Sean Hannity Show - Iran’s Hardline Endgame
Aired: 2026-04-22
Duration: 31:35


=== Iran's Elite Seize Power (09:38) ===

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[00:00:10]  It's 800 941 Sean.
[00:00:13]  If you want to join us, it looks like the talks, ceasefire talks that were supposed to take place in Pakistan, we don't know if they're going to happen.
[00:00:26]  And I'd say the odds are probably pretty high they're not going to happen.
[00:00:32]  State TV, Iran, upset about what they described as mixed messages from the U.S.
[00:00:37]  It has nothing to do with the U.S., that's not what's going on here.
[00:00:41]  The president now saying that he expects to be bombing as now this ceasefire deadline is looming, and Central Command now aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is receiving supplies as they have been replenishing since the ceasefire began, and the blockade continues as it has been.
[00:01:04]  The U.S. forces now have ordered 28 ships to turn around, return to port during this blockade, and they have been effective in doing so.
[00:01:14]  And now we have reports that the son of the late Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, the younger Khamenei, who the older Khamenei never wanted to take power, take control if he died, has lost.
[00:01:32]  They're unable to contact this guy.
[00:01:34]  And now the military council.
[00:01:37]  Has controlled everything.
[00:01:39]  And what you have is an emergence of an intramural fight for power inside of Iran.
[00:01:46]  I think Lindsey Graham described what's going on best.
[00:01:50]  You have the guys that want to negotiate, the guys that were making promises to President Trump that obviously they are unable to keep.
[00:01:59]  Those are the guys in the suits, the guys with the guns, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
[00:02:05]  They are the ones that have, it seems, The upper hand in terms of this power struggle.
[00:02:12]  And they, of course, the elite branch of the Iranian armed forces.
[00:02:16]  And anyway, they are now, it's seemingly pushing out the son of the former supreme leader who was apparently appointed supreme leader, but really nobody's ever seen or heard from him.
[00:02:27]  Apparently, he was injured in the initial strike of Epic Fury.
[00:02:30]  But there clearly is a huge shift going on and a power struggle going on.
[00:02:37]  And if the IRGC, in fact, It gets control of this, and it appears to me that they are.
[00:02:45]  Then, what have I been saying for the last number of days?
[00:02:48]  It's either going to end the easy way or it's going to end the hard way.
[00:02:52]  And as this deadline now is coming to an end, by the way, for example, Vice President Vance never left today because we never got word that the Iranians were definitely showing up.
[00:03:04]  But so as the deadline looms and the president is now rearming and saying that he expects to be bombing as this ceasefire deadline looms, what do we have?
[00:03:17]  Who does it appear now to be in charge?
[00:03:20]  This guy, Ahmad Vahidi, is his name.
[00:03:24]  He is Iran's new.
[00:03:26]  Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps chief, who, by the way, has been tied to global attacks.
[00:03:34]  He is a radical.
[00:03:35]  He's one of these death to America ideologists.
[00:03:39]  He's bought into that ideology.
[00:03:42]  And he has a long record of terror and repression, hardline ideology.
[00:03:48]  And Vahidi, recently elevated to the top of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, their elite parliamentary force within Iran's military.
[00:03:56]  There's about an estimated remaining, because they've taken out a lot of them.
[00:04:01]  130,000 of those troops, but very shadowy Revolutionary Guard commander, long history of terror repression, hardline ideology.
[00:04:10]  And anyway, he seems to be the one with the guns emerging as the most powerful guy in Iran, which means he doesn't want a deal.
[00:04:18]  And by any standard, Bahidi's considered more radical than maybe even the regime that was there before.
[00:04:26]  Putting this guy with such a bloody, murderous record at the top of the Revolutionary Guard Corps confirms the regime is not.
[00:04:33]  Moderating under pressure.
[00:04:34]  On the contrary, they're going to double down on men who's, you know, on careers of people who have been built on hostage taking, assassination, domestic repression, and torture of people.
[00:04:49]  And by any standard, he is considered as radical as the regime's hardline elite that was in power.
[00:04:57]  Now, Vahidi's rise could shape whether Iran moves towards peace or a deeper conflict.
