CSPAN - Washington Journal 02/28/2026
Aired: 2026-02-28
Duration: 04:11:56


=== U.S. Strikes in Iran (12:11) ===

[00:00:00]  We are still at our core, a democracy.
[00:00:04]  This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom.
[00:00:14]  Coming up on Washington Journal this morning, we'll get the latest on the U.S. military strikes against Iran, along with your calls and comments.
[00:00:22]  We'll also get an update from the Trump administration and reaction from around the world.
[00:00:27]  C-SPAN's Washington Journal is live.
[00:00:29]  Next, join the conversation.
[00:00:36]  Good morning.
[00:00:36]  It's Saturday, February 28th.
[00:00:39]  President Trump announced overnight that the U.S. and Israel have launched, quote, massive and ongoing military strikes against Iran, saying the country rejected calls to halt its nuclear program.
[00:00:51]  The president warned American lives may be lost and called on Iranians to take over their government, saying it may be their only chance for generations.
[00:00:59]  Iran has responded with strikes toward Israel and U.S. targets across the region, including the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain.
[00:01:09]  So this morning, we want your reaction to this massive military operation still underway in Iran at this hour.
[00:01:16]  Republicans, call us on 202-748-8001.
[00:01:20]  Democrats, 202-748-8000.
[00:01:23]  And Independents, 202748-8002.
[00:01:27]  You can send us a text to 202-748-8003.
[00:01:33]  And you can post on social media, facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and X at C-SPANWJ.
[00:01:41]  Welcome to today's Washington Journal.
[00:01:43]  We're on the air early today to take your calls about this U.S. and Israeli strike on Iran.
[00:01:50]  It's ongoing currently right now.
[00:01:52]  Here is the Associated Press with live updates.
[00:01:55]  Trump announces major combat operations in Iran.
[00:01:59]  U.S. President Donald Trump has appealed to the Iranian people to take over your government.
[00:02:04]  It says the first strikes of the attack appeared to target the compound home to Iran's 86-year-old Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in downtown Tehran.
[00:02:15]  It wasn't immediately clear if he was there at the time.
[00:02:18]  Smoke could be seen rising from the Iranian capital.
[00:02:24]  It says the attack quickly expanded beyond Iran.
[00:02:26]  Iran's paramilitary revolutionary guard said it responded by launching a, quote, first wave of drones and missiles targeting Israel, where a nationwide warning was issued as the military said it brings down Iranian fire.
[00:02:42]  Here's a picture on the Associated Press if Tehran.
[00:02:46]  There's the smoke there in the background that you can see.
[00:02:49]  Well, President Trump is in Mar-a-Lago.
[00:02:52]  He addressed the nation overnight.
[00:02:54]  Here's a portion of his remarks.
[00:02:56]  It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular, my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon.
[00:03:07]  I'll say it again.
[00:03:09]  They can never have a nuclear weapon.
[00:03:13]  That is why in Operation Midnight Hammer last June, we obliterated the regime's nuclear program at Fordeaux, Natance, and Isfahan.
[00:03:25]  After that attack, we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal.
[00:03:36]  We tried.
[00:03:37]  They wanted to do it.
[00:03:39]  They didn't want to do it.
[00:03:40]  Again, they wanted to do it.
[00:03:42]  They didn't want to do it.
[00:03:43]  They didn't know what was happening.
[00:03:45]  They just wanted to practice evil.
[00:03:48]  But Iran refused, just as it has for decades and decades.
[00:03:53]  They've rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions.
[00:03:59]  And we can't take it anymore.
[00:04:01]  Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland.
[00:04:21]  Just imagine how emboldened this regime would be if they ever had and actually were armed with nuclear weapons as a means to deliver their message.
[00:04:32]  For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.
[00:04:48]  We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground.
[00:04:53]  It will be totally, again, obliterated.
[00:04:58]  We are going to annihilate their Navy.
[00:05:00]  We are going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces and no longer use their IEDs or roadside bombs, as they are sometimes called, to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans.
[00:05:23]  And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.
[00:05:28]  It's a very simple message.
[00:05:32]  Well, we will be taking your calls throughout this program on U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.
[00:05:38]  The numbers are on your screen.
[00:05:39]  Here is reaction from lawmakers.
[00:05:41]  Here's Lindsey Graham, Senator of South Carolina.
[00:05:44]  The end of the largest state sponsor of terrorism is upon us.
[00:05:48]  God bless President Trump, our military, and our allies in Israel.
[00:05:52]  Freedom for the long-suffering Iranian people.
[00:05:55]  This operation is necessary and long justified.
[00:06:00]  And Representative Thomas Massey of Kentucky, acts of war unauthorized by Congress.
[00:06:05]  The U.S. is attacking Iran, according to the AP.
[00:06:08]  Here's the GOP House Foreign Affairs Committee majority saying President Trump's demand was simple.
[00:06:14]  All caps, no nuclear weapon in Iran.
[00:06:18]  Anything short of that is not a serious proposal.
[00:06:21]  This is U.S. Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania.
[00:06:25]  Operation Epic Fury.
[00:06:27]  President Trump has been willing to do what's right and necessary to produce real peace in the region.
[00:06:33]  God bless the United States, our great military, and Israel.
[00:06:37]  And this is Corey Mills of Florida.
[00:06:39]  President Trump and his administration are about taking action and not weak rhetoric once diplomatic efforts fail.
[00:06:48]  Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat, I lost friends in Iraq to an illegal war.
[00:06:53]  Young working-class kids should not pay the ultimate price for regime change and a war that hasn't been explained or justified to the American people.
[00:07:03]  We can support the democracy movement and the Iranian people without sending our troops.
[00:07:10]  Go to your calls now to start with Mary in New Rochelle, New York.
[00:07:14]  Democrat, Mary, you're on the air.
[00:07:16]  Good morning.
[00:07:18]  Yes.
[00:07:20]  Trump is deranged.
[00:07:24]  Trump has dementia.
[00:07:26]  Trump is dangerous.
[00:07:28]  Trump wants to be king, and we see it today.
[00:07:32]  Every day I wake up wondering what he's going to do to put us in further danger.
[00:07:38]  And sure enough, he started World War III.
[00:07:42]  He's surrounded by idiots, especially Exet, who thinks he's playing war with real people and real guns.
[00:07:51]  And Mary, why do you think this is the beginning of World War III?
[00:07:54]  Absolutely, utterly ridiculous.
[00:07:57]  He does not have the power to start a war.
[00:08:00]  Congress does, not him and him alone.
[00:08:04]  So this is going to cost us lives.
[00:08:09]  It's going to cost us money.
[00:08:11]  And it's totally unnecessary because this man is deranged and needs to be.
[00:08:18]  All right, we got that point, Mary.
[00:08:19]  And this is Will in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Independent Line.
[00:08:23]  Good morning, Will.
[00:08:25]  Good morning.
[00:08:27]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:08:31]  I've been up all night watching this thing since about midnight central time.
[00:08:35]  I'm calling from Tulsa.
[00:08:37]  And Ruben Gallego's comment that you just read struck me as very odd.
[00:08:42]  He lost friends in Iraq, etc.
[00:08:45]  Well, we all have the luxury and we take it for granted, some of us do, that the military is there to protect and defend us here in the States and then out overseas.
[00:08:56]  Well, Iran is the truly number one sponsor terrorism.
[00:09:01]  We got the Houthis.
[00:09:03]  We got the Hezbollah and Hamas is now in Gaza.
[00:09:09]  And it's just enough is enough is enough.
[00:09:12]  I did not vote for Donald Trump.
[00:09:14]  I did not vote for him any of the three times that he ran.
[00:09:17]  And I am thankful for his action that he took in Venezuela and certainly am thankful for this limited strike in Iran.
[00:09:27]  I don't think we'll go for boots on the ground, Senator Gallego.
[00:09:31]  I think we'll be able to handle this like we did Iraq.
[00:09:36]  is as tough and strong as they think they are.
[00:09:38]  And I'm just thankful.
[00:09:40]  So, Will, you do not think it's going to become a wider war.
[00:09:45]  Is that correct?
[00:09:45]  You think that it's going to be kind of just from the air and then that'll be, it'll be over?
[00:09:52]  That's what I hope.
[00:09:53]  And yes, that is what I believe.
[00:09:55]  I think it'll be a missile attack from, we got two aircraft carriers, one in the Mediterranean, the forward, and then we've got Lincoln just south of the Saudi Peninsula.
[00:10:05]  I mean, and a bomb upon those ships, aircraft carriers.
[00:10:10]  We've got, I don't know the number, but 200, 200 jets with fully equipped bombs.
[00:10:16]  I think it will be just as it was in Venezuela, meaning we'll take out the radar facilities first.
[00:10:24]  We'll take out their communications second.
[00:10:27]  And I think it'll be a very short-lived, maybe a day or two, as Trump has mentioned.
[00:10:33]  And I don't think Iran is nearly as tough as they saber rattle, as they pretend to be.
[00:10:40]  All right.
[00:10:41]  Well, we've got a Pentagon reporter joining us shortly to talk about those issues that you just brought up.
[00:10:48]  It's Dr. Ronald in Douglasville, Georgia.
[00:10:50]  Democrat, what do you think, Ronald?
[00:10:53]  Well, I think the war is totally premature.
[00:10:55]  There's no threat by Iran to have nuclear weapons at this time.
[00:11:00]  And I think it's just another distraction from the realities of moving America forward.
[00:11:08]  The Trump administration should be more concerned with what it can do for the American people first.
[00:11:14]  And starting a war on it in Iran is definitely not that.
[00:11:17]  I land my plane.
[00:11:19]  All right.
[00:11:20]  And this is Idris Ali.
[00:11:22]  He is a reporter for Reuters who says, Israel's military says missiles have been launched from Iran towards Israel.
[00:11:31]  And this is Ambassador Mike Huckabee.
[00:11:34]  So he is U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
[00:11:36]  He says, we are encouraging all embassy team and families and U.S. citizens in Israel to be prepared for home front command alerts and sirens, stay near shelters, and take immediate action at the sound of alerts or sirens.
[00:11:52]  And the Department of War simply posted all caps Operation Epic Fury with an American flag emoji.
[00:12:02]  Let's hear from Michael Huntsville, Alabama, Independent Line.
[00:12:05]  Michael, what do you think about U.S. strikes in Iran?
[00:12:09]  I feel like history escapes people, ma'am.

=== Why Build Nuclear Weapons? (08:44) ===

[00:12:12]  The only reason people in Europe aren't speaking German is because of intervention.
[00:12:18]  And we cannot allow a communist regime like this to have nuclear weapons and possibly strike anywhere on the planet without making sure that's not possible.
[00:12:32]  Well, speaking of Europe, this is the BBC that says this.
[00:12:37]  It says, U.S. and Israel carry out joint attack on Iran as Tehran launches retaliatory strikes.
[00:12:44]  It says that the EU Commission President Ursula van der Leyen reminds us that the European bloc has adopted extensive sanctions in response to Iran's murderous regime.
[00:12:56]  Quote, we call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint to protect civilians and to fully respect international law.
[00:13:03]  It has a couple of other reactions here.
[00:13:07]  This is the UK government spokesperson said the country, quote, does not want to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict, adding, we stand ready to protect our interests.
[00:13:19]  Let's talk to Paul next.
[00:13:20]  Nampa, Idaho, Republican line.
[00:13:23]  Good morning, Paul.
[00:13:24]  Good morning.
[00:13:26]  I think the thing that we should keep in mind is this was provoked many years ago, and it was an unfinished job that we're trying to finish this time.
[00:13:39]  It seems like that's not the real answer, but that's the way I recognize it, and I remember it.
[00:13:48]  When you say unfinished, from when?
[00:13:50]  From 1979 when the Islamic Republic was declared?
[00:13:56]  When?
[00:13:57]  Right.
[00:13:57]  And it just has continued ever since.
[00:14:00]  And every time we want to do something to get it to be quelled and to keep the nukes out of their hands, we try to take them to the table and have a conversation and a way to keep them from having them in a peaceful manner.
[00:14:16]  They delay and deny and they delay just long enough to get something going again.
[00:14:25]  And it leaves us in a bad light, in a bad seat, so to speak.
[00:14:33]  Because what happens is nothing gets accomplished except they're able to make another move towards another bomb.
[00:14:41]  Even though we may get one site, they've got another one already in the making.
[00:14:45]  So it's like whack-a-mole, giant size.
[00:14:48]  And we can't keep up with that.
[00:14:50]  We can, but it's just, there's no reason to have to do that.
[00:14:55]  And today is kind of a culmination of whack-a-mole.
[00:15:00]  If they stick their head up, they're going to get it knocked down and they're getting it knocked down.
[00:15:04]  But, you know, we're taking some hits in it.
[00:15:07]  And I hope we don't have a Geraldo Rivera giving out directions about where the troops are and what is what.
[00:15:16]  We don't need that.
[00:15:17]  And got it, Paul.
[00:15:21]  Let's talk to Rosemarie in Valley Village, California, Democrat.
[00:15:25]  Go ahead.
[00:15:26]  Hi.
[00:15:28]  I saw this coming.
[00:15:30]  I saw with the way that Trump was speaking the last few days, and I just knew that this was coming.
[00:15:36]  And it's complete insanity.
[00:15:39]  And I'm just afraid that they're going to induct a draft.
[00:15:43]  You know, it's just, I've been watching this, you know, interaction.
[00:15:49]  I'm 62 years old.
[00:15:50]  And, you know, with the Iran contract, even before that, and it's just, I don't even know how to put it into words.
[00:15:59]  It's just, we shouldn't even be involved over there in the Middle East.
[00:16:04]  And we keep sticking our nose in it.
[00:16:06]  And we just got out of Afghanistan, and here we go again.
[00:16:10]  So anyway, thank you for taking my call.
[00:16:13]  I'm really worried.
[00:16:14]  I'm worried for everybody.
[00:16:15]  So thank you.
[00:16:17]  Al is in Castleton, on the Hudson, New York Independent Line.
[00:16:24]  Hi, Al.
[00:16:25]  Good morning.
[00:16:27]  First thing I got to say is I think this is a bad move.
[00:16:30]  And I blame the Republicans for allowing Donald Trump to absolutely go off the rails.
[00:16:38]  And they're even bringing the flavor of religion into this.
[00:16:41]  You'll hear it soon.
[00:16:43]  But as a man, I'm 77 now.
[00:16:47]  When I was a young man, I was a soldier in the Vietnam War.
[00:16:51]  And I know this: that you can have all the strategies you want.
[00:16:56]  The fact of the matter is, you have to put boots on the ground to go and dig out these people.
[00:17:03]  And I think this is a bad move.
[00:17:07]  Hope is not a good strategy.
[00:17:10]  Religion is not a good practice.
[00:17:13]  And I think this is all going to be, I don't think this is going to be good for anybody.
[00:17:20]  Quite frankly, I think we need to stand up and say to this administration and to Israel, you know, Netanyahu has never answered why he never did anything on October 7th, if that's the correct date.
[00:17:36]  And this is all a spin-off from that.
[00:17:39]  So, Al, how do you respond to people saying, look, we've got to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
[00:17:46]  Diplomacy failed.
[00:17:48]  This is the only way.
[00:17:49]  What's your response?
[00:17:50]  Diplomacy did not fail.
[00:17:52]  There was an agreement, a treaty for them not to build nuclear weapons.
[00:17:59]  And I don't believe they are going to build.
[00:18:01]  They may have nuclear material, but what's to say they're not using it to power their own electric lights?
[00:18:10]  I know they're not the greatest people.
[00:18:12]  Again, a religion is not a good way to run a government.
[00:18:18]  It breeds fanaticism.
[00:18:20]  And I think this is where we're going.
[00:18:24]  All right, let's talk to Jim.
[00:18:25]  Racine, Wisconsin, Republican line.
[00:18:28]  What do you think, Jim?
[00:18:30]  Well, I just want to thank God.
[00:18:33]  And I'm not a religionist.
[00:18:37]  I'm a Bible believer.
[00:18:40]  And I think that Donald Trump, who I had the privilege of shaking hands with in 2016, was when he was in Racine, Wisconsin, at Memorial Hall.
[00:18:53]  And he's got a firm handshake.
[00:18:56]  I shook hands with LBJ, and it was like that white, wet fish handshake.
[00:19:04]  I think that Donald Trump has control of our fighting forces, and God bless them.
[00:19:15]  When I hear things like, and I am 77 also, when I hear things about that Iran might do this and might do that, in 1935 or 39, the name was changed from Persia.
[00:19:36]  And Persia was a huge, mighty country.
[00:19:42]  And the people running Iran now are religionists.
[00:19:50]  They it's not their Muslim faith.
[00:19:54]  It's the fanaticism of trying to wipe out Israel.
[00:20:01]  The only free election country, the only democracy that's surrounded by Iran and all these other nations that are mentioned in the Bible that come down on Israel.
[00:20:19]  If we don't assist Israel in protecting them, I don't think we're doing what God has provided us with as far as muscle and as far as ingenuity of implementing the weapons of war.
[00:20:49]  which we don't desire, but there's times when things are needed.

=== Strike While the Iron Is Hot (04:26) ===

[00:20:56]  And they used to say, strike the iron while it's hot.
[00:21:04]  That's a hotbed there.
[00:21:06]  And Hezbollah and all those who attacked Israel on October 7th, they will do it again unless it's like the bully in the neighborhood.
[00:21:24]  If somebody doesn't bring the bully down to size, that bully's going to keep picking on weaker and more, what would you say?
[00:21:39]  Yep.
[00:21:39]  No, we got your point, Jim.
[00:21:42]  And update from the Associated Press, airspaces are closing.
[00:21:46]  Iraq and the UAE closed their airspace, and sirens sounded in Jordan.
[00:21:51]  Bahrain said that a missile attack targeted the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet headquarters.
[00:21:57]  Explosions could also be heard in Qatar.
[00:22:01]  This is Vernon in New Haven, Connecticut.
[00:22:04]  Democrat, go ahead, Vernon.
[00:22:06]  Yes, I disagree with you.
[00:22:10]  Mrs. Dad, Iran is not prepared for nuclear weapons.
[00:22:15]  I know they are, but we have to look at the world picture.
[00:22:20]  Are we ready to go to war?
[00:22:23]  Are we ready to unique this country or any country?
[00:22:29]  I think it's our way to get what I need and pray to God and stop this thing that are happening around the world.
[00:22:39]  There's a crisis coming, and we must prepare ourselves.
[00:22:45]  God is looking at everything that we do.
[00:22:49]  And I think it's time for us to seek out him and pray and ask for his kidney.
[00:22:56]  I say this in Jesus' name.
[00:22:58]  Amen.
[00:23:00]  And this is Barack Ravid, a reporter for Axios, who says, Trump is expected to address the nation again on Saturday morning.
[00:23:09]  In addition to the video that was released overnight, U.S. officials tell me we'll watch that for you and bring that to you if that is the case.
[00:23:18]  He continues, from a senior Israeli official, the goal is to create all the conditions for the downfall of the Iranian regime.
[00:23:26]  We are targeting the entire Iranian leadership, political and military, past, present, and future.
[00:23:34]  Developments will also depend on the extent to which the Iranian people rise up.
[00:23:41]  Woody in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Independent Line.
[00:23:45]  What do you think of these strikes on Israel?
[00:23:49]  Well, good morning to you.
[00:23:52]  I went through the Vietnam era.
[00:23:55]  My relatives will be sitting this one out and to all our military.
[00:24:00]  Don't fall for this freedom.
[00:24:02]  You're fighting for our freedom and all this stuff.
[00:24:05]  Because this is not a game.
[00:24:08]  You will come home in a body bag if you do not watch.
[00:24:12]  And I hate to say it.
[00:24:14]  Our country's crooked, and they don't care who comes home in a body bag.
[00:24:20]  And that's my comment.
[00:24:23]  And this is John in Brewster, Massachusetts, Republican line.
[00:24:26]  You're on the air, John.
[00:24:28]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:24:30]  And I've got to explain myself right away, and that is that I am a registered Republican.
[00:24:35]  I've been voting Republican my entire life up until recently.
[00:24:40]  This is crazy.
[00:24:42]  We're talking about a man who, you know, freaked out about Afghanistan withdrawal, and then he killed a general, and our soldiers got hurt, but that wasn't a big deal.
[00:24:54]  And now it's like, I don't even know what to think about this.
[00:24:58]  And my comment would really be: for all you Republicans out there that are backing this man, that's crazy.
[00:25:04]  But here's the better one: for all you people out there that think Democrats are going to save the world, that's insane.
[00:25:10]  We're in a spot right now that is ridiculous for the United States of America, the greatest country of all time, supposedly.
[00:25:18]  I mean, which we are, you know, and it's only because of the people.
[00:25:21]  The people in America are great.

