No Deal With Iran: Trump Orders Strait of Hormuz Blockade as Nuclear Talks Collapse and the Eric Swalwell Scandal Explodes
The latest episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz opens with a blunt reality: diplomacy with Iran has failed, and the consequences are immediate, global, and severe. After nearly twenty hours of negotiations in Islamabad, Iranian officials refused to relinquish their nuclear ambitions, crossing a red line President Donald J. Trump has drawn repeatedly and unequivocally. In response, the President ordered the United States Navy to begin a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most critical energy chokepoints in the world.
At the same time, a second political earthquake unfolded at home. Congressman Eric Swalwell, once a leading Democratic contender for governor of California, abruptly suspended his campaign amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and a rapidly expanding criminal investigation. The convergence of these two stories—one involving global security and nuclear deterrence, the other exposing political hypocrisy and media double standards—defined a consequential and wide‑ranging episode of Verdict.
Twenty Hours of Talks, One Non‑Negotiable Issue
According to Senator Ted Cruz, the administration entered negotiations with four clear red lines:
- No uranium enrichment
- Full surrender of already‑enriched uranium
- Reopening the Strait of Hormuz
- Ending Iran’s global sponsorship of terrorism
While Iranian negotiators were reportedly willing to agree to peripheral issues, they categorically refused to abandon their nuclear program. As the President later summarized publicly, none of the other concessions mattered if Iran insisted on retaining a path to nuclear weapons.
The talks, mediated by Pakistani leadership and led by J.D. Vance, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff, ultimately collapsed under that single point of refusal. The President’s response was swift and unmistakable.
The Strait of Hormuz Blockade: A Strategic Economic Hammer
President Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to interdict all ships entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, targeting Iran’s primary economic lifeline: oil exports. As Senator Cruz explains, Iran’s economy is overwhelmingly dependent on maritime oil shipments, most of which flow through the Strait and are sold—often illicitly—to China.
This action directly targets Iran’s so‑called “ghost fleet,” an armada of unmarked or falsely flagged tankers that expanded dramatically during the Biden administration when sanctions enforcement collapsed. Under President Trump’s first term, Iranian oil exports fell from roughly one million barrels per day to approximately three hundred thousand, starving the regime of revenue. Under President Biden, non‑enforcement allowed exports to surge to nearly two million barrels per day, injecting an estimated $80 billion into the Iranian regime—money Cruz argues funded Hamas and Hezbollah.
By blockading the Strait, the Trump administration is not merely enforcing sanctions—it is shutting down Iran’s ability to function as a petro‑state.
Global Consequences: Pressure on Iran, China, and Europe
The blockade’s ripple effects extend far beyond Tehran. China, the primary purchaser of Iranian oil, now faces supply disruption and strategic pressure. Europe, which Cruz sharply criticizes for refusing to stand with the United States during the conflict, is also exposed to energy instability.
Cruz contrasts Western Europe’s reluctance with the support shown by Middle Eastern allies such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain, as well as Eastern European nations historically wary of appeasing hostile regimes. The episode underscores a growing geopolitical realignment, with America’s traditional allies increasingly divided between those willing to confront threats and those paralyzed by internal political fears.
Defining Victory: Military Success, Nuclear Denial, and Regime Collapse
A central question raised during the episode is how this conflict ends—and what success actually looks like. Senator Cruz outlines a three‑part framework:
First, the near‑total destruction of Iran’s conventional military capabilities, including its navy, air force, missile infrastructure, and senior leadership. According to Cruz, this objec
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in his verdict with Center, Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson
with you Center. We've got a lot to talk about
that's happened over the weekend. The news was not sleeping
and sincom and the White House is now confirmed that
the US Navy is going to block ships entering and
exiting the Iranian ports, and that has nothing to do
with what's going on in California.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
With Eric Swallow on top.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Of that, well, we had twenty hours of negotiations in Pakistan,
and unsurprisingly, the Iranians were unwilling to move at all,
in particular on nuclear weapons. They want a nuclear weapon,
and I think they want a nuclear weapon because they
want to be able to use a nuclear weapon. And
President Trump, quite rightly is insisting, under no circumstances will
(00:44):
the regime of Iran be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
And so the President responded by ordering a blockade on
the Strait of Hormuz, shutting down every ship going into
and out of the strait. We're going to break that down.
We're going to talk about what that means for Iran,
what that means for America, what that means for China
and Europe, what's gonna happen next, and then we're gonna
(01:05):
talk about poor Eric Swalwell, who seems to be on
a train falling off a cliff on fire, exploding and
it's all self inflicted and and you know, schaden freud
is not a pretty sentiment. But but I guess people
(01:26):
will be forgiven for just kind of shaking their head
and saying, well, couldn't happen to a nicer guy?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, yeah, Fang Fang you thought was the worst, the
low Nope, it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
No, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Fang Fang was a high point for Eric Swalwell. He
is looking back to the halcyon glory days of Fang Fang.
He wishes that that's where he was today.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
We'll explain all of this story as it is continuing
to unfold as we speak. Plus he's running or was
running for governor. We're gonna explain that to you as well.
Before we get to that, though, there are still so
many people that are dealing with the fallout of this
war in Israel, and there are many needs for the
people at Israel right now, and so many of you
(02:15):
that listen to the show have been standing with those
people and getting involved with the incredible work that's being
done right now in Israel with IFCJ, I want to
take a moment and talk to you about a man
named Phineas who has a child survived the Holocaust. Phineas
survive because Christians hit him from the Nazis, risking everything
(02:37):
to save his life. Today, he is in his eighties,
he can no longer stand on his own or leave
his home to receive medical care, and when the siren
sounds and the missiles fall, he doesn't have time or
the strength to reach safety. But once again Christians are
helping save his life. Through the International Fellowship of Christians
(02:58):
and Jews, Noble Clinic brings doctors and medicine right inside
of his home, providing care he wouldn't receive, especially in wartime.
Christians saved my life during the Holocaust, he said, and
now again they're helping me. So as Israel's Holocaust Remembrance
Day approaches, we honor survivors like Phineas, not just with words,
(03:22):
but with action.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Give forty five.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Dollars right now and you can rush life saving essentials
to the vulnerable in Israel under fire. Eight at eight
four eight eight IFCJ that's eight eight eight four eight
eight IFCJ. Or go online to IFCJ dot org. That's
if CJ dot org. All right, so Centater, you wake
(03:47):
up Sunday and you get the news. The present's like,
all right, we had these twenty hours of talks. They're
not going well. We were about ninety five percent of
the way there. The only problem is that last five
percent dealt with the Ran getting nuclear weapons.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
We say, noted that.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And now the President is saying, we're gonna do this
BLOCKA with the Straight of Horn moves. They're not gonna
hold us or the rest of the world hostage anymore.
This is a very bold move. I want to get
your initial reaction to it.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Well, I have to say, none of this I think
is surprising. If you go back to our last pod
on Friday, we laid out that the President had drawn
a series of red lines. His red lines were number one,
Iran must have no enrichment whatsoever. Number two, Iran must
give up all of it's already enriched uranium. Number three,
(04:35):
Iran had to agree to completely open the Straight of
hor moves. And actually number four was Iran had to
stop funding terrorism across the globe. Those were the demands,
Those were the red lines. As you and I discussed
on the POD, I emphatically agree with all four of
those red lines. Those are the right things to insist upon.
The President asked JD. Vance and Jared Kushner and Steve
(04:57):
Whitkoff to go and negotiate, and so they went to Islamabad.
They negotiated with multiple officials from Iran that they had
Pakistan was hosting and was intermediating. Apparently the negotiations went
twenty hours. I got to say, it was not surprising
they didn't go anywhere. It was very interesting that JD.
(05:18):
Vance was the person asked to lead this, and that
JD has been the most vocal opponent of military action
against Iran, and so the fact that the President asked
him to lead it. I'm not sure what the thinking
was there, but it's an interesting statement. Here's what the
President put out. He put out a two lengthy truth
socials which sat as follows. Iran promised to open the
(05:43):
Strait of Hormuz and they knowingly failed to do so.
