Verdict with Ted Cruz: Big Victories in Iran, More Risks of Terrorism at Home and Tucker & Dems Both Attack Trump
3/10/202640 mincomplete
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0:33T's and C's apply. Welcome.
0:35It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, and it's nice to
0:38have you with us around the country.
0:39We've got a lot to talk about, including the latest on Operation Epic Fury.
0:45This regime is being really just decapitated in Iran, Senator, and this is good news
0:52when it comes to national security.
0:53Well, that's exactly right. We're seeing extraordinary results in terms of the military conflict with
0:58Iran. And the efficacy with which this attack is removing the regime's ability to launch
1:05missiles, to launch drones. Let me give you the numbers because the numbers are really
1:08striking. So on day one of this conflict, Iran launched 350 missiles, ballistic missiles.
1:15On day two, it dropped to 175.
1:17On day three, it dropped to 120.
1:20On day four, it dropped to 50.
1:22On day five, it dropped to 40.
1:23On day six, it dropped to 32.
1:25On day seven, it dropped to 28.
1:27And on day eight, it dropped all the way down to 15.
1:30So they went from 350 ballistic missiles launched a day to just 15 launched a
1:37day. How about drone swarms?
1:39Same pattern. Day one, 294.
1:42Day two, 541. So they surged on day two.
1:46Day three, 200. Day four, 85.
1:51Day five, 45. Day six, 38.
1:56Day seven, 30. And day eight, 12.
1:59So what that means is that our forces have systematically taken out, number one, their
2:04air defenses. Number two, we've taken out their missile launch sites and their drone launch
2:10sites. Most of their missile launch sites are mobile.
2:12So what happens is when they launch from a mobile missile launcher, we lock onto
2:17it and take that launcher out.
2:18And we've done that systemically.
2:21Now, early on, we were using smart bombs and guided missiles.
2:24That's very expensive munitions. And you saw in the first few days of this conflict,
2:28a lot written saying that the rate at which we're using munitions is not sustainable.
2:33Well, the plan was never to use smart munitions for the entire duration of the
2:39conflict. Rather, the plan was to use it to take out both their defensive capacity
2:43and their offensive capacity. We've done that now.
2:46Now, having achieved air superiority, we're able to use gravity bombs.
2:53We're able to use munitions, which we have vast quantities of and which are much,
2:57much less expensive. In other words, President Trump and the military has achieved total air
3:04dominance, has all but eliminated their ability to launch ballistic missiles and drones, and meanwhile
3:10has achieved naval dominance as well, taking out most of the ships in their navy.
3:17That level of control has put us in a position where we're seeing extraordinary success.
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4:22That's Compassion .com. You talk about this extraordinary success, and it's something that I think
4:30so many Americans have been concerned over what this means at home.
4:35You look at gas prices, for example, and let's talk about that for a moment.
4:39The president has said, and many that are analysts, military analysts say, look, if this
4:43is a short -term thing, this is going to be a short -term pain.
4:46And what you gain is massive compared to that in the future, because this is
4:50how much Iran could hold the world hostage.
4:53Look at this, what has happened here recently.
4:55And these prices have obviously jumped significantly.
4:58The president has made it clear.
5:00He thinks this is going to be a short -term event, and we're not invading.
5:03We are going after regime change, and then things will go back to normal.
5:0620 % of the oil's world supply goes through the Strait of Hormuz.
5:11That's another part of this and the calculation here.
5:13So break that down a little bit so people understand.
5:15Yeah, I think that's right.
5:17We have seen an energy spike, and anytime there's a conflict in the Middle East,
5:21you typically see oil prices spike and gasoline prices spike.
5:24My expectation... expectation is that will be a short -term spike.
5:27I don't expect this conflict to last more than a couple of weeks, and I
5:31think you'll see gasoline prices drop back down.
5:34And I will note President Trump has a lot of credibility on this.
5:37When he came in, we were seeing gasoline prices across the country.
5:41In some places, six, seven dollars a gallon, and those prices have dropped all but
5:46in half. In Texas, you could routinely buy a gallon of gas for between two
5:51and three bucks a gallon, and so that has been very effective.
