Senator Joe Lieberman, who previously represented Connecticut, has always been an outspoken commentator on the struggles in the Middle East. He stands with President Trump as the administration deals with the Mullahs of Iran and massive unrest in the region. Lieberman took to the Wall Street Journal this week to give his perspective on the situation and he joins Sean to share those thoughts.The Sean Hannity Show is on weekdays from 3 pm to 6 pm ET on iHeartRadio and Hannity.com. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
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Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
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I'm glad you're with us.
It is day 300.
Etch this into your brain cell.
And that means to, well, what is basically America and the entire world on the brink?
Well, let's not be so serious about it or anything.
It's not like this is a real tipping point election.
I thought we've had many tipping point elections in our history, but this is it.
300 days until Election Day.
And that means you, we the people, we the people of the United States of America get to render the final decision on the future direction of the country.
Fascinating day.
I watched the president's remarks, thought they were pitch perfect.
One of the most amazing things in all of this is, well, part of this is predictable, part of it is not.
The part that's predictable is there's nothing Donald Trump can do that the mob and the media, the Democrats will ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever like or support.
Taking out solar money.
I mean, when you have David Petraeus, who I have such deep respect for, this is bigger than bin Laden, and here's why.
But look, most people don't follow events in the Middle East as closely as our national security team has to.
That's why we try to hire the best people, in the case of a president, to be the commander in chief.
We're not monitoring and we don't have to monitor.
And we're blessed that we don't have to monitor because we live our lives and we do our thing every day.
And we're off, you know, doing what it is that we do.
And that's usually work our 12, 14, 16 hours a day.
And we're responsible, law-abiding, God-fearing, gun-toting, irredeemable, deplorable, smelly Walmart shoppers, I guess.
But what do we do?
We take care of our families.
We get our kids up.
We feed them.
We shuffle some coffee down our throat.
We work.
We run out.
We do our work.
We pay our taxes.
We try and build a better life for ourselves, our kids, and future generations.
And that's what Americans do.
And all of us in some capacity, we're all in the service industry.
You're either creating goods or services for other people, whatever it happens to be.
And in the process, you make a horrible thing called a profit.
And the profit allows you to pay the contractor that built your home, the electrician who put the electrical wiring in, and the plumbers that put the plumbing in.
And that's the way our economy rolls, which, by the way, we have good numbers in the economy today that I'll get to at some point today.
What I liked about the president's speech today, and this is the predictability part is the mob and the media and the Democrats.
See, nothing he does will ever satisfy them.
The part that was, I think, very, very clear needs to be very clear to the American people and perhaps unpredictable to them.
And maybe because of the cartoon caricature of a president that the mob and Democrats have created is I think they would have preferred Donald Trump when two drones were taken out of the air that he would have fought back then.
I'm not taking this boom because, wow, he's so uncontrollable on Twitter.
Well, Twitter is not launching weapons at a foreign country or when the tankers were being pirated and hijacked by the Iranians in the Straits of Hormuz, where 30% of the world's lifeblood of the world's economy, oil passes through.
You can't allow the Iranians to take over the Straits of Hormuz strategically, geopolitically, this is of such heightened importance.
One of the best things the president highlighted today is, well, beyond the Obama-Biden bad deal, is our need to be energy independent.
And we're now the number one producer of oil in the world today.
No thanks to the new Green Deal or Obama and Biden.
But when the president could have acted after the drones were shot down, they're pretty expensive.
He didn't.
When the president could have engaged after the tankers were being pirated and held hostage by the Iranians, he didn't act then either.
When the Saudi oil fields, though, make no mistake, that was, as much as I'm not a fan of Saudi Arabia, anyone that's listened to this program knows, I'm not particularly fond of their treatment of women, gays, lesbians.
Their human rights record is atrocious.
Life under Sharia law in Saudi Arabia is not exactly compatible with the values we hold dear in this country of freedom.
But with that said, it was an unprovoked attack against the Saudis' lifeblood of their oil production.
Now, the purpose of which was to disrupt the free flow of oil at market prices and frankly to increase their profit share of oil in the world marketplace by taking out one of their competitors' production capabilities.
The president didn't act then either.
The president was very clear.
You kill an American, that's it.
Well, the end of December, it was either the 26th or the 27th.
I think it might have been the 26th, reported on the 27th, they killed the American contractor outside of Kirkuk.
And then, and by the way, Soleimani, up to his eyeballs and all of this, I laid out in detail on this program right here yesterday, and I'll do more tonight on Hannity.
I did some last night, the brutality of their version of these IEDs and how potent and deadly and just evil incarnate.
That was all Soleimani killing hundreds of Americans in Iraq.
So the president drew that line in the sand, American contractor killed.
Then we had the military guys also injured severely in that attack.
And then we've got the embassy being attacked.
And what is that?
That's American sovereign territory.
This is Americans in a foreign land, but they're our family.
That's our citizens.
And you don't get to attack America here or abroad.
And we will protect our family, our fellow Americans, unlike Benghazi, when they did nothing and innocent people died needlessly and heroes a mile away begging to go were told three times at least to stand down.
We had Mark Geist on the program a week ago, last Friday, and they went anyway.
And in the end, they're the ones that saved dozens of American lives that day in Benghazi.
And thank God they risked their life and threw their career to the wind and said, the hell with you, we're going to go fight for our fellow Americans.
And they were effective at fighting back.
So we weren't going to have that happen again.
And that was another line in the sand.
You know what?
The idea that you cannot even give the president credit in this particular case for killing Soleimani, it just speaks volumes about who these Democrats and members of the media mob are.
David Petraeus saying it's bigger than bin Laden.
Think about that.
General Petraeus is an American war hero.
He's also, I know him, he's a brilliant guy.
He's somebody that I take very seriously when he speaks out.
And so the president then acted.
Now, imagine if the president didn't act.
Let's just imagine this for a second.
Six months from now, a year from now, whatever Iran does in the interim, we find out somebody in the intelligence, the 1%, not the 99%, the distinction I make all the time.
But the 1% leaks out, oh, we had a clean shot at Baghdad airport against Soleimani, and we didn't take it.
Next, why didn't Donald Trump take the shot?
He can't win for losing here.
So he did the right thing.
And the Iranians, and this is where it gets fascinating, what happened last night.
I'll use the Business Insider piece, but it's fairly, if you know anything about the specific ballistic weapons, by the way, these are the real deal weapons.
These weapons can hit the head of a pin at whatever, you know, long distances they're following, leaving outside the orbit.
I mean, this is the real deal.
These are real weapons that are known to be really, really accurate.
Now, the way Business Insider put it is Iranian authorities are refusing to hand over a flight recorder recovered from Wednesday's plane crash, Iran to the Boeing plane manufacturer, et cetera, et cetera.
But here's the interesting part of it.
Did the Iranians purposely miss?
Hannity, you're like Area 51 Rosville, Rachel Maddow, conspiracy theorist.
I don't know the answer to it.
I do know this.
The weaponry they have is known for its deadly accuracy.
Now, the other part of this that I don't think has gotten enough play is Iraq was given a heads up.
We're about to start bombing these Air Force bases.
Hint, hint.
They were told ahead of time.
Then we also have our own warning systems, which the president referred to.
And so they do this for, okay, we're going to save face.
You took out our number two guy, the guy that is, you know, you see how people are reacting in Iran and, you know, 50 people die at a funeral.
How do you have 50 people die at a funeral and dying to touch the casket of Soleimani or means whatever's left?
I guess his hand was left because they identified him by the ring.
And so is it an accident that the 15 missiles they fired, ballistic missiles missed?
That they did just a little outside where it was supposed to land.
It's a little hard for me to believe.
Do I know that, can I say affirmatively?
No, but I think it's an educated guess that this was for them about face saving.
And more importantly, it exposes something that I think everybody needs to understand.
And that is they fear Donald J. Trump as president.
Now, over the weekend, if you're looking at any social media and the people on Twitter, I mean, people on Twitter are just funny.
Amen.
Even the stuff they do about me sometimes trashy me.
It's funny.
I mean, I love what Ricky Gervais said to these Hollywood elitists.
It's a joke.
Learn to laugh at yourself.
If you're in the public eye, you're going to get hit.
And they make, you know, all sorts of jokes about me, memes about me.
I laugh at them when I see them because they're genuinely funny.
And there was one where it was a picture of Solomani asking Donald Trump, hey, are you going to give us $150 billion in monies like Obama and Biden?
And then they have Trump answering, yeah, we're going to give you the money.
Just meet me at the Baghdad airport.
This was a big deal.
And the unpredictability is everybody in the media mob wants you to believe Donald Trump is unhinged, crazy, insane, unpredictable.
He is unpredictable.
He's never going to be an establishment politician.
We did not elect an establishment politician.
