Speaker 1: Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Speaker 2: Week in Review, Ben Ferguson with you, and here are
Speaker 2: the big stories that you may have missed that we
Speaker 2: talked about this week. First up, Donald Trump making it
Speaker 2: very clear to Iran do not attack Americans or our
Speaker 2: interest in the Middle East, and if you do, there
Speaker 2: will be hell to pay. Also, Israel gains air superiority
Speaker 2: over the entire state of Iran, and now the people
Speaker 2: of Iran may realize the regime is not as strong
Speaker 2: as they thought. And finally, Tucker Carlson doesn't believe Iran
Speaker 2: wants to assassinate or plan to assassinate Donald Trump. It's
Speaker 2: the Week in Review and it starts right now. That
Speaker 2: note that he put out there was very clear because
Speaker 2: he's saying, hey, hey, we weren't involved in this, and
Speaker 2: we're going to state that clearly this was Israel.
Speaker 1: Doing their thing.
Speaker 2: But if you think for a moment that you can
Speaker 2: use us to justify attacking Americans anywhere in the world,
Speaker 2: there will be hell to pay if you do that.
Speaker 3: Look, I think if Iran carries out a significant strike
Speaker 3: on American servicemen and women, then I think America if
Speaker 3: they think the bombs coming from Israel are bad. I
Speaker 3: think they will face massive retaliation, and then that's called deterrence.
Speaker 3: We want them not to strike our servicemen and women.
Speaker 3: And by the way, that's the difference between Joe Biden,
Speaker 3: who was so weak he couldn't deter anything. It helps
Speaker 3: that our enemies are afraid of the commander in chief.
Speaker 3: That's where actually in the debates about foreign policy, those
Speaker 3: who argue for isolationism get it wrong, because if you're
Speaker 3: so terrified to engage with your enemies, then you end
Speaker 3: up causing more war.
Speaker 4: I think Reagan was right.
Speaker 3: I think Trump is right that when you're strong, when
Speaker 3: you tell your enemies, if you attack and kill Americans,
Speaker 3: your military leaders are going to die. What happens is
Speaker 3: most of the time they say, you know what, We're
Speaker 3: just not going to attack, and you end up avoiding
Speaker 3: war because because they're scared of the commander in chief.
Speaker 1: So where does this go from here?
Speaker 2: And this is where everybody's saying, hey, look, we want
Speaker 2: an off ramp, right, like, that's something we do want.
Speaker 2: We want this, we want to protect lives. But at
Speaker 2: the same time, Israel is I think making it very
Speaker 2: clear we have no choice but to do this, and
Speaker 2: we're doing the world a huge service by doing it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So the Israeli government is talking on a time
Speaker 3: frame that this could last another week or two. They're
Speaker 3: engaged in massive bombings and at some point, you know,
Speaker 3: at some point the question is how much ordinance do
Speaker 3: they have, how much capacity do they have to keep bombing,
Speaker 3: and how many targets do they have? You know, I
Speaker 3: will say also one of the most significant sites is Fordau. Now,
Speaker 3: Fordau is a nuclear bunker that is built into the
Speaker 3: side of a mountain, and it's built deliberately to make
Speaker 3: it very difficult strike to carry out an airstrike, and
Speaker 3: it's where much of their nuclear research is being conducted. Now,
Speaker 3: there were reports on Sunday that Israel carried out a
Speaker 3: strike at Fordau, but at least based on publicly reported material,
Speaker 3: Israel does not have sufficiently effective bunker buster bombs to
Speaker 3: be able to take out the deep underground laboratories at Fordau.
Speaker 3: And so one of the open questions is, to the
Speaker 3: best of my knowledge, the only military that has those
Speaker 3: bombs is the United States. We have really big bunker
Speaker 3: busters that are made to take out deep, deep underground
Speaker 3: facilities like the ford Ou nuclear facilities, and so one
Speaker 3: open question. I have for a long time called for
Speaker 3: the United States to make those bunker busters available to Israel.
Speaker 3: I think taking out ford Ou makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 3: I think if Israel does it. And by the way,
Speaker 3: I'll point out, look, Israel is a small country. Israel
Speaker 3: is about the size of the state of New Jersey.
