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April 20, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
26:36
Larry Johnson : Iran and Nukes.
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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Monday, April 21st, 2025.
Larry Johnson will be here in just a minute on Iran and nukes.
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Larry Johnson, where are you?
I'm here.
There you go.
Welcome here, my dear friend.
Thank you very much, as always.
Before we get to Trump and Iran, do you see any serious geopolitical significance to the passing of Pope Francis?
Well, let's be candid.
He was a non-entity on the crucial...
You know, the Christians, even though they're Eastern Orthodox, they still profess the belief in Jesus Christ.
They celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And the Pope was virtually silent on the persecution of Christians inside Ukraine.
Didn't really make an issue of it at all.
You know, gee, what could he have done?
Well, He could have sent one of his senior representatives to Ukraine to stand in solidarity with the Eastern Orthodox Christian leaders there.
Didn't do that.
He could have sent a representative to Russia as well.
He could have done something to try to promote peace, to promote the gospel of Jesus that he was commissioned to lead.
When you and I Spent a week in Russia.
We were with very devout Russian Orthodox.
Correct. As to whom, they were alienated from the Pope, and they shouldn't have been.
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's just, you know, he could have been a leader in that regard.
Wasn't. Not at all.
And then, with the genocide of the Palestinian people, yeah, he made some, they put out some comments.
He didn't send any senior.
Again, physically he couldn't do it just because he was so old and infirm.
But by God, he could have sent somebody of some notoriety out of his leadership team that would go stand with the Palestinian Christians who have been prevented from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre over the weekend by the Israelis.
He could have sent Cardinal Perlin, the Secretary of State, to stand there and say to Netanyahu on international television, stop.
Stop the slaughter.
Stop the genocide.
Instead, he issued a statement in February now, just three months ago, saying I want an investigation as to whether it is genocide.
You want an investigation as to whether it is genocide?
Look, this...
I don't mean to take a shot at the leadership of the Catholic Church, but it's a well-deserved shot.
At least they're following the same tradition they did with respect to the Holocaust and World War II, okay?
Say nothing, you know, don't ask, don't tell.
Yeah, yeah.
All right, life goes on.
You know, there's a variety of candidates to replace him.
They won't even get to that for another four weeks or so.
They can't have his funeral until the Easter octave is over, and they can't call the conclave until the funeral takes place.
So it's going to be mid or late May by the time we know if there will be a geopolitical effect by the election of his successor.
Trump's rants and raves and threats about Do you think this is good cop, bad cop?
Or is it just Trump's lack of self-discipline?
You know, I said if you had to judge Trump based upon what he said, what he says in public, you would, you know, and your head had to snap every time to one side or the other,
you'd have a neck injury, okay?
He is all over the board.
It's just in terms of what he says in public, it's like it's not even thought out and thought through.
But apparently what he's saying in private is completely different.
And we saw when we did the roundtable last week on the eve of prior to Easter, I was more pessimistic that The talks that took place in Rome on Saturday were not going to end well because Witkoff had completely reversed the position that had been announced publicly the prior Saturday.
So after that first meeting with the Iranians, they came out and said basically they'd agreed to work on something about capping Iran's nuclear enrichment.
But then by Wednesday, Whitcoff was posting on Truth Social that, oh, this is the Trump, it's going to be the Trump deal or nothing, and no enrichment, no nuclear program, no weapons system, no missile, no nothing.
And I was like, well, okay, with that as a position, Iran's going to walk away.
And then the meeting took place, and man, well, what...
The Iranian foreign minister, Rahchi, comes out and says, hey, it went really well.
In fact, we're going to get the technical guys together on Wednesday in Oman, and then they're going to put together the details about how we flush out this cap on our peaceful nuclear energy program, and then we'll meet again on Saturday.
Holy smokes, that is fabulous.
That is, you know...
So, I was wrong.
And I'm glad to be wrong on that.
