June 22, 2025 • 34 mins
In this breaking news special, Gary Hoffman unpacks the shockwaves from the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, revealing how a top-secret operation unfolded with surgical precision. He breaks down why President Trump bypassed Congress, how deception played a critical role, and why Iran may be far weaker than it seems. Plus: live updates from Downtown L.A. with KFI’s Michael Monks, chilling church security footage out of Michigan, and Gary’s clear-eyed take on what the War Powers Act really allows.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Just yesterday, Pakistan said they were going to nominate Donald
Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
That news came.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Out a few hours before the news came out that
Americans had struck the Iranian nuclear sites. But I thought
that was kind of a fun, interesting thing of the
craziest weekend that we've seen in quite a while. Hey,
it's Gary here until four o'clock today as we follow
a couple of things that are going on, not just
(00:35):
the military action against Iran of course that we saw
yesterday and into overnight, but also Michael Monks downtown just
keeping our eyes on that situation down there, because we know,
as we've seen the last couple of weeks, things downtown
can get kind of out of control if we don't
keep an eye on them.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
So that's why we put.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Michael Monks down there on his own sort of Operation
Midnight Hammer, if you will. The strikes on Iran's nuclear
facilities were spectacular, and I mean that in not just
the positive sense of they were a good military move.
They were spectacular in that the mechanism of the American
(01:17):
military worked to a t. It seems and that is
a pretty amazing thing when you think about seven B
two bombers that took off from the United States, flew
thirty thirty plus hours round trip for about two minutes
(01:37):
of excitement, and then all the way back in that
thirty seven thirty thirty thirty seven hour trip. We've already
seen some of the images of B two bombers landing
at Whitman Air Force Base there in Missouri, where the
B twos are often stationed. We'll talk a little bit about,
among other things, the deception that took place. There's a
(02:00):
certain amount of operational security that you have to have
in any sort of military operation like that. That's part
of the reason why the White House likely didn't go
to Congress to seek any sort of war powers resolution or.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Anything like that.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
The president doesn't have to these people that are screaming
for the you know that this was an unconstitutional No,
it wasn't it. You may be upset, but it was
not unconstitutional. The president has a lot of power when
it comes to things like this, strikes like this, military
events like this, so that wasn't necessarily a problem. But
(02:37):
there's a lot of operational security that goes into it.
And we hear say in the media or in the
general public, we often fall for the things that they
want us to fall for, and I was one of them.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I was following a couple of different.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Operations sorry, open signals, intelligence, Twitter feeds, and this is
just you know, the stuff that everybody has access to.
It's just a matter of knowing where to find it.
None of it is hidden. But there was a lot
of information about some B two bombers and tankers that
had taken off from the West coast of the United States.
There were some tankers that had taken off from Travis
(03:17):
Air Force Base up in northern California and were headed
on their way to Guam. And I think that was
probably Friday morning that we saw that. And what we
actually saw was an incredible diversion because if we in
the general public and the government of Iran believes that
(03:37):
the attack is coming from that side of the planet,
when in fact it was coming from the other side
the much shorter route. I say much shorter, it's still
seven thousand miles or so between between Missouri and Tehran.
But they were as surprised, we assume, as everybody else
(03:58):
was about what was going on, and think about this,
think about the cup. If that's the diversion that everybody
was kind of keeping their eyes on the South Pacific
and our military assets in Guam, And is that where
the pilots are going to be taking off from. Maybe
it's Diego Garcia, that tiny little island that's out in
the Indian Ocean, that would be much closer, but still
(04:21):
a pretty hefty skip to get up to Tehran. One
hundred and twenty five different aircraft involved in this attack
on Iran. All three of the nuclear sites we know
sustained severe damage. In fact, President Trump on truth Social
just a few moments ago, posted the damage to the
(04:41):
nuclear sites in Iran is said to be monumental. The
hits were hard and accurate. Great skill was shown by
our military. Thank you. A short time after that, he
posted on truth Social, it's not politically correct to use
the term regime change, but if the current Iranian regime
is unable to make ira great again, why wouldn't there
(05:02):
be a regime change? And then instead of Maga m aga,
he wrote mega m IgA, make Iran great again, and
then adds a handful of exclamation points just to just
to make it officially, Donald Trump. So over the course
of the next couple hours, we're going to go through
some of what we know has been the reaction, especially
(05:25):
from members of Congress, to this. It is almost not
entirely but it is almost predictable down party lines about
what both people are going to say, what both parties
are going to say about the attack on Iran. But
like I said, it's not entirely down political lines, and
there are some standout Republicans who are in complete disagreement
(05:50):
with President Trump about exactly what happened. So Iran has
warned of consequences. Tiffany played for you the foreign minister
from Iran talking about how the United States can't rest
on its laurels, always be on the lookout, head on.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
A swivel, all of that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
It's not as if Iran has the same capability to
promote terrorism here as they used to. That doesn't mean
we're completely immune to it, but they do not have
the reach that they once did. So we'll talk about
all of this as we go through what's going on today,
(06:29):
the fallout from this. We get any more statements, of course,
from the White House or from the Pentagon or from
the Israeli government or the Iranian government. A lot of
things in play. Will definitely bring those to you. But
when we come back, we're going to talk with Michael Monks.
He is downtown a couple of different protests that are
supposed to materialize today, and we'll see how things are going,
and he's keep an eye on that for Operation monks
(06:51):
Hammer downtown.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
It's gary.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
It will be here till about four o'clock and then
somewhat normal programming, we believe after that. Of course, we're
talking about the United States hitting three nuclear sites in
Iran in an overnight operation one hundred and twenty five aircraft,
most notably seven of our B two bombers that were there.
It's almost a third of the entire fleet that we have.
(07:19):
All three of those nuclear sites in Iran did sustain
severe damage. President Trump did say that I'm trying to
go through his social poster, the damage to the nuclear
sites in Iran is said to be monumental. The hits
were hard and accurate, great skills shown by our military.
He also wrote a short time ago on truth social
the Great B two Pilots have just landed safely in Missouri.
(07:42):
Thank you for a job well done. Donald J. Trump,
President of the United States. I had to sign it
because it's his own account.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
But Washington.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
By the way, the White House says that they did
send a message to Tehran urging them to engage in
peace talks, but Iran's foreign minister said that that was
not going to happen. Also, the New York Post is
reporting that they actually tried to get a hold of
the Iyetola at the very last minute before those airstrikes.