Speaker 3: And and and they are fighting against our enemies, our
Speaker 3: enemies who a pledge they want to murder us, and
Speaker 3: they're doing so at great risk to themselves. But but
Speaker 3: and so that is something to be grateful for. But understand,
Speaker 3: they're taking out Iran's nuclear capabilities is very very good
Speaker 3: for America because it makes America safer. And I think
Speaker 3: if Israel finishes the job of taking out their nuclear capability,
Speaker 3: I think this that these attacks likely end within the
Speaker 3: next couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: You look at Donald Trump saying we can probably get
Speaker 2: a deal done. Is that after we accomplish the mission.
Speaker 2: If you're reading between the lines here, I mean you've
Speaker 2: spoken with them, is this a we got to allow
Speaker 2: our ally Israel to do what they need to do
Speaker 2: in that timeframe as well.
Speaker 3: So listen, I'm skeptical that Iran will ever ever cut
Speaker 3: a real deal. I don't think you can negotiate with
Speaker 3: crazy and I think these people are crazy.
Speaker 4: Uh and and and so.
Speaker 3: I think one of the things that would enhance American
Speaker 3: security massively is to see the Iyatola fall and to
Speaker 3: see the Mullas lose power, to see different leadership come
Speaker 3: to come to Iran.
Speaker 4: I think that would make Israel much much safer.
Speaker 3: I think that would make America much safer, and I
Speaker 3: think that would make the Iranian people better off. Now,
Speaker 3: let me be clear, I'm not advocating that we send
Speaker 3: in a bunch of American soldiers to make that happen.
Speaker 3: I am advocating that we use maximum pressure and economic
Speaker 3: sanctions to pressure the regime in a way that might
Speaker 3: encourage this regime to fall, because I think that they
Speaker 3: have demonstrated that they are are homicidal and murderously directing
Speaker 3: their urges towards killing Americans, and so removing people from
Speaker 3: power who are trying to kill Americans makes America safer.
Speaker 2: Well me also go back to something you mentioned earlier,
Speaker 2: and this seems to clearly be part of Israel's strategy,
Speaker 2: which is you go after and take out people that
Speaker 2: are in essence holding down the people and silencing the
Speaker 2: people in Iran in the leadership roles. That's part of
Speaker 2: who they seem to be going after. That could be
Speaker 2: huge for allowing what you just described to actually happen
Speaker 2: a revolution within Israel, or I should say within Iran.
Speaker 4: Well and listen.
Speaker 3: One of the conscious choices it appears that Israel made
Speaker 3: was not to target the Iatola himself. And I don't
Speaker 3: have I have no classify information either way. Yeah wow,
Speaker 3: so I.
Speaker 1: Said out of Crecy.
Speaker 4: So I don't know for sure.
Speaker 3: I have no classified information on this, but I can
Speaker 3: give an educated guess, which is that taking out the
Speaker 3: leader of a country through military force is a significant step. Now,
Speaker 3: mind you, the Ayatola is perfectly fine hiring hitmen to
Speaker 3: try to murder Donald Trump. So the Ayatola has no
Speaker 3: problem doing it. And I have no doubt that if
Speaker 3: the Ayatola could could murder Prime Minister net and Yahoo,
Speaker 3: he would do so in the blink of an eye.
Speaker 4: He has not been able to do so.
Speaker 3: But I think the Israelis, given their success and taking
Speaker 3: out everyone else, I think it's reasonable to assume that
Speaker 3: they would have had a real prospect of taking the
Speaker 3: Iatola out had they chosen to do so. My guess
Speaker 3: is that they made a decision that taking out the
Speaker 3: leader of the country could backfire, especially given that he
Speaker 3: is also a religious leader, and you run into a
Speaker 3: danger of potentially making him a martyr. And and and
Speaker 3: it is not clear if you toppled him in those circumstances,
Speaker 3: you might get a younger, theocratic lunatic take over instead.
Speaker 3: And and so I think it is a reasonable decision
Speaker 3: for Israel to say, rather than target the Iotola directly,
Speaker 3: let's take out every one of their top military officers
Speaker 3: that they would use to prosecute a war. And and
Speaker 3: by the way, those are the same people they use
Speaker 3: to push down and uprising to oppress their people and
Speaker 3: so degrading their capabilities. It's it's what they've done with Hesbla,
Speaker 3: They've taken out their top leadership. It's what they've done.