This caused anxiety, dislocation, and pain to many people and
countries throughout the world. They say they put minds in
the water, even though all of their navy and most
of their mind droppers had been completely blown up up.
They may have done so, but what shipowner would want
(06:03):
to take the chance. There is great dishonor and permanent
harm to the reputation of Iran and what's left of
their quote unquote leaders. But we are beyond all of that.
As they promised they better begin the process of getting
this international waterway open and fast. Every law in the
(06:25):
book is being violated by them. I have been fully
debriefed by Vice President J. D. Vance, Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff,
and Jared Kushner on the meeting that took place in
Islamabad through the kind and very competent leadership of Field
Marshal A. C. Munir and Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif of Pakistan.
They are very extraordinary men and continuously thank me for
(06:48):
saving thirty to fifty million lives in what would have
been a horrendous war with India. I always appreciate hearing
that the amount of humanity spoken of is incomprehensible. The
meeting with Iran began early in the morning, lasted throughout
the night, close to twenty hours. I could go into
great detail and talk about much that has been gotten,
(07:11):
but there is only one thing that matters, and this
isnt all caps. Iran is unwilling to give up its
nuclear ambitions. In many ways, the points that were agreed
to are better than us continuing our military operations to conclusion.
But all of those points don't matter compared to allowing
(07:32):
nuclear power to be in the hands of such volatile,
difficult and unpredictable people. My three representatives, as as all
of this time went by, became not surprisingly very friendly
and respectful of Iran's representatives, Mohammed Bager, galibaf Abbas Argachi
(07:54):
Al and Ali Bagheri. But that doesn't matter because they
were very unyielding as to the single most important issue.
And as I have always said right from the beginning
and many years ago, again in all caps, Iran will
never have a nuclear weapon. And then here's the second
(08:15):
truth socially sent. So there you have it. The meeting
went well, most points were agreed to, but the only
point that really mattered, nuclear was not effective. Immediately, the
United States Navy, the finest in the world, will begin
the process of blockading any and all ships trying to
(08:36):
enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz. At some point
we will reach on all being allowed to go in,
all being allowed to go out basis. But Iran has
not allowed that to happen by merely saying there may
be a mine out there somewhere that nobody knows about
but them. This is world extraor, and leaders of countries,
(09:02):
especially the United States of America, will never be extorted.
I have also instructed our navy to seek and interdict
every vessel in international waters that has paid a toll
to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will
have safe passage on the high seas. We will also
(09:23):
begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the straits.
Any Iranian who fires at US or at peaceful vessels
will be again in all caps blown to hell. Iran
knows better than anyone how to end this situation, which
has already devastated their country. Their navy is gone, their
(09:47):
air force is gone, their anti aircraft and radar are useless.
Kameni and most of their leaders are dead, all because
of their nuclear ambition. The blockade will begin shortly. Other
countries will be involved with this blockade. Iran will not
be allowed to profit off this illegal act of extortion.
(10:11):
They want money, and more importantly, they want nuclear additionally.
And at an appropriate moment, we are fully locked and
loaded and our military will finish up the little that
is left of Iran. President Donald J. Trump, those are remarkable, detailed,
(10:33):
and I think absolutely clear messages from the President of
the United States. And I got to say, if you're
an Iranian Mala, if you're the Ayatola, you are not
happy to read one word of that.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, And the President reiterated some of that as well
when he called in to Maria Barturam on Fox Sunday
on her show Sunday Futures. And the transparency here, I
do think is one of the things that I just
love about this president. And he said publicly the same
things that he's saying privately, and he's making it clear
(11:06):
that what they're doing is unacceptable. Now the question becomes
what's next. And this has also been part of the
politics of this. You know, Democrats really honed in and
obsessed over if Donald Trump hit the bridges and the
tunnels and then hit the power infrastructure, the electrical grid,
(11:27):
the power plants that they were going to declare that
he has committed war crimes. And by the way, we
talked about this on verdict, that's not true, it's not accurate.
But regardless, this does seem to be another I've exhausted
every mean, every measure possible before I go there. And
if he does this the way he's saying he's gonna
do it, this is just another example of the president
(11:49):
trying to give diplomacy but also having accountability at the
same time. You come to the meetings, you screw with
us for twenty hours, you won't agree, Fine, here's another
step forward.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Look, this is a massive hammer to the Iranian economy.
The vast majority of the revenue Iran takes in is
from selling their oil. They sell the bulk of that
oil to China. So this blockade shutting down all of
the shifts of ships, and there's an entire ghost fleet
that has been built up of ships that have been
(12:19):
taking Iranian oil to China. That ghost fleet will not
be able to travel through the Strait of Hormus, will
not be able to carry any Iranian oil. It means
there's going to be no Iranian oil being sold, no
money coming in. It also means. There have been reports
that China might be sending weapons to Iran. I don't
(12:40):
know if that's true or not, but by shutting down
the strait, it also means that there are gonna be
no incoming material to Iran through the Strait of Hormus.
That puts enormous pressure on Iran. Now, it also puts
a lot of pressure on China because they rely on
that oil from Iran. They're not going to be able
to get that oil from Ran anymore. And it puts
(13:01):
significant pressure on Europe, you know. I will say one
of the amazing things that has happened in this military
conflict is Europe has shown how much they have changed
and Western Europe look. Western Europe, I think is basically
on a suicide pact. They have brought in such a
massive Muslim immigration that the leaders in Western Europe are
(13:26):
terrified to stand up. Even against an Aahtola who is
screaming death to America, They're terrified to stand up. I'm
sure you've seen the meme online that shows Muslim countries
standing with America, and it lists every Arab country in
the Middle East, the Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain,
they're all standing with us, and then Muslim country is
(13:48):
opposing us. And you've got France and the United Kingdom
and Germany and Italy and Western Europe has not crowned
itself in glory. To put it mildly, Europe has look
Eastern Europe. You know. If you remember back when George W.
Bush was president, Don Don Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense
at the time, made a reference to Old Europe, meaning
(14:11):
Western Europe and New Europe, and he said Old Europe
is a lot less relevant than New Europe.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
The Eastern European countries that were under Soviet domination and
and that are eager to stand with America. One of
the most far reaching consequences of this military action the
fact that our European allies said, we want nothing to
do with America in this conflict. That's gonna have consequences,
(14:36):
that's gonna have real consequences for decades, and those consequences
are not good for Europe uh And and they're frankly
not good. They're not good for the world. It is unfortunate.
And I gotta say I was surprised to see even
Italy joining that that that that group saying no we
won't stand with America on this conflict. But the straight
(15:00):
of horror moves shutting down is going to put real
pressure on Europe, real massive pressure on Iran and very
significant pressure on China.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
You know, let's talk about the oil coming out of there,
because I don't think people understand how Iran gets their
oil out and these and these black ships that you
described it, when there are these, when there have been
these these you know, basically, hey, we're not going to
let your oil come out into the market this way,
and we're gonna and we're gonna put you know, all
these restrictions. You sell that a Venezuela had de done
(15:30):
this and others where they sell it in the black market,
they get a little less for it, but they find
a buyer. They put it in these ships that are
unmarked in essence, and they keep it and we all
know what's happening, and it's happening. Iran has operated in
that space for quite a long time, with with with
all of the sanctions that have been on them. But
as it was described to me by an old trader
(15:50):
that was talking to you as we were watching the Masters,
they said, you literally can decimate financially Iran. If you
if this actually happens, because this is the way, the
only way that they get a substantial amount of oil
out of the country. There's no way to put on
eighteen wheelers then get it out to in a big
way to Europe. There's no way to get it out
(16:11):
driving it somewhere. It's either this or nothing. And the
regime relies on these tankers twenty four to seven, moving
their currency, which is oil, and then turning that into
cash for them to keep their government propped up. If
you shut this down, he said, this is a country
that in essence, can go bankrupt in a very short
(16:32):
window of time.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Well, and let's back up a little little bit of
history on this. So at the beginning of the Trump administration,
Iran was selling roughly one million barrels a day of oil.
