Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / A Message to the Iranian People: You can Change the World Right NOW, plus WHY it Matters so much for the Safety of Americans

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A Message to the Iranian People: You can Change the World Right NOW, plus WHY it Matters so much for the Safety of Americans · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome.
0:01
Speaker 2: It is verdic with centered Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you.
0:04
Speaker 2: We've got a lot to discuss on today's show, including
0:07
Speaker 2: what is happening in Iran right now. It is like
0:11
Speaker 2: a total blackout in that country as the leadership is
0:14
Speaker 2: trying to hold onto control by shutting the rest of
0:16
Speaker 2: the world out to what they're doing on the ground,
0:19
Speaker 2: and that is killing their own citizens.
0:21
Speaker 3: We are living in times of extraordinary consequence right now.
0:24
Speaker 3: As you noted, there are over a million people rising
0:27
Speaker 3: up on the streets of Iran. The Iranian regime is teetering.
0:30
Speaker 3: It is a very real possibility we will see the
0:33
Speaker 3: Iranian Ayatola, the Mullahs, see that regime fall, see them collapse.
0:39
Speaker 3: That could happen this month, It could happen this week,
0:42
Speaker 3: It could happen in the next twenty four hours. It
0:45
Speaker 3: is that potentially imminent. If that occurs, it would be
0:48
Speaker 3: utterly transformational for the people of Iran, utterly transformational for
0:53
Speaker 3: the Middle East, and utterly transformational for US national security interest.
0:57
Speaker 3: We're going to break it all down what to expect.
0:59
Speaker 3: Of course, this is happening in the broader context where
1:03
Speaker 3: the United States just less than two weeks ago, has
1:07
Speaker 3: arrested Nicholas Maduro, the dictator of Venezuela. That is having
1:12
Speaker 3: a profound and I think very positive effect in the
1:14
Speaker 3: Western hemisphere. These are historic times, these are times of consequence,
1:20
Speaker 3: and we're going to help you think through what the
1:22
Speaker 3: United States response to all of this should be. What
1:25
Speaker 3: it means for you, what it means for America, what
1:27
Speaker 3: it means for your kids.
1:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got a lot to talk about with that
1:31
Speaker 2: as well. I want to take a moment though, and
1:33
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1:36
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1:39
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1:47
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1:54
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2:00
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2:46
Speaker 2: That's Compassion dot com. So let's paint the picture. As
2:51
Speaker 2: we're recording this now, the leadership in Iran has made
2:55
Speaker 2: it clear center they feel like they're losing control. They've
2:58
Speaker 2: shut off the internet, shut off phones, they've shut down
3:02
Speaker 2: much of the of the TV and the outside world
3:05
Speaker 2: that's been in that country, and they're trying to black
3:08
Speaker 2: out what they're doing, which is now they're killing their
3:10
Speaker 2: own citizens.
3:12
Speaker 3: Well they are, and this often happens at the end
3:14
Speaker 3: of tyrannical regimes, which which is they stay in force
3:18
Speaker 3: by military force, and in their gasping breasts, they use
3:22
Speaker 3: that military force to try to try to snuff out
3:25
Speaker 3: the opposition. You know, I got to say, if you
3:28
Speaker 3: go back to nineteen seventy nine, nineteen seventy nine is
3:32
Speaker 3: when the Islamic Revolution happened in Iran. So Jimmy Carter
3:37
Speaker 3: was president. Jimmy Carter was a weak and ineffectual president.
3:40
Speaker 3: He really if you look at Jimmy Carter's foreign policy,
3:43
Speaker 3: he set the model for what Barack Obama imitated and
3:47
Speaker 3: then what Joe Biden imitated. Jimmy Carter showed what happens
3:51
Speaker 3: to the world when the American president will not stand
3:54
Speaker 3: up for America, when the American president will not stand
3:56
Speaker 3: up for our allies, when the American president is weak
3:59
Speaker 3: and dithering, And to cut to the chase, what happens
4:03
Speaker 3: is the bad guys get more aggressive and they end
4:08
Speaker 3: up becoming stronger and American lives are lost. During the
4:12
Speaker 3: Islamic Revolution, the Islamists took over the nation. They toppled
4:18
Speaker 3: the Shaw of Iran. The Shaw of Iran was a
4:21
Speaker 3: ruler who had been cruel, who had been despotic, but
4:24
Speaker 3: also was allied with the United States. When the Islamists
4:28
Speaker 3: took over Iran, they toppled the Shaw. They also captured
4:32
Speaker 3: the American embassy there. They captured the American embassy, and
4:35
Speaker 3: they took the American staff in the Embassy hostage. Those
4:40
Speaker 3: hostages that happened in nineteen seventy nine, those hostages would
4:45
Speaker 3: remain hostages for four hundred and forty four days.
4:49
Speaker 4: And it was.
4:52
Speaker 3: During that time Jimmy Carter did order a rescue mission,
4:57
Speaker 3: and tragically that rescue mission, the two helicopters crashed into
5:01
Speaker 3: each other in the desert. There was no opposing fire,
5:05
Speaker 3: and it became I actually think that the incident that
5:09
Speaker 3: most encapsulated the weakness of the Jimmy Carter presidency. It
5:13
Speaker 3: played a major part in Ronald Reagan's being elected in
5:17
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty and then I do not think this was
5:19
Speaker 3: an accident at all. Iran released the American hostages. Do
5:23
Speaker 3: you know what day they released him?
5:25
Speaker 1: The day that Ronald Reagan was sworn in.
5:27
Speaker 3: It was literally moments after Reagan put his hand on
5:32
Speaker 3: the Bible, raised his hand and took the oath of office,
5:34
Speaker 3: Iran released the hostages. And I'll tell you, I believe
5:37
Speaker 3: the reason they did is they understood that with Reagan,
5:41
Speaker 3: a new sheriff was in town, and we were not
5:43
Speaker 3: going to have a president who would allow them to
5:46
Speaker 3: keep American hostages. They were going to face the full
5:48
Speaker 3: wrath of the United States if they did not release
5:51
Speaker 3: those hostages. Fast forward, I think there's a very similar
5:55
Speaker 3: dynamic playing when we went from Joe Biden to Donald Trump.
5:59
Speaker 3: Under Joe Biden, American foreign policy, like Jimmy Carter, was weak,
6:03
Speaker 3: it was inept, and it encouraged the bad guys. But
6:07
Speaker 3: one of the things to understand Ben between nineteen seventy
6:11
Speaker 3: nine and today, Iran's influence has grown dramatically Iran. The
6:17
Speaker 3: leaders of Iran, the so called Supreme Leader, I don't
6:20
Speaker 3: call him that, he's an Iahtola. He calls himself the
6:22
Speaker 3: Supreme Leader. But we're seeing just how ineffective and weak
6:25
Speaker 3: he is.
