Verdict with Ted Cruz - End Of Iran's Civilization PAUSED—Why, What It Means & What's Next

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.660 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.360 Welcome.

00:00:05.040 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:07.900 It's so nice to have you with us.

00:00:09.420 And Senator, we are doing this show.

00:00:11.420 And honestly, as we were show prepping, we didn't know what was going to happen.

00:00:15.600 And now it looks like the Strait of Hormuz is going to be reopened after Trump announced

00:00:19.860 a two week double sided ceasefire.

00:00:23.020 Well, the end of Iranian civilization that was scheduled to happen at 8 p.m. 0.88

00:00:26.980 Tuesday night, East Coast time, has apparently been paused. It has been paused for two weeks.

00:00:32.580 President Trump announced a two-week ceasefire. He did so after the intervention of the government

00:00:38.020 of Pakistan, asking to negotiate peace between Iran and the United States. Iran has stated they

00:00:44.740 intend to open the Strait of Hormuz. But at the same time, as we talk right now, this is late

00:00:50.140 Tuesday night, Iranian missiles are still flying in the air. We're going to break down what we know,

00:00:55.560 what's happened so far, and what's likely to happen next.

00:00:58.880 Yeah, we'll have all that for you as well in a moment.

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00:02:17.460 All right, Senator. So let's talk about the big news here. And look, the president made it very clear over the Easter weekend. There was a hardcore deadline and that deadline was closing in quickly. It was going to be Tuesday night. The president, I said on Piers Morgan's show today, he's not going to flinch like you need to listen to him. It's very clear he's not going to flinch. And it was also very clear what he was demanding.

00:02:42.780 If you want to get a deal done, you've got to open up the Strait of Hormuz.

00:02:46.260 That is exactly now what Iran is saying they're going to do, at least for hopefully the next two weeks, while they try to figure this thing out.

00:02:52.540 But that's the reason why the president said pause to major military action.

00:02:57.880 Well, I've got to say, Ben, you and I also said that exact same thing on Monday's verdict.

00:03:02.860 And so I'm sitting here wondering, why, Ben, do you hurt me?

00:03:05.500 Why do you bring up Piers Morgan?

00:03:08.380 Because I'm fighting the commies over there. 0.99

00:03:10.360 I was yelling at Dave Smith, the crazy guy that thinks America is a terrorist organization. 1.00

00:03:15.780 Don't argue with crazy people. 1.00

00:03:19.520 It's like wrestling with pigs. 1.00

00:03:21.320 You get covered in mud and the pig enjoys it.

00:03:25.640 That's true.

00:03:26.360 You would have been proud, though.

00:03:27.460 It was a one-on-one.

00:03:28.800 And I say very kindly, I whooped his A-double-S.

00:03:32.580 It was a beatdown, my friend.

00:03:34.540 Are you familiar with the t-shirt, I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed man? 1.00

00:03:38.940 Yes, yes.

00:03:40.360 yeah so look monday's podcast we did a deep dive on this and and the president's threat president

00:03:46.840 trump's threat i believe was not a bluff he was not kidding and at 8 p.m he was prepared to unleash

00:03:53.520 holy hell and to take out power plants across the nation of iran and take out bridges across

00:03:58.780 the nation of iran and what we talked about was the big open question was does the ayatollah care

00:04:04.980 to the mullah's care? Or are they perfectly happy seeing their economy go literally back into the 0.65

00:04:11.080 dark ages, see the lights go out, go back to having candles and be by fire pits because there's

00:04:19.020 no electricity in the country? Well, here's what President Trump put out on Trump's social on

00:04:24.860 Tuesday. Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shabazz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim

00:04:31.340 Munir of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent 1.00

00:04:37.220 tonight to Iran, and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran's agreeing to the, all caps,

00:04:43.920 complete, immediate, and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing

00:04:49.380 and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This will be a double-sided ceasefire, ceasefires,

00:04:56.040 all caps. The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all military

00:05:00.780 objectives and are very far along with a definitive agreement concerning the long-term

00:05:05.640 peace with Iran and peace in the Middle East. We have received a 10-point proposal from Iran