5:55I also want to make a broader point about analyzing the energy component of what's
6:01going on. And there was a Twitter thread by this analyst named Guy Lahren, who
6:08is not a fan of Trump's, but I think actually his analysis of the energy
6:12policy in the Middle East was very insightful, so I want to share it with
6:15you. So he asks, is Trump planning to Venezuelize Iran?
6:21This analysis deviates from the mainstream media portrayal of a fickle, senile, or Bibi -led
6:28president. It assumes Trump is evil but rational, a thread.
6:33Now, I don't agree with the evil characterization there, but the rest of this analysis
6:37is quite insightful. So he continues, what is Karg Island, and why does it matter?
6:42A tiny strip of land, half the size of Manhattan, nestled in the northern Persian
6:48Gulf, one hour by boat from the Iranian shore.
6:52Gazelles roamed next to oil terminals through which Iran exports 90 % of its crude.
6:59Iran's pre -war signal. Before the war, as American forces massed across the region, Iran
7:06did something revealing. It ramped up Karg exports from 1 .5 million barrels of oil
7:12a day to 4 million, near record levels.
7:16That means that the Iranians read Trump differently than the western media does.
7:20They don't think he's after regime change or democracy.
7:23They think he's after oil.
7:26They might be right. NBC reported that Trump outlined to his aides his vision for
7:31a post -war Iran. Quote, a new Iranian regime cooperates on oil production similar to
7:37how the U .S. and Venezuela are.
7:39The Venezuela template, out of Trump's own mouth.
7:44AEI's Michael Rubin, a former advisor to the George W.
7:47Bush administration, who is in direct contact with the Trump advisors, is pushing the same
7:52logic. Referring to the Revolutionary Guards, he says, quote, if they can't sell their own
7:58oil, they can't make payroll.
8:01Meaning that if the U .S.
8:03seizes Karg, it doesn't need regime change.
8:06It directly controls Iran's most important source of income.
8:11Everything the U .S. and Israel has done so far fits this strategy.
8:15First, quote, decapitate and delegate.
8:18That was Israel's role. Khamenei killed.
8:21The Iranian leadership is in disarray.
8:24Now, to whom do you delegate?
8:26The answer isn't clear yet.
8:28So the U .S. is reportedly encouraging Kurdish rebellion in the north of the country,
8:33forcing Iran to send forces upwards and thin out their defenses in the south, where
8:38Karg is. Meanwhile, the U .S.
8:41has systematically destroyed the Iranian navy, operations reaching as far as Sri Lanka, where an
8:47Iranian warship was intercepted. Southern Iran is being pummeled.
8:52These aren't random. They are clearing the operational space for a naval seizure of Karg.
8:58Ian Bremmer captures the military logic precisely.
9:01The Karg island isn't extensively fortified and sits isolated enough that the U .S.
9:07destroyers could establish a credible defensive perimeter well offshore.
9:12The U .S. is also preparing to escort tanker convoys through the Strait of Hormuz
9:18and seeking financial mechanisms to insure ships after Lloyd's pulled out.
9:23These services aren't free. In practice, the U .S.
9:26would control the Straits, the jugular of global energy trade.
9:31China can't respond militarily. It prepared its navy to defend the Strait of Malacca, its
9:38other vulnerability. Approximately 80 percent of China's imported crude oil and nearly two -thirds of
9:45its total maritime trade pass through the Strait of Malacca.
9:49Having the U .S. control the Persian Gulf, from which China imports roughly half its
9:54crude and a third of its gas, is a strategic catastrophe for Beijing.
10:00The alternative? Deeper dependence on Russian energy, practically natural gas from Siberia, which is exactly
10:09what Beijing loathes. It does not want to be dependent on the transactional Putin.
10:15Step back. Greenland, Panama, Venezuela, now the Persian Gulf.
10:22Trump isn't leading the world through alliances and institutions.
10:25He's seizing nodes, the choke points and resource pools that make the world and AI
10:31run. Whether it works or not, this is a coherent imperial strategy.
