On this episode of The Glenn Beck Program, host Glenn Beck is joined by Nick Shirley and Mike Lee to discuss the latest in the Iran crisis and the constitutionality of all of it. Glenn also discusses a theory he has about what is really going on in Iran and why it's the most important thing you need to hear.
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01:07:43.680U.S. joint forces waited for the right moment for the operation and executed the arrest flawlessly.
01:07:50.880And this is why I got a phone call at 3 a.m. the night this happened from Secretary Rubio.
01:07:57.080And he said, look, Mike, I know you follow these things carefully.
01:08:02.120I know you always have concerns that we go by the book.
01:08:06.140As far as the Constitution is concerned, I wanted to let you know how this went down.
01:08:11.100And he said the U.S. military involvement, the kinetic action on the ground, was there for one purpose and one purpose alone,
01:08:17.740which was to protect the U.S. personnel who were executing this arrest warrant from an actual or imminent attack to make sure that they were safe.
01:08:55.920Now, remember that the president of the United States and Congress have authority that sometimes intersects, sometimes overlaps a little bit.
01:09:04.340And sometimes there's ambiguity as to where one begins and the other ends.
01:09:09.020The president has authority under Article 2 as the commander in chief to, among other things, repel an actual or imminent attack on the United States and its personnel.
01:09:22.460Congress, for its part, has the power to declare war.
01:09:27.200President Trump is not attempting to go to war with Venezuela.
01:11:22.940Without knowing more details of what he's got in mind, it's difficult to say whether there are any constitutional ramifications there.
01:11:28.960Obviously, if war is contemplated, we need authorization from Congress for that.
01:11:36.660But there are lots of things short of war and lots of things within his power to work toward that don't involve war and wouldn't necessarily require an authorization for the use of military force.
01:11:52.180But all that said, look, I tend to agree with you that there is an intersection of like, you know, 10 different interests that the United States has.
01:12:02.800And this underscores the fact that I really appreciate President Trump's reprioritization of the Western Hemisphere.
01:12:09.960To keep Americans safe from our enemies, including from narco terrorists in our own hemisphere.
01:12:16.360And to make sure that China, Iran, Russia, you name it, any other foe that we have on the world stage, doesn't gain much of a foothold within our own hemisphere.
01:12:35.280And I think subsequent generations might well refer to it as the Trump-Monroe Doctrine or something along those lines, because he seems determined to reinvigorate that.
01:12:44.020I think it's important as we've been stretched too thin all over the globe.
01:12:49.680I think it's important to focus much more on the Western Hemisphere than we have in the past.
01:12:55.900So his idea is you're not going to sell any foreign oil to China.
01:13:00.720What if Canada decides, you know, we're going to sell some foreign oil to China?
01:13:12.780And I don't know whether he plans on having that policy with regard to all nations in the Western Hemisphere or how he would go about enforcing it or whether he would go about enforcing it at all.
01:13:27.380But particularly in the case of Venezuela, Venezuela, which is it has in the very recent past been far too comfortable interacting with a lot of our enemies on the world stage.
01:13:39.900It's understandable that he would express that preference.
01:14:03.820But look, Marco and I are good friends.
01:14:05.840We've been friends for the last 16 years.
01:14:08.460We were elected to the U.S. Senate at the same time in 2010.
01:14:13.080He and I were born exactly seven days apart.
01:14:15.780And we have a lot of common interests and we talk all the time about all sorts of things, including the importance of following the Constitution when it comes to the war power.
01:14:26.120I've talked to him about Venezuela in particular and our actions in that region.
01:14:30.100So it was not surprising at all that he called me.
01:15:36.940He knows Latin America like the back of his hand.
01:15:41.140He understands foreign relations and military affairs like few others that I've ever met.
01:15:47.820And so it's not by accident or by sheer force of personality or coincidence that Marco Rubio, having been made secretary of state, has continued to wield more influence and develop more of a following.
01:16:03.320This is someone who, from the moment I met him, I knew was destined for greatness.
01:16:10.940Remember, just a few years ago, I believe the Venezuelan government, under Maduro's leadership, put a bounty on his head, tried to have him killed.
01:16:19.420And so this is interesting to see all of us come to full fruition with him serving as secretary of state and simultaneously as national security advisor to President Trump.
