Verdict with Ted Cruz - June 02, 2025


Terror Attack in Colorado-Intifada Comes to America plus Ukraine Takes out 41 Russian Bombers in Clandestine Drone Attack


Episode Stats

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

22


Summary

Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson, and Sen. Cory Booker react to the attack on pro-Israel protesters in Colorado, and Russia strikes back in Ukraine. They also discuss the latest in the war between Ukraine and Russia, and the recent decision by the Obama administration to grant asylum to an illegal immigrant.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.100 Good Monday morning.
00:00:06.560 So nice to have you with us here.
00:00:08.080 I'm Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:10.560 And Senator, it was a very big weekend when it came to news.
00:00:14.680 A horrific attack in Colorado and also a lot going on with Ukraine and Russia.
00:00:20.480 Well, tragically, the radical anti-American, anti-Israel left keeps getting worse, keeps
00:00:25.000 getting more violence.
00:00:25.980 We saw two weeks ago two Israeli supporters, people who worked in the Israeli consulate
00:00:33.400 in Washington, D.C., murdered on the streets of D.C., murdered by a radical leftist who
00:00:41.400 screamed, free Palestine.
00:00:43.340 And then just this weekend, we saw five people in Colorado who were engaged in a pro-Israel
00:00:48.200 protest, speaking up for the hostages, calling on Hamas to release the hostages, saying enough
00:00:54.100 is enough, and a deranged lunatic firebombed them, threw Molotov cocktails at them, lit
00:01:01.060 them on fire.
00:01:02.280 It was tragic at this point.
00:01:04.160 It's a little past midnight Sunday night.
00:01:06.640 What we know right now is five people are reported to be injured, two with very serious
00:01:11.180 injuries.
00:01:12.440 And this is sadly the face of the angry anti-American left and the angry anti-Israel left.
00:01:19.980 They are violent and far too often that they are committing acts of enormous violence and
00:01:27.120 even murder.
00:01:28.400 And this pattern, the media apologizes for them, whitewashes what they do, covers up for them.
00:01:36.500 But verdict is not going to do that.
00:01:38.460 We're going to give you the facts.
00:01:39.480 We also have, in Russia and Ukraine, an extraordinary moment.
00:01:44.860 Ukraine strikes back.
00:01:46.280 Ukraine launched an audacious drone attack on Russia.
00:01:51.040 They took out more than 40 Russian bombers deep inside Russian territory.
00:01:56.280 It was an attack that was meticulously panned out.
00:02:00.780 It is similar to Israel's attack on Hezbollah with the Pagers in that it took enormous preparation
00:02:07.620 to carry out, and it was remarkably effective.
00:02:12.120 Hopefully, this attack will accelerate, ending the war in Ukraine, and it may bring Russia
00:02:19.060 to the bargaining table to say enough is enough.
00:02:22.240 Yeah, and that may, like you said, be one of the silver linings of this attack, and it
00:02:27.040 took a long time for them to plan it in preparation for it.
00:02:31.400 We'll give you those details as well in a moment.
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00:04:29.640 All right, Senator, let's talk about the two narratives coming out of this attack in Colorado.
00:04:34.880 There's many that are wanting this to just be some random attack and, you know, kind of
00:04:38.800 move on.
00:04:39.840 They don't want you to know the facts.
00:04:41.520 They don't want you to know how the person got into this country.
00:04:44.100 They don't want you to know who led him in this country.
00:04:46.140 They don't want you to know he overstayed a visa.
00:04:48.200 They don't want you to know he's an illegal immigrant.
00:04:49.900 They don't want you to know that he was an anti-Israel individual that was trying to,
00:04:54.180 or not trying, setting elderly Jewish individuals who do this walk every week to remember the
00:05:01.360 hostages being held by Hamas.
00:05:03.900 They do this every week, and he deliberately was trying to set them on fire and kill them.
00:05:10.380 Well, and let's set the stage.