And everything seems to be getting done and getting better.
And that will be one of the questions you ask yourself in 300 days.
Are you better off than you were four years ago?
And the answer on every level to me is yes.
And then, of course, did he lose any of his support from 2016?
I don't think so at all.
I think that you can thank Nancy Pelosi and the insane Democrats in the media because they have only strengthened the president's supporters.
And I don't think he's ever going to poll well.
So most of the polls that we'll even talk about are useless.
But putting all that aside, the president today showed everybody that peace through strength works.
The era, you know, what is the Trump doctrine?
Think about it.
I don't want war.
We're definitely not getting in protracted wars anymore.
I'm going to beat the caliphate, but I'm going to do it from the sky.
And he did it because our weaponry is getting more sophisticated every single day.
Thank God.
And we need to continue down that road.
Then, so he beats the caliphate and he reacts to Syria with the red line that Obama had crossed and didn't follow through on.
Then what's the rest of the doctrine?
That you kill an American, you're going to get hit hard.
You kill an American, that's his line.
No long protracted war, no boots on the ground.
I don't want any of that because these idiots in the swamp, they don't know how to fight wars anymore.
They put handcuffs on people, especially our military, rules of engagement.
And then they want to put them in jail if they didn't follow it perfectly in the second that they have to decide.
So he beat back.
And our great intelligence, look at what a success.
They knew where he was.
He was on a commercial flight in Baghdad airport and the military nailed his ass.
And the president made the call.
That is Donald Trump's doctrine.
Here it is.
Like everything else, Donald Trump, it's not complicated.
They make it complicated.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So download Verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hale.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass.
You're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen.
What I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why?
Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies.
It's almost a dirty word, one that connotes conspiracy theory.
Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?
Bad faith political warfare, and frankly, bullshit.
We kill the ambassador just to cover something up.
You put two and two together.
Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy?
Benghazi is a Rosetta Stone for everything that's been going on for the last 20 years.
I'm Leon Nayfak from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries.
This is Fiasco, Benghazi.
What difference at this point does it make?
Yes, that's right.
Lock her up.
Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
They're about to bomb, but we just want you to take cover.
We need propaganda purposes.
USA Today, U.S. officials had advanced warning of Iran's missile assault, the damage to Iraqi bases, apparently not much of anything.
And apparently the Iraqis themselves were additionally warned, we're about to do this.
Why?
Because they needed some propaganda purposes, but not a single call back.
I love Nancy Blow.
I'll call him back.
She put her house business in dinner apparently ahead of Mike Pence's call about the attack that they complained that they don't get a heads up on.
You know, then you got Jeremy Corbyn, U.S. killing of Soleimani illegal.
Yeah, okay, whatever.
It is an amazing thing, and we all ought to be grateful tonight and today that the president, number one, said Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
And I'm pleased to inform you the American people should be extremely grateful and happy no Americans were harmed.
And last night's attack by the Iranian regime, we suffered no casualties.
All of our soldiers are safe and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases.
Our great American forces are prepared for anything.
We need to be thankful for these men and women.
They're amazing.
Well, more on the other side.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down with Verdict with Ted Cruz Now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass.
You're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday.
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
What I told people, I was making a podcast about Benghazi.
Nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why?
Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies.
It's almost a dirty word, one that connotes conspiracy theory.
Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?
Bad faith, political warfare, and frankly, bullshit.
We kill the ambassador just to cover something up.
You put two and two together.
Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy?
Benghazi is a Rosetta Stone for everything that's been going on for the last 20 years.
I'm Leon Nayfak from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries.
This is Fiasco, Benghazi.
What difference at this point does it make?
Yes, that's right.
Lock her up.
Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, 25 now until the top of the hour, 800-941.
Sean, you want to be a part of the program?
I mean, just amazing events unfolding here.
The mob is out of their minds.
They are so out of touch with we smelly Walmart Trump voters.
It's a spectacular disconnect on so many levels.
I'll get to that in a minute.
So I want to go over some other news before we get back to this.
Obviously, our top story today.
There are mixed reports here.
I'm looking at Politico, for example, and Democrats are now finally acknowledging that their efforts to extract the concessions from Mitch McConnell and the House and Nancy Pelosi being able to dictate what the Senate does in the process is, yeah, that's not very tenable.
And they go on to say the longer it goes on, the less urgent it becomes, said Senator Dianne Feinstein.
So if it's serious and urgent, send them over.
If it isn't, don't send it over.
Several other Senate Democrats also showing their impatience with the Democratic leader's strategy, Mansion saying that Democrats should move on, turn the articles to the Senate.
And John Tester said he's ready for the trial to start.
So we need to get folks ready to testify.
We need more information, but nonetheless, I'm ready.
I don't know what leverage we have.
It looks like the cake is already baked.
I respect the fact that she's concerned about the fact whether or not there's going to be a, quote, fair trial.
Now, remember, Chuck Schumer was saying during the Clinton impeachment, I'm not fair.
I'm not objective.
And McConnell rightly is calling Pelosi's bluff.
She doesn't get to dictate.
Now, the senators pretty much have agreed that they'll do it the way they did it with Clinton.
Okay, you have your house managers present your case.
We already know what the case is.
They're not going to get all their hearsay witnesses and opinion witnesses and their so-called constitutional expert witnesses in.
They have one fact witness, and that one fact witness said, no, he asked for nothing.
No quid pro quo.
It's the biggest waste.
You know what it is?
It's beginning to be sad.
It just hurts the country.
Let's put it that way.
And they obviously don't care.
But they're going to end up folding in the end because they have to.
There are going to be more articles of impeachment.
Who could predict?
These people are nuts.
They don't even, Soleimani is as dark and evil as we get on the planet today.
They don't even, you know, care about that.
McConnell's ready to start the trial without any deal on any witnesses, nor should he make a deal.
And you got the slate piece out.
Democrats are mobilizing their plan to lose the impeachment trial.
The strategy to beat Mitch McConnell starts with letting him win.
Oh, okay.
And then they'll make a big deal.
We need this witness.
We need that witness.
Well, that was the House's job to impeach.
The Senate then lets the House present what they found.
We don't start, it's not the Senate's role to do their job, but that's what they wanted.
Well, we've got to hear from John Bolton.
Okay.
What if John Bolton?
And I didn't like the way he exited the White House.
I'd been friends with John Bolton for a long time.
But John Bolton, whatever issues existed, rumors are between him and Mulvaney or him and Pompeo.
I don't know anything about.
I don't get into Palace intrigue and any of this crap.
But at the end of the day, what if he happens to say, no, there was no quid pro quo?
Okay, it's over.
And there is something is executive privilege.
That probably is going to be fought out in the courts before he ultimately ever decides anyway, in spite of recent comments that he might have made.
But we'll see.
I mean, I have no inside knowledge on that.
So we'll see what happens.
And as the shift show, he's trying to get back.
He now wants to subpoena more people.
I'm like, oh, okay.
None of this makes sense to anybody.
You know what it is?
Don't Republicans need not lend credibility to what is insanity and an abuse of power and Democratic corruption.
They ought not be a part of that.
And that's what's obvious in this case, just like the obstruction charge.
Well, they claimed executive privilege like every other administration.
So we're going to say, because you claimed it and you sought remedy in the judiciary with the judicial branch of government, therefore that's obstruction.
No, that would be when there's a conflict between the executive branch and legislative branch, you do seek remedy with the judicial branch.
But not that any of that matters.
Really, a big beatdown on Biden from Obama's former defense secretary, Robert Gates, you know, saying that Trump's decision to take out terrorist mastermind Solomani was, quote, that Biden had said it was dangerously incompetent.
And the Secretary of Defense Gates said, I think Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.
You said in your memoir, Joe Biden is impossible not to like.
Quote, he's a man of integrity, incapable of hiding what he really thinks, and one of those rare people you know you can turn to for help in a personal crisis.
Still, I think he's been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.
Would he be an effective commander-in-chief?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I think I stand by that statement.
He and I agreed on some key issues in the Obama administration.
We disagreed significantly on Afghanistan and some other issues.
I think that the vice president had some issues with the military.
So how he would get along with the senior military and what that relationship would be.
I just, I think it would depend on the personalities at the time.
Yeah, I don't know if that's it, depending on the personalities of the time.
That's about the nicest way you can say, I think he'd be horrible that you can think of.
One other thing, and this is something to pay attention to, again, 300 days.
We promised the best election coverage available on your radio and TV dials.
And we are dialed in and we are locked in on everything that's happening.
So we hope you'll stay with us.
And we have Joe Lieberman today and Bill O'Reilly and Lindsey Grandma coming up.
Anyway, the Census Bureau and the IRS released state population growth and income migration data for the 2018.
Now, this is an amazing thing.
You see a mass exodus from high-tax to low-tax states accelerating.