00:05:11.360 and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost all of the various points of

00:05:17.680 past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two-week period

00:05:23.200 will allow the agreement to be finalized and consummated. On behalf of the United States

00:05:28.260 of America as president and also representing the countries of the Middle East, it is an honor to

00:05:34.320 have this long-term problem close to resolution. Thank you for your attention to this matter,

00:05:39.540 President Donald J. Trump. Now, in response, Iran put out an official statement, and here's the

00:05:46.360 response of Iran. Tehran, 7 April 2026. On behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran, I express gratitude

00:05:55.200 and appreciation for my dear brothers, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Sharif and the Field Marshal

00:06:00.560 Mounir for their tireless efforts to end the war in the region. In response to the brotherly request

00:06:06.320 of Prime Minister Sharif in his tweet, and considering the request by the U.S. for

00:06:11.980 negotiations based on its 15-point proposal, as well as an announcement by POTUS about acceptance

00:06:17.860 of the general framework of Iran's 10-point proposal as a basis for negotiations, I hereby

00:06:23.920 declare on behalf of iran's supreme national security council if attacks against iran are

00:06:29.520 halted our powerful armed forces all uh each capitalized will cease their defensive operations

00:06:37.900 for a period of two weeks safe passage through the strait of hormuz will be possible

00:06:42.980 via coordination with iran's armed forces and with due consideration of technical limitations

00:06:49.960 Sayyid Abbas Aragachi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Islamic Republic of Iran.

00:06:56.000 Now, as you and I are sitting here, it is a few minutes before midnight Tuesday night.

00:07:01.180 We don't know what's going to happen.

00:07:02.880 We do know there are reports this evening of Iranian ballistic missiles raining down on Israel right now.

00:07:10.660 So it appears, as of right now, the two-way ceasefire is not being honored by Iran.

00:07:16.940 We don't know what will happen on Wednesday, on Thursday, on Friday.

00:07:20.600 I will say if Iran continues offensive attacks on its neighbors, I am skeptical the two-week pause will hold. 0.96

00:07:30.500 Let me ask you a question about the wording there, because I think this is very interesting, and I want your take on it.

00:07:36.560 Two-way ceasefire, there was several people that I talked to in Israel that said,

00:07:41.600 the reason why that verbiage may have been used is to make it clear this was just a ceasefire

00:07:47.880 between the u.s and iran this did not include israel iran that's why it was two way not three

00:07:55.300 way right uh our trilateral you know agreement here and and it looked like israel it also basically

00:08:01.480 said like we're still going to probably be hitting targets over the next two weeks as well

00:08:05.500 is that part of the reason why the president said it that way do you think so i'm going to give you

00:08:10.560 my technical and precise answer i got no idea i i i don't know this is why i love doing this show

00:08:17.740 if we don't know something we will tell you like yeah i'm not gonna hide it i look i'm reading the

00:08:22.080 same tweet you are the tweet says this will be a double-sided ceasefire look my suspicion is

00:08:29.820 that was meant to include israel but i i don't know that okay um i see i put it opposite of

00:08:35.320 that i thought it was like a cheeky way of saying hey you guys in israel y'all y'all got to figure

00:08:40.420 out your own thing and for the next two weeks this is just us this is me this is u.s iran and

00:08:45.520 that gives the israel the freedom to do what they need to continue to do in their opinion

00:08:48.940 oh look maybe i i don't know um i have not seen any reports in the media or or on x uh of additional

00:08:59.100 attacks on iran tonight they may be happening i don't know that israel is not attacking iran

00:09:03.960 tonight but but i have not seen any reports if that's happening what i've seen is reports of

00:09:09.880 iran's attacks going uh going out uh and you know for example the the new york times

00:09:19.180 always a questionable source uh retired as follows by the way uh 28 minutes ago the new

00:09:27.560 york times okay you ask and i answer i'll be it with weak sourcing the new york times

00:09:33.080 updated 28 minutes ago Iran war live updates U.S. Iran and Israel agree to cease fire

00:09:42.100 okay there you go the deal came shortly before President Trump's deadline for Iran to reopen

00:09:47.440 the Strait of Hormuz or face devastation Israel said the cease fire did not include Lebanon now

00:09:53.200 that seems fair Lebanon with Hezbollah that's not Iran yeah although Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy

00:09:58.820 but that's fair. Here's what the New York Times reported. And by the way, I don't know what this

00:10:04.780 is. I literally just found it on my phone and I'm reading it. So we'll find out what it says.

