June 27, 2025 • 34 mins
🛡️ Military Operation in Iran
- The U.S., under Trump’s command, launched a devastating airstrike targeting Iran’s nuclear weapons infrastructure.
- The operation included:
- Seven B-2 stealth bombers dropping 14 bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Fordow.
- 30 Tomahawk missiles launched from a submarine targeting additional nuclear sites.
- Zero American casualties and high precision in execution.
📉 Impact on Iran
- The strike reportedly:
- Eliminated key Iranian military and nuclear personnel.
- Destroyed critical nuclear infrastructure, setting Iran’s nuclear program back by years.
- Prompted Iran to immediately seek a ceasefire, which the hosts interpret as a sign of Iran’s weakened position.
📰 Media and Political Reaction
- Cruz and Ferguson criticize mainstream media and Democrats for allegedly downplaying the success of the strike.
- They claim a preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report was leaked to undermine Trump, despite later confirmations from U.S., Israeli, and even UN sources that the damage was severe.
💬 Criticism of Isolationism
- Cruz strongly criticizes Tucker Carlson and others advocating for non-interventionist policies, arguing that Trump’s decisive action prevented greater conflict.
- He warns against appeasement strategies like those under Obama and Biden, which he claims emboldened Iran.
💰 Concerns About Future Policy
- Cruz expresses concern that some within the Trump administration might push for sanctions relief or financial aid to Iran post-strike, which he vehemently opposes.
🇺🇸 Patriotism and Military Praise
- The episode repeatedly emphasizes support for U.S. troops, celebration of American strength, and praise for Trump’s leadership.
- The hosts argue that “peace through strength” is the only effective foreign policy approach.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome. It is Verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
with you. It's so nice to have you with us
around the country wherever you are listening. And we have
got a lot to talk about tonight, especially with Iran,
the effectiveness to the attack and the media trying to
act like this was some sort of a failure.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Center.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It's been a very fun week to watch the spin
games take place.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Well, it's been an extraordinary week. Last Saturday night, President
Trump acted decisively as.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
The commander in chief.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
He launched an attack on Iran that was brutally effective,
incredibly efficient, defended America, kept us safe, and ever since then,
it did several things. Number one, it produced a ceasefire.
It caused Iran to come to the table and say
we want peace, we want to end this war. That
was powerful. But number two, it really has been striking.
(00:52):
We've seen the media and Democrats go on full time
spin patrol, go in lean in hard, say this was
an effective, this was a failure. I got to say
it is astonishing that the reaction of CNN and the
Democrats when the President has a crushing military attack taking
out Iran's nuclear weapon capability, is to say we stand
(01:14):
with Iran and we think the American military is not effective.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
We're gonna break all that down. We're gonna break down.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I had a classified briefing today for an hour and
a half with our senior military leaders. I'm gonna walk
through what happened, where things stand now in Iran, where
they stand in Israel, and what's coming next, because what's
coming next matters intensely.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
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Speaker 1 (03:36):
All right to Senator. On Thursday, you attended a briefing
on the Iran strike, And what did you learn compared
to the propaganda that's being put out there by the
mainstream media saying this was unsuccessful, that Donald Trump's overstating
what actually happened here, and then everybody in our government,
especially the DoD is just getting it wrong.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Well, I spent an hour and a half at a
classified brief presenting that briefing was the Secretary of State,
Mark Rubio, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the CIA,
and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And
in the course of that briefing, I will say what
they laid out is what I believed already, what I
knew already, which was the incredible effectiveness number one of
(04:20):
the Israeli attack, the twelve day war that Israel waged
against Iran, that took out their senior military leadership, took
out just about every general they were relying on to
wage war against America against Israel. And I got to say,
in terms of how Israel carried it out, it really
was stunning. They took out one head of the IRGC,
(04:43):
so I ran named somebody else. The next day, Israel
takes out the next head.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Of the IRGC. So I Ran named somebody else.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
The next day, Israel takes out the next head of
the IRGC. I got to say, Ben, if they came
to you and said, hey, Ben, you want to lead
the RGC, I bet you at the end, but are like, no,
thank you, because the instant you get named to that job,
Israel takes you out. It did show the exquisite intelligence
that the Massad has in Iran that as soon as
(05:12):
someone got named to the head of that they were
taken out within hours. They also took out virtually every
one of the senior nuclear scientists in Iran, the scientists
that were developing nuclear weapons. Israel took them out systematically.
They bombed military installations across the country. They bombed just
about all of their nuclear research facilities. Now the biggest
(05:35):
challenge Israel faced is the most important nuclear weapons facility
in Iran is called Fordo. Fido is built underneath a mountain,
and it was built underneath the mountain for the explicit
purpose of making it very difficult to bomb. And Israel
lacked bombs that were sufficiently large to take out Florida.
(05:58):
That's why the Iranians built it under the under mountain.
The United States we have bombs that are designed to
take out underground bunkers, and they're called bunker busters. They
are thirty thousand pound bombs. They're massive bombs. They are
the largest ordinance we have short of a nuclear weapon.
And what happened Saturday night, So President Trump gave the
(06:20):
order and seven b two stealth bombers left Missouri. They
flew halfway around the world and then they delivered fourteen
bunker busters. Twelve of them were delivered to Fordoh and
the other two were delivered at a Tons and other
nuclear weapons facility. Now at Ford Oh, you had the
(06:44):
Iranians had tried to protect Florida, had tried to seal
it up, and the bunker busters were designed to penetrate.
So the way these bombs work, when they're dropped, they
hit and they penetrate and they go deep underground and
then they detonate underground, and there were two vents that
these bombs were going through. And it is amazing the
(07:07):
precision of the US Air Force that they dropped bunker
buster after bunker buster after bunker buster down these vents
that went all the way down and detonated every one
of those bombs detonated on their targets. In addition to
the fourteen bunker busters that were dropped, we had a
submarine that fired thirty Tomahawk missiles at another nuclear weapons facility,
(07:30):
pounding the living daylights out of it. And I will
tell you, look, the assessment that we received is that
it was devastating what President Trump said that night as
we utterly obliterated their facilities. And one of the best
indications of just how successful it was is how much
the Democrats and the media went into spin mode almost immediately,
(07:53):
trying to say this incredible success against our enemies.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It didn't happen.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
It was not an incredible success, and it was based
on an initial preliminary report from the DIA, the Defense
Intelligence Agency, that assessed that the damage was moderate to severe,
and the press went into massive spin mode to say, oh,
it's only moderate, it's only moderate was not effective. That assessment,
(08:21):
I believe is false. We're going to talk about that
considerably more. I think the military attack launched against the
Iranian nuclear weapons capability was devastatingly effective. And our troops
are to be commended, and the commander in chief is
to be commended.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
And Senator you said in this classified briefing that you
received this week on Thursday, that what you got compared
to what the media is trying to push drastically different.
