Latest / Palafox Media Network / Political Matrix News: Invasion on Iran: Discussion
Transcript
- Greg Fink: Hello folks and welcome to the breaking news version here of the political matrix news. This is February, actually no today is March The day after the demise of Iran and we're joined today with Mike Bates. How you doing Mike? Mike Bates: I am doing well, thanks. Time marches on, doesn't it? Greg Fink: It does, it's been 40, 50 years overdue here for what happened yesterday though. it does, it's a short month. Exactly, it's still not the end of the 30 day month here, but according to all the people going up to see the virgins in the sky and in the Muslim community here in Iran who were defending the tyranny of the Ayatollah. Mike Bates: Well, I wouldn't refer to that. was just referring to you thinking it was still February. But hey, in your defense, February did only have 28 days exactly. So understand. Mm-hmm. Greg Fink: Goodbye guys. as we ever do. Mike Bates: Well, for one am very pleased to see the wars occur. Okay. However, I'm also concerned ⁓ I'll say what I'm concerned about. You know, I always speak my mind and understand I am not Mr. Magga, right? I did vote for president Trump three times, but that doesn't mean I'm Magga. meant that Hillary Greg Fink: However, concerned... Yeah, me neither. Exactly. We're Pro America. Mike Bates: Biden and Kamala were worse options. Okay. So I'm not MAGA, but I am in favor of this conflict for political reasons that benefit the entire United States, hopefully. that is this. Donald Trump did not start this war. This war started in 1979 and this is our opportunity to end it. Greg Fink: They were. No, we did not. Exactly. Mike Bates: Every single president from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump has kicked this can down the road and has refused to deal with the problem of the Islamic theocratic state of Iran. Donald Trump has finally done something about it. And I support it and only if, and this is a huge if, if Donald is committed Greg Fink: Exactly. Mike Bates: to seeing this through the way to regime change, I it. If he's going to back out anything shy regime change, then he never should have gone in in the first place. Now, what's he going to do? Beats the hell out of me. The man's unpredictable. And what he says he's going to do is also somewhat irrelevant. I don't know what he's going to do. But this is Greg Fink: Right. I agree. Who knows? Right. Mike Bates: a long overdue campaign to get rid of these mad mullahs who have ruled Iran for 47 years. And if he can accomplish it, it will be the greatest foreign policy victory for the United States this millennium. Now, if he fails, going to be the biggest foreign policy blunder of the millennium, which considering some of the other foreign policy blunders we've had, that's pretty bad. Greg Fink: It is. Pretty big, yeah. Mike Bates: So we'll see. It's way too early to say. supportive of us going in. I think it's the right thing, but only if the goal is regime change and we don't stop until we've accomplished that goal. Greg Fink: Exactly. I think the entire methodology of how the intelligence and the research that they used to do this invasion and to continue on with the finishing, mean, I guess we're still bombing today. The obliteration the Iranian government ⁓ is unheard and wonderful. It's very similar to the watch bombs ⁓ that Israel a few years ago to the Hezbollah Hamas terrorist leaders. ⁓ And I mean, Mike Bates: Yeah, with the pagers. Right. Greg Fink: with a pager, sorry. And so, mean, it is very brilliant and very measured. And so this was not a haphazard legacy driven attack. This was something that was very well planned, very well organized. And basically he didn't tip his hat at the State of the Union. He hasn't tipped his hat any. I mean, a lot of the people in Congress were saying, how come we didn't know? The reality here is that compared to like 30 or 40 years ago, If you told Congress something is secret, they might actually keep a secret, maybe. 2026, if you tell ⁓ something in confidence or in confidentiality, there's no way in hell they're gonna keep it quiet. There's no way in heck the people in the Democrat side or even Republicans who are against this war would tell somebody who would tell somebody and the entire idea of it being a surprise and being organized would be blown out the window. Mike Bates: Exactly. Greg Fink: and American lives will be at risk. The entire process will be at risk. in the age of social and ears everywhere and ⁓ eyes on your devices and your phones, there's no secure way of actually making sure you can actually brief Congress and they will their mouth shut. Their entire ⁓ idea is day with Trump. If Trump would give them part of the C. They would say that was wrong. If he gave them gold, they would want titanium. If he gave them diamonds, they won't want something different. They want everything to be the opposite of whatever he does. Period. And that being said, if he were going to give them peace, they would try to create more war. And so no, he should not be taught. I mean, it