00:10:09.060 Here's the latest. The United States and Iran reached an 11th hour ceasefire deal on Tuesday

00:10:13.560 evening, hours after President Trump threatened to start wiping out Iran's whole civilization

00:10:17.800 if it did not allow commercial shipping to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz.

00:10:22.720 Mr. Trump announced the agreement. Pakistan proposed each side observe a two-week ceasefire.

00:10:28.820 It will take months for global jet fuel supplies to return to normal.

00:10:33.280 Now, here's another aspect.

00:10:34.960 Oil prices plunge and stocks surge after the ceasefire deal.

00:10:42.720 And here's what Iran, or Iran, the New York Times posted.

00:10:47.220 Oil prices tumbled and stocks in Asia surged on Tuesday as investors breathed a sigh of relief after the United States and Iran reached a last-minute ceasefire agreement.

00:10:56.080 Temporarily avoiding a worst-case scenario, President Trump following through on his pledge to wipe out Iran. 0.95

00:11:01.660 Why is that a worst-case scenario?

00:11:03.300 I guess if you're the Ayatollah, it's a worst-case scenario. 0.97

00:11:05.360 I'm not sure.

00:11:06.000 Exactly. 0.59

00:11:06.100 The New York Times, you know, it would be truly horrific if the Islamist regime in Iran that wants to murder Americans 1.00

00:11:14.240 and is murdering Americans, if they suffered yet another loss.

00:11:17.200 That's the New York Times.

00:11:18.180 Let me keep reading.

00:11:19.480 The ceasefire deal came 90 minutes before a deadline set by Mr. Trump.

00:11:22.420 Israel supports President Trump's decision to stop attacking Iran for two weeks,

00:11:27.860 subject to the immediate reopening Strait of Hormuz and the cessation of Iran taxed against

00:11:32.080 the United States, Israel, and other countries in the region,

00:11:34.580 Officer Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

00:11:38.500 So, we don't know right now, but listen, if it gets the Strait of Hormuz opened, that's positive.

00:11:46.560 Yes.

00:11:47.000 That is a step in the right direction.

00:11:48.760 And I will say the Iranian military, what President Trump said in his Truth Social is exactly right. 0.97

00:11:54.980 Many of the military objectives have been accomplished.

00:11:57.680 The military has been degraded almost out of existence.

00:12:01.500 It's one of the reasons the Iranian statement about, you know, our very powerful military will stop striking.

00:12:07.780 Yeah, there's virtually no military left.

00:12:10.260 It's like four guys with a slingshot sitting on the back of a camel.

00:12:13.840 So it's – but they're very powerful military.

00:12:17.120 What they do have is some mines and some speedboats with dynamites that have the potential of sinking potentially oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

00:12:25.260 And so they are having leverage.

00:12:28.260 By the way, the way it was described to me by a guy in the military when he was trying to explain to me, like, again, it's coming from a military mindset.

00:12:35.620 He said, Ben, this is what Americans need to understand.

00:12:38.500 He said, and please explain this wherever you can.

00:12:41.820 We've taken out them as a military.

00:12:44.160 They now have what he described as terrorist weaponry.

00:12:49.260 Terrorist weaponry is completely different than military weaponry.

00:12:52.600 Military weaponry is like radar and ballistic missiles and airplanes that can have dogfights.

00:12:58.440 He said terrorists can do things with fertilizer.

00:13:02.160 They can do things with dynamite.

00:13:04.160 They can do things that are basic, as you just described it,

00:13:07.140 like blowing a hole in the side of an oil tanker

00:13:09.180 and having a massive, you know, economic as well as environmental issue in the Strait of Hormuz.