(08:14):
According to Axios, three officials have told Axios President Trump
greenlit the attacks after the back channel in Tehran was
unable to get the Supreme Leader on the horn that
has pushed for diplomacy hit this as snag when Iotola
Ali Camene allegedly went into radio silence because he was
afraid of an assassination attempt. That was big news in
(08:36):
the middle of the week last week when the suggestion
came out that Israel had a plan to assassinate the Ietola,
but Donald Trump put the kibosh on it. There has
been plans for some protests in downtown Los Angeles and
Michael Monks is there our protest, Maven who has been
keeping an eye on this, If all the ones you've
(08:57):
seen in the last two weeks, it sounds like this.
This one is low on the scale for you, Oh.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Definitely much calmer than what we had been used to.
And what started at twelve o'clock was a hastily thrown
together anti war protest. That was the main message. A
group of folks who just wanted to speak out against
potential war with Iran. That was the dominating theme of
the speakers and the participants and all of the signage
(09:23):
that was created, along with occasional references to immigration or
gaza and those sorts of things. Even some messaging against
Democrats as well. So a bit of a hodgepodge of
a protest, but mostly focused on anti war. This was
outside La City Hall and it drew about fifty people
and some of the organizers, some of the participants were
(09:44):
also involved in that massive protest last week with the
no Kings messaging. This didn't quite reach the turnout of that.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Are you getting to the point where you are familiar
with some of these faces out there, starting to recognize people.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
You know bit at least the words I can usually
predict the chance, and that's always true when you cover
local government. You know you're gonna get a c sapayda
or that sort of thing. You know what the message
is going to be. Certainly, what's been hard to keep
track of is wish flag we're waving this week. It's
gotten so confusing that I noted with Tiffany in the
(10:20):
last hour that a flag salesman showed up to this
protest and stood just outside of it selling different flags.
So if you're waving the American flag or the Mexican flag,
or the Palestinian flag, or now maybe the Iranian flag,
there's a buck to be made.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, And if you could combine some of those flags together.
We've seen some of those half and half flags. Those
we have those a hot item right now here on
the street vending scene.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Is there fatigue do you think?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I mean, we've seen a lot of people out on
the streets for the last couple of weeks, But is
this something that's gonna generate enough heat for people to
come on out?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
I asked one of the organizers this when I interviewed
him last hour. Was look because he was off all
of the different issues that they're concerned about. And I thought,
it's not just a list that you've just rated off.
These are all individually items that have led to massive demonstrations,
even here in Los Angeles, downtown Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
So how do you keep that?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I guess energy towards all this.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Think about what we've gone through just in the past
year between Palestinian oriented marches and then you know what
we've seen so far this year against President Trump or
an immigration enforcement. It's just been a constant stream of large,
massive protests. I don't know that today is an indication
(11:41):
that they've lost energy. I just am not sure if
they know where to go next, physically where to go,
because when you're doing an anti war speech, you know,
you show up at the government building, I suppose, But
it didn't draw the crowd that we had been seeing.
I don't know if it's a loss of energy, if
it's a loss of organizational structure, or yeah, just people
(12:06):
who have protest fatigue. But this was a bit of
a bust. Yeah, I'm sorry, I shouldn't editorialize like that.
There were fifty people who expressed themselves enthusiastically, but it
did not amount to the size of crowds that we've
been seeing the.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
No editorialized for you and say it sounds like it
was a bust.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
It is funny.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I mean, we saw some of the flyers on social
media that suggested the no More War in the Middle
East protest we won't die for oil, profit or empire,
and that it was supposed to be today at twelve
pm city Hall. And obviously City Hall is a central
gathering place, but Los Angeles City Hall has nothing to
do with a decision to send me two bombers halfway
(12:49):
around the world and back with the giant, giant ordinances.
So I'm curious. I mean, I get your point of
they probably I don't know exactly what to do next
or who to target.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
It was so sudden, you know, I do the show
on Saturday night and Tifany goes on at five. I
go on at seven, and you know, just before she
went on the area yesterday at five is when we
got the message from President Trump that this had all
taken place. So we're still not even twenty four hours
removed from the public acknowledgment from the White House that
these military strikes took place, and so the rapid response
(13:25):
from this group may not be as swift as maybe
some of the more leftist organizations who organize those rapid
responses against immediate immigration enforcement. Not just that we're going
to take a stand in general against it, but like
there's there's immigration enforcement happening right now on this block.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
In Maywood and a crew shows up.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
I mean, this is a group that needs some time,
it looks like, in order to gin up the type
of enthusiasm that we saw for them a week ago
at the No Kings. They do have other events planned,
because some of these organizers are involved in that fifty
to fifty one group that planned the No Kings and
the Hands Off Medicare thing a couple months prior. They
(14:08):
have plans for July four, they have plans for July seventeen.
They're already promoting those and you can probably expect a
decent turnout for those. But it doesn't seem like the
type of organizers that can turn it on a dime
and get folks out the way that some of the
leftist groups can. Here.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, I think you make a good point as well,
because this is this is kind of a sanitized thing.
I mean, it's an event that took place halfway around
the world for years, for decades, we've been hearing that
Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism, so it's
they're already characterized as sort of the bad guys in
(14:44):
this and then we do something to cripple their ability
to continue terrorism and in this case, to develop nuclear terrorism.
So it's almost as if, yeah, we clearly don't want
to lose American men and women service members and put
them in harm's way, but it's also fuck. I mean,
you could argue it's on the whole a positive. So
(15:08):
there's going to be a harder it's going to be
harder to pull people, you know, into a protest and
get them fired up for something that happened and they know, no,
they know nothing about it. You know, it's not affecting that,
it's not affecting their their streets, their neighborhood, their community
in general. It's could be argued it's as a as
a positive.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
So exactly, I think that's great analysis, that's exactly right.
We did hear some folks try to compare Iran to
Text as I heard one of the speakers say they
have universal healthcare in Iran, we don't have that here.
And then you know that people want to talk about
the restrictions on women in Iran.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
There are these restrictions on women in Texas.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Why don't we invade Texas if we need to invade
over some of these things. It was it was clear
that outside of the generic no war message, it was
hard to find something to really sink their teeth into
in terms of getting some enthusiasm beyond that general message,
because there were just a lot of different statements going
(16:07):
on out there.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
All right, what's your plan? Well, i'll tell you.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
We were hearing that there was going to be another
protest related to immigration enforcement outside that federal building, the
roy Ball Federal Building here in downtown La I saw
about one hundred demonstrators who marched along Los Angeles Street,
still in the overpass over the one oh one.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
And they quickly dissipated.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I don't know where they disappeared to, but it looks
like there's a bit of a festival going on at
Olvera Street al Pueblo, So I don't know if they
just went in and blended into that. They were peaceful.