So, Whitcoff is reflecting, you know, that wasn't Whitcoff going in and saying, I don't care what Donald Trump says or does.
This is my view.
No, no, no.
He's reflecting what he and Trump have talked about, I guess, in private.
And Donald Trump is, if this stays on track, Donald Trump's going to get a victory.
Now, we'll all sit back and say, hey, wait a second.
You walked away from this victory.
You had it in your hands with JCPOA seven years ago.
But, okay, be that as it may, you now get to declare victory that you stopped a weapons program that didn't exist, but you stopped a weapons program.
And, you know, he'll take the victory lap that he'll finally have a deal that he's made that will bring...
Prospects of peace.
And what about Netanyahu?
His head will explode.
Okay? I think, you know, I know that I haven't had a chance to watch Alistair yet, but Alistair's wife, Asling, working with him, they put out on a substack about every week a review of the Hebrew press.
And what's in that Hebrew press, boy, is complete.
Completely at odds with what's in the English version.
And what the Hebrew side of the house shows is that there is tremendous tension, division, and unrest within Israel.
And this will destroy Bibi's ability to use the threat of a nuclear weapon, nuclear attack by Iran as a tool to try to solidify his political status.
It's going to cut the legs out from under him on that.
Now, that doesn't mean it's going to resolve the tensions that exist within Israel.
They're at a boiling point.
But the other thing that sort of came out over the weekend is Iran unveiled that it has a new over-the-horizon radar system that covers all of Israel.
That means Iran now, on its own, without having to rely upon the Russians, can detect...
The launch of any plane or ballistic missile out of Israel.
It will know in advance if Israel is launching an attack.
And that over-the-horizon radar then is also instrumental.
It's important in terms of air defense systems that would engage incoming planes or ballistic missiles.
Does the United States even have anything like this?
Yes. Yeah, we do.
But, you know, for Iran, you know, with the United States, you're looking, you know, 360-degree coverage.
With Iran, man, they know where the threat's coming from.
It's coming from the West.
All right, here's Trump's, just back to where we were a few comments ago, Larry, and I understand your view, and I actually agree with it, that there's a public Trump and a private Trump, but here's the public Trump on Good Friday.
Chris, cut number three.
On Iran, would you be open to letting Iran keep some kind of civil nuclear program?
Or would the entire program need to be dismantled?
I'm for stopping Iran very simply from having a nuclear weapon.
They can't have a nuclear weapon.
I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.
With Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon.
And if they have a nuclear weapon, you'll all be very unhappy.
You'll all be very unhappy.
Have you spoken to Xi?
Your life will be a great day.
you
Actually, he didn't fall for the bait from her.
You're right.
He just kept using the word nuclear weapon, nuclear weapon, nuclear weapon.
Why is it that nobody in the press ever asks the right follow-up?
Well, Mr. President, how is it that Israel...
Has a nuclear weapon.
Right, right.
Nobody asks that.
Yeah. Yeah, no, it is...
We don't have a media.
We have a group of stenographers and cheerleaders.
But notice that Trump is...
He's dealing with a straw man.
You know, to say that we're not going to allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
Well, you know, it's like saying...
I'm not going to allow my son to have a Lamborghini.
Well, A, he can't afford one, and B, he doesn't have one.
So, you know, he's preventing Iran from getting something that it doesn't have, and it's not trying to develop.
Will Iran ever voluntarily give up all nuclear enrichment as Netanyahu demanded the last time he was in the White House?
Absolutely not.
And in fact, one of the key tenets in the agreement that Iran signed with Moscow on January 17th between President Putin and President Pazeshkin is that they're going to collaborate and work, and Russia's going to help Iran with its peaceful nuclear energy program.
That's number one.
They committed also to work on non-proliferation, which means Iran's not going to be building nuclear weapons.
And what they do need, though, and this is one of the things that Witkoff said, I think it was on Sean Hannity's show.
