Verdict with Ted Cruz - Iran DEAL! What’s in it？ Plus Shocking Georgia Election Results

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00:00:14.940 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.

00:00:16.000 He's Joe Getty.

00:00:16.640 We're Armstrong and Getty.

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00:00:21.320 How about something about a comedic tone?

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00:00:27.300 Yes.

00:00:27.700 Listen to Armstrong and Getty On Demand on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:00:35.540 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you as well.

00:00:39.640 And we've got a very big show for you as we're recording right now.

00:00:43.060 You love to timestamp it, Senator, so I'm going to let you have the honors on that.

00:00:46.440 But we get to talk about what's happened with this deal and some of the understanding of what's in the deal has now come to light with a rant.

00:00:54.580 Well, it is 12.45 a.m. Tuesday night, and Ben, I guess, was stuck on an airplane somewhere, so welcome back home.

00:01:03.800 For once it was me.

00:01:04.580 I feel very proud right now that I am the reason why you had to wait a little bit, because usually it's the other way around, 364 other days out of here.

00:01:11.660 Yeah, I'm just saying I spent two hours in my D.C. apartment staring at the wall, so it's good to be with you.

00:01:17.820 Welcome back. 0.97

00:01:18.740 I assume you were like in Vegas dancing with Chippendales or something. 1.00

00:01:23.020 Yes, yes. Except I was with you last night. 0.99

00:01:25.420 I literally almost could have done the show before I left at that point.

00:01:28.920 It's true that that would have happily worked.

00:01:31.340 All right. We got a lot to talk about.

00:01:33.540 We're going to start by talking about Georgia and a big result in the Georgia governor's race.

00:01:40.040 Then we're going to talk about Iran and what's the deal with this new Iran deal.

00:01:46.940 And there are a lot of questions. A lot of people are wondering.

00:01:49.200 We're going to break it down based on what we know and what it means.

00:01:53.160 Is this a good thing? Is it a bad thing?

00:01:54.860 What are the consequences? What comes next?

00:01:56.700 We're going to give you all the details on that, all of that on today's pod.

00:02:01.100 Yeah, it's a shocking news story there that has just broken.

00:02:04.700 We'll have it for you in a moment.

00:02:06.020 Before we get to that, I do want to talk to you about what's happening right now in this country.

00:02:10.240 And it really feels like our country is finally getting the momentum we needed again.

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00:02:22.960 The left starts taking back ground inch by inch.

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00:04:04.720 All right.

00:04:04.940 So as promised, we are going to talk a lot about Iran the Iran deal.

00:04:08.180 But there is a story that is not being covered.

00:04:10.660 There's an important story.

00:04:12.060 And that is there was actually an election in Georgia.

00:04:15.220 You were involved in it.

00:04:16.560 You went down to Georgia.

00:04:17.420 Was that yesterday or the day before?

00:04:18.800 Every day is running together now with the flight times and, you know, whatever time it is in the morning as we speak.

00:04:24.580 But you were just there and made an endorsement there or a couple actually in Georgia.

00:04:28.900 What has happened there and what does this mean for the control of power in D.C.?

00:04:33.640 Yeah. So it was yesterday and there was a, the Georgia primaries were tonight, Tuesday night

00:04:41.360 in Georgia. And in the governor's race, you had a guy named Rick Jackson, who's a very successful

00:04:47.760 businessman who was running against Burt Jones, who's the lieutenant governor. And early on,

00:04:53.400 President Trump had endorsed Burt Jones. And just a few days ago, I endorsed Rick Jackson.