They didn't do anything except wave some signs and cheer,
and as of now, as of just two minutes ago,
when I went past the backside of that building where
a lot of these heated confrontations with law enforcement and
(16:54):
military have taken place. It's just six guardsmen guarding the
garage and not a single protester in sight at this point.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Good, good y, honor, good calm Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Then, hoping it calms down. I am going to be
at the ready for you, Gary. I know that if
Gary Hoffman is in that seat on a weekend, something
horrible has happened in the world.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
So we are always ready to help you out when
you need us.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, that I couldn't sleep, my nap didn't work out,
something like that. Michael Monks, Downtown, LA for KFI News.
Thanks man, you got it all right. We will continue
and again continuing coverage of not just the strikes on Iran,
but the fallout. There was also an event that took
place in Michigan. There was a shooting at a church today.
(17:39):
I'll talk a little bit about that when we come back.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Gary Hoffman in until four o'clock today. Chris Meryl will
be along at that point. Krazer's sitting over there in
the newsroom. We're trying to figure out everything that's going on.
Of course, with the American strikes on Iran. There was
a story Nash story though up in Michigan, Wayne, Michigan.
This morning, there was a shooting at a community church
(18:08):
at cross Point Community Church, an active shooter was declared.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
This is a suburb of Detroit by the way.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Security guard at the church shot and killed this guy
before officers were able to get there, and the reason
the security guard had time to take aim at him
was because one of the deacons who was showing up
to church ran him over with his truck. The deacon
hit and clobbered the guy with an f one point
(18:37):
fifty and then the church security guard was able to
come over and finish him off. They said that no
one else at the time was hurt. Only one person,
the security guard himself, was the one who was injured.
The shooter did fire multiple shots into the church, but
did not actually go into the building. There were about
(18:58):
one hundred and fifty people in there at the time.
They were live streaming the service when it happened. It
had more kids in there as usual. Showed the moment
when people inside became aware of what was going on
and you can hear people yelling, get down, everybody to
the back, and then again he was hit by a
truck and then shot and killed by a church security guard.
(19:21):
So that was in Wayne, Michigan today. So Operation Midnight Hammer,
that is what this is being called. One hundred and
twenty five aircraft were involved in the strikes on Iran.
The three nuclear sites all considered to have suffered severe damage,
although at this point we don't know exactly how severe.
(19:43):
The head of the United Nations Nuclear Watchdog group said,
the extent of this is still unclear, despite some satellite
images that are out that now show that the bombs
literally moved mountains in some respects. The chief of the
the International Atomic Energy Agency excuse me, Raphael Grossi, confirmed
(20:05):
that yes, the strikes did hit, and that they hit
the most fortified nuclear site called Ford Doh during an
emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. That is, I
believe it's still going on actually today in New York.
And what he said was craters are visible at the
Fordah site, Iran's main location for enriching uranium, indicating the
use by the United States of ground penetrating munitions. We
(20:28):
knew that this is consistent with the statements from the
United States, but he said, given the fact that Fordah
is underground, neither the IAEA or anyone else has been
able to access to assess the damage. Specifically, along with
the damage at Ford OH, several buildings and entrance tunnels
had been destroyed at the Ishfahan nuclear site and additional
(20:51):
damage at Natan's as well. One of the guys that
I was listening to earlier today talked about the specifics
of these munitions, and again we've talked about We spent
all week on the Gary and Shannon Show talking about
these bunker buster bombs. This is retired Admiral Mark Montgomery
who said this specific these GBU fifty sevens, this is
(21:14):
literally exactly what they were designed for underground Iranian nuclear facilities.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Myself and many of the other retired generals and animals
who've worked this issue for you know, almost fifteen to
eighteen years. You know, from the initial planning the Massive
Ordinance penetrary was conceived two or three administrations ago. So
the idea that we're finally using it is about time.
We have cycled our forces through the Middle East so
many times, particularly the Navy and the Air Force and
(21:43):
the Army's air defenders that it really impacts our readiness.
So actually doing this strike now there's a path through
to to not being so critically involved in the Middle
East all the time because we've removed the number one
threat to Middle East peace, the Iranian nuclear No.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Sorry I cut him off.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
The other point about what this guy was saying, again,
retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, is that this kind of
operation where you've got airplanes in the air for hours
and hours and hours at a.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Time, is not entirely unusual.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
It was a big lift obviously, like I said, one
hundred and twenty five different aircraft that were involved, including
those seven B two bombers, but that this specific bomb
that was dropped fourteen of them to be exact, was
what made this the unusual operation that it was.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
What was unique was the dropping of the of the
massive ordinance penetrators at twelve at four to Doah and
two at Natans. Now, those pilots had practiced it hundreds
of times, but they had not used an operational weapon
this way. What we can see in the imagery are
six entry points at four to oh, which I.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Think is twelve.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
Weapons, you know, because they tend they tend to put
one right down on the other after it creates a channel,
so that twelve on four to doh is going to
cause a lot of damage. And then the two at
Natan's I think was clean up. The Israelis left us
some work to do there, knowing that a massive ordinance
penetrator would be a better weapon to go after the
centrifuge halls. So that's those fourteen massive ordinance penetrators.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Fourteen fourteen of them again seven by two bombers. That's
about a third of the fleet that we have. And
I mentioned earlier that some of them were sent to
Guam to kind of distract everybody, and then that was
almost all of the GBU fifty seven's that we have
produced to this point. It's not that the explosives are
(23:40):
as make that a fifteen ton beast, it's the way
it's constructed with that hardened steal so that it can
penetrate the ground before the secondary explosion. Now I mentioned
that there are congressional reactions to the American strikes on Iran,
and again some of them are via some of them
(24:00):
are people that you would not expect to be criticizing
President Trump, but Tim Kaine ran for vice president with
Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump and Mike Pence. He said
that this is an overreach of presidential authority. He asserted
that Congress has to vote before initiating offensive military actions,
which is not entirely true. He warned of the risk
(24:22):
of getting the US into a prolonged Middle East conflict
without the backing of the electorate. Listen, there is that
there is a possibility of that, but we've been involved
in the Middle East for decades and we will be
for decades regardless of how this plays out. I think
it's important to point out that other Arab states, they're
(24:46):
not mad that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon
or is now back into the Stone Age in terms
of its nuclear program. Other Arab states are not unhappy
about that. They are just fine with this. They may
put out statements that say that the United States did
something we can't go back from.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Or blah blah blah. They do not want Iran to
have a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Chuck Schumer, of course, called for the Senate to immediately
hold a vote under the War Powers Act to reassert
Congress's role in declaring war as we've seen before, this
is not a war. Congress has not declared war since
World War Two. And think of all of the military
conflicts we've gotten into, some for years at a time.
