Ted Cruz delivers an update on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, and reminds us that we need to honor Holocaust survivors like Phineas, who as a child survived the Holocaust because Christians hid him from the Nazis, risking everything to save his life.
00:03:50.700Senator, let's start with Iran, and it is clear that, as the Com chief put it today,
00:03:56.860Iran has suffered a generational military defeat.
00:04:00.640They described it as a 40-year military buildup that has been crushed in under 40 days.
00:04:05.820yet on tv democrats are using the word a lot in the last 24 hours and that word that they're
00:04:12.080obsessed with now is a quagmire uh forget the definition of a quagmire and actually if you
00:04:17.800if you relate it to military uh you know intervention or a war usually that word is
00:04:22.780used after years of what has become stagnant but they're like oh no donald trump's got a
00:04:28.680quagmire your reaction to all of that well i will say we had 39 days of active military
00:04:35.480conflict. And if you look at what occurred, we took out the entirety of Iran's air defenses.
00:04:41.220We took out the entirety of their ballistic missiles, their ballistic missile launchers,0.82
00:04:46.860their ballistic missile manufacturing capability. We took out the entirety of their drone arsenal,
00:04:52.180the entirety of their drone launchers. We took out their drone manufacturing capacity.
00:04:57.640We also took out their air force, which is virtually non-existent at this point. We took
00:05:02.120out their navy sinking more than 140 naval ships. It's the single largest naval defeat since World
00:05:08.660War II. And all of that is on top of the fact that we took out the Ayatollah and virtually the1.00
00:05:15.120entirety of the military leadership. Here's what U.S. Central Commander Admiral Bradley Cooper had0.90
00:05:21.960to say. He said, quote, we set out to dismantle Iran's military capability and we clearly
00:05:29.360accomplished this task. He said Iran's conventional military, quote, built over 40 years at the cost0.93
00:05:37.040of billions of dollars has been eliminated. He further elaborated, quote, our core strategic
00:05:45.980military objectives have been achieved after destroying Iran's missile, drone, and naval
00:05:52.420capabilities and their defensive industrial base, outlining what he characterized as a
00:05:58.900comprehensive dismantling of iran's war machine uh the sent con commander emphasized the scale
00:06:06.560of the operation we conducted more than 13 000 let me repeat that 13 000 strikes on iranian
00:06:15.120military targets we flew thousands upon thousands of combat missions uh over iran and and as admiral
00:06:23.300cooper put it quote in less than 40 days you destroyed the military that iran had built
00:06:30.080for over 40 years he also said more than 50 000 american service members took part in the
00:06:37.400operation and he called it a mission of profound consequences which exceeded each and every
00:06:44.420expectation for what the forces achieved then he went on to say quote we remain present we remain
00:06:51.600vigilant and we remain ready if called and he added that the united states forces would continue
00:06:57.380to stand quote shoulder to shoulder with regional partners to maintain quote the most sophisticated
00:07:03.060and largest active air defense umbrella in the world that is a big deal the success that was
00:07:13.900carried out was extraordinary now the question is after that and by the way the instant the attack
00:07:24.140started democrats began attacking not iran not attacking the people who chant death to america
00:07:30.200not attacking the regime that that has been the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism
00:07:34.860not attacking the iranian regime that provides over 90 of the funding to hamas over 90 of the
00:07:40.660funding to hezbollah over 90 of the funding the houthis no the democrats didn't attack any of
00:07:45.120that what did they attack our commander-in-chief donald j trump you know it used to be that
00:07:51.540politics end at the nation's border at our water's edge and yet today the instant this military
00:07:59.900conflict began the democrats hate trump so much rather than stand with our troops rather than
00:08:06.160stand for defeating our enemies. They immediately began cheering effectively for the United States
00:08:11.620to lose. Let's talk about what success actually looks like. We know that the Democrats, as you
00:08:18.760mentioned before the break, they're criticizing Trump because he didn't bomb the power plants
00:08:24.400and the roads. But if he would have done it, they said that he would be then committing war crimes
00:08:28.900and he should be arrested. So which one is it? Well, look, they're wrong on both fronts. Let's
00:08:35.200talk about what President Trump is demanding of Iran for this ceasefire to continue. And mind you,
00:08:40.880this is a two-week ceasefire. There's no guarantee if Iran fails, the ceasefire will end. But
00:08:47.320President Trump is making three demands, and I agree with all of them. Number one, he is insisting
00:08:53.440that Iran engage in no enrichment, zero enrichment of uranium. Now, Iran has been pressing back
00:09:00.560repeatedly saying they have a right to enrich uranium. Of course, Barack Obama and his disastrous
00:09:05.880Iran nuclear deal effectively protected their right to enrich uranium, which would have led
00:09:13.140inexorably to Iran having a nuclear weapon. And listen, when you have an Ayatollah who's a0.90
00:09:18.800religious zealot who chants death to America, who has killed nearly a thousand Americans,0.89
00:09:25.080the idea of any universe in which he has a nuclear weapon where he could kill in the blink of an eye0.71
00:09:31.560hundreds of thousands of americans that's utterly unacceptable so president trump is right
