Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 07, 2025


Inside my One-on-One Meeting Today with Prime Minister Netanyahu


Episode Stats


Length

37 minutes

Words per minute

168.42342

Word count

6,253

Sentence count

403

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

9

sentences flagged

Hate speech

35

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Ted Cruz sits down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss his recent visit to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Donald Trump and discuss what it's like to be in the White House with a world leader like Israel's Prime Minister.

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.
00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.140 Well, let me start by just saying welcome.
00:00:07.380 We had a record number of you new listeners download this show,
00:00:11.960 Verdict with Ted Cruz, just two days ago.
00:00:15.340 And so for many of you that are new to the show, we want to say just welcome.
00:00:19.040 Thank you for being here.
00:00:20.520 If you've just found this show and you're paying attention to politics
00:00:24.020 because of the Trump administration, you're going to love being here.
00:00:27.180 So make sure you hit that subscribe or that auto-download right now,
00:00:31.060 wherever you're listening so you don't miss an episode.
00:00:33.920 And today's episode is going to be one that you're going to love
00:00:37.160 because it is back to the best part about this show,
00:00:41.000 and that is taking you behind the scenes with meetings and places
00:00:44.800 that no one else can give you in the podcast world.
00:00:48.280 And today's show is just going to be a lot of fun because,
00:00:51.580 Senator, I don't get to say this every day.
00:00:52.960 You just left a multi-hour-long meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel
00:00:59.160 who is visiting in America.
00:01:01.020 I've got a million questions to ask you about that,
00:01:03.500 but give us the overall, what was it like just sitting with him
00:01:06.260 with a new administration being in charge?
00:01:09.480 Well, sure.
00:01:09.920 You and I are talking.
00:01:11.000 It is 11.22 p.m. Thursday night,
00:01:13.940 and I spent about two hours one-on-one with Prime Minister Netanyahu this evening.
00:01:19.200 And he is in town.
00:01:21.020 He obviously met with President Trump.
00:01:23.320 He has met with a number of congressional leaders,
00:01:25.800 a number of groups of congressional leaders.
00:01:27.980 And I've got to say, it is a whole new day in Israel. 0.83
00:01:33.240 It's a whole new day in America.
00:01:35.400 It's a whole new day in the world.
00:01:37.340 And Prime Minister Netanyahu and I,
00:01:39.240 he and I know each other very well.
00:01:41.080 We are good friends.
00:01:42.200 And we had a very candid, a very direct conversation about the incredible victories Israel has had,
00:01:50.040 taking on Hamas, taking on Hezbollah,
00:01:52.780 going after the head of the snake that is Iran, 0.95
00:01:58.460 and talking about how dramatically different things are with President Trump back in the White House
00:02:04.660 compared to the last four years of the Biden administration.
00:02:07.620 So let's take people through the process.
00:02:10.820 When you have a world leader coming in and you're going to meet with him,
00:02:14.360 like, how does that happen?
00:02:15.800 Where do you meet?
00:02:17.120 What is it like going through the security and the protocol?
00:02:20.380 Because, look, he's a guy that a lot of people in the world want to see have harm done to them.
00:02:25.240 And Israel is known for amazing security.
00:02:28.720 They are, and there's very high security when you meet with the Prime Minister of Israel, understandably.
00:02:34.960 He is in town.
00:02:36.600 He's staying at a hotel in town.
00:02:38.580 And so I met him at the hotel he's staying at.
00:02:41.580 And the hotel where he's staying, there's a lot of security.
00:02:45.200 Secret Service has erected barriers.
00:02:49.180 And they're screening and limiting the people who can access it.
00:02:53.480 And there are some protesters that were out protesting because the anti-Israel left is loud and vocal.
00:03:01.520 And so you go in.
00:03:02.760 You've got to be pre-cleared.
00:03:03.960 This was a meeting that was obviously set up ahead of time.
00:03:07.020 And you go through security.
00:03:08.240 And you end up going in what is essentially a conference room that is set up.
00:03:15.140 And it's typically set up.
00:03:16.740 It was set up tonight where there are two chairs, one for me, one for him, and an American and an Israeli flag.
00:03:22.980 And so you meet in the conference room.
00:03:25.940 He had several advisors in the room.
00:03:28.020 And I had a couple of advisors in the room.
00:03:32.260 And we had about a two-hour conversation.
00:03:34.080 And, you know, I've got to say, first of all, the Prime Minister's mood is – I don't think it could be any higher.
00:03:42.580 He is feeling incredibly encouraged.