00:05:12.400 This is in Boulder, Colorado.
00:05:14.360 It was a weekly event called Run for Their Lives.
00:05:16.940 And it was a weekly gathering of Jewish community leaders that was supporting the hostages that
00:05:24.220 were taken on October 7th and calling for their release from Hamas.
00:05:28.820 So it was a peaceful protest.
00:05:30.400 But I'll tell you what people knew.
00:05:32.120 People knew that at the time of this protest, there were going to be Jews there.
00:05:36.120 There were going to be Jews who supported Israel.
00:05:38.060 And the hate of the anti-Israel, the left, the hate of the anti-America, anti-Israel left
00:05:45.020 is so great that simply knowing that there are Jews who are present somewhere, sadly, in
00:05:50.760 those radical circles, it has proven to be an invitation to violence.
00:05:55.220 And in this instance, the man threw multiple bottles filled with flammable liquids that hit
00:06:01.300 the ground, they exploded in flames, and burned multiple people.
00:06:06.580 Now, you and I are describing this at just after midnight Sunday night.
00:06:11.620 And so the event is incredibly recent.
00:06:14.400 So I want to give a caveat that inevitably, when you have a bad event, there is a fog of
00:06:19.580 war.
00:06:19.920 Some of the facts that are being reported today will prove less than accurate.
00:06:24.480 But on the face of this, it is obviously a terror attack.
00:06:28.820 It is not complicated to figure out who the targets were.
00:06:33.100 And yet, I got to say, I want you to listen.
00:06:36.560 And the FBI, to their credit, said right from the beginning, this is a targeted terror attack
00:06:41.600 because they actually are not ostriches with their heads plunged into the sand.
00:06:46.420 I want you to contrast this with the words of the Boulder police chief, which if the topic
00:06:52.720 weren't so serious, they almost sound like a Saturday Night Live skit.
00:06:57.180 Give a listen.
00:06:57.640 Was an actual protest going on when this occurred?
00:07:01.920 Were a group of people gathered and were words said that would indicate this had anything
00:07:06.600 at all to do with that protest?
00:07:08.160 So what I will tell you on Pearl Street, it's a walking pedestrian mall downtown here.
00:07:11.780 There was a lot of people out.
00:07:13.320 A very beautiful day.
00:07:14.820 There was a group of pro-Israel people that were there in a peaceful demonstration.
00:07:20.000 I wouldn't even call it a protest.
00:07:21.180 I believe that happens frequently down here.
00:07:24.580 They were there in that area.
00:07:25.880 We are looking and actively interviewing victims and witnesses to determine if that group was
00:07:30.560 targeted or others.
00:07:31.860 And we just don't have those answers yet.
00:07:33.540 Those are things we hope to be able to provide you later this evening.
00:07:36.460 FBI is already calling it a targeted terror attack.
00:07:39.460 Would you also refer to it as a terror attack?
00:07:41.680 So I've been in contact with our local FBI multiple times.
00:07:45.540 We are in contact with them here.
00:07:47.240 We are not calling it a terror attack at this point.
00:07:49.060 Again, it's way too early to speculate motive.
00:07:52.040 I know there's a lot out there on social media, but I ask people just to give us a little bit
00:07:55.360 of patience while we work through a really complex scene.
00:07:58.260 A lot of witnesses were here.
00:08:00.580 We've taken them to another location to debrief them and interview them.
00:08:04.040 As we do that, I think the picture will become more clear.
00:08:06.980 But it would be irresponsible for me to speculate on motive this early on.
00:08:11.940 We're only a couple hours into this thing.
00:08:14.680 I'll go right here.
00:08:15.840 How about the suspect?
00:08:16.740 Can you confirm the description about him?
00:08:18.860 Because we know any picture running in social media.
00:08:22.140 I haven't seen it.
00:08:23.460 And obviously, I wasn't here when he was arrested.
00:08:25.560 All I know is it's an adult male.
00:08:27.340 We're working to identify that person.