6:25
Speaker 5: Right now. The Iatola and.
6:28
Speaker 3: The Mullahs, the religious clerics who run Iran, they have
6:32
Speaker 3: grown in power immensely, and understand they hate America. The
6:38
Speaker 3: Iyatola routinely will lead mobs enchanting death to Israel and
6:43
Speaker 3: death to America. And by the way, for all the
6:45
Speaker 3: folks online who say, oh, Iran is all about Israel,
6:49
Speaker 3: understand this also. The Iyatola calls Israel the little Satan.
6:55
Speaker 3: He calls America the great Satan. And at the end
6:59
Speaker 3: of the day, the targets of the Ayatola's murder and
7:03
Speaker 3: hate are us. It is the United States of America.
7:08
Speaker 3: The reason the Ayahtola had a nuclear program is they
7:12
Speaker 3: wanted to develop nuclear weapons to be able to use
7:14
Speaker 3: them against the Great Satan. What has Iran done for
7:19
Speaker 3: the last several decades. They have funded radical Islamic terrorism
7:22
Speaker 3: all over the world, Hamas, which carried out October seventh.
7:26
Speaker 3: Do you know what percent of Hamas's budget comes from Iran?
7:29
Speaker 1: I would assume eighty plus percent.
7:32
Speaker 3: More than ninety percent. How about Hesbela hesbela different terrorist
7:36
Speaker 3: group and in the North, you know what percentage of
7:39
Speaker 3: Hesbela's budget comes from Iran.
7:42
Speaker 1: I'm going to say it's even more than ninety based
7:43
Speaker 1: on what you just told me.
7:45
Speaker 3: It is north of ninety as well. Iran in a
7:48
Speaker 3: very real sense funded October seventh. By the way, Joe Biden,
7:52
Speaker 3: the Democrats flowed over one hundred million dollars to the
7:57
Speaker 3: Ayatola and Iran. So the Democrat Weekly in a very
8:00
Speaker 3: real sense funded October seventh. By the way, the Ayatola
8:04
Speaker 3: also has hired hitmen trying to murder President Trump.
8:10
Speaker 5: They're not our friends now.
8:11
Speaker 2: Way, that's not like I far that's not like some
8:14
Speaker 2: random thing on the Internet.
8:15
Speaker 1: That is a fact.
8:16
Speaker 5: It is an undisputed fact.
8:18
Speaker 3: And by the way, we are prosecuting hitmen that have
8:21
Speaker 3: been arrested in connection with that plot, and.
8:25
Speaker 5: Iran bragged about it.
8:26
Speaker 3: The IRGC actually put out an animated video detailing they're
8:31
Speaker 3: using a drone to go to mar A Lago and
8:34
Speaker 3: murder Donald Trump on the golf course. Like they're not
8:37
Speaker 3: hiding from this, they openly embrace it.
8:40
Speaker 2: By the way, can we just remind people of one
8:42
Speaker 2: other thing about Iran, just so you understand how much
8:44
Speaker 2: they hit America. They are responsible for a significant number
8:48
Speaker 2: of American casualties. Yes, in Iraq and Afghanistan, they gave
8:53
Speaker 2: safe haven to the terrorists when they would come in
8:55
Speaker 2: and out to attack American soldiers. They'd gave them what
8:59
Speaker 2: they need for those roadside bombs. Actually a lot of
9:02
Speaker 2: them were made in Iran, and they allowed them save
9:06
Speaker 2: passage even coming through Syria Iran back and forth like
9:09
Speaker 2: that is all well documented. If you think Iran wasn't
9:12
Speaker 2: at war with the United States of America when we were
9:14
Speaker 2: in Iraq and Afghanistan, you'd have to live under Iraq.
9:17
Speaker 2: And I think that's an important point that you need
9:18
Speaker 2: to realize how much they're willing to do to kill
9:21
Speaker 2: American soldiers. And they did a lot, and they killed
9:23
Speaker 2: a lot of Americans.
9:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, Iran is responsible. The IRGC is responsible for a
9:28
Speaker 3: minimum of five hundred and ninety three murders of American
9:32
Speaker 3: servicemen and women. The IEDs they manufactured, many of the
9:36
Speaker 3: IEDs that in Iraq were used against our servicemen and women.
9:40
Speaker 3: If you have friends that served in combat and Iraq,
9:42
Speaker 3: if you know people that lost limbs to IEDs, that
9:45
Speaker 3: lost legs, that lost arms, that lost eyes, the odds
9:50
Speaker 3: are overwhelming that the ied they encountered was manufactured in Iran.
9:56
Speaker 3: Iran was providing much of that material. Many of the
9:59
Speaker 3: drone many of the drones used against American forces are
10:02
Speaker 3: manufactured in Iran. Many of the drones being used by
10:05
Speaker 3: the way, also by Russia against the Ukrainian forces in
10:09
Speaker 3: Ukraine are manufactured in Iran. It's one of the crazy things.
10:12
Speaker 3: The Biden administration claimed that their number one priority was
10:17
Speaker 3: for Ukraine to win the Ukraine War, and yet they
10:19
Speaker 3: were flooding billions of dollars to Iran, and Iran was
10:22
Speaker 3: using that money to build drones, and the drones were
10:25
Speaker 3: being used by the Russian army to murder Ukrainian soldiers.
10:28
Speaker 5: It was asinine. But what is happening right now?
10:33
Speaker 3: Right now as we speak, more than one million Iranians
10:36
Speaker 3: are rising up in every major city across Iran. They
10:39
Speaker 3: are fighting against the regime. They have had it. We
10:43
Speaker 3: are seeing protests, We're seeing images of government buildings burning.
10:47
Speaker 3: We saw in London an incredible protester scaled the outside
10:52
Speaker 3: of the Iranian embassy, climb up the outside.
10:54
Speaker 5: He looked like Spider Man.
10:55
Speaker 2: So cool by the way. He cried, I want you
10:57
Speaker 2: to understand. If you didn't see this, watch the video,
11:00
Speaker 2: tweet this out. Wat It looked like a spider monkey
11:03
Speaker 2: climbing the side of the Iranian embassy and people were
11:07
Speaker 2: running after me. Climbed up, got up there, yanked pull
11:10
Speaker 2: back the Iranian flag and put up what they're saying
11:13
Speaker 2: is a new freedom flag of Iran. It was unbelievable
11:16
Speaker 2: to see people doing that, saying you would have never
11:18
Speaker 2: imagined even weeks ago.
11:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, it was incredible. He easily could have been shot.
11:22
Speaker 5: He was not.