00:09:37.460to insist zero enrichment number one number two iran has a substantial stockpile of enriched
00:09:45.320uranium president trump is insisting hand over your enriched uranium you cannot keep it you
00:09:52.400cannot hold on to it you must hand it over he is absolutely right to insist on that as well and
00:09:58.520then number three president trump is insisting open the strait of hormuz and keep it open you
00:10:04.280cannot use this as a choke point that is exactly right now i will say you have some democrats some
00:10:11.060of the media that are saying oh they're actually saying iran won this war because they threatened
00:10:17.040the Strait of Hormuz. Look, Iran has engaged in terrorism for 47 years. They are continuing to
00:10:25.480engage in terrorism. I cannot, none of us can promise today that Iran will stop engaging in0.99
00:10:32.760terrorism, but what President Trump has done is, number one, dramatically limited their ability
00:10:38.140to engage in warfare to kill Americans or to kill Iran's neighbors. The missiles are gone,
00:10:44.920the drones are gone, the Air Force jets are gone, the air defenses are gone, the naval ships are
00:10:51.120gone, all of that, not to mention the military leadership has been killed. All of that has
00:10:58.900dramatically weakened Iran's ability to kill others. As for the Strait of Hormuz, President0.77
00:11:05.260Trump made a clear and direct threat. If you do not open the strait, we will bomb your power plants
00:11:11.400And we will bomb your bridges. Now, Democrats had a conniption fit. They said it is a war crime to bomb power plants.0.73
00:11:19.200Now, in our last podcast that we did on Wednesday, we went through the Pentagon manual on warfare that makes very explicit that power plants, civilian power plants are legitimate military targets because they're integral for the military defense of a nation.
00:11:34.180They power communication. They power the military system. And so they are have long been treated as legitimate military target targets under the rules of war. Of course, that doesn't stop the corporate media. That doesn't stop the Democrats from screaming war crime. But but Ben, it's worth underscoring.
00:11:53.440why did president trump threaten the power plants and the bridges the obvious thing to threaten the
00:12:02.340thing that would that would be the most devastating to iran is to threaten the oil infrastructure to
00:12:08.540threaten the refineries to threaten karg island which is the main point the main terminal through
00:12:13.720which oil is exported if the united states bombed the oil infrastructure in iran it would utterly
00:12:21.240cripple their economy that is the vast majority of the revenue that the iranian iranian government
00:12:26.580receives that the iranian people receive is is revenue from selling oil and if we bomb those0.98
00:12:31.660facilities it would be devastating to the iranian economy why does trump not want to do it well
00:12:38.680quite sensibly because when this military conflict is over iran presumably is going to need to
00:12:45.160rebuild it's not going to be american taxpayers who rebuild we're not going to rebuild at all
00:12:48.780We're not going to spend our money to do that. But if we have a government in Iran that is not run by Islamists, that is not actively trying to murder Americans, then presumably that government is going to need to rebuild from the consequences of this war.
00:13:02.820And the only way that they're going to be able to rebuild with any speed, any alacrity, is if they are able to sell the oil they have and have that revenue.
00:13:12.260And so President Trump, I think quite sensibly, is focusing on other choke points that are not the beating heart of the Iranian economy going forward.0.90
00:13:24.520That's why I threatened power plants and bridges.
00:13:26.420And let me be clear, I think there is still a very real possibility President Trump follows through on that threat and takes out the power plants in Iran,
00:13:35.340which would plunge that nation into darkness, would literally turn out the lights.
00:13:42.260I think President Trump will do that if, number one, Iran continues to shut down the Strait of Hormuz.
00:13:47.780I think that if they think Donald Trump is bluffing, they are making a bad calculus.0.56
00:13:53.600And the previous Ayatollah made that calculus, and he did not live 24 hours into this military conflict.
00:14:00.180The current leaders have to make their own judgment, but in my view, Trump is not bluffing.
00:14:05.380When you talk about Trump not bluffing on this one, there's people that say, well, he's just reaching for straws here.
00:14:11.360just trying to salvage this thing i i disagree with that i think what we've done with our
00:14:17.160military in the last 40 days is is truly just remarkable it's historic uh taking out a 40-year
00:14:23.840military in 40 days it's a year a day if you want to break it down in a different perspective for
00:14:29.020every year it took them to to build their military it took us one day to take out a year's worth of
00:14:33.920work in 40 years in 40 days is pretty impressive but there's also a real political concern here
00:14:39.680about the midterms coming up that's something that i hear a lot of people that by the way support the
00:14:45.180president like look we got to get this thing over with this is going to ruin us the midterms
00:14:48.320how concerned are you about the quote politics playing back at home with this look we need to
00:14:53.320do the right thing and we need to keep america safe president trump is a strong commander in
00:14:57.960chief and and he launched this military attack because iran has been waging war against the
00:15:02.820united states they have been funding terrorism they've been murdering americans and they've
00:15:06.440stated they had intended to continue funding terrorism and murdering Americans.