[00:05:04]  The thing is, you know, there is stupid on top of this.
[00:05:10]  You would think logic would dictate that after President Trump gave Iran 50 days before he gave the green light, in spite of these idiots and their proclamations, Israel is controlling Donald Trump, BB is controlling Donald Trump, Fox News is controlling Donald Trump.
[00:05:32]  None of which has been true.
[00:05:34]  But this new Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps chief, he's been tied to nothing but terror and global attacks and death to America.
[00:05:44]  And with this power increasingly being concentrated outside of formal institutions, I don't think the guys in suits that would like to make a deal, that see the handwriting on the wall, that saw what happened after the 50 day deadline ended, and on day 51, Israel bombed the living daylights out of Iran, the same people that were in power.
[00:06:08]  And they were given a warning before Midnight Hammer to stop enriching uranium and give up those enrichment sites.
[00:06:14]  And they decided not to do it.
[00:06:16]  And then that ended in a disaster for them with 14 bunker buster bombs.
[00:06:22]  You would think after Operation Epic Fury, which sunk their Navy, their Air Force, most of their military capabilities, the ballistic missile capability, drone capability.
[00:06:33]  And, you know, you would think at this point they'd recognize defeat even after Midnight Hammer.
[00:06:40]  I mean, that went on for 12 days, and the Iranians said, okay, enough.
[00:06:45]  We want a peace deal.
[00:06:47]  And then, of course, we find out when we negotiate with them, they're bragging about their 460 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium.
[00:06:54]  But Vahidi's rise comes at a moment where their political institutions are weaker than ever.
[00:07:00]  This would be a good moment had they had the ability to get arms into the hands of people for them to rise up against them.
[00:07:08]  But, you know, long before the world ever knew.
[00:07:11]  About General Soleimani, the longtime commander of the elite Quds forces that was killed by President Trump in a drone strike on that tarmac.
[00:07:21]  Vahidi was one of the men that helped build the infrastructure for Iranian overseas terror operations.
[00:07:28]  And he himself served as the commander of the Quds forces before Soleimani took over that elite unit responsible for foreign operations, covert actions, and support for proxy groups.
[00:07:39]  Anyway, analysts that have studied Vahidi.
[00:07:42]  You know, say he played a very central role in building Iran's network of terrorist allies all across the Middle East, especially Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthi rebels.
[00:07:55]  One person describing it, describing this guy as the embodiment of the Islamic Republic's most militant wing.
[00:08:04]  As Soleimani's predecessor at the Quds Force, he helped build Tehran's terror infrastructure abroad.
[00:08:11]  They say he was part of the original generation of Iranian operatives that.
[00:08:15]  Forged ties with militant groups in Lebanon before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
[00:08:22]  I mean, so this is his life's work culminating here.
[00:08:25]  Some accounts suggest he trained in camps linked to Palestinian Lebanese factions in southern Lebanon, laying the foundation for his alliance with Hezbollah.
[00:08:35]  And Vahidi has been linked to, you know, analysts, Western governments, some of the deadliest attacks carried out by Iranian backed networks over the past four decades.
[00:08:45]  But as commander of the Quds forces, For the 10 year period of 1988 to 98, he's been connected to the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 U.S. service members, the Khobar Towers incident in Saudi Arabia, and when that took place, a 2008 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.
[00:09:08]  And Vahidi has been implicated, for example, by Argentinian prosecutors in 1994 for a bombing that took place there at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.
[00:09:19]  85 people were killed in that bombing.
[00:09:22]  Investigators and courts linked Vahidi to the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.
[00:09:30]  And, you know, if you want a little bit more background on him, I can keep going, but he's under multiple layers of sanctions by both the U.S., the European Union.

=== Vahidi's Deadly Bombing History (06:01) ===

[00:09:38]  So, what does this mean?
[00:09:40]  He is the most radical faction.
[00:09:43]  He's got the guns, he's got the forces behind him, and the guys that would be more reasonable and understand the cost that is about to come their way.
[00:09:55]  Are not going to, it looks to me, I would say the odds now are much lower that we're going to have a peaceful agreement.
