00:04:32.620To Iran itself, you have, number one, $16 billion in direct funds, $6 billion that everyone talked about that was ransomed for five Americans.
00:04:42.480That was widely denounced by me and many others.
00:04:45.580On top of that, there was another $10 billion of money that was frozen in Iraq that the Biden administration unfroze to allow to flow back to Iran.
00:05:33.860He sent hundreds of millions of dollars into Gaza that went directly into the hands of Hamas that in all likelihood was used to finance some or all of the October 7th terror attack.
00:05:44.400The same thing is true with flooding money into Lebanon, much of which ends up in the hands of Hezbollah.
00:05:50.060Hezbollah, again, over 90% of its budget comes from Iran.
00:05:54.360On top of that, even more amazingly, the Biden administration allowed the U.N. sanctions, the international sanctions on missiles in Iran to expire.
00:06:06.160They did this in the midst of Iran, funding Hamas, funding Hezbollah, funding October 7th, and launching over 100 attacks on U.S. servicemen and women.
00:06:17.140On October 7th, more than 1,200 Israelis were murdered.
00:06:23.200That included roughly 30 Americans who were murdered.
00:06:31.160Not only that, we have three servicemen and women.
00:06:33.100The Iranians have murdered in their more than 100 attacks.
00:06:36.300And what does the Biden administration keep doing?
00:06:39.420Shoveling cash to this theocratic, lunatic Ayatollah.
00:06:45.800Senator, this Ayatollah also that chanced death to America, there's also another problem.
00:06:51.060And that is that the weapons inspectors that deal with nuclear weapons, they've been kicked out of Iran.
00:06:57.960And yet we still have this Iranian nuclear deal.
00:07:00.940And I can't believe for a second that Iran wouldn't use a nuclear weapon if they have one or if they get one based on what they just did with this indiscriminate massive attack on Israel.
00:07:14.460Well, we don't know if they have a nuclear weapon.
00:07:18.120If they don't have one, they are very, very close.
00:07:21.000And they are very, very close because Joe Biden has flooded so much cash into them to put them in a position to have this kind of money.
00:07:31.660And I said I wanted to come back to this.
00:07:33.240So during the Trump administration, when President Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, which was absolutely the right thing to do, at the time, Iran was exporting roughly a million barrels of oil a day.
00:07:48.580When Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, he kept in place an oil waiver.
00:07:54.340That waiver allowed Iran to continue selling a million barrels a day of oil.
00:07:58.900I thought that was an enormous mistake.
00:08:00.700So once we pulled out of the Obama nuclear deal, I pressed President Trump repeatedly to end the oil waiver.
00:08:08.300There was a fight between the State Department and the Energy Department.
00:08:11.540The State Department under Trump wanted to keep the oil waiver in place.
00:08:15.040They said that if we ended the oil waiver, the price of oil and the price of gasoline would skyrocket.
00:08:19.580The Department of Energy under Trump, which presumably are experts in energy, said that's ridiculous.
00:11:08.100After October 7th, just recently, just a couple of weeks ago, I forced a vote on the Senate floor to bar the Biden administration from sending billions of dollars to Iran.
00:11:27.180Iran is still actively trying to kill U.S. servicemen and women.
00:11:31.760Iran is still trying to actively murder former U.S. senior officials, including Mike Pompeo, the former Secretary of State, including John Bolton, the former National Security Advisor, including Brian Hook, the former Assistant Secretary of State.
00:11:59.580So you look at the cash and then let's move to the second part here, and that is, all right, so the U.N.'s and the Security Council emergency meeting right now, they're demanding that Israel show restraint.
00:12:12.300We're also getting reporting now from Axios that Biden told apparently Netanyahu the U.S. won't support an Israeli counterattack on Iran, which is unfortunately not shocking.
00:12:25.300I actually, you talked about this, it's very clear now, actions speak louder than words, and this president and the Biden administration and their foreign policy is Israel bad, everybody else can do what they want to do.
