April 20, 2026 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
25:12
Larry Johnson : Who Controls Hormuz?
Larry Johnson and Judge Andrew Napolitano dissect escalating U.S.-Iran tensions over the Strait of Hormuz, alleging U.S. Navy piracy against an Iranian cargo ship and President Trump's sabotage of a potential deal involving uranium excavation. The discussion highlights General Dan Kane's refusal to access nuclear codes, planned bombings of Iranian infrastructure, and accusations that Ambassador Waltz mislabels war crimes while ignoring Saudi excesses. Johnson argues Iran currently controls the strait, rejects regime change as a suicide pact, and asserts citizens must consider abolishing a government initiating preemptive force without public consent. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Iran's Hinderance and Regime Change00:11:43
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 20th, 2026.
Larry Johnson joins us now.
It seems like we just said goodbye to each other.
It's such a busy week last week.
Thank you for all your time and all your insight.
Before we get into the question of the morning, which is who controls Hormuz, why would the Iranians bother to negotiate with JD Vance and his two Zionist monitors?
After the U.S. Navy engaged in an act of piracy against an Iranian cargo ship on the high seas?
Well, they won't until the United States lifts the so called blockade and abides by the 10 points that Iran presented them with two weeks ago.
So they're very serious about this.
And, you know, this is reminiscent of the negotiations with Russia or the attempted negotiations with Russia.
The Russians made very clear what their non negotiable items were.
And the United States kept pretending that, oh, they don't mean that.
Well, that's just, they're just playing a negotiation ploy.
So that's their initial demand, and we'll go back and forth.
No, that's, you know, Iran's in the same position.
So they're going to retaliate for this attack on this ship that was coming from China to Iran.
And, you know, The escalation will be on.
Look, the United States is planning to attack Iran.
That's clear.
There is no genuine desire to have a peace agreement.
Wow.
Is, well, are Vance Witkoff and Kushner in Islamabad, and are they sitting there waiting for the Iranian delegation, or don't we know?
I don't know.
You know, they were insistent yesterday that they were going, and the Iranians are saying, we're not.
So it's at an impasse.
You know, the Pakistanis are working, you know, they're working hard to try to pull this off.
What I was told by someone who had direct information was as of Friday, there actually had been an agreement, a decision on the part of the United States to make those concessions that Iran was demanding.
And this would have brought it into it.
And then Trump got into the middle of it and blew it up.
So, you know, Vance apparently is still working behind the scenes.
I think they recognize that the administration is in real trouble politically.
That if they continue down this road to war, it is going to destroy any hope of a Republican victory in November.
It's going to leave Trump isolated.
His polling now is now 37% favorability, and that continues to drop.
More than 52, 53% of the American people are very opposed to this war.
In Iran and the support for what's going to Israel.
So, you know, they're not insane.
They recognize they've got some problems and got to try to deal with it.
And then there was a report out that they had an emergency meeting Saturday night.
And apparently, well, one report coming out of that meeting at the White House is that Trump wanted to use the nuclear, so called, use the nuclear codes.
And General Dan Kane stood up and said no.
He invoked his privilege as the head of the military, so to speak.
It was apparently quite a blow up.
There are pictures of Kane coming out of that meeting with his head down to the ground.
So, you know, there's some very, very bizarre things going on in D.C.
Well, on Saturday night, excuse me, Larry, Trump said this is hard to say with a straight face, but this is what he said.
Trump Said that the US and Iran would jointly excavate the enriched uranium and remove it.
Has he lost his mind?
Short answer yes.
Donald Trump is, there is something seriously wrong with him in terms of what his tweeting on social media or True Social in particular, and then the crazy public statements.
Go back and look at what he said on Friday in the period of about 30 minutes.
He claimed that, oh, Iran's agreed, there's going to be peace, a deal is near.
It was all manipulating the stock market and the commodities markets.
But none of it was true.
And Ron's sitting there watching what he's saying and is saying, you begin to come to the position that you can't trust anything that is coming out of Donald Trump's mouth.