Speaker 3: It's what they've done with Hamas. And i'll tell you.
Speaker 3: On Saturday, Israel conducted a strike in Yemen, killing the
Speaker 3: Huthi Chief of Staff Muhammad abdul Karim al Gamari, who
Speaker 3: was responsible for overseeing Huthi military operations and directing the
Speaker 3: procurement and deployment of a number of weapons systems for them.
Speaker 3: The Huthis are another arm of Iran, and so what
Speaker 3: Israel has done is weakened Iran on every front, and
Speaker 3: that oppressive infrastructure, their ability to wage war, their ability
Speaker 3: to kill Israeli's, their ability to kill Americans, their ability
Speaker 3: to fund terrorism, and their ability to suppress their people,
Speaker 3: all of those are substantially weakened.
Speaker 4: That's a very good thing.
Speaker 2: Final question for you on this as we move forward
Speaker 2: through this week. I think it's pretty obvious the media
Speaker 2: is obsessed with Donald Trump somehow not standing with Israel
Speaker 2: or trying to drive a wedge. Do you think there's
Speaker 2: any chance at all that can happen, because in the
Speaker 2: in the early questions, it was almost like, you guys
Speaker 2: are idiots.
Speaker 1: Come on.
Speaker 3: I think President Trump has been the strongest pro Israel
Speaker 3: president in the history of America. It's an exact contrast
Speaker 3: with Joe Biden. Joe Biden was the most anti Israel
Speaker 3: president in the history of America. The fact that they
Speaker 3: occurred back and back, you want to talk about about whiplash.
Speaker 3: You'll recall we did this podcast on when when BB
Speaker 3: came to Washington and I met with him for about
Speaker 3: two hours. He is he is a good friend. I
Speaker 3: have not spoken to BB since this war broke out,
Speaker 3: although I did speak with the Israeli ambassador to the
Speaker 3: United States on Thursday night, the night the war began.
Speaker 4: Uh and and and listen.
Speaker 3: Their successes are significant, but but they they have the
Speaker 3: complete backing of of of the Trump administration, and that
Speaker 3: is important. I do think that there are some voices
Speaker 3: within the administration that are pressing back and and and
Speaker 3: part of the reason I talked to President Trump today
Speaker 3: was to say, what you're doing is exactly right. You're
Speaker 3: making America safer by allowing Israel to take out Iran's nukes,
Speaker 3: and you're also protecting American servicemen and women. Keep doing it,
Speaker 3: and and and he he agreed emphatically.
Speaker 2: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
Speaker 2: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
Speaker 2: from earlier this week.
Speaker 1: Now onto story number two.
Speaker 2: Well, let's also talk about what's happened with the air superiority,
Speaker 2: or the lack of security that Iran actually had over
Speaker 2: their own country. Yes, and that could also spell trouble
Speaker 2: for the leadership in Iran because now the people may realize, wow,
Speaker 2: we may have been played by these these these horrible leaders.
Speaker 2: And there is total air superiority now by Israel or
Speaker 2: anybody that wants to go after Iran.
Speaker 3: So Israel and potentially America have complete air superiority over Iran.
Speaker 3: And Israel has taken out Iran's air defenses, so they're
Speaker 3: not able to stop Israeli jets in the air, and
Speaker 3: the bombers are bombing the hell out of As of
Speaker 3: two days ago, there had been over seven and twenty
Speaker 3: military strikes in Iran. The numbers substantially higher now. I
Speaker 3: don't have the current number, but it was seven hundred
Speaker 3: and twenty two days ago. And Iran is not able
Speaker 3: to do anything about it because their air defenses have
Speaker 3: been destroyed, and so they're just sitting ducks. They're just
Speaker 3: and I will tell you the dynamics. So there's a
Speaker 3: delicate question. Israel has been able to and it actually
Speaker 3: has succeeded in taking out a massive amount of the
Speaker 3: military leadership of Iran. They have also succeeded in pounding
Speaker 3: the hell out of Iran's nuclear facilities, like the Natans Facility,
Speaker 3: which is where they do much of the nuclear enrichment.
