Uncensored - Piers Morgan - “We’re Gonna Have ANOTHER War!” Iran REJECTS President Trump’s Peace Talks
Aired: 2026-04-20
Duration: 01:16:25


=== Political Problem With Italian Prime (06:13) ===

[00:00:00]  The truth is, people can see through it, Professor Morandi.
[00:00:03]  They know a government stooge and propagandist when they see and hear one.
[00:00:06]  And let the record show you've not leveled any criticism at your own regime once again because you're not allowed to.
[00:00:15]  Because if you did start criticizing your regime on this show, they would probably kill you too.
[00:00:23]  The Vice President, JD Vance, is returning to Islamabad for the second round of negotiations on ending the war on Iran.
[00:00:29]  It seems almost certain that the talks will end in failure if they happen at all.
[00:00:34]  Meanwhile, the US has seized an Iranian cargo ship for evading its blockade of the Hormuz Strait.
[00:00:39]  Iran has responded by attacking US vessels with drones.
[00:00:42]  Tehran is currently saying it has no plans to attend any talks.
[00:00:46]  All of this just days after President Trump announced that Iran had, quote, agreed to everything with an apparent mega deal on never closing the Strait again, as well as turning over all of their so called nuclear dust.
[00:00:58]  There appears to be a greater chance of a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict between Trump and the Pope.
[00:01:03]  The Pontiff clarified this weekend that a new speech attacking Tyrants who spend billions on wars had not been written as an attack on the White House.
[00:01:12]  The talk that I gave at the prayer meeting for peace a couple days ago was prepared two weeks ago, well before the president ever commented on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting.
[00:01:28]  And yet, as it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate again the president, which is not in my interest at all.
[00:01:39]  Well, should His Holiness change his mind about debating President Trump?
[00:01:42]  We'd be happy to host both of them here and uncensored.
[00:01:45]  The religious overtones have become a big inflection point in the Iran war.
[00:01:48]  Many conservatives have criticized War Secretary Pete Hegseth for repeatedly invoking the Bible in his press updates on US attacks.
[00:01:56]  Some of the president's most loyal supporters were very uneasy about his expletive laden Easter rant and the subsequent vow to end civilization.
[00:02:04]  And that was before he posted the now infamous picture of himself as a supposed Red Cross medic with miraculous healing powers who happened to be dressed.
[00:02:13]  As Jesus Christ.
[00:02:15]  Like many of the unintended consequences of the war, the rows both divided his MAGA base and further alienated the US from its allies.
[00:02:22]  One notable critic is the Italian Premier Giorgio Maloney, previously a huge Trump fan, who said his attacks on Pope Leo were completely unacceptable.
[00:02:32]  And they are a polite version of the very words which sprung to my mind when pictures emerged of an IDF soldier attacking an icon of Christ during the Israeli assault on southern Lebanon.
[00:02:41]  It's remarkable that even needs to be said, but there's nothing holy about any aspect of the Iran war.
[00:02:47]  We'll debate all of this with an all star panel shortly.
[00:02:49]  But joining me first with a view from Italy is the former Italian Prime Minister and current Senator, Matteo Renzi.
[00:02:55]  Mr. Renzi, thank you very much indeed for joining me.
[00:02:58]  It's a pleasure, Chopriors.
[00:03:02]  So we had a situation a few months ago where it appeared that the current Italian Prime Minister, Giorgio Maloney, was extremely cordial with the President of the United States.
[00:03:12]  He spoke very highly of her in public.
[00:03:15]  But now we've seen a big split.
[00:03:18]  First, over the Iran war, and second, over the president's attacks on Pope Leo, of course, the first American pope.
[00:03:25]  Let's take the war first of all.
[00:03:27]  Obviously, Georgia Maloney is in line with most European leaders here.
[00:03:32]  What do you feel about the reaction of President Trump to Prime Minister Maloney in the context of her opposition to the war?
[00:03:42]  First of all, there are some problems in the Italian politics, not interested for you and for your audience, I suppose.
[00:03:51]  Georgia Maloney lost a constitutional referendum just one month ago.
[00:03:58]  And she had some problem because she exaggerated with the fiscal pressure.
[00:04:06]  She promised to reduce taxation and she increased.
[00:04:10]  That is an internal polity, internal issue, not very interesting for American people or for international people.
[00:04:16]  But that is the signal of weakness.
[00:04:19]  And when a leader, in this case, when Georgia Maloney became so Week, what happened?
[00:04:27]  She tried to stop her special relationship with President Trump.
[00:04:34]  Why?
[00:04:34]  Because President Trump gave not a very good advantage to alliance in the world.
[00:04:42]  Thinking about Canada, Canadian rights in Canada lost election after the victory of Trump because the people in Canada voted against Trump more than pro Mark Carney.
[00:04:57]  The same in Australia, the same in Groenlandia, the same in Hungary.
[00:05:01]  What means that Donald Trump today is not a plus in the international right, became a minus.
[00:05:08]  And Georgia Meloni, she's intelligent, she's not my best friend, but she's a very intelligent woman, she understood that.
[00:05:16]  She gave the message I don't want to be very close to President Trump.
[00:05:21]  Then the Iranian war, then the Pope Leo, then the oldest single issue.
[00:05:26]  But the problem is a political problem.
[00:05:29]  She worried about the friendship of President Trump.
[00:05:33]  And that is very interesting for the people who follow the politics.
[00:05:40]  But if you had still been prime minister of Italy, would you have endorsed and fully supported the American and Israeli strikes on Iran?
[00:05:49]  Because, like I said, most European countries have opposed it, many, including my own country, the United Kingdom, believing it to be illegal.
[00:05:59]  What would you have done had you been prime minister?
[00:06:03]  I'm a very serious man.
[00:06:05]  I was prime minister, and so I know when you are in the office at the desk, you have some information from the Secret Service, from intelligence.

=== Plan Zeta For Global War (02:42) ===

[00:06:14]  Which today is not in my hands.
[00:06:16]  So I cannot give a very clear and serious answer because I haven't access to the documents.
[00:06:24]  But I think that it is unacceptable to open a war without an idea about the conclusion.
[00:06:35]  Because everyone knows Ayatollah is one of the worst regimes around the world.
[00:06:41]  They killed a lot of children, guys, and for the last 47 years, they killed a lot of women.
[00:06:49]  And I think there is also a European responsibility if you come back to 1979 with the French left supported by Atolak Khomeini.
[00:06:58]  It's very interesting to study history.
[00:07:01]  That is not our topic.
[00:07:03]  If you ask me what is your reaction, in case you are at the desk, I don't know if I haven't the document.
[00:07:11]  But what is clear, Trump made a mistake and Netanyahu made a mistake with him.
[00:07:18]  If They don't prepare the day after.
[00:07:21]  That is the problem because you kill Khamenei, Ayatollah Khamenei.
[00:07:26]  Okay, he's not the best guy in the world.
[00:07:28]  He's not an angle.
[00:07:30]  But if you haven't the solution, because the plan B is you kill the number one, the number two, the number three, the number four, the number five of the regime, we don't know who today controls Iran.
[00:07:44]  Just two little, stupid, little examples.
[00:07:49]  First, the day in which the president of Iran Announced, okay, we stop the bomb our friends, our neighbors, means Saudi Arabia, means Qatar, means Emirates.
[00:08:03]  The president of Iran, not you, not myself, the president told officially from today we will stop to bomb our neighbors.
[00:08:11]  The day after, Pazdaran pushed the button and attacked Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Emirates.
[00:08:18]  What means there is not a control.
[00:08:22]  The president is not in control.
[00:08:24]  The same for the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:08:26]  The foreign minister announced we will reopen.
[00:08:29]  Then, no, it's not reopened.
[00:08:30]  What means that if you decide to open a war everywhere, not only in Iran, around the planet, you have to consider Plan A is this solution.
[00:08:44]  Plan B is this solution.
[00:08:45]  Plan C, I think now we are in Plan Zeta.
[00:08:48]  There is not a plan.
[00:08:49]  That is the problem.
[00:08:50]  Do not attack Ayatollah.
[00:08:53]  The problem is the lack of strategy.