00:12:37.680What is the response now going to be when you go back to Washington this week and you can't say, hey, we need to put sanctions on Iranian oil.
00:12:48.500Well, the Biden administration's message and the message of every Democrat in Congress is there is no military solution for our allies, but our enemies are allowed to win.
00:13:01.700Our enemies are allowed to attack and attack and attack, and our allies have to do nothing about it.
00:13:06.820Understand, the money that they flood to Iran, you know who they're not flooding money to?
00:13:25.080He said, we will not vote on this unless it's tied to Ukraine and the rest of the Democrat priorities.
00:13:30.120Now, if you'll recall, several months ago, I and several other Republicans forced a vote on emergency military aid to Israel on the Senate floor.
00:13:39.700We released yesterday on Sunday that podcast that we did several months ago describing exactly what happened.
00:13:47.880We put that out as a bonus pod because it is incredibly relevant now.
00:13:52.240If you didn't listen to yesterday's podcast, you ought to go back and listen to it.
00:13:55.680The day of that vote was the day of the March for Israel.
00:13:59.500There were over 300,000 people that came to the mall that were out there marching in support of Israel.
00:14:04.740I was on the mall marching in support for Israel.
00:14:07.080A number of Democrat senators were there, including Democrat senators Jackie Rosen, Democrat from Nevada, was on the stage speaking in support of Israel.
00:14:16.140Immediately after that march, I and several other Republican senators, we forced a vote on emergency military aid to Israel.
00:14:25.860We used a parliamentary technique that's called a rogue cloture petition, which is a method that the minority can seize control of the floor.
00:14:33.880It's rare to use, and frankly, Schumer was sloppy as majority leader to let us use it, but we succeeded in using it, and we forced that vote.
00:14:43.360Every single Democrat, all of them with no exceptions, voted against emergency military aid to Israel.
00:14:50.880They literally left to march for Israel, came back and said, no money for Israel, none.
00:14:57.700And by the way, their stated justification was because the House had paid for it by removing that money from the $80 billion the Democrats had given to hire 87,000 new IRS agents.
00:15:10.500So because instead the IRS was only getting $66 billion instead of $80 billion, the Democrats said, nope, we care more about adding IRS agents than we do about supporting Israel against our terrorist enemies.
00:15:28.860Now, I will say, in the last 24 hours, Chuck Schumer sent out a tweet saying, we stand strongly with Israel, we will have your backs, to which I immediately responded, well, I'm glad you're saying that because you're the one who blocked emergency military aid to Israel, and every single Democrat senator voted with you.
00:15:47.840So you know what we ought to do today, Monday, we ought to come back, and we ought to take that bill up, and we ought to pass emergency military aid to Israel.
00:15:56.980I'm confident the House is going to do that again.
00:15:58.920The House is going to send it to us, and we'll see what the Democrats do.
00:16:01.760My suspicion is the Democrats will line up as they did before to say, no, no, no, no, no, we only give money to the enemies of America.
00:16:32.300And we know that Biden's answer is, at least, as is being widely reported, as he told Netanyahu, do not attack, do not strike back, take the win.
00:16:41.520And he said, what a bizarre – can you imagine if America, if somebody fired 300 missiles at America, and some foreign leader called up the U.S. president and said, hey, take the win.
00:16:55.360The missiles, you guys were able to intercept them so people didn't die.
00:16:58.520Just say, woo-hoo, we're fine, and do nothing.
00:17:00.600I mean, that's what Biden is saying to Israel, do nothing.
00:17:07.600There was many of the commentators on TV that were saying exactly that.
00:17:12.040Look, this is a big success and a big test for the Iron Dome, and it's clear that Israel can defend itself, and there's no reason to escalate this.
00:17:19.900Because now – and this was said on TV today, I think it was on CBS – they literally said, so, because now, you've got to assume – this is their words – that Iran is probably out of missiles and couldn't do the same type of attack today, even if they wanted to.