goes back to what it's kind of been talking about the whole idea of them saying the National Guard in this different states and them and Pam Bonnie doing stuff that state attorney general should do. If the states were actually doing their job, they wouldn't have to be sending ICE agents here. The attorney generals are doing their job and enforcing the There wouldn't be sanctuary cities and sanctuary states. If Congress doing their job, we wouldn't have to have all these tariffs and everything out of control. If the people actually put America first, the president wouldn't have be doing all this stuff on his own in a quote unquote rogue fashion. It's not rogue, he just is finally putting America first. like he said though, If he doesn't see it through, and he just has a half-assed approach to this, and does nothing but just kill a few people, and doesn't follow it through, then he never should have done it. But regime change is the only thing that the last five presidents should have done, and hopefully this will work. Mike Bates: Right, so let's talk about the need for secrecy and surprise and them not telling Congress. As you said, Congress absolutely, especially those on the Democrat side of the aisle, it would have leaked and we would have lost the element of surprise. But everything I've read that we were somewhat surprised with our timing as well, that it was not actually intended to begin at the time that it did. The plan was to do nighttime bombings. Greg Fink: Exactly. Exactly. Mike Bates: And Iran, understandably, was expecting nighttime bombings because that's when we are able to do it somewhat invisibly ⁓ with our technology. However, the CIA and the Mossad realized that the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, was going to be meeting with his security council, with the Supreme Security Council in Tehran. that was new news. And they were having this meeting. We're like, well, no better time than now. Greg Fink: Right? Mike Bates: And so we bombed it and killed at least 40 people, all of them senior leadership, including the Supreme Commander of the IRGC as well, which is critical because the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Council has to be wiped out right now because they are the defenders of the revolution. They are not the same as the Iranian army. That is a completely different unit. You've got the Iranian army and you've got the IRGC. The IRGC are fanatics and their goal is to protect the revolution. Greg Fink: Exactly. It was. Exactly. Mike Bates: the Iranian army's goal is to protect the country. They have two completely different missions. The IRGC is the lunatics, the super hardcore people. And then the Iranian army, well, that's going be a mixture of all kinds of people, right? And so that element of surprise needed to be there anyway. But with this meeting had they expected us to know, and I'm really impressed that the CIA and Mossad did know. Greg Fink: Right. It could be, It had to be there. Mike Bates: But when we knew, when we dropped those multiple bombs on that building, killed 40 plus. we're continuing to bomb right now. We absolutely need to continue doing it. We do not need American boots on the ground. Now, I'm not saying we don't have covert forces. We probably do. mean, and there's reasons you need them on the ground. The covert force is fine. I hope they are there because they help, you know, airstrikes. But we do not need American boots on the ground. The boots on the ground that need to be Greg Fink: Exactly. Right. No we did not. Probably, Mike Bates: there to overthrow this Islamic regime are the Iranian people themselves. They need to rise up and do it. Now we need to support that and hopefully we are able to support that with communication, with intel, with weaponry. But it can't be American forces on the ground that do it. The Iranian people have been given this opportunity and quite honestly Donald Trump should have bombed them last, past January. Greg Fink: ⁓ yeah, we definitely do. You should have, yeah. Mike Bates: Okay, when they did have those massive protests in the streets and somewhere between 6,000 and 40,000, depending on whose number you believe, Iranians were killed for the crime of protesting. We should have done it then. All right, we didn't. And I don't know why we didn't, whatever. I'm sure there was some intel reason or our assets weren't in place, whatever it was, we didn't do it. We are where we are. But what we did was absolutely necessary. And those Democrats and their allies in the propaganda Greg Fink: I'm sure there's some security reasons, yeah. Exactly. It wasn't as perfect as this situation now. Mike Bates: press who are criticizing it. All I've been seeing all damn day ever since this happened and understand I spend most of my time watching MSNOW. That is not because I like them. I can't stand them. Okay. They're the biggest liars in media, but I like to know what the enemy is up to. So that's why I watch MSNOW. And so all I've been seeing are these Democrat after Democrat after Democrat. John Brennan, former CIA director was just on. Greg