580 during world war ii or as ilhan omar would say world war 11 since the nation's founding is

01:20:51.620 essentially the highest means by which it can proclaim its support for war it is not a condition

01:20:57.300 precedent to making war it has never and never has been fact the only power congress has to prevent

01:21:06.100 a military operation is the power of the purse. That said, a president who, as commander-in-chief,

01:21:16.560 has authorized military action, will not sign such a bill for it, is intended to prevent what he has

01:21:25.180 already commanded. Therefore, Congress would need a two-thirds majority of both houses to override

01:21:33.860 his veto. In other words, a president has broad power to take military action.

01:21:40.880 Fact. Other than the vice president, the president is the only federal official elected by the

01:21:48.580 entirety of the people. In addition to the institutional impossibility of war powers

01:21:55.640 and decisions in the hands of a multi-member body like Congress, the president is the only

01:22:02.400 official who was elected to, among other things, serve as commander in chief. So I hope that gives

01:22:11.300 you a little bit more context and an understanding into how and why I think the War Powers Act,

01:22:20.100 like nothing's going to happen. I have a feeling that that's not going to stop it. So

01:22:24.560 whatever the Dems are doing, it's pretty much all for show. But again, like you can find that

01:22:31.320 post on president trump's truth social um all right let's continue

01:22:42.200 very good let me ask too since the conflict has begun uh how many drones and missiles has iran

01:22:48.520 launched and how many of those have targeted civilian sites and can you give us some examples

01:22:54.920 of the civilian targets that have been struck by those drones and missiles yeah congressman i think

01:22:59.480 uh the specific number of drones and missiles are best addressed in a classified forum which follows

01:23:04.600 this i'll talk about there but what i can say here is iran can you give us orders of magnitude

01:23:10.040 hundreds thousands thousands okay what i can say here is iran deliberately targeted civilians in

01:23:15.640 the middle east at least a thousand times we've seen many of this play out on tv restaurants in

01:23:20.840 bahrain restaurants uh in neighborhoods in uae the same thing in kuwait and saudi arabia we saw before

01:23:27.560 our very eyes on TV. You saw it yourself. Cluster munitions going off over Tel Aviv targeting

01:23:35.300 civilians. It was crystal clear. How many civilians do you estimate have been killed or

01:23:40.480 casualties, we'll call them in general, which includes killed and injured by these attacks

01:23:45.660 since combat operations have begun? At least 300 killed and injured, sir. Okay, very good.

01:23:52.400 Do you believe that the regime's attacks on civilian targets are indiscriminate? Are they

01:23:57.040 focused? Are they purposeful? Do you see a commonality in the things that they're doing

01:24:02.840 in defining these targets and going after them? The thousand attacks were deliberate.

01:24:09.880 Was there any rhyme or reason that you saw behind what Iran was doing and who they were 0.83

01:24:16.560 targeting? Was there any purpose behind that or was it just indiscriminate? I think you saw a terror

01:24:22.040 regime executing terror-like attacks, living up to their billing more than 1,000 times.

01:24:28.060 The only rhyme or reason and consistency was against innocent civilians.

01:24:31.540 Gotcha.

01:24:34.820 Let me ask this. 0.55

01:24:36.020 You bring up innocent civilians, and that I think is a critical point here.

01:24:40.000 The regime kind of talks both ways, talks about wanting to settle things and wanting

01:24:46.360 to bring their country back to a stable state.

01:24:50.400 yet with them indiscriminately targeting innocent human lives, the regime seems not to have any

01:24:56.840 regard for innocent civilians and is wanting to continue its theocracy there. Give me your

01:25:02.680 perspective about where you think the regime has been when all this began back in December and

01:25:08.180 where it is today. Has that place in their mindset changed based on this, or are they still

01:25:13.900 on the path of indiscriminately targeting civilians? They remain on the same path,

01:25:18.320 uh congressman we saw them kill tens of thousands of their own people and since the ceasefire we've

01:25:23.640 seen them hang dozens of people just yesterday you saw the chief of police proudly announced

01:25:29.480 that they arrested 6 500 iranians for no reason hey guys that's really important so um the fact

01:25:37.180 that admiral brad cooper knows about this and is sharing this information um that lets me know

01:25:47.420 that their intel is obviously i mean no one's ever questioning american military intel but the fact

01:25:54.540 that they're speaking about this right like um this shows that they know what's going on and if

01:26:02.680 admiral brad cooper knows all of this of course president trump knows all of this as well so um

01:26:09.140 they're obviously monitoring uh islamic regime state tv and you know they probably have people

01:26:14.520 on the ground or whatever the case might be. And yeah, it's true. A couple of days ago, 0.99

01:26:20.200 the Islamic regime announced that they've just mass arrested 6,500 people and the mass arrests

01:26:28.600 continue because the Islamic regime right now, it's in a death spiral. It's going scorched earth. 0.96

01:26:35.000 It's slowly collapsing. And right now what they're doing is they're trying to

01:26:40.280 to take down as many Iranians with them as they can until they just collapse.

01:26:48.540 But yeah, I mean, guys, this is the reality of living in a totalitarian dictatorship, right? 0.84

01:26:56.760 I mean, for us Iranians, right, like nothing surprises us because we have experienced every

01:27:06.440 every horror that you can think of. We've experienced it. We've witnessed it. We've

01:27:12.320 seen it. We've lived through it. Right. But but for many of you who have been blessed to

01:27:20.180 live in a free and democratic society, I mean, just just imagine if like just imagine the news

01:27:29.280 headline in the United States, let's say like you wake up and all of a sudden the headline is,

01:27:33.700 you know, United States government mass arrests 6,500 people for no reason. Right? Like,

01:27:42.000 it's mind boggling. It's mind boggling. And yet that's the daily, that's the daily reality

01:27:47.880 in occupied Iran. And the things that they do are so cruel, and so inhumane, that for many people,

01:27:57.360 it's hard to even process that something like that is possible. And I think that's one of

01:28:03.660 the reasons why many people just sort of tune out because what they do is so incomprehensible,

01:28:10.560 it's so difficult to understand or to even visualize that people are like, no, this must

01:28:17.960 be fake. There's no way. Like, this is too crazy, right? Because they've never lived through it.

01:28:24.120 They've never experienced it, right? But this has been the reality of Iranians for the last 47 years. 1.00

01:28:31.120 uh congressman we saw them kill tens of thousands of their own people and since the ceasefire 1.00

01:28:37.820 we've seen them hang dozens of people yeah just yesterday you saw the chief of police

01:28:43.440 proudly announced that they arrested 6 500 iranians for no reason

01:28:47.360 so none of this has changed within the regime they're still trying to suppress their own people

01:28:53.560 still trying to have that iron fist on their on their population there to keep them under control

01:28:59.620 regardless of what happens elsewhere.

01:29:01.740 I completely agree.

01:29:02.820 Very good.

01:29:04.240 With that, I'd yield back.

01:29:05.960 And now we'll go to Mr. Norcross.

01:29:08.040 Thank you, Chairman.

01:29:08.960 I'd like to thank the witnesses for coming here today.

01:29:12.420 Much discussion about the most relevant issue here.

01:29:16.480 That's the war in Iran and the reason why we're there

01:29:19.960 or the reason listed.

