Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / No Deal: Trump Moves to Blockade the Strait of Hormuz as Iran Defies Nuclear Demands plus Swalwell Bombshell

Transcript

No Deal: Trump Moves to Blockade the Strait of Hormuz as Iran Defies Nuclear Demands plus Swalwell Bombshell · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with Center, Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson
0:03
Speaker 1: with you Center. We've got a lot to talk about
0:05
Speaker 1: that's happened over the weekend. The news was not sleeping
0:08
Speaker 1: and sincom and the White House is now confirmed that
0:11
Speaker 1: the US Navy is going to block ships entering and
0:15
Speaker 1: exiting the Iranian ports, and that has nothing to do
0:18
Speaker 1: with what's going on in California.
0:20
Speaker 2: With Eric Swallow on top.
0:21
Speaker 3: Of that, well, we had twenty hours of negotiations in Pakistan,
0:25
Speaker 3: and unsurprisingly, the Iranians were unwilling to move at all,
0:31
Speaker 3: in particular on nuclear weapons. They want a nuclear weapon,
0:34
Speaker 3: and I think they want a nuclear weapon because they
0:36
Speaker 3: want to be able to use a nuclear weapon. And
0:38
Speaker 3: President Trump, quite rightly is insisting, under no circumstances will
0:44
Speaker 3: the regime of Iran be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
0:47
Speaker 3: And so the President responded by ordering a blockade on
0:51
Speaker 3: the Strait of Hormuz, shutting down every ship going into
0:54
Speaker 3: and out of the strait. We're going to break that down.
0:56
Speaker 3: We're going to talk about what that means for Iran,
0:58
Speaker 3: what that means for America, what that means for China
1:01
Speaker 3: and Europe, what's gonna happen next, and then we're gonna
1:05
Speaker 3: talk about poor Eric Swalwell, who seems to be on
1:12
Speaker 3: a train falling off a cliff on fire, exploding and
1:17
Speaker 3: it's all self inflicted and and you know, schaden freud
1:21
Speaker 3: is not a pretty sentiment. But but I guess people
1:26
Speaker 3: will be forgiven for just kind of shaking their head
1:31
Speaker 3: and saying, well, couldn't happen to a nicer guy?
1:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Fang Fang you thought was the worst, the
1:37
Speaker 1: low Nope, it wasn't.
1:39
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no no.
1:41
Speaker 3: Fang Fang was a high point for Eric Swalwell. He
1:44
Speaker 3: is looking back to the halcyon glory days of Fang Fang.
1:50
Speaker 3: He wishes that that's where he was today.
1:53
Speaker 2: No doubt about it.
1:54
Speaker 1: We'll explain all of this story as it is continuing
1:57
Speaker 1: to unfold as we speak. Plus he's running or was
2:01
Speaker 1: running for governor. We're gonna explain that to you as well.
2:04
Speaker 1: Before we get to that, though, there are still so
2:07
Speaker 1: many people that are dealing with the fallout of this
2:10
Speaker 1: war in Israel, and there are many needs for the
2:13
Speaker 1: people at Israel right now, and so many of you
2:15
Speaker 1: that listen to the show have been standing with those
2:17
Speaker 1: people and getting involved with the incredible work that's being
2:20
Speaker 1: done right now in Israel with IFCJ, I want to
2:24
Speaker 1: take a moment and talk to you about a man
2:26
Speaker 1: named Phineas who has a child survived the Holocaust. Phineas
2:31
Speaker 1: survive because Christians hit him from the Nazis, risking everything
2:37
Speaker 1: to save his life. Today, he is in his eighties,
2:41
Speaker 1: he can no longer stand on his own or leave
2:43
Speaker 1: his home to receive medical care, and when the siren
2:47
Speaker 1: sounds and the missiles fall, he doesn't have time or
2:50
Speaker 1: the strength to reach safety. But once again Christians are
2:54
Speaker 1: helping save his life. Through the International Fellowship of Christians
2:58
Speaker 1: and Jews, Noble Clinic brings doctors and medicine right inside
3:03
Speaker 1: of his home, providing care he wouldn't receive, especially in wartime.
3:08
Speaker 1: Christians saved my life during the Holocaust, he said, and
3:12
Speaker 1: now again they're helping me. So as Israel's Holocaust Remembrance
3:17
Speaker 1: Day approaches, we honor survivors like Phineas, not just with words,
3:22
Speaker 1: but with action.
3:23
Speaker 2: Give forty five.
3:24
Speaker 1: Dollars right now and you can rush life saving essentials
3:28
Speaker 1: to the vulnerable in Israel under fire. Eight at eight
3:31
Speaker 1: four eight eight IFCJ that's eight eight eight four eight
3:36
Speaker 1: eight IFCJ. Or go online to IFCJ dot org. That's
3:42
Speaker 1: if CJ dot org. All right, so Centater, you wake
3:47
Speaker 1: up Sunday and you get the news. The present's like,
3:50
Speaker 1: all right, we had these twenty hours of talks. They're
3:52
Speaker 1: not going well. We were about ninety five percent of
3:54
Speaker 1: the way there. The only problem is that last five
3:56
Speaker 1: percent dealt with the Ran getting nuclear weapons.
3:59
Speaker 2: We say, noted that.
4:00
Speaker 1: And now the President is saying, we're gonna do this
4:02
Speaker 1: BLOCKA with the Straight of Horn moves. They're not gonna
4:05
Speaker 1: hold us or the rest of the world hostage anymore.
4:08
Speaker 1: This is a very bold move. I want to get
4:10
Speaker 1: your initial reaction to it.