01:16:30.280So it's quite a remarkable turn of events, and I'm very happy for him.
01:17:02.280Have you read the evidence against him?
01:17:04.820And how confident are you that this is a solid case?
01:17:08.120Well, look, they wouldn't have brought it if they didn't feel confident about the evidence that they've got against him.
01:17:15.540And I've got full confidence in our Department of Justice personnel, Jay Clayton of the U.S. Attorney's Office in the U.S. District, in the Southern District of New York.
01:17:30.800Some have expressed concerns regarding the jury pool there and whether or not we'll face a potential jury nullification problem there.
01:17:42.140So I am confident that they're going to do their very best to do this.
01:17:48.180Now, prosecutors in the indictment alleged that Maduro and his wife and their son and their accomplices engaged in cocaine trafficking,
01:17:59.000and they partnered with cartels designated as terrorist groups, and they said that Maduro abused his position of public trust
01:18:11.280and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States.
01:18:18.000And so even though one can wonder what the jury pool there will look like, there are means by which in the jury selection process they can help to minimize those risks.
01:18:31.460As far as the strategic calculation of why to pursue the charges there, that's an answer – that's a question I don't have an answer at this point.
01:18:39.180I wish you did, because you would have saved gas money if you would have dropped them off in Texas.
01:18:46.680I would have had a better feeling than the Southern District of New York, but it's just me.
01:25:55.280You know, for a long time, I felt courage was in short supply and we're starting to see really courageous people stand up.
01:26:05.960But there have been a few that have stood up for a very long time and stood in the most dangerous place you could be.
01:26:13.300And I believe one of the most dangerous places to be is to be somebody that speaks up against Islamism, political Islam.
01:26:28.720One person who has been doing this for a very long time, way before anybody else was really doing it, is the former Ontario member of provincial parliament.
01:26:47.140And she is the first person to be in Canadian parliament that was born in Iran.
01:26:53.600I saw something where she was talking about Iran and what's really happening in Iran.
01:27:00.320I thought her point of view was so good and it had so much insight.
01:27:05.160I wanted to get her on so we could talk about what is actually happening in Iran.
01:28:55.400I watched your video as things were happening in Iran over the weekend.
01:29:00.660And I'm watching Iran, I mean, not probably as much as you are, with real hope and anticipation of possible good things to come.
01:29:11.360Can you tell us what's going on in Iran right now and if it's different than what we've seen in the past?
01:29:17.340So, what's happening in Iran right now is that people are rising up to overthrow the shackles of Islamic oppression that has held them hostage for the last 47 years.
01:29:33.300And a lot of people in Western media or a lot of the apologists for the Islamic Republic, you know, the pro-Islamists, they are claiming that, you know, this is just about the economy and people are just upset.
01:29:48.640Well, if this was about the economy, why are Iranians now?
01:29:53.320Like, this is the 10th day and things have escalated.
01:30:26.240Because there's only one person that Iranians trust to transition the country from a brutal totalitarian dictatorship into a functioning, secular, democratic country.
01:30:38.200And that's His Royal Highness, the crown prince of Iran, who's in exile.
01:30:43.000So, do you believe, I've heard people say, well, he's not really a player because he's only been speaking out, but he hasn't really been active in anything significant in Iran.
01:31:38.660The reason that there are some people who are attacking him right now at the most critical times is because they know that the only person who can free Iran is the crown prince in exile.
01:31:52.240And so, that's where he's being attacked.
01:31:53.560But Iranians in occupied Iran, they don't care.
01:31:56.460They are literally out there right now.
01:32:02.800The Islamic Republic, they have imported their proxy terrorist groups from Iraq, from, like, Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza, right?
01:32:13.140They've imported all of their terrorist proxy groups, and those people are heavily armed, and they're out there attacking Iranians right now.
01:32:21.060And yet, for Iranians, it's basically now or never.
01:32:24.900They are putting their lives on the line.
01:32:27.460And, you know, one thing that gave Iranians a lot of hope is President Trump's statement, where he said, if the Islamic Republic continues to shoot at innocent Iranians, then President Trump is going to do something about it.
01:32:42.800You know, the United States, you know, the United States is locked and loaded.
01:32:45.060That actually gave Iranians so much hope.