11:24
Speaker 3: It's those acts of bravery that can inspire others, and
11:27
Speaker 3: I want to take an opportunity right now. I want
11:30
Speaker 3: to speak directly to the people of Iran, and I
11:34
Speaker 3: want to say, now is your moment. If you are
11:37
Speaker 3: standing up right now, if you're going out in the street,
11:39
Speaker 3: if you are standing against the Iotola, if you're standing
11:41
Speaker 3: with the Malas, know that America is with you. Know
11:45
Speaker 3: that the American people are with you. Know that you
11:47
Speaker 3: are in my prayers. And know that Joe Biden is
11:51
Speaker 3: not in the White House anymore. Barack Obama is not
11:53
Speaker 3: in the White House anymore. Donald J. Trump is in
11:56
Speaker 3: the White House. And if you topple this cruel, vicious, theocratic, homicidal,
12:03
Speaker 3: genocidal regime, you will bring freedom to Iran, and you
12:09
Speaker 3: will make major steps to bringing peace to the Middle East.
12:13
Speaker 3: And listen, the Iranian people and the American people have
12:16
Speaker 3: decades of history of being friends of her, engaging in
12:20
Speaker 3: peaceful commerce, and understand that America's foreign policy dispute is
12:24
Speaker 3: not with the people of Iran. It is instead with
12:28
Speaker 3: the tyrants who are torturing and murdering and oppressing Iran,
12:33
Speaker 3: and who are exporting terror across the globe. And they
12:36
Speaker 3: want to murder Americans just like they want to murder Iranians.
12:39
Speaker 3: And so President Trump has publicly called called on you
12:44
Speaker 3: to stand up for freedom. And you know, I want
12:48
Speaker 3: to say something amazing, which is to everyone in the
12:51
Speaker 3: United States who's listening to this podcast, who's watching this podcast,
12:54
Speaker 3: you may think, well, why is Ted talking directly to
12:58
Speaker 3: the people of Iran. And one of the reasons we
13:01
Speaker 3: do this podcast is it's an opportunity to communicate. And
13:05
Speaker 3: so the Verdict podcast, we have roughly a million unique
13:09
Speaker 3: listeners to the podcast all across the country. We have
13:13
Speaker 3: several million more who listen on radio. We're on now
13:16
Speaker 3: two hundred and forty two radio stations all over the country,
13:19
Speaker 3: so we're reaching several million people each and every week.
13:23
Speaker 3: But here's an amazing thing. The people we reach, the
13:25
Speaker 3: vast majority, of course, are Americans. But what is amazing
13:29
Speaker 3: is we have people all over the world listening to
13:32
Speaker 3: this podcast. And yesterday, Ben, you were looking at the
13:34
Speaker 3: downloads and Iran, the people in Iran had surged to
13:39
Speaker 3: they were in the top twenty countries downloading the Verdict podcast.
13:44
Speaker 3: And that is in the face of having internet shut down,
13:47
Speaker 3: in the face of having the Iranian regime try to
13:50
Speaker 3: black out. Elon Link has put Starlink up for free
13:54
Speaker 3: for the people of Iran, and so this podcast. There
13:57
Speaker 3: are people who we are right now protesting. And by
13:59
Speaker 3: the way, okay, protesting is not like your sum leftist
14:03
Speaker 3: protesting at Columbia University. Protesting is taking your life in
14:08
Speaker 3: your own hands, because the regime is murdering protesters as
14:12
Speaker 3: we speak. And so when I take the opportunity to
14:15
Speaker 3: speak to the people of Iran, I'm doing so because
14:18
Speaker 3: this is a voice that is being heard. And there
14:21
Speaker 3: are very few things on planet Earth that could move
14:25
Speaker 3: the entire world security situation in a positive direction more
14:30
Speaker 3: consequential than seeing the Ayatola in this regime fall.
14:34
Speaker 2: You know, intending to see that. The emotion and there's
14:37
Speaker 2: two stories that connect here. I have actually a good
14:40
Speaker 2: friend who family fled after the Chavarenne in the fall
14:45
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy nine. They've never gone back to go
14:48
Speaker 2: see some of their family members. They have limited communication
14:52
Speaker 2: depending on you know, what's going on and the blackouts
14:55
Speaker 2: and things that happen.
14:56
Speaker 1: But I did.
14:57
Speaker 2: I was able to talk to them over the weekend
14:59
Speaker 2: and us the excitement at the possibility of two things.
15:04
Speaker 2: One getting to actually see their family members again who
15:07
Speaker 2: they've not been able to see is a lot kind
15:10
Speaker 2: of like you here in Venezuela, the same kind of
15:12
Speaker 2: thing that we saw with Cuba after the cast regime there,
15:16
Speaker 2: and there seems to be this real moment where they
15:19
Speaker 2: believe this could be an opportunity for them to be
15:22
Speaker 2: able to go back and to see their family members
15:24
Speaker 2: and to watch this fall happen. And the bravery too,
15:28
Speaker 2: like the women today in the videos that were coming
15:30
Speaker 2: out were incredible that were showing the women pulling off
15:33
Speaker 2: their coverings and burning them in the streets and multiple
15:36
Speaker 2: cities that are considered strongholds for the religious leadership that
15:41
Speaker 2: has had a grip on that country since nineteen seventy nine,
15:44
Speaker 2: and they're doing it in the face now. If this
15:46
Speaker 2: hasn't happened, these videos will come back to haunt them.
15:49
Speaker 2: They will go and find them. They know they're risking
15:51
Speaker 2: their lives. The people that are out there in the streets,
15:54
Speaker 2: they know that this is being recorded and if it
15:56
Speaker 2: doesn't go well, they are risking their lives being put
15:59
Speaker 2: into jail or being one of the disappeared ones they
16:02
Speaker 2: are described. That is something for me that is just
16:04
Speaker 2: incredible to see that the risk that people are willing
16:07
Speaker 2: to take.
16:08
Speaker 5: Look.
16:08
Speaker 3: Look, there's one image that is online of a young
16:11
Speaker 3: Iranian woman who is lighting her cigarette and she's lighting
16:15
Speaker 3: her cigarette by lighting on fire a picture of the
16:18
Speaker 3: Iatola and using the burning picture of the Iatola to
16:22
Speaker 3: light her cigarette. And I got to say, that image,
16:25
Speaker 3: it reminds me of the image of the man standing
16:30
Speaker 3: in front of the tank in Tenement Square. Idiots that
16:33
Speaker 3: kind of bold courage and life risking courage.
16:38
Speaker 5: That image.
16:39
Speaker 3: You're right, If the Iatola stays in power, the odds
16:42
Speaker 3: are overwhelming, the Mullahs will track her down and torture,
16:46
Speaker 3: end or kill her. She knows that, she knows exactly
16:48
Speaker 3: what she's doing. And but it is women and men
16:53
Speaker 3: across Iran are watching that and being inspired by it.