00:08:28.840 We're working to figure out where they're from.
00:08:30.520 And we're in contact with our federal partners as well as we figure that out.
00:08:34.360 It is amazing to hear the Boulder Police Chief put it this way and clearly doing it saying
00:08:40.720 the FBI is the one that's overreacting, calling this a terrorist attack.
00:08:45.060 Clearly, I'm not going with those guys over there.
00:08:47.920 Cash Patel and Bongino have come out very early on and saying, quote,
00:08:52.380 it wouldn't be helpful, implying the FBI is like amateur hour at this moment.
00:08:56.260 Yeah, look, this sadly is woke politics.
00:08:59.560 If you have Jews who are standing and protesting in favor of hostages in Israel taken in October
00:09:08.160 7th, a weekly recurring event where everyone knows.
00:09:11.740 And by the way, this police chief knows there is vicious terrorism and anti-Semitism directed
00:09:17.520 at Jews, directed at supporters of Israel.
00:09:20.020 And they threw Molotov cocktails on them.
00:09:23.260 This is not subtle.
00:09:25.020 This is not someone tripped and accidentally hit them.
00:09:27.900 This is not a random drive by shooting of two gangs were shooting at each other and a stray
00:09:32.160 bullet hit someone.
00:09:33.680 I mean, this this is multiple Molotov cocktails directed at a very specific concrete group of
00:09:40.900 people.
00:09:41.180 And so the FBI is obviously right in calling it terrorism.
00:09:46.280 I mean, this same knucklehead, by the way, it reminded me of at the tail end of the Biden
00:09:50.240 administration when you had the deranged radical Islamic terrorists drive a car into a crowd
00:09:56.760 in New Orleans.
00:09:57.420 He was flying an ISIS flag.
00:10:01.080 And and and yet the local FBI person there said, well, we don't know that it's terrorism.
00:10:05.760 You know what?
00:10:06.180 If a guy drives a Jeep with an ISIS flag into a crowd and murders people, it's terrorism.
00:10:11.460 You don't need a deep, subtle analysis to tell.
00:10:15.620 And let me give you another fact that that miraculously the corporate media is omitting.
00:10:20.960 Bill Malugian, the very best reporter at Fox, he reported tonight, quote, breaking three
00:10:27.320 senior DHS sources tell Fox News that the Boulder terror suspect is an Egyptian national in the
00:10:34.860 U.S. illegally as a visa overstay who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration.
00:10:41.720 I'm told Mohammed Sabre Soleiman arrived at LAX on 82722 on a B1 slash B2 non-immigrant visa
00:10:53.100 with an authorized stay through 2-26-23, but he overstayed and never left.
00:11:01.620 I'm told on 9-29-22, he filed some sort of claim with USCIS, potentially an asylum claim.
00:11:12.260 And on 3-29-23, USCIS under Biden gave him work authorization, which expired on 3-28-23.
00:11:23.100 Understand, assuming this reporting is right, this guy was an illegal immigrant who came
00:11:29.220 from Egypt.
00:11:30.320 He overstayed his visa, which made him illegal.
00:11:33.180 And the Biden administration allowed him to stay.
00:11:36.580 They allowed someone to stay who now is charged with and appears to have committed throwing
00:11:42.240 Molotov cocktails at peaceful Jewish protesters standing up for hostages.
00:11:48.220 It's also been reported one of the victims of this firebombing was a Holocaust survivor.
00:11:55.960 This is the consequence of Joe Biden, the Democrats open borders.
00:12:00.120 When you let terrorists into the country, shockingly, they commit acts of terrorism.
00:12:06.300 There's also another aspect of this that the media is refusing to touch, and that is the age
00:12:11.800 of the people that were targeted by this individual.
00:12:15.260 They were elderly.
00:12:17.180 Yeah.
00:12:17.320 They were doing this every week.
00:12:19.520 They were committed to not forgetting those that are being held hostage right now.
