Robert Bluey analyzes President Trump's shifting stance on Iran, noting the demand for unconditional surrender evolved into a strategy ensuring no nuclear capability remains after regime removal. He addresses conservative media tensions, including Newsmax's refusal to sign memos and FCC threats against critical networks, while dismissing concerns about Trump acting as a dictator without Congressional approval as overblown given the peaceful 2020 transition. Ultimately, Bluey acknowledges the political risks for the president despite military successes, highlighting a growing divide among conservatives regarding arms supplies and the administration's rapid response tactics. [Automatically generated summary]
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Trump's Promise to Iran00:02:04
Accomplishments don't obscure, I think, a central default that has occurred here, and I would like you both to address it.
On the first day of this conflict, President Trump addressed the Iranian people directly and said, when we're finished, take over your government.
It'll be yours to take.
And then on the seventh day of the conflict, in a Truth Social post, the president said, quote, there will be no deal with Iran except all caps exclamation mark, unconditional surrender.
What happens to that pledge to the Iranians?
And when did the president decide to capitulate on his demand for unconditional surrender?
James, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't.
You started out nicely, but you ended exactly where we knew you would end.
The president hasn't capitulated on anything.
He holds the cards.
We maintain the upper hand, and Project Freedom only strengthens that hand.
And so he will ensure that whatever deal is made or whatever end state is reached creates ensuring that Iran never has a nuclear weapon, which is A number one, and he's been focused on that, and the deal and discussions are centered on that.
And what the Iranian people take advantage of after the fact is up to them.
And he's been very clear about that.
And maybe you do it now, maybe it happens later, but ultimately he's also been clear: we're not going to entangle this into some nation-building project.
Our objectives are clear.
They've been pursued from day one.
Hopefully the Iranian people take advantage of that because they're being taken advantage of by this regime.
As you know, 45,000 Iranians, innocent Iranians, killed before the outset of this.
That's what this government does, kills their own innocent civilians.
Getting out from underneath that is going to be a challenge of the Iranian people, and we certainly hope they take advantage of that.
Thank you.
Robert Bluey, were you surprised when you heard a Newsmax reporter say, ask the question, when did the president decide to capitulate?
Not necessarily.
I know the reporter in question, James.
I mean, he asked tough questions.
He asked them of Republicans and Democrats, and I'm not surprised that he would in this particular case.
Press Credentials Under Fire00:05:30
Newsmax, I should note, also was one of the news organizations that refused to sign the memo that the Secretary had put out last year because they felt that it had gone too far.
And so I can't say that this particular instance surprised me.
I think it may surprise viewers more broadly, though, because you typically would find, you would typically expect, I think, a conservative-leaning news organization to be perhaps a little bit more friendly to the Trump administration.
But I think it's the same reason why when we go into these conversations, whether it be a press conference on Capitol Hill with Speaker Johnson or Leader Thune, or a press briefing with the White House, that sometimes there is going to be conflict.
Conservative media does not necessarily subscribe to all of the Republican policies.
Remember, conservatives oftentimes say they are the ones who are holding a certain line of principles.
And when they believe that the either Trump administration or a Republican politician is in violation of those, it's their responsibility to ask those tough questions.
If you'd like to join the conversation with Robert Bluey, he is executive editor and president of the Daily Signal.
You can start calling in now.
Democrats are on 202-748-8000.
Republicans 202-748-8001.
And Independents 202-748-8002.
President Trump has filed several lawsuits against news organizations.
Some of them have been dismissed.
Some of them have been settled.
What do you make of that?
And do you think that that in the end helps the American people or harms the American people?
It's a good question.
And it's one of the things that sets this president apart from his predecessors, who in many cases didn't take that step.
There was frustration, obviously.
You can go back to the founding of this country between a president and the press and their concerns about bias or unfair coverage.
I think this president probably has endured his share of attacks from the press that have pushed him to this point where he does feel he needs to take up these cases in a court of law.
As you indicated, it's ultimately going to be decided by a judge.
And in some cases, the president has successfully been able to get some of these companies to settle out of court.
They'd rather not go through the discovery process and have a lawsuit drag out.
And so CBS or ABC will decide that they'll do a multi-million dollar settlement with the president and make a donation to one of his causes.
In other cases, you're correct.
He's lost on these grounds.
We were just talking about the Pentagon case where news organizations sued the Pentagon.
And so ultimately, I don't think it poses the threat to the First Amendment or freedom of speech because I look at this administration, and I just gave you the example of what we endured during the Biden years, which I didn't feel received nearly the kind of coverage that it should have from the press when here was a presidential administration revoking the credentials of 442 White House correspondents, and it was a story that really flew under the radar.
Here you have a presidential case.
And that was revoked.
Why was that?
Because you were part of the Heritage Foundation and not considered a news organization?
They revoked the credentials of White House correspondents who did not have as a prerequisite a congressional press credential.
