Israel strikes Iranian nuclear sites and targets Iranian military leaders. Iran fires back with a volley of its own missiles. Israel responds with more strikes on Iranian targets, including a strike on an apartment building in Tehran, Iran's capital, Tehran.
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00:00:09.000Well, we are here this evening bringing you a special episode of the Ben Shapiro Show, giving you updates as the conflagration between Israel and Iran unfolds.
00:00:18.000Israel, of course, on Thursday night, struck a wide barrage of Iran.
00:00:35.000And then this afternoon, Eastern time, the Iranians began firing back missile barrages.
00:00:41.000About 100 missiles were fired into Israel, directed at civilian areas, unlike Israel's targets, which were military in nature.
00:00:49.000Iranians obviously are simply attempting to kill as many Israelis as possible with their missile barrage.
00:00:55.000The United States did aid Israel as well as other allies in knocking down as many of the missiles as possible.
00:01:00.000Apparently somewhere between five and seven of those missiles actually ended up evading missile defense and landing inside Israel.
00:01:35.000Did not take down the entire building.
00:01:36.000Took down a specific area of the building.
00:01:39.000About as targeted as a strike can get.
00:01:40.000But if you would like to see an even more targeted strike, an astonishing picture here of a hole in the wall, a precision strike against an Iranian military leader that apparently hit him directly in the bedroom.
00:01:53.000It went only through the side of the building, leaving the rest of the building intact, hitting precisely one bedroom in this Iranian military.
00:02:03.000We have emerging information on the extent of Israel's attack on the Natanz nuclear facility.
00:02:08.000Israel is also apparently attacking Fordow.
00:02:10.000That is a heavily bunkered nuclear facility.
00:02:12.000Israel has been dropping weaponry on top of munitions.
00:02:16.000The question is whether they will have the sort of munitions necessary to penetrate the deep bunkers built by the Iranians.
00:02:22.000According to the Times of Israel, Iran's Natanz facility for uranium enrichment was hit by Israeli airstrikes targeting the Islamic Republic's nuclear program early on Friday, with Israeli defense officials assessing that the damage was significant.
00:02:33.000According to the military, the IAF strikes destroyed the underground section of the site, which housed a multilevel enrichment hall, housing centrifuges, electrical rooms and other supporting infrastructure.
00:02:42.000The strikes also destroyed critical infrastructure, enabling the site's continued operation and advancement of the Iranian regime's nuclear weapons project.
00:02:57.000They said that the attack did damage several parts of the facility.
00:03:00.000They then added there was no increase in radiation levels or chemical contamination.
00:03:03.000However, the IAE chief, Rafael Grossi, said that the other main enrichment center in Iran, Fordo, was not hit, but that has changed since.
00:03:11.000And, apparently, the IAEA is claiming that there may be some contamination at the Natanz nuclear facility, suggesting, of course, that the containment has been breached by the Israeli attack.
00:03:23.000Meanwhile, other explosions in western Tehran as Israel attacks the areas around Tehran, military areas, nuclear areas around Tehran.
00:03:30.000You can see the footage here in the background.
00:03:34.000Significant explosions, mushroom clouds rising, smoke rising in the background.
00:03:40.000Israel's intelligence penetration in Iran is extraordinary.
00:03:43.000The Iranian regime legitimately does not know who is an Israeli agent and who is not.
00:03:47.000Okay, well, all of this was lead up to the Islamic Republic's response to Israel.
00:03:53.000Again, not particularly shocking, but Iran had suggested for hours, days, weeks, that if Israel attacked, they would, of course, respond.
00:04:01.000It would be sort of a shock if that had not happened.
00:04:03.000And, of course, Israel was prepared for that.
00:04:04.000Immediately upon launching these attacks against the Iranian nuclear facilities and the military leaders of the regime, The Israeli officials told Israelis that they would have to stay inside much more than normal.
00:04:14.000They'd have to essentially hunker down and wait it out.
00:04:16.000This is a picture of what is called the SOFAR Red Alert Map.
00:04:21.000The Red Alert Map, everybody in Israel has an app on their phone telling you who is being told to go down into the bunkers when there are a wide variety of missiles flying at Israel.
00:04:32.000Pretty much everybody in the country goes into a bunker or if you are in a private house or an apartment building, what's called a mamad, which is essentially a safe room.
00:04:39.000If you're in a major apartment building, then you might just go down into the parking lot, which is substantially fortified against the possibility of missile strike.
00:04:47.000As you can see from this map, the entirety of Israel blanketed in these sort of red alert flags showing the possibility of an Iranian strike.
00:04:55.000Now, this has become part and parcel of living in Israel.
00:05:06.000We immediately hopped out of bed, grabbed our kids, went to the Mamad and the place that we were staying, and waited until the all-clear happens, about a 10-minute period from the end of the sirens.
00:05:17.000And then you can leave and it's all clear.
00:05:20.000It's become kind of a regular part of life.
00:05:21.000I was talking to friends in Jerusalem a little bit earlier today, and they said that last night they simply went to sleep.
00:05:27.000And I know that the last time the Iranians were attacking Israel, which was several months ago, of course, last year.