Speaker 3: Israel has bombed the living crap out of The one
Speaker 3: exception that Israel is not able to take out is
Speaker 3: the four DOH Nuclear Research Facility now Foidah is built
Speaker 3: literally in the base of a mountain, and it was
Speaker 3: built into a mountain particularly to withstand a bombing attack.
Speaker 3: And Israel does not have the military hardware to take
Speaker 3: out Florida. Their bombs are not big enough. America does
Speaker 3: we have bunker buster bombs that are thirty thousand pounds,
Speaker 3: that are massive bombs that can take out on underground,
Speaker 3: under mountain nuclear facility like Florida. Israel also does not
Speaker 3: have bombers that are big enough to carry a thirty
Speaker 3: thousand pound bomb.
Speaker 4: That's a big ass bomb.
Speaker 3: And so the B two bomber which America has is
Speaker 3: big enough to carry that bomb. Israel doesn't have bombers
Speaker 3: that big. And so one of the open questions Israel
Speaker 3: is asked, America, will you fly in the bombers and
Speaker 3: drop your bunker busters on four to oh and take
Speaker 3: it out?
Speaker 4: As you and I sit here.
Speaker 3: At twelve what is it twelve forty three am? On
Speaker 3: Tuesday night Wednesday morning. I do not know if President
Speaker 3: Trump's going to do that. This is being actively debated.
Speaker 3: It could by the time this podcast comes out, it
Speaker 3: is possible that America will drop those bunker busters. I
Speaker 3: think that is a real possibility in the next few hours,
Speaker 3: in the next few days.
Speaker 2: And in my view, with that being said, then I
Speaker 2: got to ask this questions that people understand. I said
Speaker 2: this earlier night on Chris Cuomo's show, and I said
Speaker 2: on Pierce Mortgan's show, and I said, I'm Fox the
Speaker 2: same thing.
Speaker 3: I am not in favor, but Ben, you're a lot
Speaker 3: of lefty shows, Pierce.
Speaker 1: I'm fighting the commis every day.
Speaker 3: You know, is like does Bernie Sanders have a show
Speaker 3: AOC Like are you going on with with She of China?
Speaker 1: Trying to go on with Tucker next?
Speaker 2: You know, and just see if I can, I can,
Speaker 2: I can explain to them what my foreign policy is.
Speaker 2: But it's I'm not in favor of putting troops on
Speaker 2: the ground. Donald Trump's on favor of putting troops around.
Speaker 3: Absolutely no, no, no, no troops on the ground.
Speaker 2: So what we're advocating for is simply this, if America
Speaker 2: gets involved it would be to do exactly what you
Speaker 2: just said. It would be to do what Israel can't do,
Speaker 2: to take out a.
Speaker 1: Nuclear drop a couple of bombs.
Speaker 3: Threat, yes, to drop a couple of bombs, to drop
Speaker 3: a couple of bombs that Israel can't like their bombs
Speaker 3: are not big enough to take out Florida. And I
Speaker 3: will say this from a perspective, My overwhelming touchstone is
Speaker 3: what protects American national security interest, what keeps American safer.
Speaker 3: It's America first. It's President Trump's foreign policy. That is
Speaker 3: my foreign policy. And I will say when when he
Speaker 3: and I talked on Sunday, his comment when I was
Speaker 3: telling him, you're doing a great job. What you're doing
Speaker 3: is fantastic as commenties, he said, ted on foreign policy,
Speaker 3: you and I are twins, And that's right. I agree
Speaker 3: with him on foreign policy. The reason there is I
Speaker 3: think a compelling argument for America to take out FIDOH
Speaker 3: is Fourida. They are doing research on nuclear weapons technology,
Speaker 3: They're trying to develop nuclear bombs. They're not doing it
Speaker 3: because the Iyatola thinks climate change is a problem and
Speaker 3: he wants to create civilian nuclear power generation. It is
Speaker 3: entirely creating a bomb that could murder millions of Americans
Speaker 3: or millions of Israelis. They put it in the basement
Speaker 3: of a mountain because they didn't want to be bombed.
