1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:03,320 Speaker 1: The question now is what will the United States do? 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:10,719 Speaker 1: What is our strategy? You can't send the American army 3 00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:15,480 Speaker 1: to war without taking the American people to war alongside 4 00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:21,000 Speaker 1: of them. It's Tuesday, January thirtieth, twenty twenty four, and 5 00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:25,119 Speaker 1: this is today's warning. It is a very good thing, 6 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:30,680 Speaker 1: and years past due, that President Biden has finally started 7 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:35,920 Speaker 1: to call Donald Trump by his name out loud, Donald Trump, 8 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,040 Speaker 1: Donald Trump is Betty Donald Trump. I'm still the only 9 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:42,040 Speaker 1: person ever beat Donald Trump. We are well past the 10 00:00:42,159 --> 00:00:45,680 Speaker 1: hour where he should be referred to as anything else 11 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: other than Trump, directly, caustically, and unsparingly. For too long, 12 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:56,920 Speaker 1: the Biden White House has tried to ignore the threat 13 00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:02,880 Speaker 1: at hand, to dismiss it that my defeated opponent one 14 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:10,560 Speaker 1: thousand euphemisms. But all the while, a vast malicious propaganda 15 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:16,560 Speaker 1: wave was washing and crashing over the Biden campaign. And 16 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:21,920 Speaker 1: the result is, at this moment, ten days after the inauguration, 17 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:26,640 Speaker 1: one year on, Joe Biden is losing the election to 18 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 1: Donald Trump. At a moment where the events that are 19 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:36,800 Speaker 1: unknown in their outcome are coming together that will define 20 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:40,080 Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four race, and chief among them is 21 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:43,679 Speaker 1: the crisis in the Red Sea and across the Persian Gulf. 22 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:48,320 Speaker 1: There have been one hundred and sixty seven attacks launched 23 00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:54,720 Speaker 1: by Iranian backed militia groups targeting American soldiers across the 24 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:59,320 Speaker 1: broader Middle East. The attack on Saturday was successful and 25 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: three Army reservists from Georgia were killed in action. Their 26 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:07,520 Speaker 1: bodies will be returned home to the United States for burial. 27 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: The Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln has said over and 28 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:14,519 Speaker 1: over again that it is the aim of American policy 29 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 1: not to see an escalation in the broader Middle East. 30 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:21,600 Speaker 1: But the fact of the matter is this, The war 31 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:26,520 Speaker 1: is escalating, the crisis is growing, and the evidence of 32 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:30,919 Speaker 1: that are the one hundred and sixty seven attacks thus 33 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:38,080 Speaker 1: far launched by Iranian proxies against American soldiers. The fact 34 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:44,160 Speaker 1: that finally an attack succeeded in achieving its aim of 35 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:50,600 Speaker 1: killing Americans does not take away or mitigate the attempts 36 00:02:50,919 --> 00:02:56,720 Speaker 1: to kill Americans and sixty seven of them. The fact 37 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:01,840 Speaker 1: that an attempt succeeded was ultimately le bound to happen 38 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:07,360 Speaker 1: in the world's most dangerous neighborhood. The question now is 39 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:12,720 Speaker 1: what will the United States do here? We must be patient. 40 00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:17,679 Speaker 1: Here we must show restraint and wisdom learned from the 41 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:21,639 Speaker 1: last twenty years of war. It is not an unfair 42 00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:25,800 Speaker 1: question to ask, and it is not a signal of 43 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: weakness to demand what is our strategy? What if it 44 00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:38,120 Speaker 1: is the case that Iranian policy and aims are to 45 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:43,600 Speaker 1: draw the United States profoundly divided at home, into deeper 46 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 1: and deeper water. Abraham Lincoln understood something profound about the 47 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:55,720 Speaker 1: American character, and it's this, You can't send the American 48 00:03:55,880 --> 00:04:00,240 Speaker 1: army to war without taking the American people to war 49 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: alongside of them. Democracies cannot sustain military action without popular support. 