00:05:33.000Many of my friends didn't even leave the shower when the sirens were going off because their feeling was the chances of being hit were very, very low.
00:05:46.000Friday night is, of course, the beginning of Sabbath for many Orthodox Jews.
00:05:50.000And so many of the Israelis were gathering in this parking lot, in Mahmoud, to sing and dance in honor of the Sabbath as the Missal alerts were going on.
00:06:07.000Again, the difference between how Israel treats its civilians and how Iranian proxies treat their civilians is marked here.
00:06:14.000In Israel, when the sirens go off, the civilians rush to the bomb shelters in places run by Hamas.
00:06:19.000When the sirens go off, Hamas runs to the bomb shelters and puts the civilians directly on top of them.
00:06:24.000But you can see this is sort of treated as normal in the state of Israel.
00:06:29.000Israel is about to change that situation markedly.
00:06:31.000By actively fighting back against Iran, the goal being to eliminate the Iranian nuclear capacity.
00:06:37.000Okay, while all this was happening, there were interceptors that were fired over Tel Aviv.
00:06:42.000Again, some five to seven missiles actually landed in the center of Israel, mostly in the Tel Aviv area.
00:06:47.000Central Tel Aviv was impacted by ballistic missiles fired from Iran on Friday after Israel said it had detected dozens of missiles launched from Iran.
00:06:55.000Apparently, that number is actually closer to 100 in a couple of different flights of missiles.
00:06:59.000It's about nine minutes for a missile to get from Iran to Israel.
00:07:02.000So all these sort of ordinance that is fired by Iran comes at different rates.
00:07:06.000Drones may take hours because it is a significant distance.
00:07:09.000The missiles travel quite quickly until you have a nine-minute period from when the missile launch is detected to when the missiles actually hit.
00:07:16.000Here's some footage of interceptions over Tel Aviv.
00:07:20.000And again, Israel has the world's most sophisticated missile defense system at this point.
00:07:25.000President Trump is building Golden Dome for the United States, but Here's what it looks like from the ground in Tel Aviv.
00:07:38.000You can see the interceptors are the objects that are moving in sort of erratic directions, attempting to locate and hit those missiles.
00:07:48.000Now, of course, the sky over Israel was lit up all of tonight as those missiles were emerging over major cities in Israel.
00:07:58.000The Iranian ballistic missile attack that actually struck Central Tel Aviv was caught on tape by reporters from Fox News.
00:08:28.000W reporter Trey Yings, whose coverage has been less than stellar, but you can see, again, the missiles being shot down over center of Tel Aviv.
00:08:37.000The other unknown, Sandra, is as Iron Dome and David Sling and the Aero System and the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense Systems are all going off at the same time, it seems, here.
00:08:46.000The last time this happened, there was a coordinated defense between Israel, the United States, and other countries, including Jordan, to intercept these with aircraft as well.
00:08:57.000Trey, I mean, it's unbelievable to see what we're seeing going on in the skies above Tel Aviv right now.
00:09:04.000Yeah, John Sandro, you saw those live images.
00:09:08.000Israel is under a massive ballistic missile barrage.
00:09:12.000I have reported here for nearly seven years and never seen such an attack against an Israeli city.
00:09:18.000The amount of air defense that you saw going off there, it's unprecedented.
00:09:25.000And of course, Israel had fully expected that.
00:09:28.000So for all of those alarmists who are suggesting that this took Israel by surprise, I mean, that's ridiculous.
00:09:35.000And again, immediately upon the first attacks by Israel against the Iranian nuclear facilities, everybody was warned to prepare to stay near their mamad, and a statement went out to the general public to prepare to spend significant hours in their safe rooms and in safe places over the course of the next week or so.
00:09:53.000The most stunning footage, of course, is footage of a ballistic missile hitting downtown Tel Aviv.
00:09:58.000There was one ballistic missile that fell right in the heart of Tel Aviv.
00:10:18.000As you can see, that is the site of the missile falling.
00:10:21.000Now, worthwhile noting that because Israel's air defense systems are so good, and also because Israelis do a good job of getting to safe places, the number of casualties thus far has been extraordinarily minimal.
00:10:34.000Magandavid Adom, which is the Israeli Red Cross, says that the number of casualties in these barrages so far is 21 total.
00:10:41.00017 of those are in mild condition or a state of anxiety.
00:10:44.000So that'd be older people who have asthma and who have a panic attack because of the falling missiles, two of them in serious condition, two in moderate condition.
00:10:52.000So by any statistical measure, a small miracle, given the fact that you're seeing these missiles fall in, again, populated areas.
00:11:01.000Here's a picture of a residential building, apartment building, that was hit.
00:11:05.000Again, the fact that you're not seeing larger casualty numbers is a testament to both Israeli defense systems and also to the fact that Israelis understand what to do in cases of emergency and they move quickly into safer areas of the buildings that they occupy.
00:11:20.000The Iranian Revolutionary Guards put out a statement, quote, following the Supreme Leader's directive, we responded precisely and significantly.
00:11:25.000We attacked dozens of targets, military centers, and air bases.