00:04:59.660 and that that caused the press to like the the the tongues to wag and be like oh this is a big

00:05:06.500 conflict um i will say look my approach on on endorsements is number one i endorse the most

00:05:14.940 conservative candidate who can win yeah and so i want to see proven evidence that you're conservative

00:05:21.260 but i also want to see that you can win that you got a path to victory not just in the primary but

00:05:25.200 the general. Number two, I tend to get involved in races late. That's my philosophical approach

00:05:32.780 is that I try to get involved right before election day, hopefully at a time when the

00:05:38.380 election is close and my involvement can make a difference. It can move someone into victory. And

00:05:45.240 so I jumped in this race just a few days ago. Yesterday, the day before the election, I flew

00:05:50.840 down to georgia to atlanta did it dig did a big rally with rick yeah and i i gotta say so rick's

00:05:57.300 story let me tell you a little bit about the guy and i did not know him uh until the last few days

00:06:03.000 but i looked at his record i examined it i talked to people who knew him and i made the decision to

00:06:07.320 endorse it so his story he grew up in a broken home in the projects in atlanta uh poverty

00:06:17.320 dysfunction. As a young boy, he ran away from home. He ended up going into the foster home system.

00:06:26.300 As a child, he had five foster families. So that's what he came out of.

00:06:33.040 He then went on to college, spent I think a little over a year in college, dropped out of college,

00:06:38.500 did not succeed in college. And he went and got a job. This is a cool story. So he went and

00:06:44.940 interviewed to work for a company that was engaged in healthcare sales. He did the interview. He did

00:06:51.060 pretty well. And then the guy interviewing him said, I'm sorry, look, we only hire people who

00:06:56.340 have college degrees. You dropped out of college. We're not going to hire you. And Rick said, okay,

00:07:01.080 that's fine. He said, can I ask you just out of curiosity, what did the job pay? And the guy said,

00:07:08.000 well, it paid $1,500 a month, plus 33% of all the sales you make. And Rick came back, he said,

00:07:17.120 I'll tell you what, how about if you don't pay me the $1,500 a month, don't pay me anything,

00:07:23.980 but just give me the 33% of the sales. And the guy kind of laughed. He said, well, that sounds

00:07:30.200 like a good deal. I don't have anything to lose on that, do I? So he hired him, even though he

00:07:33.700 didn't have a college degree he came in and was a monster salesman ended up making so much money

00:07:41.620 that within two years he bought the company that had hired him wow and he ends up building this

00:07:49.880 company into a massive multi-billion dollar health care company in georgia he's one of the biggest

00:07:58.540 employers in the state of georgia incredibly successful businessman self-built from nothing

00:08:05.960 yeah uh he now has been an incredibly generous philanthropist he's decided look i don't want

00:08:12.240 to take he's worth several billion dollars he's very successful and he said i don't want to take

00:08:16.820 this money with me so i'm going to give it away and make a difference to the world around me

00:08:21.040 so for example on foster care he has given millions to help foster kids in georgia

00:08:28.480 So kids that are in foster care, he'll come in and say, you know what, I'm going to pay for you to go to college.

00:08:33.760 I'm going to pay for your expenses.

00:08:35.060 I'm going to help you get started.

00:08:36.620 Because he's been there.

00:08:38.460 Look, so many foster kids, they've been subject to horrible conditions.

00:08:43.380 They've often been subject to abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse.

00:08:47.500 They're the kids that it seems sometimes society gives up on.

00:08:52.720 Yeah.

00:08:52.880 And he understands firsthand, look, you can be in that circumstance and you can make something

00:08:58.060 of your life and make a real difference. And so he's invested in these kids that have every

00:09:03.820 disadvantage. I'm going to help them achieve their dreams. He's also funded Christian ministries all

00:09:10.680 over the world. For example, he's funded a Christian orphanage in China that my understanding

00:09:18.380 is it's the lone orphanage that's able to teach christianity in china so he's he's putting look

00:09:25.140 you and i are both christians yes it's one thing to have empty words it's one thing to say you have

00:09:31.460 faith it's another thing to put your faith to action to put to invest and make a difference

00:09:36.820 and and rick decided okay i'm going to run for governor because i think i can make a difference

00:09:43.000 And I looked at his record, and I said, this guy has an incredible, I mean, an inspirational life story, and I think he can win.

00:09:52.000 And so I endorsed him.

00:09:54.240 I went down.

00:09:55.280 We did a big rally in Georgia, and I'm going to give you some fun behind-the-scenes story.

00:10:00.920 So as we're coming in, I fly down there on Monday.

00:10:03.140 We're going to the rally.