=== U.S. Military Operation Against Iran (14:55) ===

[00:25:23]  What happened to our government?
[00:25:25]  What happened to our government?
[00:25:27]  That's all I've got to say.
[00:25:29]  Well, President Trump is in Mar-a-Lago.
[00:25:32]  He addressed the nation in a video message in the middle of the night last night.
[00:25:36]  We're going to play it for you.
[00:25:37]  It is eight minutes long, so we'll play it in its entirety.
[00:25:40]  When we come back, we'll take more of your calls.
[00:25:43]  A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.
[00:25:53]  Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.
[00:26:07]  Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.
[00:26:16]  For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted death to America and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States, our troops, and the innocent people in many, many countries.
[00:26:33]  Among the regime's very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of American hostages for 444 days.
[00:26:46]  In 1983, Iran's proxies carried out the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel.
[00:26:56]  In 2000, they knew and were probably involved with the attack on the USS Cole.
[00:27:03]  Many died.
[00:27:05]  Iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of American service members in Iraq.
[00:27:10]  The regime's proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against American forces stationed in the Middle East in recent years, as well as U.S. naval and commercial vessels in international shipping lands.
[00:27:24]  It's been mass terror, and we're not going to put up with it any longer.
[00:27:30]  From Lebanon to Yemen and Syria to Iraq, the regime has armed, trained, and funded terrorist militias that have soaked the earth with blood and guts.
[00:27:43]  And it was Iran's proxy, Hamas, that launched the monstrous October 7th attacks on Israel, slaughtering more than 1,000 innocent people, including 46 Americans, while taking 12 of our citizens hostage.
[00:27:59]  It was brutal, something like the world has never seen before.
[00:28:05]  Iran is the world's number one state sponsor of terror and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested.
[00:28:15]  It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular, my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon.
[00:28:26]  I'll say it again, they can never have a nuclear weapon.
[00:28:32]  That is why in Operation Midnight Hammer last June, we obliterated the regime's nuclear program at Fordau, Natance, and Isfahan.
[00:28:44]  After that attack, we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal.
[00:28:54]  We tried.
[00:28:56]  They wanted to do it.
[00:28:57]  They didn't want to do it.
[00:28:59]  Again, they wanted to do it.
[00:29:00]  They didn't want to do it.
[00:29:01]  They didn't know what was happening.
[00:29:03]  They just wanted to practice evil.
[00:29:06]  But Iran refused, just as it has for decades and decades.
[00:29:12]  They've rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can't take it anymore.
[00:29:19]  Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland.
[00:29:39]  Just imagine how emboldened this regime would be if they ever had and actually were armed with nuclear weapons as a means to deliver their message.
[00:29:51]  For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.
[00:30:06]  We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground.
[00:30:12]  It will be totally, again, obliterated.
[00:30:16]  We are going to annihilate their Navy.
[00:30:19]  We are going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces and no longer use their IEDs or roadside bombs, as they are sometimes called, to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans.
[00:30:42]  And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.
[00:30:47]  It's a very simple message.
[00:30:50]  They will never have a nuclear weapon.
[00:30:53]  This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States armed forces.
[00:31:01]  I built and rebuilt our military in my first administration, and there is no military on earth even close to its power, strength, or sophistication.
[00:31:13]  My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region.
[00:31:20]  Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill.
[00:31:28]  The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties.
[00:31:34]  That often happens in war, but we're doing this not for now.
[00:31:38]  We're doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission.
[00:31:43]  We pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran.
[00:31:54]  We ask God to protect all of our heroes in harm's way, and we trust that with his help, the men and women of the armed forces will prevail.
[00:32:05]  We have the greatest in the world, and they will prevail.
[00:32:08]  To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces, and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or in the alternative, face certain death.
[00:32:25]  So, lay down your arms.
[00:32:27]  You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death.
[00:32:35]  Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.
[00:32:42]  Stay sheltered.
[00:32:43]  Don't leave your home.
[00:32:44]  It's very dangerous outside.
[00:32:46]  Bombs will be dropping everywhere.
[00:32:48]  When we are finished, take over your government.
[00:32:51]  It will be yours to take.
[00:32:53]  This will be probably your only chance for generations.
[00:32:58]  For many years, you have asked for America's help, but you never got it.
[00:33:03]  No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight.
[00:33:07]  Now you have a president who is giving you what you want.
[00:33:11]  So let's see how you respond.
[00:33:14]  America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force.
[00:33:19]  Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.
[00:33:28]  This is the moment for action.
[00:33:30]  Do not let it pass.
[00:33:32]  May God bless the brave men and women of America's armed forces.
[00:33:37]  May God bless the United States of America.
[00:33:40]  May God bless you all.
[00:33:42]  Thank you.
[00:33:44]  That was overnight, the president posting that on social media.
[00:33:48]  We are taking your calls and will be joined momentarily by Tara Kopp, who is a Pentagon reporter at the Washington Post.
[00:33:57]  Here is Linda in Texas, line for Democrats.
[00:34:00]  Linda, good morning.
[00:34:02]  Good morning.
[00:34:03]  I think that not only is he wagging the Epstein dog, but he's also taking on the mantle of a wartime president where he can achieve more power and wage war on our country.
[00:34:21]  Be tearing up our government.
[00:34:25]  There's the thing that scares me about him is there's no one there to police him.
[00:34:31]  He's not paying attention to what the court's telling him.
[00:34:34]  And historically, he who has the army wins.
[00:34:42]  So he scares me.
[00:34:45]  He really does.
[00:34:47]  All right.
[00:34:47]  Well, let's talk to Tara Kopp, Pentagon correspondent for the Washington Post.
[00:34:52]  Tara, good morning.
[00:34:54]  Good morning.
[00:34:55]  Well, major combat operations have started in Iran.
[00:34:59]  Can you explain what that looked like on the ground?
[00:35:03]  Yes, so operations started about 1 a.m. Eastern Time.
[00:35:08]  The Trump administration has named this operation Operation Epic Fury, and it began with a salvo of Tom Hawk cruise missiles and air-launched missiles from U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force jets at multiple targets across Iran.
[00:35:25]  Iran responded very quickly and has at this point launched ballistic missiles against five countries in the region, including Qatar, UAE, Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain, each of which has either a U.S. military presence or has been allied with the U.S. or is supporting military operations in some way, not against Iran, but where the U.S. has maintained its jets or has had refueling, et cetera.
[00:35:55]  It's still an ongoing operation.
[00:35:56]  A U.S. official who spoke to me very early this morning said this is going to be a multi-day operation with the purpose of trying to get Iran to concede.
[00:36:07]  And remind us of the bases.
[00:36:10]  You mentioned them, the bases that are in the region that are within reach of Iranian retaliation and how many Americans are there.
[00:36:20]  At any given time in the Middle East, there's roughly 30,000 U.S. service members.
[00:36:26]  When we surge forces like we have now, that can spike.
[00:36:30]  We now have two aircraft carriers in the region, each which has 4,000-plus service members.
[00:36:36]  We have a dozen other warships, including multiple destroyers, littoral combat ships.
[00:36:43]  And it's from those destroyers that the initial salvo was launched with the cruise missiles.
[00:36:49]  And then, of course, we've seen over the last two weeks the Air Force just push all sorts of assets into the theater, tankers, fighter aircraft, and those aircraft participated in this operation as well.
[00:37:02]  And the targets are reportedly include the compound of the 86-year-old Supreme Commander, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
[00:37:14]  Do we know anything at this point about his condition, about if he was there, anything like that?
[00:37:20]  We're still assessing and gathering information on that.
[00:37:22]  We've seen the satellite imagery of the compound.
[00:37:25]  And, you know, today the U.S. has struck not only that target, but other headquarters facilities, some of the same targets that it took on last summer in Operation Midnight Hammer to further reduce Iran's nuclear capability.
[00:37:43]  But it's still very early, and we're still gathering information on exactly what was struck.
[00:37:48]  And what is Israel's role in the attack and their ongoing role?
[00:37:53]  They conducted operations with the U.S. in this, much like in Operation Midnight Hammer last year and how we have supported them in their attacks last, earlier this year in their 12-day operation that took out just scores of targets across Iran.
[00:38:11]  So while there were some questions early on as to whether other regional partners might support this, Israel was on board, of course, from the very earliest stages.
[00:38:22]  And what do we know about retaliatory strikes by Iran on Israel and if those have been launched and if those, if any, have gotten through air defenses?
[00:38:34]  At this point, I have not seen reports on the Israel, whether Israel was attacked.
[00:38:39]  I've been really focused on the targeting on U.S. facilities and what the military was also striking.
[00:38:47]  It's just something we're, because it's so early, we're having to still look into it.
[00:38:51]  So, Tara, what, I mean, where are we in terms of a Pentagon briefing to reporters?
[00:38:58]  I know that several months ago, there were those restrictions that the Pentagon put on what journalists would have access to.
[00:39:07]  So, do you have access to Pentagon officials?
[00:39:10]  And how is that going to play now that we are at war with Iran?
[00:39:16]  I've been on the phone since about 3 o'clock this morning, as my colleagues have as well.
[00:39:22]  I don't know about being in person in the Pentagon for a briefing.
[00:39:25]  You would expect that.
[00:39:27]  The last time during Operation Midnight Hammer, we were still all accredited.
[00:39:31]  But as you referenced in October, we all decided to turn in our badges rather than sign what was a highly controversial and highly controlling set of documents by the Pentagon that could have allowed them to control what we write or what we report.
[00:39:48]  However, since then, we've all continued to do our jobs.
[00:39:50]  We've just been doing them outside the building.
[00:39:53]  All right.
[00:39:53]  Well, that's Tara Kopp, Pentagon correspondent for the Washington Post.
[00:39:57]  Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
[00:39:59]  Thank you.
[00:40:00]  Go back to your calls now on this strike, U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.
[00:40:06]  We're getting your reaction throughout the entire program.
[00:40:09]  Here's Carolyn Alexandria, Virginia, Democrat.
[00:40:12]  Good morning, Carolyn.
[00:40:13]  Good morning.
[00:40:14]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:40:16]  Let me talk for just a minute.

=== Carolyn On Trump And Iran (02:37) ===

[00:40:19]  Do you realize he did that right off of Clinton testified last night?
[00:40:23]  That to take the focus off the X-Team file because he knows he has to testify.
[00:40:28]  He doesn't care about sending other people's kids to their death.
[00:40:31]  That man is a virant.
[00:40:33]  He's a terrorist.
[00:40:34]  And can I say, I'm going to say one more thing.
[00:40:37]  You know that when it's all over, he's going to try to go and take up Venezuela because that's why he's training them ICE over here in the United States.
[00:40:46]  He's training them.
[00:40:48]  So when this is all over here, he's going to go to Venezuela and take out Venezuela because that's where the oil is at.
[00:40:56]  He don't care about nobody but himself and his kids.
[00:41:00]  Now, he's going to send out young people over there.
[00:41:02]  Now, why this wasn't done?
[00:41:03]  Right off of Trinton Clinton and testified yesterday, that's when this happened to take the focus off of him and this other thing that he got to go through.
[00:41:12]  People better wake up.
[00:41:14]  Trump is very smart.
[00:41:16]  He don't sleep.
[00:41:17]  And he don't send other people's kids over here just to save his butt.
[00:41:21]  All right, Carolyn.
[00:41:22]  Richard, Alet, Virginia, Independent Line.
[00:41:27]  Wow.
[00:41:27]  Hello.
[00:41:28]  Thank you so much for taking my call.
[00:41:31]  Listen, tell yourself, Speaker, I appreciate it.
[00:41:39]  When this man first insulted John Cain in 2016, I didn't know a thing about him.
[00:41:51]  So I decided because I'm prior service military, retired senior military officer, I decided I'm just going to start watching him like a hawk.
[00:42:01]  And when he said that, I did not know that he used his dad's influence and money to get a podiat to violate the hypocritic oath, just keep him out of Vietnam.
[00:42:13]  On and on and on about this man and all the atrocities he's committed.
[00:42:18]  Now, I do believe that not only was he involved on the Epstein Island, in the Epstein Mansions in Manhattan, Palm Beach in Florida, maybe, all of it, he was the trafficker of these babies, so children, these 12-year-olds.
[00:42:39]  And that's why everybody's been saying he's trying to distract from Epstein for a very long time now.
[00:42:45]  And it might be getting old to people.
[00:42:48]  But this man, he pulls the wool over people's eyes.
[00:42:54]  He's been doing it since 1973.

=== Brian Shah Son's Concerns (15:30) ===

[00:42:56]  All right.
[00:42:57]  This is Robin in Little River, South Carolina, Republican line.
[00:43:00]  Good morning, Robin.
[00:43:01]  Good morning.
[00:43:02]  How are you?
[00:43:03]  Good.
[00:43:05]  First of all, I'd like to say thanks for taking my call.
[00:43:08]  And I guess the main thing I'm going to say is that I support Donald Trump and what he's doing because the Iranians, left to themselves, all they want to do is kill whoever they have to kill to get what they want.
[00:43:26]  And I think their history has made that quite clear.
[00:43:29]  And they call us the big Satan in Israel, the little Satan.
[00:43:35]  So if they got nuclear weapons, I'm sure we are the two places that they would send those nukes.
[00:43:42]  So they have got to be neutralized.
[00:43:47]  They've got to have no way of having nuclear weapons.
[00:43:54]  And I mean, they're killing their own people.
[00:43:57]  Who's to say they're not going to kill the whole world if they were able to?
[00:44:05]  But I do support him in what he's doing.
[00:44:10]  This has nothing to do with the Epstein files.
[00:44:12]  I'm sorry.
[00:44:14]  But we are in a precarious situation with Iran, and I'm afraid of what they can do.
[00:44:22]  So I support Donald Trump in doing what he's doing to neutralize their assets.
[00:44:27]  All right, Robin.
[00:44:28]  And this is a posting on X by an Atlantic reporter who says, in a brief phone call with the Washington Post just after 4 a.m. Saturday, President Trump said his main concern is freedom for the Iranian people and that the U.S. is working to make Iran a place that's safe.
[00:44:48]  And this is Jennifer Griffin from Fox News.
[00:44:52]  Voice of America's Persian Service has been broadcasting messages into Iran addressing the Iranian people along with Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah.
[00:45:03]  They are urging the people of Iran to rise up against the Iranian leadership.
[00:45:08]  And speaking of Reza Pahlavi, this is the Axios saying what to know about him, a potential successor to lead Iran.
[00:45:19]  It says that he's the exiled former crown prince of Iran.
[00:45:22]  He's positioning himself as the transitional leader if the Islamic Republic collapses.
[00:45:28]  He has voiced confidence in President Trump and previously met with administration officials to address unrest inside Iran, relationships that could bolster his standing after the U.S.-Israel strike on Iran on Saturday.
[00:45:42]  He posted this in a video statement, quote, the assistance that the President of the United States had promised to the brave people of Iran has now arrived.
[00:45:53]  This is a humanitarian intervention, and its target is the Islamic Republic, its apparatus of repression, and its machinery of killing, not the country and great nation of Iran.
[00:46:05]  That said, Axios.
[00:46:07]  We're taking your calls throughout the program.
[00:46:10]  Robert, Worcester, Massachusetts, Democrat, you're on the air.
[00:46:14]  Yes, good morning.
[00:46:17]  What I got to say, everything that's going on today has everything to do with Fred Trump.
[00:46:25]  He raised this man to be exactly like him.
[00:46:29]  If you know Fred's history, he doubted the Ku Klux Klan.
[00:46:35]  He got with Nazis.
[00:46:39]  So, Robert, relate this back to the U.S. strikes on Iran.
[00:46:44]  All you got to do is go back to October the 7th when they on Israel.
[00:46:52]  The United States told Israel there's going to be an attack.
[00:46:57]  Letting Yahoo ignore all the information all over the world.
[00:47:03]  That was going to be attacked because he had big trouble in his own country, like Donald Trump.
[00:47:10]  So, Robert, right now there's no evidence that Israel knew of the attack and ignored the warnings of that attack.
[00:47:20]  But let's go to James in Rome, Georgia, Independent Line.
[00:47:24]  Good morning, James.
[00:47:26]  Good morning.
[00:47:28]  Ramadan Mubarak.
[00:47:29]  This is the holy month of Ramadan also across the world for millions of Muslims.
[00:47:34]  What I would like to say about this is this: I noticed we have support in America.
[00:47:39]  They don't, we don't, we're getting, but as to what is happening with Iran, is this.
[00:47:45]  Israel has never helped America in any war.
[00:47:48]  They have actually attacked America.
[00:47:50]  The only thing that can justify this, you know, is the support that the United States and the money and resources that they give Israel.
[00:48:01]  Right here in America, this is a consolidation of what you're seeing of a dictator.
[00:48:06]  The same military he's going to use against the American people during the elections.
[00:48:11]  Nothing's going to be free.
[00:48:13]  The same things that happen in Iran, it's happening in America now, and it's taking place.
[00:48:17]  What I can't understand is these people, a lot of these Republicans, they support this regime change and stuff and anything that Trump does.
[00:48:26]  But one thing you'll notice about this is this: they have nothing to say about losing their insurance or cuts to social programs in America, but they support the same thing what Trump is doing, attacking American citizens and killing.
[00:48:42]  Somebody's going to have to come into America during the election.
[00:48:46]  War after war, he's going into Cuba next.
[00:48:49]  And if the people come out and protest, he's going to bring this same military down, which he's been practicing and putting in effect and running test runs now.
[00:48:59]  You will see it.
[00:49:00]  You know, keep supporting this dictator, this crazy, stupid regime change.
[00:49:06]  These people are DEI.
[00:49:08]  They don't know what they're doing.
[00:49:09]  White privileged president.
[00:49:12]  And it makes me sick, man, that this is going on, you know, during the month of Ramadan.
[00:49:17]  But thank you for letting me speak.
[00:49:19]  And here is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
[00:49:22]  He made this statement on the attack.
[00:49:24]  He's speaking here through an interpreter.
[00:49:27]  Israel and the United States launched a joint operation, Operation Roaring Lion.
[00:49:33]  The goal of the operation, to put an end to the threat from the Ayatollah regime in Iran.
[00:49:39]  At this moment, the IDF is striking targets of the repressive regime, facilities of the revolutionary guards and the besiege, and together with the United States, sites of ballistic missiles that threaten both Israel and U.S. forces.
[00:49:53]  This operation will continue for as long as necessary.
[00:49:57]  For 47 years, the evil regime in Iran has called death to Israel, death to America.
[00:50:03]  It has crushed the citizens of its own country.
[00:50:06]  It has cast fear upon the peoples of the region, and it has spread a sprawling network of terror throughout the entire world.
[00:50:13]  We are doing this in full cooperation with our friends in the United States under the brave leadership of President Trump.
[00:50:21]  Together with the United States, we will strike the terror regime hard.
[00:50:25]  We will create conditions that will allow the brave Iranian people to throw off the yoke of this murderous regime.
[00:50:33]  During Operation Dogs of War, I was asked many times if toppling the regime was the goal of the operation in addition to removing the nuclear and missile threat.
[00:50:45]  And I answered that this was not the goal, but it could certainly be the result.
[00:50:50]  And indeed, that is exactly what happened when millions of Iranians took to the streets.
[00:50:58]  And now, now they are given the opportunity to take their fate into their own hands.
[00:51:05]  And that was the Israeli prime minister in his statement.
[00:51:09]  We're hearing from Brian next in Downey, California, Republican line.
[00:51:13]  Good morning.
[00:51:15]  Good morning.
[00:51:16]  Just throwing out a disclaimer that I support President Trump.
[00:51:21]  I voted for him in three elections.
[00:51:24]  I think he's overall doing a pretty good job and glad about voting for him.
[00:51:30]  But in regards to this combat operations in Iran, I am just, I'm sickened.
[00:51:37]  I can't stand it.
[00:51:39]  I think Israel has a major problem with Iran.
[00:51:44]  Iran has a problem with Israel.
[00:51:46]  And if you just listen to Netanyahu's opening line, together with the U.S., I'm like, why with us?
[00:51:57]  Iran is not a threat to the United States of America.
[00:52:00]  I'm sorry.
[00:52:02]  They are half a world away.
[00:52:06]  Israel has beef with them, and they should handle their own issue.
[00:52:11]  It's like, I don't know why we constantly go in and back up Israel on everything they do.
[00:52:19]  If you look at the facts, Israel has bombed Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria.
[00:52:28]  I mean, what other nation has bombed four countries in the last year alone?
[00:52:35]  And they're doing it with the help of America.
[00:52:37]  I don't understand why we are getting involved with what they are doing.
[00:52:43]  It blows me away.
[00:52:45]  If you say anything negative about Israel, you're immediately labeled an anti-Semite, which is just wrong in itself if you don't even know the person.
[00:52:58]  I'm just sickened, and I cannot stand that we're getting involved in a war with our, you know, I have cousins in the military right now.
[00:53:08]  I don't know.
[00:53:09]  Trump's doing well in the economy and all of things.
[00:53:13]  Immigration, he went on.
[00:53:14]  I didn't hear anything about we're getting rid of Iran during his campaign because if you look at it, Gaddafi was taken out.
[00:53:24]  Libya didn't turn out fine.
[00:53:27]  Iraq, did regime change there?
[00:53:30]  Turned out awful.
[00:53:33]  I mean, what's the plan?
[00:53:35]  Okay, say we take out Iran today.
[00:53:38]  And Ayatollah, what's our plan?
[00:53:42]  What do you think of the late Shah's son as a leader of Iran?
[00:53:48]  I know nothing about him.
[00:53:49]  I'm from Los Angeles.
[00:53:51]  I wake up, I work, I feed my family, I surf, I enjoy life.
[00:53:56]  It's beautiful.
[00:53:57]  It's 80 degrees every day, even in winter.
[00:53:59]  I know nothing about the Shah's son.
[00:54:02]  No one in America truly knows anything about the Shah's son.
[00:54:07]  It's just like they're over there.
[00:54:10]  All right, Brian.
[00:54:11]  And this is what Eleanor Mueller posted.
[00:54:13]  She's with Semaphore.
[00:54:14]  The Trump administration briefed House Speaker Mike Johnson on its attack on Iran ahead of time.
[00:54:20]  I'm told.
[00:54:21]  I'm told separately that officials also notified key Democrats like Mark Warner and Jim Himes, ranking members of the Senate Intelligence and House Intelligence Committees.
[00:54:34]  And this is Gene in Louisville, Kentucky.
[00:54:36]  Democrat, good morning, Gene.
[00:54:38]  Yes, I only give about like 30 seconds to talk.
[00:54:41]  I like to have more than just 30 seconds.
[00:54:43]  Well, the United States funded Iran with their nuclear facility by flying planes over there to get to Afghanistan to get the heroin and then go to Iraq to get refueled up.
[00:54:55]  That's the problem.
[00:54:56]  We've been funding Iran for their nuclear facility for heroin.
[00:55:01]  This has been going on with Barack.
[00:55:04]  Barack gave billions to Iran.
[00:55:08]  That's all I have to say.
[00:55:11]  This is Margo in Easton, Pennsylvania, Independent Line.
[00:55:16]  Go ahead, Margot.
[00:55:18]  Good morning.
[00:55:19]  I'm a little shocked to wake up once again to find out the president has bombed another country unilaterally without consulting Congress.
[00:55:27]  We bombed Nigeria on Christmas, which is a Christian I find wholly offensive.
[00:55:33]  Now we're bombing Iran during Ramadan.
[00:55:36]  Again, so offensive.
[00:55:38]  We took out the head of Nigeria without consulting Congress, and now there are 200 boots on the ground.
[00:55:44]  We're doing something insane in Cuba.
[00:55:46]  We're trying to go after Greenland.
[00:55:48]  We went into Venezuela where somebody got injured to the extent that they were awarded the Medal of Honor, and now we're bombing Iran.
[00:55:56]  We have not been told once why we're spending tens of billions of dollars bombing Iran.
[00:56:01]  And yesterday we listened to a clip of Miss Leni on C-STAN talking about how she's a rural lady in her 60s and only has something like $70 a month to spend on food because the cost of heating oil has gone up so much and because the big beautiful bill cut her snap allowance from $80 to an insulting $12 a month.
[00:56:21]  But we have tens of billions of dollars to bomb a country and ocean away for reasons we haven't been told.
[00:56:27]  And I was wondering what would entice our representatives to uphold their oath to defend the Constitution.
[00:56:35]  I don't care whether they're Republicans or Independents or Democrats.
[00:56:39]  At what point will you uphold your oath to defend the Constitution?
[00:56:43]  Anyone who's taken that oath like me finds this utterly insane.
[00:56:49]  They didn't do it for tariffs.
[00:56:51]  They didn't do it for search and seizure.
[00:56:53]  They haven't done it for Venezuela or anywhere else.
[00:56:56]  And now they're not doing it for Iran.
[00:56:58]  How do taxpayers have tens of billions of dollars to bomb Iran for reasons we haven't been told, but not a tuppence for a rural lady who's worked her whole life building this country?
[00:57:09]  Every American should be offended and frightened by the authoritarianism that this administration seems to be pushing for, whether it's bombing Iran or going into people's homes without a warrant.
[00:57:21]  This is obscene.
[00:57:23]  We don't have money to be spending bombing Iran.
[00:57:26]  There are people here who need food to eat, for heaven's sakes.
[00:57:30]  There are kids who can't get health care.
[00:57:32]  When is enough is enough, Congress?
[00:57:34]  Step up and uphold your oath of office, for heaven's sake.
[00:57:38]  Thank you for your time, and I hope everyone has a lovely weekend.
[00:57:40]  All right, Margo.
[00:57:41]  And retaliatory strikes are underway by Iran.
[00:57:46]  This is, we'll put a picture of Doha.
[00:57:49]  This is in Qatar.
[00:57:50]  You can see a little bit of the smoke that is coming towards the left of your screen.
[00:57:58]  And also strikes happening in Bahrain.
[00:58:01]  This is, we'll put that on the screen when it's ready.
[00:58:06]  Thomas, Lincoln Park, Michigan, Republican, you're on the air, Thomas.
[00:58:11]  Good morning, C-STAN.
[00:58:12]  Hey, this is for my grandkids.
[00:58:14]  This is for the future.
[00:58:15]  This is to make the world a safer place in the future.
[00:58:18]  And for all those people who want to bring up Epstein, Epstein didn't mutilate and castrate children with drugs to change their sex.