Four states lost population since 2010.
West Virginia, Illinois, Vermont, Connecticut, 10 states experienced declines last year.
New York lost 180,000 people leaving for better business and other climates.
Over the last decade, New York has lost more of its population to other states, 7.2% other than Alaska, which is kind of rough to live in Alaska.
I admire people that do it.
I'm fascinated with all those Alaska shows, reality shows on TV.
I watch them all the time.
Illinois, 6.8.
Connecticut, 5.6.
New Jersey, 5.5.
We've already pointed out California.
You know, it's $2,100 to go to LA to Texas, and it's about $300 or $400 to go from Texas to California.
Why?
Because you're doing U-Haul a favor if you take it back.
One other follow-up piece of news before we get back to our top story, and that has to do with Nicholas Sandman.
Remember the Covington High School kid that did everything right?
Trash smeared, slandered, besmirched, bloodied up by the mob that always rushes to judgment.
Well, this time, fake news CNN is paying.
What did I tell you?
I think by the time this kid is done, with Lynn Wood as his attorney, and I've known Lynn Wood, he was Richard Jewell's attorney.
Lynn Wood, not only is he a great guy, he really is, he doesn't need the money.
He's doing this because he is a champion against the slander and libel that the mob and the media gets away with.
Well, the first settlement has come in.
Now, they didn't give the figure, but Nicholas Sandman was suing fake news CNN for $275 million.
And the amount of the settlement, typical, that's usually when you have any type of settlement, it's some confidentiality agreement, non-disclosure agreement, whatever.
That's the law.
You make the agreement, you take the money.
But so they agreed not to tell everybody how much they paid.
My interpretation is that means they paid a hell of a lot.
I would bet, and I'm guessing, I have no inside knowledge.
I would not be surprised at $100 million or more paid by fake news CNN.
They were that guilty because even after the facts were known, they kept going and going and going and digging deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper.
And now then you got the other lawsuits that are out there.
My buddy Mark Levin had Lynn Wood on last year.
And, you know, there was probably more vicious in their direct attacks on Nicholas and the Washington Post, but he's suing the Washington Post and he's suing NBC Universal.
And I'm guaranteeing that probably a lot of other people are being sued as well, just not being announced as quickly and expeditiously.
So I think that is pretty amazing.
Oh, by the way, there's pictures of Bill Clinton aboard the Lolita Express.
The UK Sun has obtained photos of Clinton traveling on the Lolita Express.
Whoopsie daisy seen smiling on the steps of the plane next to this woman, Gislaine Maxwell.
It's astonishing pictures that they picked up by the sun.
Why do I think that this is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger?
I don't even know what to say about the mob and the media, except they have, they're so out of touch now with we the people and obsessed with their psychosis, their lying, their conspiracy theories.
I don't think they can ever get over it.
The best thing that can happen in 300 days is that the words that either in 300 days or the next day, 301 days, early in the morning, we can now project Donald J. Trump has been re-elected the 45th president of the United States.
I mean, I could literally see them having heart attacks on the air.
It will shock the world.
We think this shocked the world the last time.
They're going to be shocked again.
They won't be able to, I don't think they'll be able to deal with it.
FAA has banned flights over Iraq and Iran.
Anyway, you have Area 51, Roswell Rachel Maddow's channel, literally airing baseless Iranian propaganda about dead U.S. soldiers.
You know, the Republic had killed 30 American military members.
You had Chris Matthews brought in their Tehran bureau chief repeating the Iranian propaganda claims to NBC conspiracy TV's national audience.
We're getting reports now.
Second wave of rocket attacks have been launched and the IRGC saying the Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader, was in control.
And this, but I'm not a bit surprised or sure about this before sharing the unverified propaganda claims.
But Iran state media is claiming 30 U.S. soldiers have been killed in this attack.
And there's a source for everybody.
Let's use the Iranians as our source.
And you got fake news CNN.
They gave a platform to the spokeswoman for the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage takers to push Iranian propaganda.
They conducted a lengthy interview with an Iranian government official who once served as the spokeswoman for the group of students who held 52 diplomatic Americans hostage over 444 days.
You have Christian Amanpour doing little to push back on the assertions that the U.S. carried out a terrorist attack by killing the terrorist Soleimani.
You got, you know, MSNBC conspiracy TV Chris Hayes, war with Iran is madness, strategically and morally a disaster.
Well, it's not that choice.
It's not, oh, we have to go to war with Iran.
Never was that choice.
President, you know, was very clear.
President showed more restraint.
This is what drives them crazy.
He was, he's not the cartoon that they actually probably have convinced themselves that he is or the caricature.
Scarborough, he has to bring it to Russia.
Poor Joe.
I used to like Joe.
Hard to believe Trump would launch Iran attacks without speaking first to Putin.
I mean, you can't make this.
You got fake news Acosta.
Iran missile attack.
Exactly what foreign policy and national security analysts have feared after the strike on the terrorist Soleimani.
Why don't they give the history of Soleimani like we've done on this show?
And we did last night on Hannity.
Gambling with lives.
Costa, fake news Acosta claiming Trump had a dangerous night at the casino.
And CNN PBS host Amanpour, more defiance to, or I'm sorry, excuse me, more deference to the Iranian VP than our own Secretary of State.
And you just can't make that.
That's how sick this has now all gotten with them.
New York Times defending Solomoni.
Iran is in mourning.
Oh.
George Lopez fantasizing Breitbart has three times about killing Trump.
Unbelievable.
This is the state of news.
It's not news.
This is state-run TV, Democratic state-run TV.
This is what's at stake in 300 days.
It's hard to imagine.
300 days, these years have gone by fast, haven't they?
Fast.
And look at all the success.
Look at all the success.
Thank God for success.
We're going to get sick of winning.
I'm not sick of winning.
You know, the president has some funny lines.
He goes, the letter, the letter was perfect.
It was a perfect letter.
You're going to win so much, you'll be sick of winning.
See them, they're all fake news.
Fake news.
CNN sucks.
It's all hilarious.
That's horrible.
That's horrible.
That's so horrible.
It's not horrible.
It's funny.
But thank God our brave men and women are safe.
I am thankful for that.
We have a lot to thank God for.
We live in the greatest country God gave man and the greatest fighting force in the face of the earth and the greatest intelligence people, the 99%.
And we even have the greatest law enforcement arm, the FBI, the 99% of them.
But, you know, it looks like they may have sabotaged their own missile attack, which is pretty amazing.
Michael Prajin is his name, a former Army Intel officer, worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency.
He thinks last night's missile strike was basically staged to appease Iranian hardliners back home, but they were afraid of Trump.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down with Verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hammond.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass, you're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
What I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why?
Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies.
It's almost a dirty word, one that connotes conspiracy theory.
Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?
Bad faith, political warfare, and frankly, bullshit.
We kill the ambassador just to cover something up.
You put two and two together.
Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy?
Benghazi is a Rosetta Stone for everything that's been going on for the last 20 years.
I'm Leon Nayfak from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries.
This is fiasco, Benghazi.
What difference at this point does it make?
Yes, that's right.
Lock her up.
Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
As long as I'm President of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
Good morning.
I'm pleased to inform you the American people should be extremely grateful and happy.
No Americans were harmed in last night's attack by the Iranian regime.
We suffered no casualties.
All of our soldiers are safe, and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases.
Our great American forces are prepared for anything.
Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world.
No American or Iraqi lives were lost because of the precautions taken, the dispersal of forces, and an early warning system that worked very well.
I salute the incredible skill and courage of America's men and women in uniform.
For far too long, all the way back to 1979, to be exact, nations have tolerated Iran's destructive and destabilizing behavior in the Middle East and beyond.
Those days are over.
Iran has been the leading sponsor of terrorism and their pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens the civilized world.
We will never let that happen.
There's the president speaking earlier today.
Now, there is an update.
Trey Yanks, who's been doing the local Baghdad coverage for Fox, confirming that rocket fire into Baghdad's green zone has occurred.
We don't know where it came from or another report.
Again, I've not been able to confirm this.
Three Katusha rockets landed inside the green zone.
You know, there's so many different terror groups that probably want to piggyback on the, and again, I'm speculating at this part, so I want to be very clear and distinct here.
Breaking news on Twitter that two rockets believed to have fallen into Baghdad's green zone, no word on any damage or injuries.
Wouldn't surprise me, copycat type of crimes, et cetera.
But anyway, Senator Lindsey Graham joins us.
Senator, great to talk to you.
I know you've been in meetings all day about intelligence and what we knew leading up to the killing of Soleimani.
I'm not sure what you think of this news that's kind of breaking.
I don't want to make too much of it unless I know more.
Well, let's start with a briefing today.