=== Crisis Between Europe And USA (06:35) ===

[00:08:56]  To manage the situation and the risk, what is energy, particularly for Europe?
[00:09:02]  Because America, with shale gas, with the President Bush, with the President Obama fracking strategy, now America is under control in gas.
[00:09:11]  Europe, zero.
[00:09:13]  Our gas comes from LNG from Qatar, in part from USA and in part of Qatar.
[00:09:20]  And the gas from Qatar has to pass from the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:09:26]  We will have a problem in energy for the next decade, maybe not, for the next years, for sure.
[00:09:35]  Let's turn to Pope Leo because it's been very interesting to watch the way that he has stood up to a pretty ferocious onslaught from President Trump.
[00:09:46]  You're a Catholic.
[00:09:47]  Georgia Maloney has said that she considered Trump's comments about Pope Leo to be unacceptable and said that as the head of the Catholic Church, it was right and normal for the Pope to call for peace and to condemn every form of war.
[00:10:03]  Do you agree with Prime Minister Maloney about that?
[00:10:07]  I think everybody in Italy and in Europe, and I think a lot of people also in America, agrees with this statement.
[00:10:16]  Because, of course, the Pope is the Pope.
[00:10:19]  This is his job, it's the mission.
[00:10:21]  I'm Catholic, so I believe in the moral and religious role of the Pope.
[00:10:31]  And the Pope, the mission of the Pope, is to give the announcement about the gospel, is speaking about peace, human values.
[00:10:38]  That is the job of the Pope.
[00:10:40]  Pope.
[00:10:41]  I cannot believe President Trump won't become also the new Pope.
[00:10:47]  There is a great American today in the world.
[00:10:50]  There is a man who makes America great again.
[00:10:54]  It's not President Trump.
[00:10:55]  It's Pope Leo.
[00:10:56]  It's the Robert Prevost from Chicago, the real witness and hero and icon of the American dream today.
[00:11:07]  I don't understand why we have to attack also the Pope.
[00:11:11]  Please come on.
[00:11:12]  We have a global disorder everywhere.
[00:11:14]  We have a crisis between Europe and the USA.
[00:11:18]  We have a competition between the USA and China.
[00:11:21]  We have the war between Russia and Ukraine at the doors of Europe.
[00:11:25]  We have the chaos in the Middle East.
[00:11:27]  We have Africa with the extremists who attack the people, who kill the Christians, who fire the church.
[00:11:37]  We have a chaos everywhere in the South and Far East.
[00:11:40]  And President Trump.
[00:11:43]  Start with the world also with the Holy Father.
[00:11:46]  Please come on.
[00:11:47]  So I totally agree with the people who defend the Pope.
[00:11:51]  And you show a very interesting clip when the Pope explained, I haven't interest, I don't have interest to discuss with President Trump.
[00:12:04]  I prepare my speech to call for peace, to ask for peace, to work for peace.
[00:12:10]  Please come on.
[00:12:11]  My message, my goal is to announce the gospel.
[00:12:14]  So today is crazy.
[00:12:16]  And then Let me be very honest.
[00:12:18]  As a politician, I don't accept the invasion as a leader, political leader in the Catholic Church.
[00:12:27]  But as a man, as a Christian, I cannot accept this picture with Trump, who considers himself as Jesus Christ.
[00:12:38]  Please, this is not ridiculous, this is blasphemous.
[00:12:45]  The criticism of the Pope hasn't just come from President Trump.
[00:12:50]  There have been some high profile Jewish people, including Rabbi Shmouli and others, who say that the Pope has not done enough to condemn the Iranian regime.
[00:13:00]  And Rabbi Shmouli specifically compared the lack of condemnation of Iran's Ayatollah to the Vatican's silence on Adolf Hitler during World War II, asserting that he has reduced the papacy to a hallmark greeting card.
[00:13:17]  Now, as someone who's been a committed fascist, sorry, a committed anti fascist all of your life, what do you say to Jewish people who think that Pope Leo should be speaking out more against a regime as evil as the Iranian regime?
[00:13:36]  I'm a great friend of Jewish people, and when I was prime minister, I spoke in front of Knesset, the Israeli parliament, to give this message.
[00:13:49]  There is not A right of Israel to exist.
[00:13:53]  There is a duty of Israel to exist and to resist.
[00:13:58]  So I'm a great friend of Jewish people and the Israel State.
[00:14:03]  At the same time, exactly because I'm a friend, I have to say, totally refuse this consideration of Rav.
[00:14:16]  Why?
[00:14:16]  Because, frankly speaking, first of all, we can open a discussion about Nazis.
[00:14:23]  Regime 90 years ago, 80 years ago, and it's very interesting to understand how a lot of priests, Catholic priests, saved Jewish people.
[00:14:34]  I was mayor of Florence and I'm a witness of a lot of stories, very heroic and very great, about the relation between Catholic priests and Jewish.
[00:14:46]  But come back to today, come back to contemporary time.
[00:14:51]  I think, of course, we have to.
[00:14:54]  Support the Israeli state and the Jewish people when the regime of Iran gave the message to the proxy Houthi, Hezbollah, Hamas to attack Israel.
[00:15:09]  And we have to defend Israel with all our support.
[00:15:13]  At the same time, we cannot imagine if you have some criticism against a single initiative of Bibi Netanyahu's government that became an anti Semitism or anti Jewish decision.
[00:15:28]  I'm a great fan of the people of Israel.