01:29:21.600 But I think we all can agree that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

01:29:25.620 That is, almost at every beginning of a statement, the first thing we talk about.

01:29:32.280 And certainly, we understand that.

01:29:34.760 So, Admiral Cooper, in your testimony, pages six and seven, you outline the assets that CETCOM has destroyed in Iran.

01:29:43.160 Your assessments that we have destroyed approximately 85% of the ballistic missiles, drones, and naval industrial base.

01:29:51.320 preventing their ability to execute operations,

01:29:55.260 stunt their ability to reconstitute their force.

01:29:58.460 Despite that assessment of degraded capabilities,

01:30:03.740 what wasn't happening prior to this war is now happening,

01:30:09.560 and that's the Strait of Hormuz being closed.

01:30:12.020 Can you give us the difference between that assessment,

01:30:17.420 which you laid out to us, and how the straits are now closed.

01:30:24.000 Congressman, thank you very much for that.

01:30:25.500 I think these are two separate matters.

01:30:27.420 There is a linkage that I'd like to discuss in a closed forum for sure.

01:30:31.780 With respect to their conventional capability,

01:30:34.420 if I zoom out directly to the ranking member's point,

01:30:38.620 from a military strategy perspective, 0.99

01:30:40.960 we absolutely derailed decades of what Iran was trying to achieve 0.99

01:30:45.200 with their ballistic missiles their nuclear program and the proxies that's one piece of it 0.67

01:30:50.640 i think uh equally important is their ability to uh to build and reconstitute that's been eliminated

01:30:58.400 this will not so that part's been eliminated on the street of hormuz itself sir to your question

01:31:05.200 i think there's several important factors here the blockade itself uh which we are controlling

01:31:10.880 nothing is going in or going out on the strait there are a lot of comp there's it's a complex

01:31:15.200 environment the chairman the joint chief characterized it this way iran's capability

01:31:19.600 is significantly degraded so their voice is very loud so so why is it closed uh as we sit here today

01:31:26.960 there's there are low volumes of ships that are going in and out factors uh we had two u.s flag

01:31:32.880 ships go out just last week uh if you look at your gas prices nobody's thinking that straight

01:31:38.640 of hormuz is open that is the real measure that we go with but let me go on excuse me in the wake of

01:31:46.640 operation midnight hammer congress house armed services committee most importantly american

01:31:53.120 people were assured that iran's nuclear capabilities and their mouth were completely

01:32:00.640 destroyed the president's own words completely and totally obliterated this assessment

01:32:08.480 was why that operation was done if it is completely destroyed how is it that the issue

01:32:17.040 of a nuclear weapon is still the number one focus and we're not addressing that

01:32:24.960 what do you mean it's not being addressed the president trump is addressing the nuclear

01:32:29.600 situation every single day every single day president trump is saying we cannot allow the 0.90

01:32:34.480 islamic regime to have a nuclear weapon meanwhile the islamic regime is going out and going 1.00

01:32:40.720 we want nuclear weapons like like are you stupid or are you dumb like i don't i don't understand 1.00

01:32:47.600 i don't understand this question like listen to the i don't even look that was just a bunch of 1.00

01:32:53.040 like word salad like he's just like putting out whatever that comes into his head like like 1.00

01:32:59.600 Like, what an idiot. 1.00

01:33:00.980 Like, what is this? 1.00

01:33:01.560 We're completely destroyed.

01:33:03.060 The president's own words, completely and totally obliterated.

01:33:07.860 This assessment was why that operation was done.

01:33:13.380 If it is completely destroyed, how is it that the issue of a nuclear weapon is still the number one focus?

01:33:23.040 And we're not addressing that. 0.93

01:33:24.280 The issue is that everyone focused because the Islamic regime has not agreed to not stop trying to achieve a nuclear weapon. 1.00

01:33:33.480 Like, are you dumb? 0.97

01:33:35.580 The Islamic regime is saying that we, it is our Allah given right to build a nuclear weapon and to boom boom everyone. 1.00

01:33:45.600 Like, that's what the Islamic regime is literally saying.

01:33:47.660 So, like, how is it President Trump's fault that he's dealing with a bunch of raving lunatics who, even though they've been militarily defeated, they're still going out? 0.87

01:34:02.320 And they're like, hello, Akbar, we're victorious. 0.95

01:34:04.800 We're going to build a nuclear weapon.

01:34:07.000 How is that President Trump's fault? 1.00

01:34:09.060 Like, these people are lunatics. 1.00

01:34:11.240 They're not rational actors. 1.00

01:34:13.260 Any rational, normal actor would have already acknowledged defeat. 1.00

01:34:19.080 But the Islamic regime is like a Shia 7th century cult of death. 1.00

01:34:28.540 Congressman, I think anything regarding the Iranian nuclear program is best placed in a classified environment. 0.99

01:34:33.560 Well, these are words that the president has used.

01:34:36.540 So if it has been destroyed, why are we in this war?

01:34:41.400 Because destroyed.

01:34:42.000 Because it's not about just being destroyed. 0.99

01:34:46.680 It's about making sure that the Islamic regime does not rebuild. 1.00

01:34:51.840 You idiot. 1.00

01:34:52.740 It's about making sure that the Islamic regime does not rebuild the nuclear facilities, 1.00

01:34:58.720 does not try to acquire nuclear weapons. 0.78

01:35:03.500 It's not just about destroying what was already there.

01:35:06.340 It's about preventing future nuclear ambitions. 0.93

01:35:12.000 And the Islamic regime has pretty much said that they're never going to stop trying to acquire a nuclear bomb. 0.96

01:35:22.380 Destroyed means it's not coming back. 0.95

01:35:25.140 You're actually a publication.

01:35:26.640 No, it is coming back.

01:35:27.620 If it has been destroyed, why are we in this war?

01:35:31.880 Because destroyed means it's not coming back. 1.00

01:35:35.120 No, that's not what it means, you idiot. 1.00

01:35:37.000 Destroyed just means it's destroyed right now. 1.00

01:35:40.060 that doesn't mean it's not coming back like wow so so so like based on your logic um i don't know

01:35:49.460 if like there's a pothole if there's a pothole in a road then the road is destroyed because

01:35:55.240 there's a pothole and the road is destroyed and it's never coming back like that's basically 0.97

01:36:01.240 his logic here like what a stupid question you're actually publications talk about the term 0.96

01:36:08.340 destroyed that it cannot be reused it is completely useless so if it has been destroyed 0.99

01:36:15.120 why is a nuclear weapon the number one issue again sir i think anything regarding iranian

01:36:20.880 nuclear weapons capability is best discussed in a classified form and i'm happy to talk about it

01:36:25.340 so i have to assume by that statement that either a it has not been completely destroyed

01:36:33.460 and that's why we have to go back in the classified and i get that because if it was

01:36:39.780 we wouldn't be at war without elio back

01:36:42.380 the gentleman yields back the gentleman from georgia mr scott is now recognized

01:36:48.400 thank you mr chairman and i'm going to read this just for the benefit of the american

01:36:52.500 citizens and others that are watching this is from uh dan zimmerman's testimony uh the center

01:36:59.600 islamic terrorism has shifted from the middle east to africa yeah there's another statement

01:37:05.340 in here that says islamic terrorists in africa are both capable and intent of striking the u.s

01:37:10.460 homeland is that correct mr zemmerman correct um general anderson uh your statement terrorism

01:37:19.800 remains the most acute threat in africa u.s africom's area of responsibility has become

01:37:23.860 the center of gravity for global jihadism with west africa accounting for over 51 percent of

01:37:28.580 global terror-related deaths in 2024, ISIS, ISIS, West Africa, JNIM, Al-Qaeda.