00:12:25.280 You just mentioned one of them, a Holocaust survivor.
00:12:27.540 It's being reported.
00:12:28.280 And and and yet the media doesn't want to talk about how barbaric the attack is, that these
00:12:34.240 are senior citizens, 70s and 80s who were targeted because they were obviously easier to target
00:12:41.760 because of their age.
00:12:43.260 Well, and listen, in the last two months, we've seen elderly Jewish protesters firebombed with
00:12:50.580 Molotov cocktails.
00:12:51.540 We've seen a young Jewish couple executed, leaving a Jewish museum in D.C.
00:12:57.920 And as we talked about in a prior podcast, that that that couple had publicly said they
00:13:04.220 met at an event where I was speaking that they I don't believe I had met that young
00:13:10.660 couple, but but it reduced me to tears that they came to an event where I was giving a speech
00:13:16.420 on foreign policy.
00:13:17.820 And that's where the two of them met and got engaged.
00:13:19.840 And tragically, they were murdered by a radical leftist who hates Israel, who hates Jews and
00:13:24.860 hates America and and and gunned them down.
00:13:28.560 And and also within the last two months, we had yet another radical who tried to burn down
00:13:34.700 the home of the governor of Pennsylvania, who is Jewish, with him and his family inside.
00:13:41.120 These are multiple acts of grotesque violence directed at Jews, directed at Israel.
00:13:48.380 And and the corporate media will not cover it.
00:13:51.100 And in fact, they treat it as, oh, isn't this cute when you have people at Harvard or MIT
00:13:56.180 or Columbia calling for intifada?
00:13:59.680 Well, the intifada is here.
00:14:01.600 This is intifada.
00:14:02.900 This is murdering people because they are Jews on the streets.
00:14:07.400 That is intifada.
00:14:09.140 And we saw this last week, commencement speeches at both Harvard and MIT.
00:14:12.960 People give radical anti-Israel screeds because sadly, our universities have welcomed and nurtured
00:14:21.340 this incredible evil.
00:14:23.400 Well, let's talk about the also the response here from the administration.
00:14:27.320 And you look at just how quickly you had clarity from those that are in charge.
00:14:36.160 Kash Patel coming out and looking again at the facts and the FBI director just straight
00:14:43.140 up put it out there saying we are aware of and fully investigating a targeted terror attack
00:14:49.600 in Boulder, Colorado.
00:14:50.860 Our agents and local law enforcement on the scene already, and we will share updates as
00:14:56.420 more information becomes available.
00:14:58.100 He was short in his words and and but letting it know this is a targeted terror attack.
00:15:05.060 You move a couple hours ahead.
00:15:07.580 Dan Bongino.
00:15:08.680 He comes out and says our leadership team on the ground in Boulder will be updating you
00:15:13.660 shortly on the attack in Boulder.
00:15:15.120 This act of terror is being investigated as an act of ideologically motivated violence
00:15:19.940 based on the early information, the evidence and witness accounts.
00:15:24.380 We will speak clearly on these incidents when the facts warrant it.
00:15:29.100 I find great peace in knowing that we finally have two individuals here.
00:15:35.200 They're saying we're not playing politics.
00:15:36.660 We're going to tell you the truth.
00:15:38.640 Look, everyone knows what this is.
00:15:41.000 It's not complicated.
00:15:42.120 And and and there are times there's times when a crime occurs and you don't know why.
00:15:47.580 I mean, sometimes someone's randomly shot on the street and it could be a crime of passion.
00:15:51.860 It could be a lover's quarrel.
00:15:54.240 It could be a robbery gone awry.
00:15:56.120 It could get it could be a totally crazy person.
00:15:59.020 Like there are all sorts of there are crimes where it is difficult to ascertain what happened
00:16:03.320 and you need to have an investigation.
00:16:04.860 And that's true at every instance.
00:16:06.540 But but there are also crimes that on the face of this, anybody who's not a blithering idiot knows what this is.