[00:10:05]  I think the odds are much higher that this is the bombing campaign will start anew.
[00:10:14]  And I think it will be devastating.
[00:10:16]  And the sad part is the president has not wanted to do this.
[00:10:20]  The sad part is the president, like he did before Israel attack first, after 50 days, and before Midnight Hammer, and before Epic Fury, he has given the Iranians a time for peace.
[00:10:32]  Each time, they have made the wrong choice.
[00:10:36]  And it looks like the hardliners, once again, will make the wrong choice.
[00:10:41]  Will the Iranian people, as a result, suffer in the short term?
[00:10:44]  Yeah, they're going to suffer.
[00:10:46]  Unfortunately, because of the leadership.
[00:10:49]  But this might create the vacuum that is needed for the change that would once again help the Persian people reemerge.
[00:10:58]  The president put out, I don't know if you saw this today, Linda, the president put out pictures of the women that this Islamic Republic is preparing to hang.
[00:11:10]  He put out the pictures of these women, beautiful young women in the prime of their life because they dared to stand up against this regime.
[00:11:19]  Are about to go to their own hanging.
[00:11:21]  The president put out to the Iranian leaders, I would greatly appreciate it, release these women.
[00:11:27]  I'm sure that they will respect the fact that you did so.
[00:11:30]  Please do them no harm.
[00:11:32]  It would be a great start to our negotiations.
[00:11:35]  And now the president has had to say they have violated our ceasefire many times.
[00:11:40]  And the president really is kind of, I'm sure he's probably throwing his hands up.
[00:11:46]  They just reject common sense, logic, and And peace.
[00:11:53]  And may I say, Sean, one of the young girls that the regime is planning on hanging to death is 16 years old.
[00:12:01]  Like these are not older people.
[00:12:03]  This is 16 year olds.
[00:12:05]  These are young women.
[00:12:07]  Some of them, a lot of them look like they're in their 20s.
[00:12:10]  I don't know, 20s.
[00:12:11]  What do I know?
[00:12:12]  I don't even know how old you are.
[00:12:14]  They're babies.
[00:12:15]  But I mean, they're babies.
[00:12:16]  They're out there just trying to speak for their freedom.
[00:12:19]  People don't know how good they got it.
[00:12:21]  I wonder where the movement is now.
[00:12:22]  Believe the women.
[00:12:23]  Stand behind women.
[00:12:24]  They're very quiet.
[00:12:25]  Look at how women are treated.
[00:12:26]  If they're not covered properly, they're beaten.
[00:12:29]  If they dress provocatively like Soleimani's niece and grandniece, they would be murdered.
[00:12:35]  Just like gays and lesbians are murdered.
[00:12:37]  Just like anybody that dared to speak out against this tyrannical regime is now being hung.
[00:12:43]  This is a brutal regime, the number one state sponsor of terror, and they wanted a nuclear weapon.
[00:12:49]  And this is what compelled the president thinking long term, understanding the lessons of the last century.
[00:12:56]  I've said this many times.
[00:12:58]  Either you learn from history or you're doomed to repeat it.
[00:13:02]  Would it be smart to neutralize threats like Mao and Stalin and Hitler and Mussolini and Tojo if you saw emerging threats and you knew in the end that millions of people would die?
[00:13:14]  Of course it would be smart.
[00:13:16]  Does that make any of this easy?
[00:13:17]  No, none of it's easy.
[00:13:19]  Does it make any of it pleasant?
[00:13:20]  No, war is not pleasant either.
[00:13:23]  Then you've got this whole cadre of people that are out there cheering for the president to fail.
[00:13:29]  Look at Chris Murphy.
[00:13:31]  You know, he reacted to an Iranian propaganda report claiming that at least 26 Iranian shadow fleet vessels bypassed the blockade.
[00:13:39]  He writes, awesome.
[00:13:42]  Of an American senator rooting against the US military?
[00:13:47]  Does it get any more disgusting and repulsive than that?
[00:13:51]  That's the radicalized Democratic Party today, radicalized leftists today.
[00:13:57]  That's also the legacy media mob.
[00:13:59]  They have not reported on any of the success.