01:37:37.080 Pretty powerful paragraph written there that I hope some people will take part to.

01:37:47.960 What can AFRICOM, as you know, I spent a fair amount of time on the continent

01:37:52.140 between this committee and another one, not do today that it could do five years ago?

01:37:57.120 and what is being done to correct that?

01:38:03.140 Congressman, I think the best example I can give is that five years ago

01:38:06.920 when I was commander of Special Operations Command Africa,

01:38:09.400 we rescued American hostage Philip Watt in 96 hours,

01:38:12.900 largely because we had access, placement, and relationships.

01:38:16.800 Today, Kevin Rideout is on day 209 of his captivity

01:38:20.340 because we do no longer have the same level of relationships

01:38:25.900 and access that we had before.

01:38:28.240 We are working to rebuild that access

01:38:30.700 and engage with those folks in those different countries

01:38:33.660 to address the common threat.

01:38:35.160 So we lost Air Base 101 and 201.

01:38:38.480 That did tremendous damage to our ISR cover.

01:38:42.520 I went to Niger.

01:38:43.880 I spoke with, I know, Minister Tumba and several others.

01:38:48.020 And what was relayed to me is that they didn't appreciate

01:38:51.380 the lecture that they got from Secretary Fay

01:38:55.360 and Dr. Wallander at that time, and that is why we were asked to leave Niger is that because we

01:39:06.040 did not respect the sovereignty of that country under the previous administration. Is that your

01:39:11.380 understanding? Congressman, I can't speak to that exact meeting. I can address that sovereignty is

01:39:19.160 a very important aspect to all African countries. It was made very clear to me that when the United

01:39:26.480 States was a guest in a country that we did not need to think that we could come into a conference

01:39:34.340 room in a leadership circle and lecture them about what we would and would not do in their

01:39:41.300 country. And I'm concerned about the loss of the relationships that occurred because of the

01:39:49.120 arrogance and the lecturing that occurred many years ago. And I do think Secretary Rubio is

01:39:55.380 trying to regain that credibility with those countries. I was in Burkina Faso not too long

01:40:00.580 ago. The leadership in that country was very pointed. They want trade, not aid, which I think

01:40:07.580 is where the administration is headed and that they had just expelled the French and they were

01:40:12.860 not going to trade one master for another master is literally word for word what the way it was

01:40:20.200 put to me from the leadership of Burkina Faso. Is that consistent with what you hear? They are

01:40:26.020 not going to trade one master for another? Congressman, that is consistent with what I

01:40:30.880 hear across the region. So with the loss of access in Niger and the growing Russian influence

01:40:36.960 in the Sahel. What are the most urgent basing and overflight gaps, and what authorities or

01:40:42.120 resources do you need to restore operational reach? Congressman, the biggest concern I have

01:40:48.520 is the growing black hole of intelligence in the Sahel. With the withdrawal of the French and much

01:40:53.060 of the European partners, as you mentioned, our withdrawal from Niger, it is very difficult for

01:40:57.880 us to provide adequate INW. So what we are looking at is investments in non-traditional ISR

01:41:03.100 capabilities as well as traditional intelligence surveillance in order to layer these and that

01:41:08.860 includes open source as well as exquisite and so building that network in order to illuminate

01:41:14.700 what's happening in the sahel is our top priority general anderson in my last three seconds i want

01:41:18.860 to read one other sentence from your uh statement the prc sees africa guys for people who are asking

01:41:26.460 about Africa. Africa is important because a lot of the instability and terrorism in Africa

01:41:35.940 is because of Islamic terrorism and jihad. So a lot of these like Islamic terrorist groups that 0.90

01:41:46.560 exist in the Middle East, they also exist in Africa. So yeah, like the vast majority of

01:41:55.700 of instability in africa today is literally because of jihad and islamic terrorism so africa

01:42:02.340 is 100 um connected to the middle east and to islamic terrorism and you know i mean just as 0.92

01:42:11.300 as an example um look at somalia right somalia is like a failed state and it's like a muslim

01:42:19.220 country that's controlled by islamic terrorists and look at what's happening in uh in michigan 0.91

01:42:25.540 right the you know mass importation of of the somali you know people and look what that's done 1.00

01:42:33.300 to the united states so yeah you guys should be concerned about africa 100 because islamic

01:42:39.700 terrorism um is also coming into the united states through africa um and if you guys recall

01:42:47.620 i mean well uh let me find the video because uh this is a video that um we played earlier today 0.99

01:42:55.780 where a whole bunch of like african you know muslim terrorist prostitutes are in are in 0.97

01:43:04.660 occupied iran and uh sorry minnesota not michigan you're right well there's dearborn and then there's 0.99

01:43:11.060 minnesota as well i guess um but you know there's a bunch of like like african muslim jihadi 0.96

01:43:17.620 prostitutes uh who are in um in occupied iran right now right let me uh let me let me let me 0.99

01:43:26.020 pull this up so look at this guys look at this look at all these african prostitutes right these 0.99

01:43:34.020 muslim prostitutes that the that the islamic regime imported into iran and they're bragging 0.99

01:43:41.220 about the fact that uh you know they're there to replace the iranian population yeah yeah right so 0.99

01:43:49.220 this is why you guys need to be concerned about africa because africa 0.91

01:43:52.820 is currently um one of the biggest places where like jihad is happening 0.97

01:44:04.020 right so then this this this you know african jihadi muslim prostitute she says to the other 0.99

01:44:18.060 african jihadi muslim prostitute behind her like what's your message to the iranian people 0.99

01:44:24.200 and then this jihadi prostitute is like i'm not a traitor uh you're not even iranian you're not 1.00

01:44:30.800 even Iranian. So why, why are you in occupied Iran supporting the Islamic regime? You're not 0.97

01:44:37.640 even Iranian. You're not even Iranian. Right. But, but guys, this is part of the whole Islamic 1.00

01:44:43.700 caliphate. Right. So, um, when, you know, people like Marco Rubio and president Trump and, you 0.97

01:44:50.480 know, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham and Mark Levin and others, when they talk about how the Islamic 0.87

01:44:56.680 regime's revolution is expansionary, this is what we're talking about because it's all about 0.97

01:45:04.200 jihad. It's all about expanding their Islamic caliphate. And yeah, so there are literally 0.96

01:45:12.460 non-Iranians in Africa who support the Islamic regime, who support the people that are murdering 1.00

01:45:19.920 me and my family and my people right these these these foreigners are there to replace the native 1.00

01:45:27.840 population of iranians it's really like it's messed up it's messed up so yeah absolutely 1.00

01:45:34.800 like people need to focus on africa because what's happening in africa is directly related 0.99

01:45:40.480 to the islamic regime look at her like like this this garbage prostitute is holding the flag of 0.99

01:45:53.760 the islamic regime like like this is the reality that this is the reality that we're living in 1.00

01:46:02.400 right now where a bunch of like you know muslim jihadi terrorists from africa are being imported 0.95

