April 5, 2026 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
30:31
Larry Johnson : Trump's Gross Underestimation of Iran
Judge Andrew Napolitano and Larry Johnson dissect a controversial April 6, 2026, airman rescue, speculating it diverted JSOC units from an Isfahan nuclear raid. Johnson critiques President Trump's erratic threats as potential signs of dementia warranting the 25th Amendment, while highlighting discrepancies like unconfirmed F-16 pilot fates and suspicious C-130 deployments. The analysis extends to Iran's oil leverage, Al Jazeera's uranium theft claims, and Israel's costly Lebanon buffer zone strategy, ultimately suggesting these events reveal deeper geopolitical miscalculations and internal instability. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Illegitimate Government Force00:05:40
Undeclared wars are commonplace.
Tragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression, with no complaints from the American people.
Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government.
To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected.
What if sometimes, to love your country, you had to alter or abolish the government?
What if Jefferson was right?
What if that government is best which governs least?
What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong?
What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave?
What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now?
Hi, everyone.
Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Monday, April 6th, 2026.
Larry Johnson will be with us in just a moment with an incredible analysis of what went on on the ground during this so called rescue of an American airman.
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Larry Johnson, welcome here, dear friend.
It seems like just a few minutes ago we were together talking about.
The bullet in the Charlie Kirk assassination not matching the gun from which the government says it was shot.
Since then, of course, you have dug very deeply and have produced an extraordinary analysis of what happened on the ground with respect to the so called rescue.
Before we get to that, and we will in a moment, Trump's threatening profanity-laced posting.
A, he's threatening war crimes.
B, he seems to be revealing deep.
Deep desperation.
How did you read that?
Oh, exactly that way.
Those were comments unbecoming of a president.
Even, you know, even some of his most staunch MAGA supporters are really taken aback by it.
Look, I think he has got some serious decline in his mental capabilities.
I think it has to do with the onset of a form of dementia.
And I base that on.
His use of profanity.
It's one thing to think something and to maybe say it in private, but there's always within our brain sort of a social monitoring mechanism that we know it's inappropriate to say certain things in certain ways.
But as people get older, and I saw this with my mother, when she was 84, all of a sudden she would be saying things out loud that normally, when she was 70, 60, she wouldn't say.
So that's what I think, in part, we've seen with Trump this failure to be able to control his emotions and to not filter it.
Because this really, the hysteria going from one moment saying, oh, we don't need the Strait of Hormuz open.
We don't care.
We don't get anything out of that.
Let Europe take care of it to, you know, you crazy effers, you know, open the Straits.
You know, it's like, Guy, come down.
You know, somebody get him his medication.
So, really, I think the time for the 25th Amendment has come.
How do you think Iranian leadership reacted to that threat?
How do you think the Iranian people will react to a direct attack on them, their roadways, their schools, their bridges, their electric power?
It just confirmed everything.
If they were predisposed to believe that Trump is crazy, This settled it.
This proved beyond any shadow of doubt that Donald Trump is detached from reality, is brutal, is vicious, and will kill women and children if necessary.
Was It A Rescue00:14:34
The so called rescue raises a lot of questions.
I'm just going to put the ball in your court.
Was it a rescue or was it something else masked as a rescue?
No, I actually think it was a rescue.
But there's still a lot of oddities about it that aren't explained.
One is the different information that was released by the government, sometimes officially and then unofficially in leaks to the press during the day, that changed the location where this F 15 Eagle went down changed.
And it changed in terms of hundreds, a couple of hundred miles from.
Uh, was out towards the coast, then increasingly, where the final action took place up just 21 miles south of Isfahan, this uh nuclear facility.
Um, it is uh, it is uncommon, but not unheard of for this.
So, the number two pilot or number two person in this aircraft they're called a weapons system officer WSO.
Normally, the person that sits in that second seat is like a young lieutenant or a captain, which is a junior officer.
The guy sitting in this seat was the vice wing commander at Mawafik Salti Air Base in Jordan.
That is one of the principal air bases that the United States is using to conduct air operations attacks against Iran.
Now, you know, I've heard from friends that had been involved that this has been done by others.
You know, one person told me about a general where he was assigned to a particular location and a two star general was hopping into a plane to fly sorties.
I don't know if it was an ego thing or whatever, but this guy, by virtue of being the vice wing commander, having him in that F 15, it's not that he was up there to do command and control of an operation.
I don't think that's the case at all.
When he went down, when they both ejected the pilot and the co pilot, The pilot was picked up fairly quickly, and he was picked up with the Air Force's what they call the Pave Hawk.
It's like the Black Hawk, but it's specially configured so it can fly further distances.
It can be refueled in the air, and aerial refueling with the helicopters is quite a challenge.