00:15:10.120So he was acting to keep Americans safe.
00:15:12.900Unlike Barack Obama, unlike past presidents, he's not engaged in nation building.
00:15:16.960He's not invading foreign nations and putting our sons and daughters in harm's way to achieve amorphous goals like spreading democracy.
00:15:25.680Spreading democracy may be a wonderful thing, but we're not going to sacrifice our fighting men and women to do it.
00:15:30.920What he is doing is taking out a real threat that was threatening the lives of Americans.
00:16:46.120Now, of course, they did not land on the moon, but we launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
00:16:51.520They launched, left the Earth's atmosphere, went to the moon.
00:16:54.480they orbited around the moon and now they're returning back and so they actually went
00:16:59.040further uh from the from earth than than any human being says have ever been and they're
00:17:06.180on their journey back uh when i spoke to them it was just under 24 hours before splashdown
00:17:12.180they're scheduled to splash down uh 60 miles off the coast of san diego uh at just after 7 p.m
00:17:20.460on friday and so i i spoke to the four astronauts you've you uh you have reed and victor you have
00:17:28.380christina and jeremy and and they're all in the orion capsule uh i know all four of them i was
00:17:34.880there uh when their astronaut class was selected to be on artemis 2 uh artemis 4 by the way is
00:17:42.620going to be the mission that actually goes and lands on the moon and puts another astronaut on
00:17:47.440the moon one of the reasons why do you know why the this particular set of missions is called
00:17:51.960artemis i was going to ask you that why because i know you've been briefed on it well uh in in
00:17:58.560greek mythology artemis was the twin sister of apollo and and so they were twins and in apollo
00:18:06.480that was the last time we land landed astronauts on the moon and we landed only men on the moon
00:18:11.640this mission nasa said from day one we're going to land the first woman on the moon and that's1.00
00:18:16.560That's why they named it Artemis, because we're going to have a female astronaut in addition to male astronauts.0.97
00:18:21.220We're going to have both. And I got to say, look, I'm as you know, I'm the father of daughters.
00:18:26.520I have two teenage girls. And I really like the fact that that that the plan is by 2028, we're going to land on the moon.
00:18:32.920And I like the fact that we're going to put the first woman on the moon.
00:18:35.460That's something my daughters can can be proud of. They can look forward to.
00:18:39.780They can say, look, I can do anything if I want. I can be an astronaut. I can land on the moon.
00:18:44.840And you look back, you and I were not alive in 1969 when Neil Armstrong first stepped on the surface of the moon, but it inspired an entire generation of Americans, an entire generation across the world.
00:19:00.780and and i'll tell you you and i both live in houston our our hometown or my hometown of
00:19:06.440houston and your current town of houston uh has an incredible history with space one of the very
00:19:15.120first words ever uttered on the surface of the moon was houston uh yeah houston the eagle has
00:19:22.240landed and and our city there's a reason why the sports teams are the astros and the rockets and
00:19:30.620We now have a WNBA team coming back that's the Comets.
00:19:55.660So I went today down to mission control.
00:19:59.140I met with the engineers who are controlling everything that is happening up there and got to, you know, sort of like E.T., got the phone home and talked to.
00:20:09.980We did a call that had about a dozen members of Congress.
00:20:12.300And we talked to the astronauts, Jared Isaacman, who's the administrator of NASA.
00:20:18.340He spoke first. And I got to say, it was really cool.
00:20:21.180He spoke to them and he greeted them and thanked them for what they were doing.
00:20:25.420and he said he said i'm speaking to you on behalf of the people of earth and i gotta say that was
00:20:32.900really cool to hear and i commented right after that i said that is the first time in my life i've
00:20:37.760stood next to someone or stood with someone who greeted someone on behalf of the people of earth
00:20:44.820and that was not hyperbole uh you you look at they traveled over 250 000 miles the orion capsule
00:20:53.860itself is really small the capsule's 330 cubic feet uh of volume it is uh 16 and a half feet
00:21:04.900wide and it is 11 feet tall and and and it's uh round and sort of shaped like a cone and and four
00:21:12.960people have been living that the size has been compared to about the size of two minivans
00:21:19.960So four people have been living in two minivans for nine days.
00:21:24.200I have been in a mock-up of the capsule.
00:21:46.980There have been millions of people watching them just day to day doing their mission in space and watching them.