00:13:14.620 And so the point he was making was this idea that, I mean, he went back to al-Qaeda and ISIS.

00:13:22.240 You can do a lot of damage with very basic things.

00:13:26.100 Car bombs are a great example with fertilizer, ammonia, you know, the very basics, as he described it.

00:13:31.760 He said the good news is we've decimated the military in Iran. 0.92

00:13:36.400 We have not decimated, as he described it, the terrorist aspect of Iran, because all you need is a couple crazy guys with very little resources and you can do something on a terrorist scale.

00:13:46.540 And we've seen that all over the world.

00:13:48.280 I think that's exactly right.

00:13:50.120 And understand, the Strait of Hormuz is not Iran's to control.

00:13:54.000 That is not part of Iran.

00:13:55.220 That is international waters.

00:13:56.620 It just happens to be nearby to Iran.

00:13:59.140 And the fact that they are willing to act as terrorists.

00:14:02.560 Can you explain to everybody how the Strait of Hormuz is supposed to work?

00:14:07.380 I think a lot of people don't understand the international aspect of this.

00:14:11.280 I think also the media has been really portraying it almost like,

00:14:14.600 well, it's kind of Iran's anyway, and they let us use it.

00:14:17.600 That is a lie.

00:14:18.700 Can you explain that for people real quick?

00:14:20.460 Look, at the end of the day, it doesn't operate materially differently

00:14:23.540 than, say, the Atlantic Ocean or Pacific Ocean.

00:14:26.700 If you're sailing from New York City to London, you're going to cross the Atlantic.

00:14:32.400 And you know what?

00:14:33.200 There is a possibility halfway across the Atlantic of piracy.

00:14:36.720 Someone out on the Atlantic, you could be in an ocean liner,

00:14:40.320 could pilot a ship into your boat and have dynamite and explode and sink it.

00:14:46.940 Now, and by the way, piracy used to be a frequent peril.

00:14:51.100 I mean, that was not an unusual.

00:14:53.440 There's a great series that I've watched on Netflix.

00:14:56.100 You ever watch Black Sails?

00:14:57.960 No.

00:14:58.860 Oh, Black Sails is so good.

00:14:59.880 Why have you been holding out on me?

00:15:01.160 For a guy that tells you about all these other movies they've got to watch,

00:15:03.660 you admit this one?

00:15:05.020 This actually seems like one I want to watch now.

00:15:07.180 Yeah, so it's actually not a movie.

00:15:08.560 It's a series, and it's like four seasons long.

00:15:12.400 And it's about pirates.

00:15:13.660 Black Sails.

00:15:14.360 It's about pirates in the Caribbean.

00:15:15.780 And so Blackbeard is in it, and it's really well done.

00:15:18.860 I watch the whole thing.

00:15:20.420 Look, I'm on airplanes all the time, so as you know, I download lots of series.

00:15:24.520 By the way, Ben, we have done a movie podcast.

00:15:27.280 We haven't done a Netflix download podcast.

00:15:30.000 I want to do that at some point.

00:15:31.680 Maybe we'll do it for a holiday or something.

00:15:33.180 I think those, because I have a lot of series I've downloaded.

00:15:36.520 But Black Sails goes through.

00:15:38.520 There was a whole era where if you're taking, you know, cotton from a plantation in the south

00:15:45.180 and you're going to the Caribbean or you're going to England,

00:15:51.540 you might encounter pirates who would come along with cannons and board you

00:15:55.580 and potentially kill everyone on board and steal your cargo.