=== Defending Israel Without Anti-Semitism (11:59) ===

[00:15:31]  There is a Latin expression, is that, amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas.
[00:15:37]  What means?
[00:15:38]  I'm a very good friend of you, but the truth is more important than friendship.
[00:15:44]  And so we have to speak frankly.
[00:15:47]  And the message is Pope Leo spoke every time in defending the people who suffered in Israel, in Iran.
[00:16:00]  In the rest of the world.
[00:16:01]  Don't attack the Pope.
[00:16:02]  It's stupid to attack the Pope.
[00:16:04]  And that is a great mistake of President Trump.
[00:16:08]  Matteo Renzi, the former Prime Minister of Italy, thank you very much indeed for joining me on Uncensored.
[00:16:13]  It's a great pleasure.
[00:16:14]  Ciao.
[00:16:15]  Well, let's turn to my panel now.
[00:16:17]  Majaha Ali, author of The Left Hook on Substack from The Ballwalk, commentator Tim Miller, and Pastor Doug Wilson, a senior minister and author of No Such Thing as Bad Words.
[00:16:26]  Michael Knowles will also be joining us imminently.
[00:16:29]  Well, welcome to all of you.
[00:16:30]  Pastor Doug Wilson, welcome to you, to Uncensored.
[00:16:34]  I've just interviewed the former Prime Minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi, who.
[00:16:39]  Said that President Trump had been blasphemous with the imagery he'd been posting about himself as Jesus Christ, and he angrily condemned Donald Trump's attack on Pope Leo.
[00:16:52]  What is your response to that?
[00:16:55]  I would, thanks for having me first.
[00:16:58]  I would divide my response into two categories.
[00:17:00]  One, I think that image was blasphemous, and I tweeted that fact.
[00:17:05]  I thought it ought to be printed on black velvet so we could call it blasphemous and tacky.
[00:17:11]  So it was not a good image.
[00:17:13]  No bueno, not defending it.
[00:17:15]  Glad the president took it down.
[00:17:17]  I'm glad he responded to criticism, albeit somewhat lamely.
[00:17:22]  He had a red robe, or he was robed not with a stethoscope.
[00:17:28]  So that was one thing.
[00:17:31]  The other thing was his scrape with the Pope.
[00:17:35]  I would put that in a different category.
[00:17:38]  The Pope was a Chicago lefty before he became Pope, and he is speaking bromides.
[00:17:45]  Inserting God into a geopolitical event while at the same time objecting to other people injecting God.
[00:17:54]  I'd just like to know what the rules are.
[00:17:57]  If Pete Hegseth tweets as though he were a believing Christian and the president tweets as though he's not a Christian, why are we upset at both?
[00:18:06]  What are the rules here?
[00:18:08]  And secondly, if Hegseth is a particular kind of Christian and he is speaking that way, he's speaking from his conviction with regard to the war, and the Pope is doing the same thing, a different Variation, a different stream of Christianity, but he's speaking to international relations and he's applying his understanding of the faith to it.
[00:18:30]  Well, why does he get to do that and other people don't?
[00:18:35]  Okay, well, Tim Miller, you're a Catholic, I believe, is that right?
[00:18:39]  Well, I'm a cradle Catholic.
[00:18:42]  Piers, we're all on a journey together.
[00:18:49]  I was just curious what you feel about the row between the Pope and the President.
[00:18:56]  Has what the Pope been saying crossed a line in terms of political commentary?
[00:19:01]  Or is he just being consistent to what most popes do, which is preach about peace and not war?
[00:19:08]  Yeah, I think that the people that think that the Pope has crossed a line, you know, have, you know, no memory or didn't start paying attention to the news or to the Pope before Donald Trump was around.
[00:19:20]  Pope Leo's comments are in line with what we've heard from popes going all the way back to Pope John Paul.
[00:19:26]  And Pope John Paul II opposed both Iraq wars, did so vocally.
[00:19:33]  And, you know, I don't recall George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush getting into a fight with the Pope.
[00:19:38]  Multiple popes have criticized.
[00:19:40]  Democratic leaders for their stances on abortion and other issues.
[00:19:44]  I don't remember Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi telling the Pope to shut his pie hole when he weighed in on the Catholic teaching on abortion.
[00:19:54]  Donald Trump wants to make everything about himself.
[00:19:57]  He wants to pick this fight because that's the only thing he knows how to do bully people and pick fights.
[00:20:04]  So it's kind of what we'd expect for Donald Trump.
[00:20:06]  It's a little confusing for JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism two seconds ago and then decided to write a book about his conversion.
[00:20:14]  To now come out and say that the Pope needs to be careful when he speaks about theology, as if JD Vance, who's been a Catholic for two minutes, knows more about Catholic doctrine and just war theory than the Pope.
[00:20:26]  I think probably he would benefit from listening to the Pope.
[00:20:28]  And yeah, I just don't know who is really buying that from him, from the vice president.
[00:20:35]  It's not as if he comments about how Donald Trump should be careful with his language ever.
[00:20:41]  JD Vance never criticizes Donald Trump, but now all of a sudden, he simultaneously went through this conversion.
[00:20:48]  To MAGA hood, where he's a Donald Trump acolyte and he went through a conversion to Catholicism at the same time.
[00:20:55]  It's just, it's very phony and it's very fake, and I don't think it's helping either of them politically.
[00:21:01]  Which are the fascinating thing to me?
[00:21:03]  I'm a Catholic, and so I don't really like seeing people trashing the Pope for just saying what a Pope is expected to say, I would argue, which is to preach peace, not war.
[00:21:13]  But what's interesting is the politics of this.
[00:21:16]  20% of Americans are Catholic, many of whom will have voted for Donald Trump.
[00:21:21]  And the latest NBC News poll showed that Pope Leo has a 34 point net favorability in his personal approval rating, Donald Trump minus 12.
[00:21:30]  Pope Leo is one of the most popular public figures.
[00:21:33]  In the United States.
[00:21:34]  He's the first American pope.
[00:21:35]  People like the guy.
[00:21:38]  And 42% of Americans view the pope favorably compared to 41% for Trump.
[00:21:44]  So there's no real upside here politically for Trump, which just begs the question why is he doing it?
[00:21:52]  Well, I actually went to an all boys Jesuit Catholic high school.
[00:21:54]  So if I may bring out a banger from the Bible because we have such a religious panel today.
[00:22:00]  This was Jesus' warning in Matthew 7, verse 15.
[00:22:04]  Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
[00:22:10]  That's for you, Pastor Wilson.
[00:22:11]  But speaking about the Pope, it's terrible politics, like you said.
[00:22:16]  First and foremost, this is the spiritual leader of over 1 billion people.
[00:22:19]  The Pope, just because he wears a costume and has a Pope mobile, Donald Trump thinks he's a politician who fights crime.
[00:22:25]  I think Donald Trump thinks the Pope is Batman.
[00:22:27]  No, it's a spiritual leader with immense significance for the world, and not just Catholics around the world, but a lot of religious communities.
[00:22:35]  And as such, Donald Trump picking a fight with Pope Leo, like you said, who is the most Popular American right now.
[00:22:41]  When all Americans are polled, the number one most popular American is Pope Leo, the first American Pope.
[00:22:47]  Donald Trump in this disastrous war has attacked the Pope eight times.
[00:22:51]  On Easter, the holiest day for Christians, which celebrates resurrection and rebirth, what did Donald Trump do?
[00:22:57]  A blasphemous tweet using profane language threatening genocide in this unwinnable war.
[00:23:02]  Then I think he converts to Islam, Pierce, to mock Muslims.
[00:23:06]  He says, Praise be to Allah.
[00:23:07]  He follows it up with more genocidal tweets.
[00:23:10]  Then a week later on Orthodox Easter, what does he do?
[00:23:13]  Mocks the Pope with his blasphemous image, the first commandment, thou shalt not worship any other gods before me.
[00:23:19]  Then he gaslights the world and says, It wasn't me as the Pope or God or Jesus.
[00:23:24]  No, no, I was just the Red Cross.
[00:23:25]  And everyone's like, Please, now you're lying to us.
[00:23:28]  But the Pope, meanwhile, is doing what the Pope always does.
[00:23:31]  The Pope is preaching the word of God, trying his best to live the life of Jesus.
[00:23:35]  Jesus, who, by the way, you know, healed the sick and the blind, didn't charge copay, who divided fish and loaves, gave it to people, didn't tell them to pull themselves up from the bootstrap.
[00:23:45]  And Donald Trump has Picked this fight with the Pope and says he needs to do more to fight crime.
[00:23:49]  It's terrible politics.
[00:23:51]  It's also blasphemous.
[00:23:53]  It is also terrible with his base.
[00:23:55]  You've seen Alex Jones now invoke the 25th Amendment, Candace Owens, Marjorie Taylor Greene.
[00:24:01]  You've seen videos now of MAGA saying, you know what?
[00:24:03]  This is a step too far.
[00:24:05]  It's just unnecessary vulgarity on top of an unpopular war.
[00:24:09]  I want to remind you all, he promised his base no more forever wars.
[00:24:13]  What does he do?
[00:24:14]  Lead us in this unwinnable war.
[00:24:16]  Oil prices are up.
[00:24:17]  Gas prices are up, fertilizer prices are up, and now we're in food shortages.
[00:24:21]  He promised to release the Epstein files, is doing a cover up.
[00:24:24]  He said he'll bring down inflation.
[00:24:26]  Now we're going to get worse inflation.
[00:24:27]  And to top it all off, Pierce, he is now attacking, like you said, the most popular political, not, excuse me, not political, but the most popular individual in America, Pope Leo, who is the spiritual leader of a billion Catholics.
[00:24:43]  On top of that, he has a war in Iran.
[00:24:45]  He's surrounded by all these, uh, Cosplay crusaders like Pete Hegseth insulting Muslims.
[00:24:51]  And if I can, to the pastor, real quick.
[00:24:54]  Well, Pete Hegseth is not the Pope.
[00:24:57]  Pete Hegseth is a Secretary of Defense in the United States of America.
[00:25:01]  Pete Hegseth should read the Constitution.
[00:25:03]  We have a separation of church and state.
[00:25:04]  Also, Pastor, I know Pete Hegseth is your star pupil.
[00:25:08]  Pete Hegseth, maybe you should read the Bible and not watch Pulp Fiction because Pete Hegseth embarrassed himself and just quoted Samuel L. Jackson from Ezekiel 25, 17.
[00:25:18]  So maybe when you get invited to the Pentagon, sit with Pete Hegseth, have him read the Bible and read the Constitution, and maybe he could just tattoo Ezekiel.
[00:25:28]  On his arm this time.
[00:25:30]  That's your failure, sir, as his teacher.
[00:25:34]  Yeah, nice try.
[00:25:35]  Well, Pastor Doug, your response to that?
[00:25:37]  Yeah, there are a multitude of things to respond to there.
[00:25:41]  First, to say that the Pope is simply talking about peace and love and all the things that a spiritual leader has to say.
[00:25:48]  The spiritual leader of that many professing Christians needs to do more than wave his hands over a geopolitical mess and speak in bromides and then back it off.
[00:26:00]  And say, I wasn't talking about President Trump in the clip that was shown at the beginning.
[00:26:07]  You can't just say, boys, boys, as though you have any kind of moral authority to speak to it.
[00:26:14]  Pope John Paul II did oppose the Iraq wars, as did I, right?
[00:26:19]  So that's one thing.
[00:26:22]  But Pope John Paul II was instrumental in the collapse of the Soviet Union.
[00:26:29]  He was no stranger to hardball politics.
[00:26:32]  He knew what he was doing.
[00:26:33]  He and Thatcher and Reagan had something that they were working on.
[00:26:37]  And so that's, it's a little bit simplistic.
[00:26:41]  Pope John Paul II was not speaking in bromides.
[00:26:45]  Francis was a bromide meister.
[00:26:50]  Pope Leo is speaking in all these sweetie nice categories.
[00:26:54]  And you can't say, and this is really important, you can't say, you quote Matthew 7 and say, that's for me, beware of people who are wolves in sheep's clothing.
[00:27:05]  And then point to the man who is dressed out in sheep's clothing.
[00:27:10]  The one thing we can say about Trump is that he's not a wolf in sheep's clothing.
[00:27:14]  If anything, he's a wolf in wolf's clothing, or quite possibly a sheep in wolf's clothing.
[00:27:21]  The Pope, who is doing all these, God is in favor of pussy, willows, and rainbows, that doesn't cut it.

=== Trump Not A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing (15:42) ===