00:16:13.820 If you have elderly Jewish people walking along holding signs saying free the hostages in Gaza
00:16:19.860 and someone who is an illegal immigrant from Egypt throws a Molotov cocktail at them or multiple Molotov cocktails at them
00:16:27.240 and lights them on fire.
00:16:29.200 However, that is not subtle.
00:16:31.520 That doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out what's going on there.
00:16:35.980 When you have just two weeks ago, two Jewish people walking out of a Jewish museum in D.C.
00:16:42.220 and you have a radical leftist who screams free, free Palestine and guns them down, emptying the magazine into them,
00:16:49.200 firing shots over and over and over again and murdering them on the streets.
00:16:52.200 And that is not subtle or complicated.
00:16:55.580 It it it is straightforward.
00:16:58.660 And those who seek to deny it and say, no, no, no, this is not intifada.
00:17:03.360 This is not anti-Semitic.
00:17:04.640 This is not targeted terrorism.
00:17:06.520 This we don't know what this is.
00:17:08.200 They're lying to you.
00:17:09.740 They know it's not that they don't know.
00:17:12.060 It's that they don't want to say it because acknowledging what it is conflicts with their political ideology and their political agenda.
00:17:19.760 And sadly, that is true for the overwhelming majority of the corporate media.
00:17:24.280 You and I have also talked about this.
00:17:25.980 And this brings in another aspect of this conversation.
00:17:28.720 And it's the one that concerns me, honestly, the most.
00:17:32.840 And that is how many people came into this country during the last administration that are terrorists.
00:17:41.020 This was a terrorist that the last administration not only let in, but then allowed them to overstay
00:17:46.820 and then rewarded them with the ability to take a job while here planning this type of attack.
00:17:52.160 I am terrified of how many other terrorists that we may be harboring right now that they let in.
00:17:58.680 How concerned are you now seeing this play out the way it is?
00:18:02.380 Deeply, deeply concerned.
00:18:03.920 I think the odds are overwhelming that there is more to come.
00:18:07.160 You know, I got to say, during the Biden administration, you had Christopher Wray as the head of the FBI.
00:18:11.300 I've known Chris for over 25 years.
00:18:14.980 Chris, I think, made a lot of mistakes as head of the FBI.
00:18:17.920 I do not think he had a good tenure.
00:18:20.060 But the one thing he did do is he repeatedly went before Congress, particularly the last two years,
00:18:25.260 and tried to ring the alarm, tried to scream from the mountaintops,
00:18:29.860 saying our risks of a terror attack right now are higher than they've ever been.
00:18:34.380 These open borders, Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad,
00:18:38.320 we are inviting terrorists into this country, and Americans are going to die because of it.
00:18:44.380 That is tragically true.
00:18:46.060 The Trump administration, I think, is doing a heroic job tracking down and trying to find these guys.
00:18:51.520 But when you have over 12 million people that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
00:18:55.300 and all the congressional Democrats invited into this country,
00:18:57.840 you can't turn that around overnight.
00:19:00.580 That takes time, and the risks are that we will see, unfortunately, more terror attacks
00:19:09.380 in the weeks and months to come as a result of the Democrats' open borders the last four years.
00:19:14.920 Final question.
00:19:15.960 Will there ever be accountability for those that willingly allowed this to happen
00:19:19.820 in the Biden administration or Mayorkas?
00:19:22.780 I mean, I go back to the famous quote from him when he said,
00:19:27.160 the border is secure, the border is secure.
00:19:29.980 We've all heard it a million times.
00:19:32.100 That was a lie then.
00:19:33.560 It's a lie now.
00:19:34.560 This is what was coming in.
00:19:36.300 Will there be any accountability?
00:19:37.880 Or is it just, hey, that's what they did, and it is what it is?
00:19:41.780 Look, I hope so.
00:19:43.120 Mayorkas may be the most dishonest individual to have ever served in the United States Cabinet.
00:19:49.440 He routinely lied.
