| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
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Honoring C-SPAN's four decades covering the Senate. | |
| The resolution thanked cable and satellite operators for providing C-SPAN as a public service to the country. | ||
| C-SPAN does not receive one penny of taxpayer dollars, is funded primarily from satellite and cable providers. | ||
|
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And called on all television providers, including streaming services, to deliver C-SPAN as well. | |
| We're at a different stage in our history and a lot of people are seeing their news this way, so we need to expand it and make sure we're on all of those platforms, as well as the ones we already are on. | ||
| So thank you again to Senator Grassley for working with me to highlight C-SPAN's critical role. | ||
| And thanks to everyone who has had a hand in C-SPAN's success. | ||
| Wall Street Journal this morning with the headline, Trump privately approved of attack plans for Iran, but has withheld the final order. | ||
| Here's the president in the Oval Office, excuse me, on the White House lawn yesterday with more on what he's deciding to do in this escalating war. | ||
| I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. | ||
| I can tell you this, that Iran's got a lot of trouble and they want to negotiate. | ||
| And I said, why didn't you negotiate with me before? | ||
| All this death and destruction. | ||
| Why didn't you negotiate? | ||
| I said to the people, why didn't you negotiate with me two weeks ago? | ||
| You could have done fine. | ||
| You would have had a country. | ||
| It's very sad to watch this. | ||
| I mean, I've never seen anything like it. | ||
| It's so, you know, everyone thought it was going to be the reverse. | ||
| I didn't. | ||
| I didn't think so. | ||
| And I was telling them, you got to do something. | ||
| You got to negotiate. | ||
| And at the end, last minute, they said, no, we're not going to do that. | ||
| And they got hit. | ||
| Remember, 60 days? | ||
| And then came the 60. | ||
| 61 is going to become a very famous number. | ||
| That was one hell of a hit, that first hit. | ||
| That was one hell of a hit. | ||
| Not sustainable, to be honest. | ||
| It ended on the first night. | ||
| Yes. | ||
|
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Is it too late, though? | |
| Do you think it's too late to now? | ||
| Not really. | ||
| Nothing's too late. | ||
| The only thing too late is Powell. | ||
| Powell's too late. | ||
| Too late, Powell. | ||
| Have the Iranians reached out to you, Mr. President? | ||
|
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What? | |
| Have the Iranians reached out to you? | ||
| Yes. | ||
|
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And what did they say? | |
| I said it's very late. | ||
| You know? | ||
|
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I said it's very late to be talking, Mr. President. | |
| Mr. President, it's, I don't know, there's a big difference between now and a week ago, right? | ||
| Big difference. | ||
| President Trump on the White House lawn yesterday as the new poll and flag went up on the White House grounds talking to reporters there about the war between Israel and Iran and his thinking. | ||
| What happens next? | ||
| As we said, he has approved a military plan but has yet to give the final decision. | ||
| So this morning, he's keeping the world guessing and we're asking you to give your message to the president, what he should do here, and what is the role of Congress. | ||
| The Iranian Supreme Leader on X posting the U.S. President threatens us with his absurd rhetoric. | ||
| He demands that the Iranian people surrender to him. | ||
| They should make threats against those who are afraid of being threatened. | ||
| The Iranian nation isn't frightened by such threats. | ||
| The New York Times this morning headline, Iran threatens irreparable damage if the United States intervenes in the conflict. | ||
| Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, posted a video yesterday titled, Trump, Don't Drag the U.S. into Netanyahu's War with Iran. | ||
| Take a look at what he had to say. | ||
| The main point that I want to make today is that it is absolutely imperative that the United States not be dragged into this war. | ||
|
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Let me say a word about how this war began. | |
| On Thursday, Netanyahu launched an illegal and unilateral surprise attack on Iran, bombing targets across the country and killing hundreds of people. | ||
| Iran has responded with attacks of its own, which have killed dozens of people in Israel. | ||
| Whatever you may think of the corrupt and authoritarian Iranian regime, Israel's attack clearly violated international law and the United Nations Charter. | ||
| While every country has the right to defend itself, they do not have the right to launch so-called preemptive wars of this kind. | ||
|
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But let's remember who Netanyahu is. | |
| He is a war criminal under indictment by the International Criminal Court for starving innocent people and killing civilians in Gaza. | ||
|
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At this very moment, in Gaza, Israel continues to prevent the UN from delivering humanitarian aid. | |
| And just today in Gaza, Israeli tanks fired into a crowd desperately trying to collect food, killing at least 59 people. | ||
|
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So it should come as little surprise that Netanyahu ignored international law to start this war with Iran. | |
| But Netanyahu's decision to strike also directly contravened the express wishes of the United States, which was seeking a diplomatic resolution to the long-standing tensions around Iran's nuclear program. | ||
| In recent months, the United States has held five rounds of negotiations with Iran to resolve these long-standing concerns. | ||
| Let me repeat, in recent months, the United States has held five rounds of negotiations with Iran to resolve these long-standing concerns. | ||
|
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A sixth round of talks was planned for Sunday, but Netanyahu chose instead to start this war. | |
| So let's be clear. | ||