President Trump in the first term, there was a massive
battle within the Trump administration about whether to withdraw from
the Obama Iran nuclear deal. It was a disastrous deal.
(16:55):
Both State and Defense urged him not to withdraw from
the deal. I've vigorously urged the President to pull out.
I probably talked to him in the Oval Office on
Air Force one twenty or thirty times about pulling out
of the Iran nuclear deal. He agreed with me. He
overruled his own Secretary of State, his own Secretary Defense
(17:16):
in the first term he pulled out of the deal.
Once he pulled out of the deal, there were a
series of waivers that remained in place. There were seven
civilian nuclear waivers that allowed Iran to conduct what they
called quote civilian nuclear research with the Russians. It wasn't
civilian at all, but they claimed that it was. And
then there was an oil waiver that specifically allowed them
(17:38):
to sell oil. After President Trump pulled out of the
Iran nuclear deal, we had a second battle to end
the civilian nuclear waivers and to end the oil waiver
on both of those. Again, the State Department opposed ending
those waivers on both of those. I led the charge
to end those waivers. When it came to the oil waiver,
(18:00):
the Department of State and the Apartment of Energy had
a sharp disagreement. State said, if you end the oil waiver,
the price of oil will skyrocket, and that'll drive up
the price of gasoline at the pump. The Department of
Energy and Trump one, which you would think the Department
of Energy would know something about well. Energy said, no,
that's ridiculous. There's plenty of global supply. We could enforce
(18:23):
these sanctions and it's not going to materially affect the price.
I leaned in aggressively with the president and said end
the oil waivers. Again. He agreed with me, overruled State
yet again, and we now know who was right. The
Department of Energy was right and State was wrong because
when he ended the oil waivers, Iran's exports fell from
(18:43):
a million barrels a day to about three hundred thousand,
so they fell seventy percent. That was a massive blow
and so under Trump won. By the end of Trump won,
the Iranian economy was in free fall because down to
three hundred thousand barrels a day was starving them of cash.
Joe Biden came in and almost immediately just stopped enforcing
(19:07):
the sanctions.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
What did they happened? Anyway? They had don't forget that.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I went just everybody listening to remind them every time
that that Biden administration was challenged on the point you
just made. They said, we haven't lifted the sanctions. The
sanctions is so there. But it was very clear. What
they said was we just want to stay on paper.
There're sanctions, so you can't criticize us. They were not
enforcing the sanctions. That's the key point that Americans need
(19:32):
to understand, because the Biden deministration, they did it time
and time again for the podium. Jenzak can't remember say
we have not gotten rid of sanctions.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
That is a lie. That is not true. That's the
that's the right wing lying to you. And it was true.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
By the way, they had not gotten rid of sanctions.
They just said we're not going to enforce them, so
they're meaningless.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Well, they stopped enforcing them, and what they allowed to
grow was was this ghost fleet of ships, some four
hundred ships, some four hundred tankers, many of them flagged
under the flag of Panama. And when I've met with
the government of Panama multiple times, I've leaned on them
to stop flagging the ghost ship that is taking Iranian
oil to China. But the result of Biden not enforcing
(20:14):
the sanctions, Iran's oil experts grew. Exports grew from three
hundred thousand barrels a day to what do you think
they hit Under Joe Biden.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I'm going to go all the way back up to
a million two million.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
They doubled where they had the consequence of that going
from three hundred thousand barrels a day to two million
barrels a day was more than eighty billion dollars that
the Biden administration flowed into Iran. In a very real way,
the Biden administration, by non enforcing the oil sanctions, funded
(20:51):
Hamas and Hesbela because ninety percent of Hamas and Hesbelos
money comes from Iran, and that eighty billion dollars in
a real sense, paid for the death squads. On October seventh.
What President Trump is doing with this blockade is shutting
down the ghost fleet. That is incredibly potent. I don't
(21:13):
know what the resolution of this will be, but you're right,
it's an intermediate step. It is another way of inflicting
enormous leverage on Iran. It's not as significant as taking
out the power plants and the bridges, which the President
may still do. It also shuts down Iran. Was trying
(21:33):
to say, hey, we're going to charge a toll of
two million bucks a ship and suddenly make revenue. I
love that the President said, you know what, any ship
that pays that toll will not be allowed to traverse
the seas. And by the way, for sixty plus years
since World War Two, the seas have been free and
(21:53):
open and navigable because the United States protects the waterways.
It's the packs Americana that we have had in place,
and the President has said, you know what, we don't
have to enforce the waterways. We've done that for the
good of the world. It helps America, but it helps
the entire world. But we're certainly not going to do
it if Iran is sitting there extracting a toll on
(22:17):
every ship traveling through this waterway.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I want to ask you one of the questions about this.
I've been getting this question a lot, and it's the
question of, Okay, how's the president wine this thing down?
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Number one? Two?
Speaker 1 (22:31):
What is the definition of success? I answered it this way.
I said, there's two different definitions success. One is to
make sure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon. That
for me is the number one priority. I said, a
bonus obviously success barrier. The second tier for me would
be if the regime falls. There's a lot of conversations
(22:55):
of well, can democrats say the president failed if he
doesn't get at the regime to fall, but make sure
they don't get nuclear weapons, and then Democrats will use
that against us, and I might look as long as
they don't get a new clear weapon. That is the
ballgame for me, first and foremost. I would love for
the regime to fall, but that takes an extended amount
(23:17):
of time. Is that worth it to make that in
essence to new objective?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Now?
Speaker 1 (23:21):
The President said early on he wanted regime change. Yes,
doesn't mean exporting democracy. But explain to everyone listening, what
is your definition of success here? And is it both
now that both are one and the same, or is
it a two tier system?
Speaker 3 (23:38):
So let's be clear. Whatever happens, the Democrats and the
media are going to say President Trump failed. It doesn't matter.
On day one of this military conflict they said it's
a failure. Every day since then they said it's a failure.
They are rooting for it to fail. It is I
gotta say, I am so disappointed in my colleagues. It
used to be that politics ends at the water's edge.
(24:00):
They are now so filled with partisan hatred that they
are rooting against the American military. Sad in terms of success,
I'd say success is threefold. Number one is the military success,
taking out the ballistic missiles, the drones, the air force,
the air defenses, the Navy, the Ayatola, and the military leaders.
(24:20):
That is almost entirely achieved. The success of that has
been astonishing. It took a ran forty years to build
up its military, it took us thirty nine days to
utterly and completely destroy it. That is a massive victory
and that has essentially already been achieved. The second major
objective is the nuclear objective, no enrichment, handing over the
(24:46):
enriched uranium. I think that is incredibly important. President Trump
is right to insist on that red line, and he
should continue to insist on the red line. Now, the
question of regime change, the Trump administration had has been
very reluctant to use the words regime change. And there's
a reason for that, which is they're really nervous. After
(25:07):
the Iraq War. People are really leary. They don't want
to see another Iraq war. This is not Iran, is
not Iraq. There is zero chance that we are going
to see hundreds of thousands of US troops invading and
occupying for years to come. That's simply not in the cards.
(25:28):
President Trump's not going to order that that is not contemplated.
I am quite willing to use the words regime change,
and actually the way I've been putting it is regime collapse.
This is a regime that hates America, that is a
radical theocratic regime that for forty seven years has been
actively murdering Americans, funding terrorists who are murdering Americans, calling
(25:51):
for death to America. The reason they want nuclear weapons
is to murder Americans. And what I are to President
Trump at the outome set of this conflict is the
regime has never been weaker, and if we do not
take this opportunity to collapse this regime, we will regret
(26:11):
it for decades to come. I still think that is
an objective. Now will we achieve it? I don't know
that that's not an easy goal to achieve, but I
think we should be trying. It's one of the reasons
I have repeatedly been urging fund fund the protesters, fund,
the Kurds on the ground, fund, the Balachis fund. That
(26:33):
there are groups that are armed and trade. Look the courage,
the Peshmerga are are trained fighters and by the way, Turkey,
one of the reasons. One of the reasons against arming
the courgs is Turkey is arguing don't do it. You
know what, I don't give a damn what Turkey is
arguing it. That's very nice for Erduwan some other time.