00:15:59.080 and piracy it's not entirely gone away but it's mostly gone away and it's mostly gone away

00:16:05.680 due to the United States and and one of the things that happened post-World War II

00:16:10.620 is the United States took a responsibility of ensuring navigation of the open seas and it

00:16:17.500 wasn't we didn't have to do that but it but it produced uh more than a half century of global

00:16:23.860 trade and commerce where where people could you could put a shipping container from the United

00:16:28.400 States to England, from the United States to Asia, and the odds of it being robbed on the high seas

00:16:34.960 were pretty low. They weren't zero, but they were pretty low, and it produced, you know, when the

00:16:40.960 Roman Empire was at its height, the world saw something called the Pax Romana, the peace of

00:16:46.360 the Romans, because the Roman Empire prevented threats. Well, we had for some time been going

00:16:54.740 through what's called the Pax Americana, which is the peace that the Americans have brought by

00:16:58.920 allowing global shipment and trade. The Strait of Hormuz is a much more constricted place because

00:17:04.140 it's just it's going around where you don't have much space. And if you're going through the Suez

00:17:07.800 Canal, you got to pass through there. And it's a narrow passage, which means, look, if Iran wanted 1.00

00:17:16.280 to try to shut off transit across the Atlantic Ocean, that's a really big body of water. That's

00:17:21.520 not easy to do. The Strait of Hormuz is not that big, and so it is a natural choke point where a

00:17:29.080 terrorist can focus. It's interesting, Iran is promising to open it up, so we'll see what that 0.77

00:17:35.740 means. But there are also reports of Iran continuing to fire ballistic missiles, so we'll see if the

00:17:42.580 ceasefire even lasts 24 hours. Every missile Iran fires, I think, decreases the chance of the ceasefire

00:17:50.420 maintaining. Yeah, no, you're right. I want to ask you another question. I got a lot of questions

00:17:54.920 to ask you tonight, Senator, because they're questions I keep getting asked, and I want your

00:17:58.140 take on them. I was asked this question by Piers Morgan, and he said, Ben, what is your definition

00:18:04.380 of success in Iran? My answer was, look, I think the media has changed it to the only thing that

00:18:13.920 is acceptable to not be considered a failure is if the regime falls and there's this massive

00:18:19.020 moment in Iran where the people win. I said my definition of success is taking away the threat 0.99

00:18:27.900 of Iran being a nuclear power and being able to kill innocent men, women, and children and 0.96

00:18:32.460 Americans. That is my definition of success. Now, a bonus, right, a moral victory above that would be

00:18:38.380 if you truly saw regime change and the fall of the leadership in Iran right now. I'm not so

00:18:46.100 obsessed with that point i think the people ran they got to decide for themselves but for me it

00:18:51.420 was all about the nuclear capabilities and making sure they could do no harm to us and and to

00:18:56.820 innocent people also i think in the middle east around the world that includes israel what is

00:19:01.820 your definition of success here because the media is trying to say a this is a quagmire quagmire

00:19:07.180 by the way if you ask ai for example they'll say it's years into a war if it's stagnant or you're

00:19:12.240 not making gains, not four weeks in, five weeks in, or six weeks in. That's absurd. But the media

00:19:17.440 keeps wanting to use the word we're in a quagmire already. I think that's an absurd lie. And now

00:19:22.280 they're saying the only way this could be a success for Trump is the way I described it.

00:19:25.920 They described it, which is the regime falls and that's it. Well, look, there was a very

00:19:31.540 interesting story, a long story in the New York Times today about the inside decision-making in

00:19:37.440 the Trump administration behind the decision to go to war with Iran. And it describes the tick-tock

00:19:45.040 up to it right up until the point on Air Force One on Friday where Trump gave the go order. And

00:19:51.100 I was with President Trump on Air Force One at the time he gave the order. I did not know he had

00:19:56.440 given that order, but he was asking me and the others on Air Force One what we thought, should

00:20:00.420 he do so? And it turns out on that flight is where he actually gave the go order. And it describes

00:20:05.400 that there was a vigorous debate within the administration, that J.D. Vance, the vice

00:20:09.900 president, was the most vocal opponent of striking Iran, and there was a vigorous back and forth among

00:20:16.840 the cabinet. And it described four different steps of the military engagement. Number one,

00:20:24.480 decapitating the Iranian regime, taking out the Ayatollah and the senior military leadership. 0.89

00:20:29.720 Number two, destroying their ballistic missiles, their drones, their ability to wage war. 0.81

00:20:36.080 Number three, incentivizing the Iranian people to rise up and revolt.

00:20:41.720 And number four, seeing a new government, seeing regime change in Iran.