00:03:45.400 Incredibly encouraged, number one, of the victories that Israel has been able to win against Hamas and Hezbollah. 0.99
00:03:53.240 But he is also, I think, beyond encouraged by the new administration in the White House.
00:04:00.980 And a lot of what we talked about was the incredible pressure that was put on Israel, the efforts to undermine Israel that for the last four years we saw under the Biden administration.
00:04:13.520 And we talked about those quite a bit.
00:04:16.040 We talked about how in the immediate aftermath of October 7th, initially, Joe Biden, the words he said at least were quite supportive.
00:04:25.900 And you remember he flew over to Israel.
00:04:27.620 And at the time, I vocally praised him for it.
00:04:30.580 That was the right thing to do.
00:04:32.220 But then the anti-Semitic wing of the Democratic Party began to assert itself.
00:04:39.800 And the Biden administration began pressuring Israel more and more and more.
00:04:45.440 And we saw that in terms of arms embargoes.
00:04:48.820 One of the things that Prime Minister Netanyahu talked to me tonight is how they were running low on ammunition because over and over again, and he described at each stage as they were taking the war to Hamas, how the Biden White House was saying, no, don't do that.
00:05:04.280 No, don't go after them there.
00:05:05.420 No, don't go after them there.
00:05:06.620 And how they began threatening them.
00:05:08.860 If you do that, we're going to cut off aid.
00:05:11.640 If you do that, we're going to cut off weapons.
00:05:13.580 And he said that's already dramatically changed in terms of the Trump administration providing the ammunitions they need to continue and prevail in the war.
00:05:25.480 And that has made an enormous difference.
00:05:28.220 And we've seen just in the last two weeks multiple hostages coming home.
00:05:32.640 I think that is the direct result of a new commander in chief in Washington who stands with Israel.
00:05:39.440 You talk about what's needed, and that's got to be a sigh of relief.
00:05:43.480 But also part of this, the interesting conversation that you're having, because you guys have known each other for a long time.
00:05:50.800 You would consider him, I think, to be a genuine, sincere friend.
00:05:55.340 Yes.
00:05:55.480 And so there's obviously part of the reason why you guys have such a long meeting is, yes, you're friends, you know each other well.
00:06:02.640 But there's got to be an urgency from his perspective of, hey, I need to get a lot of things done, and I need your help.
00:06:11.840 And you probably have a lot of questions.
00:06:13.800 How much of that two-hour meeting is like, let's go.
00:06:16.800 What do you need?
00:06:17.540 We've got to get through this.
00:06:19.080 Yeah, that was certainly a lot of it is me asking, what do you need from the United States right now?
00:06:23.660 And he was very gratified that on the ammunition front that need has been filled, and he needs America to stand with him, to stand with him.
00:06:31.500 Look, the hostage deal is releasing hostages, but there are multiple waves.
00:06:36.080 And I would say Prime Minister Netanyahu is very directly focused on eliminating Hamas and also on preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. 0.68
00:06:45.720 And he is laser-focused on that, quite rightly.
00:06:49.080 Iran is weakened and weakened badly right now, and it's weakened because Hamas was one of its major proxies, and it's badly, badly decimated.
00:06:58.520 Hezbollah was another major proxy, and that is badly decimated.
00:07:02.940 Syria, the government of Bashar Assad, another proxy for Iran, collapsed because Iran is in such weak situation.
00:07:12.980 But the result of that is Iran has a real incentive to try to develop nuclear weapons. 0.63
00:07:20.460 And we talked a lot about stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
00:07:24.520 Where are we now in that timeline? Because we haven't talked about that in a while here on this show.
00:07:29.360 And I think it's an important point because the last administration really was kind of letting Iran do what Iran wanted to do.
00:07:34.860 How concerned is he, and how close do they think they could be to actually getting that?
00:07:40.180 He is very concerned. I'm very concerned.
00:07:42.640 And you look at Barack Obama, the Iran nuclear deal, I believe, accelerated Iran's progress towards getting nuclear weapons, allowed them to build centrifuges, allowed them to enrich uranium.
00:07:56.560 The Trump administration, quite rightly, came in and ended that Obama-Iran nuclear deal.
00:08:03.480 And you and I have talked about before, that was a major battle within the Trump administration.
00:08:07.840 Both the State Department and Defense Department under Trump argued that we should stay in the Iran nuclear deal.
00:08:15.820 Rex Tillerson was the Secretary of State. Jim Mattis was the Secretary of Defense.
00:08:20.220 They were both vociferous on staying in the deal.
00:08:23.160 And I probably had two dozen conversations and meetings with President Trump urging him to pull out of the deal.