And that's exactly, by the way, with the DoD secretary
had to say, Pete Headseth, take a listen.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Sports are almost always wrong, They're almost always incomplete right anything,
whether it's a squad level operation or strategic level operation.
The initial reflections you get are coming at you at
a high rate of speed from.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
A lot of different sources. So your job is to
step back and assess them.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
And that's why we're urging caution about putting it premising
entire stories on biased leaks to biased publications trying to
make something look bad.
Speaker 6 (09:21):
How about we take a beat, recognize.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
First the success of our warriors, hold them up, tell
their stories, celebrate that wave an American flag, be proud
of what we accomplished. And in the meantime, I can
assure you the chairman of his staff, the intelligence community,
our staff and others are doing all the assessments necessary
to make sure that mission was indeed successful.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Doesn't seem like a very crazy idea, right, Let's take
a moment and let's just go through the process. But
the media ontce Donald Trump to be a failure so bad,
even if that means putting our national security at risk.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
No, that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
And this was a defense intelligence assessment that was done
in the immediate aftermath.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Of the bombing.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
In these preliminary reports, they're trying to assess, they're trying
to assess, do we need to bomb some more?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Do we need to unload more ordinance?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
And this preliminary assessment concluded that the damage was moderate
to severe. And mind you that, on the face of it,
the analysis also said this was not based on any intelligence,
not based on any intelligence from the data. It was
just a preliminary assessment. Somebody, and we don't know who,
We may never know who. Somebody leaked this to the press.
(10:32):
Somebody who did not support what the president was doing.
This was the deep state fighting back. This was the
deep state trying to spread a narrative. It may have been.
It is possible this was a Democrat congressman who somehow
got this report. It's possible it was someone within the
deep state that wanted to weaken the president, but they
wanted to tell the story in the outset this was
(10:52):
a failure. I think the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that this
was not just a success, it was an incredible success.
And by the way, in the wake of this report,
the Secretary of State absolutely disputed at the Secretary of
Defense absolutely disputed it. The President absolutely disputed it. And
I will say, if you look at our bunker buster
(11:16):
bombs are designed to take out underground bunkers. That is
what their purpose is. We didn't just drop one bunker buster,
we dropped fourteen. Each of them weighs thirty thousand pounds
thirty thousand pounds of destructive blast force. That is over
(11:38):
three hundred thousand pounds of explosives that were delivered on target.
Every one of those bombs hit their target. And by
the way, to the credit of our incredible servicemen and women,
they turned around and flew all the way back to
Missouri with zero American casualties. No plane was shot down,
no American was injured or hurt. It was an incredible success.
(12:02):
As we know, two other b two stealth bombers went
west went over the Pacific Ocean. This group of seven
went east over the Atlantic Ocean. Those who went west
were a decoy, and it was designed to confuse the
Iranians think that an attack was going to come come
from the west rather than come from the east. And
(12:25):
I will say the effect of that was that the
Iranian air defenses, much of which the Iranian air defenses
have been massively degraded by the Israelis to begin with,
so their air defenses were incredibly weakened. But there was
no Iranian plane that fired at our planes. There were
not missiles that were fired at our planes. Look, this
could have gone very differently, and in fact, I will
(12:47):
make a contrast. Look, I was a young kid in
nineteen seventy nine. In nineteen seventy nine is when the
Iranian Revolution occurred and the Iyahtola then took over the
American hostage Erican embassy and took took Americans hostage. And
Jimmy Carter was the president there, and he was the
weakest and most feckless American president we had ever seen
(13:08):
until Joe Biden came into the White House and Jimmy Carter,
in the midst of that hostage crisis, sent in a
military force to try to rescue the hostages, and that
military force crashed in the desert. Helicopters crashed with no
opposing fire, nobody was shooting at them.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
They just crashed. And I got to say it, just
it It.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Emblemized just how incredibly weak Jimmy Carter's defense of our
national security was.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I was a little kid.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I was ten when Reagan became president, and so I
remember this as a child, and and it's I mean,
you were you were barely a sparkle in your daddy's
eye at the time, Ben, But but it was a
powerful moment. And the contrast Jimmy Carter's helicopters crashing in
the desert versus under Donald Trump, our bombers taking out
(14:00):
the enemy with crushing effectiveness. That's a contrast that's night
and day. And you know what, it's demonstrated by just
how desperately the Democrats and the corporate media want to
spen and say no, no, no, it was not nearly
as successful as your lying eyes tell you.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
It was.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yeah, we're going to play for everybody in a moment.
What headset had to say about the intelligent assessment and
the new information that they have will do that in
a moment. But finally, at least we're getting some decent headlines.
Granted it's the Washington Free Beacon, but their headline was
classified report that suggests Iranian nuclear programs still intact, likely
(14:37):
relied on faulty info from Iranian sources. Former Intel officers say, so,
let me get this straight. The media is getting their
propaganda now directly from the Iranians. You can't make this up.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Well, it's where the media is. CNN wants America to lose.
They want a Ran to win, ABCNBCCBS, Washington Host, New
York Times. They are cheering for our enemies and against
the President of the United States, and sadly the Democrats. Look,
the Democrats were sitting in the same classified briefing I
(15:11):
was they heard about the incredible success of this military attack.
I got to say, if the Democrats gave a damn
about our country, they would come out and say, you
know what, our servicemen and women are heroes, and they
executed an incredible attack. And by the way, every president
for the last thirty years has said Iran will not
get a nuclear weapon. In this instance, President Trump acted
(15:33):
decisively to take away their nuclear weapons capability, and the
Democrats all ran to the TV cameras and said, this
was terrible, this was terrible. We oppose our nation.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Senator, I want to play for everybody. Pete Headseth at
the Pentagon briefing about how effective this attack actually was
and saying it directly to the media's phase.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
Take a listen peed some of the assessments that had
been because whether it's fake news, CNN, MSNBC or the
New York Times, there's been fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
I've had a chance to read it.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Every outlet has breathlessly reported on a preliminary assessment from
DA I'm looking at it right now again. It was
preliminary a day and a half after the actual strike.
When it admits itself in writing that it requires weeks
to accumulate the necessary data to make such an assessment,
it's preliminary, it points out that it's not been coordinated
(16:33):
with the intelligence community at all. There's low confidence in
this particular report, it says in the report.
Speaker 6 (16:40):
There are gaps in the information.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
It says in the report multiple lynchpin assumptions are what
this assessment a lynchpin assumption.