01:46:10.000 to iran and they're waving the flag of the islamic regime like guys this is what um islamo nazi 0.55

01:46:17.440 colonization looks like right guys these are the same people that are mass migrating to the united

01:46:25.760 states the only difference is in the united states you know you still have the republicans

01:46:32.320 to kind of fight them off right but but in in occupied iran they have free reign right in

01:46:39.120 occupy Iran. They've just taken over. Garbage people. And when I refer to them as the African

01:46:48.540 jihadi Muslims, I'm referring to them, I'm pissed off that they're jihadi Muslims, right? This isn't 1.00

01:46:53.900 about African people. Because the Nigerian Christians, for example, are being persecuted

01:46:59.980 by the Muslim jihadi Nigerian terrorists, right? 0.93

01:47:03.340 So it's the fact that the jihad is expanding in Africa. 0.96

01:47:11.980 And now you have all these Islamic terrorist groups in Africa 0.92

01:47:15.940 that are not only killing African people, 0.99

01:47:18.620 but they're being imported to Iran 0.99

01:47:20.200 and they're murdering Iranian people as well. 0.99

01:47:22.360 And they're slowly replacing our population. 1.00

01:47:29.980 like she literally says long live the islamic islamic republic garbage person 1.00

01:47:41.340 we're gonna deport every single one 1.00

01:47:59.980 like they're all holding the garbage flag of the islamic regime 1.00

01:48:13.900 right so so to people who are asking why why is uh you know why are people focusing on africa 0.97

01:48:21.500 that's why that's why we need to focus on africa because africa

01:48:26.060 uh is being colonized by the islamic regime and um modern day jihad is pretty much um

01:48:37.100 modern day jihad is pretty much happening in in africa right now um

01:48:47.180 all right so let's continue oh let me go to a few of the super chats and then we'll continue

01:48:52.700 you kuda says co not be us does not mean revolt sorry i i don't know what you're saying there i

01:49:03.380 apologize um zaykada says you're amazing keep up the good work um yeah i don't really appreciate

01:49:14.700 appearances uh like comments my appearance but thanks i guess but that's my appearance is

01:49:19.520 completely irrelevant to what I'm doing, which is I'm focusing on geopolitics. So, but, you know,

01:49:25.060 thanks, I guess. Wiley Coyote says, Goldie, look up George Washington's third vision of America.

01:49:32.260 He had three. The first two have occurred. The dark cloud comes from Africa and Europe. Wow.

01:49:41.120 Okay. Um, I'll, I'll look into that. Let me, let me write that down. Um, and make a note of that.

01:49:55.360 George Washington's third vision of America.

01:50:04.720 All right. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. I will definitely look into that. And then

01:50:17.960 Charles Bradford, gifted a membership. Thank you. Very kind of you. I appreciate that.

01:50:23.500 Okay. Let's continue.

01:50:25.400 It's their second continent and critical to their economic and military future.

01:50:29.740 We as Americans need the relationships with the continent of Africa.

01:50:35.380 The critical minerals, as well as the ability to fight terrorism, is contingent upon our relationships over there.

01:50:43.000 I have tremendous faith in you, General Anderson, and I look forward to working with you to restore that access.

01:50:47.800 I yield.

01:50:48.920 Chair, now I recognize a gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. Moulton.

01:50:53.360 Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

01:50:54.640 emerald cooper you keep using the term significantly degraded

01:51:03.920 last summer we were told that iran's nuclear weapons program was obliterated

01:51:10.540 can you clarify the distinction between obliterated and significantly degraded

01:51:15.920 congressman again i think appropriate uh to talk about anything regarding the iranian

01:51:22.400 nuclear program no no i'm not asking you to talk about the iran nuclear program i'm asking you to

01:51:25.580 talk about english language what's the difference between obliterated and what a rude person like

01:51:31.940 what is wrong with you you're asking him to talk about the english language like how condescending

01:51:37.760 is that wow like could you imagine speaking to like a four-star general that way oh my gosh

01:51:44.720 so rude significantly degraded are they the same

01:51:49.860 congressman anything regarding the nuclear program i'm not asking you to talk about the

01:51:55.860 nuclear program admiral i'm asking you to ask for a question that applies to a lot a lot of things

01:51:59.800 beyond the nuclear program you've also said that their ballistic missile program was significantly

01:52:03.760 degraded what does that mean the specific numbers are best uh as you know from your own president

01:52:09.960 trump's own national security strategy which he signed into wow like he's not even letting him

01:52:14.740 answer the question. He's just like interrupting. Wow. Like he literally just wants like his 10

01:52:20.360 second clip to help him get like reelected. Like what a loser guys. This is why like, 0.99

01:52:25.700 I just like, I'm like a political nerd, but at the same time, like a lot of politicians, 1.00

01:52:31.900 they're literally garbage people. And I know that from firsthand experience, 0.99

01:52:35.440 cause I've had to deal with a lot of garbage people when I was a politician myself.

01:52:40.740 september five months ago used the exact same phrase significantly degraded

01:52:46.580 so if this was true back then five months ago then why did we start this war

01:52:51.620 was he lying to us then what congressman from a military perspective anything regarding

01:53:00.740 admiral are you familiar with uh general you familiar with general westmoreland

01:53:04.020 i'm very familiar congressman he's well known for talking about body counts

01:53:07.780 now when i think about you in this war i always think about how you always got up there and would

01:53:13.220 say everything's going according to plan so let me just ask admiral

01:53:16.720 where was closing the strait in the plan i'm happy to discuss the specific operational aspects

01:53:25.580 did you just not anticipate that do you not think that iran could do that

01:53:29.460 or was that part of the plan here congressman uh for 250 years you're not even letting him

01:53:35.900 answer the question let him answer the question under every previous president the Strait of Hormuz

01:53:40.780 has been open so why is it closed under your watch congressman i've traveled through the

01:53:45.580 the Strait of Hormuz probably a hundred times i'm intimately familiar with it as a combatant

01:53:50.060 commander why is it close if you're so familiar with it if you're not i may ask that Iran answer

01:53:54.300 the question if i may ask with respect with kind with all due respect my responsibility as a combatant

01:54:00.060 commander is to lay out all the options present those to the secretary and the president they

01:54:04.620 They make policy level decisions.

01:54:06.520 So you presented the operational, the operational aspect.

01:54:09.040 So Admiral, you presented the, you presented the reality that Iran might close the strait

01:54:13.400 to the president and the secretary of defense.

01:54:16.580 Anything that I discuss with respect to.

01:54:20.000 Okay, well, let's go back to the plan where he's not even let him answer the question. 0.98

01:54:24.280 Like, why won't you even let him answer your, your garbage questions? 0.91

01:54:29.140 Like, as soon as Admiral Cooper opens his mouth to say something, the guy just interrupts and goes on, like, another, like, weird rant. 0.99

01:54:38.540 Oh, my gosh.

01:54:39.800 Like, I'm literally getting chunky yogurt vibes here.

01:54:42.420 I'm literally getting chunky yogurt vibes right now.

01:54:45.440 I was begging China for help opening the straight part of the plan. 0.71

01:54:51.220 Wait, what?

01:54:52.540 To the president and the secretary of defense.

01:54:56.020 Anything that I discuss with respect to...

01:54:59.420 Okay, well, let's go back to the plan.

