C-SPAN’s Washington Journal live callers clash over U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran, with Joe (OKC) falsely equating Israel’s healthcare to "socialism" while accusing Republicans of ignoring Epstein banking records, while John (CA) blames Obama for enabling Iran’s nuclear program via offshore cash. Military veterans like Tony (OH) and Scott (IL) defend Trump’s strikes as preemptive but distrust Iran’s intentions, contrasting with Jeff (WI) and Brian (MI), who question oil-price motives and demand evidence of Iranian casualties. Keith (FL) slams Trump for bypassing Congress, while Alexander (MD) invokes God to justify the attacks—exposing deep divides over war, politics, and misinformation in real time. [Automatically generated summary]
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Welcome back.
We're continuing our conversation about the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran with your calls and comments.
Our phone line, again, for Democrats is 202-748-8000.
For Republicans, 202-748-8001.
For Independents, 202-748-8002.
If you're active or former military and have thoughts you'd like to share, you can call in at 202-748-8003.
That's also the number where you can text us.
Let's start with Joe in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Joe.
Hi, guys.
I do want to encourage the Republicans who are kind of caught in their information bubbles to actually start looking up things on their own.
Like, go to actually dig into the web on actual topics.
I'll give you an example.
Israel has a national health care system.
You know, socialism.
They pay for abortions and gender-affirming care.
Now, to the conflict that's going on, I don't think we have to look any further than the board of pirates.
Trump calls it the board of peace.
It's the board of pirates.
They've got large plans for that part of the world.
And it doesn't work unless you have somebody in each country that'll go, yes, boss, no, boss, to Trump.
So this is part of a bigger, larger reset of all nations and the entire world.
I mean, in Venezuela, he left the bad guys in charge.
So, and then they say, well, follow the money, follow the money.
The Republicans in Congress won't even let the Democrats look at the money related to the banking that was around Epstein, like the Mellon Bank of New York, Bank of America.
The Republicans won't let the Democrats get those banking records.
I wonder why.
Israel does a lot of banking through the Bank of New York Mellon.
So start looking stuff up, and then you'll soon realize you should stop voting Republican yesterday.
You guys have a great day.
Bye.
Danny is in South Carolina on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Danny.
Good morning.
Why don't you go after Russia?
Is that the evil dictator?
Quit bombing these small islands and go after Russia if he's so bad.
Thank you.
All right.
Tony is in Amherst, Ohio, and is former military.
Good morning, Tony.
Hi, how are you doing?
I am 100% behind President Trump on this issue.
I want to remind everybody that if France would have invaded Germany prior to their buildup of the military complex, World War II would have never occurred.
This is the same situation.
This is a very proactive president, and I am 100% behind him.
One other thing I want to comment about: I'm tired of the race-baiting, wacko-left calling the president, a child molester, and a white supremacist.
Thank you.
John is in South Pasadena, California on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, John.
Yes, good morning.
Thank you for taking my call.
I'm for the president, 110% what he did when he went over there to bomb Iran.
I'm telling you now that the people are very happy there that they're not under suppression and they want to have a good clean life there.
And they don't want a dictator harming these people.
They killed a lot of people there.
And I also wanted to say that when Obama was in office and President Biden was in office, let me tell you, they didn't do nothing there.
They just helped these people try to get that bomb together.
And the big, the two pellets of cash that were sent there when Obama, just before he left office, that wasn't for the Iranians.
That was Obama's money.
They were hiding it for him in an offshore account.
But I'm going to tell you right now, I want that country to be a safe country.
And I think the other countries will fall, the other countries will fall right in line with Iran there, and that'll be over.
And Trump is the greatest president we ever had.
He's the only one that did something.
47 years for all that crap down there.
Anyways, thank you for taking my call.
All right.
Jeff is in Hayward, Wisconsin on our line for independence.
Good morning, Jeff.
Yes, good morning.
Thanks for taking the call.
Yeah.
I'm going to take another swing at the head of the nail for Joel from Utah, I believe, a few callers back.
And it is a matter of following the money, follow the oil.
There's no reason why in our area and many others, the price of gas went up a dime.
It went up a dime the following day.
The following day, we had the strike.
The oil companies knew this was coming.