Speaker 6 (16:48):
You know what that is.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
It means your entire premis is predicated on a lynch pin.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
If you're wrong, everything else is wrong.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
And yet still this report acknowledges it's likely severe damage. Again,
this is preliminary, but leaked because someone had an agenda
to try to muddy the waters and make it look
like this historic strike I wasn't successful. I'm gonna get
to the chairman in a moment, because he's going to
lay out the particulars for you.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
Based on his professional military experience. But here's what other
folks are saying.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
THEDIA that put that report out says that this is
a preliminary, low confidence report and will continue to be
refined as additional intelligence becomes available. How about the Israeli
Atomic Energy Commission? The devastating US strikes on Fourdeaux destroyed
the site's critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable.
(17:39):
Have any of these quotes made their way into the
new York Times or The Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN, any
of these quotes.
Speaker 6 (17:46):
How about this one. This is a new one from
the UN, the United Nations. No friend in the United
States or certainly Israel. Often.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Here's the head of the UN Atomic Energy Agency this morning,
Rafael Grossi and Israeli strikes caused enormous damage to Iran's
nuclear sites.
Speaker 6 (18:06):
Don't take my word for it. How about the IDF's
chief of staff.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
I can say here that the assessment is that we
significantly damage the nuclear program, setting.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
It back by years. I repeat years.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
The Iranian foreign minister, the spokesman, our nuclear instrations have
been badly damaged.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
That's for sure. I'm sure that's an understatement.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
John Radcliffe, the director of the CIA, putting out a
statement just last night. CIA can confirm that a body
of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear program has been severely
damaged by recent targeted strikes.
Speaker 6 (18:41):
This includes new intelligence from.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
A historically reliable, very different than preliminary assessment with low confidence.
He's saying, historically reliable and accurate source of method that
several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have
to be rebuilt.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
Over the course of years.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
You listen to all of that data, and I love
how he laid it out. He's not just saying this
is from our administration, this is from people that hate us,
this from the UN, this is from Iran. Like, how
the hell did you guys go with this report when
it's so off from reality.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Look, I think the evidence is indisputable and it's worth noting,
he said. The Secretary of Defense said in that press
conference that the Iranian nuclear weapons program has been set
back years. I can tell you I spent an hour
and a half in a classified briefing. I can't tell
(19:38):
you what was in that briefing, but we heard nothing
that was inconsistent with what the Secretary of Defense said
in that press conference, which is that this military attack
set Iran's nuclear program back years. It was incredibly effective,
and so that has caused for celebration, which is why
the Democrats don't want people to know about it. The
(20:00):
media don't want people to know about it. But I
have to say I mentioned at the outside of this
program where we're going to discuss what happened, but every
bit is importantly. We're going to discuss what's going to
happen next and listen. It's one thing to talk about
where the puck is today, but you've got to look
at where the puck is going to be tomorrow, and
(20:21):
where the puck is going to be tomorrow. There was
a CNN report that came out this week that said, quote,
the Trump admin Is considering offering i Ran a series
of major benefits to bring it back to the negotiating table.
According to the report, Washington is considering helping Iran establish
(20:42):
a nuclear program for the purpose of producing civilian energy
at a cost of about thirty billion dollars, easing sanctions
and unfreezing billions of frozen Iranian dollars. And I will
tell you within the Trump administration right now, there is
a battle. There were voices within the Trump administration. These
(21:03):
are the voices that opposed the strike on Iran, that
wanted to have weakness and appeasement towards Iran, who are
now saying, well, after the strike, after victory, we should
flow billions of dollars to Iran. We should let them
sell oil, let them sell oil to China. We should
let them make billions. And I got to tell you
(21:26):
this is the same failed approach of Barack Obama and
Joe Biden. We should, under no circumstances allow the Ayatola,
who chance death to America, who has been actively trying
to murder President Trump. We should not let him win
a windfall and get billions of dollars to use to
(21:46):
wage war against America.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
How did we even get to this point where this
was a real possibility. Where is this coming from? Because
it is shocking. Like you said, you don't want to
do the same thing. There was a failure with the
last administrations where they're like, hey, here's billions of dollars,
we'll put it on a plane, and here's a bunch
of American money. You have a great day.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Listen their voices in the Republican Party who have decided
to embrace isolationism, who has decided to say we should
withdraw from the world. You and I talked previously on
this podcast about the interview I did with Tucker Carlson.
I knew what that was going to be. I knew
when I accepted that interview that Tucker was coming after me,
that he was going to do everything he can to
(22:28):
blast me, and he and I spent two hours. It
was a It was a bloodbath. We were pounding the
hell out of each other. But every single thing Tucker
said about Iran and Israel proved wrong. Tucker said publicly,
if America strikes Iran, we would be dragged into World
War three. Thousands of Americans would be killed, and in
(22:51):
World War three we would lose. Now, Ben, that wasn't
slightly wrong, it wasn't a little bit wrong. It was
totally catastrophically utterly false. Tucker also argued with me at
great length, it's not true that Iran is trying to
murder Donald J.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Trump.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Well, you know, it's one thing if you're a talk
show host and you can just kind of yell into
the microphone and ignore facts. But facts matter. The truth matters.
It is an objective fact that Iran has been trying
to murder Donald J. Trump has been trying to murder
him for several years. And I pointed this out in
(23:29):
the interview. I put it out afterwards. I put out
the sealed indictment from the Department of Justice indicting Iranian
hitmen who were here in the United States trying to
murder Donald J.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Trump.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I put out video of President Trump talking about the
Iranians trying to murder him. I put out video of
senior Iranian leaders talking about their intention to murder Donald Trump.
I put out a video that the IRGC put out
an animated video of an Iranian drone murdering Donald Trump
on the golf course at mar A Lago. And it
(24:02):
is an objective fact. And this is where again the
sort of isolationist rhetoric is weird, because when I said
that Iran was trying to murder President Trump, and Tucker said,
I've never heard that, and then he did his kind
of weird, high pitched cackle. He then came back with
this bizarre statement, Well, if that were true, that Iran
(24:25):
were trying to murder Donald J. Trump, well then we
should attack them immediately. We should nuke them. And I
got to say, I kind of wondered if if like
Tucker Carlson's old neokon. To be clear, Tucker carl said
was someone who during the Iraq War, was a cheerleader
for the Iraq War. He basically put on a short
skirt and pom poms. I think the Iraq War was
(24:48):
a mistake. I've been vocal about that for years. Tucker
cheered it on. It is loopy. It is fruit loops
to say you should nuke Iran because they're doing that. No,
the right thing to do is what President Trump did,
which is take out their nuclear weapons capability. And I
got to say Tucker's voice and their allies of Tucker
(25:10):
in the administration who were desperately trying to convince the President,
do not attack Iran, do not take out their nuclear
weapons capability, do not support it Israel, abandon Israel. They
were wrong and they lost this battle. But the second iteration,
and this is coming, is they're now saying, Okay, now
(25:32):
that you've won, give the Iotola billions of dollars, because
it works out really well. When you give billions of
dollars to a theocratic lunatic who says they want to
murder you and is still actively trying to murder you,
that is incredibly foolish. And so I'm merging the president,
don't listen to those voices. They were wrong before and
they're wrong now. Do not send billions of dollars to
(25:55):
the Iotola.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Consider you had this to say on hit his show
about as well.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
The El Sean.