Fink: ⁓ my god. Mike Bates: and saying that this was an illegal war, that Donald Trump had no lawful authority to do that, which is complete nonsense. He absolutely had the authority. And let me explain, say that again. He had every authority, but let me explain where that authority came from. Okay. Because they're saying Congress didn't authorize this. No, actually Congress did authorize this. In 2001, the 107th Congress passed the authorization of military force. Okay. Greg Fink: But guy, should be ashamed of himself. In every authority in every authority Mike Bates: Now that was in response to the attack of 9-11. We, we being the Congress, authorized the president to go after the people who perpetrated it to prevent future terrorist attacks. Then in 2002, there was a similar piece of legislation that was also passed by the ⁓ Congress that authorized military force against Iraq. Now Iran is not Iraq. However, Greg Fink: Exactly. Mike Bates: President Obama, when he wanted to bomb ISIS and when he wanted to bomb Libya, both of which were done without congressional approval specific for those operations, he pointed to those two authorizations for use of military force, one from 2001, another from 2002. Both of those resolutions remain in effect. Congress, the current Congress may not have given him a thumbs up, but the 107th Congress did. that law is still on the books. Then we have the War Powers Act of 1973. And the War Powers Act says that the president can commit U.S. troops provided he informed Congress within 48 hours. And then Congress can vote of whether or not to continue funding it. And if they don't, he has to remove them in 60 days. And there's an automatic extension, so it's really 90 days, but he's got 90 days that he can act without congressional approval. Well, here's the problem there. The War Powers Act is most likely unconstitutional, and is mostly unconstitutional not on the of the to commit U.S. troops to conflict, but rather on Congress's ability to withdraw funding from it within that 60-day window. Now, it's never been tested in court, so we really don't know. Greg Fink: Exactly. Mike Bates: But as a practical matter, even if Congress does come back this week, and I expect they will and hold the vote, I don't expect it to pass. But let's just say it does. But let's just say it does. OK, I mean, you've to continue, you know, consider all contingencies. Let's just say that it does. The president simply vetoes it. And unless there's a two thirds majority in both houses to override that veto, it's not worth the papers or not anyway. So Greg Fink: Right. Nah, I don't think so either. I won't be. sorry about Mike Bates: This is a war that Donald Trump, nevermind his Article Two powers of just being the executive, okay, he can do it with that too. But this is something that Donald Trump has the lawful authority to do. And what bothers me about all these Democrats and these liars in the press is that they're telling people as if it's the nectar of the God's gospel truth that Donald Trump can't do this. Greg Fink: Exactly, yeah. You can't. Hahaha. Mike Bates: And these leftist malcontents, these idiotic lemmings who have no concept of what they are to think until their leftist overlords spoon feed it to them, they hear on the news, Hakeem Jeffries saying, ⁓ the president doesn't have the authority. And because they're Democrats, they Hakeem Jeffries says they don't have authority, must not have the authority. And they never dig deep enough to know that in fact he does. Now I wrote about it in my blog. Greg Fink: Right. does. Mike Bates: And I link to things I explained. want to go to the Mike Bates show, it's all over the place over there. And you can cite it, copy it, send the link around, share it with the world that's telling you, ⁓ you don't know lawful authority. Why Kelly doesn't have a lawful authority? I laid it out before authorities that he does have. But the typical American has no clue about any of that. And frankly, even a lot of MAGA people don't know that this is fracturing MAGA. Now, I can't stand Tucker Carlson. OK, I was not a Tucker Carlson fan even before. Greg Fink: He does. It is. Mike Bates: He became an anti-Semitic lunatic. All right. But he is saying that this is an illegal war and he is just completely fractured and the Tucker Carlson fans are breaking away from MAGA based on that lie among others. And so this is a very tenuous time for president Trump. This is, as I said a while ago, either going to be the greatest success of his presidency and the greatest foreign policy success of a millennium so far, or Greg Fink: He is wrong. Mike Bates: It is going to destroy him and the Republican party. And it's too soon to know which it's going to be. Greg Fink: Well, right now, mean, I think anybody who says that this is a he not have the authority needs to realize that first of all, we're talking about an Iranian state that sponsors terrorism. Okay, we've had the authority to defeat terrorism and to go after them as a war act since like you said, 1979, since this whole thing started. I mean, they have done