Speaker 3: Only America can take them out. And I got to say,
Speaker 3: I think dropping those bombs, I have zero interest. We
Speaker 3: will not send boots on the ground. We are not
Speaker 3: going to invade Iran, and I have zero interest in
Speaker 3: coming into the country and trying to turn it into
Speaker 3: a democratic utopia.
Speaker 4: We don't.
Speaker 3: Look it would be wonderful if Iran woke up tomorrow
Speaker 3: and it was Switzerland. But I'm not willing to risk
Speaker 3: your children or my children to go in and fight
Speaker 3: a war to make that happen. It is a very
Speaker 3: different calculus to say, should we drop a couple of
Speaker 3: bombs and take out a lab and facility where they're
Speaker 3: developing nuclear weapons to murder Americans? And I think that's
Speaker 3: a compelling argument. And I got to say, I think
Speaker 3: there's a real possibility in the next few hours or
Speaker 3: days that's exactly what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: Final question on this.
Speaker 2: If Donald Trump does in fact make this decision, I
Speaker 2: actually don't think this is a tough decision or a
Speaker 2: hard decision. I think it's a simple decision as you
Speaker 2: described it. If we must protect the homeland and we
Speaker 2: must protect our allies at the same time, and we're
Speaker 2: both a target, and we know what a RAM would
Speaker 2: do if they got a nuclear weapon, and we know
Speaker 2: that even if they didn't do it, they might.
Speaker 1: Give it to their proxies to do it as well.
Speaker 2: You add all that up, I think this decision is
Speaker 2: actually pretty clear if the President gree does that and
Speaker 2: we move forward. There's also this big obsession in the
Speaker 2: media out there's some massive in the maga world, and
Speaker 2: this is going to split the Republican Party. I actually
Speaker 2: think it's gonna be a blip and we're gonna move
Speaker 2: back on to all the issues that we do agree on.
Speaker 1: I'm not taking the bait on that. I want your
Speaker 1: take on it as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look, so I did Sean Hannity this evening, and Hannity
Speaker 3: had a poll that just came out that showed seventy
Speaker 3: five percent of Americans agree with President Trump that we
Speaker 3: should act against Iran to prevent them from getting a
Speaker 3: nuclear weapons using And the question in the poll was
Speaker 3: whatever means necessary. Seventy five percent I don't know that
Speaker 3: seventy five percent of Americans agree on butterflies or rainbows
Speaker 3: or Peter peanut butter and jelly like. That's a big
Speaker 3: percentage in today's divided world. And so it is frankly
Speaker 3: a handful of people who are disagreeing. Tucker is really
Speaker 3: an outlier on this, and and I made the point,
Speaker 3: and we're going to talk about this. Friday's pod is
Speaker 3: going to be all about this. But but Tucker used
Speaker 3: to be years ago. Tucker was a neo Khan interventionist
Speaker 3: who was a cheerleader for the Iraq War, and he
Speaker 3: practically had on a short skirt and pomp pumps. I
Speaker 3: think the Iraq War was a catastrophic mistake, and so
Speaker 3: I think he was far too interventionist. And Tucker does too.
Speaker 3: He thinks he was wrong, and I respect that. Look, look,
Speaker 3: intelligent people will assess change circumstances and be willing to
Speaker 3: change their position based on the facts, and so I
Speaker 3: respect that he changed his views. But the point I
Speaker 3: made is he went from being an interventionist far too
Speaker 3: eager to send in the Marines, to being an isolationist
Speaker 3: who says we should never ever use the military even
Speaker 3: when we've got a lunatic, theocratic zealot who is trying
Speaker 3: to murder Americans and has murdered hundreds of Americans, and
Speaker 3: and and so I actually think that view is a
Speaker 3: really fringe view in America. It's a fringe view in Maga,
Speaker 3: and it's a fringe view across the country. And and
Speaker 3: I think the American people want a president who's going
Speaker 3: to say, we will protect ourselves against people who want
Speaker 3: to kill us. That's exactly what Donald Trump is doing.
Speaker 1: As before.
Speaker 2: If you want to hear the rest of this conversation
Speaker 2: on this topic, you can go back and dow the
Speaker 2: podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
Speaker 2: I want to get back to the big story number
Speaker 2: three of the week you may have missed. I want
Speaker 2: to get back into the Tucker Carlson interview that you
Speaker 2: did and center. There was some interesting themes that came
Speaker 2: out of this interview. He was obviously attacking you, he
Speaker 2: was attacking Israel, he was attacking groups that support Israel.