10:36Now, I gotta say, I don't agree with every word of that, but that is
10:40very insightful analysis and helps you understand why the American success in Iran, it's critically
10:48important to our safety, and the principal reason for going in is to keep Americans
10:51safe from Iranians. terrorism and aggression, but it is also a very, very powerful China
10:58play enhancing U .S. economic security and national security.
11:03You know, one of the things you mentioned there is what Americans worry about, and
11:07you go back to just some of the headlines that we're seeing right now.
11:11One of them out of New York, there was an arrest made after a homemade
11:14explosive caused terror scare in New York City.
11:17This device that was hurled at Gracie, I mean, it's a protest determined to be
11:23highly dangerous IED capable of serious injury or death.
11:26People see this like, well, maybe, and again, I think it's important that we deal
11:30with this. They say, well, this is why maybe we shouldn't have gone after Iran.
11:34I think that's flawed logic to think that way.
11:37These threats are threats whether we got there or not, and I don't think there's
11:41a direct cause and effect.
11:42I think there are bad people in the world that want to commit heinous crimes,
11:45and their timing may change because of what we did in Iran, but if you're
11:48a terrorist in this country, the guy in this country through the open borders, or
11:51however you got in here, and you're planning something or trying to do something, I
11:57think it's in your DNA based on your beliefs.
11:59You're going to do it no matter what.
12:01Well, and look, this vulnerability is here because for four years, Joe Biden, the Democrats
12:05opened up our borders and basically invited radical Islamic terrorists to come to this country.
12:11If you look what happened in New York, New York, you had Islamists throwing dangerous
12:18IEDs capable of serious injury or death.
12:22And, you know, ask yourself, in the reporting on this, have you seen a single
12:28news report mention that the jihadists who threw the nail bomb into a crowd in
12:34New York City repeatedly shouted, Allahu Akbar?
12:38I haven't seen that. I haven't seen that on CNN.
12:40I haven't seen that on MSNBC or the New York Times.
12:43They don't want to cover that.
12:45And to be clear, we saw the same thing in Austin a week ago when
12:49the terrorists there, wearing a sweatshirt that said Property of Allah, wearing a t -shirt
12:55with an Iranian flag, attacked a bar on 6th Street in Austin.
13:00And again, this is the terrorism, the vulnerability that President Trump is acting to protect
13:06against. But I got to tell you, in the midst of this, look, we have
13:10an enhanced risk for terrorism right now.
13:12It is obvious jihadist clerics have put out a fat walk calling on terrorists to
13:19try to kill Americans. And in the middle of this, do you know what we
13:23did this week? We voted again to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
13:26And every Democrat except John Fetterman said, no, we will not fund DHS.
13:32The department literally created to defend us against terrorist attacks.
13:37You mentioned that, and let's go into that a little bit more.
13:39This is all about politics, and it shouldn't be because this is about a national
13:43security issue. And I think it's important that we take a moment and explain exactly
13:48why Democrats have wanted to keep this shutdown going.
13:52This is a partial government shutdown.
13:53It's something they're obsessed with DHS.
13:55They don't like it. They don't like law and order.
13:57They don't like ICE agents.
13:58And they're putting our lives at risk.
14:00And they don't really seem to care that that's what they're doing.
14:02They don't and understand it's all empty politics appealing to their radical base.
14:08So the Democrats have decided they hate ICE.
14:11They are the party of illegal immigrants.
14:13And they are opposed to ICE.
14:15They are opposed to law enforcement.
14:16They are opposed to police.
14:18Now, their DHS shutdown, do you know how many ICE agents are not being paid
14:23because of it? How many?
14:24Zero. They are not defunding ICE.
14:26They are failing miserably in any effort to defund ICE.
14:30Why? Because last year when we passed the working families tax cut, the big reconciliation
14:35bill, we funded ICE. We knew the Democrats would play stupid games with it.
14:40So we said, fine, we'll provide the funding for ICE.
14:42So ICE agents are being paid.
14:44The DHS shutdown is not cutting off even a penny for ICE.
14:48The people they are cutting off, they're cutting off the Coast Guard.
14:52They're cutting off FEMA. They're cutting off TSA.
14:55Look, if you're flying a plane, you can expect delays to begin getting longer and
15:00longer and longer because those TSA agents that have to check you in, right now
15:05they're showing up at work and they are not being paid.
