Verdict with Ted Cruz - June 16, 2025


Day 5 at War： Israel Wins Major Victories over Iran, but Serious Risks Remain


Episode Stats


Length

33 minutes

Words per minute

163.53256

Word count

5,528

Sentence count

371

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

29

sentences flagged

Hate speech

47

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Ted Cruz and Ben Fergusons discuss day five of Iran's attack on Israel and the devastating damage it has done to Iran's nuclear facilities. They also discuss the damage Iran is doing to Israel's infrastructure and civilian targets, and what Israel is doing in response.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.160 Good Monday morning.
00:00:06.500 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:09.460 And Senator, we've got a lot to chat about,
00:00:11.320 especially when it deals with what's happening with Israel and Iran.
00:00:15.180 It is day five of Israel's war with Iran,
00:00:18.640 and the entire world is watching with bated breath.
00:00:22.460 Israel is scoring major victories,
00:00:24.920 taking out senior Iranian military leadership,
00:00:28.100 doing massive damage to Iran's nuclear facilities.
00:00:32.300 We're going to break down exactly what has happened.
00:00:35.060 We're going to talk also about the missiles that are flying back into Israel,
00:00:39.180 about the Israeli civilians who are being wounded,
00:00:42.880 who are being killed as a price for this war.
00:00:45.860 We're going to talk about the risks that American servicemen and women
00:00:48.780 are facing in the Middle East,
00:00:50.780 and the risk all of us are facing here at home
00:00:52.980 of the potential for Iranian terrorism.
00:00:55.480 And the question everyone is asking, what's next?
00:00:58.920 Where does this go?
00:01:00.500 More than once, I've had teenagers at home ask,
00:01:04.200 is this World War III?
00:01:06.480 The short answer is no, but we're going to break down why.
00:01:09.280 All of that on today's verdict.
00:01:11.040 Yeah, it's a really important show.
00:01:13.220 I want to also make sure you guys remember,
00:01:15.480 hit that subscribe auto download button
00:01:17.960 and share this podcast on your social media,
00:01:20.760 wherever you're listening right now.
00:01:22.180 We've also had so many of you that have asked the question,
00:01:25.080 how can I help people in Israel?
00:01:26.980 And we've been telling you about the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews,
00:01:30.340 and the work they are doing is incredible.
00:01:32.540 They are deploying bomb shelters, as we speak,
00:01:36.140 to help keep people safe in Israel.
00:01:38.620 When things get bad,
00:01:40.200 that is when they step up and protect families and loved ones.
00:01:44.480 And if you want to get involved
00:01:46.400 and stand with the people in Israel right now,
00:01:48.700 you can do it by giving food and shelter to Jewish families that are under threat.
00:01:53.780 As I said, they're building bomb shelters for children.
00:01:56.800 They're helping survivors of the attacks that we're witnessing right now.
00:02:01.000 And they are doing it daily.
00:02:03.800 Your gift of only $45 will help support life-saving work
00:02:07.920 by providing food, shelter, and so much more.
00:02:11.240 I was speaking with the CEO of IFCJ,
00:02:13.740 and she was talking about just how hard it is for so many families in Israel right now
00:02:18.760 and what they're doing on the ground
00:02:20.620 and the bomb shelters that are needed.
00:02:22.940 And she said very simply,
00:02:24.420 if you can help stand with the people in Israel that are under attack,
00:02:28.180 they are doing everything they can to support them
00:02:30.940 and to give the bomb shelters that are needed.
00:02:33.700 So step up and help right now if you can at all.
00:02:37.380 888-488-IFCJ.
00:02:39.760 That's 888-488-4325.
00:02:44.640 You can also give online at ifcj.org.
00:02:48.620 Every dollar helps.
00:02:50.060 Don't wait.
00:02:50.980 Be the difference.
00:02:52.100 Ifcj.org or 888-488-IFCJ.
00:02:57.380 So Senator, this started, as you mentioned, five days ago.
00:03:00.660 And let's go back to what caused this to happen
00:03:04.640 and remind people how we got here.
00:03:06.800 Well, in many ways, I think this was inevitable.
00:03:10.280 It is inevitable because the Ayatollah has set out a clear objective of acquiring a nuclear weapon. 0.96
00:03:16.500 President Trump had given the Ayatollah a 60-day deadline,
00:03:20.000 a 60-day deadline to cut a deal.
00:03:22.500 And the deal that the president was demanding was complete dismantlement.
00:03:25.800 I led a letter of 52 Republican senators saying we agree with President Trump
00:03:31.180 that the only acceptable outcome is complete and total dismantlement,