Speaker 7 (26:01):
There are voices in the administration now that the president
has scored an historic victory. Who are urging, Let's cut
a deal. Let's let Iran sell oils, Let's lift all
the sanction. Let's make this a victory for the Iyatola.
Understand this, Iatola still hates America, a chance death to America,
and he's been trying to murder Donald Trump, and so
(26:21):
it would be a catastrophic mistake to flood billions of
dollars into Iran.
Speaker 8 (26:28):
I agree with you. What if they use a proxy
to attack Israel? Does that end the ceasefire? Because I
would imagine that's plant that's the next plan.
Speaker 7 (26:36):
Real quick, you know, I will tell you one of
the best indications of how successful this attack was. Within hours,
Iran was rushing to have a ceasefire. That's because they
are utterly decimated and weakened, and that's why they wanted
to cease fire. But don't think for a minute they
suddenly love America.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Or love Israel. They still hate us.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
They are still our enemy, but we use taking away
their ability to murder Americans.
Speaker 8 (26:59):
If they use a proxy to attack Israel, are they
to blame?
Speaker 7 (27:05):
Of course they are the proxies. Hesbela and Hamas work
for Iran. They pay for them and they control them.
Speaker 8 (27:12):
All right, Senator Ted Cruz, we always appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Centator think hey, strong clothes their center and that's It's
the truth. This is what people are trying to do now.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
It absolutely is.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And I'll tell you one point that I made on
Hannity that I think is powerful. We started this show
by talking about how the Democrats in the media are
trying to claim the attack was not effective. If that
were true, why did Iran immediately want a cease fire. Look,
Iran has been at war with Israel for years. They
(27:44):
had been lobbing missiles, They had been funding Hamas and Hesbela.
Understand Hamas more than ninety percent of Hamas's budget comes
from Iran. Hesbela more than ninety percent of Hesbela's budget
comes from Iran.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Iran.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
When the Iatola chance death to American death to Israel,
he means it. They have spent millions of millions of dollars,
They have killed thousands of American servicemen and women. They
have been the leading state sponsor of terrorism for decades.
And after this, Look, Iran has had a really rough year.
October seventh they funded October seventh and since October seventh.
(28:21):
Hamas has been utterly decimated, Hesbela has been utterly decimated.
But Sharrasad, who was their puppet leader in Syria, he
has fallen. The Huthis who they were funding, who were
attacking American ships and shipping through the Suez Canal, they
are badly degraded. And now Iran when they were on
the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons. Look, if you're the
(28:42):
Ayatola and you're weak and you're collapsing, getting a nuclear
weapon is your hail Mary. It's the one chance to say, Okay,
we're relevant, we're strong. And then Israel devastatingly takes out
their military capability, their air defenses. The entire course of
this war, Iran had no control over their air defenses.
(29:03):
Israel had total superiority. And then the United States when
we went in and did our bombing run, Iran could
not defend themselves. And then America comes in. I think
Iran believed they could talk talk, talk and avoid any
real consequences. I think they felt that Fida was deep
enough under a mountain there was nothing they could do
about it, and that America would never use bunker buster
(29:24):
bombs against him. And by the way, Joe Biden never
would have. The Democrats never would have. But Donald J. Trump,
he's not an isolationist, he's not weak. He's not interested
in a prolonged war. Note, we did not invade Iran,
we did not send boots on the ground. We're not
going there trying to turn them into a democratic utopia.
We're not trying to turn them into Switzerland. The objective
(29:46):
of the mission was very, very focused. It was to
stop Iran from having nuclear weapons capability. And by the way, Ben,
the reason I went on Tucker Carlson just a week
ago was to make clear that Present Trump is right
and Tucker Carlson was wrong. And I think I was
unhappy with Tucker because he's been attacking President Trump. He
(30:09):
said that President Trump was complicit in the attack on Iran.
He claimed amazingly enough, that Donald Trump was not America first,
that if you attack Iran, you're not America first. And
President Trump quite rightly came back and said, look, I
invented the damn term, and what I say is what
(30:31):
America first is. And he said to Tucker, he said, look,
if you want I ran to have a nuclear weapon,
that ain't America first, because these lunatics want to kill us.
President Trump is exactly right, and this has been I'll
tell you. I texted him this week and I told him,
mister President, this past week has been the single finest
(30:54):
leadership you have.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Had the entire time.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
And I'm incredibly proud the job you're doing as commander
in chief.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
You know, one of the comparing contrasts that you talk
about with these this administration in the past was brought
up at the White House Press briefing room. Carolyn Levitt,
I think did a great job of explaining the difference
very much like you just described it. And here's what
she said to the press about the real story here.
Speaker 9 (31:20):
Fani and regime was weeks away from being able to
produce a nuclear weapon that would threaten the entire world.
Before President Trump took this decisive action on Saturday night
to obliterate their nuclear capabilities. The contrast and leadership could
not be more clear. Barack Obama and Joe Biden sent
palettes of cash American taxpayer dollars in a failed attempt
(31:42):
to buy the Iranian regime's compliance with a weak and
ineffective deal. President Trump sent a fleet of American warplanes
to destroy Ouran's ability to produce a nuclear weapon. The
United States and the entire world are safer because of
this President's decisiveness. Fite agenda driven leaks by the fake
news media aimed at undermining this incredible accomplishment achieved by
(32:06):
President Trump and our brave fighter pilots. There is broad
consensus emerging already that Iran's nuclear capabilities were indeed destroyed.
The United States, Israel, the United Nations, and even Iran
all agree they can no longer build a nuclear weapon.
So what did the president? Why did the President immediately
(32:26):
turn to obliterating after the Iranian nuclear threat? Securing peace?
Within forty eight hours of the devastating strike, President Trump
and his team broke her to historic ceasefire between Israel
and Iran and officially ended the twelve day war. The
Middle East is now shifting away from chaos in bloodshed
and moving toward the beginning stages of a new era
(32:49):
of peace, instability that President Trump has long called on
them to achieve. This was unthinkable at this time last week.
And this is what peace through strength looks like.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
I mean, it's just laying it out right to their faces. Right,
this is what the president said, this is what he believed,
this is what he was going to do. We're not
back down. And she also said something else that also
the d D said several different ways, how dare you
not just give some accolades the men and women that
risk their lives to pull this off and did it flawlessly.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Look, peace through strength is exactly what this is. And
the left that they have a bizarre view that weakness
and appeasement somehow avoids war. Listen, if you look through history,
the opposite is true. Weakness and appeasement encourages our enemies.