Wow.
Is, did a U.S., did the Navy fire at this Iranian vessel, either to terrify the crew or disable it?
Yeah, no, they fired at it.
There is a video showing the ship firing.
You don't see the impact.
The reports on social media, on Telegram, stipulate that it hit the engine room, disabled the vessel.
Again, it's important to emphasize this.
This is an Iranian flag vessel.
It was coming from China headed to Iran.
And it's a container ship, you know, those 40 foot containers that show up on the back of trucks roaring along the highways in the United States.
That's what they were carrying.
Wow.
What do your sources tell you about what's going to happen next?
You told us about General Kane storming out of a meeting at which the president said he wanted to familiarize himself with the nuclear codes, but yet they keep reintroducing troops to the area.
What are Trump and Hegseth, either with or without?
And there's General Kane storming out.
Yeah, you see the head down right there?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what are Trump and Hegseth planning according to your sources?
Well, they're all over the board.
Initially, they were planning a massive bombing campaign.
As Trump has said it outright, that they're going to hit all the power plants, all the bridges.
Then what I heard, you know, middle of last week is that Trump decided to back off of that and that instead they were going to try to go for the highly.
Enriched uranium, which means a special operations unit would be inserted somewhere.
But actually, I think they're now back to the massive bombing campaign.
There is a lot of activity underway.
They call it the pizza index.
You look at late night orders of pizza that are delivered to the Pentagon, those were way up yesterday.
So they're getting ready to do something.
Now they're going to be hindered by it.
Ron's going to be covered with clouds.
So, they may, you know, the weather would affect any attempt to insert a special operations unit.
It wouldn't necessarily affect, you know, an attack with, you know, Tomahawk missiles and other cruise missiles.
So, you know, going after the bridges and the power plants.
But, you know, again, Iran's made it clear.
If they do that, Iran is going to wipe out the power plants in the Gulf Arab states.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates.
And that, look, that's becoming an issue because about mid May, the weather over there, it's like a pizza oven.
It's that hot.
It is blistering hot early on.
I experienced that 20 years ago when I was in Al Udid in the middle of May, headed into Iraq.
It is just, if you don't have air conditioning, People would be abandoning those cities.
Wow.
I mean, I guess it's crystal clear that all those military facilities in the Gulf are useless to protect the countries in which the facilities are located.
Utterly useless.
Correct.
Yeah, no, they've some now, like the Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, they're completely useless.
That's not going to be reinhabited.
Al Udid is still somewhat intact, and reportedly, what is called the Combined Air Operations Center is still up and functioning.
But at least 13 of the bases have suffered significant damage, and Iran will continue to target them if or when the ceasefire breaks down.
Here's the two bit political hack masquerading as the US ambassador to the UN, no diplomatic experience and no diplomacy of tone, saying, oh, bridges and power plants, they're not war crimes.
Number four, Chris.
I hope we don't have to go back to a military option, but President Trump's made it very clear.
And by the way, bridges, power plants that are run by the IRGC, which runs the entire military, are absolute legitimate military targets.
Not only now, but have been historically.
That is a false, fake, and ridiculous notion that this is some type of war crime.
Legitimate Targets of Power Plants00:13:26
Yeah, you know, look, Waltz is putting out the propaganda line to justify attacking Iran.
And it's all predicated on a lie.
And we've heard Trump repeat this that, you know, boy, these presidents, you know, the presidents 46 years ago, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, they failed to take care of Iran.
Iran, apart from the hostage taking of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, which was, you know, the students were outraged that the United States was still harboring the Shah.
They'd had a popular uprising to toss the Shah out.
Here was the United States still protecting him.
But apart from that, it was not Iran that started attacking the United States.
It was the United States that started attacking Iran, beginning with.
Encouraging and supporting Saddam Hussein to carry out a war with Iran in September of 1980.
And then that was continued by Ronald Reagan providing chemical weapons.
You know, the very weapons we claim we were looking for back in 2003, we were the ones that provided those to Saddam.