4:12
Speaker 3: Well, I have to say, none of this I think
4:15
Speaker 3: is surprising. If you go back to our last pod
4:18
Speaker 3: on Friday, we laid out that the President had drawn
4:21
Speaker 3: a series of red lines. His red lines were number one,
4:25
Speaker 3: Iran must have no enrichment whatsoever. Number two, Iran must
4:30
Speaker 3: give up all of it's already enriched uranium. Number three,
4:35
Speaker 3: Iran had to agree to completely open the Straight of
4:37
Speaker 3: hor moves. And actually number four was Iran had to
4:41
Speaker 3: stop funding terrorism across the globe. Those were the demands,
4:45
Speaker 3: Those were the red lines. As you and I discussed
4:48
Speaker 3: on the POD, I emphatically agree with all four of
4:51
Speaker 3: those red lines. Those are the right things to insist upon.
4:54
Speaker 3: The President asked JD. Vance and Jared Kushner and Steve
4:57
Speaker 3: Whitkoff to go and negotiate, and so they went to Islamabad.
5:00
Speaker 3: They negotiated with multiple officials from Iran that they had
5:06
Speaker 3: Pakistan was hosting and was intermediating. Apparently the negotiations went
5:11
Speaker 3: twenty hours. I got to say, it was not surprising
5:14
Speaker 3: they didn't go anywhere. It was very interesting that JD.
5:18
Speaker 3: Vance was the person asked to lead this, and that
5:20
Speaker 3: JD has been the most vocal opponent of military action
5:24
Speaker 3: against Iran, and so the fact that the President asked
5:27
Speaker 3: him to lead it. I'm not sure what the thinking
5:29
Speaker 3: was there, but it's an interesting statement. Here's what the
5:32
Speaker 3: President put out. He put out a two lengthy truth
5:36
Speaker 3: socials which sat as follows. Iran promised to open the
5:43
Speaker 3: Strait of Hormuz and they knowingly failed to do so.
5:47
Speaker 3: This caused anxiety, dislocation, and pain to many people and
5:51
Speaker 3: countries throughout the world. They say they put minds in
5:55
Speaker 3: the water, even though all of their navy and most
5:57
Speaker 3: of their mind droppers had been completely blown up up.
6:00
Speaker 3: They may have done so, but what shipowner would want
6:03
Speaker 3: to take the chance. There is great dishonor and permanent
6:08
Speaker 3: harm to the reputation of Iran and what's left of
6:11
Speaker 3: their quote unquote leaders. But we are beyond all of that.
6:16
Speaker 3: As they promised they better begin the process of getting
6:20
Speaker 3: this international waterway open and fast. Every law in the
6:25
Speaker 3: book is being violated by them. I have been fully
6:29
Speaker 3: debriefed by Vice President J. D. Vance, Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff,
6:33
Speaker 3: and Jared Kushner on the meeting that took place in
6:36
Speaker 3: Islamabad through the kind and very competent leadership of Field
6:40
Speaker 3: Marshal A. C. Munir and Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif of Pakistan.
6:45
Speaker 3: They are very extraordinary men and continuously thank me for
6:48
Speaker 3: saving thirty to fifty million lives in what would have
6:51
Speaker 3: been a horrendous war with India. I always appreciate hearing
6:55
Speaker 3: that the amount of humanity spoken of is incomprehensible. The
7:01
Speaker 3: meeting with Iran began early in the morning, lasted throughout
7:04
Speaker 3: the night, close to twenty hours. I could go into
7:08
Speaker 3: great detail and talk about much that has been gotten,
7:11
Speaker 3: but there is only one thing that matters, and this
7:14
Speaker 3: isnt all caps. Iran is unwilling to give up its
7:20
Speaker 3: nuclear ambitions. In many ways, the points that were agreed
7:24
Speaker 3: to are better than us continuing our military operations to conclusion.
7:28
Speaker 3: But all of those points don't matter compared to allowing
7:32
Speaker 3: nuclear power to be in the hands of such volatile,
7:37
Speaker 3: difficult and unpredictable people. My three representatives, as as all
7:43
Speaker 3: of this time went by, became not surprisingly very friendly
7:47
Speaker 3: and respectful of Iran's representatives, Mohammed Bager, galibaf Abbas Argachi
7:54
Speaker 3: Al and Ali Bagheri. But that doesn't matter because they
7:59
Speaker 3: were very unyielding as to the single most important issue.
8:04
Speaker 3: And as I have always said right from the beginning
8:07
Speaker 3: and many years ago, again in all caps, Iran will
8:11
Speaker 3: never have a nuclear weapon. And then here's the second
8:15
Speaker 3: truth socially sent. So there you have it. The meeting
8:20
Speaker 3: went well, most points were agreed to, but the only
8:24
Speaker 3: point that really mattered, nuclear was not effective. Immediately, the
8:29
Speaker 3: United States Navy, the finest in the world, will begin
8:33
Speaker 3: the process of blockading any and all ships trying to
8:36
Speaker 3: enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz. At some point
8:41
Speaker 3: we will reach on all being allowed to go in,
8:45
Speaker 3: all being allowed to go out basis. But Iran has
8:49
Speaker 3: not allowed that to happen by merely saying there may
8:53
Speaker 3: be a mine out there somewhere that nobody knows about
8:56
Speaker 3: but them. This is world extraor, and leaders of countries,
9:02
Speaker 3: especially the United States of America, will never be extorted.
9:07
Speaker 3: I have also instructed our navy to seek and interdict
9:10
Speaker 3: every vessel in international waters that has paid a toll
9:15
Speaker 3: to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will
9:19
Speaker 3: have safe passage on the high seas. We will also
9:23
Speaker 3: begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the straits.
9:28
Speaker 3: Any Iranian who fires at US or at peaceful vessels
9:32
Speaker 3: will be again in all caps blown to hell. Iran
9:38
Speaker 3: knows better than anyone how to end this situation, which
9:42
Speaker 3: has already devastated their country. Their navy is gone, their
9:47
Speaker 3: air force is gone, their anti aircraft and radar are useless.