(25:31):
Think Afghanistan or Iraq, or Vietnam, or any number of
conflicts that we've been in that did not require Congressional approval.
Haakim Jeffries, minority leader in the House, accused the President
of misleading the public and bypassing Congress. He's listen, he's
got to mislead the public. In a situation like this,
(25:53):
you can't, for just for the protection of the men
and women that are going to be there at the
tip of the spear, you can't tell everybody what's about
to happen. That's why he was so coy about his
two week warning. Remember that on Thursday or Friday, whatever
it was. Now Thomas Massey is a surprise to me
(26:17):
only that he's a Republican, the Republican from Kentucky. I mean,
this guy goes to the beat of his own drum.
He has introduced, with Congressman Rocanna from here in California, Democrat,
a joint War Powers resolution stating that the action was
not constitutional without prior congressional authorization.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Again, every I shouldn't say every.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Most presidents have some military action under their belt where
the opposing party raises their hands and says, this is
the unconstitutional use of the American military, and it's never
the case. This one is going to be similar. There
are people who are going to claim that this was
an unconstitutional use of American military power, and there's no
(27:01):
evidence that that's the case. So we'll talk more about
what this means for Iran going forward. Is there anything
that Iran can do to poke back at the United States.
It's Gary Hoff, but I'm in for I don't know who.
Normally it's Tiffany. Usually it's in this spot right something
(27:22):
like that. I'm Usually it's nap time for me, So
it changes every weekend. Good rotating cast of characters.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
You're listening to KFI AM six on demand, of.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Course, doing the regular show tomorrow, So at nine o'clock
we'll pick up on some of the information that we
are going to be getting in we assume overnight tonight
and into tomorrow about the extent of damage on the
strikes for strikes on three of Iran's nuclear sites. Of
course fourd oh Natans and Ishfahan. This was Operation Midnight Hammer.
(27:58):
We know that at least seven of these B two
bombers carried fourteen of the mops. These GBU fifty seven
massive ordnance penetrators, the bunker buster bombs and then Tomahawk
missiles were also fired from submarines. President Trump said that
this was very successful, spectacular military success. And of course
(28:20):
the final damage evaluations are still pending, notably for the
deeply shielded facilities like four to H which is why
we hit those, we believe with twelve of those mops.
I've mentioned just before that break about some of the
congressional reactions to the strikes on Iran, and as I mentioned,
(28:40):
the War Powers Resolution of nineteen seventy three does set
out some specifics of what the president is allowed to do,
but also what he is required he or she is
required to do in the event that he calls for
military action. The War Powers Resolution nineteen seventy three actually
(29:00):
limits the ability to commit troops to an armed conflict
without congressional approval. It requires the President to notify Congress
within forty eight hours of deploying troops, and it mandates
a withdrawal after sixty days unless Congress comes in and
authorizes the use of force, which is a pretty wide
(29:20):
ranging amount of stuff that a president can do without
getting approval from Congress. Now, again, some people have already
suggested that this was grounds for impeachment. I think Alexandria
Ocassio Cortes, the She and Rashida Talib and Bernie Sanders
(29:42):
have all said that this was grossly unconstitutional, which again isn't.
Senator Lindsey Graham a Republican out of South Carolina, he
has been calling for this for a long time, so
he was a supporter. But so was John Fetterman, the
Democrat out of Pennsylvania. They took a position of support
for these strikes, said that this was the right call
(30:04):
to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
He had a whole trio of others.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Roger Wicker, Republican out of Mississippi, Jim rish out of Idaho,
Mike Johnson out of Louisiana speaker. They supported this. They
said that this was limited, It was decisive that there
is no intention of regime change or a forever war.
I mean the regime change thing is different because we
know that President Trump has kind of addressed that in
(30:30):
a truth social post. But this boots on the ground
deployment myth that's floating out there is not going to happen.
We are not going into Iran with boots on the ground,
because that would entail an absolute slaughter of somebody, whether
it's American military men and women, Iranian civilians, the Irani military.
(30:53):
That's not what we're interested in. Warren Davidson of Ohio,
Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia. They actually are Republicans that
were at least concerned about this. They have talked about
constitutional concerns about this. They have said before that in
(31:13):
that farthest right side of the MAGA movement, they do
not want to get involved in any more foreign wars.
The President will tell you the White House has already
said this is not war with Iran.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
But to use.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
To use Speaker Mike Johnson's words, this was limited, that
this was decisive. Jasmine Crockett has said that Congress must
authorize military force before any president launches a strike, and
again that's just simply a mis interpretation of the War
Powers Resolution of nineteen seventy three. For example, for example,
(31:50):
Bill Clinton ordered air strikes on Bosnia ninety five. Also,
Bill Clinton ordered air strikes on Kosovo in ninety nine
without price congressional authorization.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
There was also a vote.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Congress did vote to pass the pass, sorry tried to
vote to pass the resolution that would authorize continued NATO
bombings in that Bosnia and Kosovo episode, but it failed.
Barack Obama in twenty eleven authorized airstrikes in Libya part
of a NATO operation, again without congressional approval, and the
(32:30):
administration argued, just like the Trump administration is, arguing that
it didn't need authorization since it wasn't a full scale war,
prompting debate over what does entail or what does require
an actual Congressional vote under that War Powers resolution from.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
So they're going to talk about it, They're gonna yell
about it, They're going to raise their voices about it.
We've seen members of Congress talk about it all day today,
and you could bet when the new cycle again starts
the first thing in the morning, going to be doing
it much much more. I mentioned also the ongoing suggestion
that Iran has some sort of ability to strike back
(33:10):
at the United States.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
It doesn't appear that they do, clearly.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
The United States has tens of thousands of military men
and women within range of offensive weapons that Iran does have,
but their capability has been degraded so much by the
ongoing now ten days I believe of Israeli air strikes
against their ballistic missile production facilities, against their missile launchers,
(33:37):
that it doesn't appear that Iran has the capability of
coming after the United States in any real way. So
now the concern is their proxy units, whether it's Hesblah
or Hamas to a much lesser extent, but the Huthis
in Yemen could gum things up if they start targeting
American warships there in the Persian Gulf area, so something.