[00:14:03]  I mean, unprecedented historic military success of the president in this effort with a minimal amount of casualties in the shortest amount of time.
[00:14:13]  Now it's going to come to a conclusion.
[00:14:16]  And it's going to be, it looks like the hard way, not the easy way.
[00:14:19]  And how are we going to find victory?
[00:14:22]  We'll either entomb the nuclear dust, keep eyes on it if they ever dare go near it, or just go in and take it, or eventually they'll just wake up and make the deal.
[00:14:32]  And the Strait of Hormuz is going to be open the hard way.
[00:14:35]  And frankly, it's not even our problem because we don't get any oil from the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:14:41]  So, anyway, that's where it seems to be as of now.
[00:14:45]  I would imagine.
[00:14:47]  That this radical leader that has now emerged is probably going to choose, you know, stupidly.
[00:15:00]  Bahidi will be dumb.
[00:15:02]  He will cling to his indoctrinated radicalism and not to common sense, not to human decency, because it doesn't exist in people that can kill innocent men, women, and children with abandon and believe that they're going to be rewarded by Allah with 72 virgins.
[00:15:18]  But that's the mindset.
[00:15:34]  Let me explain, and I won't have time in this segment to really get into it deeply.
[00:15:38]  Let me just give you a headline.

=== Virginia Voters Reject Gerrymandering (11:11) ===

[00:15:40]  Let me explain why it's not my preferred option.
[00:15:45]  My preferred option would have been a negotiated settlement.
[00:15:49]  But let me explain why on the other side, why it's not the best choice.
[00:16:11]  So, there is a proposed constitutional amendment vote in the Commonwealth of Virginia today.
[00:16:25]  It is the most, you know, corrupt power grab, blatant power grab that I have seen in modern history.
[00:16:35]  Now, we do know Democrats, they don't want integrity in our elections.
[00:16:39]  They don't want simple things like proof of citizenship, they don't want voter ID.
[00:16:44]  You know, if you want integrity in elections, you have voter ID, signature verification, chain of custody controls for mail in ballots.
[00:16:51]  I think you should limit mail in ballots.
[00:16:53]  I think early voting should be only for people on a need to have basis.
[00:16:59]  You need updated voter rolls, and you need partisan observers that would watch the voting all day and the vote counting all night.
[00:17:07]  And then we'd have confidence in results.
[00:17:09]  Both Democrats and Republicans have complained bitterly after certain electoral losses.
[00:17:16]  Now, the question is gerrymandering.
[00:17:19]  And they put this constitutional amendment on the ballot.
[00:17:23]  People are voting today in Virginia.
[00:17:25]  If you're listening, I hope you're paying very close attention.
[00:17:29]  And here's how they write this question Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections while ensuring?
[00:17:48]  Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census.
[00:17:56]  Oh, it sounds fair, right?
[00:17:57]  I mean, we have to restore fairness.
[00:18:00]  The way this thing is worded is the most abusively corrupt and partisan wording you can ever imagine.
[00:18:09]  Because what the net result of this is, is a power grab.
[00:18:12]  We heard James Carville and we played it yesterday.
[00:18:15]  James Carville says Democrats get control of the House, the Senate.
[00:18:19]  And the presidency.
[00:18:20]  He wants D.C. statehood, Puerto Rico statehood, and he wants to pack the U.S. Supreme Court.
[00:18:26]  Okay.
[00:18:26]  When it comes to elections, Democrats don't want the Save Act.
[00:18:30]  They don't want proof of citizenship.
[00:18:31]  They don't even want voter ID.
[00:18:33]  If you want to go to a Democratic National Convention, you need multiple IDs with your picture on it, and you have to stop at multiple locations.
[00:18:42]  I know because I've been to the last number of them.
[00:18:45]  But you need it for everything else that you buy, everywhere else you go, to drive a car, et cetera, to get a pack of cigarettes if you smoke, to get.
[00:18:53]  A six pack of beer or a bottle of wine.
[00:18:55]  That simple.
[00:18:57]  Anyway, joining us to weigh in on what the ramifications of this in a second.