[00:27:31]  The Iranian regime is a murderous regime.
[00:27:34]  There are legitimate objections to.
[00:27:36]  Pastor, if I may jump in, let me jump in.
[00:27:40]  I'm sorry, but it seems to me if you're going to compare the Pope's rhetoric in the last month with Donald Trump's rhetoric, one has been brazenly espousing genocide, talking about the end of civilization in Iran, which would mean the murder of 90 million people, the vast majority of civilians.
[00:28:01]  He was talking about the regime.
[00:28:02]  He was talking about civilians.
[00:28:03]  Well, he wasn't talking about the regime, was he?
[00:28:06]  He said the end of civilization, not the end of the regime.
[00:28:09]  Why do we try and pretend that Donald Trump didn't say what we heard him say?
[00:28:14]  Oh, look, you don't have to persuade me that Donald Trump's rhetoric can be all over the place.
[00:28:24]  His tweets there were an art of the unhinged deal.
[00:28:29]  He's dealing with a maniacal regime, and he is negotiating with them in public by means of these tweets.
[00:28:37]  That's not to say that I approve of everything he says or the way he says it, but I think I see what's going on.
[00:28:46]  You don't have to accuse him of genocide when he's done nothing of the kind.
[00:28:52]  No, but he threatened genocide.
[00:28:54]  I mean, for the president of the United States to actually post something on his social media account which threatened the end of civilization in Iran.
[00:29:02]  And then for supporters of the president, I've known him a long time, I get on very well with Donald Trump.
[00:29:08]  But the idea that anyone would try and spin the words the end of civilization to mean specifically the end of a regime of a few hundred thousand people, including the IRGC, is for the birds.
[00:29:20]  That's not what he said.
[00:29:21]  Why would you, as a pastor, Go out of your way to try and justify what he said by downgrading it to something we know he didn't say.
[00:29:31]  Because I'm not defending what he said.
[00:29:33]  I'm defending what he's doing.
[00:29:35]  Why the ceasefire?
[00:29:37]  If he's all about genocidal destruction of Iran, why the ceasefire?
[00:29:44]  Why did he hold off right before bombing the infrastructure?
[00:29:48]  I look at what he's doing, not what he's saying.
[00:29:52]  I think the problem, all right, the problem I have with what he's doing is that there's a lot of very confident.
[00:29:59]  Stuff coming out of Donald Trump at the moment about the war's over, the Iranians have agreed to everything, they're going to give up all their enriched uranium.
[00:30:08]  We've won, we've destroyed them, they're powerless, blah, The trouble is, the Iranians didn't get the same memo and don't appear to have agreed to any of this.
[00:30:18]  In fact, they've shut the Strait of Hormuz again.
[00:30:21]  Well, hang on, I'm just telling you what's happened.
[00:30:23]  We can see what's happened.
[00:30:25]  The reality of the situation is nothing like what President Trump has painted.
[00:30:29]  The Strait of Hormuz has been shut again.
[00:30:32]  The Iranians have discovered they can do that at will.
[00:30:36]  They're planning to go after this charge a toll to people so they'll make much more money from it than they did before this all started.
[00:30:43]  The regime remains in place.
[00:30:45]  The IRGC remain in control.
[00:30:47]  There is no uprising from the Iranian people.
[00:30:50]  So at the end of this, I am really struggling to see how this lives up to Donald Trump's statements that this war's been won, it's all over, the straits open, we're getting all the uranium and all these things.
[00:31:04]  None of that appears to be what the Iranians have agreed to.
[00:31:08]  All the contradictory statements coming out of Iran really just reveal nothing more than the fact that nobody knows who's in charge there.
[00:31:18]  Okay.
[00:31:19]  Let me bring Tim Miller in.
[00:31:20]  Tim, I mean, there's a lot of contradictory statements coming out of everywhere.
[00:31:26]  And I'm all for the fog of war and dealing with the enemy in a way that they may understand.
[00:31:31]  And look, nobody pretends Donald Trump is a conventional politician or president.
[00:31:35]  He's always used the power of incendiary rhetoric to get what he wants.
[00:31:39]  And sometimes he's been successful at doing it.
[00:31:41]  So maybe there is method to the madness.
[00:31:44]  Maybe this is the language the Iranians will understand.
[00:31:46]  And maybe in six months' time, we'll look at this as a piece of strategic genius.
[00:31:51]  But I've got to say right now, I'm not feeling that.
[00:31:54]  I'm feeling more that Donald Trump has got sucked into something.
[00:31:58]  I mean, as we came on air with this show today, he's put out a direct denunciation of the increasingly popular claim that he got bullied into this or talked into it, persuaded into it by the Israelis.
[00:32:12]  He said Israel never talked me into the war with Iran.
[00:32:16]  The results of October the 7th added to my lifelong opinion that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, did.
[00:32:22]  I watch and read the fake news pundits and polls in disbelief.
[00:32:26]  90% of what they say are lies and made up stories, blah, blah, blah.
[00:32:29]  But, you know, the mere fact he's felt compelled to say that, when we all read a big New York Times piece last week, which detailed in really quite extraordinary detail how Benjamin Netanyahu had sat in the Situation Room at the White House, laying out a sequence of events.
[00:32:45]  If America joined this and attacked and took out the Ayatollah and the top people, then you would see the IRGC.
[00:32:53]  Get slowly lose power, you'd see the people rise up and take it over.
[00:32:56]  The Strait of Hormuz would be an irrelevance, and so on.
[00:32:59]  Only the first bits happened, and that's the cold hard reality.
[00:33:04]  I'm of the view that Donald Trump has got into something he wants to get out, but he is not sure how to do that where it doesn't look like an abject failure.
[00:33:14]  The cold hard reality is that it's been six weeks.
[00:33:19]  Yeah, well, and things have gotten worse in six weeks past.
[00:33:22]  This is actually a question for Tim.
[00:33:23]  Sorry, Barbara.
[00:33:24]  I will come back to you, Barbara.
[00:33:26]  Worse for a rant.
[00:33:26]  Worse for a rant.
[00:33:27]  I mean, look, we were told it was going to be over in two to three weeks, two to three weeks ago, and it's not.
[00:33:34]  So, Tim.
[00:33:35]  Yeah.
[00:33:36]  Look, the Trump bleat about how Israel didn't push him into this is definitely a lady that doth protest too much moment.
[00:33:44]  The fact that he had to say that, I just think that we can all see reality with our eyes.
[00:33:49]  This is not to say that there's some secret cabal of Jews that are like, you know, Puppet mastering and manipulating Trump.
[00:33:57]  It's not to say that.
[00:33:57]  It's just to say that BB came into our situation room and made the case to him for this war.
[00:34:03]  And then a couple of weeks later, they got into the war.
[00:34:06]  That's just what happened.
[00:34:08]  I don't think that there's anyone out there who thinks that if Israel did not want this war, wasn't agitating for it, that Trump was going to go at it alone and do it on his own.
[00:34:17]  There's just no reason to think that that would have happened.
[00:34:20]  And a big part of why we shouldn't think that would happen is just listening to Donald Trump and JD Vance's own words.
[00:34:26]  Where they said that they weren't going to do this up until they changed their mind.
[00:34:29]  So, look, I just think that, you know, the quote unquote pastor we've got over here saying that we're only six weeks into this, like he has a very, he's very incoherent in his defense of this.
[00:34:40]  And I think it's probably a big challenge for you, Piers, to get people onto this show to defend this war because Trump is incoherent talking about it.
[00:34:47]  Every, any defender of this war sounds incoherent because we haven't got anything.
[00:34:51]  Like there's been no progress made and there was no case made for it.
[00:34:54]  And if you just look at, if you go back seven weeks and you just said to the American people, it's like, hey, Here's what things are going to look like in seven weeks from now.
[00:35:03]  The Strait of Hormuz will have been closed.
[00:35:05]  Energy prices are higher for everybody.
[00:35:07]  Critical energy infrastructure in Arab states are taken offline.
[00:35:10]  The UAE is coming to us to ask us for a loan now.
[00:35:13]  Over a dozen Americans are dead.
[00:35:14]  We have unknown how many Americans are wounded because they're not being honest with us.
[00:35:17]  Iranian citizens have been killed, including school children that we accidentally killed.
[00:35:22]  We've depleted our military materiel.
[00:35:24]  So that is the state of affairs.
[00:35:26]  And in exchange for that, what have we gotten?
[00:35:28]  We've moved from one hominid to another.