=== Pay Attention to 1953 (16:42) ===

[00:58:27]  The Democrats did that.
[00:58:29]  Epstein didn't put little girls in locker rooms, girls' locker rooms, bathrooms, and showers.
[00:58:35]  That was the Democrats.
[00:58:37]  And Epstein didn't traffic over 300,000 children in four years' time, losing every one of them.
[00:58:44]  That was the Democrats.
[00:58:46]  And as far as the Democrats, they're the founders of the KKK.
[00:58:50]  And you just seen this week, they couldn't even stand up for the American taxpayer.
[00:58:55]  And that's what I think you guys need to have a show on.
[00:58:58]  That would be great.
[00:58:59]  And apart authoritations, authoritations, the people that are authority, are the people that wanted to take my gas stove or wanted to push a spike protein vaccine on me.
[00:59:11]  Okay?
[00:59:12]  That's real authoritation.
[00:59:14]  All right.
[00:59:14]  And we are talking about U.S. strikes on Iran.
[00:59:18]  This is John Franklin, North Carolina, Democrat.
[00:59:21]  You're on the air, John.
[00:59:23]  Hello.
[00:59:24]  A little while ago, I heard you say something about the October 7th attack on Israel.
[00:59:32]  Wasn't known about.
[00:59:34]  And I think when it happened, they were saying they knew about it for over a year before it happened.
[00:59:41]  They knew all the details.
[00:59:42]  They knew the date.
[00:59:43]  I mean, it's one thing to say Hamas is planning an attack on Israel, which they do quite a lot.
[00:59:51]  It's another to know the details.
[00:59:53]  So that's what I'm talking about.
[00:59:55]  But let's get back to the strikes on Iran.
[00:59:58]  What are your thoughts on that?
[01:00:00]  Well, I just think it's another madman doing another illegal, you know, another illegal war for us.
[01:00:10]  You know, him and his rich buddies will profit from it.
[01:00:13]  Nobody like me will.
[01:00:15]  So I don't agree with anything he does.
[01:00:18]  Thank you.
[01:00:20]  And this is Robert in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Independent Line.
[01:00:24]  Good morning, Robert.
[01:00:27]  Hey, how are you doing?
[01:00:28]  Good morning.
[01:00:29]  Good morning.
[01:00:30]  I just wanted to make a few statements.
[01:00:35]  For the American people out there, you know, call yourself a Democrat, Republican, Independent, whatever the case may be.
[01:00:44]  All you guys got to do is just follow the money because this AI thing is serious.
[01:00:50]  And whoever leads in that technology pretty much is the frontrunner of the world.
[01:00:57]  So America and China is pretty much the superpowers of the world.
[01:01:02]  And they are pushing this agenda for AI for a reason.
[01:01:07]  Pay attention to the stock market because...
[01:01:09]  But Robert, how is that related to the strikes on Iran?
[01:01:14]  Pretty much that is the resources.
[01:01:16]  It's not about, in my opinion, let me say that.
[01:01:21]  It's not about actually getting Iran nuclear program out the way and things of that nature.
[01:01:29]  It's about the resources, oil, minerals, things of that nature.
[01:01:34]  So this is what the American public need to really wake up and pay attention to what's going on and pay attention to where the money is.
[01:01:43]  Because at the end of the day, this is where it's leading to AI, which helps what militarily.
[01:01:51]  So a lot of people, kids, you know, daughters, sons, granddaughters, nieces, is going to be sacrificed because of this whole agenda they got for this AI.
[01:02:04]  All right, Robert.
[01:02:05]  And here is some updates for you from the Associated Press.
[01:02:10]  Jordan State News Agency says the military shot down Saturday two ballistic missiles that were targeting Jordanian territories.
[01:02:18]  The agency said authorities received 12 calls regarding the fall of shrapnel and falling objects in areas including the capital Amman, as well as the city's several cities.
[01:02:29]  Also, an update, Australia says it supports the U.S. effort to keep Iran from having nuclear weapons.
[01:02:37]  Australia's leader says his country supports the U.S. in its effort to stop Iran from obtaining an atomic bomb.
[01:02:43]  In a lengthy statement posted on ex-Prime Minister Albanese, he said the country, quote, stands with the brave people of Iran in their struggle against oppression.
[01:02:52]  He described Iran's current leadership as a destabilizing force.
[01:02:58]  Here's Kevin in Nashville, Tennessee, Republican.
[01:03:00]  Kevin, you're on the air.
[01:03:03]  Thanks, ma'am.
[01:03:05]  First, I want to say thank you for taking my call.
[01:03:07]  I really appreciate it.
[01:03:09]  I'm sitting here listening to a lot of people talking, you know, and saying, oh, you know, we want America to be America for our kids and everything.
[01:03:17]  So I'm going to stay right on topic with Iran.
[01:03:22]  We cannot allow them to get any kind of nuclear capability.
[01:03:27]  I don't even care if it's for life in general over there.
[01:03:33]  You can't do it.
[01:03:34]  The minute they have it, they may not bomb us, but they're going to bomb somebody.
[01:03:39]  You've got to stay on top of it.
[01:03:41]  So all you people out there saying, oh, you know, it's just terrible.
[01:03:44]  It's just, it's not terrible.
[01:03:46]  You've got to put them in their place and stop them from having nuclear capability.
[01:03:51]  That's all I got to say.
[01:03:52]  Thank you.
[01:03:54]  Deborah, Dallas, Texas, Line for Democrats.
[01:03:56]  Good morning.
[01:03:57]  What do you think of these strikes on Iran?
[01:04:01]  I think it's a shame because you got to realize they have kids over there, too.
[01:04:07]  We have kids over here, too.
[01:04:09]  Mothers and babies.
[01:04:11]  Peace talk.
[01:04:13]  All he's got to do is peace talk and quit line and manipulate and gonna get us killed.
[01:04:18]  So he needs to be careful.
[01:04:20]  He has a family too.
[01:04:21]  And he needs to set out and go somewhere because he's not our president.
[01:04:25]  He's a dictator.
[01:04:27]  And we here, we fear for that man.
[01:04:32]  And it's not right.
[01:04:33]  And thank you for taking my call.
[01:04:35]  On the independent line in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
[01:04:38]  Tom, you're on the air.
[01:04:41]  Good morning.
[01:04:42]  Just another typical day where we wake up and once again see the insanity of the guy that's leading this country.
[01:04:50]  If January 6th wasn't enough, I don't know what it's going to take.
[01:04:55]  But back in 1972, I was at Lowry Air Force Base out in Colorado, and there were two Iranian pilots that I got a chance to talk to at that time when the Shah was leading the country.
[01:05:14]  And I said, what's it like in Iran?
[01:05:17]  And he said, Bird, they both did very bad.
[01:05:20]  Later, when I worked in Washington, D.C., I watched a demonstration of the Iranian people that lived in this country demonstrating against the Shah.
[01:05:36]  So here we are.
[01:05:38]  We're taking back Iran with the idea of putting the sun back in position.
[01:05:46]  And we're going to do it, we're going to visit this one more time where the Iranian people are going to be in a position where they're probably going to pull something like take hostages again.
[01:05:59]  I guess what I'm saying is every day, this is total insanity.
[01:06:04]  We have no checks and balances anymore.
[01:06:07]  I was a Republican.
[01:06:08]  I'm 76 years old.
[01:06:10]  I was also at Kent State the day that students got shot.
[01:06:16]  So, Tom, respond to Kevin's statement that said Israel, sorry, Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon.
[01:06:24]  And if they get a nuclear weapon, they'll use it.
[01:06:27]  You know, I totally disagree.
[01:06:32]  And it seems like we have such a divide.
[01:06:36]  It seems to be south of the Mason-Dixon line in this country.
[01:06:41]  Iran, we already, first of all, why do we take the position of the sheriff of the world?
[01:06:50]  And Mike, the lady from the one lady that called in, it made so much sense in terms of the number of bombings that we're doing.
[01:06:58]  I watched the video just, I don't know, prior to even turning C-SPAN on of the homeless people in Rudding, Pennsylvania, not immigrants, not people, just white people living in tents along the railroad tracks in Rudd, Pennsylvania.
[01:07:17]  And here we are.
[01:07:18]  People don't have a clue of what this costs in terms of every time a missile goes off.
[01:07:25]  I remember going to a warehouse in Richmond, Virginia, which was like, first of all, everything in the military has an expiration date.
[01:07:36]  When the guy opened the warehouse and turned the lights on, the door at the end of that warehouse looked like it was as big as your fingernail on your index finger.
[01:07:47]  We spend so much on the military and so much is wasted.
[01:07:52]  And here we are now killing people, innocent people.
[01:07:56]  We have this.
[01:07:58]  Where is the checks and balances in this country?
[01:08:02]  Tom, I'm going to move on to Abraham in Grand Prairie, Texas, Republican.
[01:08:06]  What do you think, Abraham?
[01:08:10]  Well, I appreciate you for having me on, first of all.
[01:08:12]  And I just want to, people need to understand, and it needs to be made clear that Iran is corrupt.
[01:08:20]  Their nation has always been corrupt.
[01:08:25]  And they should never have the ability to even make a nuclear weapon.
[01:08:32]  And I don't know what people are talking about as far as people are getting, they're killing innocent people in Iran.
[01:08:38]  I'm not sure if they're hitting places where there are civilians.
[01:08:42]  I'm pretty sure they're just hitting infrastructure in different strategic places to stop them from being able to have these nuclear capabilities.
[01:08:53]  Iran, they're liars.
[01:08:55]  They always have been.
[01:08:56]  They never tell the truth.
[01:08:58]  They do their people a disservice by lying to us and the world, saying that they don't have these capabilities when they do, and they put themselves in this type of a position to be attacked.
[01:09:10]  I believe the Iranian people want peace in their country.
[01:09:14]  It's their regime that needs to go.
[01:09:16]  So I support Donald Trump in making sure that the world is a better place.
[01:09:22]  Especially, you know, a couple of calls ago was talking about his family and his kids and for the future.
[01:09:27]  And that's what this is about.
[01:09:28]  You know, the people that the children, the grandchildren that are coming up behind us need to be able to have a peaceful world to live in.
[01:09:36]  And so, you know, he's, and another guy is saying, why do we feel like we have to be the police of the world or the sheriffs of the world?
[01:09:45]  Because we have to be.
[01:09:47]  We don't need a check and balance when there's a terrorist country that is, you know, hurting their own people and putting the world in jeopardy.
[01:09:58]  People like that have to stay in check.
[01:10:01]  So I support Donald Trump in this strike.
[01:10:04]  All right, Abraham.
[01:10:05]  And this is Christian Treebert, a reporter with the New York Times, posting this.
[01:10:10]  We obtained the first known satellite image of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's compound in Tehran.
[01:10:17]  There are several destroyed buildings.
[01:10:19]  You can see the picture there.
[01:10:20]  He says, while the current whereabouts of Iran's supreme leader are unknown, the compound is generally used as his official residence.
[01:10:32]  Mike Norwood, Massachusetts, line for Democrats.
[01:10:35]  What do you think about these military strikes?
[01:10:39]  Good morning.
[01:10:40]  I'd like to make a couple of points.
[01:10:44]  Number one, it's the Constitution.
[01:10:46]  Trump should have gone to Congress if he was going to do this.
[01:10:50]  Number two, why is he doing this?
[01:10:54]  I think that Trump is doing this with Iran just like what Ned Yahoo did with Gaza.
[01:11:00]  And Neban Yahoo, they did know about the attacks.
[01:11:05]  Mossad did have the information ahead of time.
[01:11:08]  But it's just a big distraction from the internal, other internal problems that Israel had in what the United States has.
[01:11:19]  And number four, I just like to remind people: America and the United Kingdom planted the seeds of destruction way back in 1953 in Iran.
[01:11:30]  So we should learn some history.
[01:11:33]  We should know our history in order to solve a lot of problems.
[01:11:37]  And remind us of what happened in 1953.
[01:11:41]  You're talking about Mossadegh.
[01:11:43]  When we overthrew Mossadegh, because we wanted to control the oil, he was nationalizing the oil fields, and we wouldn't have that.
[01:11:53]  So we overthrew the CIA.
[01:11:55]  It was a coup with John Foster Does.
[01:11:58]  So we should be ashamed of ourselves.
[01:12:01]  We don't know the history with Iran.
[01:12:03]  Iran are really peace-loving people.
[01:12:06]  If you know the Iranians and everything, granted, the government might get some problems with the government, but the Iranians are peace-loving people, and we should be paying more attention to that and knowing the history of our relationships with Iran.
[01:12:22]  All right, Mike, and this is Britannica.com about that.
[01:12:26]  This is the 1953 coup in Iran.
[01:12:29]  It occurred in August of 1953, funded by the U.S. and the U.K.
[01:12:33]  It removed Mohammad Mossadegh from power and restored Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi as Iran's leader.
[01:12:40]  300 people died during fighting in Tehran.
[01:12:43]  It says, with its strategic location and vast oil reserves, Iran was of special interest to the U.S. and UK and other powers.
[01:12:51]  Britain had established a presence in the country during World War II to protect a vital supply route to its ally, the Soviet Union, and to prevent the oil from falling into German hands.
[01:13:02]  After the war, the UK effectively retained control over Iran's oil through the establishment of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
[01:13:10]  You can read more about that history at Britannica.com.
[01:13:16]  Adam Taylor, Michigan Independent, we're taking your calls on the military strikes on Iran.
[01:13:22]  Go ahead, Adam.
[01:13:24]  Good morning.
[01:13:25]  Thanks for having me.
[01:13:27]  First and foremost, I'd like to say that I want to stay on topic.
[01:13:31]  I think it's important that these Purdicts and Hacks that are calling in, they're so butthurt.
[01:13:36]  I think they need butthurt cream.
[01:13:38]  But let's just move on.
[01:13:40]  For 48, almost 50 years, we have been dealing with the threats and the instableness of that part of the world because of Iran.
[01:13:54]  Iran has done nothing.
[01:13:57]  They don't rule with any type of policy that is partisan to their people.
[01:14:07]  They are their theocracy.
[01:14:09]  They're constantly ruling from Sharia law.
[01:14:13]  And they're just, they have constantly have been threatening and made that whole part of the world unstable.
[01:14:27]  And then you hear these people call in and not stay on the topic and deflect.
[01:14:32]  Okay, so Adam, let's continue with that thought.
[01:14:37]  How long would you be okay with strikes, military action in Iran?
[01:14:43]  How long do you think this should go on for?
[01:14:46]  Well, as an American, hearing them threaten me, hearing them threaten my family, hearing them threaten my fellow Americans and our allies, I think we should say, okay, we've been dealing with it for 48, 50 years.
[01:14:59]  Let's just, why don't we follow through with it and make sure that the Iranian people know that we have their back because they were killing what?

=== Iran Retaliatory Strikes (11:44) ===

[01:15:09]  Over 30,000 of them.
[01:15:11]  They murdered over 30,000 of them in the past two months.
[01:15:16]  How many people is enough for them to kill their own people and for somebody else to step up and do something?
[01:15:23]  That's what I have to the partisan hacks out there.
[01:15:26]  And it's just ridiculous how people are motivated by their bias instead of the facts.
[01:15:33]  You have been threatened.
[01:15:35]  These people want a weapon of mass destruction, and they planted on using it on our allies and our loved ones.
[01:15:43]  What is wrong with Americans?
[01:15:45]  I just don't understand it.
[01:15:48]  All right.
[01:15:48]  And here's Paul in Terryville, Connecticut, Republican line.
[01:15:53]  Go ahead, Paul.
[01:15:54]  Oh, that's great.
[01:15:55]  Nice to hear you this morning under these circumstances.
[01:16:00]  This playbook of, you know, first you put on embargoes and sanctions and you drive the local people into hysteria and panic and then claim that the regime is threatening.
[01:16:21]  It's opposed to any just war theory or international law theory.
[01:16:26]  And it's a playbook for what's happening in Cuba.
[01:16:30]  Okay.
[01:16:32]  The Catholic Church in Canada and the UN had a plan for relief there for Melissa, the hurricane, $74 million.
[01:16:44]  And what does the Trump administration do?
[01:16:48]  They prevent the vehicle for delivering the aid through an oil embargo.
[01:16:53]  Sound familiar?
[01:16:55]  I'm hoping that some of these politicians here in this country are listening to C-SPAN this morning and across the board some very rational observations.
[01:17:07]  Why do they want to depose the current government in Iran?
[01:17:15]  It's along religious lines.
[01:17:18]  Well, look at Cuba.
[01:17:20]  There was a caller that mentioned a country, a Christian country that was bombed.
[01:17:24]  Well, what do you think Cuba is?
[01:17:27]  60% Catholics on top of it.
[01:17:31]  Probably a few more independent Christians there.
[01:17:34]  And we're going to go to war against a Christian nation?
[01:17:37]  Why?
[01:17:38]  For strategic advantage?
[01:17:43]  Just because somebody agrees with the type, disagrees with us with the type of government they should have, that we're going to go in and overthrow it?
[01:17:52]  It's very unfederal.
[01:17:54]  And here's Jeff in Coltsnack, New Jersey.
[01:17:56]  Democrat, you're on the air.
[01:17:59]  Yeah, hi.
[01:17:59]  How are you doing?
[01:18:00]  Listen, my first presidential vote was Jimmy Carter, okay?
[01:18:05]  And he's weak and seckless throughout his administration.
[01:18:10]  He gave us this problem, okay?
[01:18:14]  I think I agree with Donald Trump.
[01:18:16]  I think Donald Trump is doing the right thing.
[01:18:18]  We're the evil Satan, and Israel is the little Satan.
[01:18:23]  They want us dead.
[01:18:25]  They've said it over and over and over again.
[01:18:30]  Death to America.
[01:18:32]  These people out there that are like, oh my God, oh my God, these people are peaceful.
[01:18:37]  Yeah, the country probably is.
[01:18:39]  They're intelligent people that are peaceful.
[01:18:41]  The government, the leadership is evil in so many ways.
[01:18:46]  They've killed so many Americans through their proxies and everything else.
[01:18:52]  They are horrible, evil people that need to be destroyed, that need to be taken out, and that's what we're doing.
[01:19:00]  We're taking out the evil and we'll let their country run themselves, be peaceful, and be a right force in that area.
[01:19:14]  This will change the whole dynamic.
[01:19:17]  You'll see the whole Arab nations conjoin and be peaceful and help each other.
[01:19:26]  This is the best thing.
[01:19:27]  All the other people out there that, oh my God, Donald Trump is an evil dictator, he's not an evil dictator.
[01:19:34]  He's a leader.
[01:19:35]  He's a leader, whereas Jimmy Carter was not a leader.
[01:19:39]  He was weak, feckless, maybe a nice guy, very religious, God bless his soul, but he was a weak, feckless leader, just like all these other ones that gave billions of dollars to this regime for what?
[01:19:52]  Okay, well, Jeff, let's hear the portion of President Trump's remarks from overnight where he talks about regime change.
[01:19:59]  To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.
[01:20:05]  Stay sheltered.
[01:20:06]  Don't leave your home.
[01:20:08]  It's very dangerous outside.
[01:20:10]  Bombs will be dropping everywhere.
[01:20:12]  When we are finished, take over your government.
[01:20:15]  It will be yours to take.
[01:20:17]  This will be probably your only chance for generations.
[01:20:22]  For many years, you have asked for America's help, but you never got it.
[01:20:27]  No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight.
[01:20:31]  Now you have a president who is giving you what you want.
[01:20:35]  So let's see how you respond.
[01:20:37]  America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force.
[01:20:42]  Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.
[01:20:52]  This is the moment for action.
[01:20:54]  Do not let it pass.
[01:20:56]  Here's a posting on X by Kelly Meyer, a reporter with NewsNation.
[01:21:00]  U.S. Fifth Fleet Service Center in Bahrain was attacked.
[01:21:04]  Bahrain's state news agency says the service center of the U.S. Fifth Fleet was subjected to a missile attack.
[01:21:10]  The agency said it will give further details later.
[01:21:13]  This is Senator Tom Cotton with this reaction.
[01:21:16]  A nuclear weapons program, thousands of missiles, state sponsorship of terror.
[01:21:20]  Iran has waged war against the U.S. for 47 years.
[01:21:24]  The hostage crisis, the Beirut Marine Barracks, Khobar Towers, roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan that killed or maimed thousands of Americans.
[01:21:34]  And Burgess Everett of Semaphore says, Senator Kane on Iran's strikes, quote, the Senate should immediately return to session and vote on any war powers resolution to block the U.S. the use of U.S. forces in hostilities against Iran.
[01:21:49]  Every single senator needs to go on the record about this dangerous, unnecessary, and idiotic action.
[01:21:56]  Congressman Greg Kesar says Congress must do everything in its power to stop Trump's illegal war, including reconvening for an immediate vote on a war powers resolution.
[01:22:08]  But we will also need millions of Americans to speak out and demand an end.
[01:22:13]  And if you're just joining us, we are getting your reaction to U.S. military strikes on Iran in conjunction with Israel.
[01:22:22]  There are retaliatory strikes taking place right now.
[01:22:25]  And this is Benjamin in Alabama, Independent Line.
[01:22:29]  Go ahead, Benjamin.
[01:22:31]  Good morning.
[01:22:32]  I think the question we need to answer is what is the relationship between Netanyahu and President Trump?
[01:22:41]  How is it that Netanyahu can turn a knob to get Trump to do whatever he wants him to do?
[01:22:49]  In essence, the foreign policy of America has a lot to do with what Netanyahu wants to happen.
[01:22:58]  Now, what is it that Netanyahu has over President Trump to make him respond so readily to whatever Netanyahu wants?
[01:23:09]  I believe, and this is my opinion, it is a connection between what Netanyahu knows about Trump's involvement in the Epstein affair and that the information he has would be deadly if Trump did not follow what Netanyahu says.
[01:23:32]  Thank you very much.
[01:23:34]  And here's the New York Times.
[01:23:35]  Here's what world leaders are saying about the U.S.-led attack on Iran.
[01:23:40]  It says, governments around the world urged restraint after the U.S. and Israel launched a major assault and Iran vowed retaliation.
[01:23:48]  Here's a taste of that.
[01:23:50]  British government said it had not participated in the strikes and did, quote, not want to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict.
[01:23:59]  It added that it had recently enhanced its defensive capabilities in the Middle East and that its immediate priority was the safety of British citizens in the region.
[01:24:08]  Quote, Iran must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, and that is why we have continually supported efforts to reach a negotiated solution.
[01:24:18]  And here is Mark weighing in from Berlin, North New Hampshire.
[01:24:22]  Republican line, good morning.
[01:24:26]  Yes, good morning.
[01:24:29]  Go ahead, Mark.
[01:24:30]  I just want to, yeah, I just want to say that I support this action.
[01:24:36]  I was in high school when Jimmy Carter was president, and things went south then.
[01:24:46]  That's why the Ronald Reagan revolution came ahead.
[01:24:53]  And we've been dealing with Iran for too long.
[01:24:57]  They've been an unstable place in Central America.
[01:25:02]  I mean, Central Asia.
[01:25:05]  And they just have to be stopped.
[01:25:11]  This is part of taking down Iran to help efforts with the Ukrainian war because Iran and Russia are in bed together.
[01:25:24]  So I think he's just trying to Trump is just trying to bring peace to the Middle East and help Ukraine get out of that war.
[01:25:36]  And I just want to say I support this operation.
[01:25:42]  Thank you.
[01:25:43]  All right, Mark.
[01:25:44]  And you mentioned the administration of Jimmy Carter.
[01:25:50]  This is, of course, there was the Iran hostage crisis.
[01:25:53]  This is history.state.gov.
[01:25:55]  So this is from the U.S. State Department talking about the Iranian hostage crisis.
[01:26:01]  It said representing the U.S. abroad has been a dangerous job since the beginning of the Republic, but that was never truer than during the Carter administration.
[01:26:10]  In the wake of a successful revolution by Islamic fundamentalists against the pro-American Shah of Iran, the U.S. became an object of virulent criticism, and the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was a visible target.
[01:26:24]  On November 4th, 1979, Iranian students seized the embassy and detained more than 50 Americans, ranging from the charged affair to the most junior members of the staff as hostages.
[01:26:36]  The Iranians held the American diplomats hostage for 444 days.
[01:26:44]  Harmon in Seattle, Washington, Democrat, you're on the air.
[01:26:51]  Good morning.
[01:26:52]  You there, Harmon?