They engage in more hostilities, you get more war. I
(33:43):
have joked, but there is a reason nobody goes and
studies at the Neville Chamberlain School of Foreign Affairs. Appeasement
doesn't work. Donald J. Trump is a strong commander in
chief just like Ronald Reagan was. And I'll tell you
your family and my family, all of our families are
safer because President Trump acted decisively to take out Iran's
(34:06):
nuclear weapons capability.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Don't forget We do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday,
and make sure that subscribe or auto download button wherever
you get your podcast so you do not miss an episode,
and also tomorrow on Saturday, we'll have the Week in Review,
some of the top things we talked about this past
week that you may have missed, so make sure you
listen to that as well, and the Senate I will
see you back here Saturday morning.
Welcome. It is Verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
with you. It's so nice to have you with us
around the country wherever you are listening. And we have
got a lot to talk about tonight, especially with Iran,
the effectiveness to the attack and the media trying to
act like this was some sort of a failure.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Center.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It's been a very fun week to watch the spin
games take place.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Well, it's been an extraordinary week. Last Saturday night, President
Trump acted decisively as.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
The commander in chief.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
He launched an attack on Iran that was brutally effective,
incredibly efficient, defended America, kept us safe, and ever since then,
it did several things. Number one, it produced a ceasefire.
It caused Iran to come to the table and say
we want peace, we want to end this war. That
was powerful. But number two, it really has been striking.
(00:52):
We've seen the media and Democrats go on full time
spin patrol, go in lean in hard, say this was
an effective, this was a failure. I got to say
it is astonishing that the reaction of CNN and the
Democrats when the President has a crushing military attack taking
out Iran's nuclear weapon capability, is to say we stand
(01:14):
with Iran and we think the American military is not effective.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
We're gonna break all that down. We're gonna break down.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I had a classified briefing today for an hour and
a half with our senior military leaders. I'm gonna walk
through what happened, where things stand now in Iran, where
they stand in Israel, and what's coming next, because what's
coming next matters intensely.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
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Speaker 1 (03:36):
All right to Senator. On Thursday, you attended a briefing
on the Iran strike, And what did you learn compared
to the propaganda that's being put out there by the
mainstream media saying this was unsuccessful, that Donald Trump's overstating
what actually happened here, and then everybody in our government,
especially the DoD is just getting it wrong.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Well, I spent an hour and a half at a
classified brief presenting that briefing was the Secretary of State,
Mark Rubio, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the CIA,
and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And
in the course of that briefing, I will say what
they laid out is what I believed already, what I
knew already, which was the incredible effectiveness number one of
(04:20):
the Israeli attack, the twelve day war that Israel waged
against Iran, that took out their senior military leadership, took
out just about every general they were relying on to
wage war against America against Israel. And I got to say,
in terms of how Israel carried it out, it really
was stunning. They took out one head of the IRGC,
(04:43):
so I ran named somebody else. The next day, Israel
takes out the next head.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Of the IRGC. So I Ran named somebody else.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
The next day, Israel takes out the next head of
the IRGC. I got to say, Ben, if they came
to you and said, hey, Ben, you want to lead
the RGC, I bet you at the end, but are like, no,
thank you, because the instant you get named to that job,
Israel takes you out. It did show the exquisite intelligence
that the Massad has in Iran that as soon as
(05:12):
someone got named to the head of that they were
taken out within hours. They also took out virtually every
one of the senior nuclear scientists in Iran, the scientists
that were developing nuclear weapons. Israel took them out systematically.
They bombed military installations across the country. They bombed just
about all of their nuclear research facilities. Now the biggest
(05:35):
challenge Israel faced is the most important nuclear weapons facility
in Iran is called Fordo. Fido is built underneath a mountain,
and it was built underneath the mountain for the explicit
purpose of making it very difficult to bomb. And Israel
lacked bombs that were sufficiently large to take out Florida.
(05:58):
That's why the Iranians built it under the under mountain.
The United States we have bombs that are designed to
take out underground bunkers, and they're called bunker busters. They
are thirty thousand pound bombs. They're massive bombs. They are
the largest ordinance we have short of a nuclear weapon.
And what happened Saturday night, So President Trump gave the
(06:20):
order and seven b two stealth bombers left Missouri. They
flew halfway around the world and then they delivered fourteen
bunker busters. Twelve of them were delivered to Fordoh and
the other two were delivered at a Tons and other
nuclear weapons facility. Now at Ford Oh, you had the
(06:44):
Iranians had tried to protect Florida, had tried to seal
it up, and the bunker busters were designed to penetrate.
So the way these bombs work, when they're dropped, they
hit and they penetrate and they go deep underground and
then they detonate underground, and there were two vents that
these bombs were going through. And it is amazing the
(07:07):
precision of the US Air Force that they dropped bunker
buster after bunker buster after bunker buster down these vents
that went all the way down and detonated every one
of those bombs detonated on their targets. In addition to
the fourteen bunker busters that were dropped, we had a
submarine that fired thirty Tomahawk missiles at another nuclear weapons facility,
(07:30):
pounding the living daylights out of it. And I will
tell you, look, the assessment that we received is that
it was devastating what President Trump said that night as
we utterly obliterated their facilities. And one of the best
indications of just how successful it was is how much
the Democrats and the media went into spin mode almost immediately,
(07:53):
trying to say this incredible success against our enemies.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It didn't happen.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
It was not an incredible success, and it was based
on an initial preliminary report from the DIA, the Defense
Intelligence Agency, that assessed that the damage was moderate to severe,
and the press went into massive spin mode to say, oh,
it's only moderate, it's only moderate was not effective. That assessment,
(08:21):
I believe is false. We're going to talk about that
considerably more. I think the military attack launched against the
Iranian nuclear weapons capability was devastatingly effective. And our troops
are to be commended, and the commander in chief is
to be commended.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
And Senator you said in this classified briefing that you
received this week on Thursday, that what you got compared
to what the media is trying to push drastically different.
And that's exactly, by the way, with the DoD secretary
had to say, Pete Headseth, take a listen.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Sports are almost always wrong, They're almost always incomplete right anything,
whether it's a squad level operation or strategic level operation.
The initial reflections you get are coming at you at
a high rate of speed from.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
A lot of different sources. So your job is to
step back and assess them.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
And that's why we're urging caution about putting it premising
entire stories on biased leaks to biased publications trying to
make something look bad.