00:19:51.080 He lied before Congress.
00:19:52.520 He lied before the American people.
00:19:54.200 He'd go on TV every day and lie.
00:19:56.520 It's actually a close battle between him and Corrine Jean-Pierre,
00:20:00.140 the White House press secretary, who also,
00:20:03.600 she actually embodies the opposite of a backhanded compliment.
00:20:07.720 Years ago, when Bill Clinton was president,
00:20:10.380 a backhanded compliment was said of him that he's an unusually good liar.
00:20:17.180 That probably was true.
00:20:19.080 Well, I got to say, Corrine Jean-Pierre and Alejandro Mayorkas are unusually bad liars.
00:20:25.880 And sadly, it didn't stop them from lying.
00:20:27.840 They lied constantly.
00:20:28.980 Every time they opened their mouths, they lied.
00:20:30.660 But they were so bad at it that everyone knew they were lying.
00:20:34.460 Even their cheerleaders knew they were lying.
00:20:36.260 And Corrine Jean-Pierre said, people aren't walking across the border.
00:20:39.340 It's simply not happening.
00:20:40.300 That doesn't happen.
00:20:41.700 Everybody who had ever opened their eyes and turned on the television for 10 seconds knew that that was a lie.
00:20:46.880 She knew that that was a lie.
00:20:48.240 Every reporter in the room knew that was a lie.
00:20:50.360 Then again, the reporters at ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, New York Times,
00:20:56.640 they did not report that it was a lie.
00:20:59.260 The same is true with Alejandro Mayorkas.
00:21:02.100 This was brazen.
00:21:03.380 And understand the presence of terrorists, the presence of murderers and rapists and child molesters and Venezuelan gang members in this country.
00:21:12.840 It is not accident.
00:21:14.240 It is not unintentional.
00:21:16.020 It is the intended result of the Democrats' open borders.
00:21:20.840 Now, it's not that they sat around saying, we want more terrorists.
00:21:24.480 It's that they said, all we care about is politics.
00:21:29.380 If we let 12 million people here illegally, they will become Democrats.
00:21:34.340 They will vote Democrat.
00:21:35.540 They will register illegally.
00:21:36.980 They will keep us in power.
00:21:38.420 And so if the price for Democrats to stay in power is more Americans being murdered, more women being raped, more children being brutalized, more terrorists committing acts of terror,
00:21:50.120 I'm sorry to say the Democrats were more than happy to take that exchange.
00:21:54.360 Canadian women are looking for more.
00:21:56.520 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.
00:22:00.680 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:22:04.380 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:22:05.540 And I'm Catherine Clark.
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00:22:16.340 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:22:19.580 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:22:25.380 I want to move to the other big story, and that is Ukraine claims a massive drone strike on Russia.
00:22:33.060 And all across, literally, the country, from one side to the other, they were hitting sites of Russian bombers in what was called a spider web operation.
00:22:46.160 I want to make sure, though, that people understand this was a response to an attack that took place at the hands of Russia and Putin,
00:22:56.960 that Donald Trump referred to him as a crazy man afterwards.
00:23:00.980 So let's give the background before we explain what happened.
00:23:04.700 Well, listen, the war has been ongoing for more than two years now.
00:23:08.300 There's been massive casualties on both sides.
00:23:12.920 Russia is the aggressor.
00:23:15.340 Russia is the wrongdoer.
00:23:17.540 Putin invaded Ukraine or another sovereign nation.
00:23:20.400 Putin did so because Joe Biden was so incredibly weak, because he was an ineffective commander-in-chief.
00:23:27.180 Putin did so because Joe Biden waived the sanctions on Nord Stream 2,
00:23:32.400 the pipeline that was designed to move natural gas directly from Russia to Germany.
00:23:37.980 I authored those sanctions.
00:23:39.380 I passed them into law.
00:23:41.240 And President Trump signed my sanctions legislation into law.
00:23:44.940 Putin shut down Nord Stream 2 literally the day Trump signed my sanctions legislation into law.
