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Speaker 1: Us US, and good afternoon, and good afternoon, Good morning everybody.

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Speaker 2: Steve Schmidt with the Warning, joined by Malcolm Nance, black

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Speaker 2: Man Spy and Ken Harbaugh of the Ken Harbaugh Show.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, guys. Great to be with you, Steve, a

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Speaker 2: lot of things to talk about. Let's start with the

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Speaker 2: dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base where Donald Trump

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Speaker 2: could not be bothered to take off his Maga Merchandise hat.

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Speaker 2: There he is. You know, the guy has stolen four

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Speaker 2: billion dollars at least in crypto and other things that

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Speaker 2: he still can't get a suit properly tailored. It is extraordinary,

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Speaker 2: the great schlub of the White House. But there we

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Speaker 2: see JD. Vance, Mulaney, Trump, Steve Wickoff, Susie Wiles. These

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Speaker 2: people will be remembered to some of the great villains

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Speaker 2: in American history that they hold power, at least in

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Speaker 2: this moment. What do you guys see when you see

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Speaker 2: this picture. Let me start with you Ken.

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Speaker 3: Literally wearing campaign swag at the final return of brothers

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Speaker 3: in arms, brothers and sisters in arms of me and Malcolm.

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Speaker 3: And I don't know if you saw this, Steve, but

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Speaker 3: even Fox News was appalled enough that they spliced in

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Speaker 3: previous footage of him attending another dignified transfer without the

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Speaker 3: campaign swag on. I think everyone realizes how outrageous this is,

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Speaker 3: But there was a Fox Morning show that cut away

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Speaker 3: from this clip and found another clip of him without

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Speaker 3: the campaign swagon I mean, the entire presidency to Donald

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Speaker 3: Trump seems to be an exercise in marketing and grift,

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Speaker 3: and any chance he has to sell something to his

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Speaker 3: few remaining devoted followers, he'll take it, even when it's

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Speaker 3: the return of American bodies.

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Speaker 4: Malcolm, Yeah, I'm just sitting here steaming. You know, Ken

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Speaker 4: was being quite respectful in that respect, But you know

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Speaker 4: that's what I expect from a naval aviator pilot and

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Speaker 4: an officer. I am a senior chief petty officer. I

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Speaker 4: would not have allowed that for one tenth of one second.

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Speaker 4: I would have made sure that someone and the joint

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Speaker 4: chiefs knew for him to take his fricking cover off. Right.

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Speaker 4: He may be commander in chief, but that is not

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Speaker 4: the uniform of the commander in chief. He should have

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Speaker 4: had enough dignity to remove his cover, but he didn't.

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Speaker 4: And as you see in that photograph, he's there checking

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Speaker 4: his colostomy bags or his pump or whatever where it

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Speaker 4: is in there. I've gone to that dignified transfer at

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Speaker 4: Dover Air Force Base for lost service members, and you know,

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Speaker 4: it's a very solemn ceremony. This may. I think this

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Speaker 4: might be his second or third in the last ten

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Speaker 4: years that he ever attended. And I recall after the

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Speaker 4: first two, one family member of a fallen seal berated

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Speaker 4: him and he said he was never going to another one.

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Speaker 5: He was dragged out for this one. So I'm sorry.

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Speaker 4: This man should not even be anywhere near the controls

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Speaker 4: of power. Unfortunately, the people of the United States made

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Speaker 4: this decision and we're stuck with him. But we're stuck

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Speaker 4: with all his indignities, We're stuck with his cravenness, and

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Speaker 4: we're stuck with his ego. And that's you know, I'm sorry.

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Speaker 4: I personally would not have I would have gone off

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Speaker 4: on somebody loudly.

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Speaker 2: Kenny Donnelly was the very uh was it was an

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Speaker 2: advisor to JFK. And if you've worked advising these guys, uh,

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Speaker 2: you've you've worked in campaigns. Kenny Donnelly was a hero

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Speaker 2: to us all. Kenny Donnelly had had a mission in

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Speaker 2: mind for life, and it was to be the first

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Speaker 2: person in the Oval Office every morning to tell the

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Speaker 2: President of the United States John Kennedy, he was full

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Speaker 2: of shit about something. And and before we turn into

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Speaker 2: the into the details of the war, I'll tell you

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Speaker 2: what I see in that in that picture is that

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Speaker 2: there is nobody around Donald Trump, not the chairman of

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Speaker 2: the Joint Chiefs of Staff, not the White House chief

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Speaker 2: of Staff, not as Vice president, none of them who

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Speaker 2: can tell him he's wrong about anything. Nobody can tell

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Speaker 2: him take the hat off. Nobody. And so so you

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Speaker 2: have a very dangerous situation when you have an American

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Speaker 2: president who is bound only by the dimensions of his

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Speaker 2: own narcissistic ego. And it's astonishing. And so here we

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Speaker 2: are nine days into war with Iran, and it is going.

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Speaker 2: I suspect the way that I see it very much

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Speaker 2: like we talked about, which is that wars cannot be

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Speaker 2: won by air power alone. There has not been a

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Speaker 2: popular uprising in Iran under Israeli an American bombardment. This

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Speaker 2: war has metastasized already. There are fifteen nations involved in

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Speaker 2: it that are under fire from Iran. The Straits of

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Speaker 2: court mouse are effectively closed. There is a profound shock

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Speaker 2: to the price of oil in global markets, and all

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Speaker 2: of that will be coming home. It seems to me

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Speaker 2: that Donald Trump has put himself in a corner. He

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Speaker 2: either retreats and the Iranian regime holds power and he

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Speaker 2: loses this war on the terms that he introduced it,

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Speaker 2: or he escalates. And what escalation looks like is to

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Speaker 2: me at least, is a full commitment by American forces.

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Speaker 2: And our army isn't large enough, our Marine Corps isn't

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Speaker 2: large enough, so we'll need all of the reserve components

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Speaker 2: and they'll be talked before long about a draft. But

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Speaker 2: nine days into this, you know, the fork of the

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Speaker 2: road is very clear to me at least, which is

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Speaker 2: we're either going to dramatically escalate or we're going to

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Speaker 2: try to walk out of this. And when you look

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Speaker 2: and you see at Lindsay Graham with Maria Bartiromo this

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Speaker 2: morning talking about this is the best money we've ever spent,

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Speaker 2: I can't imagine any Boddy more delusional. And here we are, Ken.

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Speaker 3: Malcolm and I called this from day one. The Iranians

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Speaker 3: are not going to fight this war on our terms.

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Speaker 3: Their military never had a chance, and we knew that

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Speaker 3: from the beginning. Their navy was going to be sunk

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Speaker 3: within two weeks, their air defenses were going to be obliterated.

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Speaker 3: We were going to achieve air dominance over Iran. But

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Speaker 3: that is not how you provoke regime change in a

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Speaker 3: country like Irad, and that was never planned for. We're

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Speaker 3: already hearing that the clerics have settled on another Ayatola,

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Speaker 3: its Iotolas all the way down. If you haven't laid

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Speaker 3: the groundwork for a popular uprising and we missed the

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Speaker 3: chance for that months ago. Who do you think fills

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Speaker 3: a power vacuum in a country like Iran when you've

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Speaker 3: taken out the senior leadership. It's the people with the

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Speaker 3: money and the resources and the guns, and that's the IRGC.

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Speaker 3: It's no longer the Iranian Resistance, if it ever was.

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Speaker 3: And if you need any more evidence that the Trump

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Speaker 3: regime had no plan going into this, look at the

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Speaker 3: status of US oil reserves, the strategic emergency petroleum reserves

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Speaker 3: that should be filled up for an occasion like this

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Speaker 3: and is at one of the lowest points in decades.

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Speaker 3: Look at the Straits of Hormuz and the total surprise

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Speaker 3: with which the regime was taken at the Iranian closure

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Speaker 3: of the straits.

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Speaker 5: Look at the.

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Speaker 3: Attacks on all of our allies and the evacuation of

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Speaker 3: embassies and the closing of some of them across the region.

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Speaker 3: And the President's response is, well, this happened, This all

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Speaker 3: happened so quickly. Are you effing kidding me? I'll let

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Speaker 3: Malcolm swear for us. But the idea that you would

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Speaker 3: commit the American military to something like this without planning

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Speaker 3: for attacks on embassies or keeping the straits of Horrormoves open,

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Speaker 3: or at least replenishing our oil reserves here at home,

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Speaker 3: it is the worst kind of like negligence when it

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Speaker 3: comes to taking the nation to war.

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Speaker 5: Malcolm.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, my first deployment to the Persian Gulf

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Speaker 4: was thirty eight years ago.

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Speaker 5: I did the map, That's how old I am.

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Speaker 4: The first protest I ever went to was in nineteen

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Speaker 4: seventy nine when I protested the taking of hostages.

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Speaker 5: By the Iranians. You know this is Pepper.

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Speaker 4: I careerdirect naval combat shipped the ship warfare with the

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Speaker 4: Iranians in nineteen eighty eight.

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Speaker 5: I've been studying this forever. Saw the Iran Iraq war.

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Speaker 4: All of this is to show that this history forty

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Speaker 4: seven years that we've had in confrontation with Iran preparing

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Speaker 4: to protect the Arabian Golf slash Persian Gulf, whatever you choose,

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Speaker 4: right first was the folly of US invading Iraq, which

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Speaker 4: gave Iran.

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Speaker 5: A hard core.

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Speaker 4: Shia Muslim base that's there now sitting like a sort

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Speaker 4: of damocles over the US.

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Speaker 5: And now we attack the country directly. We prepared for.

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Speaker 4: This for forty seven years, and the idiots that planned this,

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Speaker 4: if you want to use the word planning, that fashioned

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Speaker 4: this missed their mark. If this was about doing a

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Speaker 4: popular uprising of regime change that was January, they could

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Speaker 4: have carried out limited strikes. They could have carried out

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Speaker 4: operations against the IRGC police stations and things like that.