(26:56):
I'll talk to you about in Trump one when Erduwan
came to Dee and met with President Trump in the
Oval Office, and the President had me and four other senators.
We were in about a two and a half hour,
three hour meeting with Erduwan. At the end of the day,
we ought to be arming rebel groups in Iran to
topple the regime. We're not going to send our sons
(27:16):
and daughters to bleed and die for it. But we
certainly should be assisting the Iranian people and getting these
lunatics out of power because Americans will be much much
safer without this regime and control of Iran.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
So for you to be clear, you would say regime
change is certainly something that you think is extremely important
in the way that you just described.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
It, Yes, it is a major objective. Now if it's not,
if we end up shutting down enrichment getting the enricheranium,
that is a massive victory. Look on the face of it,
taking out the military. What we've achieved. The goal the
Trump administration stated was goal number one, the military victories,
which we've achieved. Taking out the Ie Tolin the senior
(28:00):
leadership is a big, big deal. So we have already
achieved a massive victory to finish the job where the
President is focused is preventing a nuclear weapon. He has
right to do that, and I think we ought to
be using every lever point we have to try to
collapse this regime because that would be much better for
(28:21):
the Iranian people, but much much better for the American
people and our safety and security as well.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
No, you're absolutely right. It's gonna be very interesting to
see how this blockade works. We're gonna keep covering it
here and we'll keep you up to date on it.
I want to move on to this other story, the
headline that broke on Sunday evening, and I'm gonna read
this headline from CNN. Eric Swalwell ends campaign for California
governor after sexual misconduct allegations. He said Sunday he would
(28:47):
withdraw from the California governor's race in the wake of
allegations of sexual misconduct that led to a nearly immediate
campaign collapse as staffers quit on him, prominent Democratic supporters
now urging him to drop out. He then put out
a statement on x saying I am suspending my campaign
for governor to my family, staff, friends and supporters. I'm
(29:08):
deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past.
Then he says I will fight the serious false allegations
that have been made, but that's my fight, not a
campaigns after that, we found out even more about what's happening,
and that is the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has opened
(29:29):
a criminal investigation into sexual assault allegations. The key claim
is a former staff for alleged assault in twenty twenty four,
apparently New York, and another earlier incident in twenty nineteen.
Prosecutors are reportedly reviewing evidence asking for additional witnesses to
come forward, as the AP put it, and that is
(29:49):
the most serious legal exposure right now, because it could
lead to criminal charges. And then you have multiple sexual
miscontic allegations. At least four women have accused Swalwell of
miscut ranging from sexual assault, rape allegations, unwanted contact, sending
explicit images, and one a legend allegation claims the accuser
was too intoxicated to consent. He has denied all those allegations,
(30:14):
calling them false and politically motivated. What's even more shocking
is now I think it's fifty of his former staffers
have come out against him, saying he needs to resign
and basically defending one another saying he's a terrible guy.
There's two parts of the story center. One how the
hell the Democratic Party protect this guy for this long?
(30:36):
And two why are all the Democrats now turning against him.
It's because they're afraid they're going to lose the governor's
race in California.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Well, just a week ago, this guy was the front
runner among the Democrats to be the next governor of California.
I was actually in California this weekend. I spoke at
the California Republican Convention, So I was there when this
was breaking, and and and you could see, Uh, look
it was clear when when when this story broke, everyone
(31:05):
knew swal Whale's gubernatorial campaign was over the instant it broke. Uh,
the the breadth and volume of this this is not
just one allegation, it's multiple allegations. It's allegations of a
pattern of misconduct, a pattern of repeated sexual harassment of
multiple employees. One one staffer who was interviewed by CNN
(31:28):
alleged that twice she got very very drunk with him
and and that he had sex with her not only
without her consent, but over her vigorous resistance and objection.
If that is true, that is rape. Uh. That is
criminal conduct. That is criminal conduct for which anyone who
(31:48):
commits it should should be prosecuted and go to jail. Uh.
There are a number of points that are obviously Number one,
this was so widespread to see fifty Swallwell staffers come
out against him strongly suggest everybody knew. Now now, you
asked me right before we recorded this pod, did I
(32:10):
know this? Look To be honest, I don't hang out
with Democrat House members. I'm not particularly privy to the
gossip among Democrats.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Are true that you alienate yourself from Democratic radical house members,
I just from glad we cleared that up.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Those are not my peeps. So I have no idea
what the gossip was about this guy. But given how
widespread this is, that the allegations, I think it is
impossible that it was not common knowledge that there were
not a lot of Democrats who knew this guy was
doing this, that this was a pattern of conduct, And
(32:45):
that suggests that they all covered it up. They all
looked the other way. When he was an attack dog
attacking Republicans, attacking President Trump, attacking Brett Kavanaugh, they were
perfectly happy to have him be the attack dog. You're right.
What has changed is the Democrats are at a panic
because you've got multiple Democrats running for governor in California,
(33:07):
and you have two Republicans running for governor in California,
and California has this weird jungle primary where there's not
a Democrat primary and a Republican primary. Everyone runs on
the same ballot and the top two vote getters make
it to the general election. And so there was a possibility,
not a likelihood, but a possibility that the top two
(33:29):
vote getters could be the two Republicans. And I will
say for Democrats, their heads would explode if they went
to the general election and it were one hundred percent
certainty that the next governor of California was going to
be a Republican. But there were multiple polls that had
come out that showed the two Republicans as one and two.
And part of the reason is that you had multiple
(33:50):
Democrats splitting the vote, and you had Eric Swallwell and
Katie Porter, both a former House member and current House member,
slugging it out. You've also got Tom Steyer, the billionaire
who's spending millions and millions of dollars trying to buy
the nomination. And so you had Democrats splitting their votes.
(34:10):
That was helping the Republicans. And suddenly, I think Democrats
saw a partisan value to getting rid of Swallwell and
they took him out ruthlessly. Now, Ben, I want to
point to you the tell you can tell any Democrat
if they're just being a partisan hack by the following tell.
(34:35):
Are they calling for him to suspend his gubernatorial campaign?
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Yep?
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Or are they calling for him to resign from Congress.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yeah, it's just a goobertorial campaign, that's the tell.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
They don't want him to resign. No, no, no, don't
resign because look, Republicans barely have a two vote majority.
They want Swallwell there. They don't want to jeopardize their majority. Also,
they're perfectly happy to have a seri sexual harassmer even
a rapist as long as they get partisan advantage. Now
the momentum is shifting. It would not surprise me as
(35:09):
Swallowell is out of Congress by the end of the week,
because this is.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
In a lot of them you talk about the second tell.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
The other tell is those that are calling for and
to resign are saying, well, he's told resign, and a
Republican should also resign. That has allegations against him in
the Republican side, so they get rid of one of
the Republicans. And that's the only reason why they're saying
it now is well, I'll call for both of them
to resign.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Look, and by the way, I could see that potentially happening.
The Republican the facts around him are really pretty ugly.
He's not running for reelection because they are so ugly
and disturbing and and and so it would not shock
shock me to see both of them resign.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
And that's an outcome I could see the House getting to.
But it's been fascinating that virtually every Democrat who's come
out with this big bold statement, they've said suspend the
camp pain, but they haven't said resigned from Congress.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Now, yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how
this ends. But I think you are not far off.
I think they want to finish him off and be
done with him. And they knew all this and the
only reason why they defended him indefinitely. They pushed him
to be the guy in California and then they turned
on him when they realized that a Republican could win.