00:20:46.840 And there was considerable debate, according to the Times, and I got to say, just reading the account, I don't know that it's exactly accurate, but it read in a way that was very plausible.

00:20:58.820 There was considerable agreement that steps one and two were very accomplishable, very achievable, and likely achievable in fairly short order.

00:21:06.520 And there was considerable debate about whether steps three and four, a popular uprising and replacing the regime with another regime, whether those were achievable.

00:21:17.520 I can tell you what the Trump administration has articulated.

00:21:21.200 It has articulated its goal was number two.

00:21:23.640 number two is what it's described as goal which is taking out iran's ability to wage war

00:21:28.720 yep and in particular it's described look iran that there's no indication i've seen no evidence

00:21:36.360 that iran had nuclear weapons or was close to getting nuclear weapons that they were trying

00:21:41.360 last summer and president trump launched bunker busters and took out their nuclear weapons

00:21:47.140 research facilities including in fordo in the basement of a mountain that did had devastating

00:21:52.640 effect. So the reason this military attack was launched was not to stop an imminent

00:21:57.680 realization of nuclear weapons.

00:22:02.600 Tomorrow type of thing, yeah.

00:22:04.280 The reason it was launched is they were vigorously, rapidly building ballistic missiles and drones,

00:22:10.340 and they were doing that because they wanted such a large arsenal that if Israel or the United States

00:22:16.080 attacked Iran, they would be able to inflict massive damage on their neighbors and kill a lot 1.00

00:22:21.220 of people. And the Trump administration didn't want to be in a position a year from now when,

00:22:26.120 say, they had launched their nuclear weapons research and development again. But when the

00:22:31.880 cost of intervening was so high that thousands of people might die because they had so many missiles,

00:22:36.980 they could just carpet bomb their neighbors and kill hundreds or even thousands of people.

00:22:42.800 And so the Trump administration said, look, if they develop enough missiles and enough drones,

00:22:46.760 they would do that as essentially an umbrella to shield their ability to then develop a nuclear

00:22:52.960 weapon and i think iran with a nuclear weapon the odds are unacceptably high they would use it

00:22:57.840 that was the major reason that we launched this attack and and what the trump administration

00:23:02.800 articulated is their objective was to take out the air defenses to take out the air force to

00:23:08.580 take out the navy to take out the ballistic missiles to take out the drones to take out

00:23:12.720 the launchers, to take out the drone manufacturing capability, to take out the missile manufacturing

00:23:17.460 capability. We've done essentially all of that. The success has been extraordinary. Now, the

00:23:25.040 administration has by and large been very reluctant to use the words regime change. And I understand

00:23:31.960 why. Regime change is associated with Iraq. It's associated with hundreds of thousands of troops

00:23:37.400 on the ground for years on end. It's associated with escalating American casualties and fatalities.

00:23:44.280 And President Trump is not interested in that kind of military conflict. The chances of that

00:23:49.460 happening, I believe, are zero. Trump doesn't want to do that. And so regime change, people

00:23:55.100 are really nervous to say that's the objective. What I have said the objective should be

00:24:00.380 is regime collapse. This regime, a regime of Islamists who chant death to America, 1.00

00:24:08.020 who fund terrorists, who are killing Americans, and who want to continue killing Americans, 0.92

00:24:13.260 I think that is a danger to the United States. I don't care who takes their place. I don't care

00:24:18.540 if it's the crown prince, the Shah's son. I don't care if it's a military strongman. I don't care 0.93

00:24:24.220 if it's a democratically elected leader from the people. That's not my concern. I'm not in the

00:24:28.280 nation-building business. My objective is not to turn Iran into Switzerland. That's up to the 0.94

00:24:34.600 people of Iran. If they want a peaceful society, that's great. I wish them all the well, all the

00:24:41.020 best, but it's not the U.S. military's job to do that. It is the U.S. military's job to take out

00:24:47.840 enemies. Now, I do agree that seeing a regime of tyrants, particularly a regime of tyrants

00:24:54.560 willing to kill up to 40,000 of their own citizens, seeing them fall is not easy. So the objective of