9:52
Speaker 3: Kameni and most of their leaders are dead, all because
9:56
Speaker 3: of their nuclear ambition. The blockade will begin shortly. Other
10:02
Speaker 3: countries will be involved with this blockade. Iran will not
10:06
Speaker 3: be allowed to profit off this illegal act of extortion.
10:11
Speaker 3: They want money, and more importantly, they want nuclear additionally.
10:17
Speaker 3: And at an appropriate moment, we are fully locked and
10:21
Speaker 3: loaded and our military will finish up the little that
10:25
Speaker 3: is left of Iran. President Donald J. Trump, those are remarkable, detailed,
10:33
Speaker 3: and I think absolutely clear messages from the President of
10:37
Speaker 3: the United States. And I got to say, if you're
10:39
Speaker 3: an Iranian Mala, if you're the Ayatola, you are not
10:42
Speaker 3: happy to read one word of that.
10:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, And the President reiterated some of that as well
10:48
Speaker 1: when he called in to Maria Barturam on Fox Sunday
10:52
Speaker 1: on her show Sunday Futures. And the transparency here, I
10:57
Speaker 1: do think is one of the things that I just
10:58
Speaker 1: love about this president. And he said publicly the same
11:02
Speaker 1: things that he's saying privately, and he's making it clear
11:06
Speaker 1: that what they're doing is unacceptable. Now the question becomes
11:09
Speaker 1: what's next. And this has also been part of the
11:14
Speaker 1: politics of this. You know, Democrats really honed in and
11:17
Speaker 1: obsessed over if Donald Trump hit the bridges and the
11:23
Speaker 1: tunnels and then hit the power infrastructure, the electrical grid,
11:27
Speaker 1: the power plants that they were going to declare that
11:30
Speaker 1: he has committed war crimes. And by the way, we
11:33
Speaker 1: talked about this on verdict, that's not true, it's not accurate.
11:36
Speaker 1: But regardless, this does seem to be another I've exhausted
11:41
Speaker 1: every mean, every measure possible before I go there. And
11:45
Speaker 1: if he does this the way he's saying he's gonna
11:47
Speaker 1: do it, this is just another example of the president
11:49
Speaker 1: trying to give diplomacy but also having accountability at the
11:52
Speaker 1: same time. You come to the meetings, you screw with
11:54
Speaker 1: us for twenty hours, you won't agree, Fine, here's another
11:57
Speaker 1: step forward.
11:59
Speaker 3: Look, this is a massive hammer to the Iranian economy.
12:03
Speaker 3: The vast majority of the revenue Iran takes in is
12:06
Speaker 3: from selling their oil. They sell the bulk of that
12:09
Speaker 3: oil to China. So this blockade shutting down all of
12:13
Speaker 3: the shifts of ships, and there's an entire ghost fleet
12:16
Speaker 3: that has been built up of ships that have been
12:19
Speaker 3: taking Iranian oil to China. That ghost fleet will not
12:23
Speaker 3: be able to travel through the Strait of Hormus, will
12:26
Speaker 3: not be able to carry any Iranian oil. It means
12:29
Speaker 3: there's going to be no Iranian oil being sold, no
12:32
Speaker 3: money coming in. It also means. There have been reports
12:37
Speaker 3: that China might be sending weapons to Iran. I don't
12:40
Speaker 3: know if that's true or not, but by shutting down
12:43
Speaker 3: the strait, it also means that there are gonna be
12:46
Speaker 3: no incoming material to Iran through the Strait of Hormus.
12:51
Speaker 3: That puts enormous pressure on Iran. Now, it also puts
12:55
Speaker 3: a lot of pressure on China because they rely on
12:57
Speaker 3: that oil from Iran. They're not going to be able
12:59
Speaker 3: to get that oil from Ran anymore. And it puts
13:01
Speaker 3: significant pressure on Europe, you know. I will say one
13:05
Speaker 3: of the amazing things that has happened in this military
13:08
Speaker 3: conflict is Europe has shown how much they have changed
13:14
Speaker 3: and Western Europe look. Western Europe, I think is basically
13:18
Speaker 3: on a suicide pact. They have brought in such a
13:21
Speaker 3: massive Muslim immigration that the leaders in Western Europe are
13:26
Speaker 3: terrified to stand up. Even against an Aahtola who is
13:32
Speaker 3: screaming death to America, They're terrified to stand up. I'm
13:36
Speaker 3: sure you've seen the meme online that shows Muslim countries
13:39
Speaker 3: standing with America, and it lists every Arab country in
13:42
Speaker 3: the Middle East, the Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain,
13:45
Speaker 3: they're all standing with us, and then Muslim country is
13:48
Speaker 3: opposing us. And you've got France and the United Kingdom
13:51
Speaker 3: and Germany and Italy and Western Europe has not crowned
13:57
Speaker 3: itself in glory. To put it mildly, Europe has look
14:01
Speaker 3: Eastern Europe. You know. If you remember back when George W.
14:04
Speaker 3: Bush was president, Don Don Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense
14:07
Speaker 3: at the time, made a reference to Old Europe, meaning
14:11
Speaker 3: Western Europe and New Europe, and he said Old Europe
14:13
Speaker 3: is a lot less relevant than New Europe.
14:16
Speaker 1: Uh.
14:16
Speaker 3: The Eastern European countries that were under Soviet domination and
14:20
Speaker 3: and that are eager to stand with America. One of
14:24
Speaker 3: the most far reaching consequences of this military action the
14:29
Speaker 3: fact that our European allies said, we want nothing to
14:33
Speaker 3: do with America in this conflict. That's gonna have consequences,
14:36
Speaker 3: that's gonna have real consequences for decades, and those consequences
14:42
Speaker 3: are not good for Europe uh And and they're frankly
14:46
Speaker 3: not good. They're not good for the world. It is unfortunate.