00:23:51.820 Biden waived those sanctions and Putin completed the pipeline and almost immediately invaded Ukraine.
00:23:58.340 So the war has been ongoing and it is the cause.
00:24:04.040 The cause of it is Biden's weakness.
00:24:06.660 Well, what happened today, Ukraine, you know, I'll tell you at the start of the war,
00:24:10.300 I remember sitting in a classified briefing and it was a classified briefing with all 100 senators.
00:24:16.520 And we had in that briefing with the Secretary of State, with the Secretary of Defense,
00:24:20.060 with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with the head of the CIA, the Director of National Intelligence.
00:24:25.020 We had multiple players throughout the national security apparatus.
00:24:29.020 This is all during the Biden administration.
00:24:31.120 Every single one of them briefed all of the senators.
00:24:34.500 They said this war will be over within a week.
00:24:37.260 Russia will sweep in.
00:24:38.460 They'll conquer the whole country.
00:24:39.880 Ukraine will fall.
00:24:41.860 And within a week, Kiev will be a Russian city.
00:24:44.720 Now, that intel, that national security assessment, Ben, it wasn't slightly wrong.
00:24:52.000 It wasn't a teeny bit wrong.
00:24:54.160 It was totally catastrophically 180 degrees false.
00:24:58.260 We're sitting here more than two years later.
00:25:00.400 The war is ongoing.
00:25:01.660 And the Ukrainians keep shocking both the Russians and the American analysts who insist that they must lose, they must lose.
00:25:10.400 This latest strike, it truly is audacious.
00:25:13.660 So the Ukrainians hit more than 40 Russian bombers inside Russian territory.
00:25:19.340 And it was a total of 41 strategic Russian aircraft.
00:25:24.880 The name of the operation was Spiderweb.
00:25:28.160 And you can see online there's a video showing a drone attack at the Belaya Air Base in Russia's Irkust region, which is in Siberia, nearly 3,000 miles away from Ukraine.
00:25:43.620 So understand, this happened not by Ukraine, but 3,000 miles away.
00:25:48.000 And the bombers, they're under attack.
00:25:50.720 There are explosions.
00:25:52.900 Smoke is rising from the scene.
00:25:55.600 And one source said, quote,
00:25:57.720 Preliminary estimates indicate that enemy aviation has suffered over $2 billion in damage.
00:26:05.860 Enemy strategic bombers are burning en masse in Russia.
00:26:10.500 That is a major attack.
00:26:13.220 It is an extraordinary attack.
00:26:14.840 Now, that follows the night before.
00:26:19.180 Russia launched 472 drones, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
00:26:23.860 Earlier on Sunday, Ukraine's army said a Russian missile strike killed at least 12 Ukrainian service members and injured 60.
00:26:33.340 So Russia has been very much the aggressor.
00:26:36.040 But this attack, taking out major aircraft resources from Russia, is a big victory for Ukraine.
00:26:45.200 It is a big, big victory.
00:26:47.300 There are obviously worried individuals, especially in that part of the world, that Russia will then now retaliate in some massive way.
00:26:56.460 And then, therefore, blaming Ukraine, saying you should not have done this attack that took them a long time to plan strategically.
00:27:04.140 I want to get your response to that, because there does seem to be quite often that when Ukraine does something, the narrative becomes, well, they're the ones that are bringing us to the brink of World War III,
00:27:16.560 because now Russia is going to respond, and it's actually their fault that they went over the top on this one.
00:27:23.480 Yeah, look, Russia has been the aggressor from the beginning.
00:27:25.980 Ukraine is defending itself.
00:27:27.300 I want to break down how they carried this out, because it's actually, this is the stuff of spy novels.
00:27:33.120 You know, we talked about when Israel struck back against Hezbollah with first the pagers and then with the walkie-talkies.
00:27:39.740 That was an extraordinary story.
00:27:41.700 This has similar aspects.