01:32:48.620I guarantee you right now, President Trump is more popular in Iran than he is in the United States.
01:32:55.360Well, he'd have a hard time walking down the street in Venezuela today as well, being mobbed with fans.
01:33:04.080This has happened twice before, but it happened with Biden, and then it happened with Obama, and neither of them voiced their support.
01:33:13.040And I was saying at the time, that's the thing that Ronald Reagan did.
01:33:16.540You know, when the Berlin Wall came down, when you had the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was vocally supporting the people.
01:33:26.840And I thought that was, you know, the missing piece.
01:33:32.180But the other part that at least Obama did was send money to the regime.
01:33:38.120You know, you say this isn't about economics, and I think partially true, but economics may have played the role to get the people out, the businesses out into the street and saying something.
01:33:52.320You know, I did a calculation today on the real, and it is 1.47 million reals to $1, which makes bread right now in Iran is between 100,000 and 500,000 reals.
01:34:10.360That means if it's at the high side, that means, America, you could walk in and buy a loaf of bread for 34 cents.
01:34:16.480That's incredible, and inflation has gone through the roof for them.
01:34:22.760It's up to, I think, 52% or 56% just this last year.
01:34:27.500How much of a role did that play, and did Donald Trump cutting off money help with that economic pressure?
01:34:39.120So, like I said, the economic crisis, the collapse of the real, the, you know, increasing inflation, that has played a role in sparking the movement, right?
01:34:53.540So, the economy has played a role in sparking the demonstrations, but people out there right now, they're not protesting because of the collapse of the real.
01:35:04.900But the collapse of the real is just one other symptom of, you know, living under—
01:35:11.540It's a straw that broke the camel's back.
01:35:12.760Exactly, the straw that—exactly, because, you know, it's about human rights, it's about torture, it's about, you know, the fact that people have been brutally oppressed by, you know, Islamic dictatorship.
01:35:26.720It's the fact that people don't want Sharia law, they don't want—like, Iranians are sick and tired of their name and their country being associated with terrorism, because we're not terrorists.
01:35:40.620And prior to 1979, Iran was one of the biggest allies of the United States.
01:35:54.960What, what, tell me, you know, it's been a long time since that has happened, and a lot, I mean, you've had generations now raised under this.
01:36:04.720It, when the, when the Shah left, and you had the Ayatollah Khomeini come in, most people don't know, that was the Islamists and the Marxist socialists that were supporting that.
01:36:19.440And as soon as the Ayatollah got in, I think 20,000 Marxists kind of were disappeared or thrown into jail or killed, and it was, it wasn't exactly a smooth transition.
01:36:37.280And if this happens, and they fall, and the new prince comes back, how, how, how bad would a purge be?
01:36:47.040I mean, is that, would that be part of this, do you think, that there'd be a lot of people that have to go to jail, and how would this happen?
01:36:54.640So, so, so, um, his royal highness, um, the crown prince has said that, um, he wants to establish something similar to the Nuremberg trial.
01:37:04.560So, um, no violence, like no purge, nothing like that.
01:37:08.460Um, he wants, uh, there to, you know, basically a court of law, and anyone who has, you know, anyone who is guilty of oppression or is part of the Islamic dictatorship, uh, will have to face that court of law.
01:37:21.960And then, you know, based on, based on what the, the verdict is, you know, they either go to jail or, or not.
01:37:28.080But he has never advocated for violence.
01:37:31.480He has never advocated for anything like that.
01:37:33.740And even now, even now, in his messages to the Iranian people, um, he, when he's encouraging, because also, like, one of the reasons these demonstrations are growing is because the crown prince, he is urging Iranians to go out in the streets and demonstrate.
01:37:52.760Um, these demonstrations on, from the side of the Iranians have been peaceful.
01:37:57.480But when the Islamic dictatorship opens fire on Iranians, of course, they're going to, they're going to fire back, you know, they're going to defend themselves, even though Iranians are not armed.
01:38:07.920Although we've now heard reports that in certain parts of the country, um, someone has started to arm Iranians.
01:38:16.160And so, in many places, they're, they're fighting back.
01:38:19.300But, um, there's not going to be any sort of, you know, violent purge.
01:38:23.820I mean, we're not, we're not Islamists prior to 1979.