16:56
Speaker 3: And look, I gotta say, I have a lot of
16:58
Speaker 3: friends in Theian American community in the United States, A
17:02
Speaker 3: lot of the Persian community that fled, many of them
17:05
Speaker 3: fled starting in nineteen seventy nine when the Islamic Revolution happened.
17:10
Speaker 3: You know, prior to nineteen seventy nine, Iran was not
17:13
Speaker 3: a theocratic state. It was a secular state. It had
17:17
Speaker 3: a booming commercial sector, it has vast oil reserves. It
17:22
Speaker 3: had had a very very educated population, and it was
17:28
Speaker 3: very successful. And the Islamists their ludites, they're going back
17:33
Speaker 3: to the fifth century, and their approach is to stay
17:37
Speaker 3: in power number one by stifling women throughout the country,
17:40
Speaker 3: but number two by just brutal repression. And I will say,
17:44
Speaker 3: when I meet with with Persian Americans and I hear
17:48
Speaker 3: their stories, one of the reasons that their stories moved
17:51
Speaker 3: me so much is, as you know, my family was imprisoned.
17:55
Speaker 5: And tortured in Cuba.
17:58
Speaker 3: My father was in prison and torture by Battista, my
18:01
Speaker 3: Tasna Uh, my hit. My father's younger sister was in
18:04
Speaker 3: prisoned and tortured by Castro. And And so when when
18:08
Speaker 3: I I've sat down and and and looked at at
18:12
Speaker 3: at books that are compiled of of Iranians who were tortured,
18:16
Speaker 3: who had horrific torture, had you know, nails driven through
18:20
Speaker 3: their eyes, had had had clothes irons just burned them
18:24
Speaker 3: horrifically elect I mean, just horrible, horrible tortures. And and
18:29
Speaker 3: and there's something powerful. It's one of the things in
18:31
Speaker 3: the wake of communism there is a value to cataloging
18:36
Speaker 3: the horrors. You look at Sultanichin's Gulag archipelago, just just
18:41
Speaker 3: cataloging the oppression of a tyrannical regime is part of
18:45
Speaker 3: how you tear it down. And and what is happening
18:49
Speaker 3: in Iran. Look to understand why this is so transformational.
18:53
Speaker 3: I actually think the seeds for what's happening now were
18:57
Speaker 3: laid several months ago, and then they were laid during
19:01
Speaker 3: the Twelve Day War. And this is something you and
19:03
Speaker 3: I talked about on Verdict at the time, which is
19:06
Speaker 3: there are real world consequences to losing a war. You know,
19:11
Speaker 3: not everything in life is a communications endeavor, not everything
19:15
Speaker 3: is political. There are just real consequences. And what happened
19:19
Speaker 3: in the Twelve Day War is number one. Iran completely
19:22
Speaker 3: and totally lost. There was no ambiguity. They were just defeated.
19:26
Speaker 3: They fought a war. They lost a war. Now even
19:30
Speaker 3: worse if you're an Islamist dictator. If there's anything on
19:33
Speaker 3: earth worse than losing a war, it is losing a
19:37
Speaker 3: war to Israel. And Israel systematically decapitated the Iranian military.
19:44
Speaker 3: They took out all their air defenses, they took out
19:47
Speaker 3: all their senior military leaders. They took out the senior
19:49
Speaker 3: leaders of the IRGC, they took out their nuclear scientists.
19:53
Speaker 3: If you remember the IRGC, day after day they would
19:57
Speaker 3: appoint someone new to lead it, and within.
19:59
Speaker 1: Twenty four kep getting taken out.
20:02
Speaker 3: Within twenty four hours, they'd be taken out. I've joked
20:04
Speaker 3: by the fifth or sixth day, if the Iatola comes
20:07
Speaker 3: to you and says, hey, Ben, you want to be
20:09
Speaker 3: head of the IRGC, you're looking around going no, no, no,
20:12
Speaker 3: I think Bob would be much better.
20:13
Speaker 5: Go with Bob. Go with Bob.
20:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, Go and Bob over there. He's a great guy.
20:17
Speaker 3: And why is that so consequential? Because tyrannies, whether you're
20:22
Speaker 3: the Soviet Union, or whether you're Communist China, or whether
20:25
Speaker 3: you're North Korea of Venezuela, or whether you're Iran, tyrannies
20:30
Speaker 3: exist in large part by conveying the impression that they
20:33
Speaker 3: are unbeatable, that resistance is feudal, that it is hopeless.
20:40
Speaker 5: You know, you.
20:41
Speaker 3: Look at Paradise lost, and what are the words above
20:45
Speaker 3: the gates of hell? Abandon hope all ye who enter here.
20:49
Speaker 3: That is, if there were a motto a slogan of
20:54
Speaker 3: tyrannical regimes. That's what it would be. Abandon hope all
20:58
Speaker 3: ye who enter here. They stay in power because look, look,
21:02
Speaker 3: they're always vastly outnumbered by the people. But they stay
21:06
Speaker 3: in power because the people say, it's hopeless. We can't
21:08
Speaker 3: defeat them. And after losing unambiguously, decisively, crushingly to Israel
21:15
Speaker 3: in a way that you couldn't spin, you couldn't say, no, no, no,
21:18
Speaker 3: it was a victory for us, like they lost in
21:20
Speaker 3: every respect, the people say, wait a second, these guys
21:24
Speaker 3: aren't nearly as powerful as they.
21:27
Speaker 5: Said they were.
21:28
Speaker 3: And then the coup de gras was President Trump ordering
21:32
Speaker 3: B two's to fly from the middle of the United
21:34
Speaker 3: States all the way around the world to drop bunker
21:38
Speaker 3: buster bombs on Iran's nuclear facilities. We dropped the equivalent
21:45
Speaker 3: of one third of a nuclear weapon on those three
21:48
Speaker 3: nuclear facilities, utterly destroyed them, and flew all the way
21:52
Speaker 3: around the world and came back home with zero American casualties.
21:56
Speaker 3: It was a flawlessly executed military attack. And again it
22:02
Speaker 3: made clear that if you're looking at a contest between
22:04
Speaker 3: Iran and what he calls the Great Satan, what the
22:08
Speaker 3: Iatola calls the Great Satan. It is not a close contest.
22:12
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you that is a major reason I
22:14
Speaker 3: think the people of Iran are rising up.
22:17
Speaker 2: Senator you talk about inspiring. I was actually speaking with
22:21
Speaker 2: some people this weekend. You and I were both at
22:23
Speaker 2: conservative events. This was a topic of conversation and I
22:26
Speaker 2: had someone walk up there like, this is a hard
22:28
Speaker 2: subject to explain to our kids or grandkids. What's your message?
22:31
Speaker 2: And I said, you're gonna laugh. But I'm a movie guy.