14:49
Speaker 3: And I gotta say I was surprised to see even
14:51
Speaker 3: Italy joining that that that that group saying no we
14:56
Speaker 3: won't stand with America on this conflict. But the straight
15:00
Speaker 3: of horror moves shutting down is going to put real
15:02
Speaker 3: pressure on Europe, real massive pressure on Iran and very
15:06
Speaker 3: significant pressure on China.
15:08
Speaker 1: You know, let's talk about the oil coming out of there,
15:09
Speaker 1: because I don't think people understand how Iran gets their
15:12
Speaker 1: oil out and these and these black ships that you
15:15
Speaker 1: described it, when there are these, when there have been
15:18
Speaker 1: these these you know, basically, hey, we're not going to
15:22
Speaker 1: let your oil come out into the market this way,
15:24
Speaker 1: and we're gonna and we're gonna put you know, all
15:27
Speaker 1: these restrictions. You sell that a Venezuela had de done
15:30
Speaker 1: this and others where they sell it in the black market,
15:33
Speaker 1: they get a little less for it, but they find
15:35
Speaker 1: a buyer. They put it in these ships that are
15:37
Speaker 1: unmarked in essence, and they keep it and we all
15:39
Speaker 1: know what's happening, and it's happening. Iran has operated in
15:41
Speaker 1: that space for quite a long time, with with with
15:44
Speaker 1: all of the sanctions that have been on them. But
15:47
Speaker 1: as it was described to me by an old trader
15:50
Speaker 1: that was talking to you as we were watching the Masters,
15:52
Speaker 1: they said, you literally can decimate financially Iran. If you
15:59
Speaker 1: if this actually happens, because this is the way, the
16:02
Speaker 1: only way that they get a substantial amount of oil
16:04
Speaker 1: out of the country. There's no way to put on
16:06
Speaker 1: eighteen wheelers then get it out to in a big
16:08
Speaker 1: way to Europe. There's no way to get it out
16:11
Speaker 1: driving it somewhere. It's either this or nothing. And the
16:15
Speaker 1: regime relies on these tankers twenty four to seven, moving
16:20
Speaker 1: their currency, which is oil, and then turning that into
16:24
Speaker 1: cash for them to keep their government propped up. If
16:27
Speaker 1: you shut this down, he said, this is a country
16:29
Speaker 1: that in essence, can go bankrupt in a very short
16:32
Speaker 1: window of time.
16:34
Speaker 3: Well, and let's back up a little little bit of
16:36
Speaker 3: history on this. So at the beginning of the Trump administration,
16:40
Speaker 3: Iran was selling roughly one million barrels a day of oil.
16:45
Speaker 3: President Trump in the first term, there was a massive
16:48
Speaker 3: battle within the Trump administration about whether to withdraw from
16:51
Speaker 3: the Obama Iran nuclear deal. It was a disastrous deal.
16:55
Speaker 3: Both State and Defense urged him not to withdraw from
16:58
Speaker 3: the deal. I've vigorously urged the President to pull out.
17:03
Speaker 3: I probably talked to him in the Oval Office on
17:05
Speaker 3: Air Force one twenty or thirty times about pulling out
17:10
Speaker 3: of the Iran nuclear deal. He agreed with me. He
17:13
Speaker 3: overruled his own Secretary of State, his own Secretary Defense
17:16
Speaker 3: in the first term he pulled out of the deal.
17:18
Speaker 3: Once he pulled out of the deal, there were a
17:21
Speaker 3: series of waivers that remained in place. There were seven
17:24
Speaker 3: civilian nuclear waivers that allowed Iran to conduct what they
17:28
Speaker 3: called quote civilian nuclear research with the Russians. It wasn't
17:32
Speaker 3: civilian at all, but they claimed that it was. And
17:35
Speaker 3: then there was an oil waiver that specifically allowed them
17:38
Speaker 3: to sell oil. After President Trump pulled out of the
17:42
Speaker 3: Iran nuclear deal, we had a second battle to end
17:45
Speaker 3: the civilian nuclear waivers and to end the oil waiver
17:48
Speaker 3: on both of those. Again, the State Department opposed ending
17:52
Speaker 3: those waivers on both of those. I led the charge
17:56
Speaker 3: to end those waivers. When it came to the oil waiver,
18:00
Speaker 3: the Department of State and the Apartment of Energy had
18:02
Speaker 3: a sharp disagreement. State said, if you end the oil waiver,
18:07
Speaker 3: the price of oil will skyrocket, and that'll drive up
18:09
Speaker 3: the price of gasoline at the pump. The Department of
18:12
Speaker 3: Energy and Trump one, which you would think the Department
18:15
Speaker 3: of Energy would know something about well. Energy said, no,
18:20
Speaker 3: that's ridiculous. There's plenty of global supply. We could enforce
18:23
Speaker 3: these sanctions and it's not going to materially affect the price.
18:27
Speaker 3: I leaned in aggressively with the president and said end
18:30
Speaker 3: the oil waivers. Again. He agreed with me, overruled State
18:33
Speaker 3: yet again, and we now know who was right. The
18:37
Speaker 3: Department of Energy was right and State was wrong because
18:39
Speaker 3: when he ended the oil waivers, Iran's exports fell from
18:43
Speaker 3: a million barrels a day to about three hundred thousand,
18:47
Speaker 3: so they fell seventy percent. That was a massive blow
18:52
Speaker 3: and so under Trump won. By the end of Trump won,
18:55
Speaker 3: the Iranian economy was in free fall because down to
18:58
Speaker 3: three hundred thousand barrels a day was starving them of cash.
19:03
Speaker 3: Joe Biden came in and almost immediately just stopped enforcing
19:07
Speaker 3: the sanctions.
19:09
Speaker 2: What did they happened? Anyway? They had don't forget that.