[00:35:31]  The IRGC is in more control, and Iran has lost some ships, and they've lost some of their missile capabilities.
[00:35:38]  Like, that's it.
[00:35:39]  Like, that's all we've gotten out of this.
[00:35:41]  Who would make that deal?
[00:35:42]  Like, if you made that pitch to people eight weeks ago, 3% of the American public would have been for that.
[00:35:48]  You know, the really strong Israel hawks maybe would have been for that, but no one else.
[00:35:52]  So they keep asking for this.
[00:35:54]  Well, the interesting thing.
[00:35:55]  Well, let me bring that up.
[00:35:58]  Pastor Doug, hang on.
[00:35:59]  Pastor Doug, before you respond, an NBC poll came out yesterday.
[00:36:04]  You know, over 60% of Americans are against this war.
[00:36:07]  One in four Republicans are against this war.
[00:36:10]  And there was a majority against it before when it first started.
[00:36:14]  But that has got entrenched and the numbers are getting worse.
[00:36:17]  Donald Trump's approval rating is falling to 37% now.
[00:36:22]  And people are fed up about the lack of attention to inflation and the cost of living, which will now inevitably spike up again because of this Iran war scenario.
[00:36:33]  A Republican side feels this is also a betrayal of President Trump's promises not to drag America into these kind of foreign wars, particularly in the Middle East.
[00:36:42]  So none of it makes coherent sense, as Tim says.
[00:36:45]  But I'm also wondering what you, as a Christian in America right now, on the one hand, you've got Donald Trump going to war with one of the most famous Christians in the world and the most popular Christian in America, which is the Pope.
[00:36:58]  But secondly, you've got this imagery coming out now from Lebanon of an IDF soldier literally desecrating.
[00:37:07]  An image of Jesus Christ, smashing it to the ground, breaking it.
[00:37:12]  Benjamin Netanyahu, highly unusual, I have to say, for stories of this nature, has not even tried to deny that this is true and has issued a sort of lengthy statement saying how stunned and saddened he was to learn that an IDF soldier damaged a Catholic religious icon in southern Lebanon.
[00:37:30]  I condemn the act in the strongest terms and so on, which is the right thing for him to say.
[00:37:35]  But if you're a Christian in America, Pastor Doug, What on earth are you beginning to think?
[00:37:40]  I mean, America is going all in with Israel against Iran, and here you have one of the IDF soldiers, part of the Israeli military, we keep being told the most moral army in the world, desecrating an icon of Jesus Christ.
[00:37:57]  What is happening here?
[00:37:59]  So I would say three quick things very quickly.
[00:38:01]  Number one is I would join with Netanyahu in condemning that kind of action.
[00:38:06]  That's awful.
[00:38:07]  You shouldn't do it.
[00:38:08]  Bad.
[00:38:10]  Just no excuses for it.
[00:38:12]  That's just not good.
[00:38:13]  All right, so I'm with Netanyahu against the IDF soldier who did that thing.
[00:38:18]  Secondly, if this war turns into something that is counted up in months instead of weeks, if this goes on like Iraq or like Afghanistan, if it turns into a forever war, I'm against it also.
[00:38:34]  I'm a no forever wars guy, all done with endless wars, especially in the Middle East.
[00:38:39]  I am in that camp, right?
[00:38:41]  So if Trump lands this and Brings everything home and everything's better in a short space of time, meaning weeks.
[00:38:51]  If that happens, then okay.
[00:38:53]  If it doesn't happen, then I'm against it too.
[00:38:56]  You can lump me in with some of those people that are objecting to it.
[00:38:59]  I'm there too.
[00:39:00]  Then, last thing, I've been a quote unquote pastor for just shy of 50 years.
[00:39:07]  And so I'd like to know how much longer I have to go before I become a real pastor.
[00:39:12]  Well, you have to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, probably, if you want to be a real pastor.
[00:39:16]  I mean, you can call yourself whatever you want, Doug.
[00:39:19]  I'm just going to call you Doug.
[00:39:20]  I'm kind of tired of you being called pastor, but, you know, I think we can afford him.
[00:39:24]  Look, you're out there.
[00:39:25]  We can afford him.
[00:39:26]  You hate everybody.
[00:39:27]  You attack black people, gay people, immigrants, Jews.
[00:39:31]  Like, all you do is spread hate.
[00:39:33]  Your book that you've got behind there is, you know, talking about how much you love bad words.
[00:39:38]  Look, if you want to teach, like, this kind of fake Christianity, that's fine.
[00:39:44]  You can do that.
[00:39:44]  You know, if you want.
[00:39:45]  No, I've not read your book.
[00:39:47]  Very happy to have not read your book.
[00:39:48]  But if you want to do this kind of vice signaling, Christianity, where we're going to be talking about.
[00:39:52]  Probably stop commenting on what it's about.
[00:39:54]  Well, I've seen enough of your material on social media that it doesn't really require any more.
[00:40:00]  I mean, it's not like there's a ton of deep thought that's going behind it that really requires further study.
[00:40:07]  No, I thought further study.
[00:40:09]  As the show started out, I thought we were supposed to refrain from attacking religious leaders.
[00:40:17]  Reaffirm the Pope.
[00:40:18]  You attacked the Pope.
[00:40:20]  Well, I have no problem.
[00:40:21]  Listen, real quick, Pastor.
[00:40:23]  I have no problem attacking wolves in sheep's clothing.
[00:40:27]  I have no problem attacking a man who wrote that American slavery was mutually harmonious between the slave master and the slave.
[00:40:34]  That's you.
[00:40:34]  I have no problem attacking a man who proudly says he wants to do away with the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
[00:40:40]  I have no problem attacking a man like yourself who sits here incoherently supporting an incoherent, unwinnable, illegal war in Iran.
[00:40:47]  I have no problem.
[00:40:47]  Attacking you, a man who is the religious leader of Pete Hegseth, a man who's a cosplay crusader who's leading some type of crusade.
[00:40:55]  Probably you put him on as a Secretary of Defense, getting Americans and innocent civilians killed.
[00:41:00]  I wish you would be a better Christian.
[00:41:01]  I wish you would open up the Bible.
[00:41:03]  I wish you would meet the Jesus that I met when I went to an all-boy Jesuit Catholic high school.
[00:41:07]  The Jesus that took care of the sick, that took care of the poor, that welcomed the immigrant, that welcomed the marginalized, that helped them.
[00:41:14]  But instead, you've used Jesus as a mascot for, I don't know, your.
[00:41:18]  White Christian supremacy, your cruelty, your misogyny.
[00:41:21]  And I'm so glad that people are finally waking up to your cruelty and to the idiocy of your star disciple, Pete Hegseth, who keeps messing up and literally does not read the Bible and quotes pulp fiction.
[00:41:33]  Just sit with them.
[00:41:34]  Maybe both of you could read the Constitution, read the Bible, and just take a break, Pastor.
[00:41:38]  Just take a break.
[00:41:39]  Yeah.
[00:41:40]  Who less?
[00:41:40]  All right, Pastor, your response.
[00:41:43]  Just incidentally, we know that Jesus was not a socialist because he could actually feed people.
[00:41:52]  Wonderful.
[00:41:53]  Great response.
[00:41:54]  That's what you got.
[00:41:56]  Man, Doug.
[00:41:58]  To be fair to the pastor, the pastor would have probably got a bit of support from Michael Knowles, but unfortunately, we can't find Michael Knowles, which is why he has a lot of support.
[00:42:07]  It's hard to find Dependence of the War, Pierce.
[00:42:09]  It's tough for you.
[00:42:10]  It's a really tough job.
[00:42:11]  It's supposed to be a debate show, but the war is so stupid that literally the only person who seems to be for it is Mark Levin, you know, and you can't have him on three times a week, you know, Life, Liberty, Levin, Micropenis, Mark.
[00:42:23]  But nobody else.
[00:42:24]  Can offer a coherent case for this war.
[00:42:26]  And so obviously Michael Knowles doesn't want to come on.
[00:42:29]  And you have Doug over here who's already basically saying he's going to be against it if it goes on much longer.
[00:42:35]  So it's challenging because the war is so stupid.
[00:42:38]  That's why it's challenging.
[00:42:40]  Well, I would say, Michael Knowles, hang on, Pastor.
[00:42:44]  Michael Knowles doesn't duck debates.
[00:42:46]  I think we've had a breakdown of communication.
[00:42:48]  We'll find out what happened.
[00:42:49]  It's a shame because I think he would have probably, the pastor does feel a bit on his own at the moment.
[00:42:53]  So I'm sorry about that, Pastor, but I will let you respond.
[00:42:57]  I'm curious, though.
[00:42:58]  But I'm curious, Pastor Doug, and I will call you by your title, you've got a further complication here where Paula White Cain, who's a senior personal advisor to the White House Faith Office, said on the Something Greater podcast the following.