00:03:35.960 every Iranian centrifuge being dismantled.
00:03:39.180 Why? 0.99
00:03:39.640 Because the Iranians have proved they are liars. 1.00
00:03:42.800 And if they keep enriching uranium, 0.95
00:03:45.140 they will use that to try to develop a nuclear weapon. 0.99
00:03:47.860 And given that these are theocratic lunatics who chant death to America and death to Israel, 0.97
00:03:53.380 I believe they want a nuclear weapon because they want the ability to use a nuclear weapon. 0.96
00:03:59.400 And so on day 61, Iran announced,
00:04:03.400 we will not dismantle even a single centrifuge.
00:04:06.500 And we're going to build more.
00:04:08.060 We're going to keep enriching,
00:04:09.300 which was essentially a gigantic middle finger to President Trump.
00:04:13.240 But it was also telling Israel,
00:04:15.480 hey, hit us now because we're going to keep going until we get a nuke.
00:04:20.280 And Israel did not need to be asked twice. 0.91
00:04:23.660 This attack was launched on the 61st day,
00:04:26.740 the day after the expiration of President Trump's deadline.
00:04:30.580 And listen, what we've seen in the last five days has been a massive attack from Israel 0.99
00:04:35.880 that is highly targeted.
00:04:37.900 As of June 15, Israel had struck more than 720 military targets in Iran.
00:04:46.980 These airstrikes are largely intelligence driven.
00:04:51.000 They're precision strikes on infrastructure,
00:04:54.540 on military leaders, on mobile military targets.
00:04:58.380 And part of the reason Israel is able to do so 0.99
00:05:01.160 is that Israel has almost complete dominance of the airspace
00:05:05.300 because they've degraded Iran's air defenses.
00:05:07.900 And so in the last five days, who have they taken out?
00:05:12.060 Well, Israel has taken out Major General Hossein Salami,
00:05:16.260 who was the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC.
00:05:20.940 They've taken out Major General Mohammed Bagheri,
00:05:24.000 who was the chief of staff of the armed forces.
00:05:26.820 They've taken out Major General Gholam Ali Rashid,
00:05:30.580 who was the head of the Qatam al-Anbiya central headquarters.
00:05:34.780 They've taken out Brigadier General Amir Ali Hadjadzadeh,
00:05:40.460 commander of the IRGC Air Force.
00:05:42.740 They've taken out Ali Shamkhani,
00:05:45.600 who's a close aide to the supreme leader
00:05:48.000 and the former Iranian Navy commander.
00:05:51.160 They've taken out Amir Ali Hadjadzadeh, commander of the IRGC airspace units,
00:05:58.820 oversaw ballistic missiles.
00:06:00.420 They've taken out Brigadier General Khosrav Hassani,
00:06:04.720 the IRGC intelligence airspace force chief deputy.
00:06:08.200 They've taken out Mohamed Mehdi Teranji,
00:06:12.560 who's a physicist and president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran.
00:06:17.220 And they've taken out Faridun Abassi,
00:06:21.460 former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
00:06:25.220 This is massive.
00:06:26.760 This is decapitation of the senior military leaders in Iran.
00:06:31.260 They've also had targeted strikes on bases,
00:06:33.720 and we're going to go through that in a minute.
00:06:34.880 But the effect of it, the leaders that Iran would turn to to say
00:06:40.240 wage war against Israel, they're all taken out.
00:06:45.500 And it was almost instantaneous.
00:06:48.300 Now, the other thing that has the Iranians completely freaked out is the intel. 0.97
00:06:54.200 Israel knew where each of those leaders were.
00:06:56.720 They took them all out within hours of each other.
00:06:59.800 I mean, it was almost instantaneous.
00:07:01.720 Now, you've got to note the Iranians, 0.65
00:07:03.240 and their leaders were all sitting around in predictable places on the 61st day.
00:07:07.060 They did not think Israel was going to act.
00:07:09.960 That was a wrong prediction.
00:07:12.980 And you combine that with massive degradation of the air defenses
00:07:18.240 and multiple attacks on bases, nuclear facilities, and also missile launch sites.
00:07:23.880 And Israel's opening salvos of this attack have been incredibly effective. 0.98
00:07:29.120 You look at the effectiveness of this, and I do have to just say, honestly, wow.
00:07:36.080 The intelligence work that they've just been sitting on, as you mentioned, Israel,
00:07:41.040 is truly mind-blowing.
00:07:43.460 But there's also, I think, a debt of gratitude the world owes Israel
00:07:47.420 for stepping up and doing what needed to be done.
00:07:50.880 Would you agree?
00:07:51.580 Absolutely, yes.
00:07:54.400 And listen, Iran wants a nuclear weapon.
00:08:00.500 The Ayatollah refers to Israel as the little Satan. 0.92
00:08:05.080 He refers to America as the great Satan.