22:34
Speaker 2: You love movies.
22:35
Speaker 1: I said, show your kids that they're a little bit older. Argo.
22:38
Speaker 2: It will get you to where this all happened, and
22:42
Speaker 2: the fall and the Chavarenne, all of it, and go
22:44
Speaker 2: back and watch that movie.
22:45
Speaker 1: It's a great movie, and it'll catch you come up.
22:48
Speaker 2: To data of where we were then and where how
22:50
Speaker 2: we got to where we are now in a sense.
22:52
Speaker 2: And it's a very easy way to do that. So
22:54
Speaker 2: if you're listening right now you've never watched Argo, or
22:56
Speaker 2: maybe watched a long time ago, it's been affleck movie.
22:58
Speaker 2: It's a great movie based on true story of us
23:00
Speaker 2: getting people out that were in the Canada's embassy there.
23:03
Speaker 2: It's just it's an awesome victory story for me as
23:06
Speaker 2: I describe it, but make sure you do it.
23:08
Speaker 1: But they were also talking.
23:10
Speaker 2: I was talking to a couple of guys that good
23:11
Speaker 2: friends of mine, they're still in the military, and they said,
23:14
Speaker 2: I wish President Trump got more credit for what he
23:18
Speaker 2: did over the last couple of days, going after Isis
23:22
Speaker 2: right next to Iran, and it was clearly sending a
23:26
Speaker 2: message to the people of Iran that when we said
23:29
Speaker 2: we have your back if they start coming in and
23:31
Speaker 2: killing you, we mean it, and we are here.
23:35
Speaker 1: And that is when they said.
23:36
Speaker 2: Within hours you saw the explosion of people going to
23:39
Speaker 2: the streets because it was obviously the president doing two
23:42
Speaker 2: things at once.
23:43
Speaker 1: Once.
23:43
Speaker 2: We were holding Isis accountable for killing American soldiers and
23:47
Speaker 2: that happened recently. But also I think he was sending
23:51
Speaker 2: a clear mental message to the Iranian.
23:54
Speaker 1: People that we are here, we are right next to you.
23:57
Speaker 2: I mean it when I say we are standing with you,
24:00
Speaker 2: and if they come to kill you, we will help
24:03
Speaker 2: protect and defend you. That was a very important moment
24:06
Speaker 2: I think as well, and that again that was coming
24:08
Speaker 2: from you when the military saying that should be something
24:10
Speaker 2: that should be talked about the media is not covering it.
24:13
Speaker 3: Look, that is absolutely right, and it is peace through
24:16
Speaker 3: strength that when you have a strong American president, our
24:20
Speaker 3: enemies are weaker. I'll tell you President Trump put out
24:22
Speaker 3: the following truth social Iran is looking at freedom, freedom
24:27
Speaker 3: at all caps. Perhaps like never before, the USA stands
24:33
Speaker 3: ready to help, signed President Donald J.
24:36
Speaker 5: Trump.
24:37
Speaker 3: And you're and my friend Klay Travis. He tweeted on
24:39
Speaker 3: top of that and said, Iran is the biggest story
24:41
Speaker 3: in the world right now. Nothing else is close. This
24:46
Speaker 3: could be the modern day fall of the Berlin Wall. Moment,
24:50
Speaker 3: the Ayatola is on the ropes. And I'll tell you, look,
24:52
Speaker 3: Argo's great to get some history. But the analogy I
24:55
Speaker 3: would use as the collapse of the Soviet Union because
24:58
Speaker 3: Iran following the the Union had a broader reach than Iran.
25:01
Speaker 3: But Iran is so toxic. They literally fund every enemy
25:05
Speaker 3: who hates America, and their body count of Americans they
25:09
Speaker 3: have killed has been massive that they are like a poison.
25:13
Speaker 5: And I have to say.
25:15
Speaker 3: In the midst of that, when we're looking at a
25:18
Speaker 3: moment to see to see American national security shift dramatically
25:24
Speaker 3: in our favor, it is striking right now. The Iranian regime,
25:27
Speaker 3: it shut down the Internet, it has a TV black
25:29
Speaker 3: add it's doing everything they can to keep their citizenry
25:33
Speaker 3: in silence. But do you know what they're airing statewide
25:37
Speaker 3: on Iranian TV.
25:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's sad, but it's Tucker Carlson.
25:42
Speaker 3: They are literally airing Tucker Carlson's podcast in Persian, so
25:49
Speaker 3: dubbed and translated so that you can listen here. I
25:51
Speaker 3: want you to listen to this one story reporting on this.
25:55
Speaker 4: So the Islamic regime right now is literally broadcast sink
26:00
Speaker 4: Tucker Carlson interviews in Persian on their twenty four hour
26:06
Speaker 4: news channel. The country is in a state of chaos,
26:09
Speaker 4: and yet for some reason he's on the regime is
26:12
Speaker 4: choosing to play Tucker Carlson interviews because this is like
26:15
Speaker 4: you know, it's it's from its propaganda. I'm just filming
26:19
Speaker 4: this right now because if I didn't do this, no
26:22
Speaker 4: one would believe this is literally what's going on in
26:25
Speaker 4: occupied Ron right now.
26:26
Speaker 3: Ben I want to make I want to say something
26:28
Speaker 3: very serious, yeah, which is listen, Tucker and I have
26:31
Speaker 3: had a serious dispute for quite some time. I went
26:36
Speaker 3: on his podcast he went after me.
26:38
Speaker 5: He attacked me.
26:40
Speaker 3: He has publicly said things like there is no one
26:42
Speaker 3: he hates more than Christian Zionists, and he singled out
26:45
Speaker 3: me and Mike Huckabee as the two people he hates worse.
26:48
Speaker 3: I get the most in Plant Planet Earth. We just
26:52
Speaker 3: had the Turning Points America fest where Ben Shapiro stood
26:56
Speaker 3: up and called out many of the voices who have
26:59
Speaker 3: been spreading anti Semitism on the right, including Tucker Carlson,
27:04
Speaker 3: and then the rest of the Turning Point event was
27:06
Speaker 3: a whole series of people standing up and blasting Ben Shapiro.
27:09
Speaker 3: And it's easy to say there are lots of people saying,
27:12
Speaker 3: no a division on the right, Let's stop fighting. Listen,
27:16
Speaker 3: this is not an episode of celebrity family feud. This
27:22
Speaker 3: is not one influencer getting all upset and yelling at
27:24
Speaker 3: the other influencer.
27:25
Speaker 5: And back and forth. Who cares? Yeah, I want to
27:28
Speaker 5: speak for a minute. Listen.