So anybody who was not previously credentialed by Congress, and Congress has a number of press galleries controlled by journalists who determine who gets access to the U.S. Capitol, if you did not have that as a prerequisite, the White House said you were going to get the boot out of their briefing room.
And so that's one of the things that we did to rectify our situation.
We said, okay, we're going to first get the congressional credential.
It worked out in our case, but in other cases, there were people.
There was a reporter, Simon Atiba from Today News Africa, for instance, who often clashed with Karine Jean-Pierre, who ended up suing the Biden administration in court over the loss of his credential.
And so I think that there are always going to be those tensions.
I agree with you that President Trump has taken it to a new level, but I also think, and it's evident even just this week in the case of the Pulitzer Prize Awards, they tend to highlight and amplify an anti-Trump agenda at every opportunity.
Are you salty about not getting the Pulitzer nomination?
Conservatives created their own awards, by the way, to counter the Pulitzer.
So it's quite interesting.
Well, so the FCC has threatened, though, to revoke licenses of broadcast networks that the president has complained about being critical of the Iran war.
What do you think of that?
And should broadcasters be limited in their coverage?
Well, the FCC chairman Brendan Carr has said that part of the responsibility, particularly of an ABC, NBC, or CBS, who do have these broadcast licenses that's different from cable news, just to distinguish, obviously, they have a certain responsibility in the public interest to tell the truth and be held to a higher standard.
And so ultimately, I don't know if those are going to be successful.
I would imagine those networks would challenge them in court, right?
But I think that what you've seen, the two big disputes that have come up were the one last year in the case of ABC and Jimmy Kimmel, and then more recently in just days before the White House correspondents dinner.
And so I think that Brendan Carr is trying to, on the one hand, send a signal that you need to take your responsibility more seriously.
President Acting Like Dictator00:04:24
And joking about harming an individual like the president can lead to ramifications.
In fact, there was a poll out just in the last few days that the American people do believe that the media has an influence in terms of how people think about violence in our society and whether or not they do take it to that next extreme.
So I do think all of us who work in media need to keep that in mind, that the actions that we take and the coverage that we provide does have consequences for our audience.
And just to clarify, Jimmy Kimmel says that he was not joking about someone harming the president, but the age difference between the president and the foreigners.
So let's talk to viewers now.
Let's start with Thomas, Daytona Beach, Florida, Independent.
Good morning, Thomas.
You're on with Robert Blewy.
Yeah, good morning.
My question to him is, he says the prayer right now, smiling all the time and talking about open, free press.
We don't have an open, free press, and our president is acting more like a dictator than a president.
Are you going to be happy when you have to salute him?
Is that your goal?
I mean, why do you think that he's becoming a dictator?
Spell that out for us.
Well, I mean, you start a war and you don't even ask.
You tear half of the White House down and you don't ask a damn soul.
And now you don't even want to go in front of Congress to ask them for money so you can carry the war that you started by yourself on.
Things he is doing is things that dictators have done in the past.
Want to be fascists or an authoritarian leader?
I hate to tell you, pal, but you know, you're in the United States of America.
We elect presidents, not dictators.
All right, let's get a response.
And there will be obviously an election coming up in November where there will be members of Congress from the House and the Senate up for election.
And in each of those cases, I think this issue could be a referendum in which voters decide to send a clear message to the president.
So we do in this country, President Trump, a lot of people said, would not leave the White House after in 2020.
Obviously, he did.
There was a peaceful transition of power between Joe Biden and President Trump, just as there has been going all the way back to the founding of our country.
So I do think some of the concerns are a bit overblown.
I will say that conservatives have been some of the most critical of President Trump.
I mean, there's been a real divide among the Make America Great, again, movement when it comes to his decisions on Iran.
In fact, Daily Signal reporter Elizabeth Mitchell, who was at the White House yesterday, asked the president about that clip, comment related to the clip you played about Secretary Hegseth.
What are you going to, you've talked about the importance of giving the Iranian people an opportunity to have this uprising.
And she asked him if he was going to provide arms and give them maybe the means to do so.
And so I think that conservatives do ask critical questions of the president.
And in fact, it was, I think, just last week that the White House rapid response account criticized Elizabeth and the Daily Signal, along with a whole bunch of other reporters.
And so there's going to be tension even with conservative media and this administration.
And just as there was when I was a reporter covering the Bush administration in the 2000s.
And so that's just the nature of how the news media and political leaders operate.
Rob, are you comfortable sharing your opinions on the Iran war with us?
Sure.
I mean, we cover the story.
So, I mean, I personally think that the president does have some political risk here.
I think as successful militarily as the war has been in terms of taking out Iran's capabilities, there are political consequences here in the United States that could have This conversation is being hosted by the Economic Club of New York.
You're watching live coverage on C-SPAN.
And that is starting to have real repercussions, of course.