=== Trillion Dollar Crisis (13:15) ===

[01:26:54]  Yes, I'm here.
[01:26:55]  Go ahead.
[01:26:58]  Okay, I just want to start off by saying, asking the question to all these people calling in, you know, glad that we used our military.
[01:27:12]  Why in the world is this Congress allowing this guy at 16 under Pennsylvania Avenue attack another country without going to the Congress, you know, for a vote up or down for using our military to start a war with people?
[01:27:29]  That's first off.
[01:27:33]  And why is it?
[01:27:36]  Well, I won't ask another question.
[01:27:39]  I'll just make my comments about what I think about what this guy is getting away with.
[01:27:45]  And that is this: there is no checks or balances coming from this House of Representatives.
[01:27:57]  And I just want to say to all of the people calling in, rooting for this person, starting wars, I just want to say that you better think twice about letting them get away with any more days.
[01:28:17]  And those people that are in charge that are not giving any type of checks and balances to this person at 16 on the Pennsylvania Avenue, they need to be voted out of there.
[01:28:37]  And Harmon, regarding congressional action, here's Fox reporter Chad Pergram, who says a U.S.-Israel strike on Iran.
[01:28:46]  GOP Kentucky rep Thomas Massey was teaming up with Rep. Roe Conna of California to force a vote next week to compel the president to seek congressional approval for military intervention in Iran.
[01:28:59]  House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has supported that.
[01:29:07]  We haven't seen the rest of that tweet.
[01:29:09]  Hopefully we can get that for you.
[01:29:11]  Here is Felicia in Tennessee, Independent Line.
[01:29:14]  Good morning, Felicia.
[01:29:17]  You bear with me because my algae got me a little scattered brain.
[01:29:22]  But I see now why Trump asked for what, $500 billion more for the military about two weeks ago, maybe three.
[01:29:32]  He'll always have a good idea on things to do and to go at, and it needs to be done.
[01:29:38]  And then he'll implement them in the most totally reckless, most un-American way, like Greenland coming at them like they have.
[01:29:48]  We didn't need that.
[01:29:50]  Venezuela, he could have done that differently.
[01:29:52]  It didn't require that.
[01:29:53]  But this is all a prelude for what he's doing.
[01:29:56]  When people are saying, oh, in the streets of America, people with masks and guns and pulling people out of cars, but I'm going to go to Iran and take care of these people because this is happening to them.
[01:30:09]  This is all a test for what's going down.
[01:30:11]  Trump is not going to leave the White House.
[01:30:14]  And all these wars, we're $38 trillion in debt.
[01:30:18]  You know what ruins countries when they have debt and they go to war and they don't have money, and that's where we are in his relationship with the Saudis and them being in all the dealings that we're doing now.
[01:30:32]  We never dealt with the Saudi royal family like that because our principles don't align humanitarian.
[01:30:38]  You know, somebody can get the soup to cold in their house and they'll have them out back and have them beheaded.
[01:30:44]  That's not how we operate.
[01:30:46]  You know, these wars are costing us.
[01:30:48]  Our people don't have, some people don't have food.
[01:30:51]  That poor lady, me and me, that called the other day, I'm listening to that.
[01:30:55]  You know, I'm like, thank God that, you know, somebody's hearing this, but this war that he's doing every day you wake up and it's like, what has he done now?
[01:31:07]  It's not for us.
[01:31:09]  It's all about him being able to make money.
[01:31:13]  Everything he does, he's going to make money.
[01:31:17]  The Palestinians being gone, that boy sees a resort or a tower with his name on it everywhere he goes.
[01:31:24]  His peace club with the money that he's going to be perpetually in charge of.
[01:31:29]  All of this is about money.
[01:31:30]  These wars are him gathering favors from those other authoritarians who don't mind what he's doing.
[01:31:37]  And the American people are sitting here going, okay, but what about us?
[01:31:42]  What about us?
[01:31:44]  Last day, where is the Congress got what happened?
[01:31:49]  And if we do not put Civic back in our schools, we are done.
[01:31:54]  Well, Felicia mentioned the defense budget for fiscal 26.
[01:31:59]  This is the Hill, an article about six weeks ago.
[01:32:03]  Hegseth says that Trump's $1.5 trillion defense budget request is, quote, a message to the world.
[01:32:10]  That's at thehill.com.
[01:32:12]  Let's hear from Rhonda next, Sheffield, Massachusetts, Democrat.
[01:32:16]  Rhonda, good morning.
[01:32:19]  Good morning.
[01:32:19]  Thank you for taking the call.
[01:32:22]  I cannot tell you how upset I am about hearing this news.
[01:32:28]  I knew it was inevitable because just like Venezuela, there was a talk before him to soften people and then going in.
[01:32:38]  I'm a veteran, and I have to say I served during peacetime many years ago.
[01:32:46]  And like some of the other callers, my first selection was right after Jimmy Carter had been president.
[01:32:59]  Violence begets violence.
[01:33:03]  This is a war machine.
[01:33:07]  There's the president, it all comes down to the dollar.
[01:33:14]  As our other caller has said, it's all about money.
[01:33:18]  There are big companies making enormous sums.
[01:33:23]  My tax dollars are going to support this.
[01:33:26]  And this mighty military-industrial complex, I want to encourage people to take to the streets.
[01:33:38]  That's the only way to make real change as a citizen of this country is to turn out in numbers and let our legislators know the American people are not for this.
[01:33:54]  Overall, I'm afraid for our democracy that he should be steamrolling us, President Trump, getting us involved in other people's situations.
[01:34:11]  Is there a just war?
[01:34:13]  I mean, I go back to World War II and think, well, perhaps that was a just war.
[01:34:18]  But when you dig deep, you find that it's big business and people wanting to make money.
[01:34:25]  We don't want to be puppets.
[01:34:27]  I don't want to be a puppet of my government anymore.
[01:34:31]  I have lost trust in my government, and it's frightening to see what's happening.
[01:34:38]  All right, Rhonda.
[01:34:39]  And the Omani foreign minister was involved in diplomatic talks between the United States and Iran.
[01:34:46]  He met with Vice President Vance yesterday.
[01:34:49]  He has posted on X.
[01:34:51]  He says this, I am dismayed.
[01:34:54]  Active and serious negotiations have yet again been undermined.
[01:34:58]  Neither the interests of the U.S. nor the cause of global peace are well served by this.
[01:35:03]  And I pray for the innocents who will suffer.
[01:35:05]  I urge the United States not to get sucked in further.
[01:35:09]  That's the Omani Foreign Minister.
[01:35:13]  This is Nate in Franklin, Indiana, Republican.
[01:35:16]  You're on the air, Nate.
[01:35:18]  Yes, good morning.
[01:35:20]  I am a Republican, but my first allegiance is 250 years ago, we established a government that was of the people, by the people, and for the people.
[01:35:35]  This is not what we have today.
[01:35:40]  Do I approve of the attack on Iran?
[01:35:44]  Right now, it doesn't really matter because this is not a government of the people.
[01:35:53]  There was no messages as to why we needed to do this.
[01:35:58]  And there's been a lot of talk about children and grandchildren.
[01:36:03]  Do you know right now this president is responsible for $10 trillion of our national debt?
[01:36:14]  And at the rate he is going, he will be responsible for $18 trillion of our national debt.
[01:36:24]  And that goes on a credit card that has our children and our grandchildren's name on it.
[01:36:31]  And, you know, right now, this country should be wearing a mask and a diaper.
[01:36:44]  And here's Bruce in Kingston, New York, Independent Line.
[01:36:47]  Good morning, Bruce.
[01:36:48]  Yes, good morning.
[01:36:50]  Good morning, America.
[01:36:52]  Quite a morning.
[01:36:53]  I want to point out that these people who think that war is a polar game were being led by basically a madman who's pushing us into something that is way beyond necessity.
[01:37:07]  And you have to keep in mind that Netanyahu has tried to get everybody since Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush, and Obama, all he tried to manipulate the United States to attack Iran for decades now.
[01:37:21]  And he finally succeeded in getting Trump for his own reasons to do this.
[01:37:27]  And you can't ignore that.
[01:37:29]  The fact of the matter is, we're going to pay the consequences with this when Trump uses this for his own political reasons and turns it on our domestic economy with his ICE actic tactics and sabotaging elections.
[01:37:42]  He's going to use this war as a pretext.
[01:37:45]  So we've got problems here.
[01:37:47]  We've got an impotent president who won't deal with Putin, but he's going to deal with a more or less passive-aggressive nation that has been subdued and was under negotiations.
[01:37:58]  So it's kind of mixed up why we're doing what we're doing.
[01:38:02]  I think he should be impeached, but he's got us so confused and discombobulated that, frankly, you bring up impeachments.
[01:38:11]  Oh, he's been impeached so many things.
[01:38:12]  Well, the Republicans didn't hold them accountable, and then we're paying the price.
[01:38:17]  So we can watch this go through its antics and its turns, but we're going to pay the price for this.
[01:38:24]  That's about all I really have to say about it.
[01:38:27]  Here's John, Hampton, Virginia, Democrat.
[01:38:29]  You're on the air, John.
[01:38:31]  Good morning, Mimi.
[01:38:32]  First of all, just let me say, we, the United States, who are we to tell who can and cannot have nuclear weapons?
[01:38:39]  Second of all, the guy in Texas, I think it was a young black guy in Texas, said, we don't need checks and balances.
[01:38:46]  I guarantee you when you go to this job, if he has a job, Monday morning, there's checks and balances on his job.
[01:38:54]  And talk about regime change.
[01:38:57]  Look what happened in Libya.
[01:38:59]  Look what happened in Iraq.
[01:39:01]  Why aren't we getting a regime change in Russia?
[01:39:05]  United States wants to go bomb Iran.
[01:39:07]  Why are we not helping the Ukrainians?
[01:39:10]  What's up with that?
[01:39:11]  Then you got the guy in Michigan.
[01:39:13]  You ask him, how long should the bombing continue?
[01:39:17]  He didn't answer the question.
[01:39:19]  So what I say to all these Americans that support bombing Iran, and I was an Army recruiter, take all them down to the Army Recruiting Station Monday morning at 8 o'clock, sign them up, and send a book to Iran.
[01:39:33]  Thank you.
[01:39:34]  Some live updates from the Associated Press.
[01:39:36]  This says, scenes from Tel Aviv as strikes are intercepted.
[01:39:42]  There's some pictures here from Tel Aviv.
[01:39:45]  And you can see here also update from British, it says the British Prime Minister holds emergency meeting.
[01:39:53]  The Prime Minister Kier Starmer chaired a meeting of the government's emergency committee on Saturday morning and planned to hold calls with allies in the coming hours.
[01:40:03]  Government spokesperson said, quote, we do not want to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict.

=== Tel Aviv Strikes Update (07:47) ===

[01:40:09]  It says Britain was not involved in the U.S.-Israeli strikes.
[01:40:14]  Let's hear from Paul next.
[01:40:15]  Victorville, California, Republican.
[01:40:17]  What do you think, Paul?
[01:40:19]  Oh, good morning.
[01:40:20]  Thank you.
[01:40:21]  I'm a veteran.
[01:40:23]  I was a combat officer in the Air Force, commanded nuclear weapons under Reagan.
[01:40:28]  So, as they say, serious business.
[01:40:30]  I think Trump is exercising the military pretty well, you know, especially compared to the past.
[01:40:39]  I'll keep my decor.
[01:40:41]  Both Democrats and Republicans thought Vietnam, just unbelievable malpractice in leadership with loss of life.
[01:40:50]  But I think also, real quick, just bear with me, it pertains to the point.
[01:40:55]  I just lost my great father at 93.
[01:40:58]  He was a war orphan, and the Nazis murdered my grandparents.
[01:41:04]  He was a 10-year-old child, and he somehow survived.
[01:41:07]  But I don't think people understand evil.
[01:41:10]  You know, one good thing with technology, you can, you know, they captured everything that the Nazis wrote, basically.
[01:41:19]  There's this one scene that one stage where Goring, Hitler, and that Satan in human form, Gorbos, is talking about the Russian prisoners.
[01:41:29]  They starved 3 million to death.
[01:41:32]  And Hitler asked Goring, how's our Russian prisoners?
[01:41:35]  And Goring's laughing, saying they're eating each other.
[01:41:39]  So, and the last point, I got to say in all sincerity, I think my black brothers and sisters, it comes to the point where you got to, I don't think there's anything worse than being a slave.
[01:41:54]  I would have died myself personally, but I think you reach a point where you really got to just say, okay, it was done, and let's move on.
[01:42:05]  And here's Rhonda, Sacramento, California, Independent Line.
[01:42:08]  Good morning, Rhonda.
[01:42:09]  Good morning, Mimi.
[01:42:11]  To talk with you.
[01:42:12]  Mimi, I am hearing your callers, and I appreciate their feedback on this important matter.
[01:42:18]  I think that diplomacy is very important, and I hope that in the days coming forward that that is more discussed.
[01:42:26]  But my concern, Mimi, is here in our country, and that both the Iranian president and the Iranian foreign minister stated that we are prepared to get hit.
[01:42:38]  And in so doing, that we have sleeper cells, that we will wake up in order to get our cause or whatever it is that needs to be done.
[01:42:49]  In our country, you know, we have suffered loss, the Twin Towers, and so on and so forth.
[01:42:54]  I am a retired law enforcement officer for the state of California.
[01:42:58]  I live in Sacramento County, which is the state capital of California.
[01:43:03]  And I want to tell the people in every state, be vigilant.
[01:43:07]  Keep your head on the swivel.
[01:43:09]  Be alert.
[01:43:10]  Know what's around you.
[01:43:11]  If you see something, say something.
[01:43:14]  Make the call.
[01:43:16]  Because, again, this is a very serious matter.
[01:43:19]  And we must stay protected and vigilant.
[01:43:22]  Mimi, thank you for taking my call.
[01:43:24]  And I just pray, I pray that things will come to peace.
[01:43:29]  Thank you, Mimi.
[01:43:31]  Good to talk with you.
[01:43:32]  Thank you, C-SPEN.
[01:43:33]  I love you.
[01:43:33]  Bye-bye.
[01:43:34]  Thanks, Rhonda.
[01:43:35]  And this is the New York Times from five days ago.
[01:43:39]  It said Iran could direct proxies to attack U.S. targets abroad.
[01:43:44]  Officials warned says security officials are monitoring increasingly worrisome signs as President Trump considers military action.
[01:43:53]  It says that they are monitoring signs that Iran could direct proxies to attack American targets in Europe and the Middle East if President Trump, which as we've seen, has happened.
[01:44:06]  Speaking on the condition of anonymity, it says they have not yet detected any specific plots in the works, but they say heightened chatter, which is spy jargon for electronic intercepts of terrorist communications, indicates some level of attack planning and coordination.
[01:44:23]  This is at the New York Times if you'd like to see it.
[01:44:28]  And this is Reuters reporter Phil Stewart.
[01:44:35]  Iran-aligned Iraqi group, Katayib Hezbollah, says it will soon attack U.S. bases.
[01:44:42]  That is on X. Let's hear from Rick in Virginia Democrat.
[01:44:47]  Rick, good morning.
[01:44:49]  Hey, good morning, Mimi.
[01:44:50]  Thank you for taking my call.
[01:44:52]  You know, I don't know what's going on here, Mimi.
[01:44:56]  You know, this war is ridiculous.
[01:44:59]  First of all, there's so much turmoil going on in our country.
[01:45:03]  For us to focus on other countries is ridiculous.
[01:45:05]  It doesn't make sense.
[01:45:09]  This country or this president said that he was against war, that he was coming for peace.
[01:45:16]  Iran's done nothing for us.
[01:45:18]  And quite frankly, all the Christians who are calling, or so-called Christians who are calling, it's Ramadan for them.
[01:45:25]  What are we doing?
[01:45:26]  Why are we bombing them?
[01:45:28]  Which shows kind of who this president really is.
[01:45:33]  So now, Rick, the president's, I guess the administration's argument is that Iran poses a threat to the United States.
[01:45:41]  If they were to get a nuclear weapon, they could use it against us or against our allies.
[01:45:46]  So what do you make of that argument?
[01:45:49]  How long have they had that argument, Mimi?
[01:45:52]  When he went in last, what was it, just not too long ago, he said we obliterated their nuclear arsenal.
[01:45:59]  We obliterated their nuclear capabilities.
[01:46:01]  So what are we doing?
[01:46:02]  Mimi, here's what I'd like.
[01:46:03]  Can I make a suggestion for a show for you before I get off?
[01:46:07]  Would you mind?
[01:46:07]  Sure, go ahead.
[01:46:10]  I wish you could do a show that focused on Republicans.
[01:46:14]  And I got into politics when Reagan was in office, like 40 years ago.
[01:46:19]  And that was when they were family values Republicans.
[01:46:22]  Then they went to compassionate conservative Republicans with focus on the family.
[01:46:27]  And now all of a sudden, they just want to shoot and kill people, even in this country.
[01:46:33]  We're killing people in our country.
[01:46:35]  So I'd love for you to do a show on what happened to the Republican Party.
[01:46:40]  Like, where did they go?
[01:46:41]  Because here's where they come from.
[01:46:43]  A guy like Reagan, to now we have a person as a president who we know is a racist because he put Michelle Obama and President Obama's face on monkeys, on apes.
[01:46:57]  He's a felon.
[01:46:58]  He's a sexual assaulter.
[01:47:01]  And he could be a pedophile.
[01:47:04]  And I would say for people to listen to when he talked on Howard Stern about what he did when he had his pageants, his beauty pageants, his teen beauty pageants, and what he used to do.
[01:47:15]  So, Mimi, I want you to do a show.
[01:47:17]  So we take your feedback there, Rick, and we'll move on to Stephen, who is a Republican in Long Island.
[01:47:24]  Hi, Stephen.
[01:47:25]  Hi.
[01:47:26]  So the thing that people have to remember, first of all, the Congress debated long ago about the president's power as far as over the military.
[01:47:33]  And they decided, after the president tried to use the military for many things, that the president only has 90 days to do whatever he wants with the military.
[01:47:41]  After that, he must go to Congress and ask permission for war powers.
[01:47:45]  So he has 90 days.
[01:47:46]  If we didn't have that, if we were attacked, and Congress debated this, if the Congress should hold the power themselves to declare war or not, or to use the military, if the country were attacked, and that would happen, you would have long debates.

=== Congress And Presidential Power (04:28) ===

[01:47:57]  And the fact is, we wouldn't have a country anymore or lives or anything else.
[01:48:02]  That's people who have forgotten about the Congress.
[01:48:04]  They've forgotten about the War Powers Act that were debated in Congress generations ago and decades ago.
[01:48:11]  And we've also decades ago in the United States declared that no country other than China, Russia, and us in the United States are supposed to have nuclear weapons of any kind.
[01:48:22]  And that was the whole thing.
[01:48:24]  And we've been negotiating with the Iranians for decades, basically, about not having a nuclear weapon.
[01:48:30]  That's all we've asked from Iran not to develop them.
[01:48:32]  They refused to do that one thing.
[01:48:36]  And that's all I have to say.
[01:48:38]  All right, Stephen, let's talk to Harry next, Independent, Norcross, Georgia.
[01:48:41]  Good morning.
[01:48:43]  Hey, good morning, C-SPAN.
[01:48:45]  Thank you very much.
[01:48:46]  I've been with you since 1979 when my daughter was born.
[01:48:54]  I have to say, I'm very conflicted about this because I'm not a supporter of Donald Trump at all.
[01:49:03]  But I lived in California in the 70s, and I met a bunch of wonderful Iranian people.
[01:49:11]  And not too long ago, Donald Trump mentioned to the Iranian people that they should rise up and he would come and secure their safety.
[01:49:24]  And I'm hoping for one, he's being a real human being, and he is there to free the Iranian people who have been held under this dictatorship for so long.
[01:49:40]  And so that's all I really have to say: I'm hoping to God that this man is trying to do the right thing because these people need to be freed.
[01:49:51]  Thank you, Mimi.
[01:49:53]  Let's talk to Antoinette next, Democrat in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
[01:49:58]  Yes, good morning, America.
[01:50:00]  As a foundational black American, I'm off the couch for a minute, Mimi.
[01:50:05]  Let me just say two things.
[01:50:07]  Number one, I would just like to say, as being foundational, we already know all the experiments, all the little things that go on, and we believe that he's just trying to kill birds with one stone, what he's going through, his personal thing, not dealing with us and reparations.
[01:50:27]  But then I want to say we're used to the experiments.
[01:50:31]  Now, no one's thinking, everybody's talking.
[01:50:35]  First of all, I'm not going to send my children and grandchildren there for something, his personal plight.
[01:50:41]  And then is everyone thinking about how he has always bragged about the three-football long bunker that he has?
[01:50:51]  He, his family, and friends are ready, while everybody else who's talking all this, oh, yeah, let's go get, is he going to invite you in the bunker when everything happens?
[01:51:03]  Because as far as I could see, I was watching the Iranian soap operas.
[01:51:08]  I didn't know their language, but it was in caption so I could understand.
[01:51:13]  And I liked it.
[01:51:14]  I didn't see bombs being built and all this kind of stuff.
[01:51:18]  How many years have they said that here in America?
[01:51:22]  But let's talk about us.
[01:51:24]  I have young black men being hung as we speak here in America.
[01:51:30]  Terrorism here in America.
[01:51:33]  But everybody keeps whitewashing that and developing experiments.
[01:51:41]  Just one more thing, Mimi, one more thing.
[01:51:43]  Here's something, the way we can solve a lot of things.
[01:51:46]  Let's bring up the reparations.
[01:51:48]  You'll hear the crickets croaking.
[01:51:49]  It'll be so quiet.
[01:51:52]  All right, Antoinette, we got to stay on topic, which is the attacks on Iran that are ongoing as we speak.
[01:51:59]  Here's John, a Republican in Arlington, Virginia.
[01:52:02]  Good morning.
[01:52:04]  Yeah, I just want to remind everybody, we had something called the JCPOA that the Obama administration worked out with our allies, the Russians and the Chinese, that put an intrusive set up in Iran where they would not develop a nuclear weapon.

=== Lots of Damage, Few Reminders (14:45) ===

[01:52:26]  That was set up.
[01:52:27]  And Trump pulled out of it, even at a time when his own people said the Iranians were abiding by it.
[01:52:36]  This is back in 2018.
[01:52:38]  And everything, and instead of building on that, to say, okay, we have this, now let's work out a relationship where we can make things a little more peaceful in the Middle East, including maybe stop supporting some of these ancillary groups that the Iranians had over there.
[01:52:57]  We went the other way on it, and this is a result of that, pulling out of that agreement.
[01:53:03]  The second thing is, unlike Venezuela, where the Trump administration could make a case for not going to Congress to get a declaration of war because of the nature of the operation, this was clearly a situation where they could have gone to Congress and said, we failed in negotiations.
[01:53:23]  Now we must go to war.
[01:53:26]  They didn't do that.
[01:53:27]  And there's not really much of an excuse because the Iranians weren't fooled by it.
[01:53:32]  They knew that in the midst of negotiations last June, we launched an attack on them.
[01:53:37]  So they kind of knew what was coming.
[01:53:41]  So in this case, Trump maybe should have gone to Congress and made the point, made his points, and then see what happens.
[01:53:49]  But he decided on a different course.
[01:53:52]  I don't know where this is going to end, but I just think that the whole thing's unnecessary.
[01:53:59]  All right.
[01:53:59]  And we are taking your calls throughout this hour, this program, actually, on the U.S. attack on Iran that is ongoing.
[01:54:07]  Here's Monty Spring, Texas, Independent Line.
[01:54:10]  You're on the air.
[01:54:12]  Yes, good morning, Mimi.
[01:54:13]  The first thing I'd like to remind all of our Trump fans out there is that in the wake of 9-11, Eric Trump was turning 18.
[01:54:20]  Donald Trump Jr. was in his early 20s, 23, I believe.
[01:54:24]  And in the wake of this national catastrophe, both of them ducked and hid and had no interest in serving.
[01:54:31]  While their father, it seems like, is more than ready to put anyone at risk for his personal agenda and to distract from the Epstein files.
[01:54:40]  Americans can be particularly historically ignorant.
[01:54:43]  I'd like to remind everyone that we, as Americans, our CIA, constructed the Baathist Party in Iraq as a proxy to fight against Iran.
[01:54:51]  We armed under George Bush Reagan.
[01:54:55]  We armed Iraq with weapons of mass destruction, which they utilized against Iran.
[01:55:00]  And then going back even further than that, Operation Ajax, which was led by Kermit Roosevelt, to displace a lawfully elected leader of Iraq, excuse me, Iran, Mossadegh, we replaced him with the Shah, whose SAVAC private police force wreaked havoc upon citizens.
[01:55:21]  Havoc, tortures, endless spying operations on their own citizens, until he was replaced by the mullahs.
[01:55:29]  And so, in essence, you could say that America has been basically interfering with Iranian policy over the last 50 years.
[01:55:37]  And no one is, people, they can sing you the lyric of every pop song on the radio, but no one knows our history when it comes to this country, yet they're ready to go to war.
[01:55:46]  Once again, I say that this is nothing but a distraction from the Epstein files and every other problem that this president has going on.
[01:55:52]  We cannot prove that Iran is a direct.
[01:55:54]  All right, Monty, we got that point.
[01:55:56]  And let's hear from President Trump.
[01:55:58]  He did address the nation.
[01:56:01]  He posted this on social media overnight from Mar-a-Lago.
[01:56:05]  It is eight minutes.
[01:56:06]  Here it is in its entirety.
[01:56:08]  A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.
[01:56:18]  Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.
[01:56:33]  Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.
[01:56:41]  For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted death to America and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States, our troops, and the innocent people in many, many countries.
[01:56:58]  Among the regime's very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of American hostages for 444 days.
[01:57:11]  In 1983, Iran's proxies carried out the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel.
[01:57:21]  In 2000, they knew and were probably involved with the attack on the USS Cole.
[01:57:28]  Many died.
[01:57:30]  Iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of American service members in Iraq.
[01:57:35]  The regime's proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against American forces stationed in the Middle East in recent years, as well as U.S. naval and commercial vessels in international shipping lands.
[01:57:49]  It's been mass terror, and we're not going to put up with it any longer.
[01:57:55]  From Lebanon to Yemen and Syria to Iraq, the regime has armed, trained, and funded terrorist militias that have soaked the earth with blood and guts.
[01:58:08]  And it was Iran's proxy, Hamas, that launched the monstrous October 7th attacks on Israel, slaughtering more than 1,000 innocent people, including 46 Americans, while taking 12 of our citizens hostage.
[01:58:24]  It was brutal, something like the world has never seen before.
[01:58:30]  Iran is the world's number one state sponsor of terror and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested.
[01:58:40]  It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon.
[01:58:51]  I'll say it again, they can never have a nuclear weapon.
[01:58:57]  That is why in Operation Midnight Hammer last June, we obliterated the regime's nuclear program at Fordau, Natance, and Isfahan.
[01:59:09]  After that attack, we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal.
[01:59:20]  We tried.
[01:59:21]  They wanted to do it.
[01:59:22]  They didn't want to do it.
[01:59:24]  Again, they wanted to do it.
[01:59:25]  They didn't want to do it.
[01:59:27]  They didn't know what was happening.
[01:59:28]  They just wanted to practice evil.
[01:59:31]  But Iran refused, just as it has for decades and decades.
[01:59:37]  They've rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can't take it anymore.
[01:59:45]  Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland.
[02:00:04]  Just imagine how emboldened this regime would be if they ever had and actually were armed with nuclear weapons as a means to deliver their message.
[02:00:16]  For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.
[02:00:32]  We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground.
[02:00:37]  It will be totally, again, obliterated.
[02:00:42]  We are going to annihilate their Navy.
[02:00:44]  We are going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces and no longer use their IEDs or roadside bombs, as they are sometimes called, to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans.
[02:01:07]  And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.
[02:01:12]  It's a very simple message.
[02:01:15]  They will never have a nuclear weapon.
[02:01:18]  This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States armed forces.
[02:01:26]  I built and rebuilt our military in my first administration, and there is no military on earth even close to its power, strength, or sophistication.
[02:01:38]  My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region.
[02:01:45]  Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill.
[02:01:53]  The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties.
[02:01:59]  That often happens in war, but we're doing this not for now.
[02:02:03]  We're doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission.
[02:02:08]  We pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran.
[02:02:19]  We ask God to protect all of our heroes in harm's way, and we trust that with his help, the men and women of the armed forces will prevail.
[02:02:30]  We have the greatest in the world, and they will prevail.
[02:02:33]  To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces, and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or in the alternative, face certain death.
[02:02:50]  So, lay down your arms.
[02:02:53]  You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death.
[02:03:00]  Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.
[02:03:07]  Stay sheltered.
[02:03:08]  Don't leave your home.
[02:03:09]  It's very dangerous outside.
[02:03:11]  Bombs will be dropping everywhere.
[02:03:13]  When we are finished, take over your government.
[02:03:16]  It will be yours to take.
[02:03:18]  This will be probably your only chance for generations.
[02:03:24]  For many years, you have asked for America's help, but you never got it.
[02:03:28]  No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight.
[02:03:33]  Now you have a president who is giving you what you want.
[02:03:36]  So let's see how you respond.
[02:03:39]  America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force.
[02:03:44]  Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.
[02:03:53]  This is the moment for action.
[02:03:55]  Do not let it pass.
[02:03:57]  May God bless the brave men and women of America's armed forces.
[02:04:02]  May God bless the United States of America.
[02:04:05]  May God bless you all.
[02:04:07]  Thank you.
[02:04:09]  And welcome back to the program.
[02:04:10]  If you're just joining us, as you just heard from the President, the U.S. and Israel have begun massive strikes on Iran that started overnight, our time here in Washington.
[02:04:22]  It is ongoing now in Iran.
[02:04:24]  There have been retaliatory strikes against Israel and U.S. bases in the region.
[02:04:30]  And joining us to talk about that and to take your calls is Elise Labbitt.
[02:04:35]  She is a global affairs journalist and founder of the Cosmopolitics substack.
[02:04:40]  Elise, thank you for joining us today.
[02:04:42]  Thank you.
[02:04:42]  Just want to get your reaction real quick to the President's address.
[02:04:46]  Well, I think it is the kind of address in some ways that the American public and allies around the world were looking for.
[02:04:54]  There was a lot of rhetoric, a lot of tweets, a lot of threats about taking action against Iran.
[02:05:00]  But, you know, the argument for action is pretty clear, right?
[02:05:06]  Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism.
[02:05:09]  Iran is amassing a nuclear weapon.
[02:05:11]  They have long-range missiles.
[02:05:12]  They're a threat to the region.
[02:05:14]  They're a threat to allies and to U.S. security.
[02:05:17]  But I think the American people are accustomed to a debate before, you know, we're going to war with Iran.
[02:05:25]  This is not, you know, a little pinprick strike and this is done.
[02:05:29]  Do we know that at this point, though, Elise?
[02:05:31]  I mean, it could be a few strikes and then it's over.
[02:05:34]  You know, look, what do we call, what do we consider war, right?
[02:05:38]  Is war when we spend a long time bombing somebody?
[02:05:42]  Iran is already retaliating in the region against U.S. interests.
[02:05:47]  So war is two countries fighting one another, no matter, you know, we had a 12-day war in June.
[02:05:55]  So in the sense that the argument, and he made his case for why he struck Iran.
[02:06:02]  But I think what Americans want to know, and I think what's been kind of lacking, is what's the strategy here?
[02:06:10]  What's the end game?
[02:06:11]  Is this just to destroy the nuclear arsenal that he said that we obliterated in June?
[02:06:19]  They did make a lot of damage.
[02:06:21]  Let's be clear.
[02:06:22]  There was a lot of damage, but clearly there was more work to be done.
[02:06:26]  Is the goal regime change?
[02:06:27]  Is the goal containment?
[02:06:29]  Is the goal just going after those nuclear missiles?
[02:06:33]  Each of those actions has specific risks and consequences and durations and resources that the U.S. needs to put in.
[02:06:42]  And I think this kind of reminds me a little bit of, you know, Raleigh.
[02:06:47]  He's got the USA hat.
[02:06:48]  He's, you know, really kind of trying to rally the American public and, you know, the troops behind this mission.
[02:06:55]  But what I think we also need to have is, you know, I would have liked to see him in the Oval Office.
[02:07:01]  This is a very somber decision.
[02:07:03]  It's the most serious decision a president could take to send military action against another country.