00:08:29.920 And he agreed, and he did.
00:08:31.060 And what it ended up doing was it turned Iran around because what followed from that was the maximum pressure campaign that put economic sanctions in place, that cut Iran's oil exports and sales in place, and that really had the regime incredibly weakened and teetering.
00:08:52.060 And one of the things that I pressed President Trump very hard to do, and that he did in the first term, was invoking the snapback sanctions in the United Nations.
00:09:01.420 And that, again, put enormous pressure on Iran.
00:09:07.960 And as a result, they didn't even enrich uranium above 5% when Trump was president.
00:09:14.220 But in November 2020, the Iranian regime gambled, and unfortunately correctly, that it could start rushing to a nuclear arsenal and that the Biden administration would let them. 0.90
00:09:27.180 And so in December of 2020, the regime approved a new law calling for major nuclear advances.
00:09:33.120 In January, they started enriching uranium to 20% at Fordow, which is the underground bunker built into a mountain that the Obama deal had left open.
00:09:44.320 And you know what the response was of Biden?
00:09:46.580 In February, right after he was inaugurated, February 2021, the Biden administration rushed to the UN to rescind the snapback sanctions that President Trump had put in place.
00:09:57.160 And under Biden, they allowed the international sanctions to expire.
00:10:01.100 And we now know the result.
00:10:03.240 Today, the Ayatollah's nuclear breakout time is nearly zero.
00:10:08.680 And that is a direct consequence of repeated decisions from Biden.
00:10:13.620 And I believe now we have a White House and a president who's not going to allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. 0.76
00:10:21.820 You talk about not allow them to.
00:10:24.060 Is that enforcing sanctions?
00:10:26.340 Is that the possibility of military being used?
00:10:30.160 I mean, what does that look like and what is best for the U.S. and also for Israel?
00:10:35.820 I'm assuming some of that was talked about.
00:10:38.060 Yes, yes, yes.
00:10:39.540 Sanctions, economic pressure, cutting off their oil, cutting off their finances.
00:10:44.020 And if necessary, using military force, not to invade Iran, not to try to turn Iran into Switzerland.
00:10:51.560 But if they are on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons, using military force, either Israel or America, to take out their nuclear weapon capability, to protect America, to protect Israel. 0.51
00:11:02.440 And that is that is something President Trump has been very explicit about.
00:11:07.040 And it's something certainly that that Prime Minister Netanyahu and I discussed this evening.
00:11:12.140 We've had a lot of sanctions on Iran, but unfortunately, they've not been enforced, certainly in the last administration, the way they were supposed to.
00:11:19.920 So when you look at enforcement aspect of this, and we've talked about ghost ships, ghost oil, that they've been able to get out to the black market and still prop themselves up.
00:11:30.120 Is that changing quickly?
00:11:32.060 I mean, granted, yes, we're on the third week of the Trump administration.
00:11:34.740 But how long does that take to actually turn into effect where they're feeling it within the government in Iran?
00:11:40.440 Listen, this is this is something I said on election night in November in my election night victory speech.
00:11:48.260 You were there, Ben. I said tonight was a very, very bad night for the Ayatollah in Iran because President Trump is being reelected.
00:11:57.580 We're getting a Republican Senate, a Republican House.
00:12:00.000 And that has changed things dramatically in terms of enforcing sanctions, going after going after the oil sales.
00:12:08.800 Look, oil is critical because that's where Iran gets the vast majority of its revenue.
00:12:15.120 When when Trump came into office, Iran was selling a million barrels of day after he used serious sanctions on oil sales.
00:12:25.600 We dropped that from a million barrels a day down to 300000.
00:12:29.560 Joe Biden refused to enforce those oil sanctions.
00:12:32.620 And Iran, when Biden came in, they were selling 300000 barrels a day.
00:12:36.780 It skyrocketed to two million barrels of oil a day.
00:12:42.180 That is what funded Hamas. 0.94
00:12:44.520 That is what funded Hezbollah. 0.96
00:12:46.180 That is what funded October 7th.
00:12:48.320 That is what funded terror against Israel and against America.
00:12:52.280 And so having a president with willing to stand up is really significant in terms of of Israel knowing that America has her back.
00:13:05.360 And by the way, I got to say one of the things that was really striking.
00:13:08.680 So so I talked with Bibi about October 7th, about the horrors that unfolded, about how Israel responded.
00:13:16.320 And they responded going after Hamas and how how quickly the Biden administration was undermining them.
00:13:23.620 But I got to say it, it got even more significant because you recall when Hezbollah began accelerating and escalating in the north of Israel and attacking more and more. 0.71