01:38:27.160We were a modern Western secularizing society.
01:38:30.320And anything and everything that happens will, will go right, you know, it'll be, uh, based on the, you know, fundamental, uh, you know, laws and courts of justice.
01:38:40.040How does, I mean, the IRGC is pretty intense.
01:39:04.460I mean, I think, I think the ones who are Iranian might very well do so.
01:39:08.660But I think the ones who are not Iranian, you know, like the Hezbollah and like the Palestinians and, you know, Iraqis and like, I don't know, Afghanis, whoever else are there, because they're not Iranian.
01:39:20.220They're actually some of the most vicious, vicious Islamic terrorists, you know.
01:39:24.680So, um, I, I unfortunately don't see them laying down their guns.
01:39:29.120So what we really need is for the military to, to step up and for the military to defect and take the side of the people.
01:39:36.620I mean, or possibly for President Trump to, to, to do something or, you know, Israel to do something because no, no revolution has ever been successful without outside interference.
01:39:46.880And in fact, the only reason the 1979, um, Islamic coup d'etat was successful is because of Jimmy Carter and the democratic administration that supported the Ayatollah.
01:39:57.920So I want to surprise, um, um, let me take a quick one minute break and then, and then come back.
01:40:04.740And I want to just ask you, what are the signs that you're looking for that it looks inevitable, that it's getting bigger and stronger?
01:40:12.800What should we as Westerners be looking for to happen?
01:40:16.320And we'll talk about that and continue our conversation in just a minute.
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01:52:02.220This is a tyrant who ran our country into the ground, Glenn, provoked the biggest refugee crisis in our hemisphere.
01:52:09.680So, if you just look at it from just even an American standpoint, 8 million people leaving a country, including me and my family, that's going to wreak havoc on neighboring countries, including the United States.
01:52:21.980Regardless, he pretty much ran our oil company into the ground as well.
01:52:27.000Wait, before you go on to more, let me just say it also, it destroys Venezuela because you have a brain drain.
01:52:39.040My brother, who's an oil expert, by the way, that he dreamed of being able to work in our oil industry back home, is now working at an energy company in Canada.
01:52:48.980I mean, there's generations lost here because they've tried to impose the Cuban communist model in Venezuela, which means pretty much eliminate high-quality education and everybody must be loyal to Maduro and to the regime.
01:53:06.080And that has been happening for 25 years.
01:53:08.300So, we have tried to get this regime out democratic ways.
01:53:15.460And at this point, Trump coming in and saying, you know what, this person is actually running a drug trafficking ring, is not the legitimate president, and is charged with tons of human rights abuses, is absolutely a person that we should get rid of, and he should face American justice.
01:53:31.780Of course, we're going to welcome that.
01:53:33.940And just to give you some perspective about what's happening on the ground, you know, the regime is saying Maduro was just the face.
01:53:42.880This is 25 years in the making here, and there are power brokers down there who control the oil and the military.
01:53:49.840And I understand the president's decision to not remove the entire machinery immediately because I think that would have wreaked havoc in the system anyway, but there is a lot of fear on the ground.
01:54:04.140They even published sort of this official decree down there that anyone who dares celebrate what the president did or is chatting about it on their phones can be detained.
01:54:15.080So a lot of fear amongst my friends and family down there.
01:54:18.240Okay, so nobody's going to go return to home until that is solved.
01:54:21.820And I've really been – I applaud the president for not a regime change and throwing it into chaos, and I think his plan is to watch that closely and make sure that there is a fair election.
01:54:36.480But he said that, you know, the woman who, you know, couldn't run and her stand-in won by, what, 35% and then, you know, was rejected by Maduro.
01:54:48.240The president said he doesn't think she has, you know, real support in the country.
01:54:57.880She has real support because this was a woman that was the only one that was able to give us hope and to actually conduct an election when there was no hope to be had last year.
01:55:09.860So it's not that she doesn't have support.
01:55:12.240She's seen like almost like as a saint down there, and people absolutely love her.
01:55:17.880What he meant, I think, to say was that she doesn't hold the reins of the country in terms of what you need for such a complex country to be able to run right now in a power vacuum.
01:55:30.520So I.E. the military, the guns, the oil, a.k.a. the money, all of the institutions.