00:11:28.000The response is part of Operation Promise of Truth 3, which sounds like just an absolutely terrible sequel.
00:11:36.000I mean, if you were going to, you know, label that, that's worse than like Super Baby Geniuses 2. Operation Promise of Truth 3, or Return to the Blue Lagoon.
00:11:47.000This one goes on the list of worst sequels, Police Academy, Mission to Moscow.
00:11:52.000In any case, the Iranians also put out a revenge video.
00:11:56.000This is a video they've distributed before.
00:11:59.000You'll take note of the fact that it makes open reference to the attempted assassination of President Trump.
00:12:03.000Again, the Iranian regime is not a regime that is rich in peaceful people seeking an off-ramp with the United States, despite the bizarre propaganda of folks who seem to be in league with those who love Iran deeply.
00:12:18.000This is not the activity of a regime that really is ready to make peace, disarm, become a member of the family of nations.
00:12:26.000Here is a video distributed by Iranian state media in the middle of all of this.
00:12:38.000That is the podium of the President of the United States.
00:12:40.000Footage of the near assassination of Donald Trump.
00:12:45.000of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then pictures of the Iranian...
00:12:56.000And the idea, of course, is that they are targeting President Trump as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well, of all of this.
00:13:06.000Now, again, it is worth noting here that the Iranian regime, when folks say regional war might break out, a regional war did break out on October 7th.
00:13:16.000It was all of Iran's regional allies versus Israel.
00:13:20.000And that is going to go down in the history books as one of the worst military moves in the history of mankind.
00:13:24.000Because on October 7th, Iran gave the go-ahead to Hamas, one of its proxies, to walk across the border of the Gaza Strip and slaughter as many Jews as possible and take 250 hostage.
00:13:34.000And the result over the ensuing year and a half has been the complete catastrophic demolition of Hamas to the extent that Hamas no longer exists as a governing entity in the Gaza Strip.
00:13:46.000And the entire strip is going to have to be rebuilt.
00:13:50.000Hezbollah, which was the most threatening arm of the Iranian regime, armed with up to hundreds of thousands of rockets and missiles with targeting technology, was completely destroyed by Israel at minimal loss of life from the Israelis.
00:14:06.000The Hezbollah infrastructure was hit so hard that it ended up taking down Syria next door because Hezbollah was a supporting pillar for the Assad regime.
00:14:18.000Turkish backed HTS group, and the regime was just gone.
00:14:22.000So all of the Iranian proxies have been brought to heel by the Israelis, and now Iran, of course, has been catastrophically damaged militarily.
00:14:32.000That will continue, without a doubt, because Israel has already said that thanks to this latest round of attacks, there is more to come.
00:14:39.000According to Channel 12 in Israel, one of the main news channels, quote, any missile fired at Israel will trigger immediate strikes against Iranian national infrastructure.
00:15:22.000And the answer, according to our friends over at Perplexity, oil exports accounted for more than 40% of Iran's total export revenue in 2023.
00:15:33.000It represents a quarter of the country's GDP.
00:15:38.000So, taking out the Iranian oil fields would devastate them.
00:15:42.000Especially because that is the only thing that even makes them remotely valuable to places like China, which uses them as a giant gas station.
00:15:49.000Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz says, Israel crossed red lines when it dared to fire missiles at civilian population centers in Israel.
00:15:54.000We'll continue to protect the citizens of Israel and ensure the Ayatollah's regime pays a very heavy price for its criminal actions.
00:16:00.000So this is not going to end anytime soon.
00:16:06.000Already coming up, the great one, Mark Levin, will join us.
00:16:08.000We'll also have Plus, Democrat Congressman Ro Khanna stops by to disagree.
00:16:17.000First, in these uncertain days, Israel now faces imminent attacks as war with Iran has already begun.
00:16:22.000Families across Israel are living in fear, wondering if the next siren will sound in their neighborhood.
00:16:25.000Israel just launched Operation Rising Lion, targeting nuclear and military sites deep inside Iran to prevent an existential threat while bracing for possible retaliation that could endanger millions of innocent lives.
00:16:37.000The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, IFCJ, is on the ground, delivering lifesaving aid where it's needed most.
00:16:43.000IFCJ provides emergency food, shelter, trauma support, and security upgrades, including bomb shelters and fortified hospital units.
00:16:50.000In the past year alone, IFCJ has helped over 2 million people, supplying basic needs to the elderly, Holocaust survivors, new immigrants, and children traumatized by war.
00:16:58.000As Israel's defenders stand ready, IFCJ stands with them, funding bulletproof ambulances, supporting first responders, offering comfort to those in the line of fire.
00:17:06.000Your support means food for the hungry, safety for the vulnerable, and hope for a nation under siege.
00:17:10.000Now, as the world watches and uncertainty grows, you can make a difference through donations.
00:17:14.000Together, we can bring light to the darkest moments.
00:17:16.000Visit benforthefellowship.org to donate today.
00:17:20.000And in fact, speaking of the fact that Iran is reliant on its oil exports, the Israeli Air Force apparently has now launched a series of attacks this evening on the oil exporting component of the Iran infrastructure.