00:08:08.960 And I've got to say, as an American, I think Americans should be grateful
00:08:12.320 that Israel is taking out not just these leaders.
00:08:16.900 And mind you, the IRGC are the same people who've taken out two different hits
00:08:21.720 on President Trump, have hired assassins to try to murder President Trump.
00:08:26.060 They've hired assassins to try to murder Trump's former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.
00:08:31.320 They've hired assassins to try to murder Trump's former National Security Advisor, John Bolton.
00:08:36.860 And these nuclear weapons, it is a massive favor to the United States
00:08:42.320 to take out the facility.
00:08:43.400 So, for example, the Natanz facility, which is the main uranium enrichment facility,
00:08:49.440 the United Nations nuclear chief, Rafael Grossi, told the Security Council
00:08:53.240 that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was totally destroyed.
00:08:57.960 He said all the electrical infrastructure and emergency power generators were destroyed.
00:09:02.440 And he said the section of the facility where uranium was enriched up to 60%, that was destroyed.
00:09:08.440 Satellite imagery confirms that the pilot fuel enrichment plant was destroyed
00:09:13.420 and buildings across the facility were damaged.
00:09:16.820 There are also reports that electricity is down in Natanz's lower levels,
00:09:20.860 which is where centrifuges used to enrich uranium are stored.
00:09:26.800 That was massively effective.
00:09:28.420 And, you know, one thing I want to say, so on Twitter, look, most people,
00:09:32.580 certainly people who are focused on protecting America's national security,
00:09:35.680 are celebrating what's happening here.
00:09:37.900 But I will say there are some voices on Twitter who have decided that what America first means
00:09:44.140 is that we retreat from the world and we don't actually stand up to our enemies.
00:09:49.500 And I'm here to tell you that is not America first.
00:09:52.280 Listen, I am someone who is reluctant to put U.S. servicemen and women on harm's way.
00:09:58.180 And by the way, President Trump is also.
00:10:00.760 In his first term, he did not invade foreign countries.
00:10:03.580 Indeed, he ended two wars.
00:10:05.320 But at the same time, it is worth remembering,
00:10:08.460 Donald Trump has never been an isolationist.
00:10:11.100 In his first term, Donald Trump inherited from Barack Obama.
00:10:15.620 ISIS had a caliphate the size of the state of Indiana.
00:10:18.580 And Trump utterly decimated that caliphate.
00:10:21.520 He destroyed ISIS.
00:10:23.000 Trump took out General Soleimani, the former head of the IRGC.
00:10:27.240 And he also took out al-Baghdadi.
00:10:29.560 Trump's actions were never those of an isolationist.
00:10:32.200 And I will say some of the folks who are throwing rocks, attacking the president,
00:10:37.480 attacking the president and saying President Trump is not America first
00:10:41.260 because he's supporting Israel and standing up and stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
00:10:46.240 I will say the president had an interview in the Atlantic where here's what he said.
00:10:51.700 Quote, well, considering that I'm the one that developed America first
00:10:56.140 and considering that the term wasn't used until I came along,
00:11:00.040 I think I'm the one that decides that.
00:11:02.140 For those people who say they want peace,
00:11:04.720 you can't have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. 0.95
00:11:07.780 So for all those wonderful people who don't want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon,
00:11:13.120 that's not peace.
00:11:14.200 I got to say, I agree with President Trump.
00:11:16.700 He is exactly right.
00:11:19.020 And America first means peace through strength.
00:11:22.180 And stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon keeps us out of war. 0.78
00:11:26.400 How close do you think we really were?
00:11:28.820 And that's one of the questions I've been asked.
00:11:30.660 If I've been asked it once, it's a hundred times,
00:11:32.600 to dealing with the real possibility of a nuclear Iran
00:11:37.600 or an Iran that was willing to go after Israel the way that Israel has described it,
00:11:42.800 it was way closer than it should have ever been.
00:11:45.300 Well, that's right.
00:11:46.240 And I'll tell you what, you should listen to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
00:11:50.380 when he explains what their intelligence showed.
00:11:53.900 Here, give a listen.
00:11:54.920 You know, I just want to press you on the intel on the nuclear part.
00:11:58.580 Less than two months ago, the new director of national intelligence,
00:12:01.320 Tulsi Gabbard, testified on Capitol Hill saying that everything had been suspended since 2003