15:07I just got off a plane yesterday.
15:09Thank the TSA agents who were there.
15:12And they appreciated that. But they said, you know, boy, it'd be nice to get
15:15paid. And I agreed. I said, it is utter BS.
15:18I'm sorry about that. You should be paid.
15:21And I just apologized to them.
15:23Although, to be clear, I'm voting to fund them.
15:25But the Democrats are trying to ratchet up and inflict pain.
15:31And they believe the media won't blame them.
15:33When your flights are delayed, they believe the media won't blame them.
15:37When Coast Guardsmen, you know, young men and women serving in the Coast Guard don't
15:42have the money to pay their rent, don't have the money to pay their mortgage.
15:44They believe the media won't blame them.
15:46When FEMA, the people in charge of responding to disasters, are not being paid and
15:50it slows down federal disaster response, the Democrats believe the media will not blame them.
15:55So this is entirely an effort to say, screw you to ICE by not cutting
16:01out ICE funding, because they can't do that because Republicans already paid for ICE, but
16:05instead cutting off the funding for the rest of DHS that exists principally to stop
16:11terrorist attacks. So they're telling you, I, Chuck Schumer, I, Democrat, hate ICE and hate
16:19law enforcement so much. that I'm going to increase the chance of a terrorist attack
16:24in your community just to tell the crazies in my party how much I hate
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16:59T's and C's apply. I want to go back to something else that we also
17:02are seeing, and it's not just these domestic terrorist attacks here that may be inspired
17:08by what's happening, but we're also now seeing this happen around the country.
17:11Police are investigating an explosion outside the U .S.
17:16Embassy, for example, in Norway.
17:18What can you tell us about that and the concern that people have all over
17:22the world now with the reactions happening from these Muslim extremists?
17:26Well, Islamists are taking this time to engage in acts of violence and acts of
17:33terrorism, and we could expect to see more of this.
17:36Now, understand, many of these Islamists have been funded by Iran for years, and so
17:41they see their money stream, their money spigot being cut off, but we need full
17:46capacity to protect ourselves at a time that is dangerous.
17:49I believe what the Democrats are doing is reckless, and I pray that it does
17:53not lead to it, but the Democrats' action cutting off the funding for DHS could
17:58very well cause more terrorist attack, including potentially a catastrophic terrorist attack, and I'm not
18:07aware of any of the Democrats who is expressing any concern about this or is
18:11willing to do anything about it.
18:13Look, they might leave DHS shut down, leave these people not paid for the rest
18:18of the year. They are radical enough to do this, and the media is complicit
18:22in it, and it's the reason President Trump is trying to resolve this conflict with
18:27Iran quickly, and what President Trump has called for is unconditional surrender, that he wants
18:33Iran to surrender, and he is systematically taking out first their air defenses, then their
18:39missile launch capacity, then their drone launch capacity, then their missile manufacturing capacity, then their
18:44drone manufacturing capacity, then their military infrastructure, their leadership, and at this point he is
18:50systematically degrading their ability to fight back day after day after day.
18:55He is exactly right to say this ends when the Iranian regime says we surrender,
19:02and when they surrender, the result is going to be that the theocratic despots who
19:07chant death to America, who pay for terrorists to murder Americans, who pay for hit
19:13men to try to murder President Trump, they are out of power.
19:17We are not going to allow that country to be led by lunatics who are
19:21spending millions of dollars trying to murder Americans.
19:25That's what victory looks like.
19:27I believe that's where we will end up.
19:29But I will say at the same time, we are seeing people spread propaganda, and
19:35we're seeing two groups that are spreading the same propaganda.
19:39Let's start with Democrats. Let's start in particular with Chris Murphy.
19:45I want you to listen to what Chris Murphy has said.
19:50Give a listen. The mullahs in Iran, this is, again, Rubio's characterization, are madmen, and
19:56they believe in holy war, and they believe in killing the crusaders of the United
20:00States and the Jews of Israel.
20:03And there is a special degree of unacceptability for them having a nuclear weapon.