00:17:36.000They've been attacking energy facilities, according to a variety of sources.
00:17:39.000the Raisi power plant in Isfahan, which is close to the nuclear refinement facility in Isfahan, is now being struck.
00:17:45.000There are also reports of the IAF attacking on the coast of Iran, which would be Prime Minister Netanyahu is openly calling for the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow their regime.
00:17:57.000Again, he has no intention of quote-unquote regime change directly.
00:18:02.000Israel is not going to be sending troops anytime in there to simply take control of the country.
00:18:06.000Iran is not a neighboring country, nor is he calling on the United States to do so.
00:18:09.000But the Iranian people hate the regime.
00:18:11.000And if this is a moment, if ever there is a moment for the regime to be overthrown by the Iranian people, that would be the moment.
00:18:17.000Tonight I wish to speak to you, the proud people of Iran.
00:18:21.000We're in the midst of one of the greatest military operations in history, Operation Rising Lion.
00:18:28.000The Islamic regime, which has oppressed you for nearly 50 years, threatens to destroy my country, the state of Israel.
00:18:36.000The objective of Israel's military operation is to remove this threat, both the nuclear threat and the ballistic missile threat to Israel.
00:18:45.000And as we achieve our objectives, we're also clearing the path for you to achieve your objective, which is freedom.
00:18:55.000In the past 24 hours, we've taken out top military commanders, senior nuclear scientists, the Islamic regime's most significant enrichment facility, and a large portion of its ballistic missile arsenal.
00:19:17.000The nation of Iran and the nation of Israel have been true friends since the days of Cyrus the Great.
00:19:24.000And the time has come for you to unite around your flag and your historic legacy by standing up for your freedom from an evil and oppressive regime.
00:20:42.000So, Mark, why don't we start with the obvious, your quick reaction to everything that's been transpiring over the course of the last 24 hours, Israel's attacks on Iran, Iran firing missiles into civilian centers in Israel, and now it appears contemporaneously right now Israel is attacking the energy infrastructure in Iran, which is what it said it would do if Iran fired missiles into civilian areas.
00:21:02.000Well, Iran's trying to kill the Israelis.
00:21:26.000And imagine any one of these ballistic missiles having a nuclear warhead on them, being fired into Israel, or when they get intercontinental ballistic missiles, which is what they're also building.
00:21:37.000They shoot them over to the United States.
00:21:39.000I mean, you would have such horrendous, monstrous genocide by these absolute Islamist nutjob Nazis.
00:21:47.000What I think is taking place right now is you're seeing a country that is not only fighting for its survival, it's fighting for the West, which has become quite weak.
00:21:56.000It's fighting for the United States, which is strong.
00:21:59.000And they have to support a strong president, Donald Trump.
00:22:03.000And I don't think they're going to stop until they get this done.
00:22:06.000They're apparently hitting their infrastructure and so forth because they warn the Iranians, you attack our population centers.
00:22:14.000Notice Israelis aren't attacking the Iranian population centers because they know the Iranian people hate their government and they wouldn't do it anyway.
00:22:23.000But it's the first place that the Iranians aim at, the biggest cities in Israel.
00:22:28.000And so now the Israelis are taking out their infrastructure and they are going to crush that country.
00:22:34.000Now, one of the things I would tell Your audience, Ben, is when you watch TV, you're only seeing one side of the war.
00:22:40.000You're seeing what's happening to Tel Aviv and Israel and so forth, which is bad enough.
00:22:44.000But what you're not seeing is what's going on in Iran.
00:22:47.000And apparently, from what we're hearing from the Israelis and the Americans, is that a hell of a lot is going on in Iran.
00:23:20.000You know, Mark, I think that here we should take a moment to acknowledge the extraordinary handling of this by President Trump.
00:23:26.000So there was a lot of consternation at President Trump by the so-called isolationist or restrainer wing inside his own party, some inside his own administration who are very upset with him for standing by Israel.
00:23:37.000President Trump has been utterly consistent for over a decade about his perspective on this issue.
00:23:43.000The Iranians are the threat in the region.
00:23:44.000The worst deal in history was the JCPOA.
00:23:47.000He was never going to sign a new JCPOA.
00:23:52.000He understood that the Iranians were unwilling to make a deal.
00:23:55.000And as the president himself has said, Israel has the resources to do what it is doing and Israel has the moral capacity to do what it's doing.
00:24:04.000America is not directly involved, but it has been involved in shooting down many of the the missiles and the drones that are being shot from Iran toward Israel.
00:24:13.000He's the most pro-Israel president in American history.
00:24:15.000And also, in my opinion, the strongest foreign policy president of my lifetime, bar none.
00:24:22.000And so the isolationists are very upset.
00:24:25.000They're all over TV and radio and the internet and so forth, saying that Donald Trump has abandoned MAGA.
00:24:31.000The biggest of the bunch is this Chadsworth, you know, Katarlson, as I call Tucker Carlson, who seems to think he owns the country, who seems to think he was elected president, who seems to think he and a few of his embeds should be running foreign policy.
00:24:47.000And for Tucker Carlson, there'd be no.