(36:23):
That is the only reason why we're hearing about any
of this.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
And also the media.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
You just want to talk about hypocrisy center the way
that the media, the liberal media, I mean, this was
on the morning shows that the meat, the press, the face,
the nations that whatever the hell the other one's called
like they were.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
CNN was wall to wall on this.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
They were covering it like it was a Republican who
had done something, but it was a Democrat war of
their own and they were like, yeah, we got to
get rid of him because if we don't get rid
of him, what happens next, well then the Republican can win.
So you know, who cares about the victims here? This
is all about the politics, As you described in a
moment ago.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
It is and I'll point out there is a second
Democrat house member, Shelia Churfleus McCormick of Florida, who should
also be expelled from Congress. She has the Ethics Committee,
which is bipartisan, declared her guilty on twenty five out
of twenty seven ethics charges from stealing up to five
(37:27):
million dollars of FEMA money. So she is likely going
to jail for stealing millions of taxpayer dollars. And yet
the Democrats are amazingly silent. You've got an alleged serial
sexual harasser and potentially even serial rapist, and an embezzler
(37:49):
and thief and their city. They're going, oh, we're great
having both of them there, because you know, partisan power
matters more than anything. And by the way, the press
on the coverage of of Trifilius McCormick, almost all the
press coverage there's actually very little coverage. But what little
there is, they almost all leave out that she's a Democrat.
(38:12):
They just that fact never mind, just nothing to see.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Here, just some random person in Congress. Yeah, that's how
it works. Don't forget. We do this show Monday, Wednesday
and Friday. Hit that subscriber auto download button. Please righte
us to five star review. It helps us reach more people,
and if you are a YouTube person you love watching
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(38:37):
the channel as well. As we are really making sure
we get a lot of video out there for you
guys and the Senate and I will see you back
here on Wednesday morning.
Welcome in his verdict with Center, Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson
with you Center. We've got a lot to talk about
that's happened over the weekend. The news was not sleeping
and sincom and the White House is now confirmed that
the US Navy is going to block ships entering and
exiting the Iranian ports, and that has nothing to do
with what's going on in California.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
With Eric Swallow on top.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Of that, well, we had twenty hours of negotiations in Pakistan,
and unsurprisingly, the Iranians were unwilling to move at all,
in particular on nuclear weapons. They want a nuclear weapon,
and I think they want a nuclear weapon because they
want to be able to use a nuclear weapon. And
President Trump, quite rightly is insisting, under no circumstances will
(00:44):
the regime of Iran be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
And so the President responded by ordering a blockade on
the Strait of Hormuz, shutting down every ship going into
and out of the strait. We're going to break that down.
We're going to talk about what that means for Iran,
what that means for America, what that means for China
and Europe, what's gonna happen next, and then we're gonna
(01:05):
talk about poor Eric Swalwell, who seems to be on
a train falling off a cliff on fire, exploding and
it's all self inflicted and and you know, schaden freud
is not a pretty sentiment. But but I guess people
(01:26):
will be forgiven for just kind of shaking their head
and saying, well, couldn't happen to a nicer guy?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, yeah, Fang Fang you thought was the worst, the
low Nope, it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
No, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Fang Fang was a high point for Eric Swalwell. He
is looking back to the halcyon glory days of Fang Fang.
He wishes that that's where he was today.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
We'll explain all of this story as it is continuing
to unfold as we speak. Plus he's running or was
running for governor. We're gonna explain that to you as well.
Before we get to that, though, there are still so
many people that are dealing with the fallout of this
war in Israel, and there are many needs for the
people at Israel right now, and so many of you
(02:15):
that listen to the show have been standing with those
people and getting involved with the incredible work that's being
done right now in Israel with IFCJ, I want to
take a moment and talk to you about a man
named Phineas who has a child survived the Holocaust. Phineas
survive because Christians hit him from the Nazis, risking everything
(02:37):
to save his life. Today, he is in his eighties,
he can no longer stand on his own or leave
his home to receive medical care, and when the siren
sounds and the missiles fall, he doesn't have time or
the strength to reach safety. But once again Christians are
helping save his life. Through the International Fellowship of Christians
(02:58):
and Jews, Noble Clinic brings doctors and medicine right inside
of his home, providing care he wouldn't receive, especially in wartime.
Christians saved my life during the Holocaust, he said, and
now again they're helping me. So as Israel's Holocaust Remembrance
Day approaches, we honor survivors like Phineas, not just with words,
(03:22):
but with action.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Give forty five.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Dollars right now and you can rush life saving essentials
to the vulnerable in Israel under fire. Eight at eight
four eight eight IFCJ that's eight eight eight four eight
eight IFCJ. Or go online to IFCJ dot org. That's
if CJ dot org. All right, so Centater, you wake
(03:47):
up Sunday and you get the news. The present's like,
all right, we had these twenty hours of talks. They're
not going well. We were about ninety five percent of
the way there. The only problem is that last five
percent dealt with the Ran getting nuclear weapons.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
We say, noted that.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And now the President is saying, we're gonna do this
BLOCKA with the Straight of Horn moves. They're not gonna
hold us or the rest of the world hostage anymore.
This is a very bold move. I want to get
your initial reaction to it.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Well, I have to say, none of this I think
is surprising. If you go back to our last pod
on Friday, we laid out that the President had drawn
a series of red lines. His red lines were number one,
Iran must have no enrichment whatsoever. Number two, Iran must
give up all of it's already enriched uranium. Number three,
(04:35):
Iran had to agree to completely open the Straight of
hor moves. And actually number four was Iran had to
stop funding terrorism across the globe. Those were the demands,
Those were the red lines. As you and I discussed
on the POD, I emphatically agree with all four of
those red lines. Those are the right things to insist upon.
The President asked JD. Vance and Jared Kushner and Steve
(04:57):
Whitkoff to go and negotiate, and so they went to Islamabad.
They negotiated with multiple officials from Iran that they had
Pakistan was hosting and was intermediating. Apparently the negotiations went
twenty hours. I got to say, it was not surprising
they didn't go anywhere. It was very interesting that JD.
(05:18):
Vance was the person asked to lead this, and that
JD has been the most vocal opponent of military action
against Iran, and so the fact that the President asked
him to lead it. I'm not sure what the thinking
was there, but it's an interesting statement. Here's what the
President put out. He put out a two lengthy truth
socials which sat as follows. Iran promised to open the
(05:43):
Strait of Hormuz and they knowingly failed to do so.
This caused anxiety, dislocation, and pain to many people and
countries throughout the world. They say they put minds in
the water, even though all of their navy and most
of their mind droppers had been completely blown up up.
They may have done so, but what shipowner would want
(06:03):
to take the chance. There is great dishonor and permanent
harm to the reputation of Iran and what's left of
their quote unquote leaders. But we are beyond all of that.
As they promised they better begin the process of getting
this international waterway open and fast. Every law in the
(06:25):
book is being violated by them. I have been fully
debriefed by Vice President J. D. Vance, Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff,
and Jared Kushner on the meeting that took place in
Islamabad through the kind and very competent leadership of Field
Marshal A. C. Munir and Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif of Pakistan.
They are very extraordinary men and continuously thank me for
(06:48):
saving thirty to fifty million lives in what would have
been a horrendous war with India. I always appreciate hearing
that the amount of humanity spoken of is incomprehensible. The
meeting with Iran began early in the morning, lasted throughout
the night, close to twenty hours. I could go into
great detail and talk about much that has been gotten,
(07:11):
but there is only one thing that matters, and this
isnt all caps. Iran is unwilling to give up its
nuclear ambitions. In many ways, the points that were agreed
to are better than us continuing our military operations to conclusion.
But all of those points don't matter compared to allowing
(07:32):
nuclear power to be in the hands of such volatile,
difficult and unpredictable people. My three representatives, as as all
of this time went by, became not surprisingly very friendly
and respectful of Iran's representatives, Mohammed Bager, galibaf Abbas Argachi
(07:54):
Al and Ali Bagheri. But that doesn't matter because they
were very unyielding as to the single most important issue.