The Chairman Milley, who I've known for years, made the most compelling case that the intelligence regarding Sulamani was real-time imminent attacks in a window of days.
No specific target, but the embassy was under assault.
A contractor had been killed.
Suleimani was directing the forces that killed the contractor.
He was directing the forces that were attacking our embassy.
We caught him red-handed talking to the head of the Shia militia about another wave of attacks that were coming in the near future that were going to be widespread.
The CIA backed him up.
My Democratic colleagues have lost their mind when it comes to Trump.
I hope none of them ever get in charge of our national security.
A third grader would have been convinced that we had to do something.
Now, you can make an argument about what that something is, but Sulaimani was the brainchild of the embassy attack.
He was the brainchild of the attack on our contractor.
He's been the brainchild of attack on Americans for over 20 years, and more was coming our way.
And I am 1,000% convinced that the intelligence here was far better than it was where bin Laden was at.
What did you think of David Petraeus' comments when he thought this is bigger than bin Laden and Baghdadi, and he explained why?
And I need to point this out.
I think you said on TV last night that you had been to Iraq and Afghanistan 57 times.
So I know you know and have known as I have even known and many others that follow incidents and everything going on in the region about Soleimani and the Quds forces for a long time and his role in killing Americans, which I described in great depth and detail here on this program yesterday and last night on TV.
I mean, the pravity and evil of this man is, it shocks the conscience and soul of any decent human being.
So what we did is take off the battlefield permanently, the heart and soul of the revolutionary movement in Iran.
The Ayatollah is the supreme leader.
He's the keeper of the faith.
But the heart and soul of the military movement for the last 20 years has been Suleimani.
He's the right hand and the fist of the Ayatollah.
He operates outside the normal military chain of command in Iran, reports directly to the Ayatollah.
Since 2017, he has been more aggressive.
We've got him on record saying a war between the United States and Iran is inevitable.
He was the brainchild, the brains and the emotional support network for the largest state sponsor of terrorism.
He is gone.
Now, what do we expect?
President Trump did something that is a game changer.
We went from playing poker with Iran at $10 a hand to $1,000 a hand.
That speech today was historic.
It was compelling.
And I thought it was a home run.
We've closed the chapter when it comes to Iran, and we've opened a news chat.
We've closed one book, and we're about to write another one.
The Trump doctrine is pretty simple.
We will not tolerate you being the largest state sponsor of terrorism any longer.
We will not tolerate you coming against Americans and our allies.
We're never going to give you a bomb.
You don't have a nuclear power program.
And if you keep building missiles, you're going to run into us.
So the president today, Sean, changed the game between us and Iran in a big way.
It is amazing to me because, you know, people like you and I understand completely the danger that exists in this world today and the evil that exists in this world today.
And yet we both know that the swamp where you work every day, and I'm not saying you're a part of it, has this history now of sending people to war and then putting handcuffs on them and rules of engagement and then politicizing it and then saying, oh, never mind.
We can't have that, Senator.
We can't put our national treasure on the ground door to door, nor do we need to with the advancement of the weaponry that has occurred for this country.
So I think the point is well made here is what does the Iranian regime want?
Okay, they're the largest state sponsor of terrorism.
What does that mean?
They're taking Shiite minorities and majorities all over the Mideast.
They're trying to radicalize them and they're arming them.
They're trying to take over the Iraqi government.
They're trying to take over Lebanon.
They're trying to take over Damascus.
Why?
They want a Shia crescent from Tehran all the way to Damascus.
They're trying to spread their religion.
They're evangelical in nature.
They are trying to spread their form of Shiism.
They think the Sunnis are infidels like they think you and I are infidels.
Number two, they want to destroy enemies of Islam, and the biggest enemy of all is the state of Israel.
So if they get a nuclear weapon, they will use it.
Now, people didn't believe Hitler wanted to kill all the Jews, but he wrote a book and people just wrote off the book as all talk.
The regime has a stated policy of toppling governments in the region to replace it with Shia-dominated elements to destroy the state of Israel and to drive us out of the Mideast.
They are not kidding.
The only thing stopping them is the lack of capability.
Donald Trump is going to have one hell of a 2020.
What he's done is reset the game with Iran.
Here's what I worry about.
They will get out of the JCPOA.
That was a bad deal anyway.
And they're going to start enriching at a very high level and try to get a bomb in the next coming months.
If that happens, the president is going to have to act.
And I hope Democrats understand a nuclear-armed Iran is the worst nightmare for the civilized world.
This is the million-dollar question here.
And the president, I loved how he walked out today.
And the first thing he said, we will never tolerate a nuclear army.
Before he said hello.
And by the way, we can't.
It is because A squared, B squared is C squared.
If you got this, and we spoke about this last night, radicalism married to nuclear weapons.
We're talking about a modern-day Holocaust.
As long as I'm president of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
Now, this is the million-dollar question.
How do we prevent that from happening without at some point taking out the sites because it just has to get done?
Okay, so I think the first thing the president's got to do is tell the Congress what they'll never get a nuclear weapon means.
Explain that.
What that means is if they start enriching uranium at a certain level, then you can make a bomb in months, not years.
So we have to watch their enrichment program.
We have to set red lines, and we have to tell the Iranians, if you do X, Y, and Z, that's a provocation, and we will take military action.
He needs to inform the Congress, don't let us off the hook.
He shouldn't have to do this by himself.
He needs to talk to the Israelis.
What worries you the most about enrichment in Iran?
He needs to talk to the Arabs.
He needs to get everybody in the Mideast on the same sheet of music and convey to the Iranians, if you start down this road of enrichment, that will be considered a hostile act, and we will take action.
He needs to do that very soon.
We need to increase our presence in Iraq.
We're lucky people didn't get killed.
Remember this talk last night that they intentionally missed us?
Yes, sir.
That's all talk.
You don't believe that?
Briefing, I am 1,000% convinced.
But those rockets are so precise, Senator.
I mean, we know their capability, don't we?
I am telling you, Sean.
No, no, no.
Listen, you know more.
I defer to you.
You get to hear information I don't.
It is clear to me that these rockets, the reason they didn't kill Americans is because four of them malfunctioned and we moved the people out of harm's way, but we didn't have Patriot batteries there.
We need to harden our infrastructure inside of Iraq because what did we learn last night?
They're coming after us.
And to those who believe they did not intend to kill Americans, that is a bad assumption after what I heard today.
So where do we go from here?
What about these Katusha rockets reported now?
They're just everything you just said.
These are one-off groups.
You got every nut job in Iraq.
They're trying to piggyback off the chaos.
100%.
So the Iranians used ballistic missiles, short-range in nature, fired from their territory toward our troops.
We're fortunate nobody died and the president.
Why did they warn Iraq and obviously we have our own early detection?
And I was thinking about that.
Well, we were fortunate because of our intel and our capability that nobody was killed.
But let's just assume for a moment we got a reset here.
The president gave them a chance to stand down.
I applaud him.
Retaliating for the sake of retaliation is not necessary here.
Nobody got killed.
I think we were fortunate.
Now, what do we do going forward?
I think we harden our sights.
What did the Ayatollah say yesterday?
His goal is to drive us out of the Mideast.
Why can we not let that happen?
When we were out of Afghanistan, the Taliban took over and they planned the attacks of 9-11 from Afghan territory.
If we give over the Mideast to radical Islamic elements, it'll only be a matter of time to they hit Israel and come after us.
So it's in our national security interests to stay in place and to support our allies.
So the president is going to have to harden our infrastructure in Iraq to deter Iran from doing this again.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down with Verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Ham, and I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass, you're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen.
What I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why?
Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies.
It's almost a dirty word, one that connotes conspiracy theory.
Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?
Bad faith, political warfare, and, frankly, bullshit.
We kill the ambassador just to cover something up.
You put two and two together.
Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy?
Benghazi is a Rosetta Stone for everything that's been going on for the last 20 years.
I'm Leon Nafak from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries.
This is Fiasco, Benghazi.
What difference at this point does it make?
Yes, that's right.
Lock her up.
Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, as we continue, Senator Lindsey Graham.
All right, we only have two minutes.
You will be on Hannity tonight.
And we got Joe Lieberman and O'Reilly coming up.
Explain the ballistic missile and then what you think we do going forward.
Well, what we need to do is make sure that if we respond, we respond in a way to end this.
We need to go after their economic targets, you know, knock out their oil refineries if they keep escalating.
But the Shiite militias, in my view, need to be understood as not directly controlled by Iran per se.
Many of them are.
If I were the president, I would make sure that I had to act before I act because the next time we act, we're going to have a real shooting war with Iran.
So based on what you're saying, your intel is just showing you.
I want to be very clear here.
The attack on our embassy led by Soleimani was imminent.
Well, it was ongoing.
There were another wave of attacks coming.