00:10:04.780 And Trump had endorsed his opponent, this guy named Burt Jones.

00:10:08.880 I don't know Burt Jones.

00:10:10.060 I'm sure he's a perfectly decent and fine man.

00:10:12.380 And he's the lieutenant. He endorsed early. Right. Like so people understand. Yes. He endorsed early before Rick was in the race.

00:10:20.080 And so I understand. Look, that's a key point. Yeah. He went for who he thought at the time.

00:10:24.440 The other guy wasn't in yet. Yeah. Jones was lieutenant governor. He was running.

00:10:27.920 And so Trump endorsed early. Rick wasn't in the race. So so Rick was actually at the White House, a big fundraiser this weekend.

00:10:35.820 And, you know, Trump was saying, hey, this guy's great. He's awesome. He's incredibly successful.

00:10:41.060 I didn't know him, but he was like praising him vocally at this fundraiser this weekend.

00:10:46.000 As I'm flying in, I'm headed to the event and we get the news that Donald Trump Jr. is going to endorse Rick Jackson.

00:10:57.360 Now, that's a big deal because the main argument against him, what everyone was pounding him is that Trump, Trump the dad, had endorsed his opponent.

00:11:06.440 You know, tons of campaign ads saying Trump picked the other guy.

00:11:09.940 And we get the news that Don Jr. was going to endorse Rick.

00:11:13.100 And it was actually fun.

00:11:14.280 As I'm headed to the event, the campaign said, hey, do you want to announce Don Jr.'s endorsement?

00:11:21.140 And listen, Don Jr. is a buddy of mine.

00:11:23.600 I know him very well.

00:11:25.140 And I was like, yeah, sure.

00:11:26.200 And I said, look, I just want to help your campaign.

00:11:28.980 So if it's helpful for me to announce it, I'm happy to.

00:11:31.320 If it's not, like, it's your call, but I'm more than happy to.

00:11:34.520 and uh they ended up deciding that don jr the actual endorsement statement was not going to

00:11:42.620 use the word endorse but was going to praise him as like he's a great patriot i know him well and

00:11:47.860 he's fantastic and he's america first and the timing ended up working out i said sure i'm happy

00:11:54.600 to announce it but then they didn't end up approving the statement for another two hours

00:11:59.360 and it just look it takes some time when you're right before an election and you're trying to

00:12:02.840 decide going through a political operation it takes some time to approve it so i said i'm happy

00:12:07.260 to announce it it wasn't finalized so i did not in fact announce it from the stage but right after i

00:12:14.300 left uh don jr tweeted out the support and and tonight uh rick ended up winning uh the margin

00:12:23.380 as of tonight 99 percent is in is 52.6 percent to 47.4 percent it's a great victory and and i think

00:12:33.880 so one of the cases i made to the voters we had a big big rally in georgia and i said listen that

00:12:39.760 rick's life story is incredible he's campaigning on a promise number one to immediately freeze

00:12:47.840 property taxes in georgia that's big number two on income taxes to cut the georgia income tax

00:12:55.680 in half and ultimately to work to abolish it all together and what rick has said

00:13:01.060 is he said if he doesn't succeed in freezing the property taxes and cutting the income tax in half

00:13:07.120 he will not run for re-election he will serve one term if he fails in that he's not running

00:13:12.440 for re-election and i made a point to everyone i said listen i've got a crazy secret here

00:13:17.460 rick is rich like everyone laughs i'm like yeah look this is an incredibly successful dude

00:13:25.120 he could play golf every day he could sit on the beach and drink daiquiris and live a life of 0.98

00:13:31.340 leisure and i said listen to run for office you got to be nuts you got to be certified crazy yeah 0.94

00:13:38.020 you get attacked constantly there's so much and and rick is doing this the case i made i said rick 0.69

00:13:44.200 is doing this because he believes in Georgia. He believes in the country. He believes it could

00:13:48.920 make a difference. And listen, Georgia used to be bright red. The unfortunate reality is it's purple

00:13:56.400 now. And the Democrats, right now, the Democrats are leading in the polling for the governor's

00:14:02.960 race. I think Rick will win. I think Rick will keep Georgia red. And I also made the case, I said,

00:14:08.740 listen, by y'all coming out and voting for Rick, we're going to help John Ossoff get a job in the

00:14:14.400 private sector. John Ossoff is the very liberal Democrat who represents Georgia. He may be the

00:14:21.780 senator who is most out of step with the values of his state, because he's a very liberal Democrat.