01:55:00.700 Where was begging China for help opening the strait part of the plan?

01:55:04.940 When did President Trump beg China?

01:55:08.380 So from a military perspective.

01:55:09.980 There are multiple reports now public that Iran has already reconstituted many of its bombed out missile sites.

01:55:16.680 Was that part of the plan too?

01:55:18.080 Those reports are inaccurate.

01:55:19.900 Okay.

01:55:20.960 I will actually give you credit for regime change.

01:55:23.840 I know that was part of the plan.

01:55:25.320 You've replaced an 86-year-old in failing health

01:55:27.940 with a fatwa against producing nuclear weapons

01:55:30.740 with a more foreign-minded guy. 1.00

01:55:33.220 Wow, what an idiot. 1.00

01:55:34.620 Oh my gosh, does this guy actually think 1.00

01:55:37.660 that the fatwa against building nuclear weapons was a thing? 1.00

01:55:43.040 Are you stupid? 1.00

01:55:47.120 Really? 1.00

01:55:48.160 Oh my gosh.

01:55:49.300 So this guy legitimately believes

01:55:52.620 that because Khamenei said,

01:55:54.480 oh, we're not going to build nuclear weapons, that it wasn't going to happen? Like, this guy's

01:56:00.660 literally retarded. He's retarded. What? Oh, you think because the Supreme Dictator said we're not 1.00

01:56:07.860 going to build nuclear weapons and all of a sudden he's trustworthy? You're assuming that the Supreme

01:56:13.100 Dictator is more trustworthy than the President of the United States? Oh my gosh, this guy's

01:56:20.460 literally basing his entire line of questioning on a freaking fatwa as if the fatwa means something

01:56:30.760 wow like okay buddy since since you want to appear so knowledgeable and you're throwing 0.99

01:56:40.620 out terms like fatwa like maybe you should learn this word takia because islamic terrorists lie 0.85

01:56:49.680 So this fatwa that you're relying upon is actually taqiyah. 1.00

01:56:54.700 It means it's a lie. 0.93

01:56:56.220 It's fake. 1.00

01:56:57.360 It's part of the deception that the Islamic terrorists use in order to advance their jihad against the rest of the world. 1.00

01:57:05.540 You idiot. 1.00

01:57:07.160 Wow. 1.00

01:57:08.800 Wow. 0.93

01:57:09.560 He's literally relying on this fatwa. 0.92

01:57:12.640 Oh, my gosh. 0.93

01:57:14.580 Wow. 1.00

01:57:15.220 What an idiot. 1.00

01:57:16.460 Those reports are inaccurate. 1.00

01:57:18.140 Okay.

01:57:19.240 I will actually give you credit for regime change.

01:57:22.120 I know that was part of the plan.

01:57:24.000 You've replaced an 86-year-old in failing health with a fatwa against producing nuclear weapons

01:57:29.040 with a more hardline guy in his 50s who, in case he wasn't hardline enough,

01:57:33.540 you killed his immediate family.

01:57:35.420 Whoa! Oh, okay. 0.98

01:57:36.920 So, oh, so Buddy, Buddy thinks that Mujtaba Khamenei, 0.97

01:57:42.920 the gay Ayatollah cardboard supreme dictator with no sign of life. We don't know if the guy's alive 0.98

01:57:52.880 or dead. We don't know if he's in a coma or disfigured or injured or whatever. We literally

01:57:58.780 have not seen or heard of him at all, at all, right? Now apparently this guy is more hardline

01:58:07.700 and more, like, severe or something. 1.00

01:58:12.460 We don't even know if he's alive, you idiot. 1.00

01:58:14.820 The guy's probably in a coma. 1.00

01:58:17.240 For all we know, he's in a vegetative, brain-dead state.

01:58:21.900 Wow, like, what reality are you living in?

01:58:25.700 What reality are you living in?

01:58:28.220 There's not even proof of life.

01:58:30.580 The guy, guys, Mojtava didn't even show up to his own swearing-in ceremony.

01:58:35.740 guys he he did not even show up to his own swearing in ceremony because he's

01:58:48.260 probably in a coma or dead like how how is that showing more power like how is that showing

01:58:57.060 victory. Oh, my gosh. Look at this. You can't make this up. You cannot make this up. Look

01:59:08.120 at this, guys. This is... Where is it? Where the heck is it? All right. Like, this is...

01:59:18.120 Guys, for those of you who might not have seen this, this is Mochtabal Khamenei's swearing

01:59:27.000 ceremony. Okay, so this is on March 9, 2026. This is when, this is the ceremony where he was, you

01:59:34.940 know, sworn in as the new supreme dictator of the Islamic regime. Look at this. So that's his,

01:59:43.520 you know, dead terrorist garbage dad. And look, oh look, there's a picture frame of him. So 0.99

01:59:53.220 the supreme dictator did not even attend his own swearing in ceremony they brought in a picture of

02:00:00.560 him literally a framed

02:00:02.720 how can you look how can you look at this and think in any way shape or form that the islamic

02:00:22.520 regime is better off or stronger or more hardline or whatever. The guy didn't even show up to his 0.88

02:00:30.160 own swearing in ceremony. They brought a photo of him. In fact, what's really messed up is that

02:00:37.300 this, this looks like he's dead because this sort of photo and this sort of like portrait and frame 0.90

02:00:44.880 is is what you use at a funeral so if anything it looks like both the dad the garbage terrorist 0.98

02:00:53.320 dad is dead and then the the gay ayatollah himself he's also dead like how is this in 0.99

02:01:00.480 any way shape or form projecting an image of 0.98

02:01:03.300 you know everyone's like

02:01:09.580 you know, whatever. Like, it's just, the whole thing is insane. Like, these people are literally

02:01:16.440 insane. It's a demonic jihadi death cult, right? Like, these are not rational, normal actors. 1.00

02:01:26.700 Like, what is it?

02:01:33.540 And then you know what? Like, I bet you right here, I bet you this, you know, this Durka

02:01:38.760 is saying to like the other Durka

02:01:40.900 he's probably like

02:01:42.500 he's like where's Mojtaba

02:01:44.100 where's where's Mojtaba where is he

02:01:46.460 and then the other guy's like just wing it

02:01:49.060 just wing it we have a photo of him

02:01:50.880 that's good enough just wing it

02:01:52.400 right like look at this

02:01:54.660 the guy's just like where the heck is Mojtaba

02:01:56.960 and everyone's like

02:02:02.480 and then here the guy's basically saying like in the presence of like allah and i don't know 0.94

02:02:19.840 whatever other garbage nonsense is sworn in as the as the new supreme dictator of these

02:02:32.480 like look at this it's not even him it's it's a it's a it's a photo of him 0.97

02:02:39.580 he didn't even show up to his own swearing-in ceremony and then everyone's like 1.00

02:02:46.420 hello akbar hello akbar we're victorious we're winning and then that idiotic democrat dude is 1.00

02:02:52.980 like oh look the the regime is is more hardline and america is losing and the islamic regime is 1.00

02:03:00.160 Like, in what reality do the Democrats live in? Like, how can any normal, rational, sane person look at these scenes and just, you know, come to the conclusion that the Islamic regime is winning? 0.96

02:03:16.260 like that's not even rationally possible that's not even possible like you would if the islamic 0.94

02:03:26.340 regime was in a position of power the supreme dictator himself would show up to his swearing 0.55