And as I have always said right from the beginning
and many years ago, again in all caps, Iran will
never have a nuclear weapon. And then here's the second
(08:15):
truth socially sent. So there you have it. The meeting
went well, most points were agreed to, but the only
point that really mattered, nuclear was not effective. Immediately, the
United States Navy, the finest in the world, will begin
the process of blockading any and all ships trying to
(08:36):
enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz. At some point
we will reach on all being allowed to go in,
all being allowed to go out basis. But Iran has
not allowed that to happen by merely saying there may
be a mine out there somewhere that nobody knows about
but them. This is world extraor, and leaders of countries,
(09:02):
especially the United States of America, will never be extorted.
I have also instructed our navy to seek and interdict
every vessel in international waters that has paid a toll
to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will
have safe passage on the high seas. We will also
(09:23):
begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the straits.
Any Iranian who fires at US or at peaceful vessels
will be again in all caps blown to hell. Iran
knows better than anyone how to end this situation, which
has already devastated their country. Their navy is gone, their
(09:47):
air force is gone, their anti aircraft and radar are useless.
Kameni and most of their leaders are dead, all because
of their nuclear ambition. The blockade will begin shortly. Other
countries will be involved with this blockade. Iran will not
be allowed to profit off this illegal act of extortion.
(10:11):
They want money, and more importantly, they want nuclear additionally.
And at an appropriate moment, we are fully locked and
loaded and our military will finish up the little that
is left of Iran. President Donald J. Trump, those are remarkable, detailed,
(10:33):
and I think absolutely clear messages from the President of
the United States. And I got to say, if you're
an Iranian Mala, if you're the Ayatola, you are not
happy to read one word of that.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, And the President reiterated some of that as well
when he called in to Maria Barturam on Fox Sunday
on her show Sunday Futures. And the transparency here, I
do think is one of the things that I just
love about this president. And he said publicly the same
things that he's saying privately, and he's making it clear
(11:06):
that what they're doing is unacceptable. Now the question becomes
what's next. And this has also been part of the
politics of this. You know, Democrats really honed in and
obsessed over if Donald Trump hit the bridges and the
tunnels and then hit the power infrastructure, the electrical grid,
(11:27):
the power plants that they were going to declare that
he has committed war crimes. And by the way, we
talked about this on verdict, that's not true, it's not accurate.
But regardless, this does seem to be another I've exhausted
every mean, every measure possible before I go there. And
if he does this the way he's saying he's gonna
do it, this is just another example of the president
(11:49):
trying to give diplomacy but also having accountability at the
same time. You come to the meetings, you screw with
us for twenty hours, you won't agree, Fine, here's another
step forward.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Look, this is a massive hammer to the Iranian economy.
The vast majority of the revenue Iran takes in is
from selling their oil. They sell the bulk of that
oil to China. So this blockade shutting down all of
the shifts of ships, and there's an entire ghost fleet
that has been built up of ships that have been
(12:19):
taking Iranian oil to China. That ghost fleet will not
be able to travel through the Strait of Hormus, will
not be able to carry any Iranian oil. It means
there's going to be no Iranian oil being sold, no
money coming in. It also means. There have been reports
that China might be sending weapons to Iran. I don't
(12:40):
know if that's true or not, but by shutting down
the strait, it also means that there are gonna be
no incoming material to Iran through the Strait of Hormus.
That puts enormous pressure on Iran. Now, it also puts
a lot of pressure on China because they rely on
that oil from Iran. They're not going to be able
to get that oil from Ran anymore. And it puts
(13:01):
significant pressure on Europe, you know. I will say one
of the amazing things that has happened in this military
conflict is Europe has shown how much they have changed
and Western Europe look. Western Europe, I think is basically
on a suicide pact. They have brought in such a
massive Muslim immigration that the leaders in Western Europe are
(13:26):
terrified to stand up. Even against an Aahtola who is
screaming death to America, They're terrified to stand up. I'm
sure you've seen the meme online that shows Muslim countries
standing with America, and it lists every Arab country in
the Middle East, the Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain,
they're all standing with us, and then Muslim country is
(13:48):
opposing us. And you've got France and the United Kingdom
and Germany and Italy and Western Europe has not crowned
itself in glory. To put it mildly, Europe has look
Eastern Europe. You know. If you remember back when George W.
Bush was president, Don Don Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense
at the time, made a reference to Old Europe, meaning
(14:11):
Western Europe and New Europe, and he said Old Europe
is a lot less relevant than New Europe.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
The Eastern European countries that were under Soviet domination and
and that are eager to stand with America. One of
the most far reaching consequences of this military action the
fact that our European allies said, we want nothing to
do with America in this conflict. That's gonna have consequences,
(14:36):
that's gonna have real consequences for decades, and those consequences
are not good for Europe uh And and they're frankly
not good. They're not good for the world. It is unfortunate.
And I gotta say I was surprised to see even
Italy joining that that that that group saying no we
won't stand with America on this conflict. But the straight
(15:00):
of horror moves shutting down is going to put real
pressure on Europe, real massive pressure on Iran and very
significant pressure on China.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
You know, let's talk about the oil coming out of there,
because I don't think people understand how Iran gets their
oil out and these and these black ships that you
described it, when there are these, when there have been
these these you know, basically, hey, we're not going to
let your oil come out into the market this way,
and we're gonna and we're gonna put you know, all
these restrictions. You sell that a Venezuela had de done
(15:30):
this and others where they sell it in the black market,
they get a little less for it, but they find
a buyer. They put it in these ships that are
unmarked in essence, and they keep it and we all
know what's happening, and it's happening. Iran has operated in
that space for quite a long time, with with with
all of the sanctions that have been on them. But
as it was described to me by an old trader
(15:50):
that was talking to you as we were watching the Masters,
they said, you literally can decimate financially Iran. If you
if this actually happens, because this is the way, the
only way that they get a substantial amount of oil
out of the country. There's no way to put on
eighteen wheelers then get it out to in a big
way to Europe. There's no way to get it out
(16:11):
driving it somewhere. It's either this or nothing. And the
regime relies on these tankers twenty four to seven, moving
their currency, which is oil, and then turning that into
cash for them to keep their government propped up. If
you shut this down, he said, this is a country
that in essence, can go bankrupt in a very short
(16:32):
window of time.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Well, and let's back up a little little bit of
history on this. So at the beginning of the Trump administration,
Iran was selling roughly one million barrels a day of oil.
President Trump in the first term, there was a massive
battle within the Trump administration about whether to withdraw from
the Obama Iran nuclear deal. It was a disastrous deal.
(16:55):
Both State and Defense urged him not to withdraw from
the deal. I've vigorously urged the President to pull out.
I probably talked to him in the Oval Office on
Air Force one twenty or thirty times about pulling out
of the Iran nuclear deal. He agreed with me. He
overruled his own Secretary of State, his own Secretary Defense
(17:16):
in the first term he pulled out of the deal.
Once he pulled out of the deal, there were a
series of waivers that remained in place. There were seven
civilian nuclear waivers that allowed Iran to conduct what they
called quote civilian nuclear research with the Russians. It wasn't
civilian at all, but they claimed that it was. And
then there was an oil waiver that specifically allowed them
(17:38):
to sell oil. After President Trump pulled out of the
Iran nuclear deal, we had a second battle to end
the civilian nuclear waivers and to end the oil waiver
on both of those. Again, the State Department opposed ending
those waivers on both of those. I led the charge
to end those waivers. When it came to the oil waiver,
(18:00):
the Department of State and the Apartment of Energy had
a sharp disagreement. State said, if you end the oil waiver,
the price of oil will skyrocket, and that'll drive up
the price of gasoline at the pump. The Department of
Energy and Trump one, which you would think the Department
of Energy would know something about well. Energy said, no,
that's ridiculous. There's plenty of global supply. We could enforce
(18:23):
these sanctions and it's not going to materially affect the price.