00:14:27.560 Georgia's not a very liberal state. But he's got a ton of money, and he's right now leading in the

00:14:33.440 polls a lot. And I said, listen, if you want to win the Senate seat here in Georgia, the best way

00:14:39.300 to do it is have a gubernatorial candidate who's running an incredible campaign, who's mobilizing

00:14:45.740 voters across the state, who, by the way, I mean, Rick has put massive millions and millions of

00:14:51.840 dollars in the campaign. So he's funding it himself. And if you end up with a gubernatorial

00:14:58.560 candidate at the top of the race who's turning out a ton of voters, that's how you have a chance

00:15:04.200 to win the Senate race also. And I got to say, I'm gratified that the voters of Georgia agreed

00:15:10.860 and we had a big, big win in Georgia tonight. Every day in Ontario, a shelter worker will

00:15:16.600 help someone fleeing violence. A child therapist will help a kid in crisis. A support worker will

00:15:22.000 help a person with disabilities live a full life in their community. They and countless other

00:15:26.680 workers show up for ontarians every single day but the ford government's cuts have left workers

00:15:32.300 with no choice but to go on strike today workers are on the picket lines fighting for their

00:15:37.080 communities and the services we all depend on now it's our turn to show up for them

00:15:41.460 visit worth fighting for.ca to show your support why should you listen to armstrong and getty on

00:15:46.940 demand we're not boring a lot of news is boring and tedious and depressing and makes you angry

00:15:52.480 you don't want to live your life like that hey i'm jack armstrong he's joe getty we're armstrong

00:15:57.320 and getty we try to bring you the truth and help you figure out this crazy modern world

00:16:01.240 about something about a comedic tone

00:16:03.000 we have a winner yes listen to armstrong and getty on demand on the iheart radio app apple

00:16:11.680 podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts so let's get into iran it was a very interesting

00:16:18.080 day i was in dc and i was i was in fox in the green room and there was a lot of activity with

00:16:24.500 this iran deal i was doing a couple different shows and everybody was trying to figure out

00:16:29.160 are we excited about the deal are we not i had friends on tv that were saying they think this

00:16:34.960 is not a great deal i had friends on tv that said this is a great deal i had people in between uh

00:16:41.180 there was elected officials that i was talking to as well they were asking me what do i think what

00:16:45.800 Like, how is this going to play out?

00:16:47.760 My synopsis was this, and I want to get your take.

00:16:51.200 The president understands midterms are coming, and we have to win the midterms.

00:16:55.000 Gas prices need to be lower before the midterms.

00:16:57.280 He had a simple promise, which was to make sure Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon. 0.67

00:17:01.500 That is the promise that people care about the most, and they want this thing to end pretty quickly.

00:17:07.180 We also know we have a president that has no problem bombing bad guys when they're acting up.

00:17:11.800 And if Iran does anything that the president thinks a threat to us, he's clearly going to act.

00:17:16.880 I think you put all that together.

00:17:19.060 That's kind of where we are right now.

00:17:21.060 What is your reaction and what are your colleagues saying?

00:17:24.520 Yeah, look, I think there's a lot of uncertainty right now.

00:17:28.500 Nobody knows what is in the deal.

00:17:31.360 Yeah.

00:17:32.360 I'm in the Senate.

00:17:34.040 I have had no communication about what is in this deal.

00:17:38.060 So I'm doing the same thing you guys are doing.

00:17:40.720 i'm i'm reading the news uh i'm watching twitter and you see all sorts of different reports and

00:17:49.040 it's difficult to understand the actual substance of what's in it um there's also active misrepresentation

00:17:56.940 so iran is putting out massive information basically saying this is a total victory for

00:18:02.960 iran we've won the united states has capitulated now i don't believe what iran is putting out

00:18:08.800 But right now, nobody in the Senate, nobody in the Congress has the details of what the agreement is.