02:03:31.420 in ceremony and yet we have not even seen a sign of life right we haven't seen him in person we

02:03:39.540 haven't seen him on tv we haven't seen a pre-recorded message or video we haven't heard

02:03:45.420 his voice. We haven't even seen a photo of him. We haven't even seen a photo. Everything is AI

02:03:51.480 generated. Like, guys, I want you to imagine how insane this is. So imagine like, you know,

02:04:06.940 like the, you know, presidential swearing in ceremony, instead of the actual president coming

02:04:14.340 out, they bring out like a portrait of the president and someone just, you know, swears

02:04:21.480 in the president of the United States on his behalf. And then everyone's like, we're so

02:04:26.060 powerful. We're victorious. Like it's insane. It's wild. It's wild. And yet this like this

02:04:32.700 weird Democrat, this like retarded man is somehow like trying to make it seem as if as if the 0.99

02:04:40.600 islamic regime is more powerful than before because the the evil the evil old man was replaced 1.00

02:04:47.820 with the younger hardliner son oh are you kidding me we don't even know if he's alive 0.99

02:04:53.820 like in what reality do these people guys these people are so like they're so um like just

02:05:06.160 blinded by their Trump derangement syndrome that they have literally lost all touch with reality.

02:05:16.260 Like they're not even on another planet or another galaxy. They're not even in another

02:05:23.360 universe. Like these people are in another dimension, right? Like we're talking like the

02:05:29.040 Democrats are literally in like another dimension. That's how far away they are from reality right

02:05:36.100 out like this this line of questioning is wild give you credit for regime change i know that

02:05:43.700 was part of the plan you've replaced an 86 year old in failing health with a fought against

02:05:48.980 producing nuclear weapons with a more hardline guy in his 50s who in case he wasn't hardline

02:05:54.420 enough you killed his immediate family was that part of the plan is that the regime change you

02:06:00.340 wanted cars when we were given very specific military objectives to degrade iran's power

02:06:05.620 projection capability that's exactly what we did okay so in the course of doing that you also

02:06:11.540 lifted the oil sanctions on iran giving them about 14 to 16 billion dollars no that never happened 0.97

02:06:18.260 you idiot the the sanctions were never lifted the sanctions were lifted on the oil that was already 0.98

02:06:26.420 in the persian gulf that was going out and the money didn't go to the islamic regime the money 0.99

02:06:33.620 is literally being held in trust on hold for the iranian people so that when iran is free 0.99

02:06:41.940 that money can go to the iranian people you idiot do not understand how this works like do not 0.99

02:06:48.580 understand like that that's so stupid exactly what we did okay so in the course of doing that 1.00

02:06:56.820 you also lifted the oil sanctions on iran giving them about 14 to 16 billion and by the way why 0.97

02:07:03.620 are you even asking admiral brad cooper about a decision that secretary uh u.s uh treasury

02:07:12.260 secretary scott besant made like this questions about the economy should be for scott besant 1.00

02:07:20.900 not admiral brad cooper like he has nothing to do with the economic side of things you idiot 1.00

02:07:27.380 like why are you asking a military guy about economic sanctions like he's just he's so stupid 1.00

02:07:34.740 dollars they can buy a lot of ballistic missiles for that was that part of the plan lifting oil 0.99

02:07:41.140 sanctions on them in the course of the conflict they kill 14 americans we lift oil sanctions on

02:07:45.960 them that's not what happened as you know sir the u.s military does not lift sanctions that's a

02:07:50.440 policy decision okay i'm just trying to figure out where it was part of the plan on march 5th

02:07:56.000 you know you talked about how you have you built the most integrated air missile defense or air

02:08:01.440 defense system in the middle east and yet well into the war you had to ask ukraine for help with

02:08:06.400 defenses against drones. That's not accurate. Okay. What about oil prices? Gas prices was

02:08:13.260 what, why are you, why are you asking Admiral Brad Cooper about economic policy and, and,

02:08:25.440 you know, global market prices? What does the military have to do with that? You idiot. Wow.

02:08:31.760 oh my gosh yeah like like yeah i see this comment here yeah brad cooper like admiral cooper looks

02:08:40.460 like he wants to punch him in the face i agree like like my gosh like the the look on on admiral 0.53

02:08:47.620 cooper's face is like i don't know how you got elected but you're everything that's wrong with 0.57

02:08:53.460 this country oil prices going up 56 part of the plan congressman as you know from a military

02:09:01.520 perspective we don't deal on oil and gas prices i defer to the appropriate authorities within the

02:09:05.760 government okay so so so since none of this seems to be part of the plan what's the plan now what

02:09:10.800 what's the why would he tell you the plan he's not going to tell you the plan because if he tells you

02:09:16.160 the plan the islamic regime will know the plan they're not going to give away their military

02:09:23.040 plans in advance. You idiot. That's not how this works. Wow. Oh my gosh. 1.00

02:09:33.380 Wow. Wow. Okay. Um, let me go to some of the comments and then we'll continue.

02:09:38.240 Uh, so Corey Radcliffe says, appreciate your hard work. Goldie, keep up the good work. Thank

02:09:44.040 you. Appreciate that. Tom for life says this guy is the final boss of the hearing. Oh my gosh,

02:09:49.940 guys. I don't even know if he's a, yeah, he could be the final boss, but we're literally only

02:09:54.800 an hour and 15 minutes in. Um, yeah, but he's, he could be the final boss. Like he's just,

02:10:01.560 oh my gosh, I think he's worse than the first one. Um, Bob Noggett says these types of questions

02:10:08.680 only exist to fabricate a narrative. Exactly. A hundred percent. Yeah. Um, I've, I've been in

02:10:14.440 their shoes before. Like I have participated in these sorts of things. You're absolutely right.

02:10:19.220 I mean, I always tried to ask good questions and then eventually I was told by my party to shut up

02:10:25.340 and not ask my questions. So then I just, you know, stopped caring and stopped asking questions.

02:10:32.920 Because apparently when you do too good of a job, they don't like that.

02:10:37.320 Anyways, Kuda says, I've seen some memorial wall of pictures they unveiled and they had the son's

02:10:46.340 picture on the wall as well. Yeah. Um, you're referring to this. So, um, let me pull this up

02:10:52.960 really quick. This is what you're referring to. So there was this year, it's like the weirdest

02:11:06.680 thing. It's the weirdest thing. So it's like, it's, it's like this memorial wall of like all

02:11:14.180 the all the terrorists that were boom boomed by the islamic uh sorry boom boomed by the united 0.70

02:11:19.940 states um and much taba khamenei who is supposedly alive is also on the memorial wall and it's it's

02:11:29.140 is very weird. So there's the current supreme dictator, Mojtaba. For some reason, he's on

02:11:46.780 the memorial wall. We have no idea why. Then everyone's just like, Allah Akbar, Allah

02:11:50.820 whatever right like just going full dirty and then there's there's awesome soleimani of course

02:12:01.420 which president trump who moved back in 2020 thank you president trump

02:12:05.120 yeah but but it's very bizarre that they unveiled this memorial wall uh and it's supposed to be all

02:12:15.700 like dead people and then you know the current supreme dictator is there as well like it's just

02:12:21.120 guys the whole like the entire thing is messed up there is nothing normal or rational or logical 1.00

02:12:27.980 about the islamic regime it's literally a seventh century islamic death cult uh and they all belong 1.00

02:12:34.280 in like the garbage like literally like this this ideology this cult has not um provided 1.00

02:12:43.880 anything positive. It has not contributed a single positive thing to humanity in the entire 0.98

02:12:52.020 existence of its ideology. This ideology, this cult, it's literally a cancer. It's a cancer 0.97

02:13:01.180 on human civilization. There is not a single positive thing that the ideology of the Islamic 1.00

02:13:09.280 regime has contributed to humanity. Not a single thing. 0.99

02:13:18.160 But yeah, there you go. That's what Kuda was referring to for those of you who have not

02:13:23.280 seen it. And then we have a comment from Nick saying, Viva Goldie, thank you for being a voice

02:13:31.080 for our people. Keep up the fight. Thank you so much.

