Top Trump Officials Collapse Under Cross-Exam on War

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Wow, Donald Trump's top officials just collapsed under cross-examination during a United States Senate hearing regarding Trump's unlawful war in Iran. during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Donald Trump's director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, were cross examined about the justification for this unlawful war and whether they had briefed

with Donald Trump about the dangers of this war and that it could spiral out of control precisely what is happening right now. I want you to watch what took place at this Senate hearing. Democratic Senator John Ossoff cross-examined director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Watch how she responded. Play this clip. The White House stated on march first of this year that this war was launched.

And was quote, a military campaign to eliminate the imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime, end quote. That's a statement from the White House. Quote The imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was an imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime?

The intelligence community assessed that Iran maintained the intention to rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment capabilities. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was a quote imminent nuclear threat? Senator, the only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president. Timely, objective, and independent of political considerations.

You've stated today that the intelligence community's assessment is that Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated and that quote there had been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability. Was it the intelligence community's assessment that nevertheless Despite this obliteration. There was a quote imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime.

Yes or no? It is not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat. Okay. That is up to the president based on a volume of the presentation. what constitutes a threat to the United States. This is the worldwide threats hearing where As you noted in your opening testimony, quote, you represent the IC's assessment of threat.

You are here to represent the IC's assessment of threats. That's a quote from your own opening statement. And so, my question is: as you're here to present the IC's assessment of threats. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that as the White House claimed on March first, there was a quote imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no? Once again, Senator, the intelligence community has uh Provided the inputs that make up this annual threat assessment.

threat that the president has to make that determination based on a collection and volume intelligence that he is provided with. You're here to be timely, objective and independent of political considerations. Exactly what I'm doing. No, you're evading a question because to provide a candid response to the committee would contradict a statement.

from the White House. Let me ask you about very pathetic indeed. Great cross exam there by Democratic Senator John Ossoff. More cross exam right here from John Ossoff. Let's play it. Correct. Yeah. And you noted in your opening statement you're here fulfilling a statutory responsibility and that your testimony, quote, represents the IC's assessment of threats, correct? Quote, Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated, end quote. Correct?

And is that in fact the assessment of the intelligence community? Yes. So the assessment of the intelligence community is that Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated by last summer's airstrikes. And the opening statement you submitted to the committee last night also stated, quote, there has been no effort since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability, end quote, correct? That's right. And that's the assessment of the intelligence community.

The White House stated on march first of next you have Democratic Senator Kelly cross examining John Ratcliffe, the CIA director. and Tulsi Gabbard. Here are their responses to his very basic questions. Let's play this clip. Or did he just disregard it? And I just want to point out something that was released about six days ago. This is a fundraising Email from the president. From the President of the United States. And in this email here, where there's multiple links to donate money.

It says as a national security briefing member, you'll receive my private national security briefings. Director Gabbard or Director Radcliffe, do you think the public should be able to supporters of the president should be able to pay and receive his private national security briefings? I assume these are briefings Director Radcliffe that you provide to the president. That is now going to be provided to

Somebody who makes a regardless of what that that I don't know that document is, um but regardless of what it says, it it didn't happen. Uh no, this was new. But what I'm telling you is that Uh the Hatch Act would prevent me from in a political role from engaging in that. I'm not aware that anything like that happened. Yeah, this says unfiltered updates. So Director Gaber, do you have any comment on whether unfiltered updates

of private national security briefings should be made to individuals that donate to the President? Uh I'm not I'm not familiar with that document and uh it's it's been made very public six days ago. Uh we'll we'll we'll get you a copy here because I agree with you, Director R Director Ratcliffe. that the Hatch Act should pr prohibit this type of conduct. Thank you.

Senator Lankford, more from Senator Kelly right here. Let's play it. Okay. And is it accurate that China's continuing to receive preferential oil flows from Iran despite the conflict as Iran allows its own tankers? Yeah. Director Gabbard, I'm gonna go back and forth between the two of you. Uh there has been some reporting of uh China, India, and other countries uh being able to move their tankers through the strait. However, uh it is uncle

Unclear the volume or the measure of that. Okay, so it sounds like it's accurate. Thank you. I'm gonna move on. Director And here, Senator Kelly just wants to understand at a very basic level whether Donald Trump is even getting intelligence briefs.

at all. Do you even brief Donald Trump? Do you know what your role is at the CIA as the director of national intelligence? You're claiming that you don't give threat assessments and that you can't share whether or not your threat assessments are valid or not? Are you sharing information with Donald Trump? Is he even asking you? Let's watch this clip. Director Gabbert, you tweeted yesterday that president Trump concluded there was an imminent threat.

And made a decision to attack Iran after carefully reviewing all of the information before him. I think the country deserves to know what the information was. I'm gonna ask a series of questions and just want a yes or no. We don't need any explanation, just yes or no, starting with uh Were you asked? I'm not asking if you did brief this. Were you asked to brief on whether Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz?

Uh I'm I'm not gonna comment on what the president did or didn't ask me on any topic. I'm not even I'm not asking if you have briefed it. I'm just asking if there was a request. I I understand. By the White House. Director Ratcliffe. Were you asked to brief on whether Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz? The the briefings to the to the president of the White House typically don't come at the request of the White House so

Typically when we get intelligence that we want the President to be aware of, the intelligence community brings that to the President. Did you produce the analysis for the Straits of Hormone? There has been and continues to be analysis with respect to that. We asked a brief on how our adversaries and allies would respond. To the war in Iran? I imagine I'll get the same answer. So I'm not sure if I'm

It's just to point out here, it's challenging to forget about actually what was in the brief for a second. We're having a hard time finding out not only if you briefed the president on something, but even if the White House asked, if they could be briefed on something or if analysis was produced.