20:09So, yeah, I don't disagree, but what I disagree with is that an aerial military
20:14campaign or even the insertion of ground forces can permanently dislodge Iran from having a
20:19nuclear weapon. Again, you were talking about knowledge.
20:22That can't be bombed out of existence.
20:24So how do you stop it?
20:26A diplomatic agreement. We had a diplomatic agreement.
20:28Barack Obama negotiated an agreement in which Iran was more than a year away from
20:34getting a weapon. We had daily inspections scouring the country.
20:37It was working. Donald Trump's advisors told him it was working.
20:40He threw that agreement into the trash, which precipitated the crisis that we are in
20:46today. This is a place where diplomacy probably is the only true path to make
20:51sure that Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon.
20:54All right. Let me ask you this, Senator.
20:56He says it was working.
20:58That is a flat -out lie.
21:00And I think most people that have been following this would know that.
21:03He's acting like they just decided to go rogue, referring to the Trump administration, just
21:06get into a war for no reason at all.
21:08So what you just heard from Senator Chris Murphy is utterly fact -free propaganda.
21:13He's just repeating left -wing talking points.
21:15Now, look, Chris Murphy wants to run for president as a left -wing Democrat, as
21:20a successor to Bernie Sanders in terms of a rabid socialist isolationist.
21:26And so facts are not going to get in the way.
21:28One of the things he said there, we were having daily nuclear weapons inspections.
21:32That is a lie under the terms of the Obama nuclear deal.
21:35Number one, there were multiple areas that were off -limits from inspection.
21:40What areas were off -limits from inspection?
21:43Well, one of them was Fordow, the military site under a mountain where they were
21:47doing their nuclear weapons development.
21:48And so as far as the military site the badly recognized and the against force,
21:48to invest in the contents luôn down one year.
21:48And by the way, Donald Trump dropped Bunker Buster bombs on Fordow and took it
21:52out and destroyed it. But under the Obama nuclear deal, nobody could inspect Fordow.
21:57And even when we wanted to expect other areas of research, we had to call
22:03the Iranians and get their permission and they would inspect it for us.
22:06You know, I've sort of joked that that's like calling up a drug dealer.
22:10Can you can you imagine like the classic movie Scarface?
22:13The scenario that Obama negotiated is basically that that that the DEA would call Tony
22:18Montana, the drug dealer in Scarface and go, hey, Tony, would you check your warehouse
22:23and tell us if there are any drugs there?
22:25And Tony would go, yeah, man, yeah, man.
22:27Hold on. Hold on. Let me look.
22:27Let me look. No, no, no drugs there.
22:29We're clean. That is the Obama nuclear deal.
22:32It was literally Obama calling calling up the Ayatollah.
22:35Hey, you got any nukes?
22:36No, man, we're good. We don't we don't have any nukes.
22:38We're no nukes here at all.
22:39All right. Thanks. That's the idiocy of of the Democrats.
22:45They knew. And by the way, the Obama Iran nuclear deal sunset in 15 years.
22:50So after 15 years, Obama said, we're fine with you're having nukes.
22:54Chris Murphy and the Democrats know that they don't care.
22:58That deal was designed to allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon.
23:02I'll tell you, when President Trump in the first term pulled out of the Obama
23:06Iran nuclear deal, it was exactly the right decision.
23:09I had urged him to do so.
23:11And and it set the stage.
23:14Iran is now, particularly after President Trump last year, bombed the nuclear weapons facility.
23:19Iran's nuclear program is way, way, way back.
23:22And yet they remain dangerous and they remain absolutely committed to developing nuclear weapons.
23:29Now, the Democrats and the press are trying to undermine President Trump.
23:35They're trying to undermine the U .S.
23:37military and they're trying to bolster Iran and the and the Ayatollahs.
23:42Do you know who else is doing that?
23:44Who else? Tucker Carlson and the rest of the so -called woke right.
23:49There is a group of isolationist folks on the right.
23:52It is a small group, but they are loud and vocal.
23:56And Tucker Carlson has now all but declared war on President Trump's foreign policy.
24:01I want you to listen to Tucker Carlson in his latest show.
24:04I'm going to warn you what he says here is shocking and it is to
24:08the left of Chris Murphy.