02:13:34.480 okay let's continue

02:13:41.360 plan now to actually win this war because it feels like we're losing

02:13:46.760 we don't have a nuclear deal we don't have the straight open the president has called for

02:13:53.820 unconditionally it feels like you're losing no wow so so this guy is actually putting out these

02:14:04.500 sound bites thinking like he he actually like does he actually believe that the united states

02:14:12.380 is losing or is he just like just suffering from trump derangement syndrome like this is insane

02:14:18.080 this is insane right now well surrender is that part of the plan congressman we achieve all our

02:14:23.080 military objectives. We're presently in a ceasefire. We're executing a blockade and we're

02:14:28.040 prepared for a broad range of contingency. Well, it doesn't seem to be going well. And I would like

02:14:31.660 to know how many more Americans we have to ask to die for this mistake. Do you know? I think it's

02:14:36.600 an entirely inappropriate statement from you, sir. You know, I'm glad that Admiral Cooper called him

02:14:43.200 out because that's, you know, one of the things that I've seen from military people. And there

02:14:51.940 was also um i think another uh retired general or brigadier general on pierce morgan and he also

02:15:00.280 called out i think he either called out uh chunky yogurt or anna kasparian or someone when they did

02:15:07.080 the same thing and then that uh the the retired um general said that is a completely inappropriate

02:15:13.800 line of questioning, like, because that's very insulting, um, to, to the American, um, uh,

02:15:21.960 you know, service members who've, who've lost their lives. Right. And, um, the way that,

02:15:26.440 that it's been explained to me is that, you know, when someone joins, um, the military,

02:15:31.160 they do it knowing the risks and they're literally, you know, like they're, they're happy to,

02:15:37.200 to, you know, make the ultimate, ultimate sacrifice for their country. Obviously one

02:15:42.420 life lost is one life too many. But I've been told, and my understanding is that one of the

02:15:50.340 most insulting things that people can do is to politicize the death of a military person

02:16:00.840 and politicize their deaths for political gain or something. So that's why Admiral Brad Cooper

02:16:08.180 here. Like he's just like, he's had enough. He's like, that's very disrespectful. Right. So

02:16:14.680 that, that moral outrage, like the fake moral outrage from the Democrats, especially since

02:16:20.820 the Democrats don't support the military anyway, anyway. Right. Like the Democrats are all about

02:16:26.440 like limiting the funding and, you know, all that stuff. So the fact that the Democrats don't

02:16:32.100 support the military in the first place and, you know, like what he's doing here, like, like the 0.64

02:16:38.160 way that this guy, this, you know, disgusting man is politicizing the deaths of those American

02:16:46.760 military, military men and women, the way that he's politicizing their deaths for his political 0.96

02:16:54.360 gain. And you see how like disgusted and angry Admiral Brad Cooper becomes. That's exactly how

02:17:02.320 we Iranians feel when the Democrats politicize the loss of Iranian life for their own gain,

02:17:09.940 because they don't care about us Iranians either. Like, like, it's all fake moral outrage,

02:17:16.960 basically, for their political gain. So it's the same disgusting tactic. And, you know, 0.57

02:17:23.860 shame on them all. Shame on you, too. Do you know, I think it's an entirely

02:17:28.680 in a primary and all our military objectives were presently in a ceasefire uh we're executing a

02:17:34.060 blockade and we're prepared for a broad range of contingency well it doesn't seem to be going well

02:17:37.820 and i would like to know how many more americans we have to ask to die for this mistake do you know

02:17:42.480 i think it's an entirely inappropriate statement from you sir with all due respect with all due

02:17:48.820 it's not a statement it's a question i recognize the gentleman from tennessee dr de jarley thank

02:17:52.920 you mr chairman yeah so what admiral brad cooper there is saying with all due respect

02:17:58.500 that's basically like the politically correct way of basically saying like you know f you and f off

02:18:05.440 that that's when when he says with all due respect that's literally what he means there

02:18:10.700 admiral cooper israel jordan and our partners in the gulf demonstrate historic capabilities

02:18:15.580 and cooperation to defend themselves and enable operation epic fury this trust was not built

02:18:20.620 overnight what role does centcom's long-running military partnership and security cooperation

02:18:25.600 and play to achieve these operational effects?

02:18:30.200 So our partnerships in the region

02:18:31.880 over the last several months

02:18:32.920 from the mill-to-mill perspective

02:18:34.140 have been dramatically enhanced.

02:18:36.360 I'd particularly like to cite

02:18:37.780 the shoulder-to-shoulder operations

02:18:39.860 with five of the six GCC countries

02:18:42.400 with whom we have Patriot batteries assigned,

02:18:45.220 not just figuratively, but literally.

02:18:48.780 And these countries in particular,

02:18:50.480 Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, and Kuwait

02:18:53.760 employ their patriots to protect Americans. I think that's the greatest sign of what integration

02:18:58.880 looks like and what strong partnership looks like. Do you think that our NATO allies and

02:19:06.200 European allies are safer because of Operation Epic Fury? Yes, sir, I do. I don't know whether

02:19:13.340 you can say whether or not you're disappointed in the lack of response and cooperation

02:19:17.400 from our NATO allies, but maybe Mr. Zimmerman will opine on that.

02:19:23.760 Thank you, Congressman. We can talk more about it in the next session. Certainly, we have been very eager for our certain NATO partners to be much quicker to step up and lend a hand. We have gotten support from some of our NATO allies. That's part of the story. But in some cases, it was disappointingly late to need.

02:19:47.440 but when it came to russia and ukraine they were very pleased that we were directly involved correct

02:19:54.160 very pleased yes uh admiral cooper you know you stayed in your opening statement pretty clearly

02:19:59.600 do you think that iran's regime is stronger today than it was before epic fury congressman by every

02:20:06.960 measure of national power iran is significantly weaker okay so their their military is

02:20:12.720 significantly degraded can they project power like they could uh eight weeks ago they cannot sir okay

02:20:21.040 and uh do you think that uh their

02:20:29.760 information that they received and this may go back to mr zimmerman but the information

02:20:34.320 that you're hearing this committee today the one thing i love about armed services

02:20:38.000 We're very bipartisan. We're on Team America. But Mr. Zimmerman, do you think that the Iranian regime pays attention to U.S. politics?

02:20:48.460 Yeah, 100 percent. 0.53

02:20:49.580 OK, this is my opinion, but I'm hearing people in this room today and certainly on news outlets like CNN and other left leaning outlets that seem to almost be rooting against America.