27:30
Speaker 3: I don't know why Tucker has gone down the road
27:32
Speaker 3: he has. I wish he had not, But Tucker has
27:35
Speaker 3: spent most of his life I think, being someone who
27:38
Speaker 3: loves America and at least saying he loves America. And
27:42
Speaker 3: I just want to say, in all serious, list Tucker,
27:46
Speaker 3: what does it say to you that the Ayatola KAMENI,
27:50
Speaker 3: someone who unequivocally hates America, who has murdered Americans, who
27:53
Speaker 3: tortures and murders people, views what you're saying as the
27:58
Speaker 3: propaganda he wants to use to suppress his people and
28:02
Speaker 3: to silence a revolution. I got to tell you, if
28:05
Speaker 3: it were me, I would be sick to my stomach
28:09
Speaker 3: and and and the fact that that the Iranian people
28:11
Speaker 3: are downloading Verdict and listening to what we're saying. Well,
28:14
Speaker 3: the Iatola is pumping out Tucker's show. Look, here's what
28:17
Speaker 3: I actually hope will happen.
28:19
Speaker 5: Listen.
28:19
Speaker 3: I think what Tucker has been spreading has been really harmful.
28:22
Speaker 3: But I'm I am hoping and praying there'll be a
28:25
Speaker 3: moment where he says, you know, dear God, whatever I
28:28
Speaker 3: did wrong. If the Iotola views what I'm saying as
28:33
Speaker 3: his message, clearly we made a mistake here. Let's change course.
28:39
Speaker 3: I can't imagine anything more.
28:43
Speaker 5: More.
28:43
Speaker 2: I want to say this because I've known Tucker for
28:45
Speaker 2: a long time, we've done TV together, and I know
28:47
Speaker 2: you've seen me too.
28:48
Speaker 3: As about I've no Tucker twenty twenty five.
28:50
Speaker 1: Years Yeah, at Charlie's funeral.
28:52
Speaker 2: I just I The part that sickens me the most
28:55
Speaker 2: is when you when you go down a road because
28:57
Speaker 2: you're so hellbent on being right, and then the proof
29:01
Speaker 2: that you're wrong is that as they're clinging to power,
29:04
Speaker 2: they're like, let's use the American Tucker Carlson on TV
29:08
Speaker 2: to maybe stop this.
29:11
Speaker 1: Yearning for freedom in this country.
29:14
Speaker 2: It was like when I watched Tucker in the grocery
29:16
Speaker 2: stores and after he interviewed Vladimir Putin, and I was like,
29:19
Speaker 2: what is happening when he was saying it's amazing over here,
29:22
Speaker 2: and I'm like, go outside the city of Moscow, It's
29:24
Speaker 2: not amazing, and you'll see people that are suffering. Like,
29:26
Speaker 2: you should know better than to put out this type
29:29
Speaker 2: of propaganda.
29:30
Speaker 1: I agree with you.
29:30
Speaker 2: I hope this is a wake up call and he
29:33
Speaker 2: comes back to sanity because he has a huge microphone
29:38
Speaker 2: in a huge voice, and he genuinely influencing a younger
29:42
Speaker 2: generation of conservatives who are now anti Israel and don't
29:47
Speaker 2: understand that the shaw or the fall of the Aetola
29:51
Speaker 2: is a good thing in Iran.
29:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I want to talk about that for a minute,
29:55
Speaker 3: because there are a lot of people if you read
29:57
Speaker 3: X and social media, that you just get little slogans
30:00
Speaker 3: that are tossed and we're kind of tribal. We're like
30:02
Speaker 3: on one team or the other. And so you're either
30:05
Speaker 3: a neo Khon warmonger or you're an isolationist like Tucker
30:10
Speaker 3: and his followers. And I actually think most Americans don't
30:14
Speaker 3: fall into either category. Most Americans, I think, agree with
30:19
Speaker 3: President Donald Trump and agreed with President Ronald Reagan. Neither
30:23
Speaker 3: one of them were to use the insult of the
30:27
Speaker 3: day neocon warmongers. You know, in eight years the biggest
30:31
Speaker 3: country Reagan ever invaded Grenada. Yeah, he was not interested
30:36
Speaker 3: in invading foreign countries and sending our soldiers to die abroad.
30:40
Speaker 3: But he understood peace through strength. He rebuilt our military,
30:44
Speaker 3: he developed SDI Strategic Defense initiative what was called star
30:47
Speaker 3: Wars laser missile defense from space, and he bankrupted the
30:51
Speaker 3: Soviet Union and won the Cold War without firing a shot.
30:56
Speaker 3: Donald Trump, likewise, has had incredible foreign powers victories, but
31:01
Speaker 3: he's not sending our soldiers to be boots on the
31:04
Speaker 3: ground and to die for years on end. And I
31:07
Speaker 3: want to take a related term that on social media
31:10
Speaker 3: gets thrown around as an epithet, which is regime change,
31:15
Speaker 3: and you'll have people I'm not for regime change.
31:18
Speaker 5: Well, let me be clear.
31:20
Speaker 3: Should you be for regime change when the Soviet Union
31:24
Speaker 3: fell in the Berlin Wall fell to the ground? I
31:26
Speaker 3: will submit the answer is unambiguously yes. The world is
31:30
Speaker 3: better off when a cruel, tyrannical communist regime falls. Should
31:35
Speaker 3: you be for regime change today? In communist China? I
31:38
Speaker 3: think unambiguously yes. The world would be better off if
31:41
Speaker 3: China we're no longer a communist country. Should you be
31:44
Speaker 3: for regime change in Iran? I would suggest unambiguously yes.
31:50
Speaker 3: The world would be a better place if Iran was
31:52
Speaker 3: not governed by a theocratic, murderous religious zealot who has
31:58
Speaker 3: killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans. Now, what is
32:03
Speaker 3: the consequence of saying you're for regime change? If it
32:06
Speaker 3: is that you're going to send hundreds of thousands of
32:09
Speaker 3: American troops to invade the country and be on the
32:11
Speaker 3: ground for years on end and die in IEDs and
32:14
Speaker 3: be killed.
32:16
Speaker 5: Then I don't support that.
32:17
Speaker 3: That is wrong and part of the reason regime change
32:21
Speaker 3: has become an insult is people hear it and they
32:25
Speaker 3: immediately think the Iraq War. Remember I've opposed the Iraq
32:28
Speaker 3: War for decades. By the way, when Tucker Carlson was
32:32
Speaker 3: an interventionist cheerleader with palm palms cheering on the Iraq War,
32:37
Speaker 3: which he did for years with his bow tie, I've
32:41
Speaker 3: said for years the Iraq War was clearly a mistake.
32:44
Speaker 3: Why because it did not advance US national security interest.