=== Spiritual War On White House Grounds (15:43) ===

[00:43:14]  Take a look at this.
[00:43:16]  Wherever I go, God rules.
[00:43:19]  When I walk on White House grounds, God walks on White House grounds.
[00:43:23]  I had every right and authority to declare the White House as holy ground because I was standing there.
[00:43:30]  And where I stand is holy.
[00:43:37]  To say no to President Trump would be saying no to God.
[00:43:42]  And I won't do that.
[00:43:43]  We are in a spiritual war right now.
[00:43:45]  Let every demonic network that has aligned itself against the purpose, against the calling of President Trump, let it be broken.
[00:43:53]  Let it be torn down in the name of Jesus.
[00:43:55]  You want me to tell you what my thoughts are?
[00:43:57]  The thoughts of the King of Kings, the thoughts of the Lord of Lords.
[00:44:00]  I'm downloading heaven.
[00:44:03]  Wow.
[00:44:04]  Pastor Doug, it's probably no surprise that Donald Trump is posting images of himself as Jesus when he has one of his own senior faith advisors saying that to say no to President Trump would be saying no to God.
[00:44:17]  I presume you wouldn't agree with that.
[00:44:20]  I would not agree with that at all.
[00:44:22]  And just point to all the montage you just put together there as a wonderful set of evidences that she was a bad choice for that office.
[00:44:32]  Okay, fair enough.
[00:44:35]  Tim Miller, how big an issue?
[00:44:37]  Because the other fascinating subtext to all this is what is happening to Trump's former rock solid MAGA support, particularly in terms of the high profile people in my world, this world Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Meghan Kelly, Alex Jones.
[00:44:55]  Over the weekend, Trump called Tucker low IQ, Candace mentally ill, Meghan overrated, Alex Jones totally fried.
[00:45:02]  Here's how Jones replied.
[00:45:05]  Trump had a 56 approval rating eight months ago when Doge was roaring and Elon was there and all the rest of it.
[00:45:10]  Now he's got a 33.
[00:45:12]  He's lost 80% of his support in independence.
[00:45:14]  The Republicans are going to lose the midterms massively coming up in just seven months.
[00:45:18]  And even Susie Wallace has told him that and told the press, all this needs to stop.
[00:45:23]  But he doesn't care.
[00:45:24]  He is committing political suicide for our own movement, and he's turning against all the major pillars of the movement.
[00:45:35]  So, Tim Miller, I mean, it's a very interesting split that is occurring here.
[00:45:39]  I'm just, again, slightly baffled by Trump's strategy of just dumping all over all these people.
[00:45:44]  He did the same to Riley Gaines last week when she quite rightly said she didn't like the imagery of Jesus and so on.
[00:45:51]  No Christian should like the President of the United States doing that.
[00:45:54]  But he started lashing out at people who have been very supportive of him historically, recent historically.
[00:46:01]  What does that tell you about what is going on here?
[00:46:03]  And what does it mean for, say, the midterm elections and the 2028 election?
[00:46:09]  Yeah, well, I think I can explain what's going on here pretty simply.
[00:46:13]  And that is that Donald Trump has done a series of things as president that have caused backlash among his own voters and are starting now with the Iran war to negatively impact their lives.
[00:46:25]  I think folks were upset about the Epstein files cover up, of course.
[00:46:28]  That didn't really affect them personally, but they cared about that issue.
[00:46:32]  And then he, and when he did it, that caused, that kind of started the backlash among the mega base.
[00:46:36]  But now with this war, look, he didn't make the case for this war to anybody.
[00:46:40]  Including his own voters.
[00:46:42]  And a lot of people went and voted for him because they were under the impression that he was going to be opposed to this, that he was the candidate that was not going to get us into dumb Middle East wars, because that's what he told them.
[00:46:52]  And so you just have to put your head in, or, you know, put yourself in the mind of one of these voters who one day woke up, went to the gas station, and all of a sudden it cost 10 more bucks to fill up their tank.
[00:47:03]  And they're like, why?
[00:47:05]  I can't afford this.
[00:47:06]  You know, I'm going to have to tighten my belt in other places.
[00:47:08]  And like the answer that's being provided is, well, You know, we had to do this war in Iran because we have to degrade the number of ships that they have.
[00:47:15]  It's just like nobody can understand it.
[00:47:18]  It is nonsensical.
[00:47:19]  And so they're starting to get upset.
[00:47:21]  And so, you know, in the past, Donald Trump has been able to bully media members or members of the Republican Party who step out of line because the voters are with him.
[00:47:30]  You know, you just look at any in the past of any of the Republicans who have tried to criticize Trump and then Trump goes back at them harder and then they back off.
[00:47:39]  Like we've seen this a bunch.
[00:47:40]  Why has that worked every time?
[00:47:41]  Well, it's worked because the voters have been with Trump.
[00:47:43]  Every time.
[00:47:43]  Like the MAGA base was with Trump in these arguments.
[00:47:46]  The MAGA base isn't with him in the arguments anymore.
[00:47:49]  So the bullying doesn't work, right?
[00:47:51]  You know, if this was a case where, you know, if Trump attacked Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, their ratings went down, I don't, you know, who knows?
[00:47:58]  My guess is maybe they would modulate.
[00:48:00]  Maybe they'd start talking about something else.
[00:48:01]  Or if he started going after the Republicans on the Hill who criticized him and their voters had a backlash against them, then they would back down.
[00:48:09]  We've seen that a million times.
[00:48:11]  That's not happening this time because people are pissed.
[00:48:13]  Because the war is stupid, he didn't make a case for it, and they're being harmed.
[00:48:20]  I think that there is increasing.
[00:48:22]  Boston Douglas, you want to respond?
[00:48:24]  Yes.
[00:48:24]  I think there is increasing distance between what Trump's doing and the MAGA base.
[00:48:30]  But I think there's an even greater distance and a disconnect between the ostensible leaders of the MAGA base, the Candaces and so on, and the base.
[00:48:40]  In other words, everywhere I go, when I'm talking to conservative Christians on the ground, they are far more concerned about.
[00:48:47]  How Candace lost the bubble than how Trump has.
[00:48:51]  So, the sorts of things that you could turn the sound all the way off watching Candace and tell that she's lying, it's just really, really bad.
[00:49:01]  And the fact that there's a disconnect between Candace and the MAGA base, and I think Tucker has gone in a different, much more of a different direction than the MAGA base was.
[00:49:11]  And I believe the same thing is true of Megyn Kelly in her backing of Candace and all the outrageous things that they're saying about.
[00:49:20]  Erica Kirk and Turning Point USA.
[00:49:23]  Turning Point is still representative of the MAGA base, the rank and file.
[00:49:29]  And the people who have the big podcasts are not representing that base.
[00:49:35]  So, yes, there is a fracture between Trump and the podcast voices.
[00:49:41]  Yes, that is very true.
[00:49:43]  But I don't think the disconnect or the tension is nearly as great between Trump and, let's say, your average Turning Point attendee.
[00:49:53]  I think that's a very.
[00:49:54]  Probably.
[00:49:55]  That's probably right.
[00:49:56]  But we're trying to come to that finally.
[00:49:59]  Sure.
[00:50:00]  Say again.
[00:50:00]  If you saw that turning point conference with baby Catholic JD Vance, it was sparsely populated.
[00:50:04]  And in that turning point conference, filled with a lot of young Republicans, they trolled him specifically over the genocide in Israel and also over this war because this war is unwinnable.
[00:50:15]  The fact that they're fighting, I want to quote Ken Watanabe's character from Godzilla let them fight.
[00:50:20]  You're seeing a splintering, a fracturing, a big fracturing.
[00:50:23]  Candace Owens has a big chunk of the conservative audience.
[00:50:26]  So does Tucker.
[00:50:26]  So does Alex Jones.
[00:50:28]  So does Marjorie Taylor Greene.
[00:50:30]  So does Massey.
[00:50:31]  This is now coming together in a way that they're creating an America First movement away from Donald Trump.
[00:50:37]  Nick Fuentes said that MAGA is dead.
[00:50:39]  On top of that, Donald Trump has never gone more than 50%.
[00:50:42]  He's only gone 49%.
[00:50:44]  He can't afford to lose them.
[00:50:45]  So he's losing not just most people.
[00:50:47]  He's lost Latino voters who voted for him.
[00:50:49]  He's lost independents.
[00:50:50]  He's in the 20s with independents.
[00:50:52]  He's lost young voters.
[00:50:54]  He's never had the majority.
[00:50:55]  And now he's losing the MAGA base.
[00:50:57]  And why?
[00:50:58]  He has betrayed his own base.
[00:51:00]  He made the promise.
[00:51:01]  Look at you, Governor.
[00:51:02]  No forever war.
[00:51:02]  Look at you guys.
[00:51:03]  Iran war.
[00:51:04]  He said he'll release the Epstein files.
[00:51:06]  He's all over the Epstein files.
[00:51:08]  He has not reduced grocery prices because of this stupid, unwinnable war.
[00:51:12]  Oil prices have gone up.
[00:51:13]  Gas prices have gone up.
[00:51:15]  Grocery prices have gone up.
[00:51:16]  And now, Pierce, you're seeing, especially in Asia and Pacific, shortages fuel shortages, gas shortages, food shortages, prices for flights are going to go up, helium shortages, MRIs, data chips.
[00:51:30]  And we're going to face it in America.
[00:51:32]  And just the energy secretary came out today, Trump administration, and said we're going to have high gas prices leading up to 2027.
[00:51:40]  People voted for him because they believed his promise he would reduce prices.
[00:51:44]  He is failing across the board and he doesn't look well.
[00:51:48]  And now he's picked a fight with the Pope, the most popular figure in America right now and the religious leader of over a billion people.
[00:51:55]  And this war appears.
[00:51:57]  You know this and I know this.
[00:51:58]  There is a reason why no Democrat or Republican president in the past 47 years.
[00:52:04]  Got dog walked into this war by a Benjamin Netanyahu.
[00:52:07]  Because even they knew, even George W. Bush knew, a war in Iran would be disastrous.
[00:52:12]  It would be a quagmire.
[00:52:13]  We're about eight weeks in.
[00:52:15]  He cannot get out, Pierce.
[00:52:16]  He is stuck.
[00:52:17]  But his ego makes him double down on this failed war.
[00:52:21]  Everything's getting worse.
[00:52:22]  His base is finally fed up.
[00:52:28]  I just like how you guys are now appealing to authorities like Fuentes and Candace and Alex Jones.
[00:52:37]  Well, the war is so stupid that me and Candace finally agree on something.
[00:52:40]  I mean, you're correct.
[00:52:41]  She is a big liar.
[00:52:42]  I don't think that the First Lady of France has a dick, but we do agree that the war is that dumb.
[00:52:47]  Yeah, that's, that's, we're on the same page on that one thing.
[00:52:50]  80% of Americans.
[00:52:51]  There's certainly been, well, there's certainly an interesting fusion of people that I would never have thought would ever agree about anything going on.
[00:53:00]  Guys, thank you all very much indeed.
[00:53:01]  I'm sorry that Michael didn't join us.
[00:53:03]  That was, I think, some kind of communication breakdown, but we'll get him back next time.
[00:53:07]  Thank you all very much.
[00:53:08]  See you, Pierce.
[00:53:09]  Thank you.
[00:53:12]  Well, earlier this morning, President Trump told the New York Post that Vice President JD Vance and the U.S. delegation were on their way to Islamabad for a second round of talks on ending the Iran war.
[00:53:21]  He also told Fox News that a historic deal with Iran would be signed tonight after saying on Friday that Iran had agreed to everything.
[00:53:28]  As we speak, the White House is now saying that JD Vance and the U.S. delegation are leaving soon.
[00:53:34]  The Iranians, meanwhile, say they have no plans for any further talks.
[00:53:37]  Professor Mohammed Mirandi is a self described independent academic who nonetheless travelled with the Iranian delegation to the previous talks in Islamabad.
[00:53:45]  And he joins me now.
[00:53:46]  From Tehran.
[00:53:47]  Professor Morandi, welcome back to our censor.
[00:53:52]  Thank you very much for having me.
[00:53:55]  So, where are we here?
[00:53:57]  The President of the United States on Friday was pretty much bringing things to a conclusion.
[00:54:03]  He felt that Iran had agreed to most of the terms laid down, particularly giving up enriched uranium and so on, and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:54:13]  But as we sit here now for this conversation, it appears that they're not even going to turn up at the Peace talks.
[00:54:20]  What is your understanding on that, first of all?
[00:54:24]  Well, everything that he said was fake.
[00:54:27]  The Iranians agreed to nothing.
[00:54:30]  And he just puts out information on Truth Social.
[00:54:37]  And later on, he's possibly going to say that the Iranians promised everything and now they're not doing it.
[00:54:47]  And so we'll have to bomb Iran.
[00:54:49]  And then People like yourself and others in the Western media will continue to demonize Iran and to attack anyone who defends Iran, and we'll have another war.
[00:55:05]  How long can Iran sustain more warfare, and in particular, economic warfare involving the Strait of Hormuz?
[00:55:13]  I mean, if Iran can't get its energy out whilst also depriving other people of theirs, how long can it economically sustain that kind of thing?
[00:55:24]  Well, we do have to remember because Western media doesn't put it this way, but the United States and the Israeli regime started this war.
[00:55:33]  It was completely unprovoked.
[00:55:37]  And 3,300, 400 Iranians were murdered in this round.
[00:55:41]  And this is not even the first war.
[00:55:42]  This is the second war that they waged on us in less than, excuse me, in less than a year.
[00:55:50]  So if the Strait of Hormuz is closed, it's because First of all, it was never fully closed.
[00:55:56]  The Iranians closed it to a lot of the shipping, shipping by countries that were hosting U.S. bases.
[00:56:01]  And I think if you were in Iran's place, you did the same.
[00:56:05]  Those countries in the Persian Gulf that assisted the United States in waging war against the people in Kuwait, the Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain without them, the United States and Trump could not wage the war.
[00:56:18]  So their shipping obviously is not going to have priority.
[00:56:23]  But the strait wasn't fully closed.
[00:56:26]  The Iraqis were able to use it, the Iranians used it.
[00:56:28]  The Chinese used it.
[00:56:30]  Others who weren't waging war against Iran were using it.
[00:56:34]  But we had a ceasefire after Trump, at the beginning of the war, said that Iran must surrender, unconditional surrender.
[00:56:43]  And of course, that didn't happen.
[00:56:46]  And then ultimately, after almost 40 days, the United States accepted the Iranian 10 point plan as the framework for discussion.
[00:56:57]  And of course, Trump didn't do it in practice because he's always dishonest.
[00:57:02]  And so, as the Trump regime.
[00:57:04]  After that, we had a ceasefire.
[00:57:06]  In that ceasefire, Iran was supposed to open up the Strait of Hormuz to more ships, including those countries that host bases.
[00:57:14]  But the Israeli regime was supposed to adhere to the ceasefire, and they didn't.
[00:57:20]  And so for 10 days, Iran did not open the Strait of Hormuz to extra ships because Netanyahu was busy slaughtering people.
[00:57:28]  And then, when finally he was forced to accept the ceasefire, Trump, Iran said they're going to open up the Strait.
[00:57:36]  For extra shipping.
[00:57:37]  And then Trump said, but he's going to keep the siege on Iranian ports.
[00:57:42]  Well, that's a violation of the deal, too.
[00:57:44]  So if he's going to impose a siege, the Iranians are not going to open up the strait.
[00:57:49]  So from day one, when the West, when the United States carried out this aggression to the ceasefire and after the ceasefire, this crisis belongs to Trump and Netanyahu.
[00:58:04]  So what happens next?
[00:58:08]  Well, ultimately, Trump is going to have to recognize that he is not going to get at the negotiating table what he could not get on the battlefield.
[00:58:20]  He lost the war.
[00:58:22]  The Iranian people were able to stand up a joint war where the Trump regime, the Netanyahu regime, and a coalition or proxies in the region, along with them, were assisting them, and they failed.
[00:58:37]  So, why should Iran submit to the United States?
[00:58:40]  If the United States wants a peace agreement with Iran, then it has to be a balanced agreement.
[00:58:46]  But if Trump thinks that he can impose his will like an emperor and an imperial power, well, the revolution 47 years ago put an end to that.