00:12:07.320 and had not restarted, that the nuclear program had not been restarted by the Iranians.
00:12:12.680 So did something change from end of March until this week?
00:12:16.820 Was the U.S. intel wrong?
00:12:18.920 The intel we got and we shared with the United States was absolutely clear.
00:12:24.520 It was absolutely clear that they were working in a secret plan to weaponize the uranium.
00:12:30.480 They were marching very quickly.
00:12:32.080 They would achieve a test device and possibly an initial device within months
00:12:37.420 and certainly less than a year.
00:12:39.040 That was the intel we shared with the United States.
00:12:41.580 I think we have excellent intel in Iran.
00:12:44.560 I think we've proven that.
00:12:46.000 And that is something that we couldn't possibly accept.
00:12:48.980 Whether it would be six months or 12 months or 13 months is immaterial.
00:12:53.140 Once they go that route, it's too late.
00:12:55.840 And we will not have a second holocaust, a nuclear holocaust. 0.87
00:12:59.900 We already had one in the previous century.
00:13:02.300 The Jewish state is not going to have the holocaust made it on the Jewish people.
00:13:06.080 It's not going to happen.
00:13:06.900 Never again is now.
00:13:08.500 And we have to act now.
00:13:10.440 Senator, the idea of a nuclear holocaust, the way that he just described it,
00:13:15.300 is one that I think everyone should just step back and really think about.
00:13:19.420 And then there's the second aspect of this, which is, if there's any foreign policy doctrine
00:13:26.520 that has been very clear in the world, it is Iran saying that they want to destroy Israel
00:13:32.580 from the river, the sea, death to Israel. 0.99
00:13:35.440 It is their foreign policy.
00:13:37.720 It is clear they're not lying about it.
00:13:40.640 Believe them when they say they want to annihilate Israel. 1.00
00:13:43.560 Well, and look, the Ayatollah, the Islamic revolution in Iran, succeeded in 1979.
00:13:51.960 And the Iranian regime, since that time, has been the number one state sponsor of terrorism
00:13:56.840 in the world.
00:13:58.840 The Ayatollah has paid for Hamas, provides, Iran provides over 90% of the funding for Hamas,
00:14:06.580 over 90% of the funding for Hezbollah. 0.88
00:14:08.220 They fund terrorists who murder Israelis. 0.98
00:14:11.240 They fund terrorists who murder Americans.
00:14:13.620 General Soleimani, who Trump took out in the first term, was directly responsible for the
00:14:18.600 murder of over 600 American servicemen and women.
00:14:23.120 And to give you a sense of the level of hatred from the Iranian radicals, and I want to draw 0.84
00:14:31.700 a distinction between the theocratic zealots, that is the Ayatollah and the Mullahs, versus
00:14:39.880 the Iranian people.
00:14:40.780 Look, the people of Iran before the revolution, Iran was a relatively secular country.
00:14:45.600 They were an ally of America.
00:14:47.620 They were, in many senses, pro-America.
00:14:50.400 And it was the radical jihadists that took it over, that twisted it, and they've been horrible
00:14:55.880 to the people of Iran.
00:14:56.880 And so I think there are a great many people in Iran who yearn to be free from these theocratic 0.79
00:15:02.140 lunatics who've dominated the country, and who engage in torture and murder and suppression 0.91
00:15:07.700 of their own citizens.
00:15:09.640 But the former—here's an amazing fact.
00:15:13.440 The former head of the Iranian nuclear program, who has some time ago gone to meet his maker,
00:15:23.580 and many say at the hands of the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence services, he had written
00:15:30.620 in his last will and testament that he wanted the following words written on his tombstone.
00:15:36.380 Here lies a man who sought to annihilate Israel. 0.55
00:15:43.300 Now, Ben, what kind of level of bilious hate do you have when the only thing you want to 1.00
00:15:50.540 be remembered for is, I am a bigot and an anti-Semite, and I want to murder as many Jews 1.00
00:15:56.680 as possible? 1.00
00:15:57.480 That's the sum total of my life.
00:15:59.100 And, listen, this is where a lot of Democrats and a lot of folks who are isolationists, they
00:16:08.000 say, well, what business is it of ours if Iran has a nuclear weapon?
00:16:13.620 I believe if the Ayatollah had a nuclear weapon, the odds are unacceptably high that he would
00:16:20.620 use that nuclear weapon.
00:16:22.780 And I want to draw a contrast to North Korea. 0.92
00:16:24.700 Look, Kim Jong-un, the dictator of North Korea, has a significant nuclear arsenal.
00:16:30.060 That was a result of catastrophic policy mistakes, most notably by Bill Clinton.
00:16:35.740 Bill Clinton went to Kim Jong-un's father, Kim Jong-il, and said, hey, let's cut a deal