32:47
Speaker 3: Saddam Hussein was a cruel and oppressive dictator. He was
32:51
Speaker 3: killing terrorists who hated America. We came in, we toppled
32:54
Speaker 3: Saddam Hussein, and the terrorists who hated America took over
32:58
Speaker 3: and began killing Americans. By the way, we did the
33:00
Speaker 3: same thing in Libya with Kadafi. Kadafia was cruel and oppressive,
33:04
Speaker 3: but he was killing terrorists to hate Americans. We toppled
33:07
Speaker 3: Kadafi and the terrorists to hate Americans took over. I
33:10
Speaker 3: believe we should be America first, which means we should
33:13
Speaker 3: put America's national security interest first. But just because you
33:18
Speaker 3: don't want to commit boots on the ground and have
33:21
Speaker 3: hundreds or thousands of Americans die and protracted ground combat
33:26
Speaker 3: does not mean that you should support every tyrannical enemy
33:31
Speaker 3: of America. We should want regime change in Iran, and
33:36
Speaker 3: are there ways to promote regime change other than boots
33:40
Speaker 3: on the ground. And yes, And I would say one
33:43
Speaker 3: of them is what Donald J. Trump said. I want
33:45
Speaker 3: to read his tweet again. Iran is looking at freedom,
33:48
Speaker 3: perhaps like never before, the USA stands ready to help
33:52
Speaker 3: President Donald J.
33:53
Speaker 5: Trump.
33:53
Speaker 3: I agree with President Trump and Tucker and everyone else
33:57
Speaker 3: who is blasting that we should have nothing to do
33:59
Speaker 3: with Iran, and they're disagreeing with the President, and they
34:02
Speaker 3: are wrong. We should use our voice. That's why this
34:05
Speaker 3: podcast is a message to the people of Iran. Freedom matters.
34:10
Speaker 3: You're the ones in charge of fighting for your revolution,
34:13
Speaker 3: but know that that America stands with you, and a
34:18
Speaker 3: free and peaceful Iran is better for Iran and it's
34:20
Speaker 3: better for America.
34:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is. It's an important show. I hope
34:24
Speaker 2: that people in Iran, especially using Starlink, get this podcast,
34:28
Speaker 2: they're able to listen to it that we're standing with you,
34:30
Speaker 2: we're supporting you, we're advocating for you, and we want
34:33
Speaker 2: you guys to succeed in what you're doing right now.
34:35
Speaker 2: It's going to be very interesting to see because so
34:37
Speaker 2: things are changing so quickly. There was a video that
34:40
Speaker 2: was put out and it was also just one of
34:42
Speaker 2: those moments when I love the Internet, and it shows
34:45
Speaker 2: a Russian jet and a Russian support plane from their
34:47
Speaker 2: military on the tarmac on the military side at the
34:50
Speaker 2: Tehran airport. It's interesting because people are speculating that plane
34:54
Speaker 2: is sitting there ready to take out the leaders that
34:56
Speaker 2: they need to.
34:56
Speaker 3: Ben I got to say, what was there in the
34:59
Speaker 3: windshield uber logo?
35:01
Speaker 5: I'm just curious.
35:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, it said it said Russian Lift. It was Russia.
35:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's ever Russian lift. Did they at least bring
35:07
Speaker 3: some like, you know, Domino's pizza or something.
35:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's the same plane I think that they
35:12
Speaker 2: got when they grabbed a side right, you know, it's like, oh,
35:14
Speaker 2: come on down, we'll let you be an eye doctor.
35:16
Speaker 1: It's fine, you're one of our bad.
35:17
Speaker 5: Guess it's the Dictator extraction plane.
35:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, it's those two. And who knows, Baby Tucker
35:22
Speaker 2: will be on it one day. You can go hang
35:24
Speaker 2: out there. He's already bought a house and katars so
35:26
Speaker 2: you never know, but you see it, and it's just
35:29
Speaker 2: one of those moments where I love the Internet. It's like,
35:32
Speaker 2: that's how close we are to seeing genuine freedom back
35:35
Speaker 2: there that they haven't seen since nineteen seventy nine. That
35:39
Speaker 2: is amazing and inspiring. I hope for the best, and
35:42
Speaker 2: I hope that very few lives or any lives are
35:44
Speaker 2: are lost in this world.
35:46
Speaker 3: Let me say something also, Ben, You're right, let me
35:49
Speaker 3: also acknowledge I'm not pollyannish about what comes next. So
35:54
Speaker 3: if there's a revolution in Iran, if the iotola is toppled,
35:58
Speaker 3: it doesn't mean that tomorrow it's suddenly utopia and peace
36:03
Speaker 3: and harmony. There could be real conflict that there could
36:07
Speaker 3: be warring sides. Anytime you have a revolution, there is
36:11
Speaker 3: uncertainty and the outcome can be good or bad.
36:16
Speaker 5: I don't have a stake.
36:17
Speaker 3: I don't have a preferred favorite for who the next
36:21
Speaker 3: leader of Iran is. I don't think that's my place.
36:24
Speaker 3: I'm not a voter in Iran. I'mlike Tucker, I'm not
36:28
Speaker 3: buying a home in the Middle East.
36:31
Speaker 2: To be quar you're not buying real estate there. Okay,
36:34
Speaker 2: I thought you guys were gonna be neighbors. But okay, look, if.
36:37
Speaker 3: The people of Iran toppled the Iyatola and the Malas,
36:41
Speaker 3: my hope is that we see free and democratic elections
36:44
Speaker 3: and they elect a leader who's a good leader, who
36:46
Speaker 3: treats his people well, and who wants to be friends
36:49
Speaker 3: with America instead of enemies. By the way, that's the
36:51
Speaker 3: exact same outcome I want in Venezuela. I want them
36:54
Speaker 3: not to have a communist dictator. Now Donald Trump is
36:57
Speaker 3: taking care of that, but I arrested him and resting
36:59
Speaker 3: him and prosecute him. But I want to see free
37:01
Speaker 3: and fair elections in Venezuela where they elect somewhat I
37:04
Speaker 3: hope who embraces freedom and free enterprise and wants to
37:08
Speaker 3: be friends with America. The lens I look through all
37:10
Speaker 3: of this is how does it impact America. It's America first,
37:13
Speaker 3: But I'm not diminishing. Could there be bad outcomes? Could
37:18
Speaker 3: there be a civil war? Yes, that's a possibility when
37:21
Speaker 3: you have revolutions.
37:22
Speaker 2: A country like we saw in Iraq as well. I mean,
37:24
Speaker 2: you see this where there's different there's many different religious
37:27
Speaker 2: thoughts and backgrounds in different towns that leave different.