He said, oh, Iran doesn't need to enrich at 20%, 3.6%.
Well, you know, it's just Mr. Witkoff's lack of experience in that field by not understanding.
That the 20% enrichment is enrichment that's used in the field of medical research and producing products for treatments of things like cancer.
So Iran's not going to give that up either.
But I think the key thing that the Iranians agreed to, that, you know, Whitcoff had to, you know, I think was pretty happy to take it back to Trump, is we'll allow outside inspectors.
Of all of our sights.
Not a problem.
Not a problem.
So do you think that Netanyahu, who is really, really on thin ice at home, only staying in office and out of jail because of wars attacks Iran anyway,
even though Trump says don't and we're not going to help you?
Without our assistance, I don't think Israel is capable of mounting such an attack.
But let's assume that they could.
And again, you can't discount the craziness of Bibi Netanyahu in a moment of desperation.
But we saw what Iran was capable of doing in terms of defending itself on October 27th.
They shot down the missiles that were inbound.
There was no serious or significant damage to any Iranian facility.
So this time, you know, since October 27th, Iran has been taking steps to boost its defensive capabilities and their level of increased cooperation with Russia has expanded.
So they're in a much stronger position now.
So if Bibi Netanyahu risks that...
He will be responsible for one of the greatest military defeats of Israel in its history.
I don't think he wants to risk that.
Do you agree with Colonel McGregor that Iran's offensive weaponry is enough to obliterate Israel?
Yeah, to take out all the significant military sites.
Israel's not a big place.
People need to sit down, look at a map, look at geography, and recognize Iran is a massive, it's a very, very large country.
And Israel doesn't have enough planes or missiles to hit all the sites that are scattered around inside Iran.
Whereas, Israel is much more confined.
They don't have 50 military bases.
I mean, we're talking large bases.
They've got a relatively few number.
So it's a confined target.
I mean, it's like, basically, it's like bombing New York City, okay?
Or this, you know, take New York City and Long Island.
It is a confined geographic area.
It's much easier from a targeting standpoint.
And Iran has sophisticated ballistic missiles.
And one of the other areas where they've been making advances.
It's in their own space program.
So, you know, the Iranians are not a bunch of, you know, back-to-backwoods hillbillies.
They are sophisticated, and they are scientifically cutting edge.
Wow. Over the weekend, the New York Times reports that Secretary of State Hegseth has yet again Shared attack details in a signal chat, this time not with Jeff Goldberg from the Atlantic,
but with his wife, with his brother, and with his personal lawyer, none of whom has a top-secret security clearance.
I'm going to play a clip in a minute, which I think is demeaning from the Secretary of Defense, but it's him.
Are these allegations taken seriously by the people whose lives could be affected by them, which is the troops?
Yes, but we need to step back and look at what's going on here.
So three top, you know, like a thief of staff and two other close advisors of Hexeth have been fired.
They were marched out of the Pentagon and accused of leaking information.
So these reports about this, I think, originated from those three, because one of those three, or maybe all of them, they are reported going to sue for unjust termination.
So there's a soap opera going on here that not too many people are paying attention to.
You know, how these people got hired in the first place, I'm presuming that Hegseth went through and said, hey, I want you to come be on my team.
And then for, I'm not sure who it was that took the decision to ax him and force him out.
So, you know, this could be an even more complicated play to get rid of Pete Hegseth.
And, you know, they're eviscerating his staff already.
And they're exposing, you know, this doesn't look good for him.
It makes him look like a clown.
So this is not a good situation to have where the Secretary of Defense, at a time when we're losing predators at a pretty impressive rate in the Red Sea, that you've got him in this kind of situation where he's weak and he doesn't have a good,
reliable staff around him.
Here's what he said this morning.
I don't know why he was there.
Maybe Trump orders him to be there at the White House Easter Egg Roll.
But anyway, here's what he said.
I think he makes things worse, but you tell me your view.
Cut number seven, Chris.