00:16:41.080 with you.
00:16:42.280 We'll flow tens of billions of dollars for you in exchange for you promising not to make
00:16:46.800 nuclear weapons.
00:16:47.560 And Kim Jong-il said, hey, great idea.
00:16:49.540 I'll take your deal.
00:16:50.660 And he took the tens of billions of dollars and he used them to develop nuclear weapons.
00:16:54.320 And so now we've got a crackpot dictator on the Korean peninsula with nuclear weapons 0.77
00:16:59.680 that periodically goes off and threatens to fire the nuclear weapons at America.
00:17:04.960 You know, Trump famously calls Kim Jong-un rocket man.
00:17:10.760 The one thing that is a very dangerous part of the world because Kim Jong-un is megalomaniacal.
00:17:18.260 He's unpredictable.
00:17:19.900 But there is one thing we know, which is that he values staying in power.
00:17:25.300 And he knows if, God forbid, he ever used a nuclear weapon, that day his regime would
00:17:30.680 be over.
00:17:31.180 So hopefully you can have some modicum of rational deterrence with Kim Jong-un.
00:17:38.980 The problem with the Ayatollah is he is a theocratic zealot. 0.97
00:17:44.480 He glories in death and suicide. 0.87
00:17:48.540 And so the Ayatollah knows if he detonated a nuclear weapon, he knows that his regime 0.73
00:17:54.240 would instantly fall, that massive Iranian deaths would result. 1.00
00:17:58.900 The problem is, if he was able to murder millions of Jews or millions of Americans, he just might 0.98
00:18:06.500 be willing to take that trade with religious zealotry.
00:18:11.720 The ordinary cost-benefit analysis does not work.
00:18:15.120 And so I think if he had a nuclear weapon, we could find out for sure with a mushroom cloud
00:18:21.020 over Tel Aviv or New York or Los Angeles.
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00:18:54.140 There's also another aspect of this.
00:18:57.940 Iran is excellent at using terrorist organizations. 1.00
00:19:01.420 Yes.
00:19:02.080 They fund them.
00:19:03.020 They give them weaponry.
00:19:04.580 They train them.
00:19:05.640 I mean, there are countless examples of Iran using extremist groups.
00:19:11.500 If they also got this technology, what's the guarantee they wouldn't hand it over to somebody
00:19:17.720 like that?
00:19:18.440 Yeah.
00:19:19.060 And look, that's the problem.
00:19:20.840 Do they have a reliable ICBM that could carry a nuclear weapon from Iran to Manhattan?
00:19:28.920 Probably not.
00:19:29.980 Although they're trying to develop them.
00:19:31.220 They have an ICBM program.
00:19:33.140 And it's worth noting, you do not need an ICBM to get to Israel from Iran.
00:19:38.180 A ballistic missile is sufficient. 0.97
00:19:40.200 An intercontinental ballistic missile is designed to travel much further.
00:19:43.680 One hundred percent of the reason Iran has an ICBM program is to carry a nuclear warhead 0.87
00:19:52.240 to America.
00:19:53.120 Israel's not the target of their ICBMs.
00:19:55.580 America is.
00:19:56.740 But I would note also, they would not need an ICBM to do it.
00:20:01.440 If they could get it on a ship or a container and detonate it at a port anywhere in America,
00:20:07.020 or I'll tell you one enormous risk, they could put it in a satellite that is orbiting
00:20:11.900 over, say, the eastern seaboard and detonate a nuclear weapon, which would set off an EMP
00:20:17.300 and take down the electrical grid.
00:20:19.780 I'll tell you, I've seen the projections.
00:20:21.920 An EMP that took down the electrical grid could result in, over time, millions of deaths
00:20:27.820 in America.
00:20:28.380 That's the kind of vulnerability we're facing.
00:20:31.160 And so my view, President Trump is exactly right when he says that's not peace.
00:20:37.140 We're not going to find out what a world with an Iranian nuke is like. 1.00
00:20:41.780 And I'll tell you, I spoke with President Trump this weekend, and I told him I thought he was
00:20:47.940 doing a fantastic job, and he was agreeing.
00:20:51.740 He said, look, he gave Iran every option to avoid this, and they didn't want to.
00:20:56.600 They wouldn't take a deal.
00:20:58.040 They wouldn't agree to give up their centrifuges.
00:21:00.140 And I'll tell you what I told the President in particular.
00:21:02.340 Hold on, I've got to ask.
00:21:02.880 You said you talked to him this weekend.
00:21:04.400 Before this is, this is, before and during this is, all this is happening, correct?
00:21:09.460 Yeah, no, no.
00:21:09.960 I talked to him.
00:21:11.200 You and I are talking right now.
00:21:13.120 It is 12.25 a.m.
00:21:16.080 Sunday night, Monday morning.
00:21:17.820 I talked to him about two o'clock Sunday afternoon.
00:21:20.260 All right, so you said that he said that he offered him a deal.