19:11
Speaker 1: I went just everybody listening to remind them every time
19:14
Speaker 1: that that Biden administration was challenged on the point you
19:18
Speaker 1: just made. They said, we haven't lifted the sanctions. The
19:21
Speaker 1: sanctions is so there. But it was very clear. What
19:23
Speaker 1: they said was we just want to stay on paper.
19:26
Speaker 1: There're sanctions, so you can't criticize us. They were not
19:29
Speaker 1: enforcing the sanctions. That's the key point that Americans need
19:32
Speaker 1: to understand, because the Biden deministration, they did it time
19:35
Speaker 1: and time again for the podium. Jenzak can't remember say
19:38
Speaker 1: we have not gotten rid of sanctions.
19:40
Speaker 2: That is a lie. That is not true. That's the
19:42
Speaker 2: that's the right wing lying to you. And it was true.
19:45
Speaker 1: By the way, they had not gotten rid of sanctions.
19:47
Speaker 1: They just said we're not going to enforce them, so
19:49
Speaker 1: they're meaningless.
19:50
Speaker 3: Well, they stopped enforcing them, and what they allowed to
19:53
Speaker 3: grow was was this ghost fleet of ships, some four
19:56
Speaker 3: hundred ships, some four hundred tankers, many of them flagged
20:00
Speaker 3: under the flag of Panama. And when I've met with
20:02
Speaker 3: the government of Panama multiple times, I've leaned on them
20:05
Speaker 3: to stop flagging the ghost ship that is taking Iranian
20:09
Speaker 3: oil to China. But the result of Biden not enforcing
20:14
Speaker 3: the sanctions, Iran's oil experts grew. Exports grew from three
20:19
Speaker 3: hundred thousand barrels a day to what do you think
20:21
Speaker 3: they hit Under Joe Biden.
20:23
Speaker 2: I'm going to go all the way back up to
20:25
Speaker 2: a million two million.
20:28
Speaker 3: They doubled where they had the consequence of that going
20:32
Speaker 3: from three hundred thousand barrels a day to two million
20:35
Speaker 3: barrels a day was more than eighty billion dollars that
20:41
Speaker 3: the Biden administration flowed into Iran. In a very real way,
20:46
Speaker 3: the Biden administration, by non enforcing the oil sanctions, funded
20:51
Speaker 3: Hamas and Hesbela because ninety percent of Hamas and Hesbelos
20:54
Speaker 3: money comes from Iran, and that eighty billion dollars in
20:58
Speaker 3: a real sense, paid for the death squads. On October seventh.
21:02
Speaker 3: What President Trump is doing with this blockade is shutting
21:07
Speaker 3: down the ghost fleet. That is incredibly potent. I don't
21:13
Speaker 3: know what the resolution of this will be, but you're right,
21:16
Speaker 3: it's an intermediate step. It is another way of inflicting
21:19
Speaker 3: enormous leverage on Iran. It's not as significant as taking
21:24
Speaker 3: out the power plants and the bridges, which the President
21:27
Speaker 3: may still do. It also shuts down Iran. Was trying
21:33
Speaker 3: to say, hey, we're going to charge a toll of
21:35
Speaker 3: two million bucks a ship and suddenly make revenue. I
21:38
Speaker 3: love that the President said, you know what, any ship
21:41
Speaker 3: that pays that toll will not be allowed to traverse
21:44
Speaker 3: the seas. And by the way, for sixty plus years
21:49
Speaker 3: since World War Two, the seas have been free and
21:53
Speaker 3: open and navigable because the United States protects the waterways.
21:57
Speaker 3: It's the packs Americana that we have had in place,
22:01
Speaker 3: and the President has said, you know what, we don't
22:05
Speaker 3: have to enforce the waterways. We've done that for the
22:08
Speaker 3: good of the world. It helps America, but it helps
22:10
Speaker 3: the entire world. But we're certainly not going to do
22:13
Speaker 3: it if Iran is sitting there extracting a toll on
22:17
Speaker 3: every ship traveling through this waterway.
22:20
Speaker 1: I want to ask you one of the questions about this.
22:22
Speaker 1: I've been getting this question a lot, and it's the
22:25
Speaker 1: question of, Okay, how's the president wine this thing down?
22:29
Speaker 2: Number one? Two?
22:31
Speaker 1: What is the definition of success? I answered it this way.
22:35
Speaker 1: I said, there's two different definitions success. One is to
22:38
Speaker 1: make sure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon. That
22:41
Speaker 1: for me is the number one priority. I said, a
22:45
Speaker 1: bonus obviously success barrier. The second tier for me would
22:50
Speaker 1: be if the regime falls. There's a lot of conversations
22:55
Speaker 1: of well, can democrats say the president failed if he
22:59
Speaker 1: doesn't get at the regime to fall, but make sure
23:02
Speaker 1: they don't get nuclear weapons, and then Democrats will use
23:05
Speaker 1: that against us, and I might look as long as
23:08
Speaker 1: they don't get a new clear weapon. That is the
23:10
Speaker 1: ballgame for me, first and foremost. I would love for
23:13
Speaker 1: the regime to fall, but that takes an extended amount
23:17
Speaker 1: of time. Is that worth it to make that in
23:20
Speaker 1: essence to new objective?
23:21
Speaker 3: Now?
23:21
Speaker 1: The President said early on he wanted regime change. Yes,
23:25
Speaker 1: doesn't mean exporting democracy. But explain to everyone listening, what
23:30
Speaker 1: is your definition of success here? And is it both
23:34
Speaker 1: now that both are one and the same, or is
23:36
Speaker 1: it a two tier system?
23:38
Speaker 3: So let's be clear. Whatever happens, the Democrats and the
23:42
Speaker 3: media are going to say President Trump failed. It doesn't matter.
23:45
Speaker 3: On day one of this military conflict they said it's
23:48
Speaker 3: a failure. Every day since then they said it's a failure.