00:25:01.860 regime collapse may prove really difficult. I hope we keep at it, but opening the Strait of

00:25:07.560 Hormuz is a really important tactical step. And by the way, if we end up with a government that

00:25:14.660 has a negotiated settlement where they stop funding terrorists and they stop killing Americans and

00:25:18.940 they stopped trying to kill Americans. That is a huge, huge victory. I don't know if we get there,

00:25:27.120 but what I told President Trump the day he ordered the attack is this regime has never

00:25:34.160 been weaker than right now, and we will regret it. We will regret it for years and decades if

00:25:39.200 we miss this opportunity, because there's very few things on planet Earth that would make America

00:25:44.080 safer than getting this murderous regime out of power so they could no longer be able to kill

00:25:50.300 Americans. Canadian women are looking for more. More out of themselves, their businesses, their 1.00

00:25:55.900 elected leaders, and the world around them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest

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00:26:16.820 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio

00:26:19.200 or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:26:22.640 All right, let me ask you another question

00:26:24.400 that's gotten a lot of fodder online,

00:26:27.680 and I think it's an important one to answer.

00:26:30.340 Democrats and the media really seem to be trying to figure out some way,

00:26:34.380 even if there's success with this Iranian policy of Trump,

00:26:37.740 that they can stick it to Donald Trump.

00:26:39.480 And now the new thing over the last 24, 48 hours, Ben, Donald Trump is advocating for committing war crimes by blowing up bridges potentially in Iran and power plants in Iran.

00:26:51.020 Let's talk about the war crimes aspect of this and deal with what Americans need to know about this new line by the left, because they care more about Donald Trump being in trouble than actually taking out a murderous regime in Iran.

00:27:05.240 that's true and i will say one of the sad things it used to be the case for a long long time that

00:27:10.860 that politics ended at the water's edge in other words that that republicans and democrats battle

00:27:17.320 here at home over all sorts of issues but when it comes to military conflict abroad when it comes

00:27:21.940 to defending america that that the two sides refrain from partisan attack i gotta say that

00:27:28.280 is not the case anymore the instant president trump launched this attack democrats began

00:27:34.540 savaging him. You know, we had a classified briefing shortly after the beginning of this

00:27:39.740 attack, where you had the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint

00:27:43.760 Chiefs, the head of the CIA, kind of all the top national security apparatus in the Trump

00:27:47.560 administration. Yeah. And all 100 senators attended that, and they were laying out what

00:27:55.500 was happening. And look, I'm not going to say anything that was said by the briefers in the

00:27:59.900 classified briefing, but I can tell you, other than John Fetterman, who's been very positive

00:28:04.760 on what he said publicly about the conflict with Iran, every single Democrat senator in the room

00:28:11.520 was highly, highly skeptical, was attacking what happened, was opposing what happened,

00:28:17.160 was started on day one with, we are against standing up to Iran. And I sat there and just 0.98

00:28:25.800 kind of shook my head i was saddened by that and so one of their talking points when when president

00:28:31.000 trump said he was going to take out power plants and bridges and why did he say power plants and

00:28:35.260 bridges by the way look the biggest thing to take out for iran is their oil production facility

00:28:40.260 karg island which is the key to it's where they export virtually all their oil from

00:28:44.380 yep karg island if we really wanted to cripple iran and and and put them into the stone age

00:28:50.580 we'd take out their their oil facilities we'd bomb the hell out of karg island 1.00

00:28:54.980 and iran's economy would just be screwed for a decade instantly yeah instantly by the way people

00:29:02.360 need to understand that like if you just wanted to decimate them economically that is how you

00:29:06.320 would do it and it would not be that hard so trump very deliberately has not done that the reason he

00:29:13.320 said power plants and bridges is because they're critically important to the economy you take out

00:29:18.720 the power plants the electricity turns off the military is crippled but also the economy is

00:29:23.580 crippled the basic all of banking all of communication lights literally at night people

00:29:28.040 start lighting candles because there's no longer the light switches don't work um and bridges are

00:29:33.540 essential for transportation both military and commercial transportation across the country