But those helicopters were shot at and were trailing smoke as they left the airspace of Iran.
Apparently, they made it back to base safely.
Now, Here's one thing that I still don't make sense to me on the story.
This colonel, when he landed, apparently he either broke his ankle or broke his leg.
It's not, you know, there's two different stories out there.
Regardless, he then was, they claim, walked five miles on a broken ankle or broken leg to this mountain and then climbed the mountain.
I suppose it's possible that somebody's adrenaline could allow them to do that, but it's just, There's an oddity about that story.
Now, then we get to the combat search and rescue effort that was launched.
There is, you know, they set up what's called a JRPC, Joint Personnel Recovery Center, JPRC.
And there are a number of air assets specifically dedicated to being able to take off and go out and find and recover personnel.
What I think happened here, and again, this is my opinion.
But this location, I think it was serendipitous.
But because of where this colonel wound up, when they made the decision to launch the JPRC assets, they turned to a special operations unit that was planning to go into this dirt airfield that was there, and then from there to stage to launch an attack or raid on Isfahan.
And that was, this was a JSOC elements, Joint Special Operations Command.
Reportedly, the SEALs were involved.
And why I say that is there were four little birds.
Now, the little bird is an AH-6 helicopter.
You've got two pilots up front, I think two pilots, but you've got a space on the side for two operators on either side to sit.
You'll see them sitting on, you know, in the doorway so they can jump off.
Those can be packed onto the C 130H or J. They've got a couple of variants of this.
It's a propeller aircraft, but it can carry up around 120 soldiers with combat loads.
But it can also carry two little birds.
Well, I do not believe that the JPRC, they say, hey, we're looking for this guy.
Go grab your.
Two little birds on each, and we went a lot.
We went a total of four and put them on your C 130s and launch.
Uh, that didn't make sense to me.
I think they were already loaded, they were pre positioned for an operation that was going to be carried off at some point, whether later that day or the next day or you know today.
But instead, because of the seniority of the person they were looking for and the location where he wound up, that they turned this over to this uh JSOC unit.
Now, that's normally not what JSOC does, they're not a personal.
They don't do that kind of personnel recovery.
There's something called the parorescue jumpers.
They are normally Air Force.
And I tell you, those guys are studs, you know, as capable and competent as Navy SEALs are or Delta Force operators.
The PJs are in a whole different league because they're medics, they're trained for doing combat medicine, they can do tracheotomies and other things in the field.
They're trained.
Both for parachuting, in they're trained for maritime operations, so they have to undergo the same kind of tests that the Navy SEALs do to qualify.
And then they're also competent shooters.
I mean, they're the whole package, but they didn't use them.
And then this is where it really gets strange because you say you got a number of the press reports up to 100, and they would have been Rangers from the 75th, one of the 75th Ranger regiments that have been forward deployed.
So they secure that airfield, and then they claim that there was a big firefight, and may have been, I wasn't there, and that the two C 130s were damaged.
Apparently, the helicopters were unloaded, at least two of them, but there were a total of four.
And they used one of those little birds to fly up to rescue the colonel off of one of the ridges on that mountain and then bring him back.
But then, okay, so now you've got two disabled C 130s.
How do you get out?
Well, there's another aircraft in the special operations world that.
Can do short takeoff and landing, and it can carry upwards of, you know, 70, 80 people per plane.
So it sounds like they brought in two of those to fly them out.
I mean, this was, and while all this is going on, you had an A 10 that was shot down, the Warthog.
They rescued the pilot on that, was rescued by the Joint Personnel Recovery Center.
You had another F 16, supposedly, that was.
Or I don't say supposedly, but the claim is that it was shot, but the pilot got out.
The Iranians claim they captured her, a female pilot, but the United States has said nothing about that and hasn't reacted as if that's taking place.
They lost at least one, maybe two Predator MQ 9 Reaper Predator drones.
So, you know, was this some have argued that this was just a ruse, you know, to, Create a distraction so we could get in.
I don't think that was it.
I think, you know, the combination of unfortunate events brought this about.
And what's interesting, though, this has given the Iranians a real wake up.
If I'm the Iranian general, I'm saying, okay, I'm looking at every nuclear site in Iran and I'm looking for any remote airfields that are within 30 miles of that plant or that city or that site.
And then we're going to start, we're going to set up units there to guard them, protect them, be prepared for possible operations.
I think, as a result of all this chaos that took place, that the plans to do further ground operations in Iran may now be off the table.
How many American human beings were involved in the effort to rescue the colonel?
It's a normal number.
No, this was an abnormal number of people to assign to this kind of thing.
A good friend of mine, he was the last colonel to command the Air Force Special Operations Command, AFSOC, in Hurlbird, Florida.