(33:59):
All of this stuff is still going on. When we
come back, we'll hear from a bunch of the leaders
the President's address from last night. Pete Hegseth and as
a Secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, also had a very early news conference
this morning and talked about the incredible success and bravery
of the men and women who pulled this thing off
(34:21):
late in the middle.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Of the night.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
So we'll talk about all of that stuff still coming
up in the next hour.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Just yesterday, Pakistan said they were going to nominate Donald
Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
That news came.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Out a few hours before the news came out that
Americans had struck the Iranian nuclear sites. But I thought
that was kind of a fun, interesting thing of the
craziest weekend that we've seen in quite a while. Hey,
it's Gary here until four o'clock today as we follow
a couple of things that are going on, not just
(00:35):
the military action against Iran of course that we saw
yesterday and into overnight, but also Michael Monks downtown just
keeping our eyes on that situation down there, because we know,
as we've seen the last couple of weeks, things downtown
can get kind of out of control if we don't
keep an eye on them.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
So that's why we put.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Michael Monks down there on his own sort of Operation
Midnight Hammer, if you will. The strikes on Iran's nuclear
facilities were spectacular, and I mean that in not just
the positive sense of they were a good military move.
They were spectacular in that the mechanism of the American
(01:17):
military worked to a t. It seems and that is
a pretty amazing thing when you think about seven B
two bombers that took off from the United States, flew
thirty thirty plus hours round trip for about two minutes
(01:37):
of excitement, and then all the way back in that
thirty seven thirty thirty thirty seven hour trip. We've already
seen some of the images of B two bombers landing
at Whitman Air Force Base there in Missouri, where the
B twos are often stationed. We'll talk a little bit about,
among other things, the deception that took place. There's a
(02:00):
certain amount of operational security that you have to have
in any sort of military operation like that. That's part
of the reason why the White House likely didn't go
to Congress to seek any sort of war powers resolution or.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Anything like that.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
The president doesn't have to these people that are screaming
for the you know that this was an unconstitutional No,
it wasn't it. You may be upset, but it was
not unconstitutional. The president has a lot of power when
it comes to things like this, strikes like this, military
events like this, so that wasn't necessarily a problem. But
(02:37):
there's a lot of operational security that goes into it.
And we hear say in the media or in the
general public, we often fall for the things that they
want us to fall for, and I was one of them.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I was following a couple of different.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Operations sorry, open signals, intelligence, Twitter feeds, and this is
just you know, the stuff that everybody has access to.
It's just a matter of knowing where to find it.
None of it is hidden. But there was a lot
of information about some B two bombers and tankers that
had taken off from the West coast of the United States.
There were some tankers that had taken off from Travis
(03:17):
Air Force Base up in northern California and were headed
on their way to Guam. And I think that was
probably Friday morning that we saw that. And what we
actually saw was an incredible diversion because if we in
the general public and the government of Iran believes that
(03:37):
the attack is coming from that side of the planet,
when in fact it was coming from the other side
the much shorter route. I say much shorter, it's still
seven thousand miles or so between between Missouri and Tehran.
But they were as surprised, we assume, as everybody else
(03:58):
was about what was going on, and think about this,
think about the cup. If that's the diversion that everybody
was kind of keeping their eyes on the South Pacific
and our military assets in Guam, And is that where
the pilots are going to be taking off from. Maybe
it's Diego Garcia, that tiny little island that's out in
the Indian Ocean, that would be much closer, but still
(04:21):
a pretty hefty skip to get up to Tehran. One
hundred and twenty five different aircraft involved in this attack
on Iran. All three of the nuclear sites we know
sustained severe damage. In fact, President Trump on truth Social
just a few moments ago, posted the damage to the
(04:41):
nuclear sites in Iran is said to be monumental. The
hits were hard and accurate. Great skill was shown by
our military. Thank you. A short time after that, he
posted on truth Social, it's not politically correct to use
the term regime change, but if the current Iranian regime
is unable to make ira great again, why wouldn't there
(05:02):
be a regime change? And then instead of Maga m aga,
he wrote mega m IgA, make Iran great again, and
then adds a handful of exclamation points just to just
to make it officially, Donald Trump. So over the course
of the next couple hours, we're going to go through
some of what we know has been the reaction, especially
(05:25):
from members of Congress, to this. It is almost not
entirely but it is almost predictable down party lines about
what both people are going to say, what both parties
are going to say about the attack on Iran. But
like I said, it's not entirely down political lines, and
there are some standout Republicans who are in complete disagreement
(05:50):
with President Trump about exactly what happened. So Iran has
warned of consequences. Tiffany played for you the foreign minister
from Iran talking about how the United States can't rest
on its laurels, always be on the lookout, head on.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
A swivel, all of that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
It's not as if Iran has the same capability to
promote terrorism here as they used to. That doesn't mean
we're completely immune to it, but they do not have
the reach that they once did. So we'll talk about
all of this as we go through what's going on today,
(06:29):
the fallout from this. We get any more statements, of course,
from the White House or from the Pentagon or from
the Israeli government or the Iranian government. A lot of
things in play. Will definitely bring those to you. But
when we come back, we're going to talk with Michael Monks.
He is downtown a couple of different protests that are
supposed to materialize today, and we'll see how things are going,
and he's keep an eye on that for Operation monks
(06:51):
Hammer downtown.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
It's gary.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
It will be here till about four o'clock and then
somewhat normal programming, we believe after that. Of course, we're
talking about the United States hitting three nuclear sites in
Iran in an overnight operation one hundred and twenty five aircraft,
most notably seven of our B two bombers that were there.
It's almost a third of the entire fleet that we have.
(07:19):
All three of those nuclear sites in Iran did sustain
severe damage. President Trump did say that I'm trying to
go through his social poster, the damage to the nuclear
sites in Iran is said to be monumental. The hits
were hard and accurate, great skills shown by our military.
He also wrote a short time ago on truth social
the Great B two Pilots have just landed safely in Missouri.
(07:42):
Thank you for a job well done. Donald J. Trump,
President of the United States. I had to sign it
because it's his own account.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
But Washington.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
By the way, the White House says that they did
send a message to Tehran urging them to engage in
peace talks, but Iran's foreign minister said that that was
not going to happen. Also, the New York Post is
reporting that they actually tried to get a hold of
the Iyetola at the very last minute before those airstrikes.
(08:14):
According to Axios, three officials have told Axios President Trump
greenlit the attacks after the back channel in Tehran was
unable to get the Supreme Leader on the horn that
has pushed for diplomacy hit this as snag when Iotola
Ali Camene allegedly went into radio silence because he was
afraid of an assassination attempt. That was big news in
(08:36):
the middle of the week last week when the suggestion
came out that Israel had a plan to assassinate the Ietola,
but Donald Trump put the kibosh on it. There has
been plans for some protests in downtown Los Angeles and
Michael Monks is there our protest, Maven who has been
keeping an eye on this, If all the ones you've
(08:57):
seen in the last two weeks, it sounds like this.