He was on the ground talking to the Shiite leader about a new round of attacks that were coming in a matter of days, not weeks.
We had the embassy ablaze.
We just lost a contractor.
And the belief was he was headed back to Tehran to execute the attack.
Let's put it this way.
If we didn't hit him, I imagine the Democrats would be saying something else if we did lose some people.
Now, next question, which I think is very, very important, is you are convinced that last night it was not by accident that they missed.
You think they were trying to kill Americans, which, by the way, if that's the case, then we're going to be at war with these people in the sense, not a traditional war.
Well, here's what President Trump did.
He gave them a chance to reset.
I believe the target, the attack last night, were fortunate no Americans were killed.
President Trump is smart enough to allow a resetting here.
We'll see if Iran is smart enough to take it.
These attacks in Iraq tonight are disturbing, but I think they're of a different nature and character than the ones we experienced last night.
We need to be cautious.
We need to watch.
We need not overreach.
Senator Graham will be on TV tonight.
Joe Lieberman next, Bill O'Reilly coming up.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down with Verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass, you're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
What I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why?
Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies.
It's almost a dirty word, one that connotes conspiracy theory.
Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?
Bad faith, political warfare, and frankly, bullshit.
We kill the ambassador just to cover something up.
You put two and two together.
Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy?
Benghazi is a Rosetta Stone for everything that's been going on for the last 20 years.
I'm Leon Nafok from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries.
This is Fiasco, Benghazi.
What difference at this point does it make?
Yes, that's right.
Lock her up.
Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Last week, we took decisive action to stop a ruthless terrorist from threatening American lives.
At my direction, the United States military eliminated the world's top terrorist, Qasem Soleimani.
As the head of the Quds force, Soleimani was personally responsible for some of the absolutely worst atrocities.
He trained terrorist armies, including Hezbollah, launching terrorist strikes against civilian targets.
He fueled bloody civil wars all across the region.
He viciously wounded and murdered thousands of U.S. troops, including the planting of roadside bombs that maim and dismember their victims.
Soleimani directed the recent attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq that badly wounded four service members and killed one American, and he orchestrated the violent assault on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
In recent days, he was planning new attacks on American targets, but we stopped him.
Soleimani's hands were drenched in both American and Iranian blood.
He should have been terminated long ago.
By removing Soleimani, we have sent a powerful message to terrorists.
If you value your own life, you will not threaten the lives of our people.
All right, glad you're with us.
25 now until the top of the hour.
That was the president earlier today.
Amazing what the Iranians, this whole thing reveals so much about who they are and the fear-based regime that exists there.
And one of the sad parts in all of this, you would think everybody would agree this is a good thing.
Maybe they don't go as far as David Petraeus, General Petraeus thinking this is bigger than bin Laden.
This was a big deal.
This guy helped form Hezbollah from the get-go.
One of the deadliest terrorist organizations.
I went into chapter and verse yesterday about the specific projectile IEDs, the pernacious evil that killed many Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan.
You know, there has been so few in the media or in the Democratic Party that can just state the opposite, obvious, which is, thank God, this evil monster is dead.
You know, you have no right to do this.
Now, Obama shot 2,800 drone shots to Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan.
Nobody says a word.
Donald Trump takes out Soleimani.
It's a big deal.
But one Democrat did speak out.
He's been a friend of this program for many, many years, although for years he couldn't admit it publicly.
Senator Joel Lieberman, formerly of the I assume you're still in Connecticut.
And he has the most wonderful wife in the world, Hadassah, who I have no idea why she stays with this man.
None.
You keep asking that question again.
Because it's true.
It's one of the mysteries of the universe.
How are you, Senator?
Good to talk to you again.
Good to talk to you, Sean.
I honestly agree with just about every word you just said.
I'm glad to be on the program.
What a turn of events, though.
The president honestly just seized the moment, seized the leadership.
Just as you said, the Iranians have been at war with us for years and years and years.
Soleimani is the key leader in that war effort.
I agree with General Petraeus.
It is bigger than bin bin Laden, although think that we got bin Laden for two reasons.
One is bin Laden was essentially off the battlefield when we killed him, whereas Soleimani was still very much the commanding general.
Secondly, if you tally the deaths that Soleimani caused, mostly Muslims in places like Syria, Iraq, Yemen, et cetera, Lebanon, it's actually far greater than Osama, bin Laden, al-Qaeda ever caused.
So why people can't just say this was somebody who deserved to die and the world is safer with him gone.
I don't know.
But anyway, I agree with you, and I'm grateful to President Trump for this extraordinary act of leadership.
And look what's happened.
The Iranians basically are asking us to stop because they did something they had to do last night for their own people, but with zero damage to our people, thank God.
And maybe it's the beginning of a new chapter over there.
Who knows?
Now, you went through this period where in Connecticut, the Democratic Party turned on you.
Now, you were the strangest thing is you were their vice presidential nominee.
They loved you.
I made the silly mistake of saying good things about you, and it was beginning to hurt you, so I stopped.
They said, oh, Hannity's even supporting Joe Lieberman.
And this is something you and I have always agreed on.
We don't agree on a lot of social issues and other issues, but we do agree radical Islam is so dangerous.
And the big picture here is the world's got to come to grips with this.
And the president said it right out of the box today.
We can't ever allow this regime, A squared, B squared, C squared, and that is radical Islamic terrorists with nuclear weapons equals a real potential for a modern-day Holocaust.
We cannot allow that to happen.
I don't see the will in the world to do what would be necessary to stop that or prevent that from happening.
Well, of course, I agree with you.
And this is the kind of policy to stop radical Islam, to stop the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is where it all started in the revolution there of 1979.
And not you or me, but the U.S. State Department, and not just under the Trump administration, but back to Obama, Bush, Clinton, designating Iran as the number one state sponsor of terrorism.
So really it shows you how divided and dangerously so our politics have become, because there shouldn't be any partisan differences about this.
These people, and Soleimani particularly, threaten the security and lives of the American people.
I would say in his way, though Iran is not as strong as Russia or China, because they're so much on the move and so willing to kill people that Soleimani actually threatened us more.
So as I say, I'm glad he's gone.
And I think this shows how when you use power selectively on somebody who deserves it, it can really change reality.
And I think not only the Iranians are nervous now, I think every other bad actor who's thinking about challenging the U.S. now, including Kim Jong-un, has got to be worried.
President showed, we have this extraordinary military intelligence, technological capacity.
President showed that he had been restrained long enough.
He was willing to use it.
And I think they're all wondering whether they're the next ones to have something drop out of the sky and end their lives because they're threatening the security of the American people.
100%.
I mean, they were attacking our embassy.
That's sovereign territory.
That's our fellow citizens.
President was clear this wasn't going to become a second Benghazi.
Let me ask you a broader picture here.
Israel, of course, came to our aid and support.
We're now headed for a third election, Senator, in Israel.
I mean, this whole nonsense, I just have a hard time with their parliamentary system.
It's so screwed up.
I thought our system was screwed up, but it's that bad.
And, oh, Bibi got cigars.
Let's bring him up on charges.
Free cigars.
Wow, there's a reason to indict a prime minister who spent his whole entire life fighting for his country, literally, physically, and then as prime minister and in other positions and losing his brother in the Raiden and Tebbe.
Yeah, no, listen, this is frustrating.
It's actually a bit embarrassing for those of us who are devoted to the security and existence of the state of Israel.
And it's just part of the system.
Now, part of it is in a parliamentary system, if the voters vote the way they did in Israel in two camps, they got to be willing to compromise to form a government, and it just hasn't been able to happen.
It makes you think that Israel is ready for governmental reform, and probably the most logical is to have the direct election of the prime minister, just as we have a direct election of the president.
And just as in other countries, they have a parliamentary system, but they elect the prime minister directly, and so you'd avoid this.
I hope that on the third round, either somebody wins or they get a coalition government even emerging out of this.
Things are so crazy.
Now, I understand 20% of the voting population are Israeli Arabs that apparently some of the leaders don't even recognize the right of Israel to exist.
Is that true?
Well, I think it is true.
I mean, I don't know how many that's true for.
There's certainly a lot of them.
But some of the leadership, those that wanted to form the coalition against Bibi.
Right.
A lot of them oppose the policies of the government from right to left, as far as I know.
In other words, even the liberal Israeli government, the Arab population, opposed this.
It's been an interesting untouchable, and they thought it might happen in this case that whether the opposition would bring in the Arabs, at least to vote for somebody other than Bibi, even if they weren't part of the government.
But that's a very unpopular thing to do among most Israelis.
Incidentally, Sean, you probably have seen this and talked about it.
But talking to people I know in Israel, they were not surprised that the Israeli people and the political leadership supported President Trump's decision to take out Soleimani because he was such a threat and it killed so many Israelis.