00:24:54.000He seems to be a special pleader to the biggest, most evil, genocidal maniacs on the face of the earth.
00:25:01.000Why that is, is something a psychiatrist will have to figure out.
00:25:06.000But to lash out and to say those of us who want to defend America, defend the state of Israel, defend our allies against this evil regime that keeps talking about trying to destroy us and destroy Israel, and on and on and on, It's his issue.
00:25:54.000You know, he's not a John McCain or anything like that.
00:25:57.000He gave this regime, what, a thousand opportunities to surrender their nuclear arms, excuse me, their nuclear development, but they wouldn't do it because they don't want to do it.
00:26:10.000His job is as commander-in-chief, not as a chief.
00:26:14.000You know, subscriber-based platform, grifter, who's out there going on and on about how America really, World War II, how Americans really are at fault.
00:26:27.000You know, how he attacks Churchill and praises Chamberlain.
00:26:31.000How his friend, the Tulsi Cabaret, basically slimes and smears the brave men and women who destroyed Imperial Japan.
00:26:44.000You know, Mark, when I look at the lay of the land right now, the transformative action that Israel just took really does lay the groundwork for a better region.
00:26:52.000Again, President Trump deserves enormous credit here by really bucking all prevailing foreign policy wisdom for both his first term and his second.
00:26:59.000In his first term, he was told that if he killed Qasem Soleimani by people like Tucker Carlson, that it would lead to a regional war.
00:27:06.000He was also told by many of those same folks on both the right and the left that if he moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, that would lead to a regional war.
00:27:14.000And President Trump was the only president in my lifetime who's been able to broker actual serious peace between Israel and her neighbors in the form of the Abraham Accords.
00:27:22.000Now, with his support and his willingness to stand side by side with Israel, Israel actually does the dirty work in Iran.
00:27:29.000The president has set the stage for what could be a complete transformation of the region.
00:27:57.000He is a historic, iconic figure in so many ways, whether it comes to immigration, whether it comes to taxes and so forth and so on, and whether it comes to foreign policy.
00:28:44.000While we're talking to them, they're speeding up the process.
00:28:47.000They're buying fuel material from the Communist Chinese to build more missiles, long-range missiles.
00:28:54.000In other words, rather than respect the United States, respect the process, respect the President of the United States, they took the opportunity to use that 60-day period to prove to the whole world.
00:29:07.000That they have no intention of signing an agreement, certainly not an agreement that holds their feet to the fire.
00:29:14.000Donald Trump has done something no president did in half a century.
00:29:21.000You know, Mark, I think another leader who deserves enormous credit here is the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.
00:29:26.000He's been under consistent fire from an enormous number of people inside his own country, people on the left who've been protesting outside his home continuously for a year and a half, calling for something he doesn't have.
00:29:36.000have the power to do, compel Hamas to give up the hostages.
00:29:40.000They've been attempting to attack him in court on a series of charges that I consider to be spurious.
00:29:45.000And he's been obviously at the center of a wide variety of conflicts ranging from Yemen to Lebanon to Syria.
00:29:52.000And yet, he stood tall and made a very difficult call here to actually He's
00:30:27.000He's being undermined at home, or at least was, and still is actually in many respects.
00:30:32.000He's defeated every enemy that they're facing, whether it's Hamas and Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now it's the mothership of terrorism, Iran.
00:30:42.000I don't think any of us would have imagined anything like this, but he did.
00:30:46.000And he decided in some cases against the advice of some very weak generals and very weak members of his cabinet.
00:30:55.000To pursue a course to put an end to this.
00:31:13.000You know, we're very lucky, Ben, to have these two great leaders in the world right now, Trump and Netanyahu.
00:31:19.000And I can tell you from my own knowledge, all these reports in Axios and elsewhere, By the isolationist embeds leaking against the president, leaking against Netanyahu, and undermining and disloyal to the president, as a matter of fact, that they were far apart, that Israel and the United States were far apart, that Netanyahu's a warmonger and Trump's not a warmonger.
00:33:05.000So, Mark, looking at the progression of the Israeli attacks, the Iranian response, what do you make of the state of play in the Middle East right now?
00:33:12.000Obviously, Israel's original strikes are sort of shocking in their success.
00:33:16.000The Iranian counterattack, some of the missiles escaped.
00:33:20.000Well, I think it's been an extraordinary 24 hours, certainly for the Israelis.
00:33:31.000And I think they've exceeded once again their expectations.
00:33:35.000I always said to people that if the Israelis don't surprise you, they lose.
00:33:39.000If they surprise you, then they really are doing something extraordinary.
00:33:43.000And like they did against Hezbollah with the beepers.
00:33:46.000And against Nasrallah and against the whole leadership of Hezbollah and Hamas, I think they've once again really surprised us with remarkable capabilities, training, intelligence, dominance.
00:34:34.000Obviously, they need 30,000-pound massive orange penetrators, which is what the United States has, and we have B-2 bombers, and they don't.
00:34:41.000So I think it's going to be a more difficult operation.
00:34:44.000They started bombing Isfahan, which is an important conversion facility.
00:34:47.000But Ben, what's a really important story that I think a lot of people are missing is that they went after 12 nuclear weapons scientists.