00:13:37.020 And you'll recall that Israel made the decision to to use the pagers, to use the pagers to explode and to take out a significant number of Hezbollah terrorists.
00:13:46.040 So so Bibi told me the inside story of that.
00:13:49.220 And I got to say, it is fascinating.
00:13:50.700 I told him I said, listen, if somebody wrote this as the plot of a movie, nobody would believe it.
00:13:58.500 If it was a mission impossible story.
00:14:00.860 OK, we're going to go undercover.
00:14:02.360 We're going to get an Asian company to produce pagers and sell them to Hezbollah and convince them that they're really from Asia when when, in fact, the Israelis have planted tiny explosives within them. 0.90
00:14:16.960 And then Hezbollah is going to distribute it to each of their terrorists so that Israel could detonate it. 0.83
00:14:22.320 You would not believe it.
00:14:23.620 Now, let me tell you something that that is is stunning and that this has been publicly reported, but it's also when Prime Minister Netanyahu made the decision to detonate those pagers.
00:14:33.540 Do you know what they didn't do?
00:14:35.360 What?
00:14:36.080 They didn't let the Biden White House know about it.
00:14:38.960 Really?
00:14:39.620 And there's a reason they didn't let the Biden White House know about it.
00:14:43.580 Sure.
00:14:44.460 Because so many people in the Biden administration were undermining Israel on a daily basis that they had very real concerns.
00:14:52.360 If they let the Biden White House know about it, that Hezbollah would be tipped off and they dispose of the pagers. 0.59
00:14:59.080 And so it would not take out the terrorists.
00:15:01.160 Think how messed up that is when Israel did not have the confidence to trust in letting the United States, letting the White House know how they're taking out terrorists.
00:15:15.720 Because they couldn't have confidence that America would not leak that to the Hezbollah terrorists. 0.91
00:15:24.980 Well, you mentioned the pager and there was something interesting that happened in the joint press conference with Bibi and President Trump.
00:15:30.960 And that was that Netanyahu gave Trump a, quote, golden pager.
00:15:34.380 It was clearly, I think, a reference to the Lebanon attack.
00:15:39.280 Did you ask him about that?
00:15:40.800 It was obviously a gift.
00:15:42.500 I didn't talk to him about the pager that he gave Trump, but he did describe, he did describe, like, testing the pagers.
00:15:49.180 And in fact, it was interesting.
00:15:50.160 It was a fairly small amount of explosive in the pagers.
00:15:53.380 And when he said his team was laying out the plan, and this is a plan that initiated years ago, initiated long before October 7th, and he said it was just a few grains of explosive that small enough to be undetectable.
00:16:06.380 And he was asking, okay, is this, is it enough explosive to detonate and do real damage to the terrorist who has it?
00:16:14.680 And they said, yes, and Bibi told me the way he tested it is he said he literally took one of the pagers and threw it as hard as he could at his wall.
00:16:22.140 And he said it exploded and put a pretty sizable dent in the wall.
00:16:25.240 And he said, okay, that's, that's, that's a good chunk of explosives.
00:16:28.920 By the way, I mean, I love the fact that that's what Bibi would do because it's totally, it's, it's kind of how he is.
00:16:34.940 I mean, he's a, all right, I'm all hands on deck.
00:16:37.480 Is this enough?
00:16:38.520 All right, let's see how much is enough.
00:16:40.280 I mean, that's amazing because that's not how it would be done here.
00:16:43.140 I can promise you that.
00:16:44.680 Well, I'll tell you something else we discussed.
00:16:46.680 So, so as, as they continue to take out Hamas and then to take out Hezbollah, one of the real pivotal moments was taking out Nasrallah. 0.93
00:16:55.420 Nasrallah was the head of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Bibi walked me through the decision-making.
00:17:01.020 Nasrallah was in an underground bunker and, and they were having vigorous debates about whether to take him out and, and, and in particular, what the timeframe would be on, on his being there.
00:17:13.980 And, and I got to say it was striking.
00:17:15.180 Number one, the timeframe on detonating the pagers, that, that, that they had reason to believe there was an urgency, that they had to detonate it when they did, uh, or, or there was a real risk.
00:17:26.880 They wouldn't be effective.
00:17:27.880 Likewise with, with, with Nasrallah, um, they had intelligence on where he was in an underground bunker.
00:17:34.300 Um, and, and they had reason to believe that, that, that, that there was a limited timeframe when he was vulnerable.
00:17:39.380 And, and, and so he walked through the decision-making on taking Nasrallah out.
00:17:43.760 Now, you know, you know, you know what, when they did that, again, they didn't tell the Biden White House for the same reason.
00:17:50.700 Now, pause and think about it.