01:55:37.740You also have to think about this, Glenn.
01:55:40.200The Cubans really infiltrated Venezuela with Chavez, right?
01:55:44.160Cuba was doing horribly when Chavez got elected, and Fidel said, this is my lifeline here because we're not getting any more, like as much money from Russia as we used to get.
01:55:54.320So Cubans down there control security.
01:56:26.280I, as a Venezuelan, also, and I wrote a subsect newsletter about that today, I don't even mind, and I'm not even outraged at Trump saying that they're going, that the American oil companies are going to come in and take our oil because, frankly, our oil has been used to buy support from Russia, China, Iran, Cuba.
01:56:46.840I'd much rather give it to the United States and have them fix this industry that was running to the ground.
01:56:53.280But I do think that we have to keep an eye on, you know, reprisals and this climate of fear and these armed urban militias going out and pretty much terrorizing the population.
01:57:09.300Because there's a reason why all of the images you see of Venezuelans celebrating are from abroad.
01:57:17.340Everyone wants to celebrate, but nobody can speak freely.
01:57:21.480What an amazing insight that I have not heard elsewhere.
01:57:26.300The mainstream media has this so wrong.
01:57:29.820I mean, it's incredible how wrong they are on this.
01:57:33.140And they've been wrong about Chavez and Maduro the whole time.
01:57:36.680But why is it they still just can't get it?
01:57:42.680And I think that this is a region that also has been ignored by the U.S. for a long time.
01:57:48.580And there's a reason why then China and Russia swooped in and, you know, sort of took hold of that vacuum.
01:57:57.700You know, for years as a correspondent, I tried to get stories on Venezuela on the air.
01:58:03.040And it was hard because, you know, you didn't have, like you do now, a secretary of state that is very intricately tied and interested in this part of the world.
01:58:13.300And I do think that the United States needs to pay attention as the superpower in our hemisphere to what is happening in our hemisphere,
01:58:20.700especially when you have a country also, Glenn, that has and that has been proven, Hezbollah presence, Iran presence.
01:58:29.200Like if you go to the airport in Venezuela, it's crazy.
01:58:31.900If you see the names of a lot of the people that are in charge in the cabinet and the National Assembly, many of them are Arabic names.
01:58:39.980So I think there's been a lack of interest for a long time that has contributed to the media then not really being focused in this part of the world.
01:58:48.080And then it's also, which sucks, you know, taken, you know, through this lens of polarization that we're living in in the U.S.
01:58:56.700where, you know, I did a couple of hits over the weekend, as you mentioned.
01:59:00.100And right before coming on, they would show like the anti, you know, the people that don't agree with the Maduro capture.
01:59:05.860And there was not a single Venezuelan being interviewed or a single Venezuelan in these anti-Maduro capture protests.
01:59:12.520Like these people don't really speak for us.
01:59:15.260They're just against whatever the administration is doing.
01:59:17.680Mariana, let me ask, if freedom is actually restored and this works to come back to a capitalist system.
01:59:30.740I mean, I just had a Persian woman on just a minute ago from Iran.
01:59:34.800And, you know, the Persian people are not what everybody thinks of in Iran.
01:59:38.760They're an amazing, amazing culture and amazing people.
02:00:05.680My own grandparents fled Europe after World War II, came to Venezuela.
02:00:11.720You know, there's a big Italian Venezuelan community, Jewish Venezuelan community, Spanish Venezuelan community.
02:00:17.800And I think that if you just give the country a chance and restore its institutions, I think in the long run, a leader like Maria Corina Machado can do it.
02:00:27.660This is a country that is so vastly rich, strategically located in terms of geography, with people that are creative, hardworking, well-prepared.
02:00:38.800I do think a lot of people will want to go back.
02:00:41.060To be quite honest with you, you know, I think that life has become pretty hard and expensive in other parts of the world.
02:00:47.920So this is a country I always used to hear from my father.
02:00:51.500You start a business there, it flourishes within seconds.
02:00:55.280And the returns were pretty great back in the day.
02:00:58.640Mariana, we're witnessing an absolutely incredible time.
02:01:02.800We don't know how it's going to turn out, but I've had more hope for at least the Western Hemisphere and the Western civilization and our culture in the Western Hemisphere than I think I've ever had.
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