=== 60 Days of Military Action (11:30) ===

[02:07:11]  And he did, we can talk a little bit more about what he was saying about, you know, this is time for freedom for Iran, talking to the Iranian people.
[02:07:19]  So you did say, you know, you questioned, is regime change an objective here of the United States?
[02:07:24]  I mean, didn't he make that clear that this is time for the, and this is the only time for the Iranian people to take away from the United States.
[02:07:31]  It's time for the Iranian people to launch regime change.
[02:07:34]  He didn't say we're targeting, and he wasn't even talking really about the targets.
[02:07:40]  You've heard from Israeli officials a little bit more about the targets.
[02:07:43]  And you see that they went after the Supreme Leader's compound.
[02:07:48]  U.S. sent Israel pretty good intelligence.
[02:07:52]  He probably wasn't there, and they probably knew that, but still, it's a very symbolic gesture.
[02:07:58]  I think what they're trying to do is get rid of as many generals as they can so that it's hard for the Iranian military to respond.
[02:08:08]  Again, we could talk a little bit more about what the campaign could be, but he wasn't saying the United States is seeking to get rid of the Iranian regime like he did say, although it wasn't really regime change in Venezuela.
[02:08:23]  He said to the Iranian people, it's time for you to rise up, when we're done, take over your government.
[02:08:30]  We're prepping the battlefield for you.
[02:08:32]  Let's see how you respond.
[02:08:34]  This is the time for action for the Iranian people.
[02:08:37]  Not for us, necessarily.
[02:08:38]  And, you know, history shows that military action in strikes and drones and so forth is really not enough to get rid of a regime.
[02:08:51]  You're going to need boots on the ground.
[02:08:52]  And I think the president has been pretty clear that he doesn't want to put U.S. troops at risk here.
[02:08:57]  Now, there were supposed to be diplomatic talks with Iran on Monday, day after tomorrow.
[02:09:03]  I'm assuming those are off.
[02:09:06]  I mean, I think they're probably off, but we had heard in the days leading up to the talks and the strikes that the president could launch a little strike to motivate the Iranians, give them an incentive, the carrot and the stick.
[02:09:25]  I think the talks are probably off.
[02:09:27]  I think the president realized that the Iranians are not really serious here about negotiating an end to their nuclear program and along with Israel decided to make the Decided to, you know, go for it.
[02:09:43]  I don't think this is about coercion.
[02:09:47]  I think it's more about deterrence and really eliminating the Iranian threat, which is something this president said he wants to do.
[02:09:55]  Well, Elise Labbitt is with us in the studio, and we are taking your calls.
[02:09:59]  We will start with Charles, who's calling us from North Carolina on the independent line.
[02:10:04]  Hi, Charles.
[02:10:08]  Charles, are you there?
[02:10:10]  Yeah, I'm here.
[02:10:12]  First of all, I'd like to bring about the fact that according to the War Powers Act, the president has 60 days to do with the military whatever he wants.
[02:10:28]  He has to notify Congress after 48 hours.
[02:10:36]  And there's nothing they can legally do about that.
[02:10:43]  Now, he can also have it extended another 30 days after that to remove the troops safely.
[02:10:53]  But these people coming on and whining about why Congress doesn't do anything, it's because they can't.
[02:11:01]  They cannot legally do anything for 60 days.
[02:11:08]  All right, Charles, let's get a response.
[02:11:09]  Well, you know, Charles has a really good point.
[02:11:13]  You know, there's about what he could do and has to do, and then there's about what he should do.
[02:11:19]  And I think he did notify what they call the Gang of Eight, which are the senior leadership of both chambers and the intelligence, foreign affairs, military, you know, the relevant national security committees.
[02:11:32]  I think he did notify them.
[02:11:34]  But this goes back to what we were talking about earlier.
[02:11:38]  And, you know, Charles raises the War Powers Act.
[02:11:41]  Is this a war?
[02:11:42]  Is this a military campaign that's going to be done?
[02:11:46]  Or is he looking at an extended deployment of U.S. forces in the region?
[02:11:53]  So far, this president has not notified Congress, sought congressional approval.
[02:11:58]  And he's not alone.
[02:11:59]  I mean, not many people in this modern age do.
[02:12:04]  You know, Roosevelt did before World War II.
[02:12:07]  Johnson did when he escalated in Vietnam.
[02:12:12]  President George W. Bush did when he was going to Iraq.
[02:12:18]  But President Obama, President Biden, President Trump have not really consulted with Congress in the way that I think Congress would like.
[02:12:31]  And I think this is not going to be enough for many members of Congress, including even the Republicans, I think, that are happy about.
[02:12:42]  I don't think anybody that understands the Iranian threat thinks that there's no cause for action against Iraq, but how you do it, how long you do it, consultation with Congress, again, what's the end game, what's the strategy.
[02:12:58]  So Charles makes a good point that Congress is limited about military action, but if this is a long-term war, then maybe he should talk to Congress and have more consultations.
[02:13:15]  And I'm sure Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and others will be on the Hill this week.
[02:13:20]  On the Republican line in Akron, New York, this is Michelle.
[02:13:23]  Hello.
[02:13:24]  Hi.
[02:13:27]  Where to start here?
[02:13:28]  I have a few comments because it's relevant, but I do support exactly what he's doing for various reasons.
[02:13:36]  First of all, I remember the Carter years, and I remember Terry Anderson coming home and us all waiting.
[02:13:43]  That was one thing.
[02:13:43]  And Terry Anderson was one of the ones that was captured.
[02:13:46]  It was horrible.
[02:13:47]  And I support people.
[02:13:50]  I don't mean to be all over the place.
[02:13:51]  I'm a little flustered.
[02:13:52]  First time calling.
[02:13:53]  It's morning.
[02:13:54]  It's also morning, Michelle.
[02:13:56]  Yeah, that's right, huh?
[02:13:57]  You're telling me, and I've been watching this up for a few hours to try to find out facts right from the horse's mouth, so to speak.
[02:14:03]  People keep wanting to attack him for everything, and he doesn't want to go any longer.
[02:14:08]  And I'm no Trump lover himself, you know.
[02:14:11]  I do agree with the one caller, too, with civics that she said it should be taught more in school.
[02:14:18]  And, oh, God, I'm all over the place.
[02:14:19]  This is horrible.
[02:14:21]  And we had the Lackawanna Six here, which was a problem, which most of America doesn't know.
[02:14:26]  But I guess I'm just trying to say the most common Americans are only having today's view or listening to gossip and cherry-pick different facts and stuff like that.
[02:14:34]  My point is, I am a little bit savvy in civics and global stuff.
[02:14:38]  It's just not coming out right.
[02:14:40]  People don't understand that Russia is part of helping fund Ukraine, which is indirect with that, or Iran.
[02:14:47]  And they need to be put in their place.
[02:14:49]  It's not going to be a lengthy thing.
[02:14:52]  I really don't feel it's going to be because of the way it's already set up.
[02:14:55]  And everyone's making more out of everything than it is, Netanyahu and all this money grabbing.
[02:15:01]  All right, Michelle.
[02:15:02]  Well, let's get to a lot to unpack, as Michelle said.
[02:15:06]  And she's right about the civics.
[02:15:07]  Like, there is a big movement now to increase civics and about the things we're talking about, like Charles said, or, you know, how does government work?
[02:15:18]  What are the powers of the Congress?
[02:15:19]  What are the powers of the executive and things like that?
[02:15:25]  I think that this president, more than most, has been very decisive about he doesn't make threats.
[02:15:32]  And if he says he wants to do something, generally he does it.
[02:15:37]  You know, there's a lot of talk about, you know, Trump chickens out.
[02:15:40]  But I think when he made pretty clear that he was going to go after the Iranians, and he's done it.
[02:15:48]  He hasn't gone after Vladimir Putin as of yet, but he has gotten much tougher and given the Ukrainian weapons that they want.
[02:15:56]  So I think a lot of people are going to be, I think the American people will be genuinely happy about this.
[02:16:03]  But again, I think they would like a little bit more than what they saw on TV.
[02:16:08]  It'll be interesting to see how the American public reacts.
[02:16:10]  Well, let's hear from Joanna Fresno, California, Democrat.
[02:16:13]  Good morning, Joanna.
[02:16:15]  Hi, how are you?
[02:16:16]  Good.
[02:16:16]  Well, I kind of got a few things to say on Iran.
[02:16:20]  You know, we need, in my opinion, we need the royalties to step in because I feel like a lot of things recently that Trump has done really constitute a lot of war crimes, you know.
[02:16:34]  And, you know, Congress, as far as the Republican Party, I don't feel that they're stepping in and stepping up and putting checks and balances on Trump.
[02:16:43]  I don't feel like they're taking their responsibility as part of Congress to tell and enforce their part of our Constitution.
[02:16:58]  I feel like it's whatever Trump says goes, and nobody is standing up to stop him.
[02:17:04]  You know, they're barely even starting to speak out.
[02:17:07]  But more so than that, I feel like the head of the stake, and the problem is our Supreme Court.
[02:17:13]  I feel like from the head down, we need to go and have an independent investigation on Roberts, Thomas, Barrett, Kavanaugh.
[02:17:23]  You know, they're all in those Epstein files, but more so than that.
[02:17:26]  Sorry, Joanna, sticking with Iran.
[02:17:29]  She mentioned war.
[02:17:30]  I'll just say on the Supreme Court, just to kind of put that away.
[02:17:34]  I mean, I think we saw that with the tariffs that, you know, and Kavanaugh as well, like, you know, I think this Supreme Court feels very strongly about executive power, but, you know, they just snapped him down on, you know, the tariff.
[02:17:50]  So I don't think it's 100% that they're in, you know, a lot of people think that, you know, Trump tells them what to do and they do it.
[02:17:56]  I don't think that's 100% the case.
[02:18:00]  But on the Iran aspect and what Joanna says about world court, if you think he doesn't listen to Congress, you know, the ICC, I think when she means the world court, the International Criminal Court, the U.S. is not party to the ICC.
[02:18:15]  It doesn't accept the legitimacy of it.
[02:18:18]  In fact, when you saw what they did with Israel in indicting President Prime Minister Netanyahu, they launched sanctions against the court.
[02:18:26]  Several people of the court can't even come to the United States.
[02:18:28]  So, I mean, I think we are where we are in terms of there are a lot of concerns about that the president is using extrajudicial power, abusive power.

=== No Unifying Figure (04:24) ===

[02:18:42]  And it's really up to Congress and the courts to, that's why we have those checks and balances.
[02:18:49]  And I think we're starting to see a little bit more of that.
[02:18:52]  And as we move towards November, and members of the Republican Party get a little bit more kind of self-preservationist, if you will, and then after the midterms, I think there'll be a little bit more of the Congress holding him to account.
[02:19:10]  Here's an update from Idris Ali, a Reuters reporter, who says several senior Revolutionary Guards commanders and political officials have been killed in the U.S.-Israeli strikes.
[02:19:23]  What impact do you think that could have?
[02:19:24]  Well, I think it could have a lot of impact because don't forget they killed a lot in June.
[02:19:31]  And so what I think they're doing right now is they're going at they're shaping what they call shaping the battlefield, right?
[02:19:38]  They're launching a lot of strikes against commanders, against air defenses, against runways, all the stuff that the Iranians can fight back with and retaliate, including personnel and including strategists like commanders.
[02:19:56]  And then they're going to assess how much damage did we do.
[02:20:01]  We're shaping the battlefield for further attacks.
[02:20:04]  It doesn't have to be long, but this could be a pretty significant attack.
[02:20:09]  You did see that the Iranians were ready with a response, right?
[02:20:15]  They went after the UAE where their bases in Qatar.
[02:20:20]  They're going after U.S. allies in the region where the U.S. has interests.
[02:20:24]  So they were ready.
[02:20:25]  They're also striking back against Israel, not significantly, and Israel has been able to intercept those.
[02:20:33]  But the goal for what's going on in this first day is for them to kind of open the door and break or break down the door and get as much, do as much damage as they can so that Iran can't come back and then go again.
[02:20:48]  Well, so somebody who is positioning himself to walk through that door is the former crown prince.
[02:20:54]  This is the eldest son of the last Europe right now.
[02:20:59]  In fact, yes, he is.
[02:21:00]  And what do we know about him and what kind of a leader could he be?
[02:21:05]  Would the Iranian people accept him as a leader?
[02:21:08]  Listen, I mean, he's a controversial figure, and also...
[02:21:13]  Because of him or because of his father?
[02:21:16]  Because of his father and the whole history behind the Shah's rule.
[02:21:22]  But what he has been is you've seen over the last many years, the Iranian people can rise up against their government, but there's no unifying figure in the opposition.
[02:21:34]  It's always kind of been leaderless, unorganized, headless.
[02:21:39]  And they've done a lot of, they've shown a lot of resistance to the regime, but there's never been this unifying figure.
[02:21:46]  It looks as if Reza Pahlavi can be that unifying bridge figure.
[02:21:52]  I don't think he's the future leader of Iran, maybe.
[02:21:57]  But I do think he's someone that people can rally around in terms of this is someone that could get us to that next phase.
[02:22:04]  Kind of like it should have been Hamid Karzai ended up being the president of Afghanistan for quite a long time.
[02:22:14]  But I think that's how people saw Hamid Karzai after the war in Afghanistan.
[02:22:18]  He could take the Afghans from war to this next phase and help them rebuild.
[02:22:27]  And then, you know, Afghanistan was hopefully going to be a democracy.
[02:22:32]  We saw what that happened.
[02:22:33]  You know, a lot of people say that they like him.
[02:22:36]  A lot of people say that they don't.
[02:22:38]  But I do think he's seen as somebody that people can look to to see a future without this regime.
[02:22:49]  And I just want to correct something.
[02:22:50]  I do think that he's in the United States.
[02:22:52]  I don't know where he is currently, but he was exiled to the U.S. after leaving.
[02:22:58]  Oh, yes.
[02:22:59]  And also, I mean, listen, he, I think today he may be.
[02:23:02]  I mean, I know he's been in the United States.
[02:23:05]  Look, he's been at Mar-a-Lago.

=== Chris On Transparency (15:29) ===

[02:23:06]  He's met with a lot of U.S. officials.
[02:23:09]  I think he's met with Steve Witkoff.
[02:23:11]  And I don't know if he's met with Jared Kushner.
[02:23:14]  He's in with, you know, he's in with this administration.
[02:23:18]  I think it's possible that the administration looks to him if they're able to do something that the regime is toppled.
[02:23:29]  And again, I think it's going to be up to the Iranian people to topple the regime.
[02:23:33]  I don't think that the U.S. is going to do an Iraq-like occupation of Iran.
[02:23:40]  You're going to need troops and what we call boots on the ground for that.
[02:23:44]  I don't see that happening.
[02:23:46]  Let's talk to Ray in Illinois, Independent Line.
[02:23:49]  Hi, Ray.
[02:23:49]  You're on the air.
[02:23:50]  Hi.
[02:23:51]  Yeah.
[02:23:52]  I'm watching all this and everybody is saying, you know, we shouldn't do it.
[02:23:58]  We should do it.
[02:23:59]  I don't agree with a bunch of stuff Trump does, but this one I actually do.
[02:24:06]  Because if you put Iran on the border of the U.S. and they have the capability of putting a bomb somewhere, everybody, in my thinking, would say we can't let that happen.
[02:24:25]  So I am in total support of this.
[02:24:28]  Other things, no.
[02:24:30]  But we've been dealing with this for, what, 40, 50 years.
[02:24:38]  And sanctions, we all know, look at Putin.
[02:24:42]  We all know sanctions don't work.
[02:24:46]  They find ways around it, you know, negotiations.
[02:24:51]  Oh, this, this, this, and that, you know.
[02:24:54]  And this was a good call to me around the world that when our president or our government says something and says you have a limited time to do the right thing, now they know that you have a limited time.
[02:25:17]  And if you don't do it, stuff like this happens.
[02:25:21]  And stuff like this needs to happen.
[02:25:23]  I mean, we are the global peacekeepers, not Europe.
[02:25:28]  We are.
[02:25:30]  So, Elise, I just want to talk about the timing because, you know, Iranian negotiators are known to just stall and to use diplomacy as a way to stall so that they could advance their nuclear.
[02:25:43]  I will say that the Omani foreign minister and the Imanis were leading, kind of mediating the talks, was just meeting with the vice president yesterday in Washington.
[02:25:57]  And I think today he's feeling this is not a show of good faith.
[02:26:01]  But he was in the room and he knew the negotiations weren't going bad, going well.
[02:26:06]  I mean, Steve Witkoff said the other day, I don't know why the Iranians just don't capitulate.
[02:26:11]  I think there's a lack of understanding in this administration about the Iranians themselves and why they don't capitulate.
[02:26:21]  And why don't they?
[02:26:22]  I mean, what's the misunderstanding?
[02:26:24]  The regime's whole essence is about not capitulating to the United States, not capitulating to the great Satan.
[02:26:32]  It's regime survival.
[02:26:34]  Those are a little bit antithetical because if it's about regime survival, they would not want this.
[02:26:42]  But they also not capitulating to the United States is really ingrained in them.
[02:26:49]  And that's why I think the old Iran nuclear deal that the Obama administration negotiated in some ways was very artful because a negotiation is about giving each party something that lets them walk away feeling, okay, I got something here.
[02:27:09]  The Iranians got a lot of sanctions lifted.
[02:27:13]  They did destroy some of their nuclear material.
[02:27:18]  We don't know what would have happened if President Trump didn't walk away from that deal.
[02:27:25]  It's possible that the Iranians would be able to rebuild.
[02:27:28]  The Iranians clearly were not willing to do what the administration wanted them to do in this deal, which was a total capitulation, a surrender.
[02:27:39]  Well, here is El Jazeera English posting on X that Iran's deputy minister of foreign affairs condemned U.S.-Israeli strikes, saying they came during negotiations on a nuclear deal and cast doubt on Washington's commitment to peace.
[02:27:54]  He said Iran reserves the right to self-defense and will respond to what it calls aggression.
[02:28:00]  Let's go ahead and play that video that he posted.
[02:28:03]  Iran strongly condemns these aerostrix.
[02:28:05]  From our perspective, they constitute a clear violation of the UN Charter, especially the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and prohibition of use of force.
[02:28:14]  Military attacks on Iranian territory undermines international law and threaten regional peace and stability.
[02:28:19]  Iran has always emphasized that disputes should be resolved through diplomacy, not through force.
[02:28:24]  You know, the timing is deeply troubling.
[02:28:26]  Iran entered diplomatic contacts in good faith because we believe that dialogue and diplomacy are the most responsible ways to reduce tensions and avoid conflict.
[02:28:35]  When military attacks take place through diplomatic engagement, it damages trust and raises serious doubts about the commitment to peaceful solutions.
[02:28:44]  Iran's response is based on the inherent rights of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter.
[02:28:50]  When a state faces an armed attack, it has a right to defend itself and its people and territory.
[02:28:56]  At the same time, we deeply regret that human suffering caused by for the human sufferings caused by this escalation.
[02:29:02]  Iran is rightly and that was the Iranian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs speaking to El Jazeera English.
[02:29:11]  Elise Labbitt is with us and we're taking your calls throughout the program.
[02:29:16]  We will go to Chris in Catooza, Oklahoma, Republican line.
[02:29:20]  Chris, you're on the air.
[02:29:22]  Yes, so I'm calling in as a Republican.
[02:29:25]  And something that I believe is, believe in is a strong national defense.
[02:29:30]  But I also believe that accountability is needed and clear objectives when it comes to military action.
[02:29:39]  I'm a younger person.
[02:29:42]  So I grew up watching, of course, the aftermath of the Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush administration.
[02:29:49]  And we were told that there were weapons of mass destruction that didn't ultimately hold up the way they were presented, which then led to a conflict that lasted for most of my childhood.
[02:30:04]  So when new military action begins, I don't think it's unreasonable for Americans, especially younger Americans, to ask for solid evidence, transparency, and a clearly defined goal.
[02:30:17]  If the objective is deterrence, that's one thing.
[02:30:20]  But if it moves towards a regime change, that's something that the American public has shown deep skepticism towards after the last two decades.
[02:30:31]  And when there are still unanswered questions in cases involving the powerful elites like Epstein, it contributes to a broader distrust in institutions.
[02:30:41]  I'm not saying that everything is connected, but when transparency feels inconsistent, people start questioning whether they're getting the full picture.
[02:30:50]  For my generation, trust isn't something that's automatic.
[02:30:53]  It has to be earned, especially when lives and long-term consequences are involved.
[02:31:01]  Elise, I can't argue with any of that, Chris.
[02:31:06]  I think that this administration is very big on, we did this, trust us.
[02:31:15]  There's very, you know, look at what happened with Venezuela, right?
[02:31:18]  There was very little evidence about these Fisher boats, any of these people that they killed in those boats, who they were.
[02:31:29]  We just have to take it on faith, basically, and trust that this administration was going after drug traffickers.
[02:31:36]  I'm not saying that they weren't, but they provided very little evidence.
[02:31:41]  They said they had it, but they didn't provide it.
[02:31:44]  And so I think, look, I think on Iran, the evidence is pretty clear.
[02:31:49]  I don't think it's what they're saying in terms of the contours of the Iranian nuclear program and how far, you know, was it the president that said that Iran is like two weeks from a nuclear weapon?
[02:32:02]  That's not true.
[02:32:04]  How much do we know about that, though, Elise?
[02:32:06]  As far as the United States in general, our intelligence into their program.
[02:32:10]  Intelligence is that they're still building their nuclear weapons.
[02:32:14]  They have a huge nuclear stockpile still.
[02:32:18]  They are working on what we call weaponization, which is fitting a miniature nuclear warhead on a long-range missile, an ICBM, if you will, intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the United States.
[02:32:33]  They're nowhere near that yet.
[02:32:35]  That's not that they're not working for it.
[02:32:38]  So the threat, I wouldn't say the threat is imminent, but the Iranians are working on it.
[02:32:45]  And, you know, the Israelis have always said, we want to do it before the train leaves the station.
[02:32:51]  And clearly, President Trump is in that.
[02:32:53]  You know, there are, I think, as I said, I don't think a lot of people are saying that Iran is this innocent country that didn't deserve military action.
[02:33:03]  But I think, as Chris said, you know, that transparency about what we're doing, why, what the end game is, what the potential consequences are.
[02:33:12]  You know, you know, President Trump wants to reduce oil prices.
[02:33:16]  Oil prices are going to spike now, I would bet on Monday.
[02:33:21]  You know, how is this going to affect your own prices?
[02:33:24]  What about if I have a person in the military?
[02:33:27]  Are you putting boots on the ground?
[02:33:28]  I don't think he is, but I think the Americans, as Chris said, are looking for that transparency.
[02:33:34]  They want to trust their government.
[02:33:36]  There are a lot of reasons why they don't trust this administration.
[02:33:39]  I think this is one where they could if the president were willing to have that conversation with the American people or have Marco Rubio or another people in his administration have that conversation.
[02:33:52]  Well, we are taking your calls throughout this program on U.S. strikes on Iran that are currently underway in the region.
[02:34:00]  Tehran is responding on U.S. military bases in the region.
[02:34:04]  And President Trump did address the nation early this morning.
[02:34:08]  This is hearing his comments in their entirety.
[02:34:13]  A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.
[02:34:22]  Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.
[02:34:37]  Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.
[02:34:46]  For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted death to America and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States, our troops, and the innocent people in many, many countries.
[02:35:03]  Among the regime's very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of American hostages for 444 days.
[02:35:15]  In 1983, Iran's proxies carried out the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel.
[02:35:26]  In 2000, they knew and were probably involved with the attack on the USS Cole.
[02:35:33]  Many died.
[02:35:34]  Iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of American service members in Iraq.
[02:35:40]  The regime's proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against American forces stationed in the Middle East in recent years, as well as U.S. naval and commercial vessels in international shipping lands.
[02:35:54]  It's been mass terror, and we're not going to put up with it any longer.
[02:36:00]  From Lebanon to Yemen and Syria to Iraq, the regime has armed, trained, and funded terrorist militias that have soaked the earth with blood and guts.
[02:36:13]  And it was Iran's proxy, Hamas, that launched the monstrous October 7th attacks on Israel, slaughtering more than 1,000 innocent people, including 46 Americans, while taking 12 of our citizens hostage.
[02:36:29]  It was brutal, something like the world has never seen before.
[02:36:35]  Iran is the world's number one state sponsor of terror and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested.
[02:36:45]  It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon.
[02:36:56]  I'll say it again.
[02:36:57]  They can never have a nuclear weapon.
[02:37:01]  That is why in Operation Midnight Hammer last June, we obliterated the regime's nuclear program at Fordau, Natance, and Isfahan.
[02:37:13]  After that attack, we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal.
[02:37:24]  We tried.
[02:37:26]  They wanted to do it.
[02:37:27]  They didn't want to do it.
[02:37:28]  Again, they wanted to do it.
[02:37:30]  They didn't want to do it.
[02:37:31]  They didn't know what was happening.
[02:37:33]  They just wanted to practice evil.
[02:37:36]  But Iran refused, just as it has for decades and decades.
[02:37:41]  They've rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can't take it anymore.
[02:37:49]  Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland.
[02:38:09]  Just imagine how emboldened this regime would be if they ever had and actually were armed with nuclear weapons as a means to deliver their message.
[02:38:20]  For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.