This was not a hidden agenda in the big world.
Our people that have to live with the consequences.
Now, you follow the money and Joe talking about the money earlier.
That is so the direction that Trump goes to protect his own.
He has his puppeteer of Jared going over with his bag handler, Rubio.
They go over it, they protect their own.
The billion that Trump made off of the Bitcoin, this is another extortion of the money that they're able to maneuver around.
We talk about democracy, then all of a sudden, we want fair and open elections in other countries, and Trump will do whatever he can to manipulate the election in his favor for power.
I'm sorry, folks.
I mean, Trump does have decent ideas to go at it, but he usually screws up everything for power and for money.
So.
All right.
Chris is in Austin, Texas, on our line for current and former military.
Good morning, Chris.
Hey, good morning.
I just want to say I joined the military in 1979 because of the Iran situation when they took our hostages.
I was pretty upset about that.
And by the way, I rejoined the military after 9-11.
But getting back to the situation, I think it's 47 years overdue to take on that regime.
But I want you all to know I'm no Trump supporter.
It's just I do support the action.
I just don't support Trump's motives ultimately.
I'm suspicious because of the way he's been operating from day one.
It's been pretty self-evident that he's taking care of his own pocketbook and family.
And that's all I have to say.
I hope everything works out for everybody militarily over there and for the Iranian people.
Jack is in Iowa on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Jack.
Good morning.
I was disappointed in your prior guest, Steve Cook's twice downplaying the atomic bomb threat.
It's been reported that Iran had 600 pounds of near weapons grade nuclear material.
And at 10 pounds per bomb, that's 60 nuclear bombs.
Using 10 bombs on Israel and 10 bombs on Europe, that leaves 40 bombs that could be used on the United States.
That's going to cause a lot more damage than Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Okay.
Next up is Alexander, who is in Maryland on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Alexander.
Yeah, good morning.
Thank you.
Just want to say that I'm so sick and tired of all these Democrats calling and saying Trump is racist.
That's all it can have.
Trump is this, Trump is that.
You know, Obama said this guy, this Ayatollah Kovati, whatever his name is, setting 1.7 billion cash and Trump setting this.
And that serves him right.
I celebrate with the Iranians, and God bless the USA.
God bless the people of Israel.
God bless Etayahu and God bless all.
Thank you.
Speaking of Israel in particular, there is a station called I-24 News, which is an Israel-based international news channel with headquarters in Tel Aviv.
And we're going to listen for a bit to how they are reporting on the strikes this morning.
A little bit about that because there's a bit of confusion, a bit confusion about what is safer, the Miklat or the Mamad.
You know, essentially for our foreign viewers, the safe shelter within people's apartments or going underground into Miklatim.
Is there a difference at this point?
I'm sure there is.
And that's a great question that we actually had a discussion on the way.
Unfortunately, the best people to ask that is engineers, not us.
It's a very good question.
We were discussing that on the way to the scene.
Right.
Well, obviously, you're dealing with the aftermath of so many of these incidents.
And I think we're just hoping that you're able to stay emotionally strong, you and all the other medical personnel who are doing this.
Is there kind of any last message that you want to send to those who are viewing this?
Any updates that you can give us about the scene on the ground right now?
I know you're finally at the hospital.
I'm now in the headquarters of United Hatzalah, and there is thousands of volunteers all over the countries that we leave our families and the shelters when there is a siren and there is hit that we need to get there.
It's not easy for us to leave our family hurts.
So help us by helping yourself.
And when there is a siren, listen to what the people say and go to the safe area.
All right.
I'd like to thank you so much for joining us.
Doctor.
Again, you can see these visuals in front of you.
That is Beit Shemesh, a town, a city near Jerusalem, where at least nine people have been pronounced dead following the impact of a ballistic missile from Iran.
The majority of those who were killed in this missile impact had been taking cover in a public shelter.
That's according to the Jerusalem District Police Chief.
The deputy commissioner is also speaking at the scene right now.
He believes that this was a direct impact on the shelter.
And most of those killed were actually in the shelter.
Again, you know, something that I do want to say, we learned from the past war in June in 2025.