Speaker 6 (09:21):
How about we take a beat, recognize.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
First the success of our warriors, hold them up, tell
their stories, celebrate that wave an American flag, be proud
of what we accomplished. And in the meantime, I can
assure you the chairman of his staff, the intelligence community,
our staff and others are doing all the assessments necessary
to make sure that mission was indeed successful.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Doesn't seem like a very crazy idea, right, Let's take
a moment and let's just go through the process. But
the media ontce Donald Trump to be a failure so bad,
even if that means putting our national security at risk.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
No, that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
And this was a defense intelligence assessment that was done
in the immediate aftermath.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Of the bombing.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
In these preliminary reports, they're trying to assess, they're trying
to assess, do we need to bomb some more?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Do we need to unload more ordinance?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
And this preliminary assessment concluded that the damage was moderate
to severe. And mind you that, on the face of it,
the analysis also said this was not based on any intelligence,
not based on any intelligence from the data. It was
just a preliminary assessment. Somebody, and we don't know who,
We may never know who. Somebody leaked this to the press.
(10:32):
Somebody who did not support what the president was doing.
This was the deep state fighting back. This was the
deep state trying to spread a narrative. It may have been.
It is possible this was a Democrat congressman who somehow
got this report. It's possible it was someone within the
deep state that wanted to weaken the president, but they
wanted to tell the story in the outset this was
(10:52):
a failure. I think the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that this
was not just a success, it was an incredible success.
And by the way, in the wake of this report,
the Secretary of State absolutely disputed at the Secretary of
Defense absolutely disputed it. The President absolutely disputed it. And
I will say, if you look at our bunker buster
(11:16):
bombs are designed to take out underground bunkers. That is
what their purpose is. We didn't just drop one bunker buster,
we dropped fourteen. Each of them weighs thirty thousand pounds
thirty thousand pounds of destructive blast force. That is over
(11:38):
three hundred thousand pounds of explosives that were delivered on target.
Every one of those bombs hit their target. And by
the way, to the credit of our incredible servicemen and women,
they turned around and flew all the way back to
Missouri with zero American casualties. No plane was shot down,
no American was injured or hurt. It was an incredible success.
(12:02):
As we know, two other b two stealth bombers went
west went over the Pacific Ocean. This group of seven
went east over the Atlantic Ocean. Those who went west
were a decoy, and it was designed to confuse the
Iranians think that an attack was going to come come
from the west rather than come from the east. And
(12:25):
I will say the effect of that was that the
Iranian air defenses, much of which the Iranian air defenses
have been massively degraded by the Israelis to begin with,
so their air defenses were incredibly weakened. But there was
no Iranian plane that fired at our planes. There were
not missiles that were fired at our planes. Look, this
could have gone very differently, and in fact, I will
(12:47):
make a contrast. Look, I was a young kid in
nineteen seventy nine. In nineteen seventy nine is when the
Iranian Revolution occurred and the Iyahtola then took over the
American hostage Erican embassy and took took Americans hostage. And
Jimmy Carter was the president there, and he was the
weakest and most feckless American president we had ever seen
(13:08):
until Joe Biden came into the White House and Jimmy Carter,
in the midst of that hostage crisis, sent in a
military force to try to rescue the hostages, and that
military force crashed in the desert. Helicopters crashed with no
opposing fire, nobody was shooting at them.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
They just crashed. And I got to say it, just
it It.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Emblemized just how incredibly weak Jimmy Carter's defense of our
national security was.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I was a little kid.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I was ten when Reagan became president, and so I
remember this as a child, and and it's I mean,
you were you were barely a sparkle in your daddy's
eye at the time, Ben, But but it was a
powerful moment. And the contrast Jimmy Carter's helicopters crashing in
the desert versus under Donald Trump, our bombers taking out
(14:00):
the enemy with crushing effectiveness. That's a contrast that's night
and day. And you know what, it's demonstrated by just
how desperately the Democrats and the corporate media want to
spen and say no, no, no, it was not nearly
as successful as your lying eyes tell you.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
It was.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yeah, we're going to play for everybody in a moment.
What headset had to say about the intelligent assessment and
the new information that they have will do that in
a moment. But finally, at least we're getting some decent headlines.
Granted it's the Washington Free Beacon, but their headline was
classified report that suggests Iranian nuclear programs still intact, likely
(14:37):
relied on faulty info from Iranian sources. Former Intel officers say, so,
let me get this straight. The media is getting their
propaganda now directly from the Iranians. You can't make this up.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Well, it's where the media is. CNN wants America to lose.
They want a Ran to win, ABCNBCCBS, Washington Host, New
York Times. They are cheering for our enemies and against
the President of the United States, and sadly the Democrats. Look,
the Democrats were sitting in the same classified briefing I
(15:11):
was they heard about the incredible success of this military attack.
I got to say, if the Democrats gave a damn
about our country, they would come out and say, you
know what, our servicemen and women are heroes, and they
executed an incredible attack. And by the way, every president
for the last thirty years has said Iran will not
get a nuclear weapon. In this instance, President Trump acted
(15:33):
decisively to take away their nuclear weapons capability, and the
Democrats all ran to the TV cameras and said, this
was terrible, this was terrible. We oppose our nation.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Senator, I want to play for everybody. Pete Headseth at
the Pentagon briefing about how effective this attack actually was
and saying it directly to the media's phase.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
Take a listen peed some of the assessments that had
been because whether it's fake news, CNN, MSNBC or the
New York Times, there's been fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
I've had a chance to read it.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Every outlet has breathlessly reported on a preliminary assessment from
DA I'm looking at it right now again. It was
preliminary a day and a half after the actual strike.
When it admits itself in writing that it requires weeks
to accumulate the necessary data to make such an assessment,
it's preliminary, it points out that it's not been coordinated
(16:33):
with the intelligence community at all. There's low confidence in
this particular report, it says in the report.
Speaker 6 (16:40):
There are gaps in the information.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
It says in the report multiple lynchpin assumptions are what
this assessment a lynchpin assumption.
Speaker 6 (16:48):
You know what that is.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
It means your entire premis is predicated on a lynch pin.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
If you're wrong, everything else is wrong.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
And yet still this report acknowledges it's likely severe damage. Again,
this is preliminary, but leaked because someone had an agenda
to try to muddy the waters and make it look
like this historic strike I wasn't successful. I'm gonna get
to the chairman in a moment, because he's going to
lay out the particulars for you.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
Based on his professional military experience. But here's what other
folks are saying.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
THEDIA that put that report out says that this is
a preliminary, low confidence report and will continue to be
refined as additional intelligence becomes available. How about the Israeli
Atomic Energy Commission? The devastating US strikes on Fourdeaux destroyed
the site's critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable.
(17:39):
Have any of these quotes made their way into the
new York Times or The Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN, any
of these quotes.
Speaker 6 (17:46):
How about this one. This is a new one from
the UN, the United Nations. No friend in the United
States or certainly Israel. Often.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Here's the head of the UN Atomic Energy Agency this morning,
Rafael Grossi and Israeli strikes caused enormous damage to Iran's
nuclear sites.