This one is low on the scale for you, Oh.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Definitely much calmer than what we had been used to.
And what started at twelve o'clock was a hastily thrown
together anti war protest. That was the main message. A
group of folks who just wanted to speak out against
potential war with Iran. That was the dominating theme of
the speakers and the participants and all of the signage
(09:23):
that was created, along with occasional references to immigration or
gaza and those sorts of things. Even some messaging against
Democrats as well. So a bit of a hodgepodge of
a protest, but mostly focused on anti war. This was
outside La City Hall and it drew about fifty people
and some of the organizers, some of the participants were
(09:44):
also involved in that massive protest last week with the
no Kings messaging. This didn't quite reach the turnout of that.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Are you getting to the point where you are familiar
with some of these faces out there, starting to recognize people.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
You know bit at least the words I can usually
predict the chance, and that's always true when you cover
local government. You know you're gonna get a c sapayda
or that sort of thing. You know what the message
is going to be. Certainly, what's been hard to keep
track of is wish flag we're waving this week. It's
gotten so confusing that I noted with Tiffany in the
(10:20):
last hour that a flag salesman showed up to this
protest and stood just outside of it selling different flags.
So if you're waving the American flag or the Mexican flag,
or the Palestinian flag, or now maybe the Iranian flag,
there's a buck to be made.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, And if you could combine some of those flags together.
We've seen some of those half and half flags. Those
we have those a hot item right now here on
the street vending scene.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Is there fatigue do you think?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I mean, we've seen a lot of people out on
the streets for the last couple of weeks, But is
this something that's gonna generate enough heat for people to
come on out?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
I asked one of the organizers this when I interviewed
him last hour. Was look because he was off all
of the different issues that they're concerned about. And I thought,
it's not just a list that you've just rated off.
These are all individually items that have led to massive demonstrations,
even here in Los Angeles, downtown Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
So how do you keep that?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I guess energy towards all this.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Think about what we've gone through just in the past
year between Palestinian oriented marches and then you know what
we've seen so far this year against President Trump or
an immigration enforcement. It's just been a constant stream of large,
massive protests. I don't know that today is an indication
(11:41):
that they've lost energy. I just am not sure if
they know where to go next, physically where to go,
because when you're doing an anti war speech, you know,
you show up at the government building, I suppose, But
it didn't draw the crowd that we had been seeing.
I don't know if it's a loss of energy, if
it's a loss of organizational structure, or yeah, just people
(12:06):
who have protest fatigue. But this was a bit of
a bust. Yeah, I'm sorry, I shouldn't editorialize like that.
There were fifty people who expressed themselves enthusiastically, but it
did not amount to the size of crowds that we've
been seeing the.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
No editorialized for you and say it sounds like it
was a bust.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
It is funny.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I mean, we saw some of the flyers on social
media that suggested the no More War in the Middle
East protest we won't die for oil, profit or empire,
and that it was supposed to be today at twelve
pm city Hall. And obviously City Hall is a central
gathering place, but Los Angeles City Hall has nothing to
do with a decision to send me two bombers halfway
(12:49):
around the world and back with the giant, giant ordinances.
So I'm curious. I mean, I get your point of
they probably I don't know exactly what to do next
or who to target.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
It was so sudden, you know, I do the show
on Saturday night and Tifany goes on at five. I
go on at seven, and you know, just before she
went on the area yesterday at five is when we
got the message from President Trump that this had all
taken place. So we're still not even twenty four hours
removed from the public acknowledgment from the White House that
these military strikes took place, and so the rapid response
(13:25):
from this group may not be as swift as maybe
some of the more leftist organizations who organize those rapid
responses against immediate immigration enforcement. Not just that we're going
to take a stand in general against it, but like
there's there's immigration enforcement happening right now on this block.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
In Maywood and a crew shows up.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
I mean, this is a group that needs some time,
it looks like, in order to gin up the type
of enthusiasm that we saw for them a week ago
at the No Kings. They do have other events planned,
because some of these organizers are involved in that fifty
to fifty one group that planned the No Kings and
the Hands Off Medicare thing a couple months prior. They
(14:08):
have plans for July four, they have plans for July seventeen.
They're already promoting those and you can probably expect a
decent turnout for those. But it doesn't seem like the
type of organizers that can turn it on a dime
and get folks out the way that some of the
leftist groups can. Here.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, I think you make a good point as well,
because this is this is kind of a sanitized thing.
I mean, it's an event that took place halfway around
the world for years, for decades, we've been hearing that
Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism, so it's
they're already characterized as sort of the bad guys in
(14:44):
this and then we do something to cripple their ability
to continue terrorism and in this case, to develop nuclear terrorism.
So it's almost as if, yeah, we clearly don't want
to lose American men and women service members and put
them in harm's way, but it's also fuck. I mean,
you could argue it's on the whole a positive. So
(15:08):
there's going to be a harder it's going to be
harder to pull people, you know, into a protest and
get them fired up for something that happened and they know, no,
they know nothing about it. You know, it's not affecting that,
it's not affecting their their streets, their neighborhood, their community
in general. It's could be argued it's as a as
a positive.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
So exactly, I think that's great analysis, that's exactly right.
We did hear some folks try to compare Iran to
Text as I heard one of the speakers say they
have universal healthcare in Iran, we don't have that here.
And then you know that people want to talk about
the restrictions on women in Iran.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
There are these restrictions on women in Texas.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Why don't we invade Texas if we need to invade
over some of these things. It was it was clear
that outside of the generic no war message, it was
hard to find something to really sink their teeth into
in terms of getting some enthusiasm beyond that general message,
because there were just a lot of different statements going
(16:07):
on out there.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
All right, what's your plan? Well, i'll tell you.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
We were hearing that there was going to be another
protest related to immigration enforcement outside that federal building, the
roy Ball Federal Building here in downtown La I saw
about one hundred demonstrators who marched along Los Angeles Street,
still in the overpass over the one oh one.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
And they quickly dissipated.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I don't know where they disappeared to, but it looks
like there's a bit of a festival going on at
Olvera Street al Pueblo, So I don't know if they
just went in and blended into that. They were peaceful.