00:17:37.380So, therefore, Israel should do nothing.
00:18:11.420But secondly, at every stage, their position has been to Israel, don't defend yourself, don't do anything.
00:18:19.400Remember, when October 7th was happening, literally at 3 in the morning, on the day of October 7th, when the bodies of the 1,200 Israelis who had been murdered were still warm,
00:18:31.040the Biden State Department tweeted out urging Israel not to retaliate.
00:18:37.240This is after the murder of 1,200 civilians.
00:18:39.980This is after the rape of women and children.
00:18:42.220This is after infants were slaughtered.
00:18:43.920The position of the Biden State Department was do not retaliate.
00:18:47.060I blasted that at 3 in the morning, and thankfully they deleted it.
00:18:50.340They realized, oh, we can't say this quite yet.
00:18:52.180But to be clear, the next day, that would be October 8th, Tony Blinken, with his own Twitter account, sent out another tweet saying he had just talked with a Turkish foreign minister and Israel should not retaliate.
00:19:09.980There were two tweets within 24 hours of the October 7th massacre, and the immediate knee-jerk reaction of Biden was do not retaliate, do not retaliate.
00:19:18.560Now, what have they said every day since then?
00:19:20.620Their position has been, stop, we need a ceasefire, we need a pause, stop killing Hamas, stop killing terrorists, stop going after the bad guy.
00:19:28.260Now, their position after Iran launches 300 missiles and drones into Israel, do not retaliate.
00:20:55.540Now, when I found that out, I had to find an alternative.
00:20:58.040And that's when I found Patriot Mobile.
00:21:00.180They've been in business for more than 10 years.
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00:21:08.240Yes, the same coverage you have right now is what you're going to get because they use the same exact towers.
00:21:14.140Now, you're also probably going to save money on your bill.
00:21:16.940But here's the part that I love the most.
00:21:18.720When I pay my bill every single month, this is what happens.
00:21:22.740They take about 5% of that bill, and they actually give it back to conservative causes and organizations that support our First and Second Amendment rights,
00:21:32.580support the rights of unborn children as well.
00:21:36.180And that is why I love Patriot Mobile.
00:21:39.260So vote with your dollars and make a difference with every phone call you make.
00:25:43.360They also give billions of dollars to Venezuela.
00:25:46.000They also give billions of dollars to China.
00:25:48.720And they've also given billions of dollars to Russia.
00:25:51.440You know, the Democrats love to talk about Russia.
00:25:53.180But we've talked a lot on this podcast about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which I authored the bipartisan sanctions that shut the Nord Stream 2 pipeline down.
00:26:01.740Donald Trump signed those sanctions into law.
00:26:03.840And Joe Biden, when he came into office, waived those sanctions, gave Vladimir Putin billions and billions of dollars.
00:26:10.100That effectively caused the war in Ukraine.
00:26:12.980And when I forced a vote in January of 2022 to reimpose those sanctions on Russia, 44 Democrats flipped their votes.
00:26:20.620They'd voted with me previously and voted in favor of Russia and Putin and giving them billions of dollars.
00:26:26.820And within a month, Russia invaded Ukraine.
00:26:30.600So this is a pattern over and over again.
00:26:32.900And by the way, Russia is actively in Iran, helping them with nuclear technology.
00:27:41.760And it's built under a mountain precisely to be able to develop nuclear weapons so that it would be harder to take out in a military conflict.
00:27:48.780Now, what happened when Joe Biden came into office?
00:27:51.000He immediately reimposed the civilian nuclear waivers.
00:27:54.100So we've literally got Russia that is providing nuclear technology to Iran.
00:28:02.880Iran makes drones, is a critical weapons supplier to Russia.
00:28:08.340So understand, when Biden is flowing $100 billion, now more than $100 billion to Iran, they're using them to make drones and to make cruise missiles to attack Israel.
00:28:19.900They're using them to make weapons to attack U.S. servicemen and women.