So, you know, this screwed up narrative, this lie that Iran has been our enemy.
No, Iran has been reacting and responding to our attacks all along.
The relationship between Trump and Netanyahu over Lebanon.
I mean, Trump can't control Netanyahu.
The Israelis want to seize that land to make it a part of greater Israel, and they'll never stop attacking civilians as a way to put pressure on Hezbollah.
Agreed?
Not just that.
The attack on Christianity that these Israeli fanatics are carrying out.
An image emerged over the weekend that the IDF confirmed of this.
Look at this Israeli soldier destroying an icon of the crucifixion of Jesus.
Right.
Talk about feeding into a narrative.
Well, now it's not only this soldier, because this is a video.
We're not playing the video, we're taking stills from it.
But one of his buddies filmed him doing this.
Yeah.
This attack on Christianity with this Israeli Zionist government has been doing.
I mean, go back to Easter a couple of weeks back.
They closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre a week before Easter, something that had not been done in the entire history since that church was built.
So, Netanyahu recognizes they've got a bit of a PR problem on this.
But I think it really is important for Americans to understand the Israelis hate.
Christians.
They talk a good line, but they hate Christianity.
They hate Muslims.
They are not, they are not someone, unlike in Iran, the Jewish community is intact.
The Jewish community is not attacked.
Right.
It is intact.
And so, I mean, this is this kind of offense should outrage all Americans, regardless of their religion.
The IDF did issue a statement saying they condemned it and were looking into it, but it is the product of a Culture, which comes from the extreme right government, that would lead a couple of soldiers to think that they could get away with this and film themselves doing it.
Well, where's the chain of command?
I mean, this goes back to a point I've made repeatedly.
The Israeli army is an incompetent, undisciplined force.
They engage routinely in attacks on civilians.
And doing something like this, you know, the fact that this soldier felt he could do this with impunity.
You know, and he's not going to suffer any consequences.
You know, they can issue whatever statement they like.
You know, we're outraged by this, but this is, you know, this revives the meme of the passion of the Christ that, you know, it was the Jews who condemned Jesus and wanted him executed.
Here they go.
Here they go again.
Right.
Have the Israelis and the U.S. given up on regime change, neutering Iran's ballistic missiles, stifling Iran's proxies as conditions for ending the war?
Oh, no.
Is it now all down to the Strait of Hormuz, which, of course, was opened before Trump started this, and the disposition of the enriched uranium?
You know, we're seeing reports that the Israeli intelligence services and Mossad is conceding, yeah, we don't think we're going to get regime change now.
But the goal is not changed.
They want to get rid of the Islamic Republic.
That is their objective.
And the entire, if you will, propaganda effort is directed at portraying Iran as this fanatical Muslim culture, which it is not.
There was a Reuters report out last week, and there was a lot of pushback from the Israelis about it because it showed 90% of the women that appeared in that video, just people walking along the street, they didn't have their hair covered.
They were not wearing the hijab.
It was just sort of a normal society.
And that doesn't fit with the control of the Western media, which wants to paint a picture of Iran as if it's Saudi Arabia.
I mean, and that's the other thing that's crazy here.
You know, we overlook the excesses of Saudi Arabia, which is the home of the Wahhabis.
The Wahhabis, this extremist sect of Muslims that view Iranians, Shia, as heretics.
So, you know, and yet we tolerate that.
We give them money, we give them support, and yet our focus is on attacking Iran.
So they haven't backed off one bit from trying to have a regime change.
Do you have any inside info from your friends in the military about what's being planned over there?
Why are there 10,000 new infantry?
Yeah, I wouldn't focus so much on, you know, they can put 10,000, 50,000.
You know, those are not combat assault troops.
There is no evidence right now that they put them close to what I'd call an assembly area from which you could then launch a ground operation.
Any ground operation would be a suicide pact.
Because, um, whether it's going on to Karg Island, and I will admit that Donald Trump reportedly is the one that rejected, hey, we're not going to put him on Karg Island, they'd be sitting ducks.