=== U.S. Military Action Against Iran (15:08) ===

[02:38:36]  We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground.
[02:38:42]  It will be totally, again, obliterated.
[02:38:46]  We are going to annihilate their Navy.
[02:38:49]  We are going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces and no longer use their IEDs or roadside bombs, as they are sometimes called, to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans.
[02:39:12]  And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.
[02:39:17]  It's a very simple message.
[02:39:19]  They will never have a nuclear weapon.
[02:39:23]  This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States armed forces.
[02:39:31]  I built and rebuilt our military in my first administration, and there is no military on earth even close to its power, strength, or sophistication.
[02:39:43]  My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region.
[02:39:50]  Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill.
[02:39:58]  The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties.
[02:40:04]  That often happens in war, but we're doing this not for now.
[02:40:08]  We're doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission.
[02:40:13]  We pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran.
[02:40:24]  We ask God to protect all of our heroes in harm's way, and we trust that, with his help, the men and women of the armed forces will prevail.
[02:40:35]  We have the greatest in the world, and they will prevail.
[02:40:38]  To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces, and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or in the alternative, face certain death.
[02:40:55]  So, lay down your arms.
[02:40:57]  You will be treated fairly with total immunity or you will face certain death.
[02:41:04]  Finally, to the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.
[02:41:11]  Stay sheltered.
[02:41:13]  Don't leave your home.
[02:41:14]  It's very dangerous outside.
[02:41:16]  Bombs will be dropping everywhere.
[02:41:18]  When we are finished, take over your government.
[02:41:21]  It will be yours to take.
[02:41:23]  This will be probably your only chance for generations.
[02:41:28]  For many years, you have asked for America's help, but you never got it.
[02:41:33]  No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight.
[02:41:37]  Now you have a president who is giving you what you want.
[02:41:41]  So let's see how you respond.
[02:41:43]  America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force.
[02:41:48]  Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.
[02:41:58]  This is the moment for action.
[02:42:00]  Do not let it pass.
[02:42:02]  May God bless the brave men and women of America's armed forces.
[02:42:06]  May God bless the United States of America.
[02:42:10]  May God bless you all.
[02:42:12]  Thank you.
[02:42:13]  That was President Trump early this morning from Mar-a-Lago, and we are taking your calls throughout this program.
[02:42:21]  We've got Elise Labbitt with us.
[02:42:23]  She's a global affairs journalist and Substack founder of the Cosmopolitics Substack.
[02:42:30]  Elise, real quick, a reaction to that.
[02:42:32]  Anything jump out at you from that address?
[02:42:35]  Well, we were talking earlier in the hour about is this war and should the president go to Congress to declare, you know, only the Congress really can give the president the authority to declare war.
[02:42:48]  He just called it a war.
[02:42:50]  He said people could be killed, troops could be killed.
[02:42:54]  This happens in war.
[02:42:57]  So he's calling it a war.
[02:42:59]  And if that's the case, there should be more involvement by Congress here.
[02:43:05]  I think declaring, you know, this administration, again, kind of does a lot of things, but doesn't do them by the book.
[02:43:14]  That's fine in some cases.
[02:43:17]  But if you're actually considering a country at war with another, you know, just the president can't be involved in that.
[02:43:25]  So according to the War Powers Act, that means he's got 48 hours to notify Congress and then somewhere between 60 to 90 days to finish up unless he gets authorization by Congress.
[02:43:36]  Right, but is there a declaration of war?
[02:43:39]  He just declared it in that speech.
[02:43:42]  All right, and so I think it was also interesting.
[02:43:44]  The other thing I think is interesting here is about what he's saying to the IRGC, which is lay down your weapons.
[02:43:54]  You'll have total immunity.
[02:43:57]  What does that mean?
[02:43:58]  Does that mean total immunity from the U.S. killing you?
[02:44:01]  Does that mean total immunity from prosecution by a future Iranian government?
[02:44:06]  It's not really clear what that means.
[02:44:08]  Which he can't necessarily promise because the Iranians will have to make that decision.
[02:44:15]  I would say you're not going to see.
[02:44:17]  You might see one or a couple of IRGC.
[02:44:20]  Generally, the IRGC is pretty militant and will not, I don't see a lot of defections from the IRGC right now.
[02:44:30]  All right, let's go to calls, and we'll start with Glenda in Dallas.
[02:44:34]  Line for Democrats.
[02:44:35]  Good morning, Glenda.
[02:44:37]  Good morning.
[02:44:38]  I have had a time listening to everything before I came on, but I'm not going to be distracted.
[02:44:44]  I first want to say good morning, America.
[02:44:46]  I love America.
[02:44:48]  I love C-SPAN because they allow us to hear things all around what's going on around the world today, globally.
[02:44:58]  But my concern is I want to go back a minute to when our president, it goes back when he taken our embassy out of Gaza and put it into Israel, which allowed Israel to be able to bomb Palestine.
[02:45:21]  Wait, hold on, hold on.
[02:45:22]  We never had an American embassy in the West Bank or in Gaza.
[02:45:30]  We had an embassy, Glenda, in Tel Aviv.
[02:45:36]  And during his first term, the president moved it to Jerusalem, which was very controversial because that's technically contested territory.
[02:45:45]  And he was recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of an Israeli state when that's still an issue technically that the Israelis and Palestinians are supposed to negotiate.
[02:45:55]  They're supposed to negotiate.
[02:45:56]  But I did see that now, getting a little off topic, the administration is now issuing passports for West Bank settlements, which is quite interesting.
[02:46:10]  Maybe a topic for another day.
[02:46:12]  All right.
[02:46:12]  Well, go ahead, Glenda, with your comment.
[02:46:15]  Yes, that's my point.
[02:46:16]  I appreciate you correcting that because truth is so important.
[02:46:20]  And how Netanyahu has really treated, you know, is it Palestinians, the Palestinians, the Palestinian people, okay, and like a dictatorship.
[02:46:33]  And he's now moving on.
[02:46:35]  They said he has bombed more people over there than anyone.
[02:46:39]  He's bombing.
[02:46:40]  He acts like a dictatorship.
[02:46:42]  And it's supported by the America, by our government, our president here.
[02:46:47]  And what really concerns me and amazed me is that how our president talks so much like a dictator himself, the way he has just started talking to Iran like he has, when he has seemed to have favor, you know, like interest in the dictatorship and like Putin and him not standing up, Putin, him not doing more for Ukraine.
[02:47:11]  All right, well, Glenda, let's not get off the topic and talk about Israel's involvement in the strikes and in the decision, if we know anything about the decision to strike Iran.
[02:47:23]  So let's go back to October 7th, okay?
[02:47:26]  And when that happened, that was the largest attack against Israel since the Holocaust.
[02:47:32]  And the Israelis said, we are not going to leave ourselves vulnerable again.
[02:47:38]  And so not only did they go after Hamas in Gaza, but they went after all the Iranian proxies.
[02:47:46]  They went after Hezbollah in Lebanon.
[02:47:52]  They went after the Iranians.
[02:47:55]  They went after Hamas, which is also less so 100% fully funded by Iran, but still a proxy of Iran.
[02:48:05]  They went after the Houthis in Yemen.
[02:48:08]  And then they went after Iran.
[02:48:09]  So Israel really wanted to not just respond for October 7th and protect the border with Gaza.
[02:48:18]  They wanted to reshape the Middle East with a new battlefield to weaken Iran and its proxies from doing anything to Israel and to present a threat to Israel again.
[02:48:32]  And so they see this as their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to finish the job against Iran.
[02:48:41]  And so the Israelis have been wanting to do this for years, Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has wanted to do it for years.
[02:48:47]  Unfortunately, it took something like October 7th for him to say, this is the time.
[02:48:55]  And Iran has never been weaker.
[02:48:58]  We've seen the regime has been weakened by these protests, and President Trump is like, I'm going to help us on the way.
[02:49:06]  It's a little bit questionable as to whether, you know, how much this had to do with the protests or just gaining leverage for negotiations or what we're seeing now.
[02:49:18]  But Israel has weakened Iran and its proxies in the region significantly.
[02:49:24]  It used to be that Iran was the dominant power in the region.
[02:49:27]  I would argue that Israel is the dominant power in the region right now.
[02:49:32]  What about Saudi Arabia?
[02:49:33]  Because they have historically had a very big problem with Iran.
[02:49:38]  You know, one is Sunni, the other is Shia.
[02:49:41]  And they've said, you know, you need to cut the head of the snake talking about Iran.
[02:49:45]  What do you make of where they are right now?
[02:49:47]  Well, it's kind of a mixed message.
[02:49:50]  They definitely are not fans of Iran, although they have, I think it was China that helped negotiate kind of a détente between Saudi Arabia and China a few years ago, between, sorry, between Saudi Arabia and Iran a few years ago.
[02:50:09]  And relations have improved a little bit, and there have been some talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
[02:50:15]  They're getting along a little bit better, but no doubt about it.
[02:50:18]  Everyone sees the threat posed by Iran in the region.
[02:50:22]  The Saudis faced attacks by the Houthis in Yemen, which are supported by Iran during President Trump's first term.
[02:50:32]  And you saw this morning that the Saudis have made statements more in favor of the United States than criticizing this action.
[02:50:40]  I think the Saudis and all of the Gulf partners are not unhappy about the action.
[02:50:46]  They just want to make sure they're in the blast radius.
[02:50:50]  They don't want Iran to retaliate against them.
[02:50:54]  And they want this to be done in a way that minimizes the risk to them.
[02:50:59]  All right, let's talk to Keith, who is in Dallas, Independent Line.
[02:51:03]  Hi, Keith.
[02:51:04]  Good morning, folks.
[02:51:05]  How's it going?
[02:51:06]  You know, I've listened to you guys all morning.
[02:51:09]  I've been listening to Elise here.
[02:51:10]  I've been listening to Gary, who called in before.
[02:51:12]  And he had a good point here.
[02:51:14]  Americans don't want another foreign intervention somewhere else in the world like we saw earlier in 2003 with Iraq.
[02:51:22]  Israel's been saying this for the past 35 years.
[02:51:24]  Netanyahu, who stood in front of the world at the UN in 2012 and told us that Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons.
[02:51:33]  And 16 years later, even today, it's the same exact story.
[02:51:37]  I'm sure the Iranian regime is horrible.
[02:51:41]  And whatever adjective you choose to say that, you're absolutely correct.
[02:51:44]  Nothing good comes out of there.
[02:51:46]  But I do have to say, this president, he loves his tweets.
[02:51:50]  And one of the ones that I went back to was from October 9th, 2012.
[02:51:54]  Now that Obama's phone numbers are in the tailspin, watch for him to launch a strike into Libya or Iran.
[02:52:00]  He is desperate.
[02:52:01]  This president, the timing of all this, I'm not saying it's fishy, but it's right in front of you.
[02:52:06]  You know, I support the Jewish people and I support their right to exist.
[02:52:10]  But going after Iran in the fashion that they have and the U.S. joining alongs, you know, I just can't get behind that.
[02:52:20]  Well, Gary, you kind of are saying that it's fishy, right?
[02:52:24]  I mean, it's, look, I don't think the timing, we knew it was going to happen.
[02:52:29]  You don't, he's been putting all this man.
[02:52:31]  You don't put that kind of firepower in the region unless you're ready to use it.
[02:52:36]  So it was just a matter of time, I think, before he would use it.
[02:52:40]  But you know, Gary makes an interesting point.
[02:52:42]  And this president campaigned on, I'm going to end forever wars.
[02:52:48]  You know, his base, this MA.
[02:52:50]  I'll be interested to see what his base, the MAGA part of the Republican Party says about these strikes.
[02:52:56]  They don't want, and they originally were not so happy about, you know, the idea that President Trump would launch a military action against Iran.
[02:53:07]  But then after it was so successful, they were kind of supportive about it.
[02:53:10]  But, you know, there is a wing of the Republican Party, Trump's MAGA wing, that doesn't, that is more, you know, this America first, more isolationist, if you will, not against, very against foreign interventions.
[02:53:27]  I'm looking to see what, what they say, what they say about this, because this president.
[02:53:32]  Well, we can hear what they say on our airlines, on our president.
[02:53:36]  But President Trump did say, I'm going to end forever wars.
[02:53:41]  We don't know what the blowback of this is going to be.

=== Multiple Arab States Targeted (10:16) ===

[02:53:45]  I want to ask you about that because El Jazeera is reporting that multiple Arab states that host U.S. assets have been targeted in retaliation.
[02:53:55]  It mentions Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE.
[02:54:02]  It says that at least one person was killed in Dubai.
[02:54:06]  It says that in Qatar they have thwarted several attacks on the country.
[02:54:13]  And it says that Syrian state media reported that a missile explosion killed four people and injured numerous others.
[02:54:21]  Besides hitting these bases around the Middle East, what else could Iran do to retaliate against us?
[02:54:28]  Well, especially if the administration launches these dev, and Israel launched these devastating attacks against the military sites and the missile sites and the nuclear program, Iran has a lot of what we call asymmetrical power.
[02:54:45]  That's not about conventional weapons or missiles or anything like that.
[02:54:49]  They're very good at cyber attacks.
[02:54:53]  We could see cyber attacks against the United States.
[02:54:56]  Iran are masters of disinformation and spreading through bots and stuff.
[02:55:02]  And we may not see it immediately, the Iranian hand in what happens, but it could be a cyber attack.
[02:55:10]  It could be a disinformation kind of psychological attack.
[02:55:14]  And it could also be meme terrorist attacks against Americans.
[02:55:20]  You've seen what Israel, a lot of terrorist attacks against Israelis have been at the hands of Iranians.
[02:55:27]  Several years ago, about 10 years ago or so, there were attacks against an Israeli bus of tourists in Bulgaria that is believed to be done by the Iranians.
[02:55:38]  So there are cells.
[02:55:39]  I don't know that there are cells in the United States, but there are cells around the world.
[02:55:44]  And what they do is they could be looking for what we call soft targets.
[02:55:50]  And soft targets are targets that are not hard military or government fortified facilities, but American tourists, American schools, American organizations around the world.
[02:56:03]  And so American interests are not just military or government facilities.
[02:56:06]  They're people and interests around the world.
[02:56:09]  Let's hear from Louise, a Republican in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
[02:56:12]  Good morning, Louise.
[02:56:14]  Good morning.
[02:56:15]  First, I want to say that I hope that the soldiers, the Navy, the pilots, I hope they're all safe.
[02:56:25]  And God loves them.
[02:56:28]  And my thoughts are with you.
[02:56:30]  Second, I want to ask about Kosovo.
[02:56:33]  Is that war still going on?
[02:56:36]  There's still wars going on there.
[02:56:38]  And didn't the Clintons bomb Kosovo?
[02:56:41]  I mean, bomb Serbia.
[02:56:44]  And let's see.
[02:56:45]  How about Libya?
[02:56:47]  Let's get into Clinton.
[02:56:49]  Didn't the Obama decide about Libya?
[02:56:54]  And how about Biden?
[02:56:56]  Didn't he make the decision to go into a forever war with Ukraine and Russia?
[02:57:04]  I mean, come on.
[02:57:05]  Let's give this a chance.
[02:57:08]  Let's see what happens.
[02:57:10]  And let's don't prejudge it because we're very good at prejudging and speculating and postulating that this could happen and that could happen.
[02:57:23]  But forget this.
[02:57:25]  Let's just wait and see how it plays out.
[02:57:30]  Period.
[02:57:31]  And that's a favorite expression of President Trump.
[02:57:35]  We'll wait and see.
[02:57:36]  We'll see what happens.
[02:57:38]  And that's it.
[02:57:40]  Thank you so very much and God bless the soldiers.
[02:57:44]  Well, like Louise said, you know, a lot of times people criticize the military action, but you have to think about American soldiers and American families of military.
[02:57:56]  And, you know, like what happened with Venezuela, like, you know, you could criticize the move, but the actions of U.S. military and their families are very heroic, and we all have to remember that.
[02:58:08]  Louise makes an interesting point about Serbia.
[02:58:10]  If you remember, the Clinton administration was kind of supportive of the Serbian people overthrowing Milosevic.
[02:58:19]  That wasn't really military action that they, you know, and I mean, although they were, I think, behind the scenes helping out.
[02:58:26]  Kosovo is a little bit different.
[02:58:28]  The Kosovars were fighting and the U.S., you know, was not interested in regime change there.
[02:58:37]  And that's still going on, by the way.
[02:58:40]  And then in Libya, look, the U.S. took action in Libya during the Obama administration, supposedly to protect hundreds of thousands of civilians from being slaughtered.
[02:58:51]  It did end up being regime change.
[02:58:54]  They were supporting those Libyan opposition forces.
[02:59:02]  But, Louise, look at what happened in Libya, like you didn't anticipate what happened is it became this like hotbed of extremism and then you saw the Benghazi attack.
[02:59:12]  So you don't really know when you open up this can of worms, like when you say the president says, we'll see.
[02:59:18]  You know, my grandma used to just be like, we'll see.
[02:59:21]  And, you know, you have to think of the we'll see.
[02:59:24]  You can't just be like, all right, well, whatever happens, happens.
[02:59:29]  I don't, I think what's really missing from this conversation is a real understanding and discussion with the American people about the potential consequences.
[02:59:40]  That doesn't mean that at the end of the day, the American people feel that it's worth it.
[02:59:46]  Maybe they do.
[02:59:48]  But, you know, we need more information about what the end game is here because that'll determine the length, the attack, the scope, and the kind of resources and commitment of the U.S. On the Line for Democrats in Birdstown, Tennessee.
[03:00:04]  Daniel, good morning.
[03:00:05]  You're on with Elise Labbitt.
[03:00:08]  Good morning, Mimi.
[03:00:10]  Always an honor to speak with you and a privilege to speak on the Washington Journal.
[03:00:16]  I'm listening to Elise.
[03:00:19]  She sounds like the perfect journalist for this program this morning.
[03:00:23]  A true journalist.
[03:00:28]  A little context here, 71 years old, military family, proud military family, going back to World War II.
[03:00:38]  What we have here is the biggest shiny object I've seen in my 71 years on this earth.
[03:00:44]  I mean, I remember Lyndon B. Johnson and the general over there in Vietnam who was anyway, I remember them lying about Vietnam.
[03:01:06]  Then I remember Colin Powell and George Bush lying to us about weapons of mass destruction.
[03:01:13]  So I just want to know, I just want my MAGA callers that are some of the callers seem to be gung-ho for war.
[03:01:21]  I just don't want their sons and daughters to be the Pat Tillmans of this war.
[03:01:27]  Now, I wanted to also jump over to Jimmy Carter and the situation back when he lost his election.
[03:01:36]  Do people understand that Reagan had his political operatives over there in Iran delaying the release of the hostages so it would look good and sway the election that year?
[03:01:52]  Now, he who leads by tweet is a twit.
[03:01:59]  All right, Daniel.
[03:02:00]  Daniel, how do you really feel?
[03:02:04]  Look, thank you for your service and for your family's service.
[03:02:10]  You know, again, really have to have that discussion with the American people about what it means to go to war, what the consequences are.
[03:02:23]  And, you know, trust and accountability is a big thing, as one of our callers said earlier.
[03:02:34]  Michelle said earlier about civics.
[03:02:36]  Like, you know, there's so much trust and accountability issues right now.
[03:02:40]  And so we do need more, you know, kind of forthrightness and honesty with the American people.
[03:02:47]  You know, the president doesn't seem to trust the American people that they'll understand why he's doing what he's doing.
[03:02:54]  I think when it comes to Iran, it's going, in my opinion, covering Iran for 30 years.
[03:03:04]  I'm going to date myself here.
[03:03:07]  Iran is the biggest impediment threat to stability, to peace, security in the Middle East.
[03:03:15]  At some point, the threat needed to be dealt with.
[03:03:18]  This president said he wanted to deal with it.
[03:03:21]  Let's hope and pray that he deals with it in the right way and with minimal casualties and minimal disruption to the region.
[03:03:31]  But the timing, you know, I think you could question the timing, but I think if it wasn't President Trump, it would be another president.
[03:03:42]  And I think he did come into this administration regardless of the timing.
[03:03:47]  And he did try during his first administration to deal with the Iranian threat.
[03:03:51]  So I think this has been something in his crosshairs for a while.
[03:03:55]  All right.
[03:03:55]  Well, that is Elise Labbitt.
[03:03:57]  She is global affairs journalist and founder of the Cosmopolitics Substack.