So I just and we have Senator Reed cross examining Tulsi Gabbard. Let's play this clip. Regime in uh Iran now trying to uh promote the deceased Ayatollah as a martyr uh who should be followed and does that help them consolidate uh support Uh Senator the Iranians are certainly using that as a call to action. Uh the effects of that um from an intelligence standpoint uh are remain to be seen.

There is a tradition in Shia though to honor martyrs. One of their greatest celebrations is the the martyrdom of uh um the grandson of Mohammed, is that correct? That's right. So we might have played into their cultural biases uh erroneously.

Then we hear from Democratic Senator Warner, and he's wondering why Tulsi Gabbard, in your printed remarks, You stated, you didn't read this during your opening remarks, but it's written in your printed statements that there has been no efforts by Iran to rebuild their nuclear enrichment capabilities. Since the prior strikes last June, and thus they posed no imminent threat. It says that in your written report.

So why did you not read it when the cameras were on you? Did you not think that we were going to ask you about it? Here, play this clip. I do not. Thank you. Let me move to Iran. Now I I understand and I appreciated Director Gabbard's comments yesterday. uh about the agreeing that the president has sole authority i guess in his bones to declare whether something is an imminent threat.

Um I didn't agree with uh your friend Mr Kent, but I didn't again I agreed with him yesterday on the fact that there was no imminent threat. Um I guess what I'm concerned about one thing is uh even in your printed testimony today on page six. Um and your last paragraph on page six, as a result of Operation Midnight, Hammer, Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There's been no efforts to try to rebuild their enrichment capability. You omitted that.

Paragraph from your uh oral opening. Was that because the President said there was a imminent threat two weeks? No, sir. I I recognized that the time was running long and I skipped through some of the portions of the year. Take my oral delivered remarks. The delete me makes it easy, quick, and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable.

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Code MITUS M E I D A S. More cross examination here from Senator Warner of Tulsi Gabbert, and notice that they continued to basically say these Trump lackeys. These Trump witnesses. Oh, we never saw that. I don't know about this. I never read this. Oh, I don't know anything about that. Here, play this clip. the the president. The president continues to say as well that, you know, he had no idea it was shocking. that the Iranians would move to take over the Strait of Hormuz.

Did you um provide any intelligence that would say that it would be um Th that it was not likely that the Iranians would try to move on the strait? Uh I'm not aware of those remarks and I think those of us here at the table uh can point to the fact that historically the Iranians have always threatened. to leverage their control of the president. What about the comments the President made that sat that he was surprised again reports

Um that Iran struck the adjacent Gulf states. Again, I'm I'm not aware of those remarks. We have to continue to put it in the presentation. Did you brief the president Did you brief the president? If he starts a war of choice. That the likely result would be that Iran would strike adjacent Gulf nations and close the Strait of Hermouth. Did you brief him on those two facts that I think have been consistently the can the uh assumptions of the intelligence community.

Uh I have not and won't divulge internal conversations. I will say that those of us within the intelligence community continue to provide the president with all of the best objective intelligence available to inform his decisions. Senator Show you some questioning from Senator King right here. Can you give us an update on whether Russia is providing information to Iran about American assets, about targets?

to kill Americans. Does that concern you, Tulsi? And she repeats this Trump line? Well if they're doing it, they're not really doing a very good job. I'm not sure what war you're watching right now, but America's stuck in an utter quagmire right now. Here play this clip. What what what do we know? Uh Senator, if if there is that sharing going on, um

That would be a an answer that would be appropriate for a a closed session. Well it's been in the in the public press. Uh uh this is open source that it's occurring. Uh i is it occurring? Again, uh if it is occurring, that would be an answer uh appropriate for a closed session. Uh what I can tell you is that according um

To the Department of War. Uh any support that Iran may be receiving is not inhibiting their operational effects. Okay, that's sort of the first cousin of a yes, I guess. Um According more questioning from Senator King right here, where he says: Donald Trump's been saying publicly that nobody knew. that this was never even conceived of.

that Iran might strike their Arab neighbors with American bases in it if America invaded Iran or that Iran would strut shut down the Strait of Hermuz? Did you not know that? Because kind of everybody knew that. So tell us about that Tulsi. Tell us about that rat cliff. Here play this clip.

And what the President has said in terms of his uh of this action, for example, Senator Wyden read the report from a year ago that Strikes against neighboring states and uh action to close the Strait of Hormuz was predicted by the intelligence community, and yet the president says nobody knew and my question is, did you tell him? Anybody want to answer that question?

Uh Senator, I'll uh answer the question. So um with with regard to briefings, um the the President gets Now the comments that you talked about uh I had not heard, but what I can tell you is that the other thing is that the other thing that um Iran had specific plans to hit US interests in

uh energy sites across the region. Uh and that's why the Department of War and the Department of State took measures for force protection and personnel protection in advance of Operation Epic Fury. I think that's what's most important. Any uh any predictions to the president about the Strait of Hormuz? Was that was that part of the briefing, Sec uh Director Gavard? I think the Director Ratcliffe uh made the point here is that the U.S. This has long been an assessment of the IC.

Uh that Iran would likely hold the Strait of Hormuz as leverage. that the Department of War took the preemptive planning measures that it did.

Well they've stated that they did not plan for the Strait of Hormuz. The president said w who knew that was gonna happen. Daily Brief. More cross-exam here from uh Senator Warner. And Senator Warner's asking, so you know, you were involved in an FBI operation to seize ballots in Georgia. Where's the authority uh for you to involve yourself? in domestic law enforcement activity.

And she's like, oh, I I never actually uh was involved in it. I was just there watching and I was just there observing, but I wasn't actually involved in it. I