June 16, 2025 - Lionel Nation
15:49
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| You know, you would never know this watching Fox News. | |
| In fact, you wouldn't know a lot of things watching Fox News. | |
| And I want you to understand something again. | |
| I am relentless because it is true. | |
| Fox News is the greatest source of disinformation and the manipulation of reality that I have ever seen bar none. | |
| There is nothing like it whatsoever. | |
| It is not. | |
| I don't even recognize it. | |
| So if that is your source of information, consider the source. | |
| Not everything they're saying is wrong. | |
| Not everything that Wikipedia says is wrong. | |
| But do you trust it? | |
| I don't. | |
| That being said, President Trump coming up on There are the MAGA supporters who love him no matter what. | |
| I think I'm a MAGA supporter, but I don't love them no matter what. | |
| So far I do, but I'm not... | |
| I didn't get the decoder ring. | |
| I'm not a member of the fan club. | |
| I'm an American. | |
| He works for me. | |
| And so far, I wouldn't have it any other way. | |
| There are people, obviously, who hate him. | |
| Can't do anything. | |
| TDS crowd. | |
| What are you going to do? | |
| Who cares? | |
| But in the middle, there's this moving group. | |
| And sometimes things that make the media... | |
| You know that No Kings business? | |
| It was terrible? | |
| All they did was provide B-roll for the midterms. | |
| But it didn't do anything. | |
| Nobody cared. | |
| Everything's the same. | |
| People looked at it and said, ah, that's stupid. | |
| Most people don't even know what No Kings is. | |
| They thought it was a movie. | |
| Is that the movie about Muhammad Ali? | |
| No. | |
| We Were Kings? | |
| Nobody knows. | |
| But also, there was an incredible rift regarding the president and not so much Ukraine and Russia, but Israel, Netanyahu, and America First. | |
| Some absolute stalwarts, you're seeing it. | |
| And the idea of destabilizing and overthrowing Iran, nope, nope. | |
| And you're seeing it more and more and more, and President Trump figures, at least up to this point, look, I tell you what America First is, you don't tell me. | |
| And other people like Tucker are saying, no, no, no, no, this is not America First. | |
| Excuse me, I said America First, I determine what it is, not you. | |
| And others are saying, no, no, no, Mr. President. | |
| So, Trump right now has really fired back and let Tucker Carlson have it after the former Fox News host, former, and for good reason, accused him of betraying America first in its principles, in light of Israel's recent military strike on Iran, and vice versa. | |
| And you're not going to get the truth. | |
| You're not going to get battlefield assessment. | |
| You're not going to get damage reports. | |
| You're not going to get the truth. | |
| So just remember that. | |
| Who was it who said during a war the first casualty is the truth? | |
| I think Hiram, wasn't it a senator or somebody during World War I? | |
| Anyway. | |
| Now the operation, which of course targeted Iran's nuclear facilities and senior military types and nuclear scientists, has stirred Not only this global panic alert and alarm, but a very, very fierce, a very vociferous domestic debate over our involvement, responsibility, and our allegiance to whom exactly? | |
| And why do we care about regime change? | |
| Pay attention to what's happening. | |
| Pay very close attention. | |
| So Tucker, now of course, who's an exceedingly I don't know if that makes any sense. | |
| He argued in a Friday newsletter that while the U.S. military didn't directly participate, its deep financial and weapons-based support for Israel implicates it heavily. | |
| In fact, many people have said that nothing could have been accomplished without our satellite Follow-up and structure and assistance and the like, and the bombs and everything. | |
| So the idea that the United States is not involved, I don't even know what that means. | |
| Because there are accessory statutes, even criminal law, that apply, in any event, if this were a plain old crime. | |
| So he cited, this is Tucker, that Trump's Truth Social post, where Trump proudly touted his support for Israel, he said, That's proof. | |
| This is a quote. | |
| While the American military may not have physically perpetrated the assault, this is what Tucker wrote, years of funding and sending weapons to Israel, which Donald Trump just bragged about on Truth Social, undeniably place the U.S. at the center of last night's event. | |