00:28:23.100They're using them to fund Hamas and Hezbollah to murder Israelis and to murder Americans.
00:28:27.400But on top of that, they're manufacturing enormous numbers of drones that are going to the Russians, and the Russians are using to fight the Ukrainians.
00:30:28.800What makes you think that Iran would just stop now knowing that they can basically get away with literally murder?
00:30:36.440The only way to bring the cycle to an end is, number one, to take away the resources from the Iranian regime that are funding these terror attacks.
00:30:45.180It's why, look, during the whole Trump administration, I was deeply involved in pressing the administration
00:30:51.400to enforce what was called the maximum pressure strategy, to put the maximum pressure to defund the Iranian regime.
00:32:17.220The strike package was modeled on those the Russians have used repeatedly against Ukraine to great effect.
00:32:25.760The strike consisted of approximately 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles, and 120 ballistic missiles.
00:32:34.420The drones were launched well before the ballistic missiles were fired,
00:32:39.520very likely in the expectation that they would arrive in Israel's air defense window
00:32:44.280at about the same time as the cruise missiles and drones.
00:32:49.160The Russians have used such an approach against Ukraine repeatedly.
00:32:53.660Only a few ballistic missiles penetrated Israeli air defenses and struck near Israeli military bases out of the 120 or so the Iranians fired.
00:33:06.080Ukrainian air defenses have averaged interception rates of only about 46% of Russian ballistic missiles during recent large strikes.
00:33:15.440The Iranians likely expected that Israeli rates would be higher than the Ukrainian rates,
00:33:21.780but not above 90% against such a large ballistic missile salvo.
00:33:27.420The Russians, after all, have never fired close to that many large ballistic missiles in a single strike against Ukraine.
00:33:35.160Israel's air defense system has several obvious advantages over Ukrainian air defense,
00:33:42.200but the full implications of some of those advantages might well have been unclear to Iranian strike planners.
00:33:50.820Ukraine has, in particular, been unable to use combat aircraft to shoot down Russian drones and cruise missiles at scale,
00:33:59.540and Ukrainian President Zelensky recently observed that Kyiv will likely use the F-16s Ukraine will receive this summer in those roles.
00:34:12.000Iran will learn additional lessons from the failed attack that it can leverage to launch more successful attacks in the future.
00:34:20.360So you look at all of that, and then you see this that just came out from the National Security Council's statement on Iranian attacks on Israel,
00:34:51.360Well, if there was anything like coherence and logic, then yes.
00:34:56.500And, number one, I'm going to predict right now Chuck Schumer is going to do everything he can to block a vote on emergency military aid to Israel.
00:35:07.100My guess is that he will put in place parliamentary tools to prevent us from using the same technique again.
00:35:13.540And I think the House, we've seen the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader both say that they're going to vote out an emergency military aid bill this week.
00:35:23.640So we'll get another one that comes over to us.
00:35:25.480And my prediction is the Democrats won't back it.
00:35:29.200They don't want to send military aid to Israel.
00:35:32.880And part of the problem is they've got a crisis in their caucus.
00:35:35.920And their crisis is that the radicals, the Talibs and Omars, they more and more represent the mainstream of the Democrat Party.
00:35:44.300And so Schumer is terrified of Michigan.
00:35:54.900But remember, this is the same Chuck Schumer that not long ago stood on the Senate floor and demanded that Israel's elected prime minister be thrown out of office.
00:36:04.000He decided that Israel alone among all our allies was not allowed to elect their leaders.
00:36:08.500Every other country, you know, Schumer hasn't called for the leader of Iran to step down.
00:36:14.500He hasn't called for the leader of Hamas or China or Russia or Venezuela or North Korea.
00:36:18.160If you're an enemy of America, nope, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats, they're giving you money.
00:36:22.660But if you're our ally, what will Schumer say?
00:38:13.140Promo code verdict for 20% off your first order.
00:38:17.340Senator, lastly, I want to ask you about BB.