00:17:52.020 In other words, to be clear, you're saying that Netanyahu was like, we couldn't trust our quote, biggest ally.
00:17:58.340 Yes.
00:17:58.780 With the Biden-Harris administration.
00:18:00.080 We couldn't tell them the truth.
00:18:01.960 We couldn't be honest with them.
00:18:03.420 Um, we, we were worried that they would not only, I would assume, undermine, but share that intelligence with the people that they were actually trying to kill, which would be the terrorists.
00:18:11.020 Yeah.
00:18:11.220 They were very concerned that the Biden administration would essentially warn the head of Hezbollah, uh, to get out of harm's way.
00:18:19.520 I mean, that is profoundly disturbing.
00:18:24.980 It is shocking, especially after what happened.
00:18:27.760 And you mentioned that the, the hostages several times.
00:18:30.580 Let's, let's dive into that as well, because there have been.
00:18:33.860 Well, before we do that, I want to make a point about Nasrallah.
00:18:36.080 One of the things that Bibi really emphasized is he said Nasrallah was critical to, to, to Hezbollah and, and, and to the terrorists because he was a charismatic leader.
00:18:47.940 And he said it was striking.
00:18:49.180 So, so Israel had taken out most of Nasrallah's, uh, chief deputies.
00:18:53.460 Um, and, and it wasn't until September 27th, uh, of last year that they took out Nasrallah himself.
00:19:00.980 And, and Bibi said, even with most of his chief deputies to take it out, Nasrallah was waging the war and doing so relatively effectively that he was a, a, a effective leader for an incredibly dangerous terrorist organization.
00:19:16.380 And so taking him out had, had a profound effect, weakening Hezbollah because his leadership without it, uh, that they were in utter chaos.
00:19:27.380 And in fact, he said that, that taking Nasrallah out, uh, was, was the critical piece that resulted in Bashar Assad falling in Syria because Assad relied on Hezbollah terrorists to help remain in power.
00:19:43.320 And so taking Nasrallah out, Bibi viewed as really a pivotal moment in, in critically weakening Hezbollah and critically, critically weakening, weakening Hezbollah's patron, Iran. 0.64
00:19:56.840 All right.
00:19:57.380 So that, that's some pretty big news.
00:19:59.300 So without that piece of the puzzle, you're saying there's a chance that Assad would still be in charge right now in Syria and not be hiding in Russia.
00:20:08.500 I, I, I, I think I would say, uh, but more than a chance, a, a direct, but for cause.
00:20:14.400 So you, you put all that together and is awful as the attack was on Israel.
00:20:20.760 The focus after that attack has been unbelievable and, and doing what they need to do to, to protect their people and make sure this never happens again is, is just truly amazing to see that the leadership of, of, of Netanyahu, the people around him, that their military services, their intelligence services, the list goes on and on.
00:20:43.000 That also is got to be so sad to watch that this is now where they are, right?
00:20:48.200 Like there's, there's this continuing war.
00:20:50.840 You've got the worries that you just mentioned with Iran and there's the other big worry.
00:20:54.020 And that is, there are still hostages.
00:20:56.240 So where are we on that?
00:20:57.960 What did he have to say about the hostages they currently have in this hostage deal?
00:21:01.060 When's, when are we going to see more be released?
00:21:03.240 Hopefully.
00:21:03.540 Well, many of the hostages have been released or have been rescued by, by the IDF at, at, at this point, uh, the, the, the women and children have all been released.
00:21:15.920 The only hostages that remain are, are men, uh, and, and, and there are roughly 20 hostages.
00:21:22.700 They don't know for sure how many are, are still alive.
00:21:25.400 Some, some may not be some, some, they certainly hope and, and, and believe are alive.
00:21:30.000 And, and, and Prime Minister Netanyahu is, is very focused on continuing to try to bring them home.
00:21:35.960 He told me early on, he said, one of the senior members of his government said right after October 7th, that, that we need to think of, of, of the hostages as essentially, as essentially dead, that we're not going to be able to do anything about it.
00:21:48.920 And, and, and Bibi told me he strongly rejected that premise and said, no, we can, we can wage war on Hamas.
00:21:55.160 We can take out the military leaders, we can take out the terrorists while, while doing so in a way to try to protect the hostages and bring, bring them home.
00:22:03.240 And, and I will say that they've had remarkable success in doing so, but the release of the hostages accelerated only after Donald Trump was, what was reelected.
00:22:15.060 So you look forward with that, you look at, at Iran, and, and when is that going to come to a head? 0.95
00:22:20.800 I mean, are we talking in the next days, weeks, months?
00:22:24.060 Because we've been, we've been hearing a lot about Iran over the last four years.
00:22:27.260 We heard a lot about it when Trump was in office from 16 to 20.
00:22:30.680 But there does seem to be a different level of urgency right now.