[00:19:02]  But remember, this would redistrict in such a way Donald Trump got 46% of the vote in the last election.
[00:19:09]  And a net result of this will be 10 safe Democratic congressional seats in the Commonwealth of Virginia, only one safe Republican seat in Virginia.
[00:19:21]  This is a power grab, and it's written in such a corrupt way.
[00:19:25]  I'm not sure if it'll pass muster when it goes before courts.
[00:19:30]  If it were to pass, I hope it doesn't.
[00:19:32]  Anyway, joining us is the former governor, Glenn Youngkin, who is with us.
[00:19:36]  Also, Jason Mayaris is with us, former attorney general of Virginia.
[00:19:40]  I wish these guys were still there.
[00:19:42]  Governor Youngkin, let's start with you.
[00:19:45]  On the wording of this, I can't think of anything, a more corrupt way to write up a constitutional amendment proposal.
[00:19:53]  No, it's incredibly deceptive, Sean.
[00:19:55]  And in fact, the Washington Post even said that it's brazenly dishonest.
[00:20:01]  And we have heard from voter after voter, by the way, not just Republican voters, but independent and even Democrat voters that are just flat confused.
[00:20:09]  And as a result, this election, which.
[00:20:12]  We could solve today with enough people coming out today and voting no.
[00:20:18]  But at the end of the day, this has been a corrupt process from the beginning.
[00:20:23]  The constitutionally mandated way of a constitution amendment, they violated our state code, and they've done it all in order to try to deceive voters into voting for something that they don't understand.
[00:20:37]  That's just fundamentally wrong.
[00:20:38]  It's un American, and Virginians can't stand it.
[00:20:40]  And that's why Abigail Spamberger is the least popular governor in modern Virginian history.
[00:20:46]  But I saw a poll last week that had her rated as possibly the least popular governor in America because voters.
[00:20:52]  She lied to them.
[00:20:53]  She told them that she had no interest in redistricting.
[00:20:55]  And now all of a sudden, the first piece of legislation she signs is, in fact, redistricting Virginia in this corrupt, underhanded, deceptive way.
[00:21:05]  And they're trying to trick Virginians.
[00:21:07]  And Virginians hopefully are going to stand up today.
[00:21:09]  We need a huge turnout in order to say, no, we will not be lied to.
[00:21:16]  Any anecdotal information?
[00:21:18]  Information regarding turnout in the right locations.
[00:21:22]  Well, it sounds like from early voting, the data would suggest that there was strong turnout in our red counties.
[00:21:30]  And today, it sounds like there is, again, good turnout in our red counties.
[00:21:35]  But, Sean, we had an uphill battle to begin with.
[00:21:37]  We knew it.
[00:21:38]  And I will tell you, Jason Miyares, who's on the line with us, our former attorney general, who, by the way, battled every day in our courts in order to stand up for free and fair elections, has done a masterful job canvassing Virginia with me.
[00:21:53]  The best time listening to voters and straighten them out because they were confused by this deceptive practice.
[00:21:59]  And Jason, you've been on the road today as well.
[00:22:02]  What have you been seeing out at the precincts?
[00:22:04]  Well, I mean, listen, I think we have seen an uptick of rural Virginia because rural Virginia voters are being disenfranchised, Sean.
[00:22:13]  If this goes through, 56 counties in Virginia will effectively have no voice in Congress because they're going to be replaced by Northern Virginia liberals.
[00:22:23]  If this goes through, you're going to have.
[00:22:25]  Five districts that you could have five congressmen all live within a 15 mile radius of each other in Northern Virginia.
[00:22:32]  That's not fair.
[00:22:33]  That's not democracy.
[00:22:34]  It's not democracy when 48.5% of Virginians voted for a Republican to represent them in Congress and leave them with 9% of the vote.
[00:22:43]  The party of democracy is right now trying to disenfranchise millions of Virginia voters, rural voters, and rural counties.
[00:22:51]  And so I think that's why you're saying that.
[00:22:52]  But to the governor's point, it is a brazenly dishonest ballot question.
[00:22:56]  It is confusing.
[00:22:58]  I was just talking to somebody this morning.