| Israel's attack was specifically designed to sabotage American diplomatic efforts. | ||
| In fact, in its first round of strikes, Israel assassinated the man overseeing Iran's nuclear negotiating team. | ||
| And let's also remember that U.S. intelligence has never indicated that Iran has made the decision to build a nuclear weapon. | ||
| Just a few months ago, Trump's own director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbitt, testified to Congress that, quote, the intelligence community continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, end of quote. | ||
| But Netanyahu chose to attack, crippling diplomatic efforts and risking a full-blown regional war. | ||
| Senator Bernie Sanders in a video posted on YouTube yesterday laying out the arguments against U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran war. | ||
| What do all of you think? | ||
| What is your message to the President and to the lawmakers here in Washington? | ||
| Who do you agree with on this question about whether or not the U.S. should strike Iran? | ||
| The President has said, I may do it or I may not do it. | ||
| Ed in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Republican, let's hear from you first. | ||
|
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Thank you. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Can you hear me all right? | ||
| We can. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
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Good morning. | |
| When I was growing up, you know, I lived in a neighborhood where there were many Jewish people and they were wonderful people. | ||
| And I hate to see the Israelis being attacked so bad, but I think we have to get rid of the nuclear over there because if we don't drop those buster bombs on their facilities, they are going to build a bomb. | ||
| And God knows where they would shoot it off at. | ||
| And we sure don't want any nuclear bombs destroying the atmosphere. | ||
| We have to get rid of them. | ||
| And I'm hoping to God that President Trump, I have faith that he'll make the right decision on what to do. | ||
| He's kind of stuck in a hard place. | ||
| You know, it's do it or don't do it. | ||
| And I think he's going to have to do it. | ||
| All right, Ed. | ||
| And so you say get the military involved, and you mention Israel's request these B-2 bombers, the U.S., as the president said yesterday, noting that the U.S. is the only one with the capability to, with this military equipment, to take care of these nuclear facilities that are deeply embedded in the mountains of Iran. | ||
| So you say it's a go. | ||
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Yeah, I think what happened is I heard somebody the other day say a good idea was that we could maybe have the bombers loaned to the Israelis and let them go ahead and use them. | |
| And so not involving any U.S. military personnel. | ||
|
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Correct. | |
| All right. | ||
| Ed there in Georgia, Republican caller, front page of the Washington Times, Trump to make a very big move on Iran. | ||
| Ways bombing versus bargaining with the regime's leader about the military posture right now. | ||
| As the president contemplates a strike on Iran, the U.S. has shifted more forces to the Central Command area of operations. | ||
| Significant numbers of fighter jets and cargo aircraft, including F-16s, F-22s, F-35s, C-17s, are arriving. | ||
| They also report that the State Department started evacuating non-essential diplomats and their families from the U.S. Embassy in Israel. | ||
| And this week, the U.S. sent a large fleet of refueling tankers, presumably to keep U.S. bombers in the air, and deployed other aircraft, including F-35 Lightning, it says, excuse me, let me go to the jump page. | ||
| Lightning aircraft and F-16s fighting Falcons. | ||
| On Monday, the U.S. sent a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East. | ||
| The involvement of the U.S. military likely would be aimed at taking out Iran's underground nuclear facilities using the precise guided U.S.-made bombs that can be delivered only by the U.S.-made B-2 bombers and American pilots. | ||
| Analysts say it's the only weapon in the world capable of penetrating 200 feet underground before detonating and destroying the nuclear complexes. | ||
| That reporting from the Washington Times this morning. | ||
| Otis in Orange Park, Florida, Democratic caller, we'll go to you next, Otis. | ||
| What do you say? | ||
| What should the president do here? | ||
|
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I think, good morning, I think the president should stand back right now. | |
| Should stand back. | ||
| Yes, he do not need to approve this strike. | ||
| We can wait just in case. | ||
| But to me, it's a bigger point. | ||
| We just got out of a war in the Middle East. | ||
| It seemed like elderly people want to always commit, young people, to go to war. | ||
| I had my chance in the war. | ||
| We can't do, we cannot put our young soldiers in a war unless we absolutely need to. | ||
| And Otis, who makes that decision, in your opinion? | ||
| Is it the president as commander-in-chief, or is it Congress that makes that decision? | ||
|
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The president can commit, can't commit the ground forces for just a little while, but Congress has to approve the war. | |
| He can disguise it as saying that it's not a war, it's a strike, and maybe he get away with it. | ||
|
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But ask yourself this question. | |
| America needs to ask yourself this question. | ||
| Once we drop the bunker bomb, what happens then? | ||
| All the chemicals, everything not going to stay sealed, die now. | ||
| It's going to leak out. | ||
| So, what's going to happen when they decide to do dirty bombs, walking in briefcases, and people don't mind if they die? | ||
|
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Don't commit young kids for no reason. | |
| All right. | ||
| Otis, there in Orange Park, Florida, Democratic caller, his message to the president and to Congress this morning. | ||
| First hour of the Washington Journal, conversation with all of you as the president weighs whether or not to strike Iran. | ||
| Let's hear from Ted in Buena Vista, Colorado, Independent. | ||