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Speaker 4: They could have sunk the Iranian navy. These are of

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Speaker 4: no consequence. Now the country is ninety three million people.

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Speaker 4: There is one hundred and twenty five thousand full time

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Speaker 4: revolutionary guardsmen.

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Speaker 5: There are.

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Speaker 4: Six six one hundred thousand to eight hundred thousand Boshji

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Speaker 4: paramilitary who are on call at all times. These are

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Speaker 4: the people that killed upwards to thirty thousand or more

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Speaker 4: civilians in January, and what are we doing. We are

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Speaker 4: out there toying with making an Kurdish insurgency in the North.

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Speaker 4: Trump said, Oh, I don't want to do that. That's

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Speaker 4: too complicated. That's over with. We're talking about doing amphibious

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Speaker 4: or special forces landings on the territory, the mainland or

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Speaker 4: the islands of the Persian Gulf. Now, you can do that,

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Speaker 4: but there are still missing six hundred anti ship missile,

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Speaker 4: thirty three thousand small boats, and a commando force in

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Speaker 4: that numbers in the hundreds of thousands that could come

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Speaker 4: back and make all of this insanely painful. Why do

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Speaker 4: I even project these things because we have been planning

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Speaker 4: for them since I was in my twenties and I'm

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Speaker 4: sixty four now, and I see we have literally wasted

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Speaker 4: all of the tools, tradecraft and planning necessary to degrade

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Speaker 4: eight deem in such a way that you have regime collapse.

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Speaker 4: We don't have that option anymore now. It's either direct

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Speaker 4: warfare with Iran or we do essentially up You know

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Speaker 4: what we did in Iraq for ten years, fly over

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Speaker 4: at twenty four to seven three sixty five and drop bombs.

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Speaker 4: Whenever we see an anti aircraft gun or a new Ayatola,

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Speaker 4: who's who comes into power.

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Speaker 5: This is ludicrous.

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Speaker 4: This is this is the definition of a forever war

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Speaker 4: unless we declare victory and leave.

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Speaker 3: And Malcolm, we're not even talking. Sorry, Steve, you had

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Speaker 3: go ahead, Go ahead, Kevin. The one thing Iranians have

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Speaker 3: in addition to four times as many people compared to Iraq,

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Speaker 3: is the potential for a dirty bomb, right they have.

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Speaker 3: They have uranium enriched uranium, which, by the way, the

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Speaker 3: deal under Obama, the JCPOA would have brought out of

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Speaker 3: the country. That's moot at this point. Donald Trump scrapped

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Speaker 3: it because it was a bombas deal, because it was

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Speaker 3: a bad deal. But there is no way to control

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Speaker 3: that with their power. I think one of the reasons

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Speaker 3: that Donald Trump is finally teasing the idea of boots

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Speaker 3: on the ground is that he's got himself in a

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Speaker 3: corner now with an Iranian regime that has nothing to

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Speaker 3: lose by taking some of that fistle material and doing

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Speaker 3: something horrific with it, And the only way to address

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Speaker 3: that is with boots on the ground. If there was

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Speaker 3: ever an imminent threat from Iran to the US. It

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Speaker 3: wasn't before we launched this attack, it's now. I was

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Speaker 3: with Senator Duckworth. Issue was coming out of that classified briefing,

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Speaker 3: and every Democrat in that briefing reiterated that there was

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Speaker 3: no imminent threat to the United States. The best rationale

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Speaker 3: and the most Orwellian rationale, was given by Secretary Rubio

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Speaker 3: when he said that America had to attack because Israel

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Speaker 3: was going to attack and that would provoke an Iranian

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Speaker 3: response on American four versus ergo, we had to bomb.

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Speaker 3: I ran first to defend against Iran.

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Speaker 5: Okay, that's minus.

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Speaker 4: Can I make a quick comment, the real quick ste Yeah,

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Speaker 4: there is a worst scenario here. They've got four hundred

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Speaker 4: and fifty pounds of sixty percent enriched uranium two thirty five, right,

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Speaker 4: that is enough half of it's enough to make a

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Speaker 4: test bed one or two kilogram a fissible atomic bomb.

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Speaker 5: But it would be on World War II levels, right,

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Speaker 5: it would be on the size of.

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Speaker 4: You know, Fat Man and Little Boy, the bombs in

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Speaker 4: World War Two. They are trying to get down to

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Speaker 4: one they can put on a warhead. But if they

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Speaker 4: were to just run off to the Belooch desert and

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Speaker 4: blow off the an atomic bomb right now, using a

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Speaker 4: crude atomic bomb, that would get everyone's attention, and it would.

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Speaker 5: Change the entire dynamic of this. They're not going to

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Speaker 5: do that.

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Speaker 4: They have enough asymmetric capability to make us all pay

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Speaker 4: for a very long time, not just at the gas pump,

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Speaker 4: but in bodies, and they are holding their powder dry.

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Speaker 5: They are.

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Speaker 2: It is an astonishing moment that when you consider in

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Speaker 2: January we had the ability to fire cruise missiles and

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Speaker 2: destroy the Iranian Revolutionary Guard headquarters, other regime targets. Hundreds

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Speaker 2: of thousands, if not millions of people were on the streets.

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Speaker 2: Would have been a powerful, potent message from the American people,

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Speaker 2: but it was not taken. And there is no signs

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Speaker 2: that nine days into this that there is any internal

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Speaker 2: upheaval in Iran. There is no protests on the streets,

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Speaker 2: There is no call to bring the regime down that's

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Speaker 2: visible thus far.

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Speaker 3: You agree with that, Yeah, I agree with that, and

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Speaker 3: especially considering the facts Malcolm laid out. The real power

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Speaker 3: center and Iran is the IRGC. In some ways, they're

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Speaker 3: worse than the Ayatolas. They've got all the guns, they

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Speaker 3: have all the money, the IRGC is a crime syndicate

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Speaker 3: but entrenched throughout Iranian society, and they don't hang out

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Speaker 3: at the headquarters, especially during wartime. They hang out at

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Speaker 3: the cafes. They are embedded throughout society, and to take

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Speaker 3: them out you got to do in a rock style,

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Speaker 3: boots on the ground, full invasion, which this administration doesn't

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Speaker 3: have the stomach for. I don't have the stomach for it.

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Speaker 3: But that's what they've that's what they've been off if

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Speaker 3: regime change is truly what they want.

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Speaker 2: You know, I've spent a career around politicians at all

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Speaker 2: sorts of different levels of service up to the President

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Speaker 2: of the United States, senior American officials. I've seen a

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Speaker 2: lot of them under pressure. I've seen a lot of

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Speaker 2: them in moments where they had to extemporize something. I

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Speaker 2: was struck by the Democrats coming out of the classified

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Speaker 2: briefing that you just referenced with Senator Duckworth and specifically

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Speaker 2: two Senators Murphy and Warren. And Warren, who is a

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Speaker 2: pretty polished performer, I thought on her video talking about it,

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Speaker 2: it was just very raw and you could see that

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Speaker 2: whatever she heard in there, she was very rattled by

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Speaker 2: same with same with Chris Murphy. Chris Murphy walked out

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Speaker 2: of there, and he was basically, you know, in this posture, like,

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Speaker 2: oh my god, I can't even tell you the bullshit

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Speaker 2: I just heard in there, other than to signal to

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Speaker 2: you that it was weapons grade grade bullshit and it's

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Speaker 2: really and it's really rattled me.

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Speaker 5: What was? What was?

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Speaker 4: What was?

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Speaker 2: Take us a little in Senator Duckworth's composure. She's a

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Speaker 2: combat veteran, wounded American helicopter pop, grievously wounded American helicopter pilot.

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Speaker 2: She's a She's a steely, nervy person. What was her

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Speaker 2: disposition coming out of that meeting? When when they when

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Speaker 2: they went into all the classified details.

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Speaker 3: There is no one in Congress, in the House or

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Speaker 3: Senate who understands the cost of war better than Senator

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Speaker 3: Tammy Duckworth. And I could tell that what she was

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Speaker 3: trying to suppress was this fear about her friends, our

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Speaker 3: friends going downrange because this president thought this was going

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Speaker 3: to be another Venezuela operation. In fact, we have some

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Speaker 3: reporting that he said to his combatant commanders and to

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Speaker 3: the Secretary of Defense, I want to do this like Venezuela. Oh,

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Speaker 3: Venezuela is in our backyard. It is a fraction of

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Speaker 3: the size it does and have nearly the military capability

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Speaker 3: of Iran. And I mean, there are analogs throughout history

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Speaker 3: about learning the wrong lessons from your wins. I think

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Speaker 3: this administration learned all of the wrong lessons from Venezuela.

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Speaker 3: They thought they could get away with a with a

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Speaker 3: quick one, and man, Malcolm, I'd love your perspective on this,

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Speaker 3: but I think this is one of those moments where

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Speaker 3: the military should have been pushing back. Then again, the

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Speaker 3: military is doing its job, it's doing it pretty remarkably,

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Speaker 3: but the State Department and the administration and the civilian

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Speaker 3: leadership are completely failing both the American people and the

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Speaker 3: military that it sends to fight these wars.

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Speaker 4: Well, certainly the military is very professional. However, there's some

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Speaker 4: things that the American public needs to know. Number One,

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Speaker 4: these are not unlawful orders carry out these operations against

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Speaker 4: a round. Again, this is forty seven years. We have

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Speaker 4: now culminated forty seven years of preparation and military operations

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Speaker 4: and lessons learned about what we were going to do.

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Speaker 4: We developed bombs specifically for those nuclear program bunkers. We

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Speaker 4: used them last year. Now we have nothing. We develop

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Speaker 4: operational strategies.