Speaker 2: But then there was an even weirder point where I
Speaker 2: think Tucker probably is hoping that we don't play this,
Speaker 2: or that people didn't watch the whole interview, and hear
Speaker 2: this part. It was about the Iranian regime. They've been
Speaker 2: trying to murder Donald Trump. They've hired hitman, They've been
Speaker 2: trying to hire hitman. They've come after former cabinet members
Speaker 2: of Donald Trump. And when you brought it up, he
Speaker 2: acted like he I've never heard of this before, and
Speaker 2: that you were either lying or this is shocking news
Speaker 2: to him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this was utterly bizarre. And I got to say,
Speaker 3: in the whole course of the two hour interview, this
Speaker 3: was the strangest portion. For the last two years, Iran
Speaker 3: has been actively trying to murder President Donald Trump. Iran
Speaker 3: has hired hitman to murder President Trump, and I Ran
Speaker 3: also has been trying to murder Mike Pompeo, President Trump's
Speaker 3: former secretary of State, John Bolton, President Trump's former national
Speaker 3: security advisor, and Brian Hook, President Trump's former assistant secretary
Speaker 3: of State. All of them, Iran has hired hitman and
Speaker 3: has been targeting them. Bizarrely, and this has been widely reported.
Speaker 3: These are objective facts, but bizarrely, Tucker Carlson assisted insisted
Speaker 3: this has never happened.
Speaker 4: Here, give a listen.
Speaker 5: I just want to pull that thread because it's so important.
Speaker 5: I voted for Donald Trump. I can't paign for Donald Trump.
Speaker 5: He's our president and were in the cusp of a war.
Speaker 5: So if Iran, if there's evidence that Iran paid hitman
Speaker 5: to kill Donald Trump and is currently doing that, where
Speaker 5: is that? What do you have talking? I've never heard
Speaker 5: that before. Okay, where's the evidence? Who are these people?
Speaker 5: Why haven't they been arrested? Why are we not at
Speaker 5: war with Iran? That's a great question to ask. How
Speaker 5: do you know that that's true.
Speaker 3: We know that it's true because we have been told
Speaker 3: that by the military at our intelligence community for the
Speaker 3: last two years. We meaning who Congress has in the public.
Speaker 3: I mean, I had multiple testimonies. I can send you
Speaker 3: test We know the names.
Speaker 5: Of the people are where this happened or what they
Speaker 5: tried to do to kill Trump.
Speaker 4: We do not.
Speaker 3: We have not apprehended an Iranian hit man trying to
Speaker 3: kill him. We know that Iran is trying to do
Speaker 3: so in the United States.
Speaker 5: Yes, and by the way, like Iran, this just seems
Speaker 5: like a huge headline and you're acting like everyone knows this.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that Iran put out a whole video
Speaker 3: about murdering Trump.
Speaker 5: Right, but I've never heard evidence that there are hitmen
Speaker 5: in the United States. I mean trying to kill Trump
Speaker 5: right now. We should like have a nationwide dragged down
Speaker 5: on this and we should attack Iran immediately. If that's true.
Speaker 5: Don't you think no, But they're trying to assassinate our president.
Speaker 5: They have been for two years. They are animal with them.
Speaker 5: Well we are trying to why don't we just nuke
Speaker 5: tear If they're trying to murder our president. There's nothing
Speaker 5: that you could do that would be worse for the
Speaker 5: United States than murdering Trump. And I just don't stand
Speaker 5: why you're not calling for the use of nuclear weapons
Speaker 5: against the eye total right now.
Speaker 1: I'm serious. If there if you really.
Speaker 5: Believe there's a nuclear weapons whatever the problem of so mean,
Speaker 5: you don't seem to take the allegation seriously.
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 5: If you believe they're trying to murder Trump, we need
Speaker 5: to stop what we're doing and punish them.
Speaker 1: I mean, insanely bizarre.
Speaker 2: We went from let's not do anything to oh, they're
Speaker 2: trying to call Trump.