numerous acts against American interests, against America, against American people. And basically, I mean, people are need to start connecting the dots here between Venezuela and Iran Iran and North Korea and Russia and start realizing that this is just another domino in the next line of several dominoes to fall in way of keeping America safe. mean, it's not just a fentanyl, it's not just terrorism, it's not just this or that. It's a combination and a collaboration of all of it. And all these lemmings and all these idiots just want to be so short-sighted. The thing he's like violating his, rules of engagement or he's just doing this for his legacy. Well, you know what? I don't really give a damn why he's doing it. I don't even think he needs a reason to do it. He's going after people who are doing mass terror and mass killing and mass funding of terror and killing. And that is good. Period. And, and, and the, it goes much deeper and it goes a lot deeper than that. Mike Bates: But it does go deeper than that, Greg. It goes a lot deeper. Now, President Trump did his little eight minute thing the other night and, whatever. he, I don't think, I've said this for years, I don't think Donald Trump is very articulate. Okay. Now I realize he's won three elections, from him in 2020, but he's won three elections. So, I mean, he has the ability to communicate, but he's not articulate. He doesn't communicate very well. And his eight minutes, Greg Fink: Yeah, I mean, I really don't care who does it. No. It's theatrical. Right. He has a lot of adjectives. Mike Bates: left out a lot. The reasons that we are in Iran are not just to get rid of the nuclear weapons program or the ballistic missiles program or regime change. Those three things are important, but it goes a lot deeper than that. If we can replace theocratic, lunatic theocratic government of Iran and replace it, Greg Fink: It did. Right. Mike Bates: with a secular pro-Western government that will cut off funding to Hezbollah, it will cut off funding to Hamas, it will cut off funding to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. You will have an opportunity for peace in the region. But it's even more than that, Greg. And that is this. Right now, China is buying, well, I say right now, before two days ago, China was buying Greg Fink: There's a lot more than that. I agree. North Korea. Mike Bates: 80 % of Iran's oil because there's embargoes everywhere else. So China was buying and they were buying it cheap. If we can turn Iran into a pro-Western democracy that's secular in nature, we will deny China their cheap oil they've been getting. And there's another great benefit as well. This has the potential. In fact, I think it already, I mean, I say potential, hopefully it'll really be nice, but even in the intermediate term, Greg Fink: Right. Exactly. Mike Bates: it already, I believe, is going to help Ukraine because the Russians have been buying a bunch of drones from Iran that now Iran needs for themselves. so we are denying China cheap oil. We're denying Russia cheap drones. And we're helping Ukraine. We're helping anybody that is allied against China, which is pretty much the entire world. OK. Greg Fink: It will. Exactly. Mike Bates: other than what the North Koreans and the Russians. mean, all of our allies benefit, which brings up another question. What the hell is wrong with the pussies in the European Union? They are all still opposing this. What the hell they're going to benefit quite honestly more than we are. Europe gets, Europe gets far more of their oil from the Persian Gulf than the United States does. the hell are the Europeans on this? Greg Fink: Right. Exactly. They're scared. They're scared that something's gonna happen, some sort of car bomb or carpet bomb or something. I Well, it seems that I mean, people don't realize the whole Venezuela thing. I mean, we kept on talking about the Venezuela oil that was going to Iran and the embargo. and people are missing the connection here that Venezuela had to Iran and funding Iran. Then you have the Venezuela to China thing and then China to Iran. mean, guys, it's a big, big loop. And what we're doing over to one country at a time, we started with Venezuela. Now we're doing Iran. Now, next is probably going to be. actually wish we would pick on China, but we're not going to. It's probably going to be North Korea. It's probably going be next most likely, who knows. But mean... Mike Bates: Well, we're not militarily going after China or North Korea. And I don't think we're going to militarily go after Cuba either, but I do think we could bring about their downfall. not with the military. We're not going to go militarily after China. We're not going go militarily after North Korea. It's not going to happen. In North Korea, it's not going to happen either. No. And let me tell you why. Let me tell you why. And it's not just because they have nukes. The fact that they have nukes, obviously that matters. The reason we're not going to go after North Korea Greg Fink: No we're not. Well, I don't think so. We're not, yeah, we're gonna touch China at