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Speaker 5: For Iran, but you can drop. You know.

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Speaker 4: We like to say it's bombs, guns and fighter jet

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Speaker 4: rides all day long, But to what end?

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Speaker 5: To what end?

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Speaker 4: Look, I'm an intelligence professional. I've dealt with some real

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Speaker 4: stupid commanders in my life. Right and again, as a

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Speaker 4: Navy chief, I have the right to come up and say, Hey,

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Speaker 4: I'm going to tell you real quick there, boss, this

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Speaker 4: is stupid and it's going to cost service members' lives.

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Speaker 4: But you make the choice, and they generally sit back

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Speaker 4: and give it a thought about it. That's not how

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Speaker 4: this is being done in the Trump administry. His policy

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Speaker 4: guidance is right here in his head. We are watching

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Speaker 4: pure mental illness masquerade as foreign policy.

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Speaker 5: It's costs. Right now.

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Speaker 4: The current counts oney three hundred dead in Iran, over

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Speaker 4: six thousand wounded, eleven Israeli, six US service members, eighteen

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Speaker 4: people in the Emirates, three hundred and seventy eight Lebanese,

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Speaker 4: which is a new war. Netanyah, who has started. But

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Speaker 4: what we're doing is we're affecting policy. Benjamin Netanya, who

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Speaker 4: said back when I was twenty five years old. This

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Speaker 4: is now the United States being led around on a

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Speaker 4: stick by Benjamin Netanyahu and his statement yesterday where he

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Speaker 4: said the United States doesn't have to do it. Israel

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Speaker 4: will kill any leader chosen in Iran.

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Speaker 5: So now what do we do.

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Speaker 4: We don't have the sanctity of borders anymore, we don't

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Speaker 4: have the authority to allow leadership to exist. Right, it's

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Speaker 4: now an assassination festival, and now today Israel last night

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Speaker 4: and I'm not down on the Israelis, right, but they've

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Speaker 4: bombed all the refineries in oil field around the city,

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Speaker 4: and the people who would be having a revolution are

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Speaker 4: having oil covered rain fall on their city.

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Speaker 5: Sewers and gutters are catching.

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Speaker 4: Fire, literally on fire, and they are choking in a

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Speaker 4: gas and fozzging levels and water is making Tehran's water

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Speaker 4: reservoir undrinkable.

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Speaker 5: That's a war crime.

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Speaker 4: I would have kicked anyone's butt whoever suggested that we

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Speaker 4: do something as stupid as that.

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Speaker 5: Well, it's done.

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Speaker 4: And now those people are gonna look at us even

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Speaker 4: if Israel did it, They're gonna blame Trump on all

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Speaker 4: their hardship. There's not gonna be a revolution here. Let's

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Speaker 4: talk about the generals. Uh, there's a difference between a

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Speaker 4: three star and a four star. Uh.

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Speaker 2: That that that you all know about, even though probably

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Speaker 2: most of the people listening really don't discern too much

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Speaker 2: of the difference. And I and I say that I

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Speaker 2: had an experience in my career if I if I

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Speaker 2: had a stack up the ten biggest fucking morons I've

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Speaker 2: ever I've ever worked with. I have a I have

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Speaker 2: a retired former four star I put in at the

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Speaker 2: bronze medal position. You know, maybe maybe on any given

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Speaker 2: day he sleeped a four But I often asked myself,

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Speaker 2: Holy shit, how did this guy become a four star

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Speaker 2: general in the US military? And I and I think

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Speaker 2: there are more of them than I was inclined to believe.

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Speaker 2: One thing I know is true is that there were

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Speaker 2: more general officers in Baghdad in two thousand and seven

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Speaker 2: than there were in Europe on on v E Day.

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Speaker 2: So let's let's talk about the Chairman of the Joint

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Speaker 2: chiefs of Staff here for a second. He was a

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Speaker 2: retired three store He did not have a fourth star

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Speaker 2: in his retirement rank. We don't know the full details

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Speaker 2: of the story, but Raisin Caine came back to came

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Speaker 2: back to active service. When Trump nominated him, he got

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Speaker 2: his fourth star. He's the chairman of the Joint Chiefs

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Speaker 2: of Staff. What are our expectations for him right now?

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Speaker 2: There have been no resignations by a senior military leader

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Speaker 2: regarding this. Regarding this mission, we think that this is

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Speaker 2: a disaster. I don't have any doubt that every detail

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Speaker 2: of what happened and what advice was given and what

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Speaker 2: advice was ignored is all going to is all going

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Speaker 2: to come out. But this war that has that has

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Speaker 2: as you pointed out, Malcolm, these are not illegal or

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Speaker 2: the commander in chief has the authority constitutionally legally to

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Speaker 2: order the United States military to attack. Congress has powers,

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Speaker 2: the war powers, acts and others. They control the power

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Speaker 2: of the purse. They have a lot of remedies there.

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Speaker 2: But as such, is what we've seen so far all awful.

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Speaker 2: How should we look at General Kane, How should we

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Speaker 2: think about the commanders around Donald Trump that have enabled this,

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Speaker 2: that have initiated this. There are not a lot of

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Speaker 2: leaks coming out of the Pentagon that show any dissent,

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Speaker 2: any discomfort with the war plan. We see back in

401
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Speaker 2: the Vietnam War, the news conferences were called in Saigon

402
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Speaker 2: the five o'clock follies. We see a version of the

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Speaker 2: five o'clock follies every time that the military convenes in

404
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Speaker 2: a news conference with Pete Hegseth and the two of

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Speaker 2: them standing up there to gather. You know, General Kin

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Speaker 2: doesn't seem to be embarrassed standing next to Pete Hegseth.

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Speaker 2: So far as I can tell, how should we think

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Speaker 2: about our senior military leadership in this in this moment?

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Speaker 3: Well, I got to say my expectations of Chairman Kine

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Speaker 3: were very low going in because his main qualification seems

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Speaker 3: to have been that he was wearing a Maga hat

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Speaker 3: when he first met Donald Trump and that he said

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Speaker 3: to him, I will kill for you, sir. Now there's

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Speaker 3: I think some skepticism around that story. The President claims

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Speaker 3: that the chairman said I will kill for you, sir,

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Speaker 3: But the fact that General Kin did not challenge that

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Speaker 3: that General Kin has at no point said, actually, I

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Speaker 3: work for the Constitution. My oath is to support and

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Speaker 3: defend that, not to support and defend the whims of

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Speaker 3: a president. That to me was a warning flare about

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Speaker 3: this Chairman not the fact that he had three stars

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Speaker 3: instead of four, but that he was chosen because he

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Speaker 3: was a Trump loyalist. Now, within the military, there have

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Speaker 3: been some folks who are pleasantly surprised, at least up

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Speaker 3: until the Iran War, that he wasn't bloodthirstier than we

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Speaker 3: thought he might be. But I think this is going

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Speaker 3: to be the real test. And for a person in

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Speaker 3: that position, the test isn't just are you going to

429
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Speaker 3: disobey the first unlawful order you get? It's are you

430
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Speaker 3: going to push back on the president for stupid orders?

431
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Speaker 3: There's lawful but stupid orders, right, and it is the

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Speaker 3: job at that level of an administration to filter that

433
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Speaker 3: bs from getting down to the Malcolm Nances and the

434
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Speaker 3: Ken Harbaughs who have to follow those stupid but lawful orders.

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Speaker 5: It is the.

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Speaker 3: Chairman's job, is that, it is the Joint chief's job.

437
00:28:54,840 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 3: It is the combatant commander's job to say, I'll do

438
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:01,719
Speaker 3: that because it's lawful, but you gotta think twice. And

439
00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:05,080
Speaker 3: I'm not sure that that pushback is happening. But I'm

440
00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:08,440
Speaker 3: not that surprised because there has been this purge throughout

441
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:12,520
Speaker 3: the military. Heg Seth has been the perjurer in chief,

442
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:16,400
Speaker 3: and it's it's the generals, but it's also the jags,

443
00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:19,280
Speaker 3: the conscience of the military. And you have heg Seth

444
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 3: proudly saying we're not going to engage in stupid direct

445
00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:26,240
Speaker 3: quote stupid rules of engagement. What that means is, I

446
00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 3: mean that is the same rationale that led to Nuremberg. Right,

447
00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:32,400
Speaker 3: We're not going to engage in stupid rules engagement per

448
00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:36,400
Speaker 3: this DoD And if there is criticism from the military,

449
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 3: it's not because we care about our troops. I'm sorry.

450
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:41,760
Speaker 3: If there is criticism from the media of the military,

451
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:44,720
Speaker 3: it's just to make President Trump look bad. It's not

452
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:48,240
Speaker 3: because we care about what is happening. If the President

453
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 3: is asked about those the Russians providing targeting information to

454
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:58,959
Speaker 3: the Iranians to kill Americans, he calls it a stupid question.

455
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:02,760
Speaker 3: There's no better question to ask the president right now.

456
00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:06,520
Speaker 3: But they cannot countenance any kind of criticism. And the

457
00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:11,160
Speaker 3: minute it happens from the media, it's considered or it's

458
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:15,120
Speaker 3: treated by this administration as unpatriotic. That is the least

459
00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:19,120
Speaker 3: patriotic thing of all, the refusal to justify why Americans

460
00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 3: are dying Malcolm.

461
00:30:22,080 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, General Cain has actually been the most

462
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,800
Speaker 4: stable thing about this operation. I mean, I watch his briefings,

463
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:33,200
Speaker 4: but it's clear a couple of things are clear to me.

464
00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:38,520
Speaker 4: First off, that anecdotal story about I will kill for you.