We also saw hundreds of ballistic missiles fired from Iran, is that you are largely going to be safe if you are inside a shelter, whether it is a Mamad, an apartment shelter, or a Mikatan underground shelter, as long as there is no direct missile impact.
We saw situations in which there were buildings.
In I-24 News, an Israeli-based international news channel with headquarters in Tel Aviv, they're talking about some of those retaliatory strikes that the Iranian government has done.
This one, a missile that landed in Israel near Jerusalem.
And as they were reporting on I-24 News, that up to nine people may be dead in that particular attack.
Iran has been retaliating against the strikes from the United States and Israel throughout the region.
Let's get back to your calls with your thoughts.
Scott is in Effingham, Illinois, on our line for current and former military.
Good morning, Scott.
Good morning, America and fellow patriots.
When I served in the Vietnam War, I was in the Air Force, and we trained Iranian pilots.
Now, their country would buy everything from Tootsie Rolls to fighter jets from us.
In 1979, when they took our hostages, I personally met Terry Anderson in upstate New York when he got returned, and it was a pleasure to see him.
So, anyways, when the Muslims took over, okay, 9-11 happened, and most of us adults remember where we were.
The rest of the world wants our money, but the Muslims, it's in the Quran that we are infidels.
Well, we have a president.
Scott, I just want to make sure that we're being clear here about what you're talking about.
So, you were talking about Iranians and the Iranian revolution, and then separately the terrorists who committed the 9-11 attacks, who, while Muslim, that is a separate thing from the Muslim faith overall.
Okay, to get to the point with Mr. Trump, he is one of the strongest presidents we've ever had.
I'm not saying he's the best, but he's strong.
And I fought with Israelis.
Well, let me one thing.
With the Iranian pilots, they never looked you in the eye.
I never trusted them.
But the Israelis, I fought with them, they are one tough country.
They're the size of New Jersey, and they're surrounded by the Muslims.
Now, for them to stand with us, to stand up with them, our ally, is a pleasure to know to fight with the Israelis.
And for us to go in no other country, you don't see England or France or anybody joining us.
They may for intelligence, but so far the troops ain't doing it.
So let's just see what happens.
And like I say, everybody's talking to the people need to decide for themselves, whether it be democratic or if they appoint someone.
But the thing is to have peace in Iran, I think, is the ultimate goal.
Okay?
So thank you for listening to me, and God bless this country.
And it goes back to the bumper sticker.
America, love it or leave it.
If you don't like it here, leave.
Nobody's stopping you.
Let's have peace in our country, too.
Okay?
Keith is in Sarasota, Florida on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Keith.
Hey, how are you doing?
Oh, that's great.
I love following up on that.
My wife is like 5'5 inches, maybe 120 pounds.
Democrat vs Republican00:02:36
She could take Trump down in a heartbeat.
She's a very tough woman, and he's a very weak man.
I was just calling to share the email I sent to my congressman yesterday morning, a little after 7 a.m.
It said, how dare Trump take us to war with Iran without a declaration from Congress?
It's an impeachable offense.
Are you and your colleagues going to do anything about it?
What if Obama launched such a large-scale war on his own?
The hypocrisy is galling.
Obama secured a nuclear deal with Iran, but Trump tore it up because Trump opposes anything Obama ever did.
Surely because Obama's black.
And as we all know, Trump's a huge racist.
So I guess.
Is a member of Congress a Republican or Democrat?
I have no representation here.
This is like a MAGA universe where I live.
So yeah, I have no representation.
Definitely Republican, and I'm Democrat.
All right.
Next up is Brian in Rochester, Michigan on our line for independence.
Good morning, Brian.
Good morning.
I just wanted to ask, I think that it was a report that I saw on your program earlier this morning that referenced an article that 30,000 Iranians had been killed in two days.
And just doing a little bit of math, that's 600 people an hour.
Yet we have only the only video that I've seen is some video of some burning fires and a lot of people out on the street.
Where is the proof for the American people that we're backing a war that has actually taken the lives of 30,000 people in two days where they're loading the bodies on trucks?
I mean, I think that we just need to step back and use the process of debate in order to get all the information before we decide to take part in a war where Americans could lose their lives.
Thank you.
Goodbye.
All right.
That is all the time we have for this segment.
We are not going to.
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