00:21:23.680 That's being just either just completely disregarded by the media or severely underreported that
00:21:30.660 he was trying to get a deal done, and they refused to do it.
00:21:33.940 That's what the 60-day deadline was.
00:21:35.640 He gave him 60 days to cut a deal, and the deal had to be complete dismantlement.
00:21:39.740 And they basically told him, go jump in a lake.
00:21:42.060 We don't want a deal.
00:21:43.040 We want a nuclear weapon.
00:21:44.100 And so, you know, Trump said, all right.
00:21:46.820 And I will say there were some early reports from the administration that the administration
00:21:51.840 didn't know anything about it, and Trump very quickly corrected that and said, of course
00:21:55.820 we do about it, which is exactly right.
00:21:59.900 And listen, asking where does this go from here, I don't see any outcome that results
00:22:07.020 in American boots on the ground.
00:22:08.560 I don't see any outcome that results in American soldiers fighting in Iran.
00:22:13.000 What we're doing right now, we are assisting the Israelis.
00:22:16.920 We're assisting the Israelis in intel.
00:22:18.940 We're assisting the Israelis in surveillance. 0.51
00:22:22.080 Israel is engaged in targeted military strikes within Iran.
00:22:26.800 Iran is responding by firing a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel aimed at civilian targets.
00:22:32.860 So they're landing missiles in Tel Aviv.
00:22:35.640 And I will say, in terms of escalation, I'm worried that we will see very significant casualties
00:22:41.700 in Israel.
00:22:42.300 I was speaking with a friend of mine this evening whose mom is in Jerusalem right now.
00:22:47.620 And he said his mom, in five days, has gotten very little sleep because every night at two
00:22:51.820 or three in the morning, the sirens go off and they have to rush to a bomb shelter.
00:22:56.040 So he said she has not slept very much for five days because that's constantly happening.
00:23:01.620 There is a real risk.
00:23:03.220 There have already been significant casualties, but they could be much higher.
00:23:06.500 And listen, the government of Israel knows that.
00:23:09.280 But the casualties from these missile strikes are relatively small compared to the millions
00:23:16.760 of Israelis who could die with an Iranian nuclear attack.
00:23:21.180 And so that's why the government is acting to stop that.
00:23:24.160 But I'll tell you what I also said to the president.
00:23:26.060 I said, thank you in particular for making absolutely clear to Iran the overwhelming consequences if 0.99
00:23:34.620 they attack American servicemen and women.
00:23:37.340 And yeah, that note that he put out there was very clear because he's saying, hey,
00:23:42.900 hey, we weren't involved in this.
00:23:44.500 And we're going to state that clearly.
00:23:46.620 This was Israel doing their thing. 0.98
00:23:48.660 But if you think for a moment that you can use this to justify attacking Americans anywhere
00:23:53.940 in the world, there will be hell to pay if you do that.
00:23:57.860 Yeah, look, I think if Iran carries out a significant strike on American servicemen and women,
00:24:04.520 then I think America, if they think the bombs coming from Israel are bad, I think they will face
00:24:10.000 massive retaliation.
00:24:12.200 And then that's called deterrence.
00:24:13.200 We want them not to strike our servicemen and women.
00:24:16.680 And and by the way, that's the difference between Joe Biden, who was so weak, he couldn't
00:24:21.280 deter anything.
00:24:22.480 It helps that our enemies are afraid of the commander in chief.
00:24:27.060 That that's where actually in the debates about foreign policy, those who argue for isolationism
00:24:33.120 get it wrong, because if you're so terrified to engage with your enemies that then you end
00:24:40.500 up causing more war.
00:24:42.160 I think Reagan was right.
00:24:43.880 I think Trump is right that when you're strong, when you tell your enemies, if you attack and
00:24:48.260 kill Americans, your military leaders are going to die. 0.98
00:24:52.020 What happens is most of the time they say, you know what, we're just not going to attack. 0.97
00:24:55.640 And you end up avoiding war because because they're scared of the commander in chief.
00:25:00.960 So where does this go from here?
00:25:03.360 And this is where everybody's saying, hey, look, we want an off ramp, right?
00:25:07.920 Like, that's something we do want.
00:25:09.700 We want this.
00:25:10.800 We want to protect lives.
00:25:12.280 But at the same time, Israel is, I think, making it very clear.
00:25:15.600 We have no choice but to do this.
00:25:17.400 And we're doing the world a huge service by doing it.
00:25:22.220 Yeah, so the Israeli government is talking on a time frame that this could last another