37:30
Speaker 3: Things and let me draw a distinction on this also,
37:33
Speaker 3: which is there's a real difference between Saddam Hussein and
37:37
Speaker 3: Iran in that Saddam Hussein was a cruel dictator, but
37:41
Speaker 3: he wasn't actively waging war on America. The Ayatola is
37:45
Speaker 3: actively waging war on America. He's spending money to day
37:49
Speaker 3: funding terrorists that are trying to kill Americans. And there's
37:53
Speaker 3: a real difference. There are regimes across this country, across
37:57
Speaker 3: the world rather that are cruel and oppressive, but they're
38:00
Speaker 3: not trying to kill us.
38:02
Speaker 5: The Iyatola is.
38:03
Speaker 3: And so look, obviously, if the regime falls, you could
38:07
Speaker 3: end up with a bad outcome. But in my view,
38:10
Speaker 3: there are very few outcomes that could be worse than
38:12
Speaker 3: the Iyatola. At this point, they are unmitigatedly our enemies,
38:16
Speaker 3: and I am hopeful. I think we should be a
38:19
Speaker 3: voice of encouragement towards better leadership. But I want to
38:23
Speaker 3: I want to close with this story. So, about a
38:26
Speaker 3: decade ago, I was in Jerusalem and I had the
38:30
Speaker 3: opportunity to meet Natan Sharansky. And Natan Sharanski is the
38:34
Speaker 3: famed Soviet dissident. He was in the Soviet Gulag, and
38:39
Speaker 3: he told me the story about how when they were
38:41
Speaker 3: in the Gulag and Reagan was president, that the prisoners
38:46
Speaker 3: would pass from sell to sell notes and they would
38:50
Speaker 3: be notes saying did you hear what Reagan said? Reagan
38:53
Speaker 3: called the Soviet Union an evil empire. They passed notes.
38:57
Speaker 3: Evil empire, evil empire, evil empire.
38:59
Speaker 1: Uh.
39:00
Speaker 3: Reagan was asked what is your strategy on the Cold War?
39:04
Speaker 3: He said, very simple, we win, they lose.
39:07
Speaker 1: Yeah.
39:07
Speaker 3: Before that everyone said, oh, we're gonna have Dayton, We're
39:09
Speaker 3: just going to do nothing, and he's like, we win,
39:11
Speaker 3: they lose.
39:11
Speaker 5: That's the strategy.
39:13
Speaker 3: Well, when he talked about Marxism Leninism, he said, Marxism
39:16
Speaker 3: Leninism will end up.
39:17
Speaker 5: On the ash heap of history.
39:20
Speaker 3: And then the most significant words any leader has uttered
39:23
Speaker 3: in modern times. He stood in front of the Brandenburg
39:25
Speaker 3: Gate in Germany and said, mister Gorbachev, tear down this.
39:30
Speaker 2: Wall, which, by the way, I love that part of
39:33
Speaker 2: the story. And if you haven't looked at it, please
39:34
Speaker 2: go and look at it. He was told by his staff, yes,
39:38
Speaker 2: speech writers, to not say it.
39:41
Speaker 6: And he's the State depart back in at free times.
39:43
Speaker 6: State Department had taken it out three times. The State
39:46
Speaker 6: Department deleted that three times. Reagan wrote it back in.
39:49
Speaker 6: And by the way, the State Department argued at the
39:51
Speaker 6: time of his speech, he said, you cannot say this.
39:53
Speaker 6: It is too aggressive, it's too bellicos And here was
39:56
Speaker 6: their killer.
39:57
Speaker 5: Argument, it's too unrealistic. It will ever ever ever happened.
40:02
Speaker 3: And Reagan laughed and said, this is the whole point
40:04
Speaker 3: of the speech. And it was less than three years
40:07
Speaker 3: from giving that speech that the Berlin Wall was torn
40:10
Speaker 3: to the ground. And by the way, Berlin Wall did
40:13
Speaker 3: not come down because Reagan ordered in the Marines, we
40:16
Speaker 3: sent in tanks to knock down the wall. It was
40:19
Speaker 3: the power of the bully pulpit, of the voice for
40:22
Speaker 3: freedom of the president. And one of the things Ben
40:25
Speaker 3: you've seen that.
40:26
Speaker 5: Is in my office. It's actually in one of the
40:28
Speaker 5: offices of my staff.
40:29
Speaker 1: I love it is.
40:30
Speaker 3: My first couple of years that I was the Senate,
40:33
Speaker 3: someone came to the office and gave me something, and
40:36
Speaker 3: it's a silk painting of myself, which I don't generally
40:40
Speaker 3: hang paintings of myself on the wall. Yeah, but the
40:43
Speaker 3: reason that I kept this one is the story behind it.
40:47
Speaker 3: This was apparently made by a dissident, a prisoner in
40:52
Speaker 3: North Korea. And I've been from the very first days
40:56
Speaker 3: I arrived in the Senate, I've been speaking out against
40:59
Speaker 3: tyrants and communist depression, whether in China or North Korea,
41:04
Speaker 3: or Venezuela or Cuba or Iran. And much like Natan Sharansky,
41:10
Speaker 3: apparently the words that I had said here in the
41:13
Speaker 3: United States had somehow made their way into a dark
41:17
Speaker 3: prison cell in North Korea. And I don't know the
41:19
Speaker 3: name of this North Korean who made this. I don't
41:23
Speaker 3: know his story. I just know that it was smuggled
41:25
Speaker 3: out and they delivered it to my office. And I
41:28
Speaker 3: periodically look at that and say, Okay, like, there's a
41:31
Speaker 3: responsibility this podcast. There may be someone who is risking
41:39
Speaker 3: their life or even god forbid, loses their life because
41:42
Speaker 3: they hear our words are inspired to fight against tyranny.
41:46
Speaker 3: And so I think we have a responsibility to speak truth,
41:50
Speaker 3: to speak for justice. And that's what I hope this
41:54
Speaker 3: podcast is doing every week, but especially today.
41:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. Don't forget We
41:59
Speaker 2: do the show Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Hit that subscriber auto
42:02
Speaker 2: download button. You can also watch this podcast if you
42:06
Speaker 2: want to watch on video on YouTube. We also put
42:08
Speaker 2: it up on Facebook as well, so you can watch
42:10
Speaker 2: it there if you're on Facebook, so make sure you
42:12
Speaker 2: do that as well, and please share it, like I said,
42:14
Speaker 2: with your family and friends. That's how we get new
42:16
Speaker 2: people to hear the show. It's the whole reason why
42:18
Speaker 2: we do this show is to reach as many people
42:19
Speaker 2: as possible.
42:20
Speaker 1: Without you, guys.
42:21
Speaker 2: Sharing it on social media or texting it to your friends,
42:25
Speaker 2: that doesn't happen.
42:26
Speaker 1: So thank you for
42:26
Speaker 2: Doing it and continuing to do it, and the Senate
42:28
Speaker 2: and I will see you back here in a couple
42:30
Speaker 2: of days.