23:50
Speaker 3: They are rooting for it to fail. It is I
23:53
Speaker 3: gotta say, I am so disappointed in my colleagues. It
23:56
Speaker 3: used to be that politics ends at the water's edge.
24:00
Speaker 3: They are now so filled with partisan hatred that they
24:03
Speaker 3: are rooting against the American military. Sad in terms of success,
24:08
Speaker 3: I'd say success is threefold. Number one is the military success,
24:12
Speaker 3: taking out the ballistic missiles, the drones, the air force,
24:15
Speaker 3: the air defenses, the Navy, the Ayatola, and the military leaders.
24:20
Speaker 3: That is almost entirely achieved. The success of that has
24:24
Speaker 3: been astonishing. It took a ran forty years to build
24:28
Speaker 3: up its military, it took us thirty nine days to
24:31
Speaker 3: utterly and completely destroy it. That is a massive victory
24:35
Speaker 3: and that has essentially already been achieved. The second major
24:40
Speaker 3: objective is the nuclear objective, no enrichment, handing over the
24:46
Speaker 3: enriched uranium. I think that is incredibly important. President Trump
24:50
Speaker 3: is right to insist on that red line, and he
24:53
Speaker 3: should continue to insist on the red line. Now, the
24:56
Speaker 3: question of regime change, the Trump administration had has been
25:00
Speaker 3: very reluctant to use the words regime change. And there's
25:04
Speaker 3: a reason for that, which is they're really nervous. After
25:07
Speaker 3: the Iraq War. People are really leary. They don't want
25:10
Speaker 3: to see another Iraq war. This is not Iran, is
25:16
Speaker 3: not Iraq. There is zero chance that we are going
25:20
Speaker 3: to see hundreds of thousands of US troops invading and
25:23
Speaker 3: occupying for years to come. That's simply not in the cards.
25:28
Speaker 3: President Trump's not going to order that that is not contemplated.
25:32
Speaker 3: I am quite willing to use the words regime change,
25:35
Speaker 3: and actually the way I've been putting it is regime collapse.
25:39
Speaker 3: This is a regime that hates America, that is a
25:42
Speaker 3: radical theocratic regime that for forty seven years has been
25:46
Speaker 3: actively murdering Americans, funding terrorists who are murdering Americans, calling
25:51
Speaker 3: for death to America. The reason they want nuclear weapons
25:55
Speaker 3: is to murder Americans. And what I are to President
25:59
Speaker 3: Trump at the outome set of this conflict is the
26:02
Speaker 3: regime has never been weaker, and if we do not
26:08
Speaker 3: take this opportunity to collapse this regime, we will regret
26:11
Speaker 3: it for decades to come. I still think that is
26:16
Speaker 3: an objective. Now will we achieve it? I don't know
26:19
Speaker 3: that that's not an easy goal to achieve, but I
26:22
Speaker 3: think we should be trying. It's one of the reasons
26:24
Speaker 3: I have repeatedly been urging fund fund the protesters, fund,
26:30
Speaker 3: the Kurds on the ground, fund, the Balachis fund. That
26:33
Speaker 3: there are groups that are armed and trade. Look the courage,
26:36
Speaker 3: the Peshmerga are are trained fighters and by the way, Turkey,
26:42
Speaker 3: one of the reasons. One of the reasons against arming
26:45
Speaker 3: the courgs is Turkey is arguing don't do it. You
26:48
Speaker 3: know what, I don't give a damn what Turkey is
26:49
Speaker 3: arguing it. That's very nice for Erduwan some other time.
26:56
Speaker 3: I'll talk to you about in Trump one when Erduwan
26:59
Speaker 3: came to Dee and met with President Trump in the
27:01
Speaker 3: Oval Office, and the President had me and four other senators.
27:04
Speaker 3: We were in about a two and a half hour,
27:06
Speaker 3: three hour meeting with Erduwan. At the end of the day,
27:10
Speaker 3: we ought to be arming rebel groups in Iran to
27:13
Speaker 3: topple the regime. We're not going to send our sons
27:16
Speaker 3: and daughters to bleed and die for it. But we
27:18
Speaker 3: certainly should be assisting the Iranian people and getting these
27:21
Speaker 3: lunatics out of power because Americans will be much much
27:26
Speaker 3: safer without this regime and control of Iran.
27:30
Speaker 1: So for you to be clear, you would say regime
27:33
Speaker 1: change is certainly something that you think is extremely important
27:36
Speaker 1: in the way that you just described.
27:37
Speaker 3: It, Yes, it is a major objective. Now if it's not,
27:42
Speaker 3: if we end up shutting down enrichment getting the enricheranium,
27:46
Speaker 3: that is a massive victory. Look on the face of it,
27:49
Speaker 3: taking out the military. What we've achieved. The goal the
27:53
Speaker 3: Trump administration stated was goal number one, the military victories,
27:56
Speaker 3: which we've achieved. Taking out the Ie Tolin the senior
28:00
Speaker 3: leadership is a big, big deal. So we have already
28:03
Speaker 3: achieved a massive victory to finish the job where the
28:08
Speaker 3: President is focused is preventing a nuclear weapon. He has
28:11
Speaker 3: right to do that, and I think we ought to
28:13
Speaker 3: be using every lever point we have to try to
28:17
Speaker 3: collapse this regime because that would be much better for
28:21
Speaker 3: the Iranian people, but much much better for the American
28:24
Speaker 3: people and our safety and security as well.
28:26
Speaker 2: Yeah.
28:26
Speaker 1: No, you're absolutely right. It's gonna be very interesting to
28:28
Speaker 1: see how this blockade works. We're gonna keep covering it
28:30
Speaker 1: here and we'll keep you up to date on it.