00:38:21.100You just mentioned I was going to go there that the Senate Majority Leader said he should step down.
00:38:26.320There's been a lot of people in the media that have been really attacking him, saying that he is a warmonger, that he's a killer, that he should not be the president.
00:38:55.860When he came and addressed a joint session of Congress, and this was during the Obama administration, it was on the verge of Obama pushing through the Iran nuclear deal.
00:39:07.580At the time, and this was a decade ago, multiple Democrats boycotted the speech.
00:39:16.760The Democrats' hatred for Benjamin Netanyahu is nothing new.
00:39:20.580And understand that when he was re-elected Prime Minister, Joe Biden made clear he was not welcome in the White House, that he would not be invited in the White House.
00:40:06.060And listen, I've been blessed in 12 years in the Senate, I've met many world leaders.
00:40:12.140That's one of the most incredible parts of the job is you get to sit down with people that are leading our friends, leading other countries, leading our competitors.
00:40:21.020There is no world leader who has impressed me more.
00:40:24.540There's no world leader who, frankly, has taken my breath away more than Benjamin Netanyahu because he has a seriousness of purpose.
00:40:33.600He is the only world leader for whom I have used the adjective Churchillian.
00:40:39.300In my office in D.C., I have three busts.
00:40:57.940They saw a world that was better than the world they were living in.
00:41:01.140And their vision helped bring the world to a better place with extraordinary courage and clarity.
00:41:08.200And I have to tell you, I think Netanyahu has that same courage and clarity.
00:41:14.460Now, it is not my role to tell the people of Israel who their prime minister should be.
00:41:21.960So when Netanyahu was prime minister, when I started in the Senate, I dealt with him because he was the leader, the elected leader of Israel.
00:41:30.700When the people of Israel elected Naftali Bennett, I dealt with him.
00:41:35.260Whomever the people of Israel elect, I will deal with the elected leader.
00:41:39.440But the people of Israel reelected Benjamin Netanyahu.
00:41:43.120And I respect the choice of the people of Israel.
00:41:45.560There is an arrogance in Democrat foreign policy, but also in some Republican foreign policy, that they think they can meddle in the internal politics of foreign nations, and especially our friends and allies, that they can do what Chuck Schumer did, which is tell the people of Israel,
00:42:03.220Tsk, tsk, you have no business electing Netanyahu.
00:42:15.060You know, it's much like, look, there have been long debates in Washington about a two-state solution, and every Democrat says we must have a two-state solution.
00:42:27.060Many Republicans say we must have a two-state solution.
00:42:30.060My view on that is that's a decision for the people of Israel to make.
00:42:35.620They care acutely about their security.
00:42:37.680If the people of Israel decide that a two-state solution is workable, I respect that decision.
00:42:43.700If they decide it's not because the terrorists with whom they are dealing, the Hamas and Hezbollah, will not accept Israel's right to exist and will wage war on them, I respect that decision as well.
00:42:55.840And so I will say when it comes to Prime Minister Netanyahu, it's the choice of the people of Israel that he should be their leader.
00:43:05.220But at the same time, I think he is a leader who understands the seriousness of these threats and is not cowed by the aggression of Hamas or Hezbollah or Iran or anyone else.
00:43:17.540He is bound and determined to protect the people of Israel.
00:43:20.920This week is going to be a very important week.
00:43:23.680We're going to be covering it for you on Wednesday, Friday, and if anything massive happens in between, we will more than likely get out of pod right away.
00:43:31.960So make sure you hit that subscribe auto-download button right now wherever you get your podcasts.
00:43:38.280Also, if you'll please help us by writing us a five-star review and post this podcast on your social media so others can hear it.
00:43:46.140We will be saying prayers for the people of Israel, and we'll be back here Wednesday morning.
00:43:51.220Don't forget, on those in-between days, you can grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson Podcast, and I'll keep you updated on the latest breaking news on those in-between days.
00:43:59.200The Senator and I will see you back here Wednesday.