465
00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:41,560
Speaker 4: General Kane was an Air Force general from Air Force

466
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 4: Special Operations Command, so he was part of their you know,

467
00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:50,240
Speaker 4: the spear tip of helicopters, aircraft, para jumpers and joint

468
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 4: Terminal Attack controllers right, who facilitate special operations missions who

469
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:57,760
Speaker 4: go out there, So he knows what he's doing. And

470
00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:00,280
Speaker 4: that phrase, I will kill for you, I absolutely, without

471
00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:06,680
Speaker 4: any question believe that right. These people are ideologues. And

472
00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:10,600
Speaker 4: even though he as a general now is in charge

473
00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:14,480
Speaker 4: of the entire shebang, this guy is no Colin Powell.

474
00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:19,000
Speaker 4: This guy is no Norman schwartzkof worst PowerPoint briefer I've

475
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:24,520
Speaker 4: ever seen. He incites, no, he instills no feeling of

476
00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 4: the you know the seriousness of what's going on with

477
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:35,560
Speaker 4: service members or imparts intelligence or information to the American

478
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:37,200
Speaker 4: public that you would listen to.

479
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 5: That's what Pete HEGs says. Job whiskey.

480
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 4: Pete's job right is to be there, to be the

481
00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:46,240
Speaker 4: cheerleader with the big bullhorn that says victory at you know,

482
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:50,520
Speaker 4: in Iran, and to do everything so that the president

483
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:52,600
Speaker 4: is the point man for this.

484
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:54,920
Speaker 5: I served all through desert storm.

485
00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:57,960
Speaker 4: We watched the briefings out of Washington and out of

486
00:31:58,040 --> 00:32:03,520
Speaker 4: Riad in real time in or near combat before we

487
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:10,680
Speaker 4: kicked off that wood or information and felt we were

488
00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 4: being led by real leaders. We rarely ever saw George

489
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:19,000
Speaker 4: Herbert Walker Bush. We saw the battle commanders leading. What

490
00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:21,680
Speaker 4: I got here is I got essentially a guy from

491
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 4: the comic book Archie right out there, raw ryeing about

492
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:28,800
Speaker 4: lethality and kill and this is what we do in

493
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:32,000
Speaker 4: eliminating people. But all of this is they are all

494
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:37,920
Speaker 4: just step ladders. That's that Donald Trump stands on like

495
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:40,920
Speaker 4: a golden idol, sitting out there thinking he's Kim Jong

496
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:44,440
Speaker 4: Unn right with a bunch of cheerleading, clapping generals who

497
00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:46,880
Speaker 4: are like a bunch of seals. I'm glad I'm not

498
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:50,920
Speaker 4: hearing anything from the flag ranks right now, because things

499
00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 4: could go bad. They could get very sideways here. The

500
00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:57,880
Speaker 4: attacks on all these Gulf states, these are not accidents.

501
00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:01,840
Speaker 4: This is a battle. Plant Ranians had a folder upon

502
00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:05,200
Speaker 4: case of death. You will hit this all strike all

503
00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:11,120
Speaker 4: of these things. Retain as much capability. Do not let

504
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:12,520
Speaker 4: the America. You know, they knew they were gonna lose

505
00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:16,080
Speaker 4: their defense ships and all of those things. But there's

506
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 4: a hell to pay. When an American soldier, sailor airman, marine,

507
00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:25,160
Speaker 4: you know, or CIA paramilitary operations officer steps foot there

508
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:29,960
Speaker 4: and they're detected, then things are going to get very spicy, indeed,

509
00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:33,760
Speaker 4: very quickly, and people will have to explain it. That

510
00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 4: Foreign Minister Lauryn Johnny right now this morning said they

511
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:44,400
Speaker 4: captured Americans. I don't believe that, but it's possible. Look,

512
00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:46,720
Speaker 4: I ran this, you know, I was chief of Resistance

513
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,080
Speaker 4: at the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School, and we

514
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:54,040
Speaker 4: taught about these scenarios. We had people who had been

515
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:57,120
Speaker 4: captured by the Iranians. Guests speak for US and the

516
00:33:57,160 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 4: Iraqis and all of our other enemies. And it is

517
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:04,600
Speaker 4: going to happen because right now it appears Pete Hegseeth

518
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:08,560
Speaker 4: and not here getting any pushback from General Caine wants

519
00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:14,440
Speaker 4: to carry out some some sort of demonstration on the

520
00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:19,080
Speaker 4: Iranian territory, whether it's landing marines on Kishem Island, Lark Island,

521
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:24,160
Speaker 4: Hormones Island, Kish Island, or seizing Cark Island oil terminal

522
00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:27,200
Speaker 4: in the north, or doing a ranger raid into the

523
00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:30,280
Speaker 4: tents in there with one or two hundred rangers.

524
00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:34,640
Speaker 5: They want to use the toys. And anything I've learned.

525
00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:38,120
Speaker 4: In my career is never use any system that is

526
00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:42,800
Speaker 4: or take the risk that does not actually achieve the

527
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:46,359
Speaker 4: terminal objectives of this war. And since none of us

528
00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:50,280
Speaker 4: knows what that is, it's just you know, bomb subs

529
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:51,520
Speaker 4: and helicopter rides.

530
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:55,480
Speaker 3: It's a game, Steve, It's a game to them. If

531
00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:58,839
Speaker 3: folks have not seen these videos released by the White House,

532
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,440
Speaker 3: I'll make this quick, Steve. These videos released by the

533
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:06,080
Speaker 3: White House literally splicing in video game footage and Avengers

534
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:12,240
Speaker 3: movies with a bomb camera footage of Iranian targets being

535
00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:15,800
Speaker 3: blown up. It's the most disgusting thing I've seen since

536
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:16,680
Speaker 3: I joined the Navy.

537
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 5: I'd slap a guy. I mean, that's what you have

538
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:21,680
Speaker 5: the bladehand for.

539
00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:30,160
Speaker 2: I want you to talk about this at at an

540
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:34,279
Speaker 2: individual level, and then we'll expand it out. There have

541
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:40,240
Speaker 2: been reports about military commanders saying things before the battle

542
00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:44,239
Speaker 2: began to their troops such as Donald Trump is the

543
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:48,719
Speaker 2: signal light of Jesus Christ who has been sent to

544
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:52,120
Speaker 2: begin the battle that leads to the end times and

545
00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:56,680
Speaker 2: armageddon and this and that. In one report, the commander

546
00:35:56,719 --> 00:36:01,239
Speaker 2: who's doing it has a messianic grin on his face, which,

547
00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:03,319
Speaker 2: according to one of the n c o s who

548
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:07,080
Speaker 2: filed the anonymous complaint, made him look even crazier. And I,

549
00:36:07,239 --> 00:36:12,400
Speaker 2: if you're sitting there, did you ever experience any of

550
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:15,359
Speaker 2: that in the in the military. I mean, there's been

551
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:19,600
Speaker 2: a there's been reported problems with the Christian nationalism in

552
00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:23,279
Speaker 2: in the Air Force Academy. Famously, they've had a they've

553
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,600
Speaker 2: had a lot of issues out there. You know, there's

554
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:30,520
Speaker 2: been plenty of articles written about this strain inside the

555
00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:34,640
Speaker 2: Officer Corps of the of the Military. Pete Hegseth is

556
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:39,280
Speaker 2: obviously what he is, uh a five star religious nutter,

557
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:45,560
Speaker 2: a Christian nationalist. His crazy uh Christian nationalists pastor his

558
00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:49,799
Speaker 2: comments about blacks about women are are all documented. But

559
00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:53,960
Speaker 2: did you guys ever experience that? And and and what

560
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:57,720
Speaker 2: would your reaction be if you were sitting on active

561
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 2: service today and you you heard that each has been reported?

562
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 5: Good to you?

563
00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:06,040
Speaker 2: First, Ken, I did not.

564
00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:10,920
Speaker 3: Experience that personally, but I do want to offer a

565
00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:16,480
Speaker 3: very personal take on how this is affecting me and

566
00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:21,479
Speaker 3: my buddies. And I'll give you two triggers if you will.

567
00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:26,359
Speaker 3: The first was seeing that people within Trump's orbit had

568
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:30,200
Speaker 3: bet on the war that you saw in literally the

569
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:34,480
Speaker 3: hours before the first bombs, minutes before the first bomb

570
00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:38,480
Speaker 3: started to fall, the betting on polymarket surged. People have

571
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:42,120
Speaker 3: literally been making a killing off of when the bombs

572
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:44,759
Speaker 3: would begin to rain down. And look, I know there

573
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:48,640
Speaker 3: will always be war profiteers. War has always been an

574
00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:52,720
Speaker 3: opportunity since time immemorial for the few to make money

575
00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:58,160
Speaker 3: off of the misery of the many. But Malcolm and I,

576
00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:00,640
Speaker 3: even though in the back of our head we knew

577
00:38:00,680 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 3: that the prime contractors and others were going to see

578
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:06,239
Speaker 3: an increase in stock price, we never had to deal

579
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:12,160
Speaker 3: with betting markets. With betting markets deciding when the war

580
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:16,919
Speaker 3: was going to start, or tipping off our adversaries about

581
00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:20,040
Speaker 3: when the first bombs were going to fall, and the

582
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:23,360
Speaker 3: fact that that is happening. Those bets are being placed

583
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:26,560
Speaker 3: by accounts that have been opened in the last day

584
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:30,920
Speaker 3: or two with names like Maga my man. It is

585
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:34,439
Speaker 3: It is chilling. It is absolutely chilling. And the other thing,

586
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:38,560
Speaker 3: even more personal, is thinking about Malcolm and I are

587
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:42,799
Speaker 3: both sailors the USS Coal and I keep going back

588
00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:46,520
Speaker 3: to that because this is a ship with a weapon

589
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:51,399
Speaker 3: system that, you know, including its picket ships, was the

590
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:54,719
Speaker 3: best weapon system in the history of the world at

591
00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:58,640
Speaker 3: taking down incoming missiles. Is that how the Iranians nearly

592
00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:01,480
Speaker 3: sunk it? Or is that how the the attackers nearly

593
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:03,920
Speaker 3: sunk it? No, they pulled the tug up to it.