And he flew.
He flew the CSAR, they call it combat search and rescue missions.
He flew the CSAR missions in Vietnam.
And you'd never go out with 100 people like this because you really put too many other people at risk, unnecessary risk.
So this was a combination of things where they had this unit that was ready to launch on some other mission and they diverted it specifically.
Uh, for this, be just because of both the location, uh, they had that unit had some familiarity with the area from having planned been planning to you know land and get in and out of there.
Um, the notion, you know, so they're there, the two different stories one is that the two C 130s got stuck in the sand, uh, maybe, but you know, usually what the special operations folks do, uh, they did this back in 1980 when uh, that we tried to rescue hostages in Tehran.
And that was Operation Eagle Claw.
A guy flew out on his own, went out, landed, tested the ground, and then flew back.
It was a covert mission to say, yeah, no, it's okay there.
The land's fine.
There is something from some of the photographs that they revealed the aircraft or what's left of the aircraft show signs that they'd been shot at, that they'd suffered damage that was not consistent with just being on the ground and stuck in the sand or being blown up.
Blown in place to prevent the recovery of any technology or equipment that may have been left on board.
But this was a costly mission.
There's at least $400 million worth of aircraft lost on Saturday.
Were any Americans injured, killed, or captured in this mission?
We don't know.
I've seen one video of a C 130 and it was crashing in a different location.
And if it was on fire and crashed, that meant.
At least six crewmen were dead.
There is a photograph out circulating showing what appears to be the charred remains of an individual.
We don't know if that's AI generated or not.
I don't see how you carry out an operation this size without having some fatalities and a large number of wounded.
We are told that in that first rescue, the rescue of the pilot from the F 15, that those Blackhawks came under fire.
And that the pilot, not the rescued pilot, but the pilots flying the Black Hawk and other crew on board were wounded.
So we do know that there were some casualties out of that.
How severe, we don't know.
This just out from Al Jazeera.
Iran says U.S. airman rescue may have been covered to steal enriched uranium.
Iran's foreign ministry says the U.S. operation to rescue a downed airman may have been a cover to steal enriched uranium from the country.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, won't bother reading his name, said there were many questions and uncertainties about the operation.
The area where the American pilot was claimed to be present is what you said, Larry.
Is a long way from the area where they attempted to land or wanted to land their forces in central Iran.
The possibility that this was a deception operation to steal enriched uranium should not be ignored at all.
Could the president's chaotic war bring about regime change?
God, this is the headline, the Daily Mail.
Could the president's chaotic war bring about regime change in America rather than Iran?
Prepositioned Aircraft Mystery00:04:04
I don't want to go there with you on that.
What about what Al Jazeera is saying?
Yeah, no, I think they're just reporting or reflecting what they're hearing.
That's a lot of different rumors and opinions circulating on social media.
Right.
And I've got a friend.
He was a lieutenant colonel that served.
He was a task force commander with JSOC back in Iraq some years ago.
He had an entirely different take on it.
He was arguing from the standpoint that it was a ruse.
But again, you don't, if you're going to stage this, I don't see why you would have had the pave hawks on scene because those would have been used ostensibly to launch.
If you're going to really launch the raid then on the nuclear site, you're going to need something to carry the troops in.
The little birds are, you know, just carrying in eight guys.
So each, if there are four little birds, you got four operators per bird that are sitting on the skids.
That gives you 16.
Them and then you got a pilot or two for each bird.
So that you know, you got 20 personnel there.
You would need more to go into one of the tunnels at the nuclear facility or storage site in Isfahan.
Also, how would you, if you were going to take material from that, how are you going to get it out?
So you would have had something like a Chinook 47 that would have a lift capability to put those.
Pulled it out so they did.
You just didn't have all the assets on scene here that you would have used if you were going to actually carry out that kind of raid.
And that's why I think it appears more that the unit, the JSOC unit that had been prepared to carry out this operation, uh, the raid, they were diverted to this task because both of the seniority of the person that was the they were trying to rescue, uh, as well as the location.
The C 130s, aren't they huge lumbering cargo planes not typically used in snatch and grab rescue operations?
Well, no, they're used, they've got a variety, there are special operations aircraft sort of go to.
So it's not lumbering, but it is propeller driven.
So it doesn't fly as fast as an F 35, a jet.
But nonetheless, it is a pretty.
Uh, you know, good lord, it's been around 60 years.
Uh, so it is, and they keep they continue to update it, but uh, it is sort of the workhorse for uh, special the special operations community.
So that that's not unusual.
And the fact that you know, they could uh, they can land you know, this airfield could have been used as what they call a farp, f a r p, a forward arming and refueling uh, position.
Uh, so you know, that is and and those.