You know, what a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that peddled the Russia hopes.
Won't give back their Pulitzers.
They got Pulitzers for a bunch of lies.
Pulitzers for a bunch of lies.
And on hoaxes.
Time and time and time again.
And as they peddle those lies, no one ever calls them on it.
See, this is what the media does.
They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations.
Not going to work with me.
And anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news.
Doesn't matter.
So I'm right here.
This is why we're fighting the fake news media.
This is why we're fighting slash-and-burn Democrats.
This is why we're fighting hoaxters.
Hoaxters. This group, no, no, this group right here.
Full of hoaxters.
That peddle anonymous sources from leakers with axes to grind.
And then you put it all together as if it's some news story.
Did you hear him deny that the signal chat...
With his wife, brother, and lawyer took place.
Oh, no, no.
And I think it's probably true.
But I think the, you know, the other question I have, though, is these three people that were fired, who hired him?
He did.
Yeah, that's my understanding, is he hired them.
And so then you come back and say, okay, why did you fire them?
What really was the nature of the leak?
And look, leaking in Washington is sort of the daily bread for particularly senior people.
And it's been that way for Republicans and Democrats going back as long as the press has been writing stories.
So in a way, I think he's got a fair complaint.
That this is being weaponized against him by the people who were fired.
However, he provided them some ammunition.
So if you load the cartridge in the gun and then somebody fires the gun at you, well, you shouldn't have put that cartridge in the gun in the first place.
I think he makes things worse.
I think he's mocking the press because he used to be part of the press when he was at Fox.
I don't think that resonates with the troops.
It certainly doesn't resonate with Senator Duckworth.
I know she's a liberal Democrat, but she did lose her legs fighting in Afghanistan.
Every day he stays in his job is another day our troops' lives are endangered by his singular stupidity.
I think there's something to be said for that statement.
Yeah. Again, I never thought from the outset that it was a good choice.
A good choice from Donald Trump to put Hexeth in there because he just doesn't have the background and experience that you would expect for managing something like the Department of Defense.
But do you notice he's under some stress, though, because that gray hair that's showing up there, he's too young to have gray hair like that.
I mean, I'm old.
I should have hair like that.
Yeah. One last thing.
This congressman I never heard of by the name of Fitzpatrick from Congressional District No.
1 in Pennsylvania.
You see what he did?
I'm reading what he said.
It was my profound honor to deliver a very, quote, personal message to Vladimir Putin today.
And from the front lines of the war near the Russian border on behalf of our PA-1 community, that's his congressional district, PA-1, the only permissible details to share are that the message was delivered on target.
And I don't know if you could read this, but where Chris superimposed the red arrow is where Congressman Fitzpatrick signed a projectile, a huge bomb of some sort, with Vladimir Putin's name, and he says the message...
It was delivered on target.
Of course, it turns out that in this congressman's district is a large weapons manufacturing plant.
You can't make this stuff up.
Yeah, it'd be nice to have some leaders who weren't juvenile.
It's immature and it's stupid.
And it's counterproductive.
The fact of the matter is the United States and Russia are moving towards a peace agreement.
Donald Trump has gone through Marco Rubio to send a message to the Europeans and the Ukrainians that, you know, you better make your decision this week, come around to the kinds of demands that we're making, or you're on your own and we're out.
And I think Trump will definitely follow through with that.
And when he does...
That will actually bring it into the war much quicker than any negotiation or any agreement at a ceasefire.
Once the United States pulls the plug, then we'll be on our way to see an actual peace come into play in Ukraine.
Larry, thank you.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Thanks for your time.
We look forward to seeing you with Ray for the Intelligence Community Roundtable at the end of the week.
Hey, I'll be there.
Thanks, Judge.
Thank you.
All the best, Larry.
Coming up at 3 o'clock today, Scott Ritter, and at 4 o'clock from Rome, Professor Jeffrey Sachs.
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