00:18:16.500 So I have.

00:18:18.580 By the way, there is some trust and verify here for the Senate.

00:18:21.340 For people that don't understand this, to lift the sanctions, you guys are going to know exactly what's in there and you have to agree to it.

00:18:28.880 Am I right? Isn't that how this works?

00:18:31.280 Look, it depends the way the sanction laws are written.

00:18:34.760 The president has quite a bit of discretion.

00:18:38.020 I hope and believe this deal will come before the Congress and we'll know the specifics of it, and we're going to know them in time.

00:18:45.420 But this is, you know, we're hours into this.

00:18:48.300 This is very early.

00:18:50.900 Let me talk about different elements that may or may not be in the deal.

00:18:55.420 One of the elements that has been widely reported is that Iran is going to get $300 billion in order to rebuild Iran.

00:19:07.020 and those are going to come from frozen funds from other sources it's not clear where that's

00:19:14.140 going to come from i i've got to say i i very much hope that is not true if somehow we are flowing

00:19:22.980 300 billion dollars to iran i i think that is an incredibly foolish idea yeah i agree with you by

00:19:31.520 the way that's that's no different than the pallets of cash and appeasement in many people's

00:19:35.180 size. Actually, it is different. Obama flew $1.7 billion in cash into Iran. Joe Biden flowed $100

00:19:46.120 billion into Iran during his four years. If, and I do not know that this is right, but if we are

00:19:53.560 sending $300 billion, 3x what Biden sent, I think that is utterly indefensible. So I am hoping

00:20:01.080 that is not true. I have no confirmation it's true. Iran is saying it's true, but I don't trust them.

00:20:07.540 So that would be an enormous mistake. And listen, it is universally reported. 0.56

00:20:14.780 This is a deal that has been negotiated by J.D. Vance. He has been the point person on negotiating

00:20:19.940 this deal. He is now doing the talk show circuit, defending the deal. But we don't know what the

00:20:26.100 specifics are i gotta say if if the decision is let's give actually here i i want to share

00:20:33.820 something so chris ruddy chris ruddy is something someone you and i both know well yeah he is the

00:20:39.840 owner of newsmax chris ruddy wrote a very important op-ed on newsmax and and i want to share some of

00:20:46.440 it the title of it is say no to 300 billion dollar iran reconstruction fund and here's what chris

00:20:55.280 wrote. President Trump was right to call reports of a 300 billion dollar reconstruction fund for

00:21:01.260 Iran, quote, fake news. He should keep calling them that until the idea is dead, buried and

00:21:09.480 impossible to revive under another name. Vice President J.D. Vance has sought to reassure

00:21:15.240 skeptics about the plan. Quote, the Iranians are not receiving any cash and no funds are being

00:21:21.260 released for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting, the vice president said this past

00:21:25.580 weekend. Vance then said the economic benefits would flow only if Tehran meets its obligations

00:21:32.460 under a future agreement. That is better than a blank check, but it suggests a $300 billion

00:21:40.640 check is still in the works and part of the Memorandum of Understandings that starts a 60-day

00:21:49.040 ceasefire here's the central question why should iran receive access to any reconstruction fund

00:21:59.440 let alone one with 300 billion dollars that's a third of a trillion dollars yeah the floated

00:22:07.300 proposal makes no sense worse it is dangerous and ruddy continues it would reward a maniacal regime

00:22:17.800 not for reforming, not for compensating its victims, and not for abandoning terror

00:22:22.940 as an instrument of statecraft. It would reward Iran for surviving a war it provoked through 0.95

00:22:31.820 decades of nuclear blackmail, proxy violence, and regional aggression. Let's put this in 0.82

00:22:37.900 perspective. For more than 40 years, Iran's rulers have obsessed over acquiring the capability to

00:22:44.640 destroy Israel, threaten America, and dominate the Middle East. 0.67

00:22:49.620 They call the United States the, quote, great Satan.