The C 130 is also capable of carrying fuel bladders.
I mean, big, you know, it looks like a giant bag, a huge bag filled with aviation fuel.
The reason I think that the C 130s were used to ferry the four little birds into that position is that if they had flown from their origin site, then when they arrived there, they would have needed to be immediately refueled because they wouldn't have enough fuel to get back and get out.
So, I think they just ended up grabbing and using an aircraft that was already preloaded, pre positioned for a mission.
Mission got changed, and instead of taking everything out of the plane, they kept it in.
Fuel Bladders And C-130s00:05:12
Wow.
Al Jazeera is also reporting that whatever this American and Pakistani, I say American and Pakistani, the Pakistanis practically work for the Americans, 15 point plan was.
Was denounced by Foreign Minister Arachi as illogical and unacceptable.
I'm going to gather you're not surprised by that.
No, not at all.
I mean, and I saw Alistair's comments on it earlier as well.
The Iranians right now have no incentive to enter into that kind of deal.
They remain firm about their requirements to have a negotiated settlement you've got to lift the sanctions now.
Don't give us a promise that you're going to lift them.
All of the sanctions, and then all U.S. military operations in the area, they got to get out.
And then, but Iran's going to also look for some ironclad guarantees that they're not going to be attacked again.
The United States has betrayed them twice last June, June 13th, and then February 28th.
Those are two dates that Iran is going to remember, much like we remember December 7th, 1941.
It was that consequential for them.
So it is Iran still holds the cards.
The economic control it is now exerting over the global economy by preventing and disrupting the flow of oil, liquid natural gas, urea, sulfuric acid, helium, et cetera, is quite significant.
And it is the full consequences of that economic pressure is not going to be felt until.
You know, really this week and starting into next week.
In the meantime, the Israelis keep hiding from the international press how badly they're being bombarded.
Yeah, they go to great lengths to pretend that life is normal.
But then they also complain that Iran continues to fire.
Just about an hour ago, Iran launched 10 more ballistic missiles, which Israeli intelligence had claimed at the outset of this war that Iran only had less than 3,000 missiles.
They've fired way more than that already.
Now we're going into the sixth week of this war.
Think about that.
Six weeks.
And the odds that this will be still going in another two weeks, I think, is quite high.
So this is a two month conflict that I think, frankly, Iran's got more capability for sticking it out than the United States does.
Not because Iran has more resources per se, but I think the political pressures on Trump are growing.
His.
His popularity, his polling numbers are plummeting.
They are in the basement.
He's going towards Emmanuel Macron or Kier Starmer territory in terms of popularity.
Here's your least favorite senator.
Sorry, Larry, on all of this.
It's brief.
It's brief.
Chris, cut number one.
Finish him off.
So here's my message to the Lebanese military I'm watching everything you do.
Quit double dealing, quit double talking, join the fight.
For your country of terrorism.
And if you don't, you're going to pay a heavy price.
Yeah.
What's Lindy going to do?
Go over and offer to sit on their laps?
That'll get them motivated.
Oh, quick.
We can't do that.
I mean, look, Hezbollah, we're fed this line of propaganda in the West that Hezbollah was destroyed, the death of Nasrallah and senior clerics wiped them out.
And then the coup de grace came via the cell phones exploding and the pagers exploding.
They're just, they're dead.
They're done.
And then they have the audacity to rearm and reform and carry out attacks where Israel is suffering more losses in terms of personnel and equipment now than it did in 2006 when it invaded southern Lebanon.
And again, this invasion of southern Lebanon is being done under the guise that they're going to.
Create a buffer zone so that Hezbollah can no longer fire rockets, missiles into northern Israel.
Well, they go to the Latani River, Hezbollah can still, from north of that, reach northern Israel.
So that's just a lie.
This is an excuse to try to acquire more territory.
And in the process, Israel is further weakening itself.
And that's why I think you see such a desperate plea and such a ridiculous threat from the likes of the little old lady from South Carolina.
Israel's Territorial Excuse00:00:57
Thank you, Larry.
Great analysis, an analysis like nothing else I've seen so far.
Much appreciated.
I'm sure you'll have more to fill in on Friday for the Intelligence Community Roundtable.
Thank you, Larry.
Have a great week, my friend.
All right, Judge.
Thank you.
All the best.
And coming up at 10 o'clock is Larry's partner in the Intelligence Community Roundtable, Ray McGovern, at 11 30 this morning.
I'm not sure where he is, but Chris will find him.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs at 3 this afternoon.
On all of this, Scott Ritter.
I will soon be recording the next episode of Judge Napolitano Weekly, my defense of personal liberty in a free society, audio only, Spotify, Apple, iHeart, Amazon, wherever you get Judging Freedom on audio.