594
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:08,479
Speaker 3: We got to think about the Iranian way of war

595
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:12,080
Speaker 3: and stop high fiving ourselves that we've taken out their

596
00:39:12,080 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 3: missile capability or achieved air dominance. That's not how this

597
00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:20,120
Speaker 3: war is going to go for the Iranians. And I

598
00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:23,759
Speaker 3: wish Pete Hexeth had read Sunsu. I wish General Cain.

599
00:39:24,120 --> 00:39:29,160
Speaker 3: And I mean, we know what Donald Trump's bedside bookshelf

600
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:31,719
Speaker 3: looks like. I guarantee you Son SU's not on it.

601
00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:35,640
Speaker 3: But unless you force yourself to think like your enemy,

602
00:39:36,200 --> 00:39:39,480
Speaker 3: you're gonna lose. And for all of the early wins

603
00:39:39,520 --> 00:39:42,040
Speaker 3: in this war so far, I don't think the long

604
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:45,359
Speaker 3: term version of this is going to play out well

605
00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:46,719
Speaker 3: for the United States.

606
00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:52,760
Speaker 2: Malcolm.

607
00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:59,719
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm not quite sure where and when anyone has

608
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:03,719
Speaker 4: thought they could get away with giving anything other than

609
00:40:03,719 --> 00:40:07,799
Speaker 4: the most cursory prayers and appeal to generic God.

610
00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:08,319
Speaker 5: Right.

611
00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 4: In my twenty years in the military, and then my

612
00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:17,520
Speaker 4: post military career where I was where I was a

613
00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:22,879
Speaker 4: intelligence contractor, never heard anyone appeal to Heaven all right.

614
00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:28,719
Speaker 4: Definitely never speak to any soldier or as the commander

615
00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:31,320
Speaker 4: in chief as a messianic savior.

616
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:32,680
Speaker 5: Right.

617
00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:37,240
Speaker 4: The first part of this problem is that the senior

618
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:42,759
Speaker 4: NCO in that room should have said, sir a word, right,

619
00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:45,920
Speaker 4: and taking this out into the hallway and said, our

620
00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:52,200
Speaker 4: Jewish sailors or soldier sailors airmen, our Muslim soldier sailors, airmen,

621
00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:57,880
Speaker 4: our Buddhist our atheists, this is not the way we

622
00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:01,680
Speaker 4: do it, right, Should I remind you of what the

623
00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:04,960
Speaker 4: oath of office swears you to the Constitution of the

624
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:09,759
Speaker 4: United States? Right? And somebody should have had that talk

625
00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:14,359
Speaker 4: with him. And people went and complained that man is

626
00:41:14,520 --> 00:41:18,560
Speaker 4: not going to have be relieved of his command. He's

627
00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:21,680
Speaker 4: going to be promoted. He'll probably be elected congressman on

628
00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:26,359
Speaker 4: the MAGA ticket. Because Trump rewards people who violate the

629
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:30,920
Speaker 4: constitution for him who violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

630
00:41:30,920 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 4: For him, he's going to make the next rank.

631
00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:36,040
Speaker 5: Right. He's the problem we had at the Air.

632
00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:38,799
Speaker 4: Force Academy where it was turns out the Air Force

633
00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:44,280
Speaker 4: Academy was a kebbal of fundamentalist Christians who didn't believe

634
00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:48,600
Speaker 4: in what you know, the Enlightenment era, you know, a

635
00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:56,120
Speaker 4: non Christian dominant constitution of the United States. But their

636
00:41:56,160 --> 00:42:00,280
Speaker 4: own belief that they were forming an army for God, God,

637
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:04,280
Speaker 4: their God, against Muslim gods nunety.

638
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:05,440
Speaker 5: It's nutty.

639
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:08,759
Speaker 4: And that's why we have people who are supposed to

640
00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:13,760
Speaker 4: be the arbiters of common sense. And in this administration,

641
00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:20,000
Speaker 4: right traders and idiots get reward warded, people in common

642
00:42:20,040 --> 00:42:21,160
Speaker 4: sense lose their jobs.

643
00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 2: One of the ways I I deal I deal with

644
00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:29,720
Speaker 2: all of this is I I allow myself to fantasize

645
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:35,760
Speaker 2: about the moment when uh decency is restored and Trump

646
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:39,880
Speaker 2: is gone, and it is the hour of arrival for

647
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:44,680
Speaker 2: cleanup in in Aisle five and and I just I

648
00:42:44,719 --> 00:42:47,160
Speaker 2: want to I want to say, is imagining a person

649
00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:50,000
Speaker 2: and myself as a person in that room in the

650
00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:53,680
Speaker 2: White House or wherever you know, I I would look

651
00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:57,840
Speaker 2: forward very much to the meeting with the brass uh

652
00:42:57,920 --> 00:43:01,359
Speaker 2: and and I'd invite the NFL Commissi to it too.

653
00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:03,640
Speaker 2: But but one of the first things that that I

654
00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:07,240
Speaker 2: would make clear is is that it's all over you.

655
00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:11,520
Speaker 2: You won't you won't see another fucking military service member

656
00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:16,400
Speaker 2: in a uniform at an NFL game. Uh again uh

657
00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:19,000
Speaker 2: during the during the years of this no more, no

658
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:22,879
Speaker 2: more flyout overs, no more, no more of this uh

659
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:29,920
Speaker 2: performative hoorah patriotism. Uh that has gone on for for

660
00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:34,279
Speaker 2: for twenty for twenty years. And there's gonna be an enormous,

661
00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:40,080
Speaker 2: enormous need to to clean up the Pentagon in the

662
00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:44,880
Speaker 2: in the aftermath of this, talk for a minute about

663
00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:49,040
Speaker 2: about looking ahead to the clean up on on Aisle

664
00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:51,680
Speaker 2: six and seven. I mean, you know, I talked about

665
00:43:51,719 --> 00:43:55,680
Speaker 2: flyovers at at NFL games, which drive me crazy. But

666
00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:00,560
Speaker 2: you know, there's one hundred different things big and small

667
00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:03,800
Speaker 2: that you could you could point to that that will

668
00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:07,320
Speaker 2: that will need to be done. But all all of

669
00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:11,600
Speaker 2: the all of the things that have happened over the

670
00:44:11,640 --> 00:44:15,440
Speaker 2: course of this four years, when when you look ahead

671
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:19,200
Speaker 2: to a to a Pentagon that's going to be in

672
00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:24,399
Speaker 2: need of substantial reform. Where where do you start? How

673
00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:27,239
Speaker 2: do how do you think about it as a project

674
00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:29,480
Speaker 2: could conceptually.

675
00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:30,760
Speaker 5: Steve?

676
00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:33,760
Speaker 3: I guess first a quick tip of the hat because

677
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:37,440
Speaker 3: I think it was John McCain who first called out

678
00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:42,160
Speaker 3: the Pentagon and the NFL when it was revealed that

679
00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:49,120
Speaker 3: those celebrations at uh at at the fifty yard line

680
00:44:49,160 --> 00:44:53,440
Speaker 3: honoring US troops were being paid for by the US military.

681
00:44:53,520 --> 00:44:57,120
Speaker 3: This wasn't the NFL doing it as a gesture of patriotism.

682
00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:01,040
Speaker 3: This was another ad campaign. This was recruiting Command and

683
00:45:01,080 --> 00:45:05,320
Speaker 3: others in the DoD paying the NFL to honor veterans,

684
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:08,319
Speaker 3: Which you know, if you're going to act patriotic, at

685
00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:12,560
Speaker 3: least do it for free. I don't know, Malcolm.

686
00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:14,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I have a lot of thoughts on what

687
00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:18,200
Speaker 4: should happen with the next Pentagon. God forbid that I

688
00:45:18,239 --> 00:45:22,759
Speaker 4: should be asked to have anything to do with the.

689
00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:27,880
Speaker 5: Certainly, let's start with the Secretary of the Navy. We

690
00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:30,200
Speaker 5: have a guy who was chosen the Secretary of the Navy.

691
00:45:30,239 --> 00:45:33,799
Speaker 4: He doesn't have a rubber duck in his bathtub, but

692
00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:36,080
Speaker 4: he was chosen because he has a collection of erotic

693
00:45:36,280 --> 00:45:39,000
Speaker 4: art in his home and he gave Donald Trump ten

694
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:42,319
Speaker 4: million dollars or something like that in his campaign, and

695
00:45:42,360 --> 00:45:44,960
Speaker 4: he's making he made the decision to get rid of

696
00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:50,160
Speaker 4: an entire class of frigates that we desperately, desperately need,

697
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:52,640
Speaker 4: while the Chinese are building forty or fifty a year.

698
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:57,720
Speaker 4: I mean, let's start there, but let's go to the top.

699
00:45:58,280 --> 00:46:01,399
Speaker 4: The biggest recalibration that needs to happen is I don't

700
00:46:01,400 --> 00:46:04,080
Speaker 4: know whether it needs to be done through legislation, but

701
00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:09,279
Speaker 4: the Secretary of Defense must have had flag field command, right,

702
00:46:09,719 --> 00:46:12,839
Speaker 4: or he must have been somebody who has handled at

703
00:46:12,920 --> 00:46:15,480
Speaker 4: least half a trillion.

704
00:46:15,080 --> 00:46:16,240
Speaker 5: Dollars in budgeting.

705
00:46:16,760 --> 00:46:19,520
Speaker 4: But it cannot be someone from you know, I'm not

706
00:46:19,640 --> 00:46:23,200
Speaker 4: qualified to be Secretary of Defense, and if chosen, I'd

707
00:46:23,200 --> 00:46:25,200
Speaker 4: be smart enough to say.