02:21:02.300 From what Admiral Cooper describes and what our military has achieved, which they should be getting nothing but accolades from this entire committee as well as the entire country, the operations that they have undergone in Venezuela with Midnight Hammer, with Epic Fury.

02:21:19.020 There shouldn't be an American on this continent that isn't proud of what our military did.

02:21:25.140 But yet what we're hearing in the news and what we're hearing in this room seems to very much wane on politics.

02:21:32.740 The fact that we're talking about gas prices when just less than five years ago, they were over five dollars under Biden and under Obama.

02:21:40.140 They had a sustained high price for longer than any other president.

02:21:43.800 Is it helpful to have this type of opposition in terms of military success in the Middle East right now going on when we're trying to finish degrading?

02:21:58.100 Oh, you know what? I get what he's doing here. And I appreciate that. But again, this puts Admiral Brad Cooper in an awkward position because, again, he's sort of asking Admiral Brad Cooper to comment on a political strategy.

02:22:18.280 um and and you know i get that it's a friendly question but again it you know admiral brad

02:22:25.600 cooper is supposed to be uh you know apolitical non-partisan so like it just it puts him in a

02:22:34.120 tough spot i i know this guy means well i know that this guy means well but man just just focus

02:22:41.460 on the military just focus on the military you can't ask military people about like politics

02:22:48.500 well it's probably our third biggest adversary mr zimmerman oh wait okay so he's asking zimmerman

02:22:56.020 okay that's fine so if he's asking zimmerman then that's fine because zimmerman it can't

02:23:01.300 zimmerman can answer political type questions i guess so all right by that i thought he was

02:23:06.580 asking brad cooper congressman the good news is that the president has been very clear about his

02:23:12.420 resolve to bring a solution to this conflict that is that will advance u.s interests and

02:23:18.500 the iranians pay attention to that too these things don't always happen exactly as planned

02:23:24.020 and there are things that change right admiral cooper in terms of the timing uh i think uh when

02:23:29.540 Obama went after Gaddafi, it ended up taking seven months. We're a few months into this.

02:23:36.700 You've already said that the Iranian military, the regime, their military capability has been

02:23:42.000 substantially reduced. Their nuclear capability has been substantially reduced. Their ability to

02:23:47.100 achieve a nuclear weapon has been substantially reduced. So all of these things would indicate

02:23:52.020 that Operation Epic Fury has achieved a great success to this point. Would you agree?

02:23:58.340 I would, sir. We met all our military objectives. And just on the point of timing, we conducted military operations for 38 days, and now we're 40 or so plus since the ceasefire is in effect.

02:24:09.860 So we've actually been in the ceasefire longer than we were conducting active kinetic operations.

02:24:14.220 Gentlemen, time's expired here. Now recognize a gentleman from California.

02:24:17.460 All right. OK, guys, so we're going to end it off here. Guys, we were much better today.

02:24:24.260 I was much better today. So we managed to get through almost an hour of the congressional

02:24:33.500 hearing. So yesterday we only got through about 27 minutes. Right now we got about through 50 or

02:24:39.880 so minutes. So we're about halfway through, which is a pretty good place to be. I do have to end

02:24:47.180 the live stream here because it's getting a little bit late and I do have to go to bed

02:24:53.560 working on a few videos. So guys, make sure that you are liked and subscribed and have your

02:25:00.400 notifications turned on. I see one final super chat. So we'll go to that and then we're going

02:25:06.720 to call it a night. And then we'll just have to wait for part three of this congressional hearing,

02:25:14.560 which I'm actually finding very interesting, by the way. I mean, I don't know if you guys find

02:25:18.220 this interesting, but as a political nerd, like this is totally my bread and butter.

02:25:23.620 So I enjoy watching this and thanks for being here to join me on this. So Nick says the ones

02:25:32.140 like him. Oh, you're referring to that, that the other dude, the one right before the ones like

02:25:37.340 him make me feel like I should run for office. I know I do better than most of the Dems who votes

02:25:43.160 for these people. The people who vote for these people are the ones who literally suffer from

02:25:48.280 Trump derangement syndrome or whatever the case can be. Like politics is weird. Politics is

02:25:53.600 definitely like a very bizarre and weird world. And yeah, it also ages you. It ages you very

02:26:03.360 quickly. So guys, thank you all for joining me for tonight's live stream of this, you know,

02:26:10.400 this episode of The Goldie Show. And I will see you all tomorrow at 1 p.m. Eastern for day 146

02:26:21.080 of Iran Revolution Live. Until then, stay safe. And you guys know my catchphrase,

02:26:27.840 and now you know. There you go.

02:26:40.400 guitar solo

02:27:10.380 the table again talking of peace but you know how it ends smiles for the cameras deals in the

02:27:19.860 light but truth disappears somewhere out of sight moolah's behind it controlling the flow

02:27:29.780 you shake hands with fire but you already know

02:27:35.380 Deal with the devil

02:27:38.640 You know what it costs

02:27:40.100 Promises fade while the lines get crossed

02:27:43.120 Deal with the devil

02:27:44.480 You hear their call

02:27:45.980 Voices in chains still rise and fall

02:27:48.860 Deal with the devil

02:27:50.340 Don't look away

02:27:54.680 While lives are taken day by day

02:28:01.200 Mr. Trump, hear the streets, hear the cry

02:28:06.820 Iranians want freedom, they're reaching high

02:28:11.280 From cells to the shadows, their voices still grow

02:28:14.900 Dreaming of a future they don't even know

02:28:17.740 Deals at the top while the pressure runs low

02:28:20.700 And down below, the fear continues to grow

02:28:25.160 Deal with the devil, you know what it costs

02:28:29.400 The promises fade while the lines get crossed

02:28:32.400 Deal with the devil

02:28:33.760 You hear their call

02:28:35.280 Voices in chains still rise and fall

02:28:38.120 Deal with the devil

02:28:39.600 Don't look away

02:28:43.040 While lives are taken day by day

02:28:59.400 Mr. Trump, now the moment is real

02:29:18.060 Reagan or Obama, pressure or deal

02:29:21.780 One stands firm, one bends to the game

02:29:25.960 History rats down the choice

02:29:28.360 And the name stand with strength

02:29:32.640 Don't let it all go

02:29:35.340 You don't free millions

02:29:38.760 By moving too slow

02:29:41.700 Mr. Trump, if you give them that deal

02:29:45.260 They keep the power, they tighten the seal

02:29:48.020 More voices, silence, more lives are raised

02:29:51.260 While freedom is pushed further away

02:29:54.460 Be the Reagan they need, take a stand

02:29:57.380 Don't trade their future for a shake of a hand

02:30:03.380 Deal with the devil

02:30:05.320 You know what it costs

02:30:06.700 Too many lives already lost

02:30:09.640 Deal with the devil

02:30:11.040 You hear their call 1.00

02:30:12.480 Iranians fighting, they won't let it fall 1.00

02:30:15.340 Deal with the devil 1.00

02:30:16.800 Don't look away

02:30:20.340 While lives are taken day by day

02:30:28.660 Mr. Trump

02:30:31.100 Be like Ray

02:30:33.900 No deals with the devil

02:30:50.340 We'll be back.

Goldie Ghamari - May 22, 2026

The TRUTH About the War on Iran - PART 2

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