00:22:53.820 They burned through tens of billions of dollars and effectively checked out of the civilized community of nations

00:22:59.500 in pursuit of their dream, nuclear weapons. 0.93

00:23:02.520 They have repeatedly stated their aim publicly and loudly, quote, to wipe Israel off the map. 0.83

00:23:09.780 In the interim of that goal, Tehran has funded mayhem across the region.

00:23:16.660 Hezbollah, so clearly backed by Iran and has been part of their negotiations, has long terrorized northern Israel. 0.54

00:23:24.720 For 40 years, Hezbollah has fired tens of thousands of rockets into Israel, costing billions in damage, thousands in casualties, and hundreds of deaths.

00:23:34.700 The Houthis, another proxy of Tehran, have fired missiles at Israel and disrupted international shipping for years.

00:23:42.140 They have attacked U.S. naval ships with drones and missiles no less than 400 times.

00:23:51.380 This is not a misunderstood regime looking for an off-ramp.

00:23:55.840 It's a revolutionary regime that made violence its business model.

00:24:01.000 even the assassination of president trump remains a priority business item so chris's op-ed and it

00:24:09.820 goes on it's a lengthy op-ed so i'm not going to read the rest of it but it makes the powerful

00:24:14.920 case i very much hope the reports that 300 billion dollars are going to flow to iran

00:24:20.980 i hope those are false and i don't know that they're true i have no basis to believe they're

00:24:25.920 true. But I got to say, sending $300 billion to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us 0.94

00:24:34.620 is not a good idea. I am very much hoping that is Iranian misinformation and that is not part 0.97

00:24:42.740 of the deal. And I want you to listen to President Trump discussing where things stand at the G7.

00:24:51.920 Here, give a listen. 0.62

00:24:55.920 It's a very important document, and unlike Obama, who could have destroyed the Middle

00:25:03.360 East with a horrible JCPOA, it is the worst agreement.

00:25:09.820 That was a road to a nuclear weapon.

00:25:11.800 Mine is a wall against a nuclear weapon.

00:25:14.240 I mean, I see these people say, but we already had one.

00:25:17.080 In other words, he paid a fortune for it.

00:25:19.220 We pay nothing.

00:25:20.440 We don't pay.

00:25:21.440 There was some statement, we're going to spend $300 billion.

00:25:24.160 No.

00:25:25.160 We're allowed to go and invest if we wanted to someday in the future.

00:25:29.160 We have no obligation whatsoever.

00:25:31.440 It could be that Iran will turn out to be successful when they have oil.

00:25:36.280 But if we left a week ago, just left, before the last two attacks, 0.58

00:25:44.700 it would have taken them 20 years to rebuild Iran.

00:25:48.040 But I'll go over the document with the media in a couple of days.

00:25:53.620 now the president they're saying he'll go over it with the media he'll be transparent he's going

00:25:59.320 to read it but he says that 300 is not there i'm very comforted i i i am glad the president is

00:26:06.540 saying that he is right to say that it's why look i am withholding judgment until i actually see

00:26:13.700 the details the reporters are all like oh don't you want to say something about this and i'm like

00:26:17.320 Look, until I know what the agreement is, I'm not going to comment without basis.

00:26:23.020 We're seeing the reporting.

00:26:24.700 What I can say without equivocation is that giving $300 billion to Iran is a spectacularly bad idea.

00:26:33.040 I hope and pray that's not what this deal is.

00:26:35.420 I'll be very happy if when the details become public, it's not giving $300 billion.

00:26:42.820 But I have no hesitancy that giving $300 billion to Iran would be disastrous. 0.90

00:26:47.480 And to be clear, they would use that money to build weapons to kill Americans. 0.85

00:26:52.920 And they would use that money to give it to Hamas and Hezbollah. 0.98

00:26:56.860 Yeah, to fund terrorists that are murdering Americans. 0.96

00:26:59.720 As I observed to some of my colleagues in the Senate, I said, look, giving $300 billion to theocratical lunatics who want to murder us is not a good idea. 0.92

00:27:10.380 I hope. 0.94

00:27:12.100 That's a sound foreign policy, Senator.