| Tucker's argument and his critique didn't stop at Trump. | |
| He called out, This is serious stuff because it's not that it's Tucker, it's whom Tucker represents. | |
| His message was clear. | |
| Those waving the America First banner while supporting a regional conflict that America has nothing to do with, that could drag us into a broader war. | |
| In the world, because remember, Russia and others told Iran, we'll back you. | |
| This is the dangerous hypocrisy that Tucker's talking about. | |
| And when you've lost Piers Morgan, Piers Morgan is like an 8-year-old. | |
| So when he changes his mind, it's got to be pretty obvious. | |
| There's no nuance or subtlety with Piers, okay? | |
| So Trump responded swiftly, directly, and angrily. | |
| In an interview with journalist Michael Scherer, he dismissed Tucker's framing of this entirely. | |
| He said, quote, well, considering that I'm the one that developed America first, see? | |
| This is what I said. | |
| Trump said, this is my, this is my, this is my, not yours. | |
| And considering that the term wasn't used until I came along, well, I think Charles Lindbergh might disagree, but anyway. | |
| I think I'm the one that decides that. | |
| Now, Trump said this. | |
| He also said, these are quotes, you can't have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. | |
| That's not peace. | |
| Okay, well, I'll give you that one. | |
| Okay, okay, we can't have peace. | |
| Well, they don't have a nuclear weapon and we don't have peace. | |
| Anyway, let's just give him that one. | |
| Let's, arguendo, give him that one. | |
| Now, Trump further said, And these are quotes. | |
| Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb. | |
| Very simple. | |
| Regardless, Israel or not Israel, Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb. | |
| Does that sound like America? | |
| Does that sound when it comes to India or Pakistan or France or any other country? | |
| Have you ever heard such focused attention on any country having a nuclear bomb? | |
| Now, remember, Iran is saying, we don't want a nuclear bomb. | |
| We want the ability to... | |
| Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. | |
| Nobody's going to believe what they say because they're liars and they're killers. | |
| Yeah, yeah, you know the routine. | |
| Now, according to a report from Axios, Israel has requested U.S. assistance in eliminating Iran's nuclear capabilities, targeting the fortified Fordow facility. | |
| Which requires specialized bunker-busting bombs that go deep down and blow up. | |
| Okay, we're not talking about, that's us. | |
| Now, while the Biden White House officially denies direct involvement, they did confirm Israel's request and stopped short of condemning the operation. | |
| So there's always been this weird, because remember who Blinken was? | |
| Blinken was, in essence, Netanyahu Jr. | |
| And of course, we're going to find out that Biden was never in the White House and was AWOL for years. | |
| So Biden really cannot be held accountable because he was held hostage by his own senescence. | |
| Now, a senior White House official told reporters, don't you love this? | |
| He said, quote, whatever happens today cannot be prevented, hinting at the inevitability of Israeli military actions. | |
| The fastest way for Iran to accomplish peace is to give up its nuclear weapons program. | |
| Do you ever think they would ever be able to do it? | |
| Do you ever think they would be believed? | |
| Do you ever think trust but verify would even apply? | |
| If they said, okay, that's it. | |
| You think somebody would say, oh, no, no, we don't believe this. | |
| We want them eliminated. | |
| It starts off always with a, well, we want to go after Hamas. | |
| We want to go after the terrorist infrastructure. | |
| We want to go after the leadership levels. | |
| And then, it's the elimination of everybody. | |
| While we're at it, let's really, it's like when you cut out a tumor, you get the markers, you really go deep. | |
| Do you ever see somebody cut out a, kind of like a carcinoma or whatever, I mean, on your nose, they just take like half the nose. | |
| They don't just take this thing out, they take everything. | |
| Just to make sure. | |
| Just to make sure we got everything. | |
| Now, this particular strike, which happened Thursday night, was reportedly in planning for eight months. | |
| Eight months! | |