708
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:28,080
Speaker 5: I don't want the job.

709
00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:30,799
Speaker 4: I'll take the job for a week. Let's go choose

710
00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:35,400
Speaker 4: somebody who's qualified. Not these people. These people are literally

711
00:46:35,960 --> 00:46:41,400
Speaker 4: like the governor in the movie Blazing Saddles, right, which

712
00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:45,680
Speaker 4: is mel Brooks as Governor Latomain right, who's got his

713
00:46:45,800 --> 00:46:49,640
Speaker 4: secretary is in a dance all girl costume, right, and

714
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:53,160
Speaker 4: all he does is play you know, paddle ball, and

715
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 4: you know, and that famous line of his. If we

716
00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:59,200
Speaker 4: get found out, we're gonna lose our phony boloney jobs.

717
00:46:59,800 --> 00:47:04,560
Speaker 4: That is the Pentagon, that's the Trump administration in a nutshell.

718
00:47:05,120 --> 00:47:08,640
Speaker 4: And what we need to do is instill right that

719
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:11,840
Speaker 4: the adults are in the room, and we need to

720
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:15,799
Speaker 4: not just five everybody. Good.

721
00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:17,359
Speaker 5: Example, twenty.

722
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:23,399
Speaker 4: Two year old kid at the Department of Homeland Security, right,

723
00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:25,279
Speaker 4: who is an intern whose.

724
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:28,000
Speaker 5: Last job was working at a library or something.

725
00:47:28,920 --> 00:47:31,480
Speaker 4: He was an intern to the Republican Party, is running

726
00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:35,239
Speaker 4: counter terrorism prevention in America. I'm sixty five years old.

727
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:37,719
Speaker 4: I've been doing this since i was nineteen. I've been

728
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:41,480
Speaker 4: battling terrorists since i was twenty, and I barely think

729
00:47:41,560 --> 00:47:43,040
Speaker 4: that I'm qualified to do that job.

730
00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:46,280
Speaker 5: I am now now I'm fully qualified to do that job.

731
00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:48,480
Speaker 5: But we need a clean out.

732
00:47:48,680 --> 00:47:50,759
Speaker 4: And the first thing the next president of the United

733
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:53,759
Speaker 4: States should say, not just about the Armed Forces, but

734
00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:54,960
Speaker 4: about America in general.

735
00:47:55,320 --> 00:47:57,240
Speaker 5: Diversity is our strength.

736
00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:02,480
Speaker 4: I want Pete Hagsa's never to be placed in the Pentagon,

737
00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:05,600
Speaker 4: or if they do, I want to black cloth placed

738
00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:06,080
Speaker 4: over it.

739
00:48:06,600 --> 00:48:09,759
Speaker 5: Over the disgrace that he has brought to the armed forces.

740
00:48:10,080 --> 00:48:13,680
Speaker 4: The armed forces will acquit themselves well in this war, right,

741
00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:21,720
Speaker 4: But wait until the first you know, Osprey Special Operations

742
00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:24,480
Speaker 4: til Rotor goes down with twenty eight or thirty guys.

743
00:48:24,480 --> 00:48:29,000
Speaker 4: God forbid any of this happens. I hope this is clean, sanitary,

744
00:48:29,080 --> 00:48:30,920
Speaker 4: and none of our service any more of our service

745
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:34,840
Speaker 4: members die before common sense kicks in. But this government,

746
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:37,880
Speaker 4: it doesn't need an enema. It needs, you know, prep

747
00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:38,920
Speaker 4: for kolonoscopy.

748
00:48:40,719 --> 00:48:44,400
Speaker 3: And that twenty two year old blogger Malcolm who is

749
00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:47,759
Speaker 3: running counter terrorism for DHS, is about to report to

750
00:48:48,600 --> 00:48:51,680
Speaker 3: Mark Wayne Mullen, who is in the running for the

751
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:56,879
Speaker 3: dumbest senator right up there with Tommy Tubern. I mean,

752
00:48:57,040 --> 00:48:59,399
Speaker 3: this is the guy who tried to fight the head

753
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:04,440
Speaker 3: of the team's during a Senate hearing and can't even

754
00:49:04,760 --> 00:49:09,319
Speaker 3: explain in the same press conference whether we're at war

755
00:49:09,400 --> 00:49:11,040
Speaker 3: or not. I mean, I don't know if you've seen

756
00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:13,440
Speaker 3: that clip, but this guy is going to be running

757
00:49:13,520 --> 00:49:16,600
Speaker 3: the Department of Homeland Security claims because there's no way

758
00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:17,640
Speaker 3: we could do worse than.

759
00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:24,399
Speaker 2: He's work work, work, work, work, work, There's no there

760
00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:27,879
Speaker 2: are there are no there are no words. There are

761
00:49:27,920 --> 00:49:32,200
Speaker 2: no words to to characterize appropriately how how dumb the

762
00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:36,120
Speaker 2: guy is. I do think in terms of listening to

763
00:49:36,239 --> 00:49:41,440
Speaker 2: the conversation. I mean, you know, I historically you have

764
00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:45,959
Speaker 2: not wanted to have a retired general as the Secretary

765
00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:49,719
Speaker 2: of Defense. I think civilian control is, it is an

766
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:54,759
Speaker 2: important principle we've had, We've had multiple waivers signed on this.

767
00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:58,080
Speaker 2: But but I wonder if the reform is as simple

768
00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:02,880
Speaker 2: as this for the for the power cabinet positions, that

769
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:06,520
Speaker 2: that you require a sixty or sixty five vote threshold,

770
00:50:07,040 --> 00:50:11,440
Speaker 2: which maybe imposes a little bit of bipartisanship, uh in

771
00:50:11,560 --> 00:50:14,840
Speaker 2: the cloak rooms of the Congress, is that very simply

772
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:18,120
Speaker 2: is we're not going to allow for a fuck nut

773
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:22,879
Speaker 2: to be to be put into these positions at Homeland Security,

774
00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:28,280
Speaker 2: the the Attorney General. So it's by by definition both

775
00:50:28,360 --> 00:50:32,200
Speaker 2: sides as power swaps back and forth, that there's going

776
00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:36,600
Speaker 2: to be a level of competency, UH that is insisted upon.

777
00:50:36,920 --> 00:50:39,440
Speaker 2: And if you you can't, if you can get an

778
00:50:39,440 --> 00:50:42,800
Speaker 2: idiot like a Christy Gnome or a Mark Wayne Mullen

779
00:50:43,000 --> 00:50:46,600
Speaker 2: or a Pam Bondy confirmed with sixty five votes, then

780
00:50:46,760 --> 00:50:49,520
Speaker 2: maybe there's there's no hope for us. But I don't

781
00:50:49,560 --> 00:50:51,760
Speaker 2: think any of these people would have made it through

782
00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:55,560
Speaker 2: with a with a sixty vote threshold and in it,

783
00:50:55,719 --> 00:50:58,040
Speaker 2: and it compels if you don't have the votes, you

784
00:50:58,040 --> 00:51:00,480
Speaker 2: don't you don't have the votes. And you can look

785
00:51:00,520 --> 00:51:03,840
Speaker 2: at that principle playing out now with with the Homeland

786
00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:07,200
Speaker 2: security funding. You have to you have to have the votes.

787
00:51:07,239 --> 00:51:09,960
Speaker 2: But we have we have some of the worst of

788
00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:14,680
Speaker 2: the worst. And I completely agree with you that the

789
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:20,600
Speaker 2: uh that Pete Hagsa's portrait should never be be put

790
00:51:20,719 --> 00:51:23,759
Speaker 2: up in the Pentagon, shouldn't be put up under the

791
00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:28,279
Speaker 2: next Democratic president. Uh, No Republican who comes back in

792
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:32,439
Speaker 2: twelve or sixteen years after this disaster ends, will will

793
00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:34,360
Speaker 2: ever want to put it up. I don't think that

794
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:38,120
Speaker 2: Donald Trump should lie in repose under the Capital Dome.

795
00:51:38,760 --> 00:51:42,120
Speaker 2: Uh that he that he attacked the Capitol Building. I

796
00:51:42,120 --> 00:51:45,759
Speaker 2: don't think his body should be flown on a presidential aircraft.

797
00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:46,440
Speaker 4: Uh.

798
00:51:46,600 --> 00:51:49,680
Speaker 2: You know, personally, I'd be inclined to be as hardcore

799
00:51:50,320 --> 00:51:53,719
Speaker 2: on these things as as anyone could possibly imagine, and

800
00:51:53,760 --> 00:51:57,680
Speaker 2: I'd debate all day long that that it's not pettiness

801
00:51:58,160 --> 00:52:01,879
Speaker 2: that's at stake, it's it's it's national survival that there

802
00:52:01,960 --> 00:52:05,759
Speaker 2: has there has to be a rebuke to all of

803
00:52:05,800 --> 00:52:09,800
Speaker 2: this and so I was reading this morning the state

804
00:52:09,840 --> 00:52:14,239
Speaker 2: of Maryland. For those familiar with the geography, up the

805
00:52:14,280 --> 00:52:19,560
Speaker 2: headwaters of the Potomac River, there is a pipe, a

806
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:25,279
Speaker 2: sewage pipe, that has burst. It's a Federal pipe. It's

807
00:52:25,320 --> 00:52:29,640
Speaker 2: on d C soil. Trump has blamed Maryland for it,

808
00:52:30,680 --> 00:52:35,920
Speaker 2: but soon as the weather warms. The Potomac River is

809
00:52:36,280 --> 00:52:38,919
Speaker 2: one of the dirtiest rivers in the world. Right now,

810
00:52:39,080 --> 00:52:42,520
Speaker 2: hundreds and hundreds of millions of gallons of ross have

811
00:52:42,640 --> 00:52:45,520
Speaker 2: spilled into it. So as we get ready for the

812
00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:51,520
Speaker 2: July fourth events, what will be wafting over DV is

813
00:52:51,600 --> 00:52:56,319
Speaker 2: the smell of human shit from the Potomac River at

814
00:52:56,360 --> 00:53:00,800
Speaker 2: one hundred degrees, which seems completely appropriate and perfect, almost

815
00:53:00,840 --> 00:53:05,000
Speaker 2: in fact, divinely inspired, if you, if you think about it.