[00:23:00]  I don't think it's confusing, Jason.
[00:23:02]  With all due respect, I think this is just outright lying.
[00:23:06]  Yeah, it's deceitful that they thought a yes vote meant they were going to stop gerrymandering.
[00:23:09]  And so we've seen that, but I do think this is a moment that we need to defeat this today.
[00:23:15]  But if not, the Virginia Supreme Court needs to do its job, as Governor Youngkin has said.
[00:23:20]  Well, you're familiar with the court.
[00:23:22]  I mean, worst case scenario.
[00:23:24]  No, the best case scenario would be, and the preferable option would be, that the people of Virginia get out in huge numbers and vote no today.
[00:23:32]  That would be don't go along with this scheme, this power grab by Abigail Spamberger and Democrats in Virginia.
[00:23:40]  Because they want to basically disenfranchise any Republican, even though Donald Trump got 46% of the vote, and your last governor is on the line here with us, Glenn Youngkin.
[00:23:50]  So they want to disenfranchise half the state.
[00:23:52]  And they want 10 safe Democratic congressional seats, only one safe Republican seat.
[00:23:57]  That would disenfranchise 90% of the state.
[00:24:02]  Yeah, yeah, it would.
[00:24:03]  And the reality is, you know, I know the courts have at times been reluctant to get involved in what they view as a political fight.
[00:24:10]  But can they, by not getting involved, it's being seen as that they are taking sides in a political fight.
[00:24:16]  And they just got to call balls and strikes.
[00:24:18]  As the governor noted, they violated the law.
[00:24:20]  There's numerous legal deficiencies of what they did.
[00:24:23]  It's not a close call.
[00:24:25]  And listen, Virginians haven't changed.
[00:24:27]  In 2020, they voted by a 30-point landslide saying, you know what, we don't want politicians of either party drawing these lines.
[00:24:33]  We are going to go potentially from one of the fairest maps in the country to one of the most gerrymandered maps in the country.
[00:24:39]  That's not Virginia.
[00:24:40]  And that's, I think, to the governor's point.
[00:24:41]  There's a reason why Abigail Spamberger is the least popular governor in modern Virginia history.
[00:24:48]  There's never been a drop off greater than 400 years of the Commonwealth between Governor Glenn Youngkin and Abigail Spamberger as far as leadership and common sense and governance.
[00:24:56]  I'll tell you that.
[00:24:57]  Governor Youngkin, what's your last word to the people in the Commonwealth if they're listening to us now?
[00:25:02]  Yeah, let me just add what's been amazing is that even Democrat leadership.
[00:25:08]  Don Byer, Congressman Don Byer, Senator Tim Kaine acknowledged that this is unfair for Virginia.
[00:25:15]  And yet they still say vote yes.
[00:25:17]  And it's beyond comprehension how someone who's been entrusted to represent the people of Virginia could possibly say that this is good in any way for Virginians because it is so gerrymandered, it is so wrong, and it is so un American.
[00:25:35]  And that's what we're asking people to do today get out and vote, whether you are a Republican, a Democrat.
[00:25:42]  Or an independent.
[00:25:43]  Whether you live in the cities or you live in rural Virginia, your voice matters, and we need you to vote no because no represents maintaining the fair maps that have been drawn by a nonpartisan, independent redistricting committee.
[00:26:00]  They've been deemed the fairest maps in America.
[00:26:02]  And what they're trying to jam down our throats in this illegal process is our maps that represent the most gerrymandered maps in America, worse than Illinois, worse than California, and we should not.
[00:26:15]  Ever stand for that in the Commonwealth of Virginia?
[00:26:17]  It's time to stand up as Virginians just like we did 250 years ago and lead.
[00:26:22]  And today's our day to lead.
[00:26:23]  Get out and vote no.
[00:26:25]  All right, Governor Glenn Young and Jason Mieres, thank you.
[00:26:29]  I hope everybody in Virginia votes no on this ridiculous constitutional amendment, a power grab by the Democrats and led by Abigail Spamberger.
[00:26:40]  This will be a disaster.
[00:26:42]  And I'm not sure you can count on the courts to overturn it.