What was surprising to people is that it went from all the way to far right to all the way far left.
In other words, people felt no matter what your ideology in Israel that Soleimani threatened the existence of the country.
100%.
All right, quick break more with former Senator Lieberman, great state of Connecticut.
We'll ask him about the extremism that has now taken over the modern liberal leftist socialist Democratic Party.
We continue, Senator Joel Lieberman is with us.
Well, I mean, this is, if you would have told me five years ago, the United States, Israel, the Saudis, the Egyptians, and Jordanians and Emirates would all be united in sharing intelligence as they are aligned against Iranian hegemony.
I wouldn't have believed it.
Let me ask you one last question, and that is about I'm watching, and I'm skipping around a little bit.
I'm watching your former party, the Democratic Party.
Every candidate proposes a new Green Deal.
The cost is $94 trillion over 10 years.
Trillion.
Yeah.
Medicare for all.
How did that Obamacare thing work out?
You know, keep your doctor plan and save money.
40% of the population has one choice.
Millions lost their doctors.
Millions lost their health insurance.
And everybody is on average paying almost 200% more.
We're supposed to save $2,500 a year, but that's $52 trillion over 10 years.
Now, I think you're a pretty reasonable Democrat.
Do you recognize any of that in what you fought for as a Democrat all your life?
Because I don't see it.
I don't in the sense that it's just fiscally irresponsible.
I mean, I fought for a lot of, I'm a big environmental protector.
I fought for health care reform.
But, you know, and I got into a lot of trouble because I opposed the so-called public option when Obamacare was adopted.
And people still write about it and blame me.
But I did it because I thought it was a foot in the door to national health care, national health insurance.
And that would bankrupt the government, also take from people who have employee-sponsored, employer-sponsored health care, and that's about $180 million in our country.
Insurance by enlarged they like.
So look, in the heat of a campaign, if you make promises in the primary, you've got to be able to defend them if you're lucky enough to win the nomination in a general election.
And the price tag on some of these proposals is going to make people worry about the future fiscal stability of our country, our ability to pay for it, and the burden it will place on our children and grandchildren in higher and higher taxes.
So I think they're going to be able to do that.
I think you might as well say you're now a Trump Republican, aren't you?
By the way, you don't ever think you're coming on this program and getting a pass, do you?
Because that's never going to happen.
No.
There's always that one moment.
You know, I have to be a total jerk.
I know.
I always figure my staff used to always say to me, geez, you should have hanged up two minutes earlier than you did.
Yeah, no, that's probably true.
You know, I will say this.
You're one of the nicest guys to ever be in politics.
You picked the wrong profession.
You don't fit in.
Well, it used to be that way.
You're very kind to say that.
You're a great friend.
You talked about it before, but in 2006, which was really the toughest moment of my political career when my party defeated me.
I ran as an independent.
You stuck with me.
And yeah, some people griped about it, but you know what?
It helped me a lot more than it hurt me.
So I'll be forever grateful.
Oh, by the way, I took a lot of crap on my end, just in case you're interested.
But I stand up for what I believe in.
Senator, my best, our prayers to you and your family.
All the best in the new year, sir.
Thank you for being with us.
God bless you and yours.
Take care.
All right.
That's Senator Joe Lieberman, 800-941.
Sean, you want to be a part of the program?
Bill O'Reilly at the top of the hour will get his take on all of the events in the last 24 hours and much more straight ahead.
Hey, I am going to ask NATO to become much more involved in the Middle East process.
Over the last three years, under my leadership, our economy is stronger than ever before, and America has achieved energy independence.
These historic accomplishments shades our strategic priorities.
These are accomplishments that nobody thought were possible.
And options in the Middle East became available.
We are now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world.
We are independent, and we do not need Middle East oil.
The American military has been completely rebuilt under my administration at a cost of $2.5 trillion.
U.S. armed forces are stronger than ever before.
Our missiles are big, powerful, accurate, lethal, and fast.
Under construction are many hypersonic missiles.
The fact that we have this great military and equipment, however, does not mean we have to use it.
We do not want to use it.
American strength, both military and economic, is the best deterrent.
It will not be allowed to go forward.
All right, that was the president earlier today.
Pretty spectacular developments.
We have spent a lot of time for many, many, many years on this program talking about the real strategic importance of energy independence.
The benefits should have been obvious for years to everybody.
Number one, look at, for example, geopolitically, the Straits of Hormuz are less strategically important to us than ever before.
We now are the number one producer of oil in the entire world, the number one producer of energy in the entire world.
We are now a net exporter of energy.
You want to bring down Putin?
The best thing we can do is figure out a way to get our natural gas over to our Western European allies.
They won't be so reliant on a hostile regime led by a hostile actor.
And then, of course, the added bonus and benefits, for those of you that remember, when we partnered with energy companies, we were getting jobs for great Americans that were life-changing, transformational career jobs in the energy industry and sector, where they were training truck drivers and giving them a place to stay and starting salary, 80 grand a year in all the overtime they can take.
If you're making $30,000, $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 a year, now you're making $120,000.
Well, that means a Ford F-150.
That means you put the down payment on the house and the safe neighborhood with better schools.
I mean, all of these things.
That helps the great Americans, the forgotten men and women in this country.
That's good economically for us.
That raises our GDP.
That creates job opportunities that otherwise would be non-existent.
That's why the new green deal is so dumb.
Anyway, here with his take on all of the events in the last few weeks and the last 24 hours in particular, we have Bill O'Reilly.
BillO'Reilly.com is all things O'Reilly.
And of course, his best-selling book, The United States of Trump, How the President Really Sees America.
And the first thing Bill is going to say, Hannity, I'm a simple man.
You're not a simple man.
I'm just getting to get that right out of the way, right off the top, because you're going to say, I'm a simple guy.
Hi, happy new year.
I'm a simple guy.
You know, Ocasio-Cortez just fainted seeing you tout the energy success of America and denigrate the Green New Deal.
She's now being revived in her House office.
The Trump speech today was fascinating.
Not to those of us who know the president.
If you read the United States of Trump, it is clear, clear that Donald Trump just hated the Iraq war.
I mean, it drove him nuts that we spent blood and treasure over there and then in Afghanistan as well, although Afghanistan is a different situation.
So anybody who knows the president, as you do very well, knows he don't want any part of war or conflict.
And he's not wagging the dog and he's not bearbaiting the mullahs, all of this nonsense.
Yet he finds himself in a position where he had to kill the terrorist General Soleimani because Soleimani engineered the attack on the American embassy in Baghdad.
That's why Soleimani died.
If Soleimani had not done that, he would not have been killed, but he did it.
And as I said, my line is Soleimani was killed outside the Baghdad airport.
He wasn't there changing planes to go to Paris.
All right.
He's a general.
So anyway, Donald Trump smokes him, and then all hell breaks loose.
And last night with the missile attack, I do believe that attack was not designed to kill Americans.
If the Iranians wanted to do that, they would have.
It was designed just to show their people the mullahs are not going to take this from America, the great Satan.
So Donald Trump in his response this morning was smart and it helped him.
The one mistake he made, and I want your opinion on this too, was that he was not specific enough about the 2015 nuclear deal and why he pulled out of that.
Because that's the opposition.
You pulled out of this deal, and because you pulled out of the Obama deal, Iran not has a right, but we can understand why Iran is misbehaving.
I would have liked to have seen the president say, look, here's why I left that deal in very specific terms.
What do you think?
I think that the president, maybe I'm just assuming that, you know, he was kind of clear in his speech today.
And I say it a little differently than he does.
I mean, the idea that Biden and Obama and other allies thought it was a good idea to give the Iranian mullahs $150 billion in cash and other currency and drop it in a tarmac in Tehran and say, here you go, please like us.
Oh, and by the way, there's no any place, anytime inspections of your nuclear facilities.
There's no American inspectors at all.
And in 10 years, you then get to build the nuclear weapon anyway.
I mean, that's how bad that deal was.
I mean, that is the quintessential definition bill of appeasement.
All right, but wouldn't you have liked to have heard, see, look, Biden.
I think the president in his own way dealt with it is what I was saying.
Yeah, but I don't think he dealt with it strongly enough.
So the Wall Street Journal has an editorial on Biden's criticism because Biden is up to his eyebrows in this Iranian nuke deal.
And this is why I say this can really work for President Trump in American politics, in the race.
So this, let me quote real fast what the Wall Street Journal says about Joe Biden's assessment.
Quote, Iran must have missed that united containment Mr. Biden is talking about because the country accelerated its spread of revolution in the wake of the 215 nuclear deal.
Flushed with new cash and the promise of investment, Iran expanded its arsenal ballistic missiles.
Soleimani armed the Houthis in Yemen, spread a missiles to his mulattabom Israel, mobilized Shiite militias, and made himself Iran's viceroy in Iraq.