816
00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:08,440
Speaker 2: As we approach the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, the

817
00:53:08,520 --> 00:53:11,680
Speaker 2: tope for a hot day for the UFC fight on

818
00:53:12,360 --> 00:53:15,480
Speaker 2: June fourteen. But as we as we head to the

819
00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:19,800
Speaker 2: two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the of the country,

820
00:53:20,840 --> 00:53:27,120
Speaker 2: we are at war. Donald Trump is completely unhinged, The

821
00:53:27,239 --> 00:53:34,839
Speaker 2: Congress is completely surrendered its its power. Talk about the

822
00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:40,239
Speaker 2: next couple of months prospectively, where do you think this

823
00:53:40,440 --> 00:53:44,600
Speaker 2: all goes where? How does this end? How does this

824
00:53:44,719 --> 00:53:49,920
Speaker 2: wrap up? In the Middle East? We have a limited

825
00:53:49,960 --> 00:53:54,920
Speaker 2: stockpile of the weapons in the munitions that's been reported

826
00:53:55,080 --> 00:53:58,719
Speaker 2: and talked about. You know, we certainly don't have the

827
00:53:58,760 --> 00:54:02,480
Speaker 2: inventory necessary to fight a war in the Pacific? Uh

828
00:54:02,719 --> 00:54:06,000
Speaker 2: you know that much? Is that much is obvious? How

829
00:54:06,040 --> 00:54:07,680
Speaker 2: How do we back out of this?

830
00:54:07,840 --> 00:54:08,080
Speaker 4: How?

831
00:54:08,200 --> 00:54:11,640
Speaker 2: How is Trump going to say that he won the

832
00:54:11,680 --> 00:54:16,080
Speaker 2: war with the Iranian regime still still intact? What do

833
00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:19,880
Speaker 2: you guys see ahead story? You ken?

834
00:54:20,600 --> 00:54:23,600
Speaker 3: I think he's gonna declare victory like he always does,

835
00:54:23,680 --> 00:54:27,520
Speaker 3: and walk away having made a mess of the region,

836
00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:33,239
Speaker 3: having put at risk all of our allies and alliances,

837
00:54:33,680 --> 00:54:37,239
Speaker 3: and the regime will remain in place. My hope is

838
00:54:37,280 --> 00:54:39,520
Speaker 3: that the American people, and I think this is true,

839
00:54:39,560 --> 00:54:43,840
Speaker 3: are beginning to wake up to the utter incompetence of

840
00:54:43,920 --> 00:54:48,160
Speaker 3: this administration in every domain, not just the national security domain,

841
00:54:48,239 --> 00:54:51,400
Speaker 3: but the immigration domain, the economic domain. It is becoming

842
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:54,680
Speaker 3: apparent that this regime doesn't know.

843
00:54:54,800 --> 00:54:55,480
Speaker 5: What it's doing.

844
00:54:56,120 --> 00:54:59,799
Speaker 3: But what I also hope the American people understand going

845
00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:04,560
Speaker 3: in to November is that that incompetence isn't accidental. It's

846
00:55:04,600 --> 00:55:10,040
Speaker 3: actually a design feature of autocracies throughout history. They thrive,

847
00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:14,919
Speaker 3: They depend on incompetence. No one is allowed to be

848
00:55:14,960 --> 00:55:18,000
Speaker 3: more competent or more serious than the clown in chief,

849
00:55:18,040 --> 00:55:20,399
Speaker 3: and so you get a clown show. And I think

850
00:55:20,400 --> 00:55:23,880
Speaker 3: if people make that connection, the realization that Donald Trump

851
00:55:23,960 --> 00:55:26,960
Speaker 3: is to blame for all of this because he cannot

852
00:55:27,040 --> 00:55:31,040
Speaker 3: bear to be surrounded by competent people. To go back

853
00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:35,719
Speaker 3: to one of your original points, Steve, he cannot bear

854
00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:38,239
Speaker 3: to have someone walk into the Oval Office on a

855
00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:40,440
Speaker 3: Monday morning and tell him he is full of it.

856
00:55:41,239 --> 00:55:43,400
Speaker 3: That is why we are in this mess, because we

857
00:55:43,440 --> 00:55:48,240
Speaker 3: are led by an incompetent person who demands loyal incompetence

858
00:55:48,480 --> 00:55:51,840
Speaker 3: from everyone around him. Once the American people realize that

859
00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:54,480
Speaker 3: will deliver our verdict, and it has to be a

860
00:55:54,520 --> 00:55:57,680
Speaker 3: massive verdict. We can't just win by three or four points.

861
00:55:57,719 --> 00:56:00,360
Speaker 3: We have to win by a landslide. Because it is

862
00:56:00,400 --> 00:56:03,360
Speaker 3: one thing for the President to call the Secretary of

863
00:56:03,440 --> 00:56:06,040
Speaker 3: State of a state like Georgia and say find me

864
00:56:06,080 --> 00:56:09,200
Speaker 3: eleven thousand votes. They can get away with that, they

865
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:11,960
Speaker 3: very nearly did. It is another thing, entirely to have

866
00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:14,399
Speaker 3: to pick up that phone and find me. You know,

867
00:56:14,680 --> 00:56:17,480
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand votes. That's why we need to deliver

868
00:56:17,640 --> 00:56:22,160
Speaker 3: a massive margin and with it a resounding verdict come November.

869
00:56:23,560 --> 00:56:29,040
Speaker 4: Malcolm, Well, for now, I don't think Trump has any

870
00:56:29,040 --> 00:56:30,160
Speaker 4: interest in an off round.

871
00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:32,320
Speaker 5: He is enjoying using the toys.

872
00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:35,520
Speaker 4: He's enjoying the internal adelation that's going on.

873
00:56:35,560 --> 00:56:37,319
Speaker 5: I'm not joking, you know.

874
00:56:38,440 --> 00:56:40,880
Speaker 4: You know he gets to see these cool videos and

875
00:56:40,960 --> 00:56:43,920
Speaker 4: Pete Hagg's that talk about how macho and manly all

876
00:56:43,960 --> 00:56:46,480
Speaker 4: this stuff is right, and that we just lost a

877
00:56:46,520 --> 00:56:47,200
Speaker 4: few soldiers.

878
00:56:47,360 --> 00:56:48,640
Speaker 5: Listen, I'm gonna tell you quick something.

879
00:56:49,200 --> 00:56:53,200
Speaker 4: When we invaded Kuwait in two thousand, I'm sorry, in

880
00:56:53,320 --> 00:56:58,560
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety one, my operation center, which was my desk

881
00:56:58,719 --> 00:57:02,800
Speaker 4: in an old building was in Port Shuueva, that very port.

882
00:57:03,080 --> 00:57:06,000
Speaker 5: It was me and in small EOD group. That's all

883
00:57:06,080 --> 00:57:06,720
Speaker 5: that was there.

884
00:57:07,120 --> 00:57:09,759
Speaker 4: We are still there with the exact same amount of

885
00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:11,360
Speaker 4: security that we had.

886
00:57:11,160 --> 00:57:19,720
Speaker 5: In nineteen ninety one, which was not people do not.

887
00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:35,120
Speaker 2: Huh. We have lost Malcolm signal Ken are you still there?

888
00:57:35,960 --> 00:57:39,880
Speaker 2: I was listening. The last thing I wanted to ask

889
00:57:39,960 --> 00:57:43,320
Speaker 2: you about that that I noticed, and I wondered if

890
00:57:43,440 --> 00:57:48,680
Speaker 2: if you noticed it. We have been subjected to a

891
00:57:48,760 --> 00:57:55,800
Speaker 2: year of Pete hagsaff propaganda, the workout videos, him carrying

892
00:57:55,840 --> 00:57:59,320
Speaker 2: the logs with the Navy seal teams. We've seen JD.

893
00:57:59,520 --> 00:58:05,360
Speaker 2: Vanced doing it. None of the Army soldiers killed in

894
00:58:05,520 --> 00:58:12,880
Speaker 2: action really fit the archetype of Pete Hagsat's g I

895
00:58:13,080 --> 00:58:16,080
Speaker 2: Joe warrior. Did they no?

896
00:58:16,080 --> 00:58:16,160
Speaker 5: No?

897
00:58:16,440 --> 00:58:21,200
Speaker 3: And I gotta tell you what I'm hearing from inside

898
00:58:21,240 --> 00:58:24,360
Speaker 3: the military is he used to be the butt of jokes.

899
00:58:24,960 --> 00:58:27,960
Speaker 3: Now he's a source of shame and in some cases

900
00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:31,160
Speaker 3: real fear that this is the guy calling the shots.

901
00:58:31,520 --> 00:58:34,960
Speaker 3: It must have really gutted Pete hag Seth to see

902
00:58:35,000 --> 00:58:38,880
Speaker 3: the video of that F fifteen, either pilot or backseater

903
00:58:39,520 --> 00:58:43,600
Speaker 3: on that beach in Kuwait, after ejecting after having been

904
00:58:43,760 --> 00:58:48,800
Speaker 3: been shot down, and KUWAITI, a helpful Kuwaiti local comes

905
00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:50,760
Speaker 3: up to this pilot says, do you need any help?