28:32
Speaker 1: I want to move on to this other story, the
28:34
Speaker 1: headline that broke on Sunday evening, and I'm gonna read
28:38
Speaker 1: this headline from CNN. Eric Swalwell ends campaign for California
28:42
Speaker 1: governor after sexual misconduct allegations. He said Sunday he would
28:47
Speaker 1: withdraw from the California governor's race in the wake of
28:50
Speaker 1: allegations of sexual misconduct that led to a nearly immediate
28:53
Speaker 1: campaign collapse as staffers quit on him, prominent Democratic supporters
28:58
Speaker 1: now urging him to drop out. He then put out
29:01
Speaker 1: a statement on x saying I am suspending my campaign
29:03
Speaker 1: for governor to my family, staff, friends and supporters. I'm
29:08
Speaker 1: deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past.
29:13
Speaker 1: Then he says I will fight the serious false allegations
29:17
Speaker 1: that have been made, but that's my fight, not a
29:21
Speaker 1: campaigns after that, we found out even more about what's happening,
29:26
Speaker 1: and that is the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has opened
29:29
Speaker 1: a criminal investigation into sexual assault allegations. The key claim
29:34
Speaker 1: is a former staff for alleged assault in twenty twenty four,
29:38
Speaker 1: apparently New York, and another earlier incident in twenty nineteen.
29:42
Speaker 1: Prosecutors are reportedly reviewing evidence asking for additional witnesses to
29:47
Speaker 1: come forward, as the AP put it, and that is
29:49
Speaker 1: the most serious legal exposure right now, because it could
29:52
Speaker 1: lead to criminal charges. And then you have multiple sexual
29:56
Speaker 1: miscontic allegations. At least four women have accused Swalwell of
29:59
Speaker 1: miscut ranging from sexual assault, rape allegations, unwanted contact, sending
30:04
Speaker 1: explicit images, and one a legend allegation claims the accuser
30:09
Speaker 1: was too intoxicated to consent. He has denied all those allegations,
30:14
Speaker 1: calling them false and politically motivated. What's even more shocking
30:18
Speaker 1: is now I think it's fifty of his former staffers
30:22
Speaker 1: have come out against him, saying he needs to resign
30:26
Speaker 1: and basically defending one another saying he's a terrible guy.
30:30
Speaker 1: There's two parts of the story center. One how the
30:33
Speaker 1: hell the Democratic Party protect this guy for this long?
30:36
Speaker 1: And two why are all the Democrats now turning against him.
30:40
Speaker 1: It's because they're afraid they're going to lose the governor's
30:42
Speaker 1: race in California.
30:45
Speaker 3: Well, just a week ago, this guy was the front
30:48
Speaker 3: runner among the Democrats to be the next governor of California.
30:52
Speaker 3: I was actually in California this weekend. I spoke at
30:55
Speaker 3: the California Republican Convention, So I was there when this
30:59
Speaker 3: was breaking, and and and you could see, Uh, look
31:02
Speaker 3: it was clear when when when this story broke, everyone
31:05
Speaker 3: knew swal Whale's gubernatorial campaign was over the instant it broke. Uh,
31:10
Speaker 3: the the breadth and volume of this this is not
31:13
Speaker 3: just one allegation, it's multiple allegations. It's allegations of a
31:17
Speaker 3: pattern of misconduct, a pattern of repeated sexual harassment of
31:22
Speaker 3: multiple employees. One one staffer who was interviewed by CNN
31:28
Speaker 3: alleged that twice she got very very drunk with him
31:33
Speaker 3: and and that he had sex with her not only
31:36
Speaker 3: without her consent, but over her vigorous resistance and objection.
31:42
Speaker 3: If that is true, that is rape. Uh. That is
31:45
Speaker 3: criminal conduct. That is criminal conduct for which anyone who
31:48
Speaker 3: commits it should should be prosecuted and go to jail. Uh.
31:53
Speaker 3: There are a number of points that are obviously Number one,
31:58
Speaker 3: this was so widespread to see fifty Swallwell staffers come
32:01
Speaker 3: out against him strongly suggest everybody knew. Now now, you
32:07
Speaker 3: asked me right before we recorded this pod, did I
32:10
Speaker 3: know this? Look To be honest, I don't hang out
32:13
Speaker 3: with Democrat House members. I'm not particularly privy to the
32:15
Speaker 3: gossip among Democrats.
32:18
Speaker 1: Are true that you alienate yourself from Democratic radical house members,
32:22
Speaker 1: I just from glad we cleared that up.
32:25
Speaker 3: Those are not my peeps. So I have no idea
32:28
Speaker 3: what the gossip was about this guy. But given how
32:32
Speaker 3: widespread this is, that the allegations, I think it is
32:35
Speaker 3: impossible that it was not common knowledge that there were
32:39
Speaker 3: not a lot of Democrats who knew this guy was
32:42
Speaker 3: doing this, that this was a pattern of conduct, And
32:45
Speaker 3: that suggests that they all covered it up. They all
32:47
Speaker 3: looked the other way. When he was an attack dog
32:51
Speaker 3: attacking Republicans, attacking President Trump, attacking Brett Kavanaugh, they were
32:56
Speaker 3: perfectly happy to have him be the attack dog. You're right.
33:00
Speaker 3: What has changed is the Democrats are at a panic
33:03
Speaker 3: because you've got multiple Democrats running for governor in California,
33:07
Speaker 3: and you have two Republicans running for governor in California,
33:10
Speaker 3: and California has this weird jungle primary where there's not
33:14
Speaker 3: a Democrat primary and a Republican primary. Everyone runs on
33:18
Speaker 3: the same ballot and the top two vote getters make
33:22
Speaker 3: it to the general election. And so there was a possibility,
33:25
Speaker 3: not a likelihood, but a possibility that the top two
33:29
Speaker 3: vote getters could be the two Republicans. And I will
33:33
Speaker 3: say for Democrats, their heads would explode if they went
33:35
Speaker 3: to the general election and it were one hundred percent
33:38
Speaker 3: certainty that the next governor of California was going to
33:41
Speaker 3: be a Republican. But there were multiple polls that had
33:43
Speaker 3: come out that showed the two Republicans as one and two.