Speaker 1: Well, if that's true, let's just nuke them.
Speaker 3: So you're right, the entire two hours. Tucker's position was,
Speaker 3: do nothing on Iran, do nothing on Iran, do nothing
Speaker 3: on Iran, do not support Israel, do not support Israel,
Speaker 3: do not support Israel. But if Iran is trying to
Speaker 3: murder Trump, then we should nuke them. Okay, Ben, That's
Speaker 3: absolutely wacky. And and look it's the sign of someone
Speaker 3: who's not presenting an argument in good faith. No, we
Speaker 3: should not be new King Iran. That's not a good idea.
Speaker 3: And by the way, this is a point where actually
Speaker 3: facts matter. And part of what was frustrating about this
Speaker 3: interview is that Tucker just says things that are blatantly
Speaker 3: false and he doesn't care if they're true or false.
Speaker 3: So this is an objective fact. I'm going to read
Speaker 3: to you from a political article on November eighth, twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four, not very long ago. Here's the title. Iran
Speaker 3: ordered an operative to assassinate Trump before the election. Federal
Speaker 3: prosecutors say the alleged would be assassin is believed to
Speaker 3: be in Iran and remains at large. Prosecutors said, here's
Speaker 3: the beginning of the article. The Iranian government ordered an
Speaker 3: operative to assassinate Donald Trump before the twenty twenty four election.
Speaker 3: Manhattan Federal prosecutors said Friday the latest in a string
Speaker 3: of assassination plots directed at the former and future president
Speaker 3: in recent months. Prosecutors charged Farhad Shakiri with murder for
Speaker 3: hire and providing material support to foreign terrorist organization. He
Speaker 3: is believed to be in Iran and remains at large,
Speaker 3: prosecutors said. The article continues quote. According to a criminal
Speaker 3: complaint unsealed in Manhattan Federal Court, Shakiri said during an
Speaker 3: FBI interview that in September he was directed by the
Speaker 3: Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran to surveil and kill Trump,
Speaker 3: whom the charging papers identify as victim for. When Shakiri
Speaker 3: told an IRGC official that doing so would prove expensive,
Speaker 3: the official responded that money's not an issue, which Shakiri
Speaker 3: understood to mean that the IRGC had previously spent a
Speaker 3: significant sum of money on efforts to murder victim four
Speaker 3: and was willing to continue spending a lot of money
Speaker 3: in its attempt to procure victims for assassination. According to
Speaker 3: the charging papers, So there's literally a Department of Justice
Speaker 3: indictments specifically against an assassin for attempting to murder Trump.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 3: Also, by the way, was a separate assass who was
Speaker 3: arrested for renting an apartment next to John Bolton, an
Speaker 3: Iranian assassin that was there to murder Trump's former national
Speaker 3: security advisor. And as I noted, the Iranians put out
Speaker 3: an entire video, a minute and a half video. It's
Speaker 3: an animated video that shows Donald Trump playing golf and
Speaker 3: shows the Iranians using a drone attack to kill him.
Speaker 3: All of that is is objectively true, and yet Tucker says,
Speaker 3: I've never heard a word of it. I don't know
Speaker 3: anything about this, and I want to. I want to
Speaker 3: play this video right here. This is in Farsi, but
Speaker 3: but I want to play it, and then I'm going
Speaker 3: to tell you what what what he's saying. So give
Speaker 3: a listen.
Speaker 1: I thought I'm going to meet this.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you was.
Speaker 3: I mean mckinzio in FID and.
Speaker 1: So let's just be queer.
Speaker 2: That's the IRGC commander live on Islamic Republic of Iran
Speaker 2: state TV and tell people what he just said.
Speaker 3: Well, his name is Amir Ali Hajazade. He's the commander
Speaker 3: of the IRGC. He's on national television and he says,
Speaker 3: quote God willing will be able to kill Trump, Pompeo,
Speaker 3: General McKenzie, and other US commanders. That's on TV now.