=== Iran Lost The Battlefield War (05:45) ===

[00:58:57]  That's what the revolution was about.
[00:58:59]  And that's what the Iranians are going to continue to do.
[00:59:02]  They're going to preserve their dignity and sovereignty.
[00:59:04]  That's something that the United States, especially under Trump, is not used to seeing.
[00:59:09]  But Iran is different from other countries.
[00:59:13]  We had a bizarre situation last week where the Iranian president issued a statement supporting the Catholic Pope Leo over attacks made against him by President Trump.
[00:59:28]  And he said he condemned the insult to Your Excellency over the desecration of Jesus, the prophet of peace and brotherhood, is not acceptable to any free person.
[00:59:35]  I wish you glory by Allah.
[00:59:37]  Many people were taken aback by this because in the World Report of 2026, Iran Human Rights Watch specified that Christians.
[00:59:45]  Along with other religious minorities, face systemic discrimination in law and practice in Iran.
[00:59:52]  And there's a significant wave of arrests targeting Christian communities following regional conflicts in mid 2025, often based on unfounded accusations of connection with Israel.
[01:00:04]  So people are struggling to see why your president would be quite so vocal in his support of Catholics, given that backdrop.
[01:00:15]  Well, I think it was clear that you would find some way to support aggression and to demonize Iran because that's what you do.
[01:00:24]  And of course, that's fake.
[01:00:25]  We have many churches in Iran.
[01:00:27]  You refuse to travel to Iran.
[01:00:29]  I propose to you to come to the country.
[01:00:31]  You could go visit the churches and you could go visit the churches.
[01:00:34]  But you've refused to travel to London.
[01:00:35]  Come to London.
[01:00:36]  No problem.
[01:00:37]  I'll see you in London.
[01:00:38]  I've lived.
[01:00:39]  Well, right now, they're busy bombing us, they're busy destroying our country and murdering our people.
[01:00:45]  And I prefer to stay in Tehran under airstrikes.
[01:00:48]  To stand up for my people.
[01:00:50]  And I've been to your country before, but you've never been here.
[01:00:53]  I've been proposed that you read a book, Going to Tehran by Flint and Hillary Leverett, to learn a thing or two about Iran, but I'm pretty sure you didn't bother to buy it.
[01:01:02]  But in any case, the Christian community in Iran is doing very well.
[01:01:08]  They have MPs in parliament.
[01:01:10]  And unlike Christians in Lebanon, whose churches are being destroyed by the Israeli regime, and unlike The synagogue in Tehran, which was bombed by the Israeli regime, all Iranian churches and all Iranian synagogues are well protected by the people of Iran.
[01:01:32]  You don't want to say that.
[01:01:33]  You don't want to believe that because it goes against that narrative that you've built in your mind, and that actually it's the Iranians that are the good guys.
[01:01:41]  They're the ones who are the anti genocide people, and your governments are the pro genocide people.
[01:01:47]  It's been like that for the whole time.
[01:01:49]  Well, yeah, the reality is you always like to make this ad hominem as fast as you possibly can.
[01:01:55]  And you prop up and defend a regime that has for 47 years oppressed its people and been a provider of funds and arms to a number of terror groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
[01:02:08]  So, whilst I'll take moral lectures from some people, you wouldn't be top of my list for the morality lecture, Professor.
[01:02:16]  So, try and avoid the ad hominem all the time because it slightly devalues your information, which I do find useful about the Iranian perspective on what is happening with this war right now.
[01:02:27]  And just to be clear about What I said about Christians, I was quoting this from the Human Rights Watch in its World Report.
[01:02:35]  It wasn't my view, wasn't my information, wasn't my investigative work.
[01:02:39]  It was the Human Rights Watch.
[01:02:41]  You might have a problem with that.
[01:02:42]  You might say that it's all untrue.
[01:02:44]  But I'm quoting a reputable organization who says that your regime has been oppressing Christians.
[01:02:51]  You say otherwise.
[01:02:52]  People can make their own minds up.
[01:02:56]  I can only assume that if there were substantive peace talks that are about to happen imminently, you might be involved in a delegation.
[01:03:03]  Am I right to assume that?
[01:03:06]  Well, first, I have to respond.
[01:03:08]  I don't really want to lecture you because I don't think you're the sort of person who would ever change.
[01:03:13]  You're so narrow minded that you refuse to set foot at Iran.
[01:03:17]  And I'm sure you haven't read the book that I offered you to read.
[01:03:21]  It wasn't written by an Iranian or someone on the Iranian payroll.
[01:03:25]  It was written by two Americans, one of whom is Jewish.
[01:03:28]  But in any case, of course, I don't accept Human Rights Watch.
[01:03:34]  Go and look at where the funding comes from.
[01:03:37]  Iranian people know and respect the Christian community here.
[01:03:42]  If you go to any church in Tehran, if you go to any synagogue in Tehran, you see that there are no police officers there.
[01:03:49]  Why?
[01:03:50]  Because no one will ever think about threatening the Christian and Jewish community in Iran.
[01:03:57]  That same Jewish community is bombed by Israel.
[01:04:01]  Their synagogue is destroyed by Israel.
[01:04:04]  I haven't seen Human Rights Watch condemn that.
[01:04:06]  And it's because they're anti Zionists.
[01:04:09]  And the Christian community, by the way, had martyrs in this war because of the bombing.
[01:04:14]  And in Lebanon, they've murdered Christians.
[01:04:18]  And I'm pretty sure Human Rights Watch is not too troubled about the carpet bombing in Beirut, but we'll leave it at that.
[01:04:24]  But yes, I may go with the delegation.
[01:04:27]  They have not asked me to go if they do go.
[01:04:30]  Right now, the Iranians have not decided to go to Pakistan, to Islamabad, because of the behavior of Trump and the Trump regime.