33:46
Speaker 3: And part of the reason is that you had multiple
33:50
Speaker 3: Democrats splitting the vote, and you had Eric Swallwell and
33:53
Speaker 3: Katie Porter, both a former House member and current House member,
33:59
Speaker 3: slugging it out. You've also got Tom Steyer, the billionaire
34:03
Speaker 3: who's spending millions and millions of dollars trying to buy
34:07
Speaker 3: the nomination. And so you had Democrats splitting their votes.
34:10
Speaker 3: That was helping the Republicans. And suddenly, I think Democrats
34:15
Speaker 3: saw a partisan value to getting rid of Swallwell and
34:18
Speaker 3: they took him out ruthlessly. Now, Ben, I want to
34:23
Speaker 3: point to you the tell you can tell any Democrat
34:29
Speaker 3: if they're just being a partisan hack by the following tell.
34:35
Speaker 3: Are they calling for him to suspend his gubernatorial campaign?
34:40
Speaker 2: Yep?
34:41
Speaker 3: Or are they calling for him to resign from Congress.
34:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just a goobertorial campaign, that's the tell.
34:47
Speaker 3: They don't want him to resign. No, no, no, don't
34:49
Speaker 3: resign because look, Republicans barely have a two vote majority.
34:54
Speaker 3: They want Swallwell there. They don't want to jeopardize their majority. Also,
34:57
Speaker 3: they're perfectly happy to have a seri sexual harassmer even
35:01
Speaker 3: a rapist as long as they get partisan advantage. Now
35:06
Speaker 3: the momentum is shifting. It would not surprise me as
35:09
Speaker 3: Swallowell is out of Congress by the end of the week,
35:11
Speaker 3: because this is.
35:13
Speaker 2: In a lot of them you talk about the second tell.
35:15
Speaker 1: The other tell is those that are calling for and
35:18
Speaker 1: to resign are saying, well, he's told resign, and a
35:20
Speaker 1: Republican should also resign. That has allegations against him in
35:24
Speaker 1: the Republican side, so they get rid of one of
35:26
Speaker 1: the Republicans. And that's the only reason why they're saying
35:28
Speaker 1: it now is well, I'll call for both of them
35:31
Speaker 1: to resign.
35:32
Speaker 3: Look, and by the way, I could see that potentially happening.
35:36
Speaker 3: The Republican the facts around him are really pretty ugly.
35:40
Speaker 3: He's not running for reelection because they are so ugly
35:43
Speaker 3: and disturbing and and and so it would not shock
35:47
Speaker 3: shock me to see both of them resign.
35:50
Speaker 1: Uh.
35:50
Speaker 3: And that's an outcome I could see the House getting to.
35:52
Speaker 3: But it's been fascinating that virtually every Democrat who's come
35:57
Speaker 3: out with this big bold statement, they've said suspend the
35:59
Speaker 3: camp pain, but they haven't said resigned from Congress.
36:02
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how
36:06
Speaker 1: this ends. But I think you are not far off.
36:09
Speaker 1: I think they want to finish him off and be
36:11
Speaker 1: done with him. And they knew all this and the
36:13
Speaker 1: only reason why they defended him indefinitely. They pushed him
36:18
Speaker 1: to be the guy in California and then they turned
36:20
Speaker 1: on him when they realized that a Republican could win.
36:23
Speaker 1: That is the only reason why we're hearing about any
36:25
Speaker 1: of this.
36:25
Speaker 2: And also the media.
36:27
Speaker 1: You just want to talk about hypocrisy center the way
36:30
Speaker 1: that the media, the liberal media, I mean, this was
36:32
Speaker 1: on the morning shows that the meat, the press, the face,
36:36
Speaker 1: the nations that whatever the hell the other one's called
36:39
Speaker 1: like they were.
36:40
Speaker 2: CNN was wall to wall on this.
36:42
Speaker 1: They were covering it like it was a Republican who
36:45
Speaker 1: had done something, but it was a Democrat war of
36:47
Speaker 1: their own and they were like, yeah, we got to
36:49
Speaker 1: get rid of him because if we don't get rid
36:50
Speaker 1: of him, what happens next, well then the Republican can win.
36:53
Speaker 1: So you know, who cares about the victims here? This
36:56
Speaker 1: is all about the politics, As you described in a
36:59
Speaker 1: moment ago.
37:01
Speaker 3: It is and I'll point out there is a second
37:03
Speaker 3: Democrat house member, Shelia Churfleus McCormick of Florida, who should
37:10
Speaker 3: also be expelled from Congress. She has the Ethics Committee,
37:16
Speaker 3: which is bipartisan, declared her guilty on twenty five out
37:21
Speaker 3: of twenty seven ethics charges from stealing up to five
37:27
Speaker 3: million dollars of FEMA money. So she is likely going
37:31
Speaker 3: to jail for stealing millions of taxpayer dollars. And yet
37:36
Speaker 3: the Democrats are amazingly silent. You've got an alleged serial
37:43
Speaker 3: sexual harasser and potentially even serial rapist, and an embezzler
37:49
Speaker 3: and thief and their city. They're going, oh, we're great
37:52
Speaker 3: having both of them there, because you know, partisan power
37:55
Speaker 3: matters more than anything. And by the way, the press
37:58
Speaker 3: on the coverage of of Trifilius McCormick, almost all the
38:05
Speaker 3: press coverage there's actually very little coverage. But what little
38:08
Speaker 3: there is, they almost all leave out that she's a Democrat.
38:12
Speaker 3: They just that fact never mind, just nothing to see.
38:15
Speaker 1: Here, just some random person in Congress. Yeah, that's how
38:19
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