00:22:33.700 What does the next month or two look like?
00:22:35.640 Look, there is a real urgency, there is a real risk that Iran, we know they're close to a nuclear breakout, they could attempt to test a nuclear weapon. 0.86
00:22:45.660 Because at this point, they're badly weakened, and trying to get a nuclear arsenal, there's a real risk that the Ayatollah views that as the one way to regain their strength.
00:22:58.820 And that's incredibly dangerous, and, and I can tell you, Israel is committed to, to preventing that from happening, and, and, and I believe America is as well.
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00:23:40.120 What is America's foreign policy now when it comes to Iran?
00:23:43.420 Obviously, sanctions, implementing those sanctions, suffocating them financially is a big part of that.
00:23:48.940 But if they're still this close, is, is our foreign policy and, and the DOD and, and the president's wishes, are they drastically different than they were even maybe day one?
00:24:00.860 Because now they have the intel of just how close we are.
00:24:03.500 Is that what BB's point of being here is?
00:24:05.600 Well, look, I think the policy now is maximum pressure, and that means cutting off the money.
00:24:11.980 You know, at some level, it's not complicated. 0.99
00:24:14.400 Don't give billions of dollars to psychotic lunatics who want to murder you. 0.90
00:24:19.740 You would think that would not be a controversial proposition. 0.92
00:24:22.760 And, and yet, during four years, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris flowed over a hundred billion dollars to Iran.
00:24:31.460 That, in a very real sense, funded the death squads on October 7th, and it funded terrorism against America.
00:24:38.720 I'll give you another example.
00:24:40.200 Look, the, the Democrats are right now going nuts over USAID.
00:24:43.420 And, and most of the Democrats and, and all their acolytes in the media are pulling their hair out because President Trump and Elon Musk have, have halted, halted the funding at USAID. 0.57
00:24:54.180 And they're exposing all sorts of abusive payments, things like $2 million for sex changes in Guatemala, which, which I got to say, anyone who listens to that says, why the hell are U.S. taxpayers paying for that kind of nonsense?
00:25:07.440 Well, at some level, it's nonsense, but there's also money USAID put in that is not just an infuriating left-wing woke political agenda, but is dangerous.
00:25:20.640 So USAID, under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Gaza.
00:25:28.680 And, and, and that went, much of it went directly to Hamas.
00:25:32.780 Millions of, tens of millions of that were in cash that could never be accounted for.
00:25:38.100 And, and they knew that the money they were pouring into Gaza would benefit Hamas.
00:25:43.440 In fact, the, the Biden administration formally waived U.S. anti-terrorism law because they concluded that it was, quote, likely that the money they were sending would be used for terrorism.
00:25:54.780 And so ordinarily under U.S. law, if it's likely money will be used for terrorism, you're barred from sending it.
00:26:01.200 But the president under the law has the ability to waive that law.
00:26:04.680 And so rather than not fund the terrorists, they waived it.
00:26:08.260 I got to tell you, I, I tweeted about that today.
00:26:11.720 Elon Musk reposted it and, and, and just said, wow.
00:26:14.940 And, and, and just that tweet has had millions and millions of views, but, but it gives an example.
00:26:20.560 What the Biden administration was doing in, in a very real sense was, was funding the enemies of America and funding the enemies of, of Israel.
00:26:30.320 Israel, that's dangerous. 1.00
00:26:31.880 And, and that ended on January 20th.
00:26:34.620 Let's talk about the humanitarian side of this and, and, and the real need, needs of the people in Israel.
00:26:41.620 What did Bibi say from that standpoint?
00:26:44.140 Because there is obviously a great humanitarian need.
00:26:47.020 We're talking about all this money with doge that we're finding that we're giving to all these people.
00:26:50.860 Many of them that are, it's just waste and fraud and abuse and absurd things like transgender plays in certain countries when, you know, as an American, I don't mind helping our allies in times of need. 0.98
00:27:03.460 Israel is a great example of this. 0.99
00:27:04.960 There is so much money though, that's being used in such fraudulent ways that I do think there's a hesitancy now to just say, okay, what do you need?
00:27:12.400 Because it seems like everyone was taking from us and abusing it.
00:27:17.140 I think Israel is very different and that's why I want to bring this up. 1.00
00:27:20.460 But what are the needs?
00:27:22.540 So, so, so let me say, do you know what the amount of economic aid and assistance is that we give to Israel?
00:27:29.320 How much?
00:27:30.740 Zero dollars and zero cents.
00:27:33.020 We do not provide economic aid to Israel.
00:27:36.640 Israel's not asking us for money to feed its citizens.