00:29:39.580 i think the reason he picked those two is they're enormous lever points and and his hope is that it

00:29:46.660 would cause the collapse of this regime, I believe. But also it means if there were a new

00:29:52.800 government in Iran, the oil facilities would still be there so they have the ability to generate

00:29:58.520 billions in revenue pretty quickly. And that billions, if the United States military took

00:30:04.220 out the power infrastructure, if you had billions in oil revenue coming in, you could rebuild. It

00:30:09.700 wouldn't be immediate. But having the revenue stream makes rebuilding much more possible than

00:30:15.040 And if you take out the oil infrastructure, the revenue stream is much further down the road and it's much harder to turn around.

00:30:22.440 I think that's why I picked it.

00:30:23.580 But I will say we're getting a lot of pompous Democrats and pompous news reporters, although I repeat myself, on TV saying taking out civilian power plants is a war crime.

00:30:38.020 Yeah.

00:30:38.160 Well, let me read to you from the Pentagon's Law of War manual.

00:30:43.540 So the Pentagon has a manual on the law of war. Here's what it says, quote, electric power stations are generally recognized to be of sufficient importance to a state's capacity to meet its wartime needs of communication, transport, and industry, so as usually to qualify as military objectives during armed conflicts.

00:31:06.680 uh and and and by the way the the broader section which i will read from you this this is in uh

00:31:14.460 section 5.6.8.5 examples of military objectives economic objects associated with military

00:31:22.360 operations and it says before what i just read economic objects associated with military

00:31:27.540 operations or with war supporting or war sustaining industries have been regarded

00:31:32.580 as military objectives uh that is incredibly inconvenient for all of the trump haters in

00:31:42.980 the democrat party or in the media who want to scream war crime war crime war crime because

00:31:47.560 there's no doubt the power generation is integral uh to the war fighting ability of iran and and

00:31:53.800 and and listen i will say the fact that pakistan stepped in it actually goes to what we said on

00:32:00.800 Monday's podcast, which is Trump's threat with any ordinary and rational leader would be incredibly

00:32:08.200 effective. If you actually had a leader that gave a damn about their people, that gave a damn about

00:32:13.020 their economy, that threat would be, holy cow, we can't let that happen. The risk factor is the very

00:32:19.880 real possibility that the Ayatollah and the Mullahs just don't care, that they're willing to see that

00:32:24.800 kind of devastation to their country i will say pakistan pakistan is is i've long described 0.77

00:32:32.740 pakistan as as a problematic ally they are an ally yeah but there are challenges in pakistan

00:32:39.200 i actually put pakistan that's a very diplomatic way of putting that yes but you know what they

00:32:44.060 they're an ally rather than a friend but there are real challenges we work with pakistan there 1.00

00:32:48.360 are a lot of bad people or enemies of america that are within pakistan but we work with the

00:32:52.620 government of pakistan and i think the the prime minister of pakistan stepped up and said hey look

00:32:59.080 you guys in iran don't don't go down this road and and end up crippling don't go back to the

00:33:06.020 dark ages and and and this goes back to where where pakistan may have some credibility with

00:33:12.400 iran i don't know if pakistan provided iran something of an off-ramp that that's a good

00:33:18.200 interpretation or if iran's just seizing on this to delay that's another interpretation that is

00:33:23.000 possible but i do think pakistan stepping forward and saying let's have a two-week ceasefire

00:33:29.780 is an example of a more normal country and a leader who presumably cares about his people

00:33:38.100 at least to a significant extent stepping forward to iran and saying come on guys don't

00:33:43.780 Don't keep playing chicken.

00:33:45.260 This doesn't end up well.

00:33:46.560 Yeah, it's a great point.

00:33:48.120 Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

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00:33:56.060 You can watch almost every episode that we do on video there.

00:33:59.960 And write us a five-star review if you wouldn't mind as well.

00:34:02.120 That helps us reach more people.

00:34:03.460 And The Center and I will see you back here on Friday morning.

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - April 08, 2026

End Of Iran's Civilization PAUSED—Why, What It Means & What's Next

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