| Ted, good morning. | ||
| What do you say? | ||
|
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Yeah, good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I'm totally against bombing Iran. | ||
| You know, there is clear documentation that we knew that what Gaza and the government of Palestine were planning on Israel. | ||
| And Israel has been providing funds for Hamas for years and years prior to. | ||
| It's just like we supported Iraq before we entered the war there. | ||
| We got to stop these wars and the energy that it takes to keep bombing. | ||
| You know, we're at a humanitarian crisis where that's going to affect our food chain. | ||
| You know, we, you know, if they drop the bomb in Iran, that's going to legitimize all the hospitals and children and all the humanitarian people that have been killed in Gaza. | ||
| And we got to learn to negotiate. | ||
| And if we're the wealthiest country in the world, why are so many people starving? | ||
| And corporate America has got to learn to start taking care of the veterans when they come back from war. | ||
| My father served in the Marine Corps in World War II, and he went to Guam in the Philippines and set up the power lines for the code talkers. | ||
| And when he came back, he made amends to the Japanese by helping Japanese nurseries in California. | ||
| All right, Ted, let me go back to what you started out saying. | ||
| Do you see this? | ||
| If the U.S. gets involved, that this is a forever war, as it was, the decision in Iraq and Afghanistan has been called by recent president, those decisions to engage and involve the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. | ||
| Do you see this situation in Iran as the same thing? | ||
|
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Absolutely. | |
| I mean, look what the Trump family has done after the Vietnam War. | ||
| Now in Hanoi, they're setting up their hotel and golf courses. | ||
| And it wouldn't even surprise me that the end result, all this, if this keeps going on, that the Trump family is going to have their resorts in Gaza. | ||
| And, you know, we already got a crisis. | ||
| You know, the Mediterranean Sea is one of the most valuable, you know, this is the history of the world. | ||
| And everybody around the Mediterranean Sea should enjoy the same benefits as France and Spain and Greece. | ||
| And, you know, why is one area of the Mediterranean so rich and other areas of the Mediterranean just in poverty and war-torn? | ||
| Right, Richard in Bemidji, Minnesota, Republican. | ||
| Richard, where do you come down on this? | ||
| Do you agree with the president or some in the Republican Party who disagree with the president here and they do not want the U.S. to engage in a war with Iran? | ||
|
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Oh, this is a hard one. | |
| I really missed the wars. | ||
| I'm 59 years old, so I didn't get a chance to serve. | ||
| My brother did. | ||
| I really think that if it needs to be done, which I think it does, we need to take some stiff action and eliminate the threat. | ||
| I feel America's gone downhill a lot on our status. | ||
| Is war the way to bring our status up? | ||
|
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Not really, but Iran, in my eyes, and what I view is too dangerous to let stay unfettered. | |
| A prolonged war would be ridiculous with anybody. | ||
| I think it could be done quickly and decisively. | ||
| But do you share concerns by Tucker Carlson and others that say there are warmongers in the White House advising the president and that this will not be quick? | ||
|
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That's a hard one. | |
| I mean, the government's so twisted on all accounts. | ||
| I mean, I consider myself Republican, but I do have a lot of views that don't align with Trump. | ||
| But this one, I don't know. | ||
| I think he'll make the best decision. | ||
| If it does happen to go to where we need to use force, I just hope it's quick and it ain't prolonged. | ||
| I don't think war is good for anybody. | ||
| All right, Richard. | ||
| I'm going to leave it at that point on the inter-party fighting over this decision for the president in the Republican Party. | ||
| Front page of the New York Times, Trump backers in bitter schism on Iran. | ||
| And it talks about that viral video between Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz. | ||
| Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, who is on the side of striking Iran, sits down with Tucker Carlson on his ex-program. | ||
| And the confrontation's 97 seconds. | ||
| It goes viral. | ||
| Here it is. | ||
| Okay, so you toppled their regime by whatever means. | ||
| What happens then? | ||
| How many people live in Iran, by the way? | ||
|
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I don't know the population. | |
| At all? | ||
|
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No, I don't know the population. | |
| You don't know the population of the country you seek to topple? | ||
| How many people live in Iran? | ||
| 92 million. | ||
|
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Okay. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| How could you not know that? | ||
| I don't sit around memorizing population tables. | ||
| Well, it's kind of relevant because you're calling for the overthrow of the government. | ||
| Why is it relevant whether it's 90 million or 80 million or 100 million? | ||
| Why is this? | ||
| As if you don't know anything about the country. | ||
|
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I didn't say I don't know anything about it. | |
| Okay, what's the ethnic mix of Iran? | ||
| They are Persians and predominantly Shia. | ||
| Okay, this is not even. | ||
| You don't know anything about Iran. | ||
|
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So I am not the Tucker Carlson. | |
| You're not an expert on Iran. | ||
| You're a senator who's calling it a government. | ||
| You're the one throwing the government. | ||
| You're the one who knows anything about the country. | ||
|
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No, you don't know anything about the country. | |
| You're the one who claims they're not trying to murder Donald Trump. | ||
| I'm not saying that. | ||