They didn't do anything except wave some signs and cheer,
and as of now, as of just two minutes ago,
when I went past the backside of that building where
a lot of these heated confrontations with law enforcement and
(16:54):
military have taken place. It's just six guardsmen guarding the
garage and not a single protester in sight at this point.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Good, good y, honor, good calm Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Then, hoping it calms down. I am going to be
at the ready for you, Gary. I know that if
Gary Hoffman is in that seat on a weekend, something
horrible has happened in the world.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
So we are always ready to help you out when
you need us.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, that I couldn't sleep, my nap didn't work out,
something like that. Michael Monks, Downtown, LA for KFI News.
Thanks man, you got it all right. We will continue
and again continuing coverage of not just the strikes on Iran,
but the fallout. There was also an event that took
place in Michigan. There was a shooting at a church today.
(17:39):
I'll talk a little bit about that when we come back.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Gary Hoffman in until four o'clock today. Chris Meryl will
be along at that point. Krazer's sitting over there in
the newsroom. We're trying to figure out everything that's going on.
Of course, with the American strikes on Iran. There was
a story Nash story though up in Michigan, Wayne, Michigan.
This morning, there was a shooting at a community church
(18:08):
at cross Point Community Church, an active shooter was declared.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
This is a suburb of Detroit by the way.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Security guard at the church shot and killed this guy
before officers were able to get there, and the reason
the security guard had time to take aim at him
was because one of the deacons who was showing up
to church ran him over with his truck. The deacon
hit and clobbered the guy with an f one point
(18:37):
fifty and then the church security guard was able to
come over and finish him off. They said that no
one else at the time was hurt. Only one person,
the security guard himself, was the one who was injured.
The shooter did fire multiple shots into the church, but
did not actually go into the building. There were about
(18:58):
one hundred and fifty people in there at the time.
They were live streaming the service when it happened. It
had more kids in there as usual. Showed the moment
when people inside became aware of what was going on
and you can hear people yelling, get down, everybody to
the back, and then again he was hit by a
truck and then shot and killed by a church security guard.
(19:21):
So that was in Wayne, Michigan today. So Operation Midnight Hammer,
that is what this is being called. One hundred and
twenty five aircraft were involved in the strikes on Iran.
The three nuclear sites all considered to have suffered severe damage,
although at this point we don't know exactly how severe.
(19:43):
The head of the United Nations Nuclear Watchdog group said,
the extent of this is still unclear, despite some satellite
images that are out that now show that the bombs
literally moved mountains in some respects. The chief of the
the International Atomic Energy Agency excuse me, Raphael Grossi, confirmed
(20:05):
that yes, the strikes did hit, and that they hit
the most fortified nuclear site called Ford Doh during an
emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. That is, I
believe it's still going on actually today in New York.
And what he said was craters are visible at the
Fordah site, Iran's main location for enriching uranium, indicating the
use by the United States of ground penetrating munitions. We
(20:28):
knew that this is consistent with the statements from the
United States, but he said, given the fact that Fordah
is underground, neither the IAEA or anyone else has been
able to access to assess the damage. Specifically, along with
the damage at Ford OH, several buildings and entrance tunnels
had been destroyed at the Ishfahan nuclear site and additional
(20:51):
damage at Natan's as well. One of the guys that
I was listening to earlier today talked about the specifics
of these munitions, and again we've talked about We spent
all week on the Gary and Shannon Show talking about
these bunker buster bombs. This is retired Admiral Mark Montgomery
who said this specific these GBU fifty sevens, this is
(21:14):
literally exactly what they were designed for underground Iranian nuclear facilities.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Myself and many of the other retired generals and animals
who've worked this issue for you know, almost fifteen to
eighteen years. You know, from the initial planning the Massive
Ordinance penetrary was conceived two or three administrations ago. So
the idea that we're finally using it is about time.
We have cycled our forces through the Middle East so
many times, particularly the Navy and the Air Force and
(21:43):
the Army's air defenders that it really impacts our readiness.
So actually doing this strike now there's a path through
to to not being so critically involved in the Middle
East all the time because we've removed the number one
threat to Middle East peace, the Iranian nuclear No.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Sorry I cut him off.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
The other point about what this guy was saying, again,
retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, is that this kind of
operation where you've got airplanes in the air for hours
and hours and hours at a.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Time, is not entirely unusual.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
It was a big lift obviously, like I said, one
hundred and twenty five different aircraft that were involved, including
those seven B two bombers, but that this specific bomb
that was dropped fourteen of them to be exact, was
what made this the unusual operation that it was.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
What was unique was the dropping of the of the
massive ordinance penetrators at twelve at four to Doah and
two at Natans. Now, those pilots had practiced it hundreds
of times, but they had not used an operational weapon
this way. What we can see in the imagery are
six entry points at four to oh, which I.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Think is twelve.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
Weapons, you know, because they tend they tend to put
one right down on the other after it creates a channel,
so that twelve on four to doh is going to
cause a lot of damage. And then the two at
Natan's I think was clean up. The Israelis left us
some work to do there, knowing that a massive ordinance
penetrator would be a better weapon to go after the
centrifuge halls. So that's those fourteen massive ordinance penetrators.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Fourteen fourteen of them again seven by two bombers. That's
about a third of the fleet that we have. And
I mentioned earlier that some of them were sent to
Guam to kind of distract everybody, and then that was
almost all of the GBU fifty seven's that we have
produced to this point. It's not that the explosives are
(23:40):
as make that a fifteen ton beast, it's the way
it's constructed with that hardened steal so that it can
penetrate the ground before the secondary explosion. Now I mentioned
that there are congressional reactions to the American strikes on Iran,
and again some of them are via some of them
(24:00):
are people that you would not expect to be criticizing
President Trump, but Tim Kaine ran for vice president with
Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump and Mike Pence. He said
that this is an overreach of presidential authority. He asserted
that Congress has to vote before initiating offensive military actions,
which is not entirely true. He warned of the risk
(24:22):
of getting the US into a prolonged Middle East conflict
without the backing of the electorate. Listen, there is that
there is a possibility of that, but we've been involved
in the Middle East for decades and we will be
for decades regardless of how this plays out. I think
it's important to point out that other Arab states, they're
(24:46):
not mad that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon
or is now back into the Stone Age in terms
of its nuclear program. Other Arab states are not unhappy
about that. They are just fine with this. They may
put out statements that say that the United States did
something we can't go back from.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Or blah blah blah. They do not want Iran to
have a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Chuck Schumer, of course, called for the Senate to immediately
hold a vote under the War Powers Act to reassert
Congress's role in declaring war as we've seen before, this
is not a war. Congress has not declared war since
World War Two. And think of all of the military
conflicts we've gotten into, some for years at a time.