00:27:43.520 It's like something out of Mission Impossible or The Bourne Identity.
00:27:47.960 And let me read from, it's a story in Reuters, the specific facts.
00:27:52.720 Here's what Reuters reported.
00:27:53.880 To attack Russian airbases, Ukrainian spies hid drones in wooden sheds.
00:28:02.180 Ukrainian secret services were able to attack strategic bomber aircraft at Russian airbases on Sunday by hiding explosive-laden drones inside the roofs of wooden sheds, according to a Ukrainian security official.
00:28:16.720 Ukraine's domestic security agency, the SBU, acknowledged that it carried out the operation, codenamed Spider's Web, and said it had caused considerable damage.
00:28:27.800 The sheds were loaded onto trucks that were driven to the perimeter of the airbases.
00:28:34.220 The roof panels of the sheds were lifted off by a remotely activated mechanism, allowing the drones to fly out and begin their attack, the officials said.
00:28:44.860 The security official, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, said the strikes conducted on Sunday were on four airbases and that 41 Russian warplanes were hit.
00:28:56.240 An SBU statement posted on the Telegram messaging app estimated the damages caused by the assault at $7 billion.
00:29:04.700 And here's a quote, 34% of strategic cruise missile carriers at the main airfields of the Russian Federation were hit.
00:29:14.460 Wow.
00:29:15.620 That is remarkable.
00:29:18.140 And it is the fact that they could carry it out in wooden sheds that they could smuggle right next to the Russian airfields.
00:29:25.400 That's a significant tactical and strategic victory.
00:29:28.520 So, when you look at this, what is the best case scenario for this attack?
00:29:34.760 Does it make Russia realize, A, they're vulnerable, and B, maybe we need to go back to the table?
00:29:41.820 Because, as you heard President Trump say, he said Putin was crazy last week, a crazy man, and refusing to actually stop this war.
00:29:52.020 Instead, he went on this big attack in Ukraine.
00:29:54.320 Ukraine responds.
00:29:55.420 Yeah, look, I think President Trump is deeply frustrated with Vladimir Putin right now.
00:30:01.420 President Trump wants this war to end.
00:30:03.920 I believe this war will end.
00:30:05.160 It will end this year.
00:30:06.620 And one of the reasons it's going to end is I think the United States Congress is done sending money to Ukraine.
00:30:13.080 That at this point, we have sent over $100 billion.
00:30:16.220 Enough is enough.
00:30:17.220 This war needs to end.
00:30:18.260 So, the blank checkbook that Joe Biden and the Democrats gave, that blank checkbook is done.
00:30:23.760 Now, what I believe is it needs to end in a negotiated settlement, and it should end in a way that is a clear and objectively discernible loss for Russia.
00:30:34.900 Putin is our enemy.
00:30:36.260 Russia is our enemy.
00:30:37.780 And we want our enemies to be weaker and not stronger.
00:30:42.040 How this ends exactly, it's going to depend on Zelensky and Putin.
00:30:48.300 Zelensky right now doesn't want to negotiate a peace.
00:30:51.840 He's looking to fight and defend his country.
00:30:53.740 I understand that.
00:30:54.560 He just doesn't have an entitlement for us to pay for it.
00:30:57.680 Putin, Putin right now, Trump believed that if he leaned in, Putin would agree to come to the table and seek terms of peace.
00:31:05.420 At least so far, he hasn't.
00:31:07.240 It is possible this devastating strike on Russia will change Russia's calculus.
00:31:12.620 That being said, look, one of the dangerous things about fighting a dictatorship is that Putin can inflict enormous pain and misery on the Russian citizenry and still stay in power.
00:31:24.080 So, I don't know how this resolves.
00:31:25.700 I believe it will resolve at the end of the day.
00:31:28.380 But right now, Putin and Zelensky both seem like they want to keep fighting.
00:31:32.760 Yeah.
00:31:33.180 We're going to keep you updated on it.
00:31:34.760 That I can promise you.
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