all. No, right? No. You don't think so? You don't think we're gonna support the North Korean rebels to go against their own people? Mike Bates: is because North Korea has thousands, tens of thousands of mortars that can reach Seoul in a matter of minutes. And so if we attack North Korea and they launch these and they'll launch them far faster than we can destroy them, then all of a sudden Seoul, maybe not reduced to rubble, but you'd have thousands, tens of thousands of casualties in Seoul. We are not going after North Korea militarily. Greg Fink: That's true, yeah. Right, it'd be very bad, yeah. Right, which are not needed. No. But what we do need to do is we need to ahead and size up Iran. Exactly, size up Iran and get them, you know, get the regime change going. Because, I mean, the entire, you know, faction that they, the evil culture they've had has affected the stability of the entire region for decades. Mike Bates: But right now, let's focus on Iran. Right. And the fact that Iran has retaliated against Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, attacked all of these members of Gulf Cooperation Council. they're going to, they've always been opposed to Iran, but now they have more to be opposed to Iran. ⁓ What was the process behind bombing Greg Fink: You In a very weird way. Allies. Exactly. Mike Bates: those I have no idea other than, ⁓ well, let's ⁓ go back in America, maybe hitting American bases. But those nations in the Gulf, they're not going to sit around and take that. And so there's the potential that they will enter this war. Let me tell you why I think they should. We don't need GCC air power. We don't need Saudi Arabian air power. But if we do need actual military boots on the ground, doesn't need to be the 82nd Airborne, does it? Greg Fink: Yeah. No they're not. Mike Bates: It can be some expeditionary forces from these Muslim nations among the Gulf Cooperation Council and get those nations to submit their troops to be the ground forces. Greg Fink: No. And what's ironic here? Right. And what's ironic is what you said before about the Europeans being wimps on this whole thing. We have Muslims supporting us to attack a Muslim nation and the Europeans who are not Muslim scared of us attacking a Muslim nation. Mike Bates: Wait a minute. Europeans aren't Muslim? Have you not seen the demographics? Greg Fink: Hahaha Well, you know, I might be wrong there, but I don't think they are. It's not majority yet. No, they probably will be. But the whole point is, the whole point is everybody always said that, you know, that Democrats are telling me that we're alienating the other Islamic nations and the Arab nations, the other abilities for nations, because ⁓ that's I tell them. says they like what we're doing. They think this is a good thing. I mean, yeah, usually they don't side with state of Israel. That's very true. Mike Bates: Yeah, no, it's not a majority yet, but it will be it will be in our lifetimes. Europe has imported. They love what we're doing. Greg Fink: But in this situation, I think they are. It's all for peace. Mike Bates: Hey, let me tell you something else. So let's bring Israel into this conversation. this is well, of course they are, but I'm looking ahead. If are able to create a pro-Western government in Iran, there is, I believe a very good that the Abraham Accords will come to full fruition where the Soviet, where the Saudis, I mean, Greg Fink: They're awesome. Mike Bates: where the Saudis will establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. And when that happens, will all these other Muslim nations. There actually is the opportunity, and I don't think this is Pollyanna or overly optimistic. I mean, it's no guarantee, of course, but there is a very good likelihood if there is a secular pro-Western government in Iran that the entire Muslim world will sign peace agreements with Israel. Greg Fink: Right. Exactly. Mike Bates: And we actually could still have peace in the Middle East. Now there will always be anti-Semitism. The Islamic faith still says you got to kill the infidels. So you're still going to have people that don't like Israel, but there is the potential for real peace at the end of this war. But only if Donald Trump sees it all the way through to regime change and replacement with a secular pro-Western government. Greg Fink: There will be. Yeah, because the big catch here is the regime changing on who's going to take over. Now, there's a lot of other bad actors out there, probably far worse than the Aetola that could take over. However, there's also a lot of actors out there that are not. And those are the ones that need to be brought up to the top of the level. Mike Bates: Well, and I'm not sure we can impose that leader. Now, the son of the former Shah, you know, he's volunteered himself to go and be an interim leader and, whatever, if that works, that's great, but I don't think he needs to be the permanent solution. We don't ⁓ need a monarchy in Iran. But if we need a temporary monarch, you know, kind of a placeholder, whatever, but that's not up to the United States to decide. The