00:21:56.080It's been live stream and they've been doing a lot of media interviews, which I think is really powerful.
00:22:00.840One of the most important purposes of the space mission is to inspire the next generation.
00:22:07.420And I think in the midst of all the other challenges we have going on, seeing that four human beings are capable of going back to the moon and knowing the promise that we're soon going to be walking on the moon.
00:22:20.340And by the way, not just walking on the moon.
00:22:23.060It is the objective of NASA, and I have written this into law, that we will have sustained human habitation on the surface of the moon.
00:22:32.400And President Trump is committed to building a lunar base.
00:22:37.760And one of the cool things, Ben, you know, representing Texas for 14 years, just about every single major piece of space legislation that has passed in the last 14 years, I've either written or co-written.
00:22:52.760And so I've had space legislation signed by Barack Obama.
00:22:57.060I've had space legislation signed by Donald Trump.
00:23:00.280I've had space legislation signed by Joe Biden.
00:23:03.620And one of the things I've worked hard on to do is keep space out of partisan politics.
00:23:09.560There's so much partisan politics on everything else.
00:23:13.000But if America is going to lead in space, listen, China has stated their goal.
00:23:23.060The most the optimum land to occupy is at the South Pole.
00:23:28.720It's at the South Pole where there is water. Water is available for human habitation, for energy, but it's also the crater is high enough that you can see the sun and have solar power.
00:23:40.700And so the South Pole, the scientists believe, is the optimum location. We're in a race to get there, and the United States intends to win.
00:23:48.700We're going to beat China. And a big part of the way we're beating China is not letting this be subject to the back and forth partisan political bickering.
00:23:58.420So much else is. And I'm proud of the fact that for 14 years, we have kept American leadership in space outside of partisan politics.
00:24:06.800Senator, let's talk about also just something that's going to be really exciting.
00:24:10.080And that is the prospect that I and also my kids are going to be able to see us land on the moon again.
00:24:16.560When is that expected to happen? And I know you've learned a lot about that in this and this plans.
00:24:23.200And this is obviously this trip is one very big step getting us much closer to that.
00:24:28.140Twenty twenty eight is the target date to land back on the moon and to take astronauts safely to the surface of the moon and then back again to planet Earth.
00:24:36.980And the plan is for it to be in the last year of President Trump's presidency.
00:24:41.880And by the way, I will say OMB, the Office of Management and Budget last year, there were some folks at OMB that wanted to drastically slash the budget to go to the moon.
00:24:52.500They had decided Mars was more important and the moon was going to be substantially deprioritized.
00:24:59.120And what happened last year when we were passing the big reconciliation bill, the working families tax cut, I decided that was a terrible thing for the United States.0.63
00:25:08.640I was not going to sit by and watch America lose to China and cede the moon to China.0.79
00:25:15.180And so when we were writing the reconciliation bill, I wrote in $10 billion to fund going back to the moon, to fund Artemis, to fund what is happening right now.
00:25:26.240And OMB was really unhappy with me. It was a battle, but I had the support.
00:25:30.300I had locked down the votes in the Senate. And so we passed it in law.
00:25:35.640And it was an example of Article 1 of the Constitution, the Congress exercising its authority.
00:25:41.240And I'll tell you what I told the president.0.98
00:25:42.860I said, look, if we were to look up in 2028 or 2030 and see the Chinese on the moon, understand that they had gotten there and beaten us there and seized the high ground in the preferred location,0.96
00:25:54.100I think it would be more damaging to this country than Sputnik was when the Soviets launched a satellite into space.0.97
00:26:00.380We are not going to lose the race with China and Artemis, too.
00:26:04.680It's an inspirational example of America leading and America winning.
00:26:08.520We want to talk about another issue that it needs to be back on the radar screen for a lot of Americans.1.00
00:26:15.120And that is the continual crimes are being committed by illegal immigrants that are in this country.1.00
00:26:22.140The media continues to overlook this.1.00
00:26:25.160They don't want you to know that it's happening.
00:26:27.060But it's another example of why the president needs to be fighting so hard against these sanctuary cities that are that are harboring many of these criminals that are, as he would describe them, really bad hombres.
00:26:37.540Well, you may recall back in 2024 at the Republican National Convention, when I spoke and addressed the convention, my remarks were focused on this topic.0.98
00:26:46.860And the theme of it was every damn day, every day, another American is raped.0.98
00:26:54.040Another American is assaulted. Another American is murdered.1.00
00:26:57.060by a violent criminal illegal alien that joe biden and the democrats have released and i walked
00:27:02.760through the tragic cases of jocelyn nungary the beautiful 12 year old girl raped and murdered
00:27:08.140here in houston i walked through lakin riley the the horrific uh murder of the young nursing
00:27:14.660student in georgia i walked through rachel moran the the the mom of five raped and murdered