00:27:14.320 Let's just be clear.

00:27:15.380 That is a pretty sound foreign policy.

00:27:18.040 I like where we're headed.

00:27:19.220 And by the way, look, I talked to the president just a few days ago, right before this deal

00:27:23.480 was announced.

00:27:25.240 I am really hopeful.

00:27:27.340 Look, one of the dynamics in the Trump administration is there are different camps within the

00:27:31.700 administration that have different views on foreign policy.

00:27:34.140 there are camps in the administration that oppose the iranian military uh attack that have wanted

00:27:42.420 to end it from day one that that have been deeply unhappy with the president's decision to go in

00:27:47.840 and take out uh the iranian military um i don't know the extent to which those voices are

00:27:55.640 prevailing right now because there's an active dispute playing out day by day in the administration

00:28:01.640 I will say this, though. There are also some Democrats and some of the media are crowing, oh, this is exactly like Obama and the JCPOA. It most certainly is not that. Understand what Donald Trump has done. The decision to launch the military attack against Iran was the single most important decision of the Trump presidency.

00:28:22.740 He has destroyed over 80% of their ballistic missiles, over 80% of their drones.

00:28:27.520 He's destroyed their drone manufacturing capability, their ballistic missile manufacturing capability.

00:28:32.660 He's utterly destroyed their air defenses.

00:28:35.960 Their air force is in rubble on the runways.

00:28:39.680 Their navy has sunk at the bottom of the ocean.

00:28:42.020 You know how many Iranian naval ships he has sunk?

00:28:45.080 How many?

00:28:46.620 161.

00:28:47.780 That's a lot.

00:28:48.780 It is the largest naval defeat since World War II.

00:28:52.740 The Iranian military has been destroyed.

00:28:55.180 And by the way, the Ayatollah is dead.

00:28:56.840 Many of the mullahs are dead.

00:28:58.280 Many of the senior leaders of the IRGC is dead.

00:29:01.360 So under any measure, there are Democrats who are lunatically claiming Iran is stronger today than it's ever been.

00:29:10.560 No, no, they have been bombed back in the Stone Age.

00:29:14.600 Under no measure are they stronger than they've ever been. 0.97

00:29:17.100 Now, I don't want to see theocratic Islamists who want to kill us made stronger. 0.98

00:29:23.060 So if this deal is giving them $300 billion, that's a mistake. 0.98

00:29:27.400 I hope that is not the case.

00:29:30.700 But the sort of cute talking point that this is just like Obama is absurd and false.

00:29:39.300 The Obama-Iran nuclear deal was designed to inevitably lead to Iran having a nuclear weapon.

00:29:46.200 The president has launched a massive military action designed to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.

00:29:53.480 That is massively, massively different.

00:29:55.720 What I'm urging the president, what I'm saying to him is don't give away the victory.

00:30:02.080 I don't believe he's doing so.

00:30:03.640 I hope he's not doing so.

00:30:05.020 I hope his administration is not doing so.

00:30:07.440 But my message is don't – we have defeated their military.

00:30:11.540 don't suddenly come in with massive buckets of cash to let them rebuild and become a threat to

00:30:18.400 America again. Great point. Final question, and this is something that is going to be in the news,

00:30:23.200 and that was the vote in the Senate on war powers with Iran. It came down to one vote.

00:30:29.420 Thank goodness John Fetterman voted with Republicans as some Republicans defected.

00:30:34.820 Doing the math on this, it just shows you how tight things are in the Senate. Were you surprised

00:30:39.640 by how close this was, or was it what you were going to expect? And Fetterman, by the way,

00:30:44.080 what a blessing that guy has become. I mean, that is a compliment to him, where on a lot of issues,

00:30:49.620 he does not play politics. He looks at his right and wrong, and is America better off? And I think

00:30:54.620 that was one of his votes today is a perfect example of that. Yeah, listen, John Fetterman

00:30:59.780 has become a friend. I like John. I work with him quite a bit. He's got real courage. He is the lone