I leaned in aggressively with the president and said end
the oil waivers. Again. He agreed with me, overruled State
yet again, and we now know who was right. The
Department of Energy was right and State was wrong because
when he ended the oil waivers, Iran's exports fell from
(18:43):
a million barrels a day to about three hundred thousand,
so they fell seventy percent. That was a massive blow
and so under Trump won. By the end of Trump won,
the Iranian economy was in free fall because down to
three hundred thousand barrels a day was starving them of cash.
Joe Biden came in and almost immediately just stopped enforcing
(19:07):
the sanctions.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
What did they happened? Anyway? They had don't forget that.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I went just everybody listening to remind them every time
that that Biden administration was challenged on the point you
just made. They said, we haven't lifted the sanctions. The
sanctions is so there. But it was very clear. What
they said was we just want to stay on paper.
There're sanctions, so you can't criticize us. They were not
enforcing the sanctions. That's the key point that Americans need
(19:32):
to understand, because the Biden deministration, they did it time
and time again for the podium. Jenzak can't remember say
we have not gotten rid of sanctions.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
That is a lie. That is not true. That's the
that's the right wing lying to you. And it was true.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
By the way, they had not gotten rid of sanctions.
They just said we're not going to enforce them, so
they're meaningless.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Well, they stopped enforcing them, and what they allowed to
grow was was this ghost fleet of ships, some four
hundred ships, some four hundred tankers, many of them flagged
under the flag of Panama. And when I've met with
the government of Panama multiple times, I've leaned on them
to stop flagging the ghost ship that is taking Iranian
oil to China. But the result of Biden not enforcing
(20:14):
the sanctions, Iran's oil experts grew. Exports grew from three
hundred thousand barrels a day to what do you think
they hit Under Joe Biden.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I'm going to go all the way back up to
a million two million.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
They doubled where they had the consequence of that going
from three hundred thousand barrels a day to two million
barrels a day was more than eighty billion dollars that
the Biden administration flowed into Iran. In a very real way,
the Biden administration, by non enforcing the oil sanctions, funded
(20:51):
Hamas and Hesbela because ninety percent of Hamas and Hesbelos
money comes from Iran, and that eighty billion dollars in
a real sense, paid for the death squads. On October seventh.
What President Trump is doing with this blockade is shutting
down the ghost fleet. That is incredibly potent. I don't
(21:13):
know what the resolution of this will be, but you're right,
it's an intermediate step. It is another way of inflicting
enormous leverage on Iran. It's not as significant as taking
out the power plants and the bridges, which the President
may still do. It also shuts down Iran. Was trying
(21:33):
to say, hey, we're going to charge a toll of
two million bucks a ship and suddenly make revenue. I
love that the President said, you know what, any ship
that pays that toll will not be allowed to traverse
the seas. And by the way, for sixty plus years
since World War Two, the seas have been free and
(21:53):
open and navigable because the United States protects the waterways.
It's the packs Americana that we have had in place,
and the President has said, you know what, we don't
have to enforce the waterways. We've done that for the
good of the world. It helps America, but it helps
the entire world. But we're certainly not going to do
it if Iran is sitting there extracting a toll on
(22:17):
every ship traveling through this waterway.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I want to ask you one of the questions about this.
I've been getting this question a lot, and it's the
question of, Okay, how's the president wine this thing down?
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Number one? Two?
Speaker 1 (22:31):
What is the definition of success? I answered it this way.
I said, there's two different definitions success. One is to
make sure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon. That
for me is the number one priority. I said, a
bonus obviously success barrier. The second tier for me would
be if the regime falls. There's a lot of conversations
(22:55):
of well, can democrats say the president failed if he
doesn't get at the regime to fall, but make sure
they don't get nuclear weapons, and then Democrats will use
that against us, and I might look as long as
they don't get a new clear weapon. That is the
ballgame for me, first and foremost. I would love for
the regime to fall, but that takes an extended amount
(23:17):
of time. Is that worth it to make that in
essence to new objective?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Now?
Speaker 1 (23:21):
The President said early on he wanted regime change. Yes,
doesn't mean exporting democracy. But explain to everyone listening, what
is your definition of success here? And is it both
now that both are one and the same, or is
it a two tier system?
Speaker 3 (23:38):
So let's be clear. Whatever happens, the Democrats and the
media are going to say President Trump failed. It doesn't matter.
On day one of this military conflict they said it's
a failure. Every day since then they said it's a failure.
They are rooting for it to fail. It is I
gotta say, I am so disappointed in my colleagues. It
used to be that politics ends at the water's edge.
(24:00):
They are now so filled with partisan hatred that they
are rooting against the American military. Sad in terms of success,
I'd say success is threefold. Number one is the military success,
taking out the ballistic missiles, the drones, the air force,
the air defenses, the Navy, the Ayatola, and the military leaders.
(24:20):
That is almost entirely achieved. The success of that has
been astonishing. It took a ran forty years to build
up its military, it took us thirty nine days to
utterly and completely destroy it. That is a massive victory
and that has essentially already been achieved. The second major
objective is the nuclear objective, no enrichment, handing over the
(24:46):
enriched uranium. I think that is incredibly important. President Trump
is right to insist on that red line, and he
should continue to insist on the red line. Now, the
question of regime change, the Trump administration had has been
very reluctant to use the words regime change. And there's
a reason for that, which is they're really nervous. After
(25:07):
the Iraq War. People are really leary. They don't want
to see another Iraq war. This is not Iran, is
not Iraq. There is zero chance that we are going
to see hundreds of thousands of US troops invading and
occupying for years to come. That's simply not in the cards.
(25:28):
President Trump's not going to order that that is not contemplated.
I am quite willing to use the words regime change,
and actually the way I've been putting it is regime collapse.
This is a regime that hates America, that is a
radical theocratic regime that for forty seven years has been
actively murdering Americans, funding terrorists who are murdering Americans, calling
(25:51):
for death to America. The reason they want nuclear weapons
is to murder Americans. And what I are to President
Trump at the outome set of this conflict is the
regime has never been weaker, and if we do not
take this opportunity to collapse this regime, we will regret
(26:11):
it for decades to come. I still think that is
an objective. Now will we achieve it? I don't know
that that's not an easy goal to achieve, but I
think we should be trying. It's one of the reasons
I have repeatedly been urging fund fund the protesters, fund,
the Kurds on the ground, fund, the Balachis fund. That
(26:33):
there are groups that are armed and trade. Look the courage,
the Peshmerga are are trained fighters and by the way, Turkey,
one of the reasons. One of the reasons against arming
the courgs is Turkey is arguing don't do it. You
know what, I don't give a damn what Turkey is
arguing it. That's very nice for Erduwan some other time.
(26:56):
I'll talk to you about in Trump one when Erduwan
came to Dee and met with President Trump in the
Oval Office, and the President had me and four other senators.
We were in about a two and a half hour,
three hour meeting with Erduwan. At the end of the day,
we ought to be arming rebel groups in Iran to
topple the regime. We're not going to send our sons
(27:16):
and daughters to bleed and die for it. But we
certainly should be assisting the Iranian people and getting these
lunatics out of power because Americans will be much much
safer without this regime and control of Iran.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
So for you to be clear, you would say regime
change is certainly something that you think is extremely important
in the way that you just described.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
It, Yes, it is a major objective. Now if it's not,
if we end up shutting down enrichment getting the enricheranium,
that is a massive victory. Look on the face of it,
taking out the military. What we've achieved. The goal the
Trump administration stated was goal number one, the military victories,
which we've achieved. Taking out the Ie Tolin the senior
(28:00):
leadership is a big, big deal. So we have already
achieved a massive victory to finish the job where the
President is focused is preventing a nuclear weapon. He has
right to do that, and I think we ought to
be using every lever point we have to try to
collapse this regime because that would be much better for
(28:21):
the Iranian people, but much much better for the American
people and our safety and security as well.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
No, you're absolutely right. It's gonna be very interesting to
see how this blockade works. We're gonna keep covering it
here and we'll keep you up to date on it.