| Who can't figure out if there's a good job to kill General Soleimani? | ||
| And you just said it was bash. | ||
| They're trying to murder Trump. | ||
| Yes, I just say you're not calling for military strikes against them in retaliation. | ||
| If they really believe they're carrying out military strikes today. | ||
| You said Israel was. | ||
| Right. | ||
|
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With our help. | |
| I said we. | ||
| Israel is leading them, but we're supporting them. | ||
| Well, you're breaking news here because the U.S. government last night denied, the National Security Council spokesman Alex Pfeiffer denied on behalf of Trump that we were acting on Israel's behalf in any offensive capacity. | ||
|
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Well, we're not bombing them. | |
| Israel's bombing them. | ||
| You just said we were. | ||
| We are supporting Israel. | ||
| Senator, if you're saying the United States government is a war with Iran right now, people are listening. | ||
| Senator Ted Cruz, with an exchange there with Tucker Carlson on his ex-program, the video posted by Tucker Carlson, 97 seconds, and racked up tens of millions of views in a matter of minutes and hours. | ||
| This is from the front page of the New York Times yesterday. | ||
| Steve Bannon, a former White House chief strategist in the first Trump administration, sat down with reporters at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast here in Washington yesterday. | ||
| And here's what he had to say: his assessment of how President Trump's most devoted supporters would react if the U.S. became directly involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran. | ||
| I think as President Trump thinks over the next couple of days and gets a range of alternatives, I think the voices of his most loyal supporters will say, look, we have your back. | ||
| You're our guy. | ||
| But we've got an invasion in this country. | ||
| The number one priority here is to get our sovereignty back by deporting 10 million illegal alien invaders in a mass deportation, okay, which is going to be, as you saw in Los Angeles, not going to be easy. | ||
| The second priority I think we have is in the South China Sea and around Taiwan because of the Chinese, and they're not doing exercises right now. | ||
| I can tell you, as a former 7th Fleet naval officer, they are doing rehearsals for Taiwan. | ||
| That's the second party. | ||
| And yet we've taken a carrier battle group out of there and sent it. | ||
| Now we have three carriers in the Middle East. | ||
| So no, I think that the more information the president hears, the more he sees where his base is. | ||
| But I will tell you, if the president, as commander-in-chief, makes a decision to do this and comes forward and walks people through it, the MAGA movement, you'll lose some, but the MAGA movement, the Marjorie Taylor Greens, the Matt Gateses, we will fight it up to the end to make sure that he's got full information. | ||
| But if he has more intelligence and makes that case to the American people, the MAGA movement will support President Trump. | ||
| Steve Bannon had a breakfast yesterday here in Washington saying the MAGA movement would be behind the president. | ||
| If you consider yourself part of the MAGA movement this morning, we want to hear from you. | ||
| Are you backing the president on a U.S. strike against Iran? | ||
| What do you think he should do here? | ||
| Sheila in Carleton, Georgia, you're an independent. | ||
| Share your thoughts with us, Sheila. | ||
|
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Oh, no, I don't support the president. | |
| I don't support anything that has to do with Israel at all. | ||
| This is ridiculous. | ||
| This has taken his eye off of all our eyes off of Ukraine and what's going on over there. | ||
| And like that gentleman just said on his show, taking our eyes off of Japan and that area over there. | ||
| We have got to stop this man. | ||
| And Ted Cruz, he liked Ted Cruz. | ||
| I mean, he doesn't know anything about Iran. | ||
| Iran, Trump wouldn't even let them have enough power to facilitate medical. | ||
| Now, this has just got ridiculous. | ||
| I have nothing against the Israeli people, But Netanyahu is a warmonger and he's out to destroy everyone who's not Jewish. | ||
| All right, Sheila there in Carleton, Georgia. | ||
| You said, Sheila, they need to stop him. | ||
| Who's they and who's him? | ||
| Are you talking about President Trump stopping him from a U.S. strike against Iran? | ||
|
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Yes. | |
| And who needs to do that? | ||
| We do. | ||
| The Congress does. | ||
| The Senate does. | ||
| The Republicans up there need to quit being so scared of him. | ||
| They are afraid that he's going to, well, it's just like Musk saying that if he didn't go along with the president, that he was going to stop you from another term. | ||
| He's going to put out all this money and everything. | ||
| And they are scared. | ||
| Now, they've got to get a handle on themselves. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Sheila in Carleton, Georgia, with her thoughts, the opinion pages of the New York Times. | ||
| The editorial board says America must not rush into war against Iran. | ||
| The decision to declare war rests with Congress alone. | ||
| They say that the president should make the case to the nation for committing American blood and treasure. | ||
| To refuse to put the issue to vote in Congress is to concede that the American public does not support yet another foreign war with ill-defined aim and no plan for what happens next. | ||
| The recent history of regime change wars is hardly encouraging, especially in the Middle East. | ||
| Decisions about when and whether to go to war are often difficult and always important. | ||
| For these reasons, the Constitution does not vest them in any one person, not even the commander-in-chief. | ||
| The American people and their elected representatives must have their say. | ||
| Let this vital debate begin. | ||
| Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, on the Senate floor Tuesday, has a resolution requiring approval before the Trump administration takes any military action against Iran. | ||
| Listen to what the Virginia senator had to say. | ||