00:31:07.300 democrat who will stand up to the crazies on on a host of issues he will stand up uh number one

00:31:13.100 on israel he is not part of the pro hamas lunatic left which is much of the democrat party uh number

00:31:20.620 two on on border security he has decided that the policy of open borders and releasing murderers 0.94

00:31:28.380 and gangbangers and rapists and child molesters is a dumb policy now that didn't used to be a 0.87

00:31:34.540 radical position. That used to be, in fact, you go back just a few years ago, and whether it was 0.99

00:31:39.740 Harry Reid or Chuck Schumer or Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton, every Democrat espoused that

00:31:44.380 position. Today, John Fetterman is almost the only Democrat who will say that. I mean,

00:31:51.120 it's not that he has changed, it's that his party has gone nuts. And I will tell you, the Democrats, 0.55

00:31:58.320 They hate Fetterman for it. 0.97

00:32:00.340 They're vicious.

00:32:01.400 They insult and revile him.

00:32:04.360 I consider John a friend.

00:32:05.940 And listen, John still votes 90% with the Democrats.

00:32:10.620 So let's be clear.

00:32:11.460 He is not suddenly a conservative Republican.

00:32:14.000 He just doesn't believe Hamas is better than Israel.

00:32:16.800 He doesn't believe open borders and criminals are better than American citizens. 0.99

00:32:21.020 Those are pretty reasonable statements that used to be mainstream and everyone agreed with.

00:32:26.820 and now virtually every other democrat has abandoned that um actually here's a question

00:32:33.340 to ask our listeners you ought to post on social media uh do y'all want john fetterman to be a

00:32:38.520 guest on on verdict i'd love to ask you know it's funny that you just said that i was literally

00:32:42.100 gonna say senator i think we should have fetterman on and i've never said it live on the air

00:32:45.660 that we should have a guest before as before you're not talking about it behind the scenes

00:32:49.800 i i think he would be a fabulous guest for verdict look look john and i are buddies i i will say

00:32:56.700 You remember last year, he decided he was going to go down to Mar-a-Lago and meet with Trump.

00:33:02.220 And the left lost their mind and said, oh, my God, why would you talk to the president? 1.00

00:33:05.480 What kind of lunatic are you? 1.00

00:33:07.660 And John, he's got a good sense of humor. 1.00

00:33:10.640 It's his very dry sense of humor.

00:33:12.700 And he came back and said, well, I'm going to ask him to make me the Pope of Greenland, which I thought was really funny.

00:33:20.160 And I actually, like, used AI, I found a meme, and sent out a meme of Fetterman as the Pope in, like, papal robes in Greenland, and, like, tweeted it out, and I sent it to John, and we were cracking up laughing about it, because I thought that was really funny.

00:33:36.920 But, look, he's shown real courage.

00:33:41.560 The fact that he is so alone in the Democrat Party really illustrates how radicalized they've become.

00:33:47.860 Yeah, it's a great point.

00:33:48.960 We're going to keep you updated on this

00:33:50.620 Obviously the deal with Iran

00:33:51.840 Probably on Friday morning's show

00:33:53.320 We'll have a lot more details of what is in this deal

00:33:55.660 So don't forget, download Verdict with Ted Cruz

00:33:57.780 Wherever you get your podcasts

00:33:59.380 So you don't miss an episode

00:34:00.580 You can also watch us on YouTube

00:34:01.900 And you can listen to the show

00:34:03.760 The weekend version as well

00:34:05.200 On radio stations all over the country

00:34:07.560 And we'll see you back here Friday morning

00:34:18.960 I want to live your life like that.

00:34:20.820 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.

00:34:21.880 He's Joe Getty.

00:34:22.520 We're Armstrong and Getty.

00:34:23.640 We try to bring you the truth.

00:34:24.800 And help you figure out this crazy modern world.

00:34:27.180 How about something about a comedic tone?

00:34:31.660 We have a winner.

00:34:33.180 Yes.

00:34:34.200 Listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand on the iHeartRadio app,

00:34:37.300 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - June 17, 2026

Iran DEAL! What’s in it？ Plus Shocking Georgia Election Results

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