I want to move on to this other story, the
headline that broke on Sunday evening, and I'm gonna read
this headline from CNN. Eric Swalwell ends campaign for California
governor after sexual misconduct allegations. He said Sunday he would
(28:47):
withdraw from the California governor's race in the wake of
allegations of sexual misconduct that led to a nearly immediate
campaign collapse as staffers quit on him, prominent Democratic supporters
now urging him to drop out. He then put out
a statement on x saying I am suspending my campaign
for governor to my family, staff, friends and supporters. I'm
(29:08):
deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past.
Then he says I will fight the serious false allegations
that have been made, but that's my fight, not a
campaigns after that, we found out even more about what's happening,
and that is the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has opened
(29:29):
a criminal investigation into sexual assault allegations. The key claim
is a former staff for alleged assault in twenty twenty four,
apparently New York, and another earlier incident in twenty nineteen.
Prosecutors are reportedly reviewing evidence asking for additional witnesses to
come forward, as the AP put it, and that is
(29:49):
the most serious legal exposure right now, because it could
lead to criminal charges. And then you have multiple sexual
miscontic allegations. At least four women have accused Swalwell of
miscut ranging from sexual assault, rape allegations, unwanted contact, sending
explicit images, and one a legend allegation claims the accuser
was too intoxicated to consent. He has denied all those allegations,
(30:14):
calling them false and politically motivated. What's even more shocking
is now I think it's fifty of his former staffers
have come out against him, saying he needs to resign
and basically defending one another saying he's a terrible guy.
There's two parts of the story center. One how the
hell the Democratic Party protect this guy for this long?
(30:36):
And two why are all the Democrats now turning against him.
It's because they're afraid they're going to lose the governor's
race in California.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Well, just a week ago, this guy was the front
runner among the Democrats to be the next governor of California.
I was actually in California this weekend. I spoke at
the California Republican Convention, So I was there when this
was breaking, and and and you could see, Uh, look
it was clear when when when this story broke, everyone
(31:05):
knew swal Whale's gubernatorial campaign was over the instant it broke. Uh,
the the breadth and volume of this this is not
just one allegation, it's multiple allegations. It's allegations of a
pattern of misconduct, a pattern of repeated sexual harassment of
multiple employees. One one staffer who was interviewed by CNN
(31:28):
alleged that twice she got very very drunk with him
and and that he had sex with her not only
without her consent, but over her vigorous resistance and objection.
If that is true, that is rape. Uh. That is
criminal conduct. That is criminal conduct for which anyone who
(31:48):
commits it should should be prosecuted and go to jail. Uh.
There are a number of points that are obviously Number one,
this was so widespread to see fifty Swallwell staffers come
out against him strongly suggest everybody knew. Now now, you
asked me right before we recorded this pod, did I
(32:10):
know this? Look To be honest, I don't hang out
with Democrat House members. I'm not particularly privy to the
gossip among Democrats.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Are true that you alienate yourself from Democratic radical house members,
I just from glad we cleared that up.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Those are not my peeps. So I have no idea
what the gossip was about this guy. But given how
widespread this is, that the allegations, I think it is
impossible that it was not common knowledge that there were
not a lot of Democrats who knew this guy was
doing this, that this was a pattern of conduct, And
(32:45):
that suggests that they all covered it up. They all
looked the other way. When he was an attack dog
attacking Republicans, attacking President Trump, attacking Brett Kavanaugh, they were
perfectly happy to have him be the attack dog. You're right.
What has changed is the Democrats are at a panic
because you've got multiple Democrats running for governor in California,
(33:07):
and you have two Republicans running for governor in California,
and California has this weird jungle primary where there's not
a Democrat primary and a Republican primary. Everyone runs on
the same ballot and the top two vote getters make
it to the general election. And so there was a possibility,
not a likelihood, but a possibility that the top two
(33:29):
vote getters could be the two Republicans. And I will
say for Democrats, their heads would explode if they went
to the general election and it were one hundred percent
certainty that the next governor of California was going to
be a Republican. But there were multiple polls that had
come out that showed the two Republicans as one and two.
And part of the reason is that you had multiple
(33:50):
Democrats splitting the vote, and you had Eric Swallwell and
Katie Porter, both a former House member and current House member,
slugging it out. You've also got Tom Steyer, the billionaire
who's spending millions and millions of dollars trying to buy
the nomination. And so you had Democrats splitting their votes.
(34:10):
That was helping the Republicans. And suddenly, I think Democrats
saw a partisan value to getting rid of Swallwell and
they took him out ruthlessly. Now, Ben, I want to
point to you the tell you can tell any Democrat
if they're just being a partisan hack by the following tell.
(34:35):
Are they calling for him to suspend his gubernatorial campaign?
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Yep?
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Or are they calling for him to resign from Congress.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yeah, it's just a goobertorial campaign, that's the tell.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
They don't want him to resign. No, no, no, don't
resign because look, Republicans barely have a two vote majority.
They want Swallwell there. They don't want to jeopardize their majority. Also,
they're perfectly happy to have a seri sexual harassmer even
a rapist as long as they get partisan advantage. Now
the momentum is shifting. It would not surprise me as
(35:09):
Swallowell is out of Congress by the end of the week,
because this is.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
In a lot of them you talk about the second tell.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
The other tell is those that are calling for and
to resign are saying, well, he's told resign, and a
Republican should also resign. That has allegations against him in
the Republican side, so they get rid of one of
the Republicans. And that's the only reason why they're saying
it now is well, I'll call for both of them
to resign.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Look, and by the way, I could see that potentially happening.
The Republican the facts around him are really pretty ugly.
He's not running for reelection because they are so ugly
and disturbing and and and so it would not shock
shock me to see both of them resign.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
And that's an outcome I could see the House getting to.
But it's been fascinating that virtually every Democrat who's come
out with this big bold statement, they've said suspend the
camp pain, but they haven't said resigned from Congress.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Now, yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how
this ends. But I think you are not far off.
I think they want to finish him off and be
done with him. And they knew all this and the
only reason why they defended him indefinitely. They pushed him
to be the guy in California and then they turned
on him when they realized that a Republican could win.
(36:23):
That is the only reason why we're hearing about any
of this.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
And also the media.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
You just want to talk about hypocrisy center the way
that the media, the liberal media, I mean, this was
on the morning shows that the meat, the press, the face,
the nations that whatever the hell the other one's called
like they were.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
CNN was wall to wall on this.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
They were covering it like it was a Republican who
had done something, but it was a Democrat war of
their own and they were like, yeah, we got to
get rid of him because if we don't get rid
of him, what happens next, well then the Republican can win.
So you know, who cares about the victims here? This
is all about the politics, As you described in a
moment ago.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
It is and I'll point out there is a second
Democrat house member, Shelia Churfleus McCormick of Florida, who should
also be expelled from Congress. She has the Ethics Committee,
which is bipartisan, declared her guilty on twenty five out
of twenty seven ethics charges from stealing up to five
(37:27):
million dollars of FEMA money. So she is likely going
to jail for stealing millions of taxpayer dollars. And yet
the Democrats are amazingly silent. You've got an alleged serial
sexual harasser and potentially even serial rapist, and an embezzler
(37:49):
and thief and their city. They're going, oh, we're great
having both of them there, because you know, partisan power
matters more than anything. And by the way, the press
on the coverage of of Trifilius McCormick, almost all the
press coverage there's actually very little coverage. But what little
there is, they almost all leave out that she's a Democrat.
(38:12):
They just that fact never mind, just nothing to see.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Here, just some random person in Congress. Yeah, that's how
it works. Don't forget. We do this show Monday, Wednesday
and Friday. Hit that subscriber auto download button. Please righte
us to five star review. It helps us reach more people,
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(38:37):
the channel as well. As we are really making sure
we get a lot of video out there for you
guys and the Senate and I will see you back
here on Wednesday morning.
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