people of Iran need to decide that. the key there Greg Fink: Why not? It'd be dangerous. Mike Bates: is that it can't be done by the IRGC. They have got to be eliminated. Greg Fink: Yeah, but how does our ram media work? Because right now, I if the government still controls the media, then of like here in America, they control the elections and they'll control the narrative. Mike Bates: Well, and the problem is that the Iranians have shut down the internet. So not only do they have state media, but they've also shut down the internet and they've even jammed signals to and from So even the people that might have a Starlink connection, say again. Greg Fink: Exactly. It's how do they have a real election? How do they have a fair election then if they don't really have any opportunity to even know about who all is running? No, I'm talking about the future. Down the road. mean, how are we going to be able to guarantee regime change of some sort? Mike Bates: Well, they don't have fair elections in Iran. But you mean down the road? well, ⁓ obviously, takes over would open up the media. can't have state-controlled media that's all one-sided. mean, that's part of the revolution. But the first part is getting rid of the leadership. Now, we've cut off the head of the snake, but it's like a hydra. They're growing back. There's lots of them. So we've got to continue. Greg Fink: ⁓ me ⁓ Right. Mike Bates: eliminating them as they pop their heads up, we need to take them out. But eventually, the Iranian people need to rise up and do the dirty work themselves. And as I said, we should have done this in January when they were motivated. Right now, they're kind of scared not to mention tens of thousands are probably dead as a result. So the super hardcore people, well, they're not alive to do it. But that's how it needs to happen is that people need to rise up, hopefully with the help of the Iranian army, not the IRGC. As I said earlier, they're completely different organizations. Greg Fink: Right. month late. Mike Bates: But the Iranian army, because you got to have some security force, OK? And it can't be the IRGC, because they're nuts. They're the true believers that are defending the regime. They're defending the revolution. So the security forces need to be consisting of the Iranian army. Who's it going to be? I don't know. But hopefully, the CIA has thought that ahead and has at least something in mind there. Greg Fink: Right. We don't know. Yeah, but that's the scary part is the CIA picking the next leader. I mean, know, mean, regime shame is great, but we want to make sure it's going the right direction. So, I mean, I think we need to have a little bit more of a hands on approach as far as, know, picking or helping decide or some sort of a massaging of the, uh, of the meat. Mike Bates: I think whoever it is, Greg, we go to them, even if we don't pick them, we go to them and we say, there's only one reason you're in charge. And that's because we bombed the shit out of your country and got rid of the Mad Mullis. You are now our ally. And I believe that that alone will be a reason to ally with us. Not to mention we drop sanctions they meet certain criteria. We establish trade relations with them if they meet certain criteria. Greg Fink: Right? Mike Bates: We have a lot of ways other than the military and other than CIA to pick their leadership. We just need to do it. Greg Fink: Exactly and that's the biggest thing is that you know is it all gonna be handled by Trump or is it Congress gonna be doing this or is it gonna be done by the I mean Exactly. ⁓ That's point. Yeah Mike Bates: Well, it's not going be Congress. No, it's going be the administration. I mean, that's who handles foreign policy. It's not that Congress has no say in foreign policy. Of course they do. And they have say in trade and tariffs and things like that. But no, the administration establishes foreign policy. I mean, that's Civics 101. Greg Fink: Right, yeah. Well yeah, I that, but I guess my point here is that mean, how much are they gonna try to limit him at this level here and how much are they gonna try blocking him? Exactly, yeah. Mike Bates: You think about how much is Congress going to try to limit it? Other than the purse strings, what can they do? president gets to decide whether or not we have normalized relations. The president gets to decide whether or not we have diplomatic staff, whether we have an ambassador. Now, the ambassador would be subject to Senate confirmation, but... Greg Fink: Well, I know that. The president should be saying a lot of things with the Congress and Supreme Court, keep disagreeing with him on everything. Keep trying to block him on everything. Mike Bates: Not on that they don't. very clear black and white. The foreign policy of United States is established by the executive branch period. Greg Fink: Well, I know that. Right. That's the way it needs to be. Because I mean, I just have, I don't put anything past these guys trying to stop anything to hurt America. mean, kind of weird. They keep saying that America First is like a propaganda or a BS saying here