00:27:40.440 Israel's not asking for money to, to provide housing or clothe its citizens.
00:27:44.480 Israel's not asking for money for relief.
00:27:46.300 The only assistance the United States provides to Israel is military aid.
00:27:53.960 Each year we provide roughly $3 billion in military assistance.
00:27:57.860 But that's, we do no economic assistance.
00:28:00.840 We're not paying welfare.
00:28:03.380 We are providing military assistance.
00:28:05.920 And do you know why we do that?
00:28:07.880 Why?
00:28:08.000 This is something critically important to understand.
00:28:10.940 We provide military assistance to Israel because it is good for America. 0.96
00:28:16.960 Israel, think about this for a second.
00:28:19.580 Everyone who hates Israel hates America.
00:28:24.520 Bingo. 0.99
00:28:24.780 And by the way, those who hate Jews hate Christians.
00:28:28.600 And everyone who Israel is fighting against, they're doing so to protect Israel, of course. 0.60
00:28:36.800 Well, there's a reason why it's almost simultaneous.
00:28:39.240 You hear death to Israel chants and death to America chants.
00:28:41.780 A lot of times they're intertwined. 0.95
00:28:43.620 The Ayatollah refers to Israel as the little Satan and America as the great Satan.
00:28:50.860 And so, listen, one of the things I said to Bibi, and I've said this to him many times,
00:28:54.900 I said, thank you.
00:28:56.060 Thank you for killing terrorists, for taking out Hamas, for taking out Hezbollah. 1.00
00:29:01.660 These are lunatics that want to murder Israelis and they want to murder Americans. 1.00
00:29:05.800 And they have. 1.00
00:29:07.000 Look, October 7th was a horrific terrorist attack against Israel.
00:29:10.800 But it was also a horrific terrorist attack against America.
00:29:14.380 Many Americans were killed.
00:29:15.620 Many Americans were taken hostage.
00:29:16.920 And so, we provide military aid to Israel because it keeps America safer.
00:29:22.800 And it also is incredibly frugal as a monetary matter because the benefits we get from Israeli intelligence, 0.98
00:29:34.160 the Mossad is one of the most effective and potent intelligence networks in the world.
00:29:40.020 And the Mossad has incredible intelligence on Hezbollah and Hamas, on Iran, on al-Qaeda and ISIS,
00:29:48.360 and all enemies of Israel, but also enemies of America.
00:29:52.560 And historically, they have shared that intelligence with us.
00:29:55.240 If we tried to recreate the benefits we get from Israeli intelligence and their military, 0.96
00:30:02.340 it wouldn't cost us $3 billion a year.
00:30:05.300 It would cost us tens of billions of dollars a year.
00:30:08.320 And so, we make that investment because it keeps America safe.
00:30:13.600 And they spend that investment, to be very clear, on taking out the people who want to kill Americans.
00:30:20.900 When you look at the money and you look at what's happening and you look at the meeting today that you had
00:30:27.040 and the needs that are there, I think there's a couple of just overall themes.
00:30:31.700 One, Israel now knows that America does, in fact, have their back. 0.51
00:30:37.860 Two, they can start sharing intelligence and talk about honest plans to protect Israel and America
00:30:44.020 because they can trust its administration.
00:30:46.200 And that seems to be maybe the most valuable part of this.
00:30:49.780 Three, we both have a true, genuine agreement in our foreign policy
00:30:55.160 that we must stop Iran from gaining that nuclear weapon. 0.78
00:31:00.440 And that also means now you've got to figure out how you're going to stop it from happening.
00:31:04.680 And that could be using military prowess to do it.
00:31:08.700 Which brings me to my final question to you.
00:31:11.660 Donald Trump's a guy that has been very proud about saying,
00:31:14.260 I haven't started any wars.
00:31:16.040 I get us out of wars and I try to end them.
00:31:21.240 Would you look at this as a war or more of a just a straight-up attack on a nuclear weapon site?
00:31:26.600 How should Americans look at this?
00:31:29.000 Well, listen, it's important to understand.
00:31:31.400 President Trump is right.
00:31:32.520 He has not started any wars.
00:31:34.580 We did not have it.
00:31:35.720 In fact, he ended wars.
00:31:36.880 He inherited the war with ISIS from Barack Obama.
00:31:41.760 ISIS had a caliphate, had territory about the size of the state of Indiana.
00:31:47.120 And Trump, within months, defeated ISIS altogether and ended that war
00:31:50.980 because they were defeated and conquered the caliphate.
00:31:54.040 There are some who try to say that America's first foreign policy is isolationist,
00:31:59.620 is just withdrawing from the world and not engaging with our enemies.
00:32:03.580 That has not been the foreign policy of Donald Trump.
00:32:06.560 It's worth remembering that when President Trump, in his first term,
00:32:11.400 he gave the order to take out General Soleimani,
00:32:15.880 the Iranian leader responsible for the murder of over 600 American servicemen and women,