| And I told myself when I came to the Senate that if I ever had the chance to stop this nation from getting into an unnecessary war, I would do everything I could to stop us from getting into an unnecessary war. | ||
| I happen to believe that the United States engaging in a war against Iran, a third war in the Middle East since 2001, would be a catastrophic blunder for this country. | ||
| I think there are some in this body who have a different point of view than me on that point, but I think we should all be able to agree that the fundamental constitutional principle that says we shouldn't be in a war if Congress doesn't have the guts to debate it and vote on it, | ||
| we should all, having taken an oath to the Constitution, at least support the principle that war is something that should be for Congress to declare. | ||
| Mr. President, just recently, right before I walked to the floor, the New York Times published this article, and I'm just going to read this to demonstrate the imminence of the threat that this country faces. | ||
| The article New York Times dated today, Iran is preparing missiles for possible retaliatory strikes on U.S. bases, officials say. | ||
| And I'll just read the first few paragraphs. | ||
| Iran has prepared missiles and other military equipment for strikes on U.S. bases in the Middle East should the United States join Israel's war against the country, according to American officials who have reviewed intelligence reports. | ||
| Fears of a wider war are growing among American officials as Israel presses the White House to intervene in its conflict with Iran. | ||
| If the United States joins the Israeli campaign and strikes Fordo, a key Iranian nuclear facility, the Iranian-backed Houthi militia will almost certainly resume striking ships in the Red Sea. | ||
| The officials said they added that pro-Iranian militias in Iraq and Syria would probably try to attack U.S. bases there. | ||
| Other officials said that in the event of an attack, Iran would begin to mine the Straits of Hormuz, attacking Mentipen American warships in the Persian Gulf. | ||
| Commanders put American troops on high alert at military bases throughout the region, including in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. | ||
| The United States has more than 40,000 troops deployed in the Middle East. | ||
| Senator Tim Kaine on the Senate floor Tuesday outlining his argument for a resolution that would require President Trump to seek the approval of Congress before any military strike against Iran. | ||
| Do you agree with the senator there? | ||
| How do you want your senator to vote on that resolution? | ||
| Chris Murphy, Democratic Senator from Connecticut, in a conversation on CNN says, for those unconditionally cheering the attacks on Iran, remember that our early strikes in Afghanistan and Iraq were successful, but we ended up getting dragged into costly wars that created more terrorists than we killed. | ||
| The American people haven't forgotten that. | ||
| And you also have Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii. | ||
| It is not in the national security interest of the United States to militarily attack Iran. | ||
| The best way to ensure regional stability and protect American lives is to reach a negotiated agreement. | ||
| It is on President Trump to avert a regional catastrophe. | ||
| And then you also have this from Mark Warner, Democratic Senator of Virginia. | ||
| If I, as a U.S. Senator and vice chair of the U.S. Intelligence Committee, have no answers on what this administration's policy is when it comes to Iran, what signals does that send to our allies and to our foes? | ||
| John Kennedy, Senator from, excuse me, I'm blanking. | ||
| Senator John Kennedy, Republican, Louisiana, thank you. | ||
| Don't want Americans. | ||
| He said, I don't want America to be the world's policeman, but I don't want China, Russia, and Iran to be the world's policemen either. | ||
| Those were his thoughts that he posted on X. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a nuclear Iran is a threat to the United States. | ||
| And then you have Ram Paul, the senator from Kentucky. | ||
| Let me be totally clear. | ||
| I will not vote to send one American soldier to Iran. | ||
| Not one. | ||
| Some perspective there from Republican senators on both sides of the aisle as we ask all of you this morning, what is your message to President Trump as he weighs a U.S. strike on Iran? | ||
| This is what the president had to say to reporters at the White House yesterday on the escalating tensions in the Middle East. | ||
| Very simple. | ||
| Unconditional surrender. | ||
| That means I've had it. | ||
| Okay, I've had it. | ||
| I give up. | ||
| No more. | ||
| Then we go blow up all the millions, you know, all the nuclear stuff that's all over the place. | ||
| No, they had bad intentions. | ||
| You know, for 40 years, they've been saying death to America, death to Israel, death to anybody else that they didn't like. | ||
| They were bullies. | ||
| They were schoolyard bullies. | ||
| And now they're not bullies anymore, but we'll see what happens. | ||
| Look, nothing's finished until it's finished. | ||
| You know, war is very complex. | ||
| A lot of bad things can happen. | ||
| A lot of turns are made. | ||
| So I don't know. | ||
| I wouldn't say that we won anything yet. | ||
| I would say that we sure as hell made a lot of progress. | ||
| And we'll see. | ||
| The next week is going to be very big, maybe less than a week, maybe less. | ||
| But is there anybody here that said it would be okay to have a hostile very, you know, zealots, really, but to have a hostile country have a nuclear weapon that could destroy 25 miles, but much more than that? | ||
| It could destroy other nations just by the breeze blowing the dust. | ||
| You know, that dust blows to other nations and they get decimated. | ||
| This is just not a threat you can have. | ||
| And we've been threatened by Iran for many years. | ||
| You know, if you go back and look at my history, if you go back 15 years, I was saying we cannot let Iran get a nuclear weapon. | ||
| I've been saying it for a long time. | ||
| I mean it more now than I ever meant to. | ||
| President Trump yesterday talking about the rising tension between Israel and Iran, the war there between those two countries, and his argument that Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon. | ||