Speaker 3: Tucker spent the entire interview denying that Iran was trying
Speaker 3: to kill President Trump. That's objectively false. Facts matter, And bizarrely,
Speaker 3: he said, well, if that fact was true, he thought
Speaker 3: we should immediately attack Iran and we should Knukran. Well, no,
Speaker 3: that's not the case. We should not Nukran, but we
Speaker 3: should do what President Trump is doing right now, which
Speaker 3: is support Israel in taking out Iran's nuclear capability and
Speaker 3: their senior military leadership. That actually makes sense. And I'll
Speaker 3: tell you. The day after our interview aired, President Trump
Speaker 3: was asked about the conflict between me and Tucker in
Speaker 3: the Oval office. And here give a listen to the
Speaker 3: back and forth President Trump had in the Oval with
Speaker 3: a reporter.
Speaker 5: You see the Tucker carlsident Senator Ted Cruz interview.
Speaker 3: It seems like this issue on whether or not the
Speaker 3: United States should strike is kind of dividing a lot
Speaker 3: of your supporters.
Speaker 6: No, my supporters are for me. My supporters are America first.
Speaker 6: They make America great again. My supporters don't want to
Speaker 6: see around have a nuclear weapon. Tucker's a nice guy.
Speaker 6: He called apologized the other day because he thought he
Speaker 6: said thanks and too strong, and I appreciated that. And
Speaker 6: Ted Cruz is a nice guy. I mean, he's been
Speaker 6: with me for a long time. I'd say once the
Speaker 6: race was over, he's been with me ever since. Right,
Speaker 6: but very simple. If they think that it's okay for
Speaker 6: Iran to have a nuclear weapon, then they should oppose me.
Speaker 6: But nobody thinks it's okay.
Speaker 2: This goes back to the very beginning and why I
Speaker 2: think Tucker was so hostile. He wanted a distraction from
Speaker 2: the fact that he had messed up with Trump. He
Speaker 2: had to call Trump and apologize, and he thought, all right,
Speaker 2: if I just go after Ted Cruz, maybe that'll fix
Speaker 2: all my problems.
Speaker 1: I don't think it worked well.
Speaker 3: And look, the reason that Tucker had to apologize to
Speaker 3: Trump is that he had been publicly blasting Trump. He
Speaker 3: said Trump was complicit in Israel's war, and he said
Speaker 3: he said what Trump was doing was not America first.
Speaker 3: And President Trump tweeted out and said, look, I'm the
Speaker 3: one who created America First, and I decide what it
Speaker 3: is and allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon that
Speaker 3: is not America first. And that's exactly what President Trump
Speaker 3: said in the oval. You know what's amazing. We've laid
Speaker 3: out the facts that is undisputed, by the way, out
Speaker 3: of one hundred senators, all one hundred degree, that Iran
Speaker 3: is trying to murder President Trump. Even the looniest, even
Speaker 3: Bernie Sanders, even Elizabeth Warren doesn't dispute that Iran is
Speaker 3: trying to murder Trump because it's an objective fact. I've
Speaker 3: laid them out that those facts out repeatedly. You know,
Speaker 3: Tucker has not responded once to that. He has not said, oh,
Speaker 3: I was that's wrong on that. He hasn't said, oh well,
Speaker 3: gosh I said, if that was the case, we should attack.
Speaker 3: I ran immediately in nuke them, which, by the way,
Speaker 3: to be clear, we should not. At the end of
Speaker 3: the day, facts matter, and the good news is the
Speaker 3: commander in chief's job is to be clear eyed and
Speaker 3: do what is necessary to keep America safe. President Trump
Speaker 3: is doing that. I spoke to him just a few
Speaker 3: days ago and I said, mister President, thank you, thank
Speaker 3: you for standing with Israel, thank you for standing up
Speaker 3: for America.
Speaker 4: Thank you for.
Speaker 3: Defending our servicemen and women. You noticed Iran has not
Speaker 3: attacked our servicemen and women because the President has made
Speaker 3: clear the consequences would be massive for doing so. And
Speaker 3: President Trump right now is being strong and resolute, and
Speaker 3: I'm proud to stand with the President that he is
Speaker 3: doing exactly the right thing. He is embodying America first,
Speaker 3: and he's keeping this country safe.
Speaker 2: As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Center
Speaker 2: Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal
Speaker 2: with my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast
Speaker 2: every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each
Speaker 2: day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
Speaker 2: have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson podcasts,
Speaker 2: and we will see you back here on Monday morning.