(25:31):
Think Afghanistan or Iraq, or Vietnam, or any number of
conflicts that we've been in that did not require Congressional approval.
Haakim Jeffries, minority leader in the House, accused the President
of misleading the public and bypassing Congress. He's listen, he's
got to mislead the public. In a situation like this,
(25:53):
you can't, for just for the protection of the men
and women that are going to be there at the
tip of the spear, you can't tell everybody what's about
to happen. That's why he was so coy about his
two week warning. Remember that on Thursday or Friday, whatever
it was. Now Thomas Massey is a surprise to me
(26:17):
only that he's a Republican, the Republican from Kentucky. I mean,
this guy goes to the beat of his own drum.
He has introduced, with Congressman Rocanna from here in California, Democrat,
a joint War Powers resolution stating that the action was
not constitutional without prior congressional authorization.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Again, every I shouldn't say every.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Most presidents have some military action under their belt where
the opposing party raises their hands and says, this is
the unconstitutional use of the American military, and it's never
the case. This one is going to be similar. There
are people who are going to claim that this was
an unconstitutional use of American military power, and there's no
(27:01):
evidence that that's the case. So we'll talk more about
what this means for Iran going forward. Is there anything
that Iran can do to poke back at the United States.
It's Gary Hoff, but I'm in for I don't know who.
Normally it's Tiffany. Usually it's in this spot right something
(27:22):
like that. I'm Usually it's nap time for me, So
it changes every weekend. Good rotating cast of characters.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
You're listening to KFI AM six on demand, of.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Course, doing the regular show tomorrow, So at nine o'clock
we'll pick up on some of the information that we
are going to be getting in we assume overnight tonight
and into tomorrow about the extent of damage on the
strikes for strikes on three of Iran's nuclear sites. Of
course fourd oh Natans and Ishfahan. This was Operation Midnight Hammer.
(27:58):
We know that at least seven of these B two
bombers carried fourteen of the mops. These GBU fifty seven
massive ordnance penetrators, the bunker buster bombs and then Tomahawk
missiles were also fired from submarines. President Trump said that
this was very successful, spectacular military success. And of course
(28:20):
the final damage evaluations are still pending, notably for the
deeply shielded facilities like four to H which is why
we hit those, we believe with twelve of those mops.
I've mentioned just before that break about some of the
congressional reactions to the strikes on Iran, and as I mentioned,
(28:40):
the War Powers Resolution of nineteen seventy three does set
out some specifics of what the president is allowed to do,
but also what he is required he or she is
required to do in the event that he calls for
military action. The War Powers Resolution nineteen seventy three actually
(29:00):
limits the ability to commit troops to an armed conflict
without congressional approval. It requires the President to notify Congress
within forty eight hours of deploying troops, and it mandates
a withdrawal after sixty days unless Congress comes in and
authorizes the use of force, which is a pretty wide
(29:20):
ranging amount of stuff that a president can do without
getting approval from Congress. Now, again, some people have already
suggested that this was grounds for impeachment. I think Alexandria
Ocassio Cortes, the She and Rashida Talib and Bernie Sanders
(29:42):
have all said that this was grossly unconstitutional, which again isn't.
Senator Lindsey Graham a Republican out of South Carolina, he
has been calling for this for a long time, so
he was a supporter. But so was John Fetterman, the
Democrat out of Pennsylvania. They took a position of support
for these strikes, said that this was the right call
(30:04):
to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
He had a whole trio of others.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Roger Wicker, Republican out of Mississippi, Jim rish out of Idaho,
Mike Johnson out of Louisiana speaker. They supported this. They
said that this was limited, It was decisive that there
is no intention of regime change or a forever war.
I mean the regime change thing is different because we
know that President Trump has kind of addressed that in
(30:30):
a truth social post. But this boots on the ground
deployment myth that's floating out there is not going to happen.
We are not going into Iran with boots on the ground,
because that would entail an absolute slaughter of somebody, whether
it's American military men and women, Iranian civilians, the Irani military.
(30:53):
That's not what we're interested in. Warren Davidson of Ohio,
Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia. They actually are Republicans that
were at least concerned about this. They have talked about
constitutional concerns about this. They have said before that in
(31:13):
that farthest right side of the MAGA movement, they do
not want to get involved in any more foreign wars.
The President will tell you the White House has already
said this is not war with Iran.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
But to use.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
To use Speaker Mike Johnson's words, this was limited, that
this was decisive. Jasmine Crockett has said that Congress must
authorize military force before any president launches a strike, and
again that's just simply a mis interpretation of the War
Powers Resolution of nineteen seventy three. For example, for example,
(31:50):
Bill Clinton ordered air strikes on Bosnia ninety five. Also,
Bill Clinton ordered air strikes on Kosovo in ninety nine
without price congressional authorization.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
There was also a vote.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Congress did vote to pass the pass, sorry tried to
vote to pass the resolution that would authorize continued NATO
bombings in that Bosnia and Kosovo episode, but it failed.
Barack Obama in twenty eleven authorized airstrikes in Libya part
of a NATO operation, again without congressional approval, and the
(32:30):
administration argued, just like the Trump administration is, arguing that
it didn't need authorization since it wasn't a full scale war,
prompting debate over what does entail or what does require
an actual Congressional vote under that War Powers resolution from.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
So they're going to talk about it, They're gonna yell
about it, They're going to raise their voices about it.
We've seen members of Congress talk about it all day today,
and you could bet when the new cycle again starts
the first thing in the morning, going to be doing
it much much more. I mentioned also the ongoing suggestion
that Iran has some sort of ability to strike back
(33:10):
at the United States.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
It doesn't appear that they do, clearly.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
The United States has tens of thousands of military men
and women within range of offensive weapons that Iran does have,
but their capability has been degraded so much by the
ongoing now ten days I believe of Israeli air strikes
against their ballistic missile production facilities, against their missile launchers,
(33:37):
that it doesn't appear that Iran has the capability of
coming after the United States in any real way. So
now the concern is their proxy units, whether it's Hesblah
or Hamas to a much lesser extent, but the Huthis
in Yemen could gum things up if they start targeting
American warships there in the Persian Gulf area, so something.
(33:59):
All of this stuff is still going on. When we
come back, we'll hear from a bunch of the leaders
the President's address from last night. Pete Hegseth and as
a Secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, also had a very early news conference
this morning and talked about the incredible success and bravery
of the men and women who pulled this thing off
(34:21):
late in the middle.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Of the night.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
So we'll talk about all of that stuff still coming
up in the next hour.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
KFI AM six forty on demand
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com