=== Sanctioned Iranian Media Channels Banned (03:32) ===

[01:04:42]  So, we have a situation here where YouTube has terminated the channel belonging to Explosive Media, the pro Tehran group that got quite infamous for its Lego themed animations mocking President Trump and the U.S. war effort.
[01:04:56]  Let's take a look at some of their stuff to remind viewers.
[01:04:59]  I don't understand why you let.
[01:05:03]  The people down and make them feel so grand.
[01:05:16]  So, the Iranian government explicitly framed the ban as a violation of free expression, claiming the move was a deliberate attempt to suppress the truth and shield the American administration's false narrative from competing voices.
[01:05:34]  And as some people have pointed out, that's pretty rich coming from a regime that controls the press and kills protesters, and in your case, for example, makes you so supine to them.
[01:05:45]  That you dare not express any criticism of your government whatsoever, do you?
[01:05:52]  You don't?
[01:05:53]  Because I've invited you to, and you can't do it.
[01:05:57]  Oh, yes.
[01:05:57]  I live in fear of the government.
[01:05:59]  Absolutely.
[01:06:00]  And I'm supposed to, when I'm on your show for like 10 minutes and then you're attacking Iran throughout and saying all sorts of nonsense, I'm supposed to sing along with you?
[01:06:12]  No, of course not.
[01:06:13]  And by the way, my Instagram account was deleted, my Facebook account was deleted, and so was many of.
[01:06:20]  That of many of my colleagues and students, all of the Iranian media is sanctioned.
[01:06:25]  Everything, government, semi government, privately owned, that are major media outlets in Iran, they're all sanctioned.
[01:06:35]  So, and it's not just Iran, Lebanese, Yemeni, Iraqi, any media outlet that doesn't mimic the Western narrative, or at least try to live alongside it without much.
[01:06:54]  Criticism, it's banned.
[01:06:57]  And so, but that's why people in the West can't hear anything from Iran.
[01:07:01]  However, in Iran, all you have to do is turn on the TV, and you have hundreds of Persian language media outlets funded by Western governments that are beaming into our homes day and night.
[01:07:17]  Okay, can you, out of interest, can you name me a high profile comedy show in Iran that mocks the government in the same way that you have in America and the UK?
[01:07:29]  I don't know.
[01:07:30]  They're different programs.
[01:07:31]  I haven't watched television for years.
[01:07:34]  I haven't watched, I only watch the news maybe three or four times a week.
[01:07:38]  I'm only on one.
[01:07:40]  But you can, right now, people can search and underneath the comment section, people can put links to them.
[01:07:48]  But by the way, many of them are banned on YouTube.
[01:07:53]  I myself have many interviews on RT that have all disappeared.
[01:07:59]  My interviews on Press TV, they've all disappeared.
[01:08:03]  They're gone forever.
[01:08:04]  Well, the reason for that, I presume, is because you're perceived to be a propagandist for the Iranian regime.

=== Supremacist Speech And Censored Interviews (07:45) ===

[01:08:15]  Okay?
[01:08:16]  And I think I asked you last time the best way to test this is I can be very critical as I have been this morning on social media.
[01:08:25]  About my government and my prime minister, I've demanded that he resign, right?
[01:08:30]  I've done the same about President Trump when I disagree with him.
[01:08:33]  But could you, right now, speaking from Tehran on this show, can you think of one critical thing you would level at your leadership in Iran?
[01:08:43]  Just give me one criticism of them.
[01:08:45]  Everything, every day.
[01:08:46]  If you just come to, I invited you to come to Iran.
[01:08:50]  Press TV.
[01:08:51]  Give me one now.
[01:08:52]  Okay, I'll tell you.
[01:08:53]  Press TV has said they'll broadcast live a debate between you and me for hours.
[01:09:00]  Lies and lies.
[01:09:02]  That wasn't my question.
[01:09:03]  My question was give me one to prove that you do not live in a place which suppresses freedom of speech.
[01:09:12]  I'm just asking you, as a critically minded professor who presumably likes to explore all possibilities of thought and process, give me one criticism of your current regime, your current leadership.
[01:09:30]  Give me one.
[01:09:31]  Well, I agree with you.
[01:09:33]  The government in Iran has problems with inflation.
[01:09:36]  It has problems with crime.
[01:09:38]  It has problems with jobs.
[01:09:40]  It has problems with inflation.
[01:09:41]  It has all sorts of problems.
[01:09:43]  But my government does not help the Israeli regime carry out genocide.
[01:09:48]  And you, you have never said that you do not accept ethno supremacism.
[01:09:57]  Because if you say you don't, that means you do not accept the legitimacy of the Israeli regime.
[01:10:02]  Do you accept?
[01:10:03]  You have never accepted.
[01:10:05]  You have never accepted.
[01:10:06]  You, hang on.
[01:10:07]  You, do you reject ethno supremacism?
[01:10:11]  Do you believe that a regime that is based on ethno supremacism is illegitimate or not?
[01:10:19]  Well, I don't exactly know what you mean.
[01:10:21]  What do you mean?
[01:10:22]  Is a regime that is based on the concept of ethno supremacism legitimate or not?
[01:10:32]  Well, what I would repeat to you is what I've repeated to people about Israel for the last year.
[01:10:37]  The Israeli government, not the people of Israel or the country, but its current government under Bibi Netanyahu, has been doing a lot of things which I strongly disagree with.
[01:10:47]  Yeah?
[01:10:47]  Do you reject a regime that accepts, that carries out, A regime, not an administration, not a government, a regime that is based on ethno supremacism.
[01:11:02]  Well, I literally last week.
[01:11:04]  That is why Hezbollah dies.
[01:11:06]  That's why people in Hezbollah die and kill the people of Gaza.
[01:11:10]  Fine, if you let me answer.
[01:11:12]  Only last week, I attacked the Israeli government and Ben Gavir in particular for the way they brought in a new law which would only kill.
[01:11:24]  Palestinians who they deemed terrorists execute them with the death penalty, but not Israelis.
[01:11:29]  I thought that was outrageous and appalling, and probably an example of what you're talking about.
[01:11:35]  You know, if you were talking about apartheid South Africa like this, or if anyone was, you would be attacking them.
[01:11:40]  If anyone had given me the same answer when I said, Do you accept treating them as based on racial superiority or on racial preferences or hierarchy, you would have said, You would have said, You would have been totally aggressive.
[01:11:55]  And rejected it outright.
[01:11:57]  I literally just told you.
[01:11:58]  You didn't obviously watch it.
[01:12:00]  You obviously didn't watch it.
[01:12:01]  I've literally just told you.
[01:12:03]  I've literally just told you that last week I did exactly that.
[01:12:08]  That's a law.
[01:12:09]  I'm talking about the regime itself.
[01:12:11]  That law is only brought about because of the nature of the regime.
[01:12:15]  That's why people rape others, Palestinians, in prison and they're treated as heroes.
[01:12:20]  What about your regime?
[01:12:22]  That's why I'm not going to watch it.
[01:12:23]  My lovely regime.
[01:12:23]  You are a theocratic fascist.
[01:12:27]  Geocratic fascists who murder thousands of protesters for protesting against them.
[01:12:34]  What about that?
[01:12:34]  I know.
[01:12:35]  OK, let me get it.
[01:12:37]  First of all, you're hiding the fact that you could not answer this question by saying this.
[01:12:43]  However, I'm glad you raised this.
[01:12:45]  This nonsense was all created in order to justify this war.
[01:12:50]  Trump himself, just a couple of weeks ago, said that he sent weapons to the so-called protesters.
[01:12:56]  How is it possible if those protests were organic and they are spontaneous that they needed weapons?
[01:13:06]  How did he know who they were?
[01:13:08]  How did he know?
[01:13:09]  How many protesters did your regime kill?
[01:13:13]  How did he know?
[01:13:15]  How many did you kill?
[01:13:17]  How did he know that they even use weapons, that they could use weapons?
[01:13:20]  It was because he was organized.
[01:13:21]  How many of your protesters did your regime kill?
[01:13:25]  Because he was afraid.
[01:13:27]  You're afraid to accept the fact that he knew and his intelligence agency knew.
[01:13:32]  So, my simple question is how many?
[01:13:39]  How many thousands of protesters did your regime slaughter in January?
[01:13:47]  No peaceful protesters were slaughtered by the police.
[01:13:51]  In fact, that's absolute.
[01:13:53]  What a disgusting lie.
[01:13:55]  You are the disgusting lie.
[01:13:59]  You are the disgusting lie.
[01:14:00]  This is why people call you a stooge and propagandist for the regime.
[01:14:06]  Nothing to see here.
[01:14:06]  You are a stooge for the Zionist regime.
[01:14:08]  We did nothing wrong.
[01:14:10]  No peaceful protesters got killed.
[01:14:12]  You smirk as you say it.
[01:14:14]  No, no.
[01:14:15]  You're fabricating.
[01:14:17]  I said they did not massacre peaceful protesters.
[01:14:21]  The people that your government supported and gave weapons to, they carried out an armed insurrection.
[01:14:31]  3,117 people were killed, including hundreds of police officers and a couple of thousand innocent bystanders by people that your government armed.
[01:14:40]  Your governments armed these people, your governments murdered them.
[01:14:44]  But you want to distract attention away from your own crimes.
[01:14:48]  Just like you are not willing to say anything about ethno supremacism in Palestine.
[01:14:57]  Okay, we'll leave it there.
[01:15:00]  The truth is, people can see through it, Professor Moran.
[01:15:03]  I'm sure they can.
[01:15:06]  They know a government stooge and propagandist when they see and hear one.
[01:15:09]  And let the record show that you have not given your.
[01:15:13]  I'm in here at the table.
[01:15:16]  Let the record show that once again, you have not leveled.
[01:15:20]  You have not leveled any.
[01:15:22]  I was in charge of that.
[01:15:23]  You've not given, you've not leveled any criticism at your own regime once again because you're not allowed to.
[01:15:30]  Because if you did start criticizing your regime on this show and it got picked up by the media, they would probably kill you too.
[01:15:37]  And that's the reality of your existence as a government's dude.
[01:15:40]  Good luck with your ethno supremacist speech on your show.
[01:15:43]  Good luck with your ethno supremacist speech.
[01:15:45]  I can express myself freely and honestly.
[01:15:48]  You have to lie.
[01:15:49]  That's the difference.
[01:15:50]  But we'll leave it there.
[01:15:51]  Professor Morandi, thank you for rejoining me on Uncensored.
[01:15:57]  Thank you.

=== Reality Of Government Stooge Existence (00:24) ===

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