=== U.S. Strikes on Iran (14:30) ===

[03:04:02]  Thank you so much.
[03:04:02]  Let's get on with your day.
[03:04:04]  Thanks very much.
[03:04:06]  And if you're just joining us, we have been discussing and will continue to discuss U.S. and Israel strikes on Iran.
[03:04:14]  And the President did address the nation and posted this video.
[03:04:19]  It's an eight-minute video on Truth Social.
[03:04:22]  This is what he said.
[03:04:24]  A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.
[03:04:33]  Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.
[03:04:48]  Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.
[03:04:57]  For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted death to America and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States, our troops, and the innocent people in many, many countries.
[03:05:14]  Among the regime's very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of American hostages for 444 days.
[03:05:26]  In 1983, Iran's proxies carried out the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel.
[03:05:37]  In 2000, they knew and were probably involved with the attack on the USS Cole.
[03:05:44]  Many died.
[03:05:46]  Iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of American service members in Iraq.
[03:05:51]  The regime's proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against American forces stationed in the Middle East in recent years, as well as U.S. naval and commercial vessels in international shipping lands.
[03:06:05]  It's been mass terror, and we're not going to put up with it any longer.
[03:06:11]  From Lebanon to Yemen and Syria to Iraq, the regime has armed, trained, and funded terrorist militias that have soaked the earth with blood and guts.
[03:06:24]  And it was Iran's proxy, Hamas, that launched the monstrous October 7th attacks on Israel, slaughtering more than 1,000 innocent people, including 46 Americans, while taking 12 of our citizens hostage.
[03:06:40]  It was brutal, something like the world has never seen before.
[03:06:46]  Iran is the world's number one state sponsor of terror and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested.
[03:06:56]  It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon.
[03:07:07]  I'll say it again, they can never have a nuclear weapon.
[03:07:12]  That is why in Operation Midnight Hammer last June, we obliterated the regime's nuclear program at Fordeaux, Natance, and Isfahan.
[03:07:24]  After that attack, we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal.
[03:07:35]  We tried.
[03:07:37]  They wanted to do it.
[03:07:38]  They didn't want to do it.
[03:07:40]  Again, they wanted to do it.
[03:07:41]  They didn't want to do it.
[03:07:42]  They didn't know what was happening.
[03:07:44]  They just wanted to practice evil.
[03:07:47]  But Iran refused, just as it has for decades and decades.
[03:07:52]  They've rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can't take it anymore.
[03:08:00]  Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland.
[03:08:20]  Just imagine how emboldened this regime would be if they ever had and actually were armed with nuclear weapons as a means to deliver their message.
[03:08:32]  For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.
[03:08:47]  We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground.
[03:08:53]  It will be totally, again, obliterated.
[03:08:57]  We are going to annihilate their Navy.
[03:09:00]  We are going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces and no longer use their IEDs or roadside bombs, as they are sometimes called, to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans.
[03:09:23]  And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.
[03:09:28]  It's a very simple message.
[03:09:30]  They will never have a nuclear weapon.
[03:09:34]  This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States armed forces.
[03:09:42]  I built and rebuilt our military in my first administration, and there is no military on earth even close to its power, strength, or sophistication.
[03:09:54]  My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region.
[03:10:01]  Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill.
[03:10:09]  The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties.
[03:10:15]  That often happens in war, but we're doing this not for now.
[03:10:19]  We're doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission.
[03:10:24]  We pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran.
[03:10:35]  We ask God to protect all of our heroes in harm's way, and we trust that, with his help, the men and women of the armed forces will prevail.
[03:10:46]  We have the greatest in the world, and they will prevail.
[03:10:49]  To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces, and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or in the alternative, face certain death.
[03:11:06]  So, lay down your arms.
[03:11:08]  You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death.
[03:11:15]  Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.
[03:11:22]  Stay sheltered.
[03:11:24]  Don't leave your home.
[03:11:25]  It's very dangerous outside.
[03:11:27]  Bombs will be dropping everywhere.
[03:11:29]  When we are finished, take over your government.
[03:11:32]  It will be yours to take.
[03:11:34]  This will be probably your only chance for generations.
[03:11:39]  For many years, you have asked for America's help, but you never got it.
[03:11:44]  No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight.
[03:11:48]  Now you have a president who is giving you what you want.
[03:11:52]  So let's see how you respond.
[03:11:54]  America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force.
[03:12:00]  Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.
[03:12:09]  This is the moment for action.
[03:12:11]  Do not let it pass.
[03:12:13]  May God bless the brave men and women of America's armed forces.
[03:12:18]  May God bless the United States of America.
[03:12:21]  May God bless you all.
[03:12:23]  Thank you.
[03:12:25]  That was President Trump early this morning posting on social media about U.S. strikes on Iran that are ongoing, and we are taking your calls throughout this program and beyond.
[03:12:36]  We're going to go till later than we typically do so that we can take more of your calls.
[03:12:42]  Here's some congressional response.
[03:12:45]  So, first, starting with the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, he posted on X. Today, Iran is facing the severe consequences of its evil actions.
[03:12:54]  President Trump and the administration have made every effort to pursue peaceful and diplomatic solutions in response to the Iranian regime's sustained nuclear ambitions and development terrorism and the murder of Americans and even their own people.
[03:13:09]  For decades, Iran has defiantly maintained its nuclear program while arming and funding Hamas, Hezbollah, and other internationally recognized terrorist organizations.
[03:13:21]  Iran and its proxies have menaced America and American lives, undermined our core national interests, systematically destabilized the Middle East, and threatened the security of the entire West.
[03:13:33]  The Gang of Eight was briefed in detail earlier this week that military action may become necessary to protect American troops and American citizens in Iran.
[03:13:44]  I received updates from Secretary Rubio thereafter, and I will remain in close contact with the President and the Department of War as this operation proceeds.
[03:13:54]  We pray for the safety of our brave service members and our allies involved in Operation Epic Fury.
[03:14:01]  May God bless them and may God bless America.
[03:14:05]  And this is from Hakeem Jeffries on also posting on X.
[03:14:14]  This is what he said.
[03:14:18]  He said, Overnight, Donald Trump announced the start of massive and ongoing military operations against Iran.
[03:14:24]  The framers of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the sole power to declare war as the branch of government closest to the American people.
[03:14:31]  Iran is a bad actor and must be aggressively confronted for its human rights violations, nuclear ambitions, support for terrorism, and the threat it poses to our allies like Israel and Jordan in the region.
[03:14:46]  However, absent exigent circumstances, the Trump administration must seek authorization for the preemptive use of military force that constitutes an act of war.
[03:14:57]  Donald Trump failed to seek congressional authorization prior to striking Iran.
[03:15:01]  Instead, the President's decision to abandon diplomacy and launch a massive military attack has left American troops vulnerable to Iran's retaliatory actions.
[03:15:12]  We pray for the safety of the men and women of the U.S. military as they have been put in harm's way in a dangerous theater of war.
[03:15:21]  If Iran's nuclear program was, quote, completely and totally obliterated by the military strikes in June 2025, as Donald Trump boldly proclaimed, there should be no need to strike them now.
[03:15:33]  Equally troublesome, the advancement of security and stability in the Middle East requires more than military might, as we painfully discovered in several failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
[03:15:45]  The Trump administration must explain itself to the American people and Congress immediately, provide an ironclad justification for this act of war, and clearly define the national security objectives.
[03:15:58]  And he goes on.
[03:16:00]  Let's go back to the calls now to Sylvia in Etlin, Virginia, Independent Line.
[03:16:05]  Good morning.
[03:16:07]  Yes, good morning.
[03:16:08]  I'm all for protecting Israel.
[03:16:11]  My great-great-grandfather was a full-blooded Jew.
[03:16:15]  And the whole thing is, is I worry about the people of Iran.
[03:16:19]  I know they want to rise up against their regime, but I hope after this is over that they find a diplomatic president, not a king.
[03:16:28]  And I worry about the women and Sharia law.
[03:16:32]  I hope that is just totally obliviated.
[03:16:35]  And the little girls, I hope they can go to school.
[03:16:38]  And no more curriculum against killing we people of the United States.
[03:16:44]  And I'm praying for all the people involved, our military, the people from Israel, and everyone over the Middle East.
[03:16:53]  And may God help them all.
[03:16:54]  Thank you.
[03:16:55]  Bye-bye.
[03:16:56]  All right, Sylvia, this is Aliyah in San Diego, Republican Live.
[03:16:59]  Good morning.
[03:17:01]  Good morning.
[03:17:02]  My name is Aliye, and I just want to say this current regime of Iran is destructive.
[03:17:11]  It kills its own people.
[03:17:14]  They lie to everybody, to everything about their country, about their people.
[03:17:21]  So I would like to support our wonderful president for what he's doing to destroy, to get rid of that regime back in Iran.
[03:17:35]  The people are great people, but the regime does not, should not stay in that country anymore.
[03:17:42]  They have destroyed everything.
[03:17:44]  Aliyah, I've got a question for you.
[03:17:45]  The President said that it's the Iranian people that are going to have to take down the regime.
[03:17:52]  Do you think they have the capability to do that once these if this military strike is over?
[03:18:00]  Well, I hope so because the people have been confined by this regime for so many years and they do not like this regime.
[03:18:11]  So I am hoping, and I think they have expressed their feeling about this regime.
[03:18:17]  They are a very brave people.
[03:18:19]  But our president, our president, Mr. Trump, has done the right thing.
[03:18:25]  And I support his action toward the regime 100%.

=== Nancy And Jonathan On US Democracy (09:56) ===

[03:18:32]  And I pray for all the people on the planet of Earth and for our president and for our beautiful country, United States.
[03:18:42]  All right.
[03:18:42]  And the lines are on the screen.
[03:18:45]  If you'd like to join the conversation, we're taking your reaction to Israel's, the U.S. and Israel striking Iran.
[03:18:54]  Here's Nancy Bowling Green, Kentucky Democrat.
[03:18:57]  You're on the air.
[03:18:59]  Morning, Mimi.
[03:19:01]  Morning.
[03:19:02]  I've got a, I'm just so upset.
[03:19:06]  I mean, I've got a grandson, my first.
[03:19:08]  He just turned 18 just a matter of days ago.
[03:19:12]  And so yes, ma'am, I'm so concerned for all the people that are there.
[03:19:17]  You know, everybody's, I'm sorry.
[03:19:20]  I don't want to cry, but what do you think is going to happen, Nancy?
[03:19:25]  What's bothering you about what could happen?
[03:19:27]  This, okay.
[03:19:30]  Okay.
[03:19:30]  Oh, God.
[03:19:32]  Since for many months, I've been so concerned with, you know, the choices that, you know, President Trump has taken.
[03:19:40]  I mean, you know, he asked for more money for the military.
[03:19:44]  They changed the defense to war.
[03:19:49]  They, I'm so sorry.
[03:19:52]  They, you know, they wanted the oil from Venezuela.
[03:19:56]  I know I've heard that that oil is very important for our military, for our vehicles, you know, the tanks, the ships.
[03:20:05]  I'm so sorry.
[03:20:07]  You know, you know, that was important.
[03:20:11]  I know that he didn't want to give up the tariffs and that's going to be.
[03:20:14]  I know he's been working on the White House and I'm so fearful that we're going to be in war and we're not going to be able to have an election.
[03:20:25]  And I just pray for this world that we can come to terms with what is really going on.
[03:20:31]  Please, people, see what is in front of you.
[03:20:35]  And I'm just so worried for all the people. that are going to have to go fight in that country.
[03:20:41]  I don't know how much blood has been shed on this earth, but if we could see it, it would devastate us.
[03:20:49]  All right, Nancy, let's talk to Kim in Sacramento, Independent Line.
[03:20:53]  Good morning.
[03:20:54]  Good morning.
[03:20:56]  You know, I feel for her, the collar that was home because I too feel very emotional about this.
[03:21:02]  But this is something new.
[03:21:05]  I mean, it's almost like deja vu.
[03:21:07]  They talked about all these other presidents.
[03:21:10]  I don't blame just Trump on this.
[03:21:12]  I blame us, the American people, for not understanding that we've watched this over and over and over again and never made sure the policies have changed.
[03:21:21]  What good?
[03:21:23]  Did we free the women of Iraq?
[03:21:25]  Did we feed the young girls to go to school in Afghanistan and around these other wars that we've had in Libya?
[03:21:32]  Did it stabilize anything when Obama did it?
[03:21:35]  They all do this without coming to the people.
[03:21:38]  The people have loudly said, I was in the streets for many years fighting against the Iraq war.
[03:21:45]  We are on the wrong side of morality 99% of the time.
[03:21:49]  This war isn't the, this is Israel and America, and Israel is America.
[03:21:55]  Yes, I think it was horrible what happened to the Israel people on October 7th, but the genocide that's happening in Palestine is also on us.
[03:22:06]  And collateral damage, because I remember that was a word that was used through Afghanistan and Iraq.
[03:22:13]  That's what we're going to hear about Iran.
[03:22:15]  The people in those countries that want their freedom, freedom can't come from a gun from another person.
[03:22:21]  Just like what's happening in our streets here with ICE, you see us out there us Americans defending it.
[03:22:28]  Would we want China or Russia to come and save us from our own Iraq ICE things here?
[03:22:35]  No.
[03:22:35]  If we're going to fight for our democracy and our freedom, it has to be us, the people, like it would have to be there.
[03:22:42]  This will be another time, few years, our children, our grandchildren will be the ones that pay for this.
[03:22:48]  We are still paying for the Iraq and Afghanistan war.
[03:22:53]  These trillions of dollars of debt we're in keeps us in poverty and keeps us always fighting within ourselves.
[03:23:00]  This is just like, I am worried about our democracy.
[03:23:04]  I am worried about, will this be the reason why he stays in three years?
[03:23:08]  Will this be the reason why we don't have fair elections in this country?
[03:23:12]  All right, Kim, and this is a text, a tweet, sorry, from Senator John Thune, Senate Majority Leader.
[03:23:20]  He says, for years, Iran's relentless nuclear ambitions and its expanded ballistic missile inventory and its unwavering support for terror groups in the region have posed a clear and unacceptable threat to the U.S., to U.S. service members, citizens in the region, and many of our allies.
[03:23:38]  Despite the dogged efforts of the president and his administration, the Iranian regime has refused the diplomatic off-ramps that would peacefully resolve these national security concerns.
[03:23:49]  I commend President Trump for taking action to thwart these threats.
[03:23:53]  I thank Secretary Rubio for providing updates on these issues throughout the week, and I look forward to administration officials briefing all senators about these military operations.
[03:24:05]  I commend the bravery of the service members carrying out these operations and pray for the safety of those in harm's way.
[03:24:13]  This is Jonathan, who is calling us from California, Republican.
[03:24:17]  Good morning.
[03:24:19]  Yes, good morning.
[03:24:20]  How are you?
[03:24:21]  First and foremost, I would just like to say I have to agree with Elise and previous other people about Trump acting as a unconstitutional because whatever happened to we, the people, and he's just like a dictator.
[03:24:42]  So my opinion here is that the president's opinion on liberating the Iranian people seems like a really sweet little fairy tale, which I agree on.
[03:24:59]  Don't get me wrong.
[03:25:00]  I agree.
[03:25:02]  But I think there's a lot behind it to where it's like, you know, to create instabilization.
[03:25:11]  And what we, the Americans, have to raise to real, I mean, I'm sorry, we Americans have to realize that this is an unconstitutional dictatorship that we're living.
[03:25:25]  And let's not forget.
[03:25:26]  And, Jonathan, had you voted for President Trump?
[03:25:30]  I, of course.
[03:25:35]  And let's not forget about Israel destroying humans through genocide and killing innocent children so that we're so that we're where is Congress and all this to stop this imperilist capitalism.
[03:25:55]  Like, I don't, I come from an old school republic now.
[03:26:01]  I don't agree with the new regime of Trump.
[03:26:04]  I'm sorry.
[03:26:05]  All right.
[03:26:06]  Let's hear from Ray in Napa, California, Democrat.
[03:26:08]  Good morning, Ray.
[03:26:10]  Good morning.
[03:26:11]  This seems to be a classic case of wagging the dog.
[03:26:15]  I mean, he won't release the Epstein piles.
[03:26:18]  We've had nothing but deflection since he signed that bill.
[03:26:21]  And getting into war with Iran is kind of like Iraq.
[03:26:25]  When you start a war, it's easy, but stopping it is like putting toothpaste back in the tube.
[03:26:30]  And secondly, this is a main problem in the Middle East: Israel illegally obtained nuclear weapons decades ago.
[03:26:39]  And if they didn't do that, I don't think we'd be having this problem today.
[03:26:43]  So that's my opinion.
[03:26:45]  You said if Israel didn't obtain nuclear weapons, we wouldn't have this problem?
[03:26:50]  Exactly.
[03:26:51]  The whole Middle East is scared to death of nuclear weapons in Israel, and they don't legally supposed to obtain them.
[03:26:57]  They got them illegally.
[03:26:58]  I think we did it through some candid operation, I don't know, 30, 40 years ago.
[03:27:03]  But they're not supposed to have them.
[03:27:04]  Look it up.
[03:27:05]  But they do, and that makes the Middle East unstable, not stable.
[03:27:09]  And here's John in Ohio, Independent Line.
[03:27:12]  Good morning, John.
[03:27:14]  Yes, I think the problem in large part is the control of the media in this country by the military-industrial CIA Pentagon-Israeli lobby complex.
[03:27:29]  That's a little further explanation to what Eisenhower, President Eisenhower, and General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander during the Second World War, warned about as he left office.
[03:27:47]  It's an insider.
[03:27:48]  He says one of the most dangerous threats to our democracy is the unwarranted power of the military-industrial complex.
[03:28:00]  They could add the military, industrial, CIA, Pentagon, Israeli lobby complex, all of which are joined at the hip in lying to us on every at the beginning and the middle and the throughout any kind of war based on lies that devious prostitute media has lied us into.

=== Artful Negotiations Flawed (03:58) ===

[03:28:29]  And it really becomes frustrating to hear on programs like this and others, the 1,500 right-wing talk shows across the country relayed and repeated 24-7, 365 days a year, cradle to grave, and they call themselves the underdog.
[03:28:49]  We're not the establishment, like the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.
[03:29:00]  And if you check the phrase, gladial crimes of the U.S. Empire, you will find incredible amounts of things that they desperately try to prevent us from knowing.
[03:29:21]  The fact that we are the this country has been the main perpetrator of terrorism, has supported the al-Qaeda, Daesh, ISIS, all right.
[03:29:36]  Let's go to another John in Bayport, New York, Republican.
[03:29:39]  Go ahead, John.
[03:29:41]  Yes, good morning.
[03:29:42]  Thank you for taking my call.
[03:29:44]  I am a proud Vietnam veteran.
[03:29:48]  I have a problem with the people calling in about the government, notifying the government.
[03:29:54]  First of all, the Democrats keep closing it down constantly.
[03:29:58]  So he would have a hard time reaching them.
[03:30:01]  The other comments I have, but your guests made a couple of comments about the protesters, about her fluffing off the protesters, I believe she quoted.
[03:30:14]  I kind of relate this to McGothur with the Philippines coming back.
[03:30:19]  He says, I will return.
[03:30:20]  I think Trump is returning to help the protesters in this attack.
[03:30:26]  And the other comment she made was about Obama's artful negotiations.
[03:30:31]  The way I remember it was pallets of billions of dollars sent to Iran.
[03:30:40]  And I was thinking about all the poor veterans that were homeless at the time.
[03:30:46]  I don't understand why she thought Obama was so artful in his negotiations.
[03:30:53]  Thank you for my call.
[03:30:55]  All right.
[03:30:56]  And it is 10, but we are not ending the program.
[03:30:59]  We are going to stay here with you and take your calls about the ongoing strikes against Iran that the president announced very early this morning.
[03:31:10]  And the numbers are on your screen.
[03:31:11]  If you'd like to call in, you could do so.
[03:31:14]  We will have another guest later in the program as well.
[03:31:17]  Here is Lewis in Goose Creek, South Carolina.
[03:31:21]  Democrat, you're on the air.
[03:31:23]  Morning.
[03:31:25]  Short and sweet.
[03:31:26]  We have Dr. Evil and Many Evil taking over the situation now.
[03:31:32]  So if you can understand who Dr. Evil is and Mini Evil is, you can go ahead and subscribe a name to them.
[03:31:40]  This problem is a long-term problem.
[03:31:42]  There should have been 10-2 in the days of 1865, secession time and the Civil War.
[03:31:51]  At the end of the Civil War, we had two we had treason and we had insurrection.
[03:31:58]  And at that point, the treasonists were left left alone, and they should have been hung.
[03:32:06]  And now, as far as we're concerned and today, that whole concept of not following the law and following the rule of what we should be about and taking care of all of our problems, we perpetrated on a bunch of other people, such as slaves and other people beyond that.

=== Iranian Response to Military Strikes (10:54) ===

[03:32:27]  all the way up to 1950.
[03:32:29]  And now we're into another era of that succession where we're going to have a world succession of different countries and different states.
[03:32:40]  And also in the United States, we have separation and we have partitioned ourselves off from culture and race also.
[03:32:49]  So Lewis, I'm going to have to end you there.
[03:32:52]  We are joined now by Benem Ben-Talibu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
[03:32:58]  He's the Iran Program Senior Director.
[03:33:01]  Benham, welcome to the program.
[03:33:03]  Great to be back with you, Mimi.
[03:33:04]  Can you hear and see me okay?
[03:33:05]  Yes, we can.
[03:33:06]  And thank you for joining us on short notice.
[03:33:09]  Your reaction to the president's announcement of strikes against Iran.
[03:33:14]  Well, it was a very powerful announcement, but also just based on what is being reported right now, the scale and the scope of the operation, as well as already within a matter of hours, the scale and the scope of the Iranian response, both things.
[03:33:26]  And I want to stress for the audience, both things are unprecedented in the 47-year history of rivalry and enmity between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America.
[03:33:37]  It seems like, again, based on open source reporting that the president in a joint operation with Israel is striking major Iranian missile and military targets as well as other regime targets.
[03:33:49]  And the Islamic Republic now is at war with its neighbors.
[03:33:52]  I want to stress that is at war with its neighbors.
[03:33:55]  The Islamic Republic has struck at least four or five different bases in the CENCOM area of operations.
[03:34:01]  Many have been doubting the statements from Iranian political, military, and even religious officials that in response to any strike by the U.S. in this current phase, that they would go big and they would go wide.
[03:34:14]  And indeed, based on the responses that we've seen militarily against air bases, against naval bases, against major barracks, this was a big and wide response by the Islamic Republic.
[03:34:28]  So I'm waiting on right now news of casualties.
[03:34:31]  I'm monitoring the situation closely, what is going on on the street in Iran.
[03:34:35]  Thus far, reportedly, the internet is not cut, but if passed is prologue, that could be.
[03:34:39]  But this is, I think, history in the making, especially based on how President Trump chose to end his speech, which is with a reference to the Iranian people.
[03:34:47]  Because you could say part of this joint operation is a defanging mission against the missiles.
[03:34:52]  You could say part of it is a decapitation operation against regime elites.
[03:34:56]  But also, it could be paving the way for the Iranian people to go back onto the streets after all the fighting is done to take back their government.
[03:35:05]  And that is what President Trump alluded to.
[03:35:06]  Let's talk about the Iranian people and how they might be responding to this.
[03:35:10]  I know that it's a bit early to kind of get an idea of how they're reacting.
[03:35:16]  They're probably not in the streets, as the president said, that it's not safe right now.
[03:35:22]  But what do we know about what they're expecting from the United States military?
[03:35:28]  You know, it would be no overstatement to say all eyes are on the skies.
[03:35:32]  That's actually what we heard in late January after what was the biggest three and a half week nationwide uprising against the Islamic Republic in its history from late December to early to mid-January.
[03:35:45]  Those protests were coterminous with, as you know, a 20-plus-day internet outage nationally in the country by the state against the street, where anywhere from 36 to 43,000 Iranians were killed just in a matter of days.
[03:35:58]  And the scale of this crackdown has left so many Iranians, one of the most nationalistic populations, not just in the Middle East, but on planet Earth, looking for foreign military intervention and looking for foreign military assistance to help level the playing field from the street against the state.
[03:36:15]  So, right now, no doubt, you've seen dribs and draps of things coming out on Iranian social media that amplify this sense of hope, that amplify this sense of happiness, even.
[03:36:25]  But as we saw during the 12-day war, what could begin with a sense of hope, what could signal a little bit of happiness may with the realities of war change?
[03:36:34]  It's too soon to tell at this exact moment.
[03:36:37]  But nonetheless, this is a big day for the people of Iran, which have been waiting and have been trying for quite a while.
[03:36:44]  Even though regime change is the pejorative word here in Washington, where we live and work, it is exactly what the Iranian people have been trying to do on their own since at the very least December 2017, if not 2009, if not earlier.
[03:36:58]  You wrote a piece for foreign affairs, Benham, with the headline, What it will take to change the regime in Iran.
[03:37:04]  You said the U.S. military must go big and then let Iranians do the rest.
[03:37:09]  What will it actually take, Benam, to change that regime in Iran?
[03:37:13]  It will take a lot.
[03:37:14]  We have to not pull our punches here.
[03:37:17]  The record of air power alone for regime change is not a great record.
[03:37:22]  But what the Iranian people bring to that record is, again, their decade-plus nationwide national uprisings, which every couple of months between 2017, 18, 19, 20, have been basically turned on.
[03:37:34]  The Iranian people looking for every single opportunity to take to the street against the state.
[03:37:39]  This was a population which was willing to at least give Tehran's theocrats a chance.
[03:37:44]  Ironically, in the 90s and 2000s, despite being an Islamist autocracy, Iranians tried to go to the polls to incrementally change things, to signal their dissatisfaction at rates that were even greater than some Western democracies.
[03:37:58]  So we didn't get here by accident.
[03:38:00]  And the same applies, the same thinking, the same logic applies to the U.S.-Iran relationship.
[03:38:05]  We also didn't get here by accident.
[03:38:08]  Despite the Islamic Republic projecting this enmity onto America, you've had, you know, in the diplomatic record, everybody from President Reagan on trying to find a way to deal with this regime, trying to find a way to talk with this regime, trying to find a way to bring it back in from the cold.
[03:38:23]  As much as President Trump has been sanctioning the regime and talking about military strikes, he's also been talking about a deal.
[03:38:29]  But at some point, the cookie is going to crumble.
[03:38:32]  And I think right now we're at that point.
[03:38:33]  Benham, you said that airstrikes are not enough for regime change.
[03:38:37]  Does that mean track record is not good?
[03:38:40]  Does it mean it's impossible?
[03:38:41]  The three good, the three most popular regimes are Japanese.
[03:38:46]  Do you believe that ground troops are going to be necessary or that we're going to end up after airstrikes, we're going to end up with the same regime and the same problems we've had?
[03:38:56]  It depends very much on the nature of several things.
[03:38:59]  One, how long those airstrikes go on.
[03:39:01]  Two, if the president and/or the Israelis can move from the thinking, the thinking of massive military operation to low-intensity campaign.
[03:39:10]  Because if the goal is not decapitation or defanging, if the goal is to pave the pathway, as I've articulated in that piece you mentioned, if the goal is to move from the military targeting to the political targeting, the nature of the weapon is going to change.
[03:39:22]  For example, a heavy bomber is a good tool to collapse an Iranian missile base.
[03:39:29]  However, a heavy bomber is not a good tool to provide close air support to protesting Iranians, nor is it a good tool to go after the command and control of the Islamic Republic in various barracks across the country's 31 different provinces.
[03:39:42]  For that, you should be looking at drones, standoff weaponry-like cruise missiles, and perhaps even A-10s for that close air support.
[03:39:48]  But make no mistake, the army on the ground, for lack of a better word, is the Iranian people.
[03:39:52]  They are the ones who can actually try to add the street power to the air power, the local power.
[03:39:59]  And of course, if you sandwich the security forces after drilling down level 2, 3, 4 of their command and control, if you shatter the national security state, if you gut command and control, you actually incentivize the kind of defections and the flipping of the armed forces that have traditionally mattered in this part of the world.
[03:40:17]  And what that will take after military operations, it will take volume from the streets to be able to get to do that.
[03:40:24]  It is risky, but I would also say 47 years of living with and even coddling an Islamic Republic has brought us to this point.
[03:40:31]  Benam, we're hearing reports of senior commanders in the Revolutionary Guard being targeted and killed.
[03:40:39]  We saw that the Supreme Leader, Khamenei, his compound, was attacked.
[03:40:45]  We don't know his situation as of yet.
[03:40:48]  Who is running Iran right now?
[03:40:51]  Where are the power centers in that country?
[03:40:54]  This is an excellent question because while this title of supreme leader is meant to be taken rather literally, Mimi, the power structure of Iran doesn't necessarily look like a pyramid.
[03:41:03]  Yes, he's the decider, and yes, he has the ultimate veto, but he has actually institutionalized his power across the system, which is likely why if the administration moves, as well as with the Israelis, towards larger, towards sustained political targeting,
[03:41:19]  the kinds of things they're going to be targeting are the state security institutions, and in particular, this newly created body called the Defense Council, as well as this other body that functions as the regime's most important national security decision-making body called the Supreme National Security Council that has a secretariat.
[03:41:37]  I'm guessing that the Israelis or the Americans would be going after that secretariat as well, as well as the staff of this other military body called the AFGS, the Armed Forces General Staff.
[03:41:47]  And then that is the peacetime authority for command and control for Iran's two forces, the Artesh, the National Military, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the parallel ideological military.
[03:41:59]  And then the wartime iteration of that, of the AFGS, is called Qatam al-Ambiya.
[03:42:05]  That's the central headquarters.
[03:42:06]  I assume that would be targeted as well.
[03:42:08]  Previously, the Israelis had taken out not one, but two of the commanders of that other wartime authority.
[03:42:15]  So I would be looking to see if those institutions, as well as those persons who staff those institutions, would be targeted in these strikes.
[03:42:22]  Much also depends on any kind of intelligence that the Israelis or the Americans might have been able to get from the ground.
[03:42:28]  Lest we forget during the 12-day war, the Israelis quite literally operated a drone base against the Islamic Republic from Iranian territory, going after surface-to-air missiles as well as transporter erector launchers from Iranian territory.
[03:42:42]  So one wonders if they are also collecting or have collected or reconstituted that network to enable this kind of much more localized targeting.
[03:42:52]  But make no mistake, Khomeini has institutionalized his power.
[03:42:55]  You know, it's kind of odd to think of an 86-year-old being able to decide which missile to fire at which target.
[03:43:01]  So there's quite a bit of mid-level devolved national security decision-making authority.
[03:43:06]  And before, between the protests and before the strikes, there were a whole host of reports from the New York Times, as well as I think from the Wall Street Journal, talking about Khamenei delegating and coming up with a chain of command in case exactly what we're seeing now unfolds.
[03:43:21]  All right.