50 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:14,080 Speaker 1: The Iranian plan is clear, to draw the United States 51 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:17,400 Speaker 1: into a war, into an engagement that they believe we 52 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:20,960 Speaker 1: do not have the patients, the fortitude, or the will 53 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:26,000 Speaker 1: to win. The Iranians get a vote if, in fact, 54 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:31,880 Speaker 1: a condition of war exists between US and them, And 55 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:35,360 Speaker 1: what Iran is doing is trying to drive the United 56 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:40,760 Speaker 1: States out of the Middle East. It is as a 57 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:45,920 Speaker 1: result of American policy that Iran has become the most 58 00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:51,080 Speaker 1: powerful country in the Middle East, and it's corrupt. Theocratic 59 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:57,800 Speaker 1: government needs a foreign enemy in order to maintain social 60 00:04:57,839 --> 00:05:04,200 Speaker 1: cohesion in a society that is teeming with rebellion against 61 00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:08,800 Speaker 1: the old order, which has suffocated the soul of the 62 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:13,799 Speaker 1: country for more than forty years. Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn, 63 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:19,120 Speaker 1: Tom Cotton, and a bevy of other Republicans have demanded 64 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:25,000 Speaker 1: strikes against Iran, strikes against Tehran, targeting the Iranian people. 65 00:05:25,839 --> 00:05:29,560 Speaker 1: None of them have any plan. It's all bellicos words. 66 00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:37,320 Speaker 1: The American people must demand of their government clearheaded thinking, restraint, 67 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:43,560 Speaker 1: and in this hour of growing crisis, a plan. The 68 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:47,560 Speaker 1: world is moving towards a confrontation the likes we have 69 00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:52,840 Speaker 1: not seen in eighty years. It is not too late 70 00:05:52,880 --> 00:05:58,400 Speaker 1: to avoid war. But all across the world, British generals, 71 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:05,360 Speaker 1: Swedish generals, Lithuanian generals are sounding the alarm about something 72 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:12,000 Speaker 1: they deem as inevitable. They're increasingly beginning to view the 73 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:16,280 Speaker 1: Ukrainian war has failed and that Vladimir Putin will walk 74 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:21,200 Speaker 1: out of it victorious and his ambitions will not be sated. 75 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:27,159 Speaker 1: What they see is confrontation ahead. What they see is 76 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:32,360 Speaker 1: escalation arising out of the conflict that started when Hamas 77 00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:38,800 Speaker 1: attacked and murdered over thirteen hundred Israelis. The world is 78 00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:42,960 Speaker 1: at its most dangerous hours since nineteen seventy three, according 79 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:48,280 Speaker 1: to the Secretary of State, and he's correct. In fact, 80 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:52,520 Speaker 1: it may be moving towards its most dangerous hours since 81 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:57,640 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty one in the Cuban Missile crisis. In fact, 82 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:01,360 Speaker 1: it may be moving towards its most dangerous hour since 83 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:07,320 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two and the Cuban Missile crisis. No generation 84 00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:13,200 Speaker 1: of human beings is inoculated from the savagery of war. 85 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:19,040 Speaker 1: No Americans should have a lack of imagination about what 86 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:23,600 Speaker 1: the consequences of a third World war would be. This 87 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:28,000 Speaker 1: is something that nobody should want. This is a moment 88 00:07:28,040 --> 00:07:36,200 Speaker 1: that requires restraint, wisdom, and discipline, all virtues and exceedingly 89 00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:41,160 Speaker 1: short supply. In today's Washington DC, thank you for listening 90 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:45,120 Speaker 1: to my political commentary. If you like what you heard today, 91 00:07:45,640 --> 00:07:51,440 Speaker 1: please also consider subscribing to The Warning daily newsletter on substack. 92 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:55,600 Speaker 1: Our democracy hangs in the balance. The twenty twenty four 93 00:07:55,680 --> 00:08:00,560 Speaker 1: presidential election is the most consequential in America's history. It's 94 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:04,560 Speaker 1: not hyperbole, it's a fact. That is why the mission 95 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:07,800 Speaker 1: of The Warning with Steve Schmidt is to help readers 96 00:08:07,880 --> 00:08:11,800 Speaker 1: orient to the currents that are shaping our times and 97 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:16,800 Speaker 1: the unseen forces driving politics that are very rarely discussed 98 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:22,320 Speaker 1: on cable news. Please sign up at Steve Schmidt S T, 99 00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:25,600 Speaker 1: E V E, S C, H M I d T 100 00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:35,240 Speaker 1: dot substack dot com again Steve Schmidt dot substack dot com, 101 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:38,240 Speaker 1: or at the link in the show notes section below. 102 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:41,800 Speaker 1: Thank you to each and every one of you for 103 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:43,480 Speaker 1: listening and watching.