So that's pretty precise what the journal just said.
And none of it is disputed.
So that's what I would have liked President Trump to say.
Hey, this myth that Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are putting out about what a great nuke deal this is, this is nonsense.
And just I would even use a board and a little pointer and just run down what the Wall Street Journal had said.
Listen, Bill, nobody's going to say you're not great at communication.
This is, you know, you had all these years as number one in cable, so I'm not going to dispute any of it here.
I will say this.
When you look at the events and what has been unfolding here, it's kind of miraculous.
Do you think they missed on purpose?
Because those weapons, those ballistic missiles, you could literally hit them on the top of a pin.
Yes, I do.
I think that the Iranians fear Donald Trump.
I agree.
That's good, right?
It's good, but there's a downside to everything because they don't want him re-elected.
So you have to assume that the Mullahs will try in the next nine months, 11 months, in the next 11 months, to disrupt our election, to disrupt the campaign by misbehaving in some way.
Not directly, because they know that President Trump will hurt them, but they don't want him.
They don't want him back.
And that is a major part of the Middle Eastern canvas right now, that the enemies of the United States were much more comfortable.
And I don't say this to diminish Barack Obama.
I don't.
Well, I'll say that.
Because the $150 billion was nuts.
Come on, Bill.
That was insane.
Wait a minute.
Let's be fair.
He tried to do it his way.
You and I don't agree with him.
Bribing mullahs that chant death to America $150 billion?
But look, just step back.
Barack Obama tried to do it his way.
Appeasement.
It did not work.
Appeasement never works, Bill.
You can't appease maniacs.
I'm not arguing appeasement works.
I'm not.
But he believed telling you that for history, and you know I'm a historian with 17 million books in print.
No, Bill, you're a simple man.
Wait a minute.
Wait, wait, listen, Bill Orton.
I'm a simple man.
I have 17 history books in print.
They're all number one bestsellers.
But I'm a simple guy.
Okay.
Well, that's what it takes, take simplicity and clarity to some books.
But Obama's, this is what Donald Trump should campaign on.
He shouldn't campaign on Obama's an idiot and he's a fool and he did all these terrible things to America.
That's not going to persuade independence.
What will persuade is Donald, Barack Obama tried this way in the economy.
It didn't work.
Income redistribution didn't work.
He tried foreign affairs to neutralize America by saying we shouldn't be the world's superpower.
It did not work.
I came in and I did it the opposite way and it did work.
Don't you think that's a better, more positive campaign than slashing Obama?
I honestly, I just see it differently than you.
I think you're being a little more gracious than I am.
It is such a spectacular fail in my mind that it defies logic, reason, and common sense.
When they chant death to America, they've been at war with us.
You know this.
We followed 444 days.
America held hostage.
Carter lost the election over it.
But since 1979, this is who they are, and they've only gotten worse.
And somehow, a deal that gives them $150 billion, no any place, anytime inspections, they keep the money, but it expires in 10 years.
And they get to keep building their weapons in the meantime and threatening to destroy Israel and the United States.
There's no part of my brain, Bill O'Reilly, that can comprehend that.
No, I can't.
So ram it down Biden's throat.
I do that every day.
President Trump, ram it down Biden's throat, that you did this in the hope that the Mullahs would moderate.
Okay, but don't assign a nefarious motive to it.
See?
Just take the fact and ram it down Biden's throat.
Look at him and say, hey, we tried it your way, Joe, and it didn't work.
Look what happened.
And every time that Biden says, oh, no, it's your fault.
You got out of the nuke deal.
You say, are you kidding me?
Did you not see what happened after you signed it and gave him the $150 billion?
Bill, the problem is nobody, this is the amazing part.
They will never admit they're wrong.
No, but you're shooting for independent votes.
No, on that side, you're right.
All right, stay right there.
Bill O'Reilly.
Hang on.
I got to pay bills, Bill.
You know, I got to be able to put this show on the air.
BillO'Reilly.com, the United States of Trump, his new book and his commentary every day on his website.
Quick break.
We'll come back.
I know a lot of you want to weigh in on the events in the last 24-hour.
We'll hit the phones in the final half hour of the program today.
We got an amazing Hannity tonight at 9.
Quick break, right back, and we will continue.
All right, as we continue, Bill O'Reilly is with us, All Things O'Reilly, at his website, billo'reilly.com.
So let's look at, there's nothing that this president can ever do.
It's now cliched for me.
I say if he cured cancer, they'd impeach him for curing cancer.
Now we take out Solomani.
General Petraeus, really smart guy, thinks this is way bigger than even Bin Laden or Baghdadi.
Impress me.
When Petraeus said that, that impressed me because Petraeus is one of the smartest guys on the planet.
He knows exactly what is happening in Tehran and other terror capitals.
So when he said that, I went, okay.
I would have done it anyway.
If you have a general in a foreign nation directing attacks on a U.S. embassy, you got to neutralize that.
Let me ask this.
Now that they took their shots, I kind of agree with you.
There's no way they missed every target by accident.
No.
So then the question is, no lives were lost.
That was the line in the sand for the president.
Would you, if you're President Trump or advising the president, tell him to hit him back anyway?
Take out the refineries?
No.
Nope.
Explain why.
I want to know your thinking.
Yeah, President Trump's winning this now in the hearts and minds category, which he needs to be reelected and also around the world, which is not sympathetic to the United States.
So right now, he should do nothing more and let it die down if it does.
Now, if Iran continues to provoke, it's a case-by-case.
It's like you, Hannity.
You're on your TV show.
Someone takes a shot at you.
You take a shot back at them, right?
You know, Bill, I'd waste my whole show doing that if I responded to, you know, like the Humpty Dumpties of the world.
But you don't start it.
No, I don't.
And then guys like Jimmy Kimmel have to move to Iran.
So it's the same thing.
You won this round, I think.
Let it go and let's see what happens.
All right.
You're doing so well on the show today.
I'm going to hold you over for a minute.
You got a couple of minutes?
Hey, Hannity, for you, man.
Oz stay here.
And hey, those 4,000 people sign it up for BillO'Reilly.com.
Put them on.
Exactly.
Yeah, but we'll put them all on hold.
And the simple man O'Reilly with 17 number one best-selling history books.
Okay, Bill.
You just keep telling yourself that.
You believe your own spin.
You're in your own spin zone.
I'm going to do something funny with Bill when we get back.
Quick break.
We'll come back.
We'll keep Bill for a few more minutes.
We'll hit the phones.
800-941 Sean, you want to be a part of the program?
Full coverage of all of today's events.
Hannity at 9.
Fox News, please join us at your DVR.
We'll continue.
All right, that's Leonard Skinner, one of their best songs, Simple Man.
And that's now Bill O'Reilly's theme song on the show.
I'm not with Leonard Skinner.
We wrote that.
Well, they were not from Alabama.
They're actually from Jacksonville, Florida.
Why spread hairs?
Come on, Hanny.
Give me a picture.
You know, I did a concert tour with them for our Freedom Concerts, and they're unbelievable.
I mean, it's an unbelievable.
And Johnny Van Zandt sings just like Ronnie Van Zandt who died in that plane crash, which was so sad.
All right, let me look at this whole thing, and I wanted to hold you over for a second on one big issue here.
Let's look at the, through the prism of where the Democrats are.
Their impeachment, a dud.
It's dying.
You look at television ratings, you can see the numbers.
Even fake news, CNN, conspiracy TV, Area 51, Roswell, Rachel Maddow.
They're in the tank.
You would think this would be a good news cycle for all of them.
It's not.
It's been a disaster.
The 2020 candidates are all extreme.
How does it play out in light of Baghdadi, Soleimani, the good news on the economy?
We had more good news on the economy today.
How does it play out?
As I said in the beginning of our conversation today, I think this helps President Trump if he doesn't overreact.
I don't want him tweeting about it.
I want him to be very methodical because it is a life-death situation.
And Americans want their commander-in-chief to be disciplined, methodical, and sober during these kinds of emergencies.
Now, you'll notice that the hate Trump media, it's a crisis.
This is what they have now.
Everything's a crisis.
It's not a crisis for America if we handle it correctly.
And I think so far we are.
How it extends to the campaign is that the Democratic Party is just flailing around.
They don't have any counter to the economy.
Economy is good.
All right.
They have no counter to ISIS.
ISIS is destroyed.
Now it looks like President Trump might be able to neutralize Iran.
If that indeed happens, Democrats are in really bad shape.
I really don't know why people would vote for them outside of a personality issue.
You see, I agree with you about the media.
They're constantly feigning this culture of outrages.
But the American people, the folks, as you would call them, the American people have adjusted to the president's style.
He's not conventional.
I agree with that.
But I want to make this one point.
Hang on.
This is important.
They've adjusted.