Speaker 6 (18:06):
Don't take my word for it. How about the IDF's
chief of staff.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
I can say here that the assessment is that we
significantly damage the nuclear program, setting.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
It back by years. I repeat years.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
The Iranian foreign minister, the spokesman, our nuclear instrations have
been badly damaged.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
That's for sure. I'm sure that's an understatement.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
John Radcliffe, the director of the CIA, putting out a
statement just last night. CIA can confirm that a body
of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear program has been severely
damaged by recent targeted strikes.
Speaker 6 (18:41):
This includes new intelligence from.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
A historically reliable, very different than preliminary assessment with low confidence.
He's saying, historically reliable and accurate source of method that
several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have
to be rebuilt.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
Over the course of years.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
You listen to all of that data, and I love
how he laid it out. He's not just saying this
is from our administration, this is from people that hate us,
this from the UN, this is from Iran. Like, how
the hell did you guys go with this report when
it's so off from reality.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Look, I think the evidence is indisputable and it's worth noting,
he said. The Secretary of Defense said in that press
conference that the Iranian nuclear weapons program has been set
back years. I can tell you I spent an hour
and a half in a classified briefing. I can't tell
(19:38):
you what was in that briefing, but we heard nothing
that was inconsistent with what the Secretary of Defense said
in that press conference, which is that this military attack
set Iran's nuclear program back years. It was incredibly effective,
and so that has caused for celebration, which is why
the Democrats don't want people to know about it. The
(20:00):
media don't want people to know about it. But I
have to say I mentioned at the outside of this
program where we're going to discuss what happened, but every
bit is importantly. We're going to discuss what's going to
happen next and listen. It's one thing to talk about
where the puck is today, but you've got to look
at where the puck is going to be tomorrow, and
(20:21):
where the puck is going to be tomorrow. There was
a CNN report that came out this week that said, quote,
the Trump admin Is considering offering i Ran a series
of major benefits to bring it back to the negotiating table.
According to the report, Washington is considering helping Iran establish
(20:42):
a nuclear program for the purpose of producing civilian energy
at a cost of about thirty billion dollars, easing sanctions
and unfreezing billions of frozen Iranian dollars. And I will
tell you within the Trump administration right now, there is
a battle. There were voices within the Trump administration. These
(21:03):
are the voices that opposed the strike on Iran, that
wanted to have weakness and appeasement towards Iran, who are
now saying, well, after the strike, after victory, we should
flow billions of dollars to Iran. We should let them
sell oil, let them sell oil to China. We should
let them make billions. And I got to tell you
(21:26):
this is the same failed approach of Barack Obama and
Joe Biden. We should, under no circumstances allow the Ayatola,
who chance death to America, who has been actively trying
to murder President Trump. We should not let him win
a windfall and get billions of dollars to use to
(21:46):
wage war against America.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
How did we even get to this point where this
was a real possibility. Where is this coming from? Because
it is shocking. Like you said, you don't want to
do the same thing. There was a failure with the
last administrations where they're like, hey, here's billions of dollars,
we'll put it on a plane, and here's a bunch
of American money. You have a great day.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Listen their voices in the Republican Party who have decided
to embrace isolationism, who has decided to say we should
withdraw from the world. You and I talked previously on
this podcast about the interview I did with Tucker Carlson.
I knew what that was going to be. I knew
when I accepted that interview that Tucker was coming after me,
that he was going to do everything he can to
(22:28):
blast me, and he and I spent two hours. It
was a It was a bloodbath. We were pounding the
hell out of each other. But every single thing Tucker
said about Iran and Israel proved wrong. Tucker said publicly,
if America strikes Iran, we would be dragged into World
War three. Thousands of Americans would be killed, and in
(22:51):
World War three we would lose. Now, Ben, that wasn't
slightly wrong, it wasn't a little bit wrong. It was
totally catastrophically utterly false. Tucker also argued with me at
great length, it's not true that Iran is trying to
murder Donald J.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Trump.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Well, you know, it's one thing if you're a talk
show host and you can just kind of yell into
the microphone and ignore facts. But facts matter. The truth matters.
It is an objective fact that Iran has been trying
to murder Donald J. Trump has been trying to murder
him for several years. And I pointed this out in
(23:29):
the interview. I put it out afterwards. I put out
the sealed indictment from the Department of Justice indicting Iranian
hitmen who were here in the United States trying to
murder Donald J.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Trump.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I put out video of President Trump talking about the
Iranians trying to murder him. I put out video of
senior Iranian leaders talking about their intention to murder Donald Trump.
I put out a video that the IRGC put out
an animated video of an Iranian drone murdering Donald Trump
on the golf course at mar A Lago. And it
(24:02):
is an objective fact. And this is where again the
sort of isolationist rhetoric is weird, because when I said
that Iran was trying to murder President Trump, and Tucker said,
I've never heard that, and then he did his kind
of weird, high pitched cackle. He then came back with
this bizarre statement, Well, if that were true, that Iran
(24:25):
were trying to murder Donald J. Trump, well then we
should attack them immediately. We should nuke them. And I
got to say, I kind of wondered if if like
Tucker Carlson's old neokon. To be clear, Tucker carl said
was someone who during the Iraq War, was a cheerleader
for the Iraq War. He basically put on a short
skirt and pom poms. I think the Iraq War was
(24:48):
a mistake. I've been vocal about that for years. Tucker
cheered it on. It is loopy. It is fruit loops
to say you should nuke Iran because they're doing that. No,
the right thing to do is what President Trump did,
which is take out their nuclear weapons capability. And I
got to say Tucker's voice and their allies of Tucker
(25:10):
in the administration who were desperately trying to convince the President,
do not attack Iran, do not take out their nuclear
weapons capability, do not support it Israel, abandon Israel. They
were wrong and they lost this battle. But the second iteration,
and this is coming, is they're now saying, Okay, now
(25:32):
that you've won, give the Iotola billions of dollars, because
it works out really well. When you give billions of
dollars to a theocratic lunatic who says they want to
murder you and is still actively trying to murder you,
that is incredibly foolish. And so I'm merging the president,
don't listen to those voices. They were wrong before and
they're wrong now. Do not send billions of dollars to
(25:55):
the Iotola.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Consider you had this to say on hit his show
about as well.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
The El Sean.
Speaker 7 (26:01):
There are voices in the administration now that the president
has scored an historic victory. Who are urging, Let's cut
a deal. Let's let Iran sell oils, Let's lift all
the sanction. Let's make this a victory for the Iyatola.
Understand this, Iatola still hates America, a chance death to America,
and he's been trying to murder Donald Trump, and so
(26:21):
it would be a catastrophic mistake to flood billions of
dollars into Iran.