| Updates for you on the situation between these two countries. | ||
| Here's the Times of Israel. | ||
| Heavy damage, injuries as Iranian missiles have hit a hospital in Israel and doesn't hurt in many cities. | ||
| And then from Al Jazeera and their live update this morning on their website, Israel threatens to eliminate the supreme leader after those Iranian missile strikes hitting the hospital there in Israel. | ||
| So that is the latest on the situation in the Middle East. | ||
| As we turned all of you this morning here on the Washington Journal to tell the president what you think he should do. | ||
| He says, I may do it. | ||
| I may not do it on a U.S. strike against Iran. | ||
| Stephen, Florida, Republican, what do you think you should do? | ||
|
unidentified
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I see a lot of radical and fanatical religious nuts over there that have been for years calling for the destruction of America and the Jewish people, the Jewish state. | |
| Just seeing what they've been doing the last four days, five days, attacking civilian locations while Israel is surgically striking the places that need to be hit is proof that if they had a bomb, they would spread carnage throughout the world. | ||
| All I see is if they get a bomb and they have the ability to launch it or to somehow get it to our country and explode it over our country, we are going back to the 17th century. | ||
| There will be no electricity grid. | ||
| People will be dying by the millions. | ||
| And that's a fact. | ||
| We need to look at the threat for what it is. | ||
| And if Trump needs to go in or any other president would need to go in and do a surgical strike to take out those locations that are a threat to the world, then they need to do it. | ||
| If it escalates into a war, if it does, then Congress certainly needs to be involved. | ||
| Steve, the president campaigned on ending these wars. | ||
| Do you believe that this is in line with what he campaigned on if he were to make the decision to strike Iran? | ||
| Does that line up with what he said on the campaign trail? | ||
|
unidentified
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Things change. | |
| President, no matter who it is, Republican, Democrat, gets into office, they promise the best they can do. | ||
| I see President Trump as following through on a lot of his promises, but this is a change. | ||
| This is a major shift. | ||
| We are in a threat. | ||
| We cannot stand idly by and allow a country such as Iran to cause us harm, severe harm, or any other country in the world. | ||
| One bomb could decimate Israel. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Steve, for you and others, you may be interested in the analysis in the Washington Post and other newspapers this morning. | ||
| Trump, unpredictable as ever, as he weighs bombing Iran, is the headline that the Washington Post used. | ||
| And they go back and they quote him what he has repeatedly said over the years. | ||
| We will quickly restore stability in the Middle East and we will return the world to peace, he said during a campaign event in September. | ||
| They also note that during his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump often invoked the Middle East as a lesson of misadventures in American foreign policy, called the original deal with Iran on curbing its nuclear ambitions a disgrace and an embarrassment. | ||
| And he frequently spoke out about military involvement in Iraq as a way to ridicule his Democratic opponent. | ||
| That's the Washington Post this morning. | ||
| Trump is as unpredictable as ever, even when faced with war, is what they write there. | ||
| And then from the New York Times this morning, the diplomatic route, they report that Israel had begun preparing in December for an attack on Iran after the decimation of Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, and the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, opening up airspace for a bombing campaign. | ||
| Mr. Netanyahu made his first visit of the second Trump term to the White House on February 4th. | ||
| He presented a gold-plated pager to Mr. Trump and a silver-plated pager to Mr. Vance, the same devices the Israelis had secretly packed with explosives and sold to unwitting Hezbollah operatives who would later be maimed and killed in a devastating remote control attack on the Iran-backed Lebanese group. | ||
| Mr. Trump later told an ally he was disturbed by that gift. | ||
| Mr. Netanyahu gave Mr. Trump a presentation about Iran in the Oval Office, walking him through images of the country's various nuclear sites. | ||
| So according to the New York Times, this has been planned by Israel since December. | ||
| Let's go to George, who's in Columbia, South Carolina, and independent. | ||
| George, good morning. | ||
| It's your turn. | ||
| Tell us what you think. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hey, good morning. | |
| Morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hey. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| What is it about Israel to everybody? | ||
| Hey, what is going on? | ||
| In World War II, they had the Holocaust. | ||
| And they treated the Israelis really bad, killed a lot of people, killed a lot of Jewish people. | ||
| Now the Jewish people in Israel are doing the same thing to the Palestinians. | ||
| What happened to them? | ||
| This is crazy. | ||
| What they need to do is grow up. | ||
| People in the Middle East, the Southeast, Italy and Europe, anyway, they need to grow up and act like men and act like women and sit down and negotiate and work it out. | ||
| It's just killing, killing babies, 30,000 kids and women over in Palestine. | ||
| I understand. | ||
| It's just crazy. | ||
| All right, George. | ||
| Heard your thoughts there. | ||
| Paul in Houston, Texas, Democratic caller. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| Morning, Paul. | ||
|
unidentified
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I'm totally against any strike in Iran. | |
| You know, I don't think our government needs to get involved in that. | ||
| I know that they had to have, Israel had to have the okay from the Trump administration to even go in Iran. | ||
| So Trump's sitting here playing like, well, I might and I might not. | ||