24:10So it is more anti Donald Trump than Chris Murphy and the Democrats.
24:15Listen to Tucker Carlson. Unconditional surrender means foreign troops get to rape your wife and
24:19daughter if they want. And everyone knows that.
24:22And that has been if there's one consistent lesson of history means unconditional surrender means
24:28foreign troops get to rape your wife and daughter.
24:32Everyone can feel that. That's like the most atavistic instinct there is.
24:35And so to avoid that, people will do anything.
24:39And so that's why it requires that level of force to get a population subdued
24:44to the point of unconditional surrender.
24:46That's why. And so in this case, of course, we don't have the ground force
24:51necessary. I don't think Americans would voluntarily participate in it.
24:54I just don't think we can do that.
24:56It would require weapons of mass destruction.
24:58It would require presumably nuclear weapons in order to do that.
25:02And let's not lie to ourselves.
25:03We're moving toward that. You hear Tucker there.
25:08And I mean, you want to talk about unhinged.
25:10That is like some of the most anti -American propaganda I've ever seen spewed by
25:15someone like Tucker Carlson. It is a new low even for him.
25:19And the bar keeps dropping day after day.
25:22Look, the phrase, the words someone like Tucker Carlson, you don't even have to put
25:26that constraint. That is more anti -American rhetoric than anything I've ever heard Bernie Sanders
25:31say or even Chris Murphy.
25:33What he said there, listen, Tucker continues to go to new lows and new lows.
25:37And part of it is President Trump this week said that Tucker Carlson is, quote,
25:41not MAGA and not smart.
25:43The more Tucker Carlson attacks Donald Trump, the more fringe he gets.
25:48And so I think this was Tucker acting out when Trump said what was obviously
25:51true. But Tucker just said, go back, rewind and listen to what he just said.
25:57He said, number one, if Iran surrenders, that American soldiers are going to rape their
26:04wives and daughters. And in fact, he said it twice.
26:07What utter and complete garbage you America -hating Islamist fluffer.
26:13I got to say, that makes me mad.
26:15I think of the servicemen and women, but the men in particular who are risking
26:21their lives. And Tucker Carlson standing there saying, if you surrender to America, American soldiers
26:27are going to rape your women.
26:28We have never done that.
26:30That is not something America does.
26:33No, Tucker, American soldiers are not going to rape Iranian women.
26:37You know who rapes the people they conquer?
26:39Iranians do. Islamists do. That is, in fact, part of what they do.
26:43Part of what they do is that they rape women as a means of subjugation.
26:49But Tucker's not going to tell you that because Tucker is now one of the
26:52leading proponents of Sharia law in the United States.
26:55He's literally an apologist for Islamists.
26:58And so you might say, wow, that statement seems incredible.
27:01It seems extreme. Here are a couple of data points.
27:04Number one, during this war, the Iranian national television is playing Tucker Carlson's show in
27:11Iran. They view that as such valuable propaganda.
27:14They want the Iranian people.
27:16to hear Tucker. Number two, the Muslim Brotherhood, by the way, Hamas is the Muslim
27:21Brotherhood in Palestine and they are terrorists, are tweeting out Tucker Carlson's show.
27:26The Muslim Brotherhood is saying, this is our spokesman.
27:29Man, this guy is good.
27:31I cannot recall another major political figure on left or right who has said, if
27:38you surrender to America, American soldiers will rape your women.
27:41That's what Tucker Carlson just said.
27:42That is grotesque. And by the way, any soldier who sees Tucker Carlson ought to
27:47say, how dare you say that, American soldiers?
27:49No, we would not. And impugning our troops is disgusting.
27:53And the second thing that Tucker said in that clip is that Donald Trump is
27:59moving towards using a nuclear weapon in Iran.
28:02No, he's not, Tucker. That is a complete and utter lie.
28:06That is false. We are not going to nuke Iran.
28:08It is only deranged. That's the sort of thing the Ayatollah would say.
28:12And you've got to ask yourself, look, some of you may think back to when
28:16Tucker was on Fox News and he was actually said a lot of things you
28:20and I love that made a lot of sense.