00:25:27.420 week or two.
00:25:28.820 They're engaged in massive bombings.
00:25:31.320 And at some point, you know, at some point, the question is, how much ordinance do they
00:25:36.400 have?
00:25:36.800 How much capacity do they have to keep bombing?
00:25:38.680 And how many targets do they have?
00:25:41.040 But, you know, I will say also, one of the most significant sites is Fordow.
00:25:48.120 Now, Fordow is a nuclear bunker that is built into the side of a mountain.
00:25:54.780 And it's built deliberately to make it very difficult to strike, to carry out an airstrike.
00:26:00.160 And it's where much of their nuclear research is being conducted.
00:26:04.940 Now, there were reports on Sunday that Israel carried out a strike at Fordow.
00:26:08.900 But but at least based on publicly reported material, Israel does not have sufficiently
00:26:15.700 effective bunker buster bombs to be able to take out the deep underground laboratories
00:26:21.600 at Fordow.
00:26:22.620 And so one of the open questions is is to the best of my knowledge, the only military that
00:26:28.420 has those bombs is the United States.
00:26:30.100 We have really big bunker busters that are made to take out deep, deep underground facilities
00:26:36.500 like the Fordow nuclear facilities.
00:26:38.320 And so one open question I have for a long time called for the United States to make
00:26:43.900 those bunker busters available to Israel.
00:26:47.260 I think taking out Fordow makes a lot of sense.
00:26:50.440 I think if Israel does it and by the way, I'll point out, look, Israel is is is a small 0.93
00:26:55.300 country is Israel is about the size of the state of New Jersey.
00:26:58.340 And and they are fighting against our enemies, our enemies who have pledged they want to murder
00:27:04.560 us.
00:27:04.920 And they're doing so at great risk to themselves.
00:27:07.460 But but and so that is something to be grateful for.
00:27:11.000 But understand they're taking out Iran's nuclear capabilities is very, very good for America 0.99
00:27:17.080 because it makes America safer.
00:27:18.960 And I think if Israel finishes the job of taking out their nuclear capability, I think this these 0.95
00:27:26.560 attacks likely end with within the next couple of weeks.
00:27:31.120 You look at Donald Trump saying we can probably get a deal done.
00:27:35.120 And is that after we accomplish the mission, if you're reading between the lines here?
00:27:39.660 I mean, you've spoken with them.
00:27:40.840 Is this a that we got to allow our ally Israel to do what they need to do in that time frame 0.59
00:27:46.020 as well?
00:27:47.000 So, listen, I'm skeptical that Iran will ever, ever cut a real deal. 0.97
00:27:52.120 I don't think you could negotiate with crazy. 0.99
00:27:54.920 And I think these people are crazy. 0.65
00:27:56.080 And so I think one of the things that would enhance American security massively is to see 0.85
00:28:04.980 the Ayatollah fall and to see the mullahs lose power, to see different leadership come
00:28:11.640 to come to Iran.
00:28:12.480 I think that would make Israel much safer.
00:28:15.080 I think that would make America much safer.
00:28:17.200 And I think that would make the Iranian people better off.
00:28:19.600 Now, let me be clear.
00:28:20.820 I'm not advocating that we send in a bunch of American soldiers to make that happen.
00:28:24.800 I am advocating that we use maximum pressure and economic sanctions to pressure the regime
00:28:30.780 in a way that that might encourage this regime to fall, because I think that they have demonstrated
00:28:36.940 that they are are homicidal and murderously directing their urges towards killing Americans.
00:28:45.240 And so removing people from power who are trying to kill Americans makes America safer.
00:28:50.200 Let me also go back to something you mentioned earlier.
00:28:52.780 And this seems to clearly be part of Israel's strategy, which is you go after and take 0.94
00:28:58.380 out people that that are, in essence, holding down the people and silencing the people in
00:29:04.040 Iran in the leadership roles.
00:29:06.080 That's part of who they seem to be going after.
00:29:08.440 That could be huge for for allowing what you just described to actually happen, a revolution
00:29:13.840 within Israel or I should say within Iran.
00:29:16.220 Well, and listen, one of the conscious choices that it appears that Israel made was not to 0.66
00:29:22.740 target the Ayatollah himself.
00:29:24.900 And I don't have I have no classified information.
00:29:27.580 By the way.
00:29:28.020 Yeah.
00:29:28.600 Why is that out of curiosity?
00:29:30.420 So I don't know for sure.
00:29:31.980 I have no classified information on this, but I can give an educated guess, which is that