And my point to you, and my question for you, and I really want an answer to this, is I think the president showed remarkable restraint.
They shot down two drones, Bill.
He didn't act.
They took the British, they took tankers hostage in the Straits of Hormuz.
He didn't hit them.
An unprovoked attack to impact the price of oil worldwide when they hit the Saudis.
He didn't act.
American contractors killed.
He acted.
Now, if you listen to the cartoon caricature that the media and the Democrats painted Donald Trump, the American people saw a president in control and very restrained, in my humble opinion.
Yours.
He was very disciplined today, and I was happy to see it.
But all throughout, Bill, he didn't strike after the drones.
But I wasn't surprised with that restraint, Hannity, because I know him so well, and so do you.
I wasn't either, but the mob and the media was.
They were shocked.
No, they weren't shocked.
They were disappointed.
They wanted him to be a raving lunatic madman.
That's what they wanted.
But if you understand Donald Trump, he hates war.
I get into this in the United States of Trump.
I talk about his Vietnam experience.
We go into that very heavy.
And then the Iraq war.
And if you are honest about your assessment of the president, he hates war.
He doesn't want it.
He feels it's bad on a humanitarian basis and it's terrible for business.
So I'm not surprised that he's been restrained.
I'm happy for the country because we don't need a war with Iran.
All right.
Last question.
And we're going to get to the phones here.
And don't get mad at me, but this is fun.
So Bill O'Reilly would start his TV show with talking points, talking points memo.
And you'd always say, talking points says, and talking points says, and I'd be looking at the TV and saying, there's no person that's talking points.
You're talking points.
You're the talking point.
But you'd say, talking points says tonight.
And I'd be like, what are you talking about?
There's no such thing as talking points talking.
Hannity, now I'm going to go into my English teacher mode.
I am now teaching Sean Hannity.
He's a student in my class.
Talking point says.
It is a literary device.
Oh.
But I'd sit there and I'd be talking points.
Talking points don't think or talk.
Talking points can't say anything.
It's a literary device.
It's about literature.
I am a simple man, but an educated man.
Yeah, I know.
And here comes the word of the day.
I know.
I got it.
Obsequious.
Don't be.
Listen.
Listen, I'll give you credit.
I mean, you're number one all those years.
And by the way, to your ever credit, good for you.
Bill O'Reilly.
Pleasure.
All right, O'Reilly, billorilly.com, 800-941 Sean.
You want to be a part of the program?
All right, Stephen, Virginia Beach, Sean Hannity Show.
What's going on?
Just first off, thanks so much for taking my call.
Thank you.
First-time listener, first-time caller.
And it's an honor to be right after the legend Bill O'Reilly.
So thank you very much for putting me right after him.
It's a pleasure.
One comment I did want to make is we were talking along the lines of during the impeachment trial about Ambassador Ivanovich, and we were going on and on and on and on about how these ambassadors were patriots.
But at the same time, when the Baghdad embassy was being overran, we didn't hear anything from the left talking about how much these people were patriots and that we had to really defend them during this overrunning of our embassy.
Listen, these are our fellow Americans.
We saw what happened in Benghazi.
This shouldn't be complicated, I think, for anybody, because we know what they did in Benghazi.
And, you know, the fact that those CIA annex guys, you know, were told to stand down three times.
It shocks my conscience.
Like, what do you mean stand down?
They're killing our fellow Americans.
These are our, this is our family.
We're going.
And they eventually, not only, they risked their lives in careers and they did it anyway and they ended up saving lives.
So, you know, this is America.
This is an attack on America.
This is American sovereignty.
These are American citizens.
They were there to kill Americans.
And it was all led by Soleimani, all of it.
That's why he was at Baghdad airport.
There's no doubt about it.
I think the Intel was dead on accurate.
You know, there's some, I got a criticism.
Linda brought this to my attention.
I forget who you said said it, but somebody said, well, Hannity spent three years trashing our Intel community.
I'm like, I'm so furious about that because, Steve, you listen to the program, right?
How many times did I always say the 99% of good people and the 1% of bad people in the Intel community and the FBI?
Didn't I always make that distinction?
I've heard it many a times.
We're talking about years being incompetent, not the men and women who are constantly serving and actually knocking on doors and actually saying real big words.
Because I admire them so much.
I did not want them to be tainted by the actions of a few at the top.
And it was important to me, important enough to me to make the distinction.
And I made it often so I was crystal clear.
Thank you for bailing me out.
Can I ask you to just please have all your listeners say a prayer for all our sailors, soldiers, Marines, airmen going overseas and doing that.
God bless you, Sean.
Thanks for taking my call.
God bless you.
And yes, we need to pray for our guys.
We have the greatest fighting force on the face of the earth.
You know, the intelligence community, what have I been saying?
99%, the greatest intelligence capabilities of any country on earth.
Thank God, this was such a win for them.
I mean, who knew Solomani was flying commercial?
And then they tracked him the whole way.
Now, maybe not a dumb idea if you're thinking in an evil sort of way.
He's basically using every other passenger as a shield.
Because if we know he's in the plane, you'd think, well, we'll just take out the plane.
The problem is we're going to kill a lot of innocent people.
And the U.S. and Israel care about human life.
That's who we are.
That defines us, but that also limits our ability to do some things.
But a huge military success, a huge intelligence success, and a huge success for our commander in chief.
And I think the president did surprise people with the restraint that he showed leading up to all of this.
Indiana, Rhonda, next, Sean Hannity Show.
Rhonda, how are you?
Happy New Year.
Glad you called.
I'm doing great, Sean, and I'm thrilled to talk to you again.
I just heard recently that our immigration policy is based on love.
And I really have been thinking that over, and I know that it's true the way it's structured, it protects our citizens.
It allows people who come in legally to experience the wonders of our country.
And that is a loving thing that we do.
I feel that way about our military.
And so it pains me deeply that people who trash the military, disrespect them, when really they are defending us, they are protecting us in our interests.
It's our sons and daughters, our husbands and our wives who are in the military.
And this doctrine of appeasement that I am hearing is so very dangerous.
It is a false peace.
It is a false love.
It masquerades as peace and it masquerades as love when all the while you and I know that you can never appease evil.
And so I am thankful to have a president who loves the military, who knows what the military does for our country, and who loves our country.
That is one of the things I'm grateful for this year.
And I have to tell you, it was the delight of my year to, in December, be able to put my own knees on the steps of the Capitol as they were impeaching my president and to bow my head and to pray for this country.
Look, I think what you're saying, it is so wise what you were saying and so deep and so profound on the one hand and so simple on the other.
You know, the idea that you can, you know, I think for some, and I don't know what it is, I don't understand appeasement, Rhonda.
I don't.
And I was saying this to O'Reilly.
I'm like, I don't get it.
You know, what's your, give me the reason, the rationale, the intellectual process, if you will, that makes you believe in the case of Chamberlain, Neville Chamberlain, we can have peace in our time, or Biden Obama thinking it's a good idea to give $150 billion to radical Islamic terrorists that chant death to your country and want to wipe Israel off the map.
Oh, here's $150 billion.
Please like us, but we're going to trust you.
We won't have any place anytime inspections and it all expires in 10 years anyway.
It's mind-numbing to me.
I just, I don't think that way.
You are correct.
That is viewed as weakness by people that have these evil, sick, ugly ideologies.
It's hard for good people to conceive that there is such evil out there in this world that we lost 100 million souls, at least in the last century alone.
But there are Hitlers and there are, you know, Stalins and Mao's of the world.
And there is this interpretation of Islam that is radicalized, that thinks it's okay to strap bombs on young kids and teach them to kill Americans and Israelis, and that God will, Allah will reward them in heaven.
Some people buy into this when an entire country is governed by that theology, and you're looking at that as the case in Iran.
And if you ever marry that with nuclear weapons, we all better be afraid.
And so there's got to be a day of reckoning here because everyone's saying they can't have nuclear weapons.
At some point, there's going to have to be something to make it not ever be possible for them to get them.
And do I want war?
Nope, I don't.
I don't like war.
My father fought in World War II.
Never liked to talk about it much either.
In the Pacific.
Wasn't interested when his son had a lot of questions about it.
All the people I've ever met that served in the military in war, they don't want to usually talk about it either.
It's not pleasant.
It's not the better part of the human existence and experience.
Want to know what radical Islam looks like?
Just think back to 9-11, 2001.
Those were radical Islamists.
Now that's the entire country of Iran that are governed by that sick, twisted, evil ideology.
And the thing is, you can't convince them that they're wrong because they're convinced that they're right.
And that even makes it worse in some regards.
That's going to wrap things up for today.
We're still watching the Katusha Rockets Green Zone.
And my gut tells me knockoff, you know, Troublemaker.
There's a lot of them in the region.
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