[00:26:45]  So assume your vote matters.
[00:26:47]  Thank you both for being with us.
[00:26:48]  800 941 Sean, our number if you want to be a part of the program.

=== Ending Conflict the Hard Way (04:43) ===

[00:26:52]  So, as I was explaining at the start of the show, you've got this massive power vacuum.
[00:26:58]  Inside of Iran.
[00:27:00]  And it doesn't look like these ceasefire talks, round two will take place.
[00:27:05]  And it looks like the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, this guy, Vahidi, who has nothing but a history of radical Islamic terror, the worst of the worst, a disciple of Soleimani, has the guns, has the control.
[00:27:26]  We're watching.
[00:27:27]  And we have all of these women that are about to be, eight women about to be hung.
[00:27:31]  In Iran, the president has tried to appeal to those, but it comes down to you have these guys that want to negotiate that understand that ultimately Iran is going to lose this conflict.
[00:27:44]  I've been saying for days it's going to be done the easy way or it's going to be done the hard way, but it's going to be done.
[00:27:49]  The Iranians are not going to be allowed to foment terror, build out nuclear capability, continue to build out their ballistic missile capability now that we know they had range far further than we originally thought where they could hit Paris and London and other parts of Western Europe.
[00:28:04]  The Strait of Hormuz has to be open.
[00:28:07]  And in many ways, and this is the sad part, if we look at this and you bifurcate this into two separate issues, and I think this has been what has been paramount in the president's mind the president has spoken out repeatedly in favor of a better life and future for the Iranian people.
[00:28:27]  And that, I think, has been the impetus for the president to go slow, give the Iranian leadership a taste of or a preview of coming attractions.
[00:28:38]  He has been very clear what our military will do.
[00:28:46]  The president's message has not been ambiguous either in terms of his commitment to wiping out their infrastructure and their ability to make money.
[00:28:54]  They have gotten a preview of coming attractions with the blockade that has been effective.
[00:29:00]  They're losing between $400 and $500 million a day because Donald Trump has disrupted any trade, commerce, and energy sales abroad.
[00:29:10]  That is the bulk of their economy.
[00:29:12]  That's 90% of their economy.
[00:29:14]  We now have a currency in Iran that is worthless, 180% inflation rate.
[00:29:20]  You have half the adult workforce now out of work in Iran.
[00:29:25]  And so, you know, when I say this, please understand this is not my preferred choice.
[00:29:31]  I'm with the president.
[00:29:33]  I'd prefer a negotiated settlement if there's one to be had.
[00:29:38]  If the hardline radical Islamic terrorists that have tortured their own people for 47 years are still indoctrinated into their death cult of hatred of the West and their desire to destroy Israel and destroy the U.S., in spite of all of the evidence that surrounds them that they can't win this conflict.
[00:30:03]  If they want to keep going and they haven't learned a thing about all of their top leadership, the top three layers ahead of them dying, then I guess they leave the president no option.
[00:30:16]  It's not the first option.
[00:30:18]  And I think the president has gone the extra mile and he's done so out of consideration for the impact that this is likely to have on the people themselves inside of Iran.
[00:30:30]  But if you want to know which option will be most effective, it'd be the military option.
[00:30:37]  If we didn't take into account the potential human impact of this, it'd be easy to wipe out Karg Island, their ability to produce energy, their infrastructure, their bridges, their power plants.
[00:30:50]  And it will be easy if that's the path the president decides to take.
[00:30:54]  What they can't have are nuclear weapons.
[00:30:56]  What they can't have is the continuation of a terror regime that is killing innocent men, women, and children around the globe.
[00:31:05]  It's going to end, and it's just going to end.
[00:31:08]  It looks like the way they're deciding now, they want it to end the hard way.
[00:31:12]  Sad, but that's evil in our time.
[00:31:14]  100 million human souls in the last century.
[00:31:18]  You know, we have to learn the lessons of history, unfortunately.
[00:31:20]  I wish evil didn't exist.
[00:31:29]  All right, when we come back, we've got new developments and disclosures about the deep state.
[00:31:33]  John Solomon, Greg Jarrett, straight ahead.