00:29:37.160 taking out the leader of a country through military forces is a significant step.
00:29:43.640 Now, mind you, the Ayatollah is perfectly fine hiring hitmen to try to murder Donald Trump. 0.99
00:29:48.880 So the Ayatollah has no problem doing it. 0.83
00:29:50.940 And I have no doubt that if the Ayatollah could could murder Prime Minister Netanyahu, 0.86
00:29:55.960 he would do so in the blink of an eye.
00:29:58.620 He has not been able to do so.
00:30:01.040 But I think the Israelis, given their success in taking out everyone else, I think it's reasonable 1.00
00:30:06.340 to assume that they would have had a real prospect of taking the Ayatollah out had they chosen 0.91
00:30:11.380 to do so.
00:30:12.080 My guess is that they made a decision that taking out the leader of the country could
00:30:16.540 backfire, especially given that he is also a religious leader and you run into a danger 0.98
00:30:22.540 of potentially making him a martyr.
00:30:25.420 And it is not clear if you toppled him in those circumstances, you might get a younger 0.93
00:30:31.560 theocratic lunatic take over instead. 0.73
00:30:34.160 And so I think it is a reasonable decision for Israel to say, rather than target the Ayatollah 0.95
00:30:40.940 directly, let's take out every one of their top military officers that they would use to
00:30:46.680 prosecute a war.
00:30:47.720 And by the way, those are the same people they use to push down an uprising to oppress
00:30:53.120 their people.
00:30:53.680 And so degrading their capabilities, it's what they've done with Hezbollah. 0.97
00:30:59.220 They've taken out their top leadership.
00:31:01.120 It's what they've done.
00:31:02.220 It's what they've done with Hamas. 0.77
00:31:04.040 And I'll tell you, on Saturday, Israel conducted a strike in Yemen, killing the Houthi chief
00:31:11.220 of staff, Mohammed Abdul Karim al-Gamari, who was responsible for overseeing Houthi military
00:31:19.780 operations and directing the procurement and deployment of a number of weapon systems for
00:31:25.300 them.
00:31:25.560 The Houthis are another arm of Iran. 0.53
00:31:28.080 And so what Israel has done is weakened Iran on every front.
00:31:32.640 And that oppressive infrastructure, their ability to wage war, their ability to kill Israelis, 0.95
00:31:38.580 their ability to kill Americans, their ability to fund terrorism, and their ability to suppress 0.86
00:31:44.100 their people, all of those are substantially weakened.
00:31:47.940 That's a very good thing.
00:31:49.180 Final question for you on this.
00:31:51.000 As we move forward through this week, I think it's pretty obvious the media is obsessed with
00:31:56.720 Donald Trump somehow not standing with Israel or trying to drive a wedge.
00:32:02.400 Do you think there's any chance at all that can happen? 1.00
00:32:04.800 Because in the early questions, it was almost like, you guys are idiots. 1.00
00:32:08.840 Come on. 1.00
00:32:09.780 I think President Trump has been the strongest pro-Israel president in the history of America.
00:32:14.600 It's an exact contrast with Joe Biden.
00:32:17.020 Joe Biden was the most anti-Israel president in the history of America.
00:32:21.820 The fact that they occurred back and back.
00:32:24.080 You want to talk about whiplash.
00:32:26.340 You'll recall we did this podcast when Bibi came to Washington, and I met with him for about
00:32:32.480 two hours.
00:32:33.180 He is a good friend.
00:32:34.740 I have not spoken to Bibi since this war broke out, although I did speak with the Israeli ambassador
00:32:40.060 to the United States on Thursday night, the night the war began.
00:32:43.960 And listen, their successes are significant, but they have the complete backing of the Trump
00:32:53.480 administration, and that is important.
00:32:56.140 I do think there are some voices within the administration that are pressing back.
00:33:02.300 And part of the reason I talked to President Trump today was to say, what you're doing is
00:33:07.820 exactly right.
00:33:08.640 You're making America safer by allowing Israel to take out Iran's nukes, and you're also 0.90
00:33:14.400 protecting American servicemen and women.
00:33:17.000 Keep doing it.
00:33:18.000 And he agreed emphatically.
00:33:20.280 Don't forget we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
00:33:22.660 Hit that subscribe or auto-download button so you do not miss an episode as we take you
00:33:27.580 behind the scenes, even these conversations with President Trump as well.
00:33:31.040 So make sure you do that.
00:33:32.100 Please share this podcast on social media as well.
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00:33:40.600 And the Senator and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.
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00:33:47.480 Guaranteed Human.