for, a racist terminology by the Trump campaign. When it's supposed to be, you know, kind of like the sign behind me, you stand for the national anthem here. Everybody's supposed to be putting America First. That's the way it's supposed to be. Mike Bates: Well, did you watch the State of the Union address last Tuesday? All right. Well, so you say everybody's supposed to put America first. Well, apparently the Democrats in Congress don't. That was a brilliant moment in that speech. Now, a lot of the speech I thought was rambling and, you know, whatever. mean, I'm a fan, but that particular part stand up if you believe that the priority of American government should be to put the American people first. And then not a single Democrat stood up. Greg Fink: Yeah, I did, yeah. They aren't supposed to but they don't. It was. It's hyperbole. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Mike Bates: that right there tells you all you need to know about the demon rats in Congress. They don't put America first. And that is, and they're traitorous to this country because of that. Greg Fink: The reality is if Bill Clinton said that, Republicans would, exactly. If Bill Clinton would have said that when he was president, Republicans would have If Obama said that, Republicans would have When George W. Bush said that, Democrats stood. Whenever H.W. Bush or Reagan or any other president said that, mean, basically it's the opposite day with Trump. I mean, no matter what he does, they just want to do the entire opposite of. And that actually exposes the whole brilliance of the speech. that he put on my social strong defensive saying that basically, you they're to die on the Hill of illegal aliens or want to die on the Hill of protecting pedophiles. Now they're willing to die on the Hill of supporting terrorism. I mean, it's just pretty pathetic. Mike Bates: Yeah, Democrats hate Donald Trump more than they love America. And that's a problem. Greg Fink: Yeah, and this is a reelection year for that too. Mike Bates: Well, not optimistic for the Republican chances. Unless things really change between now and November, I think that we're going to see a bloodbath on the Republican side. And the red that we see leaving Washington, DC, it's going to be blood and Republicans. Greg Fink: Well... Right, you think so, Yeah, but I just don't really see how anybody in their good conscience could vote for Democrats knowing that they support all this. Mike Bates: Well, of course you don't. You're reasonable. You're informed. You're not an idiot. But half the country is uninformed and they are idiots and they vote for Democrats. And remember, you don't need 100 % of the vote. You need 50 % plus one. Greg Fink: Thank you. yeah you see if you do what you're plus one they cheated out i guess they figure out the cheating pretty good Mike Bates: Well, we'll see if the SAVE Act gets passed. And the problem with that is, no, here's the problem with that. The SAVE Act is 100 % constitutional, okay? The problem is, if you get a district court judge in some left-wing district, and he's a lefty judge, he puts a hold on it, right, an injunction, by the time it gets to the Supreme Court, it's too late to use for this election. So we still need to pass it, but... Greg Fink: ⁓ yeah, that... ⁓ yes. Exactly. It just probably won't be in Forso 2028. Mike Bates: It's not going to be the be all and end all. It's not going to solve all the problems. Greg Fink: You know, I don't think it's gonna be in place for 2026. Anyway, it'll be in place for 2028. But by the time it gets for all the court system. Mike Bates: Well, only because no, no, wait a minute. No, if it passes this month, it'll be in place for 2026. The problem is the courts will stop it. Greg Fink: It will until the courts put it on hold. Exactly, they will. The courts will stop it. The Supreme Court will put it on hold. They want to take a look at it and blah, blah. And everything will be in a helter-skelter here until 2028. Mike Bates: Right. But look, it needs to be in place regardless. mean, it should be in place all the time. How on earth anybody can say they don't want a law that limits voting to U.S. citizens? Greg Fink: Oh should be, yeah it does. Definitely a day in studio. I know, I have no idea what's how that's even consumable. Mike Bates: Well, you know what? There are several blue cities that do allow known illegal immigrants to vote for local offices. Can't do it. No, I'm not talking about fraud. I'm not talking about fraud. They're legally allowed to vote. There are Democrat cities that allow illegal aliens, non-citizens, to vote in school board and city and county elections. Greg Fink: known fraud. well that's fraud. Well I know that and it's legal fraud. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Yeah. Mike Bates: knowingly. mean, that's not fraud. That's not, know, just not paying attention and loosey goosey. The law allows illegals to vote ⁓ local elections in some blue cities. Greg Fink: Without an ID? Yeah, with no ID. So you really have no idea what their voter ID is because they have no ID. And since not registered citizens, they can't be really registered voters with a real ID. You have no idea how many times they registered. Really? You don't know? Mike Bates: Well, that's true. You don't need an ID to vote, but you do need an ID to shovel snow in New York. Two IDs, actually, to shovel snow in New York. Greg Fink: You do, but exactly the hypocrisy of the Democrats and the hypocrisy of the left is on a high level now. And now they want to do this for war powers meeting this week and where they want to limit Trump's ability to commit war against terrorists. They want to sell me. Imagine this to Don Hussein and not 11. If they're out there supporting all of that. Imagine that. Mike Bates: Well, if you recall, no, mean, if you recall, those votes were pretty close. Now the 9-11 one wasn't, that was overwhelming. If memory serves me, it was, I think it was one vote against it in each chamber after 9-11. But the Iraq resolution in 91 under George H.W. Bush and the resolution in 2002 under Greg Fink: Well, if you did, if you did. It was. No. Right. Pretty close. Mike Bates: George W. Bush, those were close, close. fact, my recollection is that Senator Al Gore sold vote for, no, I'm serious. You're kind of smiling, but this is, look it up. This is actual historical fact. He sold his vote in exchange for a prime time slot to speak in the, in, the chambers explaining why that he said, I'm voting against it unless. Greg Fink: Wow. Mike Bates: you give me this prime time slot. And so they gave it to him. And so he got this prime time exposure he explained why he was voting yes. And he voted yes, but he sold it in exchange for media attention. That's a fact. No, I'm not making that up. That's true. Greg Fink: It's so pathetic. Yeah, I mean, it's just so pathetic. It's just so sad and pathetic. I mean, the reality here is that, mean, John Federman of Pennsylvania, Senator Federman, I'm very proud of that one Democrat who's just coming on board. Mike Bates: Yeah, I'm not a huge fan, but he does seem sane in at least a few places, and that's one of them, sure. Greg Fink: I'm not a huge fan but it seems saying yeah. Yeah he does. mean I don't see too many other Democrats coming on board with supporting this. I mean they seem to be once again following party lines of just you know anything opposite Trump and anything opposite American freedom. Now if Obama had done this he would have been very happy about it. Mike Bates: Yeah, well, keep in mind the Republicans, you have Republicans that won't run the play called by the quarterback. Also though, you've got Rand Paul in the Senate and then you've got Congress and Nassie in the house and both from Kentucky. Interestingly, have they got in the bluegrass state? No, look, I a lot of respect for Massey and I have a lot of respect for, for, for Rand I love them both. However, that doesn't mean they're always right. Greg Fink: I know, got Rampon, Thomas Massey. I did too, yeah. They're very good. No they're not. Mike Bates: And in this instance, they're not, because both of those have come out, both of them have come out and said that this is an illegal war, that Trump doesn't have the authority to do that. And that's complete nonsense. And they both are very well-versed in the constitution. You would think they would know that he does have it. So I question their motives on this. Are they that badly interpreting the constitution or are they doing this for some other reason? I don't know, but Republicans have their own problems there. It's not going to be unanimous on the Republican side. It's just not going to be two thirds. Greg Fink: Right. Well yeah, I know it. Exactly. Mike Bates: And so the president is going to be able to continue to do what he wants to do. And I hope he does, but only if he does it all the way to regime change. If he stops anything before that, then the entire thing was a waste and he shouldn't have launched the first missile. Greg Fink: Yeah, there's not going to be any way to override it. Exactly, if he stops anywhere close. Right. And that's the whole thing. mean, this thing has to be done all the way through. Kind of like Venezuela's being done all the way through. And all the other countries that he helped put together, all the other peace trees that he's been a part of over the last year or so, they all went all the way through. So this one needs to be following the same suit as all of those did. And we did not need to be playing games period at all. Mike Bates: Agreed. Greg Fink: But yeah, well, I think that's gonna wrap it up here today. so much for joining me here. This is breaking news issue here of the political matrix news. And like your beard you got growing on there. Mike Bates: Alright, well, yeah, I had surgery last week and I was in the hospital and didn't shave and I'm like, well, you know, the first 10 days are always the worst, right? So I'm like, might as well let it go. Let it go, let it grow. So I've started a beard. Greg Fink: Right. Exactly cool Well, thanks a lot for joining me tonight here and you guys try to find us on your social media platform with choice and stay tuned