00:34:54.000I mean, basically, the Robert Oppenheimer and the key physicists of the nuclear weapons program.
00:35:59.000They've got a massive inventory of ballistic missiles, 2,000 to 3,000 ballistic missiles.
00:36:05.000So they have pretty extraordinary firepower.
00:36:08.000And then they've got cruise missiles and drones.
00:36:10.000They could do a lot of damage to Israel.
00:36:12.000Now, obviously, the Israeli Air Force went in there with Mossad and it started to do significant damage to both the inventory and the production capability.
00:36:20.000They also have to be very careful, as you acknowledge.
00:36:22.000That if they're going to do damage to Israel, Israel can start to really escalate and go after significant leadership assets, including Khamenei himself.
00:36:31.000Also, this is where the US role becomes really important because President Trump needs to message to Khamenei that he will not tolerate a response above a certain threshold against Israel and also against the United States.
00:36:43.000And if he does, that could trigger a devastating US response.
00:36:47.000And it's the credibility of a US response.
00:36:50.000That's more important than if Trump actually does it.
00:36:53.000The more credible it is, the more likely that Khamenei will be very careful because he knows the only force on God's earth that can bring down his regime is the United States military.
00:37:04.000So, Mark, what do you think at this point is the possibility that the Iranian regime actually falls?
00:37:10.000We've seen unexpected things happening in the Middle East, including, of course, the fall of the Assad regime after decades in power, thanks to the complete hollowing out of Hezbollah.
00:37:20.000The Iranian people do not like the Iranian regime at all.
00:37:23.000The Iranians have shut down their Internet internally, so they do not want people obviously coordinating across Iran in the face of these Israeli attacks.
00:37:30.000How real is the possibility that the Iranian regime collapses or that the Iranian people do something about it?
00:37:35.000Because it does not look like a regime change is going to be forced from the outside.
00:38:28.000This is what Reagan did successfully against the Soviet Union.
00:38:30.000I'm not going to predict the collapse of the Islamic Republic anytime soon, but I am old enough to have lived through the Cold War and the Reagan strategy.
00:38:38.000And it was a matter of seven, eight years under Reagan where that strategy led to the collapse of the USSR.
00:38:46.000So Mark, obviously you see some people who I would consider to be foreign policy, either ignoramuses or alarmists, who are suggesting this is going to escalate into a much larger, broader regional war or indeed World War III.
00:38:57.000I have a hard time seeing exactly how that would happen.
00:39:00.000And the fact is that the Iranian regime is at an all-time low in terms of its capacity, its military capacity, its ability to project force, its octopus tentacles have been essentially severed by the Israelis over the course of the last year and a half.
00:39:14.000There's no cavalry coming for the Iranians.
00:39:16.000The Russians are not going to step in and help the Iranians.
00:39:17.000The Chinese are not going to step in and help the Iranians.
00:39:20.000They're essentially on their own here.
00:39:21.000So what do you make of people who are claiming that this is going to spiral out into a broader regional war that will quote-unquote suck in the United States or that it will turn into World War III?
00:39:31.000I actually think those people are making war more likely, not less likely, because what they're trying to do is undercut U.S. military credibility.
00:39:38.000If they undercut U.S. military credibility, that means the Iranians think they can escalate without paying a price.
00:39:44.000If they think they can escalate without paying a price, they're more likely to do things that are going to actually create a broader regional conflict.
00:39:50.000They may engage in attacks against U.S. forces, against our Gulf allies, terrorist attacks, not only in the region, but maybe in the United States.
00:40:00.000Again, it's so important that Khamenei understands that he cannot go above a certain threshold.
00:40:05.000And if he does, The wrath of Donald Trump and the U.S. military will come upon him.
00:40:10.000But that crowd is making the argument, is really trying to weaken Trump, weaken his leverage, and weaken American military credibility, and in doing so, making that war more likely, not less likely.
00:40:23.000Now, Mark, there's been a lot of speculation about the possibility that perhaps the Americans might join in for a couple of rounds.
00:40:29.000That B-2s might be flown from Diogo Garcia to drop a couple of bombs on Fordow, for example, in an attempt to essentially destroy that remaining nuclear facility that, as you say, is deep underground and requires ordinance that the Israelis simply don't have.
00:40:42.000What do you think are the chances of that?
00:40:43.000Is that something the United States should actually consider?
00:40:47.000Look, I think it really depends on President Trump.
00:40:50.000I mean, if there's continued Israeli success, as there has been over the past 24 hours, I think he already is trying to own that success.
00:40:57.000I mean, I think in his post today, you could see already him putting his arms around that success.
00:41:07.000These are the things that he's now starting to really embrace this, despite the fact that the isolationists in his party are starting to get very, very upset with the president.
00:41:18.000I think at some point, President Trump could probably appreciate that.
00:41:23.000Once the Israelis have done multiple rounds and have destroyed as much as they can, this would be an historic opportunity for him to really set back Iran's nuclear weapon program, not by months or years, but maybe decades.