906
00:58:50,800 --> 00:58:54,640
Speaker 3: Thank you for you know, flying combat air patroller whatever

907
00:58:54,640 --> 00:58:56,440
Speaker 3: they were doing over Kuwait. And it was a woman,

908
00:58:56,840 --> 00:59:02,920
Speaker 3: a you know, a tiny female Air Force aviator, totally

909
00:59:02,920 --> 00:59:06,120
Speaker 3: the opposite of the Pete hak Seth Mark Wayne Mullen

910
00:59:06,320 --> 00:59:10,200
Speaker 3: warrior archetype. I mean, you've got the entire Trump contingent

911
00:59:10,240 --> 00:59:14,120
Speaker 3: out there. Beating their chests about how cool war is

912
00:59:15,000 --> 00:59:19,479
Speaker 3: in a blood lusty Hollywood kind of way. Mark Wayne

913
00:59:19,560 --> 00:59:23,440
Speaker 3: Mullen himself talking about how war smells, how war feels,

914
00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:26,560
Speaker 3: you can taste it. Guy's never been to war. These

915
00:59:26,600 --> 00:59:28,880
Speaker 3: are the same guys who put ak forty seven's in

916
00:59:28,880 --> 00:59:34,280
Speaker 3: their Christmas cards. Right, real combat vets, folks who have

917
00:59:34,360 --> 00:59:38,439
Speaker 3: been down range, they see that stuff, and until we're

918
00:59:38,440 --> 00:59:40,840
Speaker 3: at war, it's the butt of jokes. Now it is

919
00:59:40,880 --> 00:59:44,680
Speaker 3: a source of real like alarm that these are the clowns,

920
00:59:44,720 --> 00:59:48,520
Speaker 3: the cosplayed clowns who think that who think that this

921
00:59:48,720 --> 00:59:51,160
Speaker 3: is fun or cool, These are the ones making the

922
00:59:51,200 --> 00:59:55,960
Speaker 3: decisions about our lives. It's I see the clip up there. Yeah,

923
00:59:56,080 --> 00:59:58,640
Speaker 3: these videos coming out of the White House. These are

924
00:59:58,680 --> 01:00:03,320
Speaker 3: not a j troll farm accounts. This is the White

925
01:00:03,320 --> 01:00:07,880
Speaker 3: House of the United States putting out these video game

926
01:00:07,960 --> 01:00:12,440
Speaker 3: style propaganda pieces celebrating the killing of people.

927
01:00:12,840 --> 01:00:13,680
Speaker 5: Look, we got to do.

928
01:00:13,680 --> 01:00:16,400
Speaker 3: Tough things as a nation. Sometimes there are bad guys

929
01:00:16,440 --> 01:00:18,640
Speaker 3: who deserve to be on the receiving end of jade

930
01:00:18,640 --> 01:00:20,959
Speaker 3: AM's But this is not how you show it off.

931
01:00:22,960 --> 01:00:26,160
Speaker 2: Malcolm, I was saying before before he lost you, I

932
01:00:26,640 --> 01:00:29,640
Speaker 2: want you to finish up what you were saying. But

933
01:00:30,320 --> 01:00:32,920
Speaker 2: and then we'll wrap it up. But I made them

934
01:00:33,000 --> 01:00:37,080
Speaker 2: mentioned to Ken that when you look at the pictures,

935
01:00:37,120 --> 01:00:41,400
Speaker 2: the photographs of the army soldiers killed in action, the specialists,

936
01:00:41,440 --> 01:00:45,440
Speaker 2: the two staff sergeants, two sergeants first class, and the captain,

937
01:00:46,400 --> 01:00:52,600
Speaker 2: none of them particularly fit Pete Hegsap's warrior arc type

938
01:00:53,160 --> 01:00:57,840
Speaker 2: that he spent a year propagandizing to us. Do they.

939
01:01:00,320 --> 01:01:04,920
Speaker 4: And the citizen soldiers right his guardsmen, they're brought in

940
01:01:05,080 --> 01:01:10,640
Speaker 4: for facilitation in the unsexy component that they think is

941
01:01:10,680 --> 01:01:16,360
Speaker 4: of war, which is logistics, right, paperwork, administration. And so

942
01:01:16,560 --> 01:01:19,160
Speaker 4: this is why I mean this should be a national scandal.

943
01:01:19,200 --> 01:01:22,960
Speaker 4: They didn't have overhead protection. Okay, back in bad Dad

944
01:01:23,320 --> 01:01:26,480
Speaker 4: in two thousand and three, all of our connexts had

945
01:01:26,520 --> 01:01:31,120
Speaker 4: overhead protection. The Iranians had been watching this for some time.

946
01:01:31,400 --> 01:01:34,120
Speaker 4: They knew precisely where to stripe, and they.

947
01:01:34,040 --> 01:01:35,040
Speaker 3: Knew was ahead.

948
01:01:35,760 --> 01:01:39,160
Speaker 4: Yeah, with something they could have shot it down with

949
01:01:39,240 --> 01:01:43,920
Speaker 4: a fifty cow no self defense, no sa ram anti

950
01:01:44,040 --> 01:01:47,760
Speaker 4: drone guns out there, not even a forty five caliber

951
01:01:47,800 --> 01:01:50,920
Speaker 4: pistol with a guy on air watch, which I would

952
01:01:50,920 --> 01:01:55,640
Speaker 4: have set right. This is just mind boggling, just how

953
01:01:55,720 --> 01:01:58,720
Speaker 4: you know, Pete Head says, vision of what the armed

954
01:01:58,760 --> 01:02:02,760
Speaker 4: forces is does reflect the reality. We have citizen soldiers

955
01:02:02,800 --> 01:02:05,800
Speaker 4: all over the National Guard do full scale.

956
01:02:05,560 --> 01:02:07,320
Speaker 5: Combat missions, you know.

957
01:02:07,400 --> 01:02:09,880
Speaker 4: But Pete Hegseeth is out there pretending like he's a

958
01:02:09,920 --> 01:02:11,800
Speaker 4: team guy with the Seals.

959
01:02:11,960 --> 01:02:14,640
Speaker 5: He is a reservist. He was not a reservist.

960
01:02:14,680 --> 01:02:18,240
Speaker 4: He was a guardsman too, and he begged to beg

961
01:02:18,320 --> 01:02:21,360
Speaker 4: He had asked for an assignment with real army combat

962
01:02:21,440 --> 01:02:24,200
Speaker 4: units to go to Afghanistan, and now he thinks he's.

963
01:02:24,080 --> 01:02:27,080
Speaker 5: A special operator. Oh god, it's disgusting.

964
01:02:29,560 --> 01:02:33,840
Speaker 2: That is a perfect place to leave it, though. Can

965
01:02:33,920 --> 01:02:35,600
Speaker 2: you have anything you want to wrap up with?

966
01:02:37,320 --> 01:02:42,440
Speaker 3: Well, Malcolm's got me spinning. Look again to those downrange

967
01:02:42,680 --> 01:02:49,440
Speaker 3: and the family members of those downrange. Very likely the

968
01:02:49,560 --> 01:02:53,360
Speaker 3: orders you're getting are lawful, as Malcolm has said, they

969
01:02:53,440 --> 01:02:56,120
Speaker 3: might also be stupid. But god, I hope you've got

970
01:02:56,120 --> 01:02:59,920
Speaker 3: commanders who can be that filter for you. Until then,

971
01:03:00,560 --> 01:03:04,400
Speaker 3: fight for your brothers and sisters, for your shipmates, for

972
01:03:04,480 --> 01:03:07,280
Speaker 3: your airmen, for your wingmen. Do this for them, and

973
01:03:07,320 --> 01:03:10,640
Speaker 3: remember your oath to the Constitution, not to the President,

974
01:03:10,760 --> 01:03:14,720
Speaker 3: to support and defend the constitution of the United States.

975
01:03:16,320 --> 01:03:19,120
Speaker 2: I just want to say one thing in response response

976
01:03:19,160 --> 01:03:22,440
Speaker 2: to that, I want to just assert on the record

977
01:03:22,520 --> 01:03:29,400
Speaker 2: for the three of us that we have no affection

978
01:03:30,400 --> 01:03:38,880
Speaker 2: for Iranian Iatola's Mala's, Iranian Revolutionary guardsmen who have the

979
01:03:38,960 --> 01:03:42,720
Speaker 2: blood of thousands of Americans on their hands. This is

980
01:03:42,800 --> 01:03:50,800
Speaker 2: an evil, despotic regime. Our issue, and the issue of

981
01:03:51,040 --> 01:03:54,200
Speaker 2: a lot of people looking at this objectively, is that

982
01:03:54,240 --> 01:03:59,400
Speaker 2: we have an American administration that is actually incompetent enough

983
01:04:00,400 --> 01:04:04,760
Speaker 2: to start a war against this despicable regime and lose

984
01:04:04,800 --> 01:04:09,840
Speaker 2: that war. And that's what we're talking about here, is

985
01:04:09,840 --> 01:04:13,680
Speaker 2: that nine days in we have blown up many things

986
01:04:14,160 --> 01:04:19,200
Speaker 2: which we have the technological capacity to do, but we

987
01:04:19,400 --> 01:04:24,120
Speaker 2: have not weakened, as Lindsey Graham said, the hold of

988
01:04:24,200 --> 01:04:31,160
Speaker 2: the Iranian regime on Iran, and never in history has

989
01:04:31,240 --> 01:04:40,280
Speaker 2: air power alone succeeded in taking and holding territory. Ever,

990
01:04:47,200 --> 01:04:51,400
Speaker 2: with that, what I would say is good afternoon, everybody,

991
01:04:51,440 --> 01:04:53,920
Speaker 2: Thank you for taking the time to join the discussion,

992
01:04:53,960 --> 01:04:58,320
Speaker 2: and we'll see you again next week. Thanks Steve got

993
01:04:58,320 --> 01:05:03,240
Speaker 2: to take on us US

994
01:05:04,880 --> 01:05:15,360
Speaker 1: Su