| Hey, man, these people's lives are at stake. | ||
| And you sitting here act like you don't know whether you need to strike or not strike. | ||
| No, you need to stay out of that league. | ||
| And one day, I mean, who's to say when this country might get hit? | ||
| You know, we don't want nobody bombing this country. | ||
| So what about them Iranians? | ||
| They got a right to live a peaceful, free life just as well as the Iraqis. | ||
| And Netanyahu and Trump is two of a kind. | ||
| Either one of them is unfit to be running a nation. | ||
| All right, Paul in Texas, his thoughts from the New York Times front page. | ||
| Netanyahu bet on persuading Trump on Iran. | ||
| President shift driven by nuclear threat. | ||
| This is the article we just read from the New York Times, the jump page. | ||
| It's on their front page this morning and talking about how Mr. Netanyahu has threatened to attack Iran through previous presidents, but has always backed down when previous presidents, U.S. presidents have asked him to do so and pursue a diplomatic route, not this time. | ||
| It says that Mr. Netanyahu decided and was making plans back in December for this. | ||
| It also says, contrary to Israeli claims, senior administration officials were unaware of any new intelligence showing that Iran was rushing to build a nuclear bomb, a move that would justify a preemptive strike. | ||
| But seeing they would most likely not be able to deter Mr. Netanyahu and were no longer driving events, Mr. Trump's advisors weighed alternatives. | ||
| This morning, the president deigning a U.S. strike on Iran, and it's your turn to tell him what you think he should do. | ||
| Liz in Texas, Republican Liz, good morning. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
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Morning. | |
| All right, Liz, we're listening to you. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, I remember when Iran started against us in 1979, and they took hostages, and they've also bombed some of our bases. | |
| They've sent assassins to our shores. | ||
| In fact, I think recently they arrested someone who was trying to assassinate Mr. Bolton last year. | ||
| As far as I can tell, I've been watching the news for a long time and history and some of the things coming out of what's been going on, it's been pretty clear that we've actually been in a war with Iran for a long time. | ||
| And no, based on the words coming out of the Ayatollah, not necessarily the Iranian people. | ||
| It's my understanding the Iranian people want to be free of this regime. | ||
| But that's their decision, and they should be the ones to decide who they want to run their country. | ||
| I don't believe in regime change, but I don't believe that the Ayatollahs should have nuclear. | ||
| And based on the most recent news coming out of the IAEA, they are on the verge of getting a nuclear bomb. | ||
| So do I want to, I don't know, sit back on my hands and do nothing and wait until they drop a bomb on Israel and eradiate the entire area or bomb the United States or England or, you know, there's a lot of countries around there that they are against. | ||
| Anyone in the Western world, they are against. | ||
| They've been chanting death to Israel, death to America. | ||
| You know, they don't like the Western world, period. | ||
| Do we want to wait until they drop a bomb before responding? | ||
| Or do we just go in and do a surgical strike and take out their nuclear capabilities? | ||
| All right. | ||
| And Liz, do you think that the United States can do that without being drawn into a larger war? | ||
|
unidentified
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I don't see why not. | |
| When Trump was in office before, he took out Soleimani. | ||
| Did he draw us into a regional war? | ||
| No. | ||
| And Israel didn't launch this attack out of the blue. | ||
| Hamas, who is run by Iran, launched an attack against Israel first and killed 1,200 Israelis. | ||
| Now, I'm not a Jew, but you don't go and attack people over and over and over again and not expect a response. | ||
| I'm sorry, but if you break into my house, I'm going to shoot you. | ||
| I mean, that's just the way I feel. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Liz there in Texas, a Republican caller. | ||
| In other news this morning to share with you, front page of USA Today, the Supreme Court upheld the gender care ban. | ||
| It was a 6-3 ruling that says minors can be denied transgender care. | ||
| This is a Tennessee law, and there are several other states that have similar laws. | ||
| If you missed that oral argument and you're interested, you can find it on our website at c-span.org. | ||
| USA Today also with a headline this morning about the Republicans spending and tax cuts bill. | ||
| According to New Poll, a majority of Americans oppose this GOP tax policy bill. | ||
| And then also this morning, the front page of the New York, The Washington Times, Washington Post, excuse me, as we continue to talk about the president's decision, Trump says he warned the Iranians. | ||
| The ultimatum given on nuclear work, and President is coy on any plans for joining the conflict. | ||
| We have about 15 minutes left here in this conversation. | ||
| We want to hear from you on this. | ||
| Bill in St. Paul, Minnesota, Independent. | ||
| Hi, Bill. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| Good morning, Greta. | ||
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| And thanks, C-SPAN. | ||
| I'll answer your question. | ||
| No, we should not get involved in this conflict between Israel and Iran. | ||
| And the reason for that is I think we really need to go back and look at something that Obama had in place several years ago. | ||
| He had a structured deal with the Iranian people that we could go in anytime and look at their sites and stuff like that. | ||
| Then Mr. You Know Who comes along, Mr. President Trump, and he's saying we're giving them all this money. | ||
| And it was their money who we had tied up. | ||
| And he destroyed that deal. | ||
| This is what he does. | ||
| And now, present day, look where we're at. | ||
| This is the same situation that seems to happen when he talks about, well, we shouldn't be involved in the United Nations. | ||
| We should pull out. | ||