00:41:36.000And I think that may be the opportunity where he comes in with B-2 bombers, destroys Fordow, and gets rid of whatever remaining infrastructure the Iranians have.
00:41:45.000The other potential option, and I think this is Khamenei's smartest play, is after this humiliation, wait a week.
00:41:52.000But then actually send lead Iranian negotiator Iraqji to Oman to start negotiating with the Americans again.
00:42:02.000And he'll sit down with the Iranians and do this peacefully.
00:42:04.000He's been warning about that for months.
00:42:06.000We'll do this peacefully or we'll do this militarily.
00:42:09.000And I think Trump was heavily engaged with Bibi in running a very well-oiled deception operation.
00:42:16.000That lulled the Iranians into a false sense that the president wasn't prepared to greenlight Israeli military power.
00:42:24.000And they were literally caught both figuratively and literally in their beds when the Israelis launched a preemptive attack and took out dozens of IRC commanders and army chiefs and nuclear scientists.
00:42:36.000So Khamenei's best play, go back to the negotiations and see if he can get an offer that he can live with.
00:42:42.000Trump, I think, actually now is in a much more powerful position, both at the negotiating table and in terms of his military option to strip Iran once and for all of the capabilities it needs to build nuclear weapons.
00:42:54.000Mark Dubowitz, Chief Executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
00:42:57.000Really appreciate the time and the insight.
00:43:02.000Well, meanwhile, this weekend, you can expect the protesters out en masse.
00:43:05.000Not against the Iranians who are firing missiles into the center of Israeli cities or against Hamas who are still holding hostages and shooting aid workers, nor indeed against criminal illegal immigrants or anyone else.
00:43:16.000No, the protests are going to be against President Trump because no kings or something.
00:43:21.000According to DemocracyDocket.com, millions of people are set to rally across the nation in opposition to President Trump's extreme agenda and to counter-program the military parade in Washington, D.C. To have no kings day, the over 2,000 planned demonstrations are set to kick off Saturday morning, June 14th.
00:43:36.000And as I've mentioned on the show before, this does not mean a lot of people are going to show up at each demonstration.
00:43:41.000You can declare yourself a demonstration in Chappaqua, New York, and it'll be you and a buddy.
00:44:04.000The ACLU, public citizen, Planned Parenthood, the rogues' gallery of terrible left-wing groups.
00:44:09.000Deirdre Schifling, the ACLU's chief political and advocacy officer, said, quote, No King's Day is about standing up for our democracy, standing up for our rights, our liberties, making sure we are sending a strong message that we are going to have a free and fair democracy.
00:44:21.000Wow, that sounds like a real message to resonate around.
00:44:47.000Schifling said, we didn't want to be a conflict or an excuse to have conflict with peaceful protesters in this military parade, which is why they are not doing an event near the actual army parade.
00:44:56.000They also, I would assume, understand the optics of protesting.
00:44:59.000The United States military looks pretty unpatriotic and unpleasant.
00:45:04.000Many Republican governors and law enforcement officials are saying that if protesters obstruct traffic, well, things are going to happen.
00:45:10.000A Florida sheriff named Wayne Ivey said in a warning to demonstrators, if you throw a brick, a firebomb, or point a gun at one of our deputies, we will be notifying your family where to collect your remains because we will kill you graveyard dead.
00:45:36.000And so at that point, you being dead is a likely outcome.
00:45:41.000Governor Ron DeSantis also suggested that the law in the state of Florida, my wonderful home state where we don't tolerate none of this crap.
00:45:48.000That if you obstruct drivers, if you surround a car in a threatening manner, the driver does not have to stop and allow you to trap them.
00:45:55.000That the driver can continue to drive.
00:45:57.000You're not allowed to surround cars and threaten the people inside the cars.
00:46:01.000That is because we do this thing called rule of law in Florida, a thing we didn't do back in my old hometown of Los Angeles.
00:46:08.000Well, speaking of events in California and speaking of the unfolding events in Iran and Israel, Joining us online is California Democrat Ro Khanna.
00:46:18.000Thanks so much for taking the time, Congressman.
00:47:32.000The IAEA itself found this week that that is untrue, that they have been violating all sorts of regulations and agreements they had made in the past to rush toward a nuclear weapon.
00:47:42.000the idea that Iran needs a civilian nuclear program in the first place is an absurdity, considering it's one of the most oil-rich nations on planet Earth and its economy has been totally shut off to exports of oil.
00:47:51.000So it's not like they're And then beyond that, the idea of a regional war spreading outward.
00:48:04.000The fact is that the situation has changed rather markedly in the Middle East, given the fact that Israel has done such a remarkable job destroying so many of the Iranian proxies in the area.
00:48:14.000Who precisely would come to Iran's defense?
00:48:18.000Iran's worst move ever would be to strike at the United States, given the fact that right now Israel has been flying sorties literally in the middle of the day, unfettered over Iranian airspace, refueling over Iranian airspace.
00:48:29.000Right now, the Iranian government is in the weakest military position that it has been, certainly, over the course of my lifetime.
00:48:35.000And so, I don't even understand how you get from point A to point B with the idea of a regional war on the horizon.