28:22This guy today is just a kook.
28:25And even worse than that, he is the most prominent purveyor of Islamist lies about
28:31America and about Donald Trump.
28:34Tucker Carlson has gone full out to war with Donald Trump's national security and foreign
28:40policy. And it is he and Chris Murphy are now that they are comrades in
28:46arms. He and Chris Tucker Carlson and Chris Murphy and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren
28:51and Ilhan Omar and AOC.
28:53They all have the exact same foreign policy and it is anti -American and it
28:58is pro -Islamist and it's dangerous as hell.
29:01Having just come back from Israel, I want to paint you a picture.
29:05It's midnight. Sirens are blaring and you have only seconds to grab your child and
29:11run. Now imagine you're elderly.
29:14Your legs don't work like they used to.
29:16Getting downstairs feels impossible. And after all of that, you end up in a bomb
29:20shelter for hours, even days, because you can't make the trek again.
29:26This is what's happening across Israel as Operation Epic Fury continues.
29:31Children are being traumatized. Families are just exhausted and homes have been destroyed.
29:37And that's why the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is there.
29:41On the ground, bringing food, emergency equipment, care for those children, and help for the
29:47elderly, and supplying the bomb shelters and medical centers for critically needed essentials.
29:53If you've ever wondered what it looks like to stand for Israel and stand for
29:57good against evil, this is it.
30:00And that's why I'm asking you to now please act.
30:02Give $45 right now to rush life -saving essentials to the vulnerables under fire.
30:09You can also call 888 -488 -IFCJ.
30:14That's 888 -488 -IFCJ. Join me and give and make a real difference online at
30:22ifcj .org. That's ifcj .org.
30:26We've got some breaking news as we are recording this on Sunday.
30:30They have now named a new leader in Iran.
30:32It is the son of the former leader there.
30:35That is someone that the president has said is unacceptable.
30:38Your reaction to that as well?
30:40Well, look, it's not surprising.
30:42The mullahs are going to get together and they're going to want another mullah to
30:45be the ayatollah. And they want the country to continue to be run by Islamist
30:51clerics who embrace a death cult.
30:55And it's interesting one of the things, I'm going back to Chris Murphy and what
30:59he said a minute ago, you know, we rely on deterrence to stop the most
31:06egregious acts of harm. Deterrence works with many countries because you have rational actors.
31:14Let's take, for example, North Korea.
31:18So North Korea is an exceptionally dangerous part of the world.
31:21Why does North Korea have nukes?
31:22Well, it goes back to a previous Democrat president, Bill Clinton.
31:27Bill Clinton sent a State Department employee named Wendy Sherman to negotiate a nuclear agreement
31:37with Kim Jong -il, who was the father of the current dictator, Kim Jong -un.
31:42And the deal they cut is that Bill Clinton agreed to send billions of dollars
31:48to North Korea. And in exchange for that money, North Korea would promise not to
31:52develop nuclear weapons. Well, what happened?
31:55We now know what happened.
31:56They took the billions of dollars.
31:57They used it to develop nuclear weapons.
32:00And today North Korea has nuclear weapons.
32:02So it was a spectacular failure.
32:04Fast forward to Barack Obama.
32:06Barack Obama comes into office and he decides his signature foreign policy move is he
32:11wants to negotiate an agreement with Iran on nuclear weapons.
32:14So what does he do?
32:15He actually goes and recruits the same damn person, Wendy Sherman, to negotiate his Iran
32:20deal. Literally, there are 8 billion people on planet Earth, Ben.
32:24There is one out of 8 billion who has screwed this up previously, has negotiated
32:29a deal to send billions of dollars to a foreign dictator, and it's resulted in
32:33that dictator using the billions of dollars to develop nuclear weapons.
32:36That would be Wendy Sherman.
32:37That's who Obama brought in and said, hey, can you do the same for us?
32:42Now, we live with the faith.
32:44failures of the Clinton administration and Wendy Sherman with North Korea.
32:47And Kim Jong -un is a dictator.
32:50He's megalomaniacal. He's dangerous as hell.
32:53He is testing ICBMs. He is targeted, explicitly target U .S.