Speaker 8 (26:28):
I agree with you. What if they use a proxy
to attack Israel? Does that end the ceasefire? Because I
would imagine that's plant that's the next plan.
Speaker 7 (26:36):
Real quick, you know, I will tell you one of
the best indications of how successful this attack was. Within hours,
Iran was rushing to have a ceasefire. That's because they
are utterly decimated and weakened, and that's why they wanted
to cease fire. But don't think for a minute they
suddenly love America.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Or love Israel. They still hate us.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
They are still our enemy, but we use taking away
their ability to murder Americans.
Speaker 8 (26:59):
If they use a proxy to attack Israel, are they
to blame?
Speaker 7 (27:05):
Of course they are the proxies. Hesbela and Hamas work
for Iran. They pay for them and they control them.
Speaker 8 (27:12):
All right, Senator Ted Cruz, we always appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Centator think hey, strong clothes their center and that's It's
the truth. This is what people are trying to do now.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
It absolutely is.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And I'll tell you one point that I made on
Hannity that I think is powerful. We started this show
by talking about how the Democrats in the media are
trying to claim the attack was not effective. If that
were true, why did Iran immediately want a cease fire. Look,
Iran has been at war with Israel for years. They
(27:44):
had been lobbing missiles, They had been funding Hamas and Hesbela.
Understand Hamas more than ninety percent of Hamas's budget comes
from Iran. Hesbela more than ninety percent of Hesbela's budget
comes from Iran.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Iran.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
When the Iatola chance death to American death to Israel,
he means it. They have spent millions of millions of dollars,
They have killed thousands of American servicemen and women. They
have been the leading state sponsor of terrorism for decades.
And after this, Look, Iran has had a really rough year.
October seventh they funded October seventh and since October seventh.
(28:21):
Hamas has been utterly decimated, Hesbela has been utterly decimated.
But Sharrasad, who was their puppet leader in Syria, he
has fallen. The Huthis who they were funding, who were
attacking American ships and shipping through the Suez Canal, they
are badly degraded. And now Iran when they were on
the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons. Look, if you're the
(28:42):
Ayatola and you're weak and you're collapsing, getting a nuclear
weapon is your hail Mary. It's the one chance to say, Okay,
we're relevant, we're strong. And then Israel devastatingly takes out
their military capability, their air defenses. The entire course of
this war, Iran had no control over their air defenses.
(29:03):
Israel had total superiority. And then the United States when
we went in and did our bombing run, Iran could
not defend themselves. And then America comes in. I think
Iran believed they could talk talk, talk and avoid any
real consequences. I think they felt that Fida was deep
enough under a mountain there was nothing they could do
about it, and that America would never use bunker buster
(29:24):
bombs against him. And by the way, Joe Biden never
would have. The Democrats never would have. But Donald J. Trump,
he's not an isolationist, he's not weak. He's not interested
in a prolonged war. Note, we did not invade Iran,
we did not send boots on the ground. We're not
going there trying to turn them into a democratic utopia.
We're not trying to turn them into Switzerland. The objective
(29:46):
of the mission was very, very focused. It was to
stop Iran from having nuclear weapons capability. And by the way, Ben,
the reason I went on Tucker Carlson just a week
ago was to make clear that Present Trump is right
and Tucker Carlson was wrong. And I think I was
unhappy with Tucker because he's been attacking President Trump. He
(30:09):
said that President Trump was complicit in the attack on Iran.
He claimed amazingly enough, that Donald Trump was not America first,
that if you attack Iran, you're not America first. And
President Trump quite rightly came back and said, look, I
invented the damn term, and what I say is what
(30:31):
America first is. And he said to Tucker, he said, look,
if you want I ran to have a nuclear weapon,
that ain't America first, because these lunatics want to kill us.
President Trump is exactly right, and this has been I'll
tell you. I texted him this week and I told him,
mister President, this past week has been the single finest
(30:54):
leadership you have.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Had the entire time.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
And I'm incredibly proud the job you're doing as commander
in chief.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
You know, one of the comparing contrasts that you talk
about with these this administration in the past was brought
up at the White House Press briefing room. Carolyn Levitt,
I think did a great job of explaining the difference
very much like you just described it. And here's what
she said to the press about the real story here.
Speaker 9 (31:20):
Fani and regime was weeks away from being able to
produce a nuclear weapon that would threaten the entire world.
Before President Trump took this decisive action on Saturday night
to obliterate their nuclear capabilities. The contrast and leadership could
not be more clear. Barack Obama and Joe Biden sent
palettes of cash American taxpayer dollars in a failed attempt
(31:42):
to buy the Iranian regime's compliance with a weak and
ineffective deal. President Trump sent a fleet of American warplanes
to destroy Ouran's ability to produce a nuclear weapon. The
United States and the entire world are safer because of
this President's decisiveness. Fite agenda driven leaks by the fake
news media aimed at undermining this incredible accomplishment achieved by
(32:06):
President Trump and our brave fighter pilots. There is broad
consensus emerging already that Iran's nuclear capabilities were indeed destroyed.
The United States, Israel, the United Nations, and even Iran
all agree they can no longer build a nuclear weapon.
So what did the president? Why did the President immediately
(32:26):
turn to obliterating after the Iranian nuclear threat? Securing peace?
Within forty eight hours of the devastating strike, President Trump
and his team broke her to historic ceasefire between Israel
and Iran and officially ended the twelve day war. The
Middle East is now shifting away from chaos in bloodshed
and moving toward the beginning stages of a new era
(32:49):
of peace, instability that President Trump has long called on
them to achieve. This was unthinkable at this time last week.
And this is what peace through strength looks like.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
I mean, it's just laying it out right to their faces. Right,
this is what the president said, this is what he believed,
this is what he was going to do. We're not
back down. And she also said something else that also
the d D said several different ways, how dare you
not just give some accolades the men and women that
risk their lives to pull this off and did it flawlessly.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Look, peace through strength is exactly what this is. And
the left that they have a bizarre view that weakness
and appeasement somehow avoids war. Listen, if you look through history,
the opposite is true. Weakness and appeasement encourages our enemies.
They engage in more hostilities, you get more war. I
(33:43):
have joked, but there is a reason nobody goes and
studies at the Neville Chamberlain School of Foreign Affairs. Appeasement
doesn't work. Donald J. Trump is a strong commander in
chief just like Ronald Reagan was. And I'll tell you
your family and my family, all of our families are
safer because President Trump acted decisively to take out Iran's
(34:06):
nuclear weapons capability.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Don't forget We do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday,
and make sure that subscribe or auto download button wherever
you get your podcast so you do not miss an episode,
and also tomorrow on Saturday, we'll have the Week in Review,
some of the top things we talked about this past
week that you may have missed, so make sure you
listen to that as well, and the Senate I will
see you back here Saturday morning.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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