00:49:00.000But the main point remains that they still had a long way to go to actually put nuclear energy on a missile as a transport of actually having a strike land.
00:49:11.000That's different than developing nuclear energy.
00:49:14.000Second, it's unclear that these strikes are going to achieve anything because many experts believe they're just going to move the program underground.
00:49:43.000Secondly, they could hit American assets.
00:49:45.000I'm glad Secretary Rubio made it very clear that there would be a major consequence if they did that.
00:49:51.000Third, this is going to inflame other countries that Look, the president ran on saying that he was going to de-escalate in Ukraine, de-escalate in Gaza, de-escalate with Iran.
00:50:11.000All three of the situations arguably are more inflamed than when he took office.
00:50:17.000So, final question on this, and then we'll move on to the situation in California.
00:50:21.000If it were to be found that Israel had significantly hampered or destroyed nuclear facilities, including Natanz, which apparently no longer exists this morning, and if this does not spiral into some sort of regional conflict, would you acknowledge that this was exactly the right move by the Israeli government and that, in fact, Iran had been essentially stalling for time in these negotiations?
00:50:40.000It appears that that was the conclusion that was come to not just by the Israelis, but it seems like that was the conclusion that the Trump administration was pretty clearly moving toward anyway.
00:50:49.000Look, I'm always open to assessing based on the facts.
00:50:51.000When they took out Nasrallah, And I've been a critic of Netanyahu.
00:50:59.000So if the facts on the ground were to show that it was effective, of course, I would look at the facts.
00:51:06.000But my view is that the diplomatic solution would have been better, wouldn't have caused the kind of inflammation we see, and is the one that President Trump was pursuing and should have pursued.
00:51:16.000But look, I'll evaluate it based on the facts that come out and whether this actually does make any difference in Iran's view.
00:51:26.000Meanwhile, over in California, there was a fraught situation yesterday when Senator Alex Padilla sort of crashed a press conference by Senator Kristi Noem, sort of conflicting views over how to interpret the events that happened right there.
00:51:39.000What was your interpretation of the events?
00:51:41.000Because the video can be read a couple of ways.
00:51:43.000I mean, the truth is, I probably would not know Alex Padilla if I ran into him on the street.
00:51:48.000And it seems to me that one of the things that happened here is that Alex Padilla walked in.
00:51:52.000That the security didn't recognize him.
00:52:35.000They threw him down to the floor, manhandled him, and then handcuffed him.
00:52:40.000So regardless of one's view, certainly we could agree that that use of force and not asking him for his ID was way, way over the top.
00:52:52.000Well, I mean, I think that you can make a security-based assessment that he is pushing back against them.
00:52:58.000At this point, he probably should have just walked out of the room.
00:53:00.000I assume that if you were confronted by security at the Capitol building and they said, sir, we need you to step aside, you would actually step aside as opposed to trying to kind of continue to move your force into the room before...
00:53:14.000Do you think they ought to be fired or something?
00:53:16.000I think there ought to be an investigation about whether they should have manhandled Alex Padilla, pushed him down to the ground and handcuffed him when he's saying, I'm a U.S. senator, I'm Alex Padilla.
00:53:30.000I guess the first question I'd ask them is, did you really not know who he was?
00:54:17.000And then there's a press conference across the hall.
00:54:20.000And he goes in and, okay, yes, he's slightly disruptive, but Ben, you're a huge, huge, He was not engaged in violent protests.
00:54:31.000He was engaged in speech, political speech.
00:54:34.000The response to that can't be the overbearing handcuffing and manhandling of a U.S. senator.
00:54:41.000Now, on a scale of 1 to 10, Congressman, this is being treated as like a 10-level crisis by some in Congress.
00:54:48.000It seems very impassioned floor speeches from Senator Cory Booker and the like suggesting this is the beginning of authoritarianism in the United States.
00:54:56.000Is the situation, do you believe, with Senator Padilla?
00:55:00.000I think it's a pattern, and I'd put it at a seven.
00:55:03.000Look, I've appreciated some of your criticisms.
00:55:05.000Of the Trump administration, you call from your ideology, balls and strikes, but I think you see an administration that has gone after universities, that is going after local governments and states, saying we want to be sending in National Guard and we want to be sending in the Marines, that is going after private corporations.
00:55:23.000Whatever your view of DEI, the state is now telling private corporations, here's what you need to do and not do.
00:55:29.000And now has a use of force if someone is in a And I think the totality of that says, well, this is not constitutional limited government, and we've got to stand up for that.
00:55:45.000Now, I believe we will stand up for that, and Donald Trump is basically going to be a lame duck in a year and a half, and we're going to have the American people stand up for constitutional government.
00:55:56.000I imagine you have concerns about the response of the state, given your views of limited constitutional government.
00:56:05.000I mean, listen, I think there are interesting discussions to be had on a wide variety of the topics that you've just mentioned.
00:56:10.000I will say that when I when I watch that video and then see Senator Padilla filming videos a little while later talking about it and having seen how many other actual authoritarian authoritarian countries work, I'm not going to put it a seven.
00:56:26.000This ranks pretty low on the scale of authoritarian moves by government that I've seen in my lifetime.