So he's not completely crazy.
Uh, he at least acknowledged that that would be just a symbolic move that would blow up on him.
Uh, he's apparently terrified that he's going to wind up like Jimmy Carter, which, okay, good.
I hope he keeps that fear in mind with some of the decision making, but.
They continue to move troops.
And if we were seeing those troops coming out, then I'd say, okay, good.
We've finally made a decision that this can't be solved militarily.
They continue to believe that if we put enough assets in the theater, then we will be able to defeat ultimately Iran.
I'd note that a lot of this traffic that we saw over the last week, the troops that were initially deployed.
You know, in late February, they have about a 45 to 50 day supply that needs to be replenished.
And I think that's what we were seeing last week.
They had reached the, basically exhausted the initial supplies and they were being resupplied.
But there are clear plans for a massive bombing campaign to destroy the electrical grid in Iran and take out bridges.
And what will that accomplish militarily?
Nothing.
Yeah, I mean, it'll make us feel good.
It'll make us think that we've crippled the Iranian economy.
Again, they still harbor this notion that if we just create enough pain inside Iran, the people of Iran are going to rise up.
But I think, you know, as Alistair Cook, he made the point earlier with you what this attack of the West on Iran has done is it has energized the people who are 30 years of age and younger.
To the fact that they are being attacked by this outside force without justification.
You know, the generation that's represented by our friend Professor Morandi, who's in his mid 50s, and by the new Ayatollah, Mojtaba Khamenei, that when Mojtaba Khamenei back in 1987, he was 17 years old.
That's when he enlisted in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and fought against.
The U.S. backed attack from Iraq.
So that was that experience for both Marandi and the Ayatollah, that was formative for them.
But now these guys are in their mid 50s, they remember that vividly.
But if you think about it, people in Iran who are under the age of 50, they really don't remember it.
They didn't have that experience of being attacked and trying to survive.
Now they are experiencing that.
And it's having, it really is, it's having, it's renewed the revolution, I think, as Alistair said.
Who controls the Strait of Hormuz?
Monday, April 20th, 2026.
Iran.
Iran still, you know, they can turn it on, turn it off.
They were willing to start allowing, they were going to allow basically other countries to come in, come out without interference.
They accept, you know, no U.S. ships, no Israeli ships, nothing that would service either of those countries.
But then on Friday, Trump said, Oh, we're going to blockade them.
And so the blockade went into effect.
And Iran has said, OK, it's closed again.
There was some, the Western media did have some stories suggesting that there was this big fight internally between the foreign minister, Arachi, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, that the IRGC overruled him.
You know, he was.
I don't think that was the case at all.
Arashi was announcing the policy as it was.
And then, after his announcement, or as he was making his announcement, it was then decided by Trump that, okay, we're going to start this blockade.
And so the blockade became then, all right, we're going to close the straight up.
And you can, there's a, it's called maritime traffic.com.
And you can go online and it shows you the Strait of Hormuz.
And you can see when, Some ships are going through, and then boom, it's like turning a water faucet off.
Well, there's.
Yeah, Bugs Bunny and Donald Duck.
Correct.
Or Daffy Duck.
Right, wherever it is.
Larry, thank you very much, my dear friend.
As always, great, great analysis, and we'll look forward to seeing you at the end of the week.
Yeah, let's hope you have a peaceful week, but I'm afraid we won't.
Wow.
You think that they'll start this heavy duty bombing?
While the negotiators are in Islamabad?
Possibly.
Yeah, I wouldn't rule anything out.
But I don't think Iran's going to go.
Iran's been pretty clear.
Pakistan is working desperately to try to keep this thing on track.
But so far, Iran's saying no.
Wow.
Thank you, Larry.
All the best, my dear friend.
All right.
Thanks, Judge.
Bye bye.
Coming up at 10 o'clock this morning on all of this, Ray McGovern at 11 this morning on all of this, Professor Jeffrey Sachs.