| Beginning after heightened tensions and reciprocal attacks between Iran and Israel last October. | |
| Netanyahu authorized the plans once his intelligence agencies confirmed that Iranian air defense vulnerabilities were there and extant. | |
| And the plan that was developed allegedly continued quietly, even as Trump publicly claimed to be pursuing diplomatic avenues. | |
| Don't worry, everything's fine. | |
| Now, Israeli insiders told Axios that Trump's inner circle offered no resistance to the operation in private meetings, despite their public posturing to the contrary. | |
| Okay? | |
| Understand how that works? | |
| They wanted to keep Iran from suspecting a preemptive strike so as Mossad and IDF could continue tracking nuclear attack. | |
| No U.S. official has confirmed those claims, but the post-strike political fallout in Washington has reignited familiar battles over foreign entanglements and arguments about military interventionism and what exactly it means to be America first. | |
| Senator Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, described Israel's action as unilateral. | |
| Trump echoed this sentiment, asserting that he said he had advanced knowledge of the operation, but that the U.S. did not participate. | |
| Are you buying this? | |
| And despite all of this, the devastation was significant. | |
| According to sources close to Iranian media and military officials, more than two dozen Nuclear scientists and top commanders were targeted, and among them was the commander of Iran's Royal Guard Corps, the IRGC. | |
| Imagine if somebody went after Pete Hegseth. | |
| How would you feel about that? | |
| The strikes utilized secret forward operating positions inside Iran, suggesting a level always of planning and sophistication not seen in previous regional engagements. | |
| So, Tucker Carlson's criticism reflects a broader unease within the non-interventionist wing of the conservative movement. | |
| Those who view Donald Trump's kind of alignment with Israel and the military goals as something very serious, a potential betrayal of the base that values restraint over entanglement. | |
| Tucker's message was not about policy, per se, but principle. | |
| That America first means putting U.S. interests above foreign conflicts, no matter how strong the alliance. | |
| Trump's defenders, Fox News and others, argue the opposite. | |
| They see the denial of nuclear weapons to Iran as not only a national security imperative, but a moral one. | |
| A nuclear Iran, they argue, poses a direct threat, not just to Israel, but to U.S. forces and allies throughout the region. | |
| In this view, they say, Supporting Israel's operation aligns completely and totally and fully with America's first doctrine. | |
| What is clear? | |
| What is clear is that the line between diplomacy and force is increasingly blurred. | |
| The modern battlefield today includes digital diplomacy, covert operations, proxy engagements, all of which complicates The traditional definitions of war. | |
| And with Israel conducting strikes deep into Iran's territory, while U.S. intel and military operations and infrastructure remain silent and remain a silent partner, the question of responsibility becomes murky. | |
| So as this conflict escalates, Trump's position will likely define the coming I guess the coming or the advancing foreign policy debates in the 2024 race and beyond. | |
| Look, this is critical. | |
| If he is to carry the America First torch, and you first define what America First means, but he needs to clearly articulate how strategic military support aligns with restraint. | |
| What does it have to do with sovereignty? | |
| And Tucker Carlson, once a staunch Trump ally, now has emerged as a sharp, independent voice, willing to call out what he sees as severe intellectual and philosophical contradictions in the MAGA worldview. | |
| And whether that criticism reshapes the movement or redefines it, I don't know. | |
| Or whether it polarizes it, these are serious movements. | |
| But one thing is certain. | |
| The battle over what America first truly means is far from over. | |
| So that's what this is about. | |
| So you're going to be seeing Piers Morgan. | |
| Remember, Piers Morgan, he's a child. | |
| When Piers Morgan understands something, when Piers Morgan's against Israel, when Piers Morgan, that's it! | |
| That's it! | |
| So what do you think? | |
| We will be watching this closely. | |
| Thank you so much for watching. | |
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