=== Anti-Ship Programs and Ford's Response (15:11) ===

[03:43:22]  Well, we have callers that are on the line, and we'll go to Michael in the York independent line.
[03:43:28]  Michael, you're on the air.
[03:43:31]  Yes.
[03:43:32]  How are you doing, Amy?
[03:43:33]  It's a first-time caller.
[03:43:35]  And I'd like to say that I think it's about time that we've took revenge on Iran for when they killed 200 Marines in the base in Beirut.
[03:43:48]  And I think Reagan should have took care of it back then.
[03:43:52]  And all the Americans they've killed since then.
[03:43:58]  And I think I listen to these people that call in.
[03:44:03]  And somebody's conspiracy fantasies are so far out, I don't understand people.
[03:44:10]  But that's all I got to say.
[03:44:12]  Thank you.
[03:44:15]  Benham, your reaction to that?
[03:44:18]  Yes, thanks, Mimi.
[03:44:19]  Actually, what the caller was hinting at was the track record of, unfortunately, it's a long track record of Iran-sponsored or Iran-backed terrorism since the 1979 revolution against not just U.S. interests and assets, but against U.S. lives in the region,
[03:44:34]  whether one is looking at the Khobar towers in the mid-1990s and Saudi Arabia attack, or whether the Marine barracks and the embassies there in Lebanon in the early 1980s, that was right around when the regime was creating its most potent proxy, Lebanese Hezbollah, as well as, of course, what they did to U.S. service persons both in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
[03:44:54]  And that track record really doesn't stand when you compare it to the kind of strategic competition that America has with other countries to kind of let the other side inflict this growing incremental number of casualties and no large, no massive military response.
[03:45:11]  For example, the amount of restraint the Americans have shown against Iran over the past four decades, whether from the hostage crisis or from the string of terrorism or even from the growth in its missile and nuclear program is actually unprecedented.
[03:45:24]  I remember during the mid to late Bush administration where the Americans ended up finding out where the copper, I want to stress this, where the copper mine in Iran was that was furnishing the copper for the IEDs and EFPs where they were killing Americans of coalition service pursuers in the scores in Iraq in the mid to late 2000s.
[03:45:45]  And no action was taken against that.
[03:45:48]  So I think what the caller is getting at is this larger, unresponded to track record.
[03:45:53]  And you don't have to take it from me.
[03:45:54]  There's a really interesting declassified CIA report from the late 1980s, right about the time when the Iran-Iraq war, which was the longest conventional war of the 20th century, was ending.
[03:46:04]  And the assessment is talking about Iran's strategic and growing use of terrorism.
[03:46:09]  And it says that if this is not responded to, this is going to be a major problem for us.
[03:46:13]  And you could just see how Iran has unfortunately been able to scale up those attacks.
[03:46:17]  It's evolved.
[03:46:18]  It doesn't necessarily carry it out itself directly anymore.
[03:46:21]  It has in the region, as you know, this axis of resistance, this constellation of terror and proxy forces that has been carrying it out as while it's turned the region into a war zone.
[03:46:30]  And abroad, whether that's Europe or North America, it's worked through a whole host of lone wolf radicals, as well as this thing called transnational criminal networks.
[03:46:39]  And in America, in the past 10 to 15 years, the regime has tried to kill people on U.S. soil by working by with and through everything from Mexican drug cartels to European mafias to even Canadian biker gangs.
[03:46:51]  Fortunately, all of those plots have been thwarted.
[03:46:54]  But this is what we're talking about when we're talking about the persistent and long arm of Iranian terror.
[03:46:59]  And no one knows that better than the region and the Iranian people themselves.
[03:47:02]  But geographically, unfortunately, it's a much wider spread.
[03:47:06]  And if you're on the line, please do stay on the line.
[03:47:09]  We're going to go ahead and play the president's remarks from early this morning out of Mar-a-Lago announcing strikes on Iran.
[03:47:16]  Here it is in its entirety.
[03:47:18]  A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.
[03:47:28]  Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.
[03:47:42]  Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.
[03:47:51]  For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted death to America and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States, our troops, and the innocent people in many, many countries.
[03:48:08]  Among the regime's very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of American hostages for 444 days.
[03:48:20]  In 1983, Iran's proxies carried out the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel.
[03:48:31]  In 2000, they knew and were probably involved with the attack on the USS Cole.
[03:48:38]  Many died.
[03:48:40]  Iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of American service members in Iraq.
[03:48:45]  The regime's proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against American forces stationed in the Middle East in recent years, as well as U.S. naval and commercial vessels in international shipping lands.
[03:48:59]  It's been mass terror, and we're not going to put up with it any longer.
[03:49:05]  From Lebanon to Yemen and Syria to Iraq, the regime has armed, trained, and funded terrorist militias that have soaked the earth with blood and guts.
[03:49:18]  And it was Iran's proxy, Hamas, that launched the monstrous October 7th attacks on Israel, slaughtering more than 1,000 innocent people, including 46 Americans, while taking 12 of our citizens hostage.
[03:49:34]  It was brutal, something like the world has never seen before.
[03:49:40]  Iran is the world's number one state sponsor of terror and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested.
[03:49:50]  It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon.
[03:50:01]  I'll say it again, they can never have a nuclear weapon.
[03:50:06]  That is why in Operation Midnight Hammer last June, we obliterated the regime's nuclear program at Ford, Natance, and Isfahan.
[03:50:18]  After that attack, we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal.
[03:50:29]  We tried.
[03:50:31]  They wanted to do it.
[03:50:32]  They didn't want to do it.
[03:50:34]  Again, they wanted to do it.
[03:50:35]  They didn't want to do it.
[03:50:36]  They didn't know what was happening.
[03:50:38]  They just wanted to practice evil.
[03:50:41]  But Iran refused, just as it has for decades and decades.
[03:50:46]  They've rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can't take it anymore.
[03:50:54]  Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland.
[03:51:14]  Just imagine how emboldened this regime would be if they ever had and actually were armed with nuclear weapons as a means to deliver their message.
[03:51:26]  For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.
[03:51:41]  We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground.
[03:51:47]  It will be totally, again, obliterated.
[03:51:51]  We are going to annihilate their Navy.
[03:51:54]  We are going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces and no longer use their IEDs or roadside bombs, as they are sometimes called, to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans.
[03:52:17]  And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.
[03:52:22]  It's a very simple message.
[03:52:24]  They will never have a nuclear weapon.
[03:52:28]  This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States Armed Forces.
[03:52:36]  I built and rebuilt our military in my first administration, and there is no military on earth even close to its power, strength, or sophistication.
[03:52:48]  My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region.
[03:52:55]  Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill.
[03:53:03]  The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties.
[03:53:09]  That often happens in war, but we're doing this not for now.
[03:53:13]  We're doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission.
[03:53:18]  We pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran.
[03:53:29]  We ask God to protect all of our heroes in harm's way, and we trust that, with his help, the men and women of the armed forces will prevail.
[03:53:40]  We have the greatest in the world, and they will prevail.
[03:53:43]  To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces, and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or, in the alternative, face certain death.
[03:54:00]  So, lay down your arms.
[03:54:02]  You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death.
[03:54:09]  Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.
[03:54:17]  Stay sheltered.
[03:54:18]  Don't leave your home.
[03:54:19]  It's very dangerous outside.
[03:54:21]  Bombs will be dropping everywhere.
[03:54:23]  When we are finished, take over your government.
[03:54:26]  It will be yours to take.
[03:54:28]  This will be probably your only chance for generations.
[03:54:33]  For many years, you have asked for America's help, but you never got it.
[03:54:38]  No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight.
[03:54:42]  Now you have a president who is giving you what you want.
[03:54:46]  So let's see how you respond.
[03:54:48]  America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force.
[03:54:54]  Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.
[03:55:03]  This is the moment for action.
[03:55:05]  Do not let it pass.
[03:55:07]  May God bless the brave men and women of America's armed forces.
[03:55:11]  May God bless the United States of America.
[03:55:15]  May God bless you all.
[03:55:17]  Thank you.
[03:55:19]  And President Trump posted that video statement at 2.30 a.m. Eastern Time this morning.
[03:55:25]  And our guest is Benem Ben-Taliblou of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
[03:55:30]  Benham, anything surprise you in that video statement?
[03:55:34]  To be honest, it was quite comprehensive.
[03:55:38]  There had been talk in the press for about a week and a half to two weeks before this statement, before the operations, about America considering a series of limited strikes, holding away, seeing if the regime would respond before going for the juggler or before going even for a larger deep-hanging mission.
[03:55:55]  The president's statement, as well as the scale and the scope of the joint attacks already over the past six to eight hours, are the surprising part because they are not limited.
[03:56:04]  The president talked about the 47-year history of enmity and of bloodshed between the regime against America, the urgent national security threat there, as well as, of course, the opportunity for something different with his references to the Iranian people.
[03:56:18]  What I would actually stress, because as you know, doing more in the Middle East is often not popular.
[03:56:24]  Certainly it hasn't been.
[03:56:25]  That was the wave the president rode twice to enter the White House, both in 2016 and then much more recently in 2025, sorry, in 2017 and then much more recently in 2026.
[03:56:38]  But the president did not mince words, shall we say, when it came to the potential for casualties.
[03:56:46]  This is war.
[03:56:47]  This is a regime that has been saying death to America for 47 years.
[03:56:51]  This is a regime that has been saying death to Israel for 47 years.
[03:56:54]  It has put state resources behind that.
[03:56:57]  It has internationalized much of the conflicts that it believes and projected it onto at least two or three different continents.
[03:57:04]  You know, Iranian drones are on two or at least three to four continents today.
[03:57:08]  The regime has sponsored terror attacks on at least three to four continents.
[03:57:12]  So, Benham, that's my question to you.
[03:57:14]  You know, since this is an existential threat to the Iranian regime, what are they capable of doing beyond hitting military targets in the Middle East?
[03:57:24]  I mean, will there be, do you anticipate terrorist attacks against Americans?
[03:57:30]  Do you anticipate cyber attacks here in the U.S.?
[03:57:34]  Certainly, the Israelis and the Americans have knocked off at least two of the three legs of the traditional pillars of deterrence.
[03:57:42]  You have the local terrorist cells, the proxy networks, what we call the axis of resistance.
[03:57:48]  You have the threat for nuclear escalation, and then you have the long-range strike capabilities.
[03:57:53]  Israel and America since October 7 have been shaving away at those first two that we mentioned.
[03:57:58]  Now, there still are quite a bit of transnational terror actors in the region.
[03:58:03]  You know, the Houthis actually have significant long-range strike capabilities, like anti-ship cruise missiles, like anti-ship ballistic missiles, like medium-range ballistic missiles, like long-range one-way attack drones.
[03:58:14]  The Hezbollah, right now, it's an open question as to how involved they might be if the Israeli element of this conflict continues to deepen.
[03:58:26]  So, one is within the region, those terror groups have some capability to project power, but a diminishing one.

=== War Choice Consequences (13:23) ===

[03:58:33]  Two is abroad, I am sure the regime has tried to cultivate a host of these assets.
[03:58:39]  We've talked previously in this segment before the president about working by with and through local criminal syndicates.
[03:58:45]  That's something that law enforcement, as well as the national security apparatus, as well as the intelligence apparatus of each of these states that have experienced these things before, that have prosecuted these things before, need to be very vigilant on right now.
[03:58:59]  And then lastly, you mentioned cyber.
[03:59:01]  Cyber, as well as the maritime domain, particularly threats to shipping in the Persian Gulf, in the Strait of Hormuz, and right after, could be other ways that the regime may look to try to punch back.
[03:59:14]  But I would say, given how off guard the regime was and given the overwhelming military capabilities America and Israel bring to the table, the ability to launch those in time and to land a blow meaningfully, I would say, is small,
[03:59:30]  especially when during peacetime, the ability for the U.S. to detect and actually prevent some of these terror and kidnapping attacks in North America or for European or British authorities across the European continent has been good.
[03:59:45]  So certainly there are other options the regime has, but make no mistake, its main tool are going to be long-range strike capabilities.
[03:59:53]  And actually, the more successful it is in using them, the more actually it will move the knife closer to the jugular.
[03:59:59]  For example, I think the Iranians thought that if they struck bases and killed Americans, that that would spook the president, that that would spook oil prices, and that would foster restraint in U.S. targeting.
[04:00:10]  Nothing could be further from the truth.
[04:00:12]  And it's proof that that is why this regime has had such a caricature view of President Trump.
[04:00:18]  Because if there is one through line through how he treats things and foreign policy crises, is that if you touch it, American, if you spill a drop of U.S. blood, President Trump is going after you.
[04:00:28]  All right.
[04:00:29]  Well, let's talk to Robert, a Republican in Nicholasville, Kentucky.
[04:00:32]  Robert, you're on the air.
[04:00:35]  How are you doing today?
[04:00:37]  Good.
[04:00:37]  Go right away.
[04:00:38]  Thank you.
[04:00:39]  Yes, I just have a couple of opinions.
[04:00:43]  Well, for one, I think that the Democrats are just out for themselves because they don't do what's right for the people.
[04:00:51]  I mean, if you go back to where the president had his speech, he just had one basic thing that everybody could agree on, and they couldn't even agree with that.
[04:01:01]  And that's what struck a nerve with me.
[04:01:04]  Now, as far as the attack on Iran, I think that, I mean, Israel is one of our biggest allies.
[04:01:15]  And if we can't support our ally that has a threat towards the United States as well, then that's another thing that the Democrats can't agree on.
[04:01:25]  They think they're owed everything and an explanation for everything.
[04:01:30]  There's just some things that just has to be done that people just don't agree with.
[04:01:34]  And that's just what people's opinions are.
[04:01:38]  And a lot of these people that called in, they just made no sense at all with whatever they was talking about that made no sense what was going on today.
[04:01:47]  I mean, they're just bringing up stuff from the past that didn't make any sense to what was going on for today in Iran.
[04:01:56]  All right.
[04:01:56]  Any comment there, Benham?
[04:01:59]  I would just say on the partisan file briefly, best for folks on the left to the right not to make this partisan.
[04:02:06]  When the Islamic Republic sponsors terror attacks, it does so without care or cause for concern about affiliation, party affiliation, or political orientation.
[04:02:17]  This is a war of choice that the Islamic Republic launched against Americans decades ago and potentially has the opportunity to come to a close.
[04:02:25]  We shouldn't give the Ayatollah any abilities to land blows politically or militarily at this late stage in the game.
[04:02:32]  Michael in Cabot, Arkansas, Democrat, you're on the air.
[04:02:37]  Yes, I was just listening to the last guy.
[04:02:40]  And, you know, I just, this is a, I agree with what Trump did.
[04:02:44]  I think that, you know, them having nuclear weapons, like I think it was Trump that said, you know, could you imagine what they would do if they had nuclear weapons?
[04:02:50]  So I understand all that.
[04:02:51]  But my real question is to everybody is just take a second and really think about our world and the situation that we're looking at and just everything and just you feel how different that feels.
[04:03:02]  That's a spiritual awakening that's going on.
[04:03:04]  And this spiritual awakening, some people are going to make it and some people aren't.
[04:03:07]  And it's going to get real bad.
[04:03:09]  I mean, it's going to be take the Bible, the book of Enoch, and they're carrying it to the God and replace the aliens with fallen angels.
[04:03:15]  And it's basically our history right there.
[04:03:18]  All right, Michael, let's get a response on, you know, what if Iran were to get a nuclear weapon?
[04:03:24]  What would the region look like?
[04:03:25]  What would the world look like?
[04:03:27]  You know, there are some theorists, academics, and even some Iran watchers who believe that this would calm down the regime, that the regime has been so paranoid because of real external threats.
[04:03:37]  But unfortunately, some of those analysts, some of those Iran watchers, some of those academics seem to miss the cause and effect beyond the reason for those threats.
[04:03:46]  So if the Islamic Republic actually got a nuclear weapon, not only do I think it would not calm down, it would have had a sense of immunity to prosecute that low-intensity war against the region, against Americans, against American assets and interests, as well as against Israelis.
[04:03:59]  And perhaps most importantly, it would have that sense of immunity against its own people, particularly if that nuclear weapon came this year or next year or the year down the line, perhaps by its 50th anniversary, for example, because the longest suffering victims of the Islamic Republic are actually the Iranian people themselves.
[04:04:16]  And that sense of lock-in for this Islamist autocracy would have been akin to that sense of lock-in for the Kim dynasty, the Kim regime in Pyongyang, which is part of this larger constellation of Axis of aggressors in North Korea that is also a partner of the Islamic Republic.
[04:04:37]  So it would have that sense of immunity and invincibility.
[04:04:40]  And not only would it not foster restraint and a sense of calming, it could actually foster escalation and more risk-taking, be it by the proxy forces, be it by the regime's own armed forces, in particular the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who would be the custodian of the bomb within the Iranian national security space, by the way.
[04:04:58]  And of course, could set off a cycle of events in the region that could lead to more U.S. partners hedging when it comes to non-proliferation strategy.
[04:05:06]  Partners like Saudi Arabia, for example, partners like Turkey, which is a member of NATO, for example, or in terms of simply nuclear deal making, cause more challenges down the line when we're looking at making sure the programs in South Korea and Vietnam are purely civilian and there are no domestic full fuel cycle capabilities.
[04:05:23]  On the independent line in Michigan, Dennis, good morning.
[04:05:28]  Yeah, how are you doing today?
[04:05:29]  Good.
[04:05:30]  Good issue I have is I look at a Trump administration.
[04:05:35]  We are selecting which one of our allies we want to stick with anymore.
[04:05:42]  Israel has enough power over there that they can take over the Middle East.
[04:05:46]  They don't need our help.
[04:05:48]  Who are we helping?
[04:05:49]  Are we helping the rest of the Middle East?
[04:05:52]  They can defend themselves.
[04:05:54]  If they want to get rid of Iran, why don't they step in and do it?
[04:05:58]  Why do we send our aircraft carriers, destroyers, battleships, and everything over there to get rid of Iran saying that it's a get rid of their nuclear weapons?
[04:06:12]  We can't have nuclear weapons.
[04:06:13]  But now all of a sudden, regime change.
[04:06:15]  We need a regime change.
[04:06:17]  What do we really want?
[04:06:19]  The United States is just picking on everybody that they know right now they could beat Venezuela, Iran, Cuba.
[04:06:27]  All right.
[04:06:27]  Well, let's get an answer to that, Dennis Benham, as far as does Israel have the capability to do this on their own.
[04:06:36]  On their own, with respect to the full range of operation, no.
[04:06:39]  I mean, even if you look at the multiple kind of iterations of the Israeli war against Gaza, against Hamas and Gaza post-October 7, after that Iran-backed terrorist attack from Hamas there, no doubt, if you're looking at munition stocks, if you're looking at defense capabilities, the Israelis may, in terms of the conventional balance, outmatch a non-state terror actor, but they run through those.
[04:07:05]  They have burned through much of those.
[04:07:07]  Many countries in the world actually don't have the capacity to sustain large-scale industrial conflict.
[04:07:14]  You know, war is won today, not just by strategy or tactics or intelligence, but also logistics, logistics that actually are based on the capacity and capabilities of your state.
[04:07:25]  But to the callers, you know, the heart of the caller's question: why us, why now, why such a massive operation?
[04:07:31]  I have no qualms with the U.S. being a selfish actor on the world stage.
[04:07:35]  Every American should want any move that is done by the U.S. military to first and foremost serve the U.S. national interest, the public good, and to defend American lives and American interests.
[04:07:46]  And there has been no state in the past four and a half decades in the Middle East that has posed such a consistent and persistent threat to those interests, to those assets, and to those lives in that part of the world than the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran itself.
[04:08:00]  I mean, again, let's run through the diplomatic track record.
[04:08:03]  Everybody from President Reagan sending a Bible and a cake in the shape of a key to try to open relations with Tehran's theocrats to Obama's famous line in 2009 when he was inaugurated talking to the Islamic Republic.
[04:08:18]  He said, if you unclench your fists, I'll extend my hand.
[04:08:21]  No doubt everybody has tried, even in tweets, President Trump in his first term and on Truth Social Post in his second term has talked about the urgency and the imperative of diplomacy.
[04:08:30]  But at every single juncture, the Islamic Republic chose.
[04:08:34]  And this is why precisely the conflict that we're in right now is a war of choice, but it's a war of choice brought to us by a considerably weaker actor, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
[04:08:44]  And I don't fault the president for seeing that imbalance, for seeing the opportunity, and actually trying to do something about it so that future presidents don't have to be in this tight spot.
[04:08:54]  All right, let's talk to Ron in Kentucky, Republican.
[04:08:57]  Go ahead, Ron.
[04:08:59]  Good morning, Mimi.
[04:09:00]  Thank you for taking my call.
[04:09:01]  Mr. Talibu, what an excellent guest you are.
[04:09:04]  You're extremely professional, very knowledgeable.
[04:09:07]  And those last sentences you have where you use the word the Iranians chose.
[04:09:12]  That's exactly what they did.
[04:09:13]  They chose to bomb Beirut.
[04:09:15]  They chose the USS Coal.
[04:09:17]  They chose what they're doing.
[04:09:18]  And they are getting payback in kind and unmercifully.
[04:09:23]  Thank God for President Trump, his strong leadership.
[04:09:26]  And you're exactly right.
[04:09:27]  These folks have killed Americans for 46 or 47 years.
[04:09:31]  Enough is enough.
[04:09:32]  We've had enough.
[04:09:34]  We want to protect our allies, make sure they have no bomb.
[04:09:37]  And most importantly, we want to protect Americans.
[04:09:40]  Thank you all.
[04:09:40]  Appreciate you taking my call.
[04:09:42]  Comment, Venom.
[04:09:44]  Yeah, thank you very much for the kind comments.
[04:09:46]  Again, that chronology, if one is looking to do a little bit of psychologizing, and I have to say, I'm not a medical doctor, nor do I have a psychology degree, but to kind of psychologize how President Trump, the man, the person, has approached this very critical moment.
[04:10:01]  I am sure that that long track record, whether he knows it personally, and again, the comments, if you go back to 1979 and to the present, you can put this into your favorite AI tool of choice.
[04:10:12]  Look at President Trump's comments from the early days of the Islamic Republic and then fast forward all the way to the present.
[04:10:18]  One of the through lines is that he believes that this regime has killed Americans and he sees that as a humiliation.
[04:10:25]  Everything from the hostage crisis to the Beirut bombing to the Cobar Towers to the support for transnational terrorism.
[04:10:31]  Unfortunately, he sees the Islamic Republic as having bested America in those multiple contests.
[04:10:36]  And unless it's stopped, it's going to keep going, kind of like the Soviet Union.
[04:10:39]  It will press in a way that'll force the challenge of responding to that press onto us.
[04:10:45]  And I think President Trump today tried to rise to meet that challenge.
[04:10:48]  Time will tell if he can take a political win after he takes a military win.
[04:10:54]  But nonetheless, I think he has responded to those multiple iterations of strikes, of death by a thousand cuts.
[04:11:01]  And again, as the caller said, Iran's war of choice, or better yet to say, the Islamic Republic's war of choice against America for the past four and a half decades.
[04:11:09]  All right, Iran Program Senior Director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Benim Ben Taliblou.
[04:11:15]  Thanks so much for joining us today.
[04:11:17]  Pleasure.
[04:11:17]  Thank you, Mimi.
[04:11:19]  And we are with you to take your calls and to hear your comments on the war with Iran that the President announced early this morning.
[04:11:29]  And joining us now is David Albright.
[04:11:32]  He is the President of the Institute for Science and International Security.
[04:11:37]  Mr. Albright, thanks for joining us.
[04:11:40]  Good to be here.
[04:11:41]  Well, you worked with the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect Iraq's nuclear program back in the 90s.
[04:11:51]  I wonder what your reaction is to the strikes on Iran because of their nuclear program.