| They're not paying their fair share and all that. | ||
| I think it's said, it's been said back then. | ||
| It said, I'm going to say it now. | ||
| He's not presidential. | ||
| You can't solve everything with dropping a bomb. | ||
| And this rhetoric talk about surgically removing somebody. | ||
| We did the same thing with Iraq when they said there was weapons of mass destruction and there were none found. | ||
| I guess the bottom line is what I'm saying here is you can always go to war. | ||
| You can always shoot a gun, but you can't put that bullet back in or that missile back in the launcher once it's out. | ||
| And we really need to take our time and figure out a diplomatic way of dealing with this. | ||
| The bottom line is here is that we're dealing with someone who's in the White House that's unhinged and has no real filters of how to deal with diplomacy. | ||
| This is the same man that told us that he could end the war between Ukraine and Russia in one day. | ||
| And we haven't seen anything but rhetoric and talk and talk and talk. | ||
| All right, Bill. | ||
| Let me go to Carol, who's an Iowa City Democratic caller. | ||
| Carol, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Greta. | |
| Morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is sad. | |
| This is so sad. | ||
| Another war. | ||
| It's like George Bush telling us we're going to war. | ||
| And look what happened 20 years later. | ||
| We're still plugging the war on the TV and the radio. | ||
| They need to go to Congress. | ||
| Senator Kaine's right. | ||
| They cannot go to another war unless Congress has backed that idea. | ||
| All right, Carol. | ||
| Carol there in Iowa, agreeing with Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, and others who want a say in any decision by the president. | ||
| Congress needs to approve any military action in Iran. | ||
| Do you agree or disagree? | ||
| Rick in Idaho, Republican. | ||
| Rick, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Greta C-SPAN, Washington Journal, Third Times of Charm. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Having spent 20 years in Marine Corps America, seven years across the pond, a year and a quarter in the Middle East, what is predictable is that Iran is suicidal. | ||
| And I'm going to open up Pandora's box, and I'm going to tell you what they're going to do before they do it. | ||
| They will do a self-detonate of a nuclear warhead in their own country to create world media that it was Israel and America's fault for all these innocent human beings, women, and children being killed due to a nuclear fallout. | ||
| That nuclear fallout is going to be created by Iran. | ||
| So Iran, I hope you're listening. | ||
| I just opened up your plan, and I hope you're paying attention, media. | ||
| With that in mind, Washington Journal, C-SPAN, get wise to the ways of the world. | ||
| Get mean about being an American. | ||
| Thank you for listening, and I'll take your thoughts. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Rick in Idaho, Republican caller there. | ||
| Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been up on Capitol Hill over the past couple of weeks talking about military priorities, the budget for the Pentagon, as well as these conflicts across the world. | ||
| He was up there yesterday, and here's an exchange between Republican Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska and the Defense Secretary on preparations ahead of a potential U.S. strike on Iran. | ||
| Mr. Secretary, Iran's military and leadership is in complete disarray right now because of the bold actions by Israel. | ||
| Is this an opportunity now to once again, like we did in the first term of the Trump administration, reestablish deterrence against this terrorist regime by making sure one way or the other they never have the capacity to enrich or produce a nuclear bomb, a goal that President Trump has repeatedly emphasized? | ||
| And again, I thank you for focusing on reestablishing deterrence. | ||
| It's critical, and you're right. | ||
| It's difficult to reestablish. | ||
| We lost it, which we did under the Biden administration. | ||
| We know right now that Tehran understands exactly what the president is saying. | ||
| He said 60 days. | ||
| The world can believe it, and the world cannot believe it. | ||
| He said 60 days. | ||
| They had an opportunity to make a deal. | ||
| They should have made a deal. | ||
| President Trump's word means something. | ||
| The world understands that. | ||
| And at the Defense Department, our job is to stand ready and prepared with options, and that's precisely what we're doing. | ||
| So is this an opportunity now to reestablish deterrence the way it was done in the first administration? | ||
| Senator, I think we already have, in many ways, in this environment, reestablished deterrence. | ||
| The question is, in the coming days, where exactly, exactly what direction that goes. | ||
| The Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Capitol Hill yesterday, if you missed the hearing, you can find it on our website at cspan.org. | ||
| Roseanne in San Diego, Democratic caller. | ||
| Roseanne, what is your message to the president? | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi, thank you for taking my call. | |
| I would tell this president, oh, for God's sake, this is George Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bryce Powell all over again, WMD all over again, regime change all over again. | ||
| We didn't learn anything from that, obviously, because so many Americans want to see Iran bombed. | ||
| It doesn't make any sense. | ||
| Bernie Sanders, who was at the beginning of your show, is 100% right. | ||
| We need to stay out of it. | ||
| Of course, Trump won't because Trump will go along with whatever Netanyahu wants to do. | ||
| He's just stringing us along for right now. | ||
| Iran is not going to drop a bomb on anybody because that would assure their destruction. | ||
| And contrary to what the previous person said, they're not suicidal. | ||
| They're just trying to establish a deterrent in the Middle East against Israel because Israel right now goes around, bombs everybody they don't like, and they need to have a deterrence. | ||
| If Israel gets to have nuclear weapons, then Iran should get to have nuclear weapons, and it's a draw. | ||
| All right. |