32:58citizens, including Austin, Texas. He is a city that he has said he's targeted before.
33:02However, our best protection is Kim Jong -un knows if he ever used a nuclear
33:09weapon, the result would be massive, overwhelming retaliation, and his regime would lose power that
33:16day. It would be the end of his life if he did that.
33:19As dangerous as Kim Jong -un is, at least there's some possibility of rational self
33:26-deterrence. Here's what makes Iran orders of magnitude more dangerous.
33:31When you're dealing with religious extremism, when you're dealing with theocratic zealots who are in
33:38a death cult, who glorify death and suicide, rational deterrence doesn't work the same way.
33:45So for example, if the Ayatollah detonated a nuclear weapon, say in Tel Aviv or
33:52in New York or Los Angeles, and let me be clear, I believe if the
33:55Ayatollah could do so, he would have done so already.
33:57The response would be overwhelming and devastating, but the problem is when you celebrate death
34:03and suicide, that normal cost -benefit analysis does not apply.
34:09And so, yes, they've named a new Ayatollah.
34:11The Ayatollah is what? The son of the old Ayatollah.
34:14Okay, great. That is not acceptable because President Trump has rightly made the decision.
34:20We're not going to allow U .S.
34:22national security to be vulnerable to religious zealots who are funding terrorism, who are funding,
34:30who are the number one funders of terrorism worldwide and have been for 47 years.
34:37So Ayatollah number one, Skippy Jr., is not going to get to take over either
34:42because allowing Iran to wage war and to murder Americans is not consistent with U
34:49.S. national security. This year marks a critical moment for our country.
34:54As the opposition grows more aggressive and unapologetic, the fight now reaches into the everyday
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36:25a promo code verdict. I want to get real quick to one other thing.
36:29You talked earlier about DHS funding, and let's get to just some of the concerns
36:35that people are having. You had a midair panic as Southwest flight was diverted to
36:39Atlanta due to security threat amid Iranian terror fears error.
36:44You also had a Fort Lauderdale bound flight diverts with security scared.
36:48The passengers removed. These are real stories that are happening that people are concerned about.
36:53And so my question is, how quickly can we get the Democrats to understand that
36:59this funding is important? We've seen even at Hobby Airport, where you and I fly
37:03out a lot, three and a half hour security lines.
37:06That is unacceptable for the American people.
37:09Well, the only reason they will flip is the political pain becomes real to them.
37:14I think the Democrats are listening to their zealots, to the people who want open
37:18borders, who want ICE abolished, who want the police abolished, who are cheering on when
37:24the Democrats defend criminals and illegal aliens and gangbangers.
37:29Look, go back to the State of the Union address.
37:32It was powerful when President Trump turned to the Democrats and said, I'll give you
37:36an opportunity to decide right now, where do you stand?
37:40Stand with me now. If you agree, our principal responsibility is to defend American citizens
37:48and not illegal aliens. Democrats.
37:51Zero Democrats. Zero stood and applauded.
37:55They all remained seated. That is where their base is.
38:00And right now, the media is not holding them to account.
38:05During the Schumer shutdown last year, that Chuck Schumer and the Democrats forced the longest
38:10shutdown in American history. Right before the elections last year, one Democrat aide told a
38:16reporter, said, we're going to keep this shut down, quote, until airplanes start falling from
38:21the sky. They feel immune from political consequences.
38:25That will only change when they start to feel meaningful political heat.
38:29That means the folks listening to this podcast, use your voice, speak out, make phone
38:34calls, call Senate offices, post on social media, get other people, write op -eds, speak
38:39about it. And hold Democrats to account.
38:42They are endangering all of our families by cutting off the funding needed to fight
38:49terrorism at a time when the risks of terrorism are unacceptably high.
38:54We need to do a better job protecting the homeland.
38:57And the Democrats are being reckless at a level I've never seen.
39:01Yeah, it really is incredible.
39:03Don't forget, we keep you updated on all these issues.
39:05So hit that subscribe or auto -download button wherever you get your podcasts.
39:10Share this podcast on social media.
39:12And raise the five -star review if you wouldn't mind.
39:14And the Senate and I will see you back here in a couple of days.
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