00:32:22.640 the Iranian leader who had played a critical part in planning,
00:32:27.200 planning terrorist attacks against the United States and against Israel for years.
00:32:34.200 And Soleimani, along with Nasrallah,
00:32:37.360 were probably the two most important terrorist leaders on the face of the planet.
00:32:42.400 And President Trump ordered General Soleimani taken out.
00:32:46.160 And Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered Nasrallah taken out.
00:32:49.280 And now neither one of them are able to threaten America or Israel. 0.83
00:32:54.740 It's incredible.
00:32:55.820 I'm glad that you guys got to have this meeting.
00:32:57.960 I also just am really thankful, as you described it, that now I think Israel can trust that they have a partner in the U.S.
00:33:06.220 and they're not trying to they're not having to hide from the United States what they're trying to accomplish.
00:33:10.880 And we have the same goals.
00:33:13.120 Yes.
00:33:13.580 And by the way, another aspect of it.
00:33:15.800 So look, the efforts to attack Israel.
00:33:19.480 You saw them directly through terrorism, through October 7th.
00:33:24.700 You saw them through Hamas and Hezbollah. 0.93
00:33:27.280 And to be clear, the Biden administration was responsible for a very substantial part of the funding for that October 7th attack.
00:33:36.500 But you also saw it through lawfare, through using international institutions to go after Israel.
00:33:43.560 And one of the most profound examples of that is the International Criminal Court, which has indicted Bibi for committing war crimes. 0.72
00:33:55.780 And that decision is grotesquely false.
00:33:59.120 It was an anti-Semitic attack on Israel.
00:34:01.520 But it is also a profound threat to America.
00:34:06.580 Israel is not a party to the International Criminal Court.
00:34:10.240 Neither is America. 0.69
00:34:11.160 And the International Criminal Court, there's a real risk of it being used to go after American officials and American soldiers.
00:34:20.160 The same enemies of Israel want to use the ICC to accuse American soldiers of committing war crimes when we stand up to terrorists.
00:34:28.820 And so, you know, just a few days ago in Congress, we voted on legislation to sanction the International Criminal Court.
00:34:40.040 And I'll tell you, it was really sad.
00:34:42.280 Every Democrat in the Senate except one, except John Fetterman, voted no.
00:34:46.200 They all voted against Israel.
00:34:48.220 Amazing.
00:34:48.660 And and to be clear, is there going to be hell to pay politically, you think, for this?
00:34:54.600 I mean, the Democratic Party has become really a lot of their leaders are just straight up anti-Semitic.
00:34:59.980 Is there going to be hell to pay for that at some point?
00:35:03.260 Well, there hasn't been so far.
00:35:04.680 And the Democrats feel that there are no consequences.
00:35:07.300 Chuck Schumer was among the leaders who met with Netanyahu and was trying to give excuses for why he and he and all the other Democrats voted against sanctioning the ICC.
00:35:19.740 Today, President Trump issued sanctions as president.
00:35:22.940 And they were very strong sanctions.
00:35:24.440 That's one thing Bibi was very happy about is he now had a president that would stand up to the International Criminal Court for going after him.
00:35:32.140 Look, Bibi is not able to travel to much of Europe because they're European nations who have threatened they will arrest Bibi if he steps foot on their soil.
00:35:41.200 That is a profound attack on the government of Israel.
00:35:45.540 Think about it, that there are many European countries that he simply won't go to.
00:35:49.880 Now, let me ask a simple question to anyone listening.
00:35:52.900 Trump sanctioned the ICC today.
00:35:55.900 Why didn't Joe Biden?
00:35:57.320 The ICC did this under Biden's presidency.
00:35:59.440 And the answer is, I think the Biden administration wanted the ICC to go after Benjamin Netanyahu.
00:36:07.120 And I think we're going to see facts come to light in the weeks and months ahead that show some real complicity of the Biden administration for the lawfare attacking Israel.
00:36:18.520 And that really underscores the difference one election can make.
00:36:23.360 And thank God we have a president now who will stand up for America and who will stand up and stand alongside Israel.
00:36:30.160 Yeah, it's incredible.
00:36:32.220 Great show.
00:36:33.140 This is when I love doing this because we get to hear things that you wouldn't hear anywhere else.
00:36:37.320 So don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
00:36:40.520 Make sure you hit that subscribe or auto download button wherever you are listening to this podcast so that you don't miss a single episode, especially ones just like this.
00:36:49.800 And the center and I also do a week in review on Saturdays for some of the big highlights you may have missed during the week.
00:36:56.760 So make sure you check that out on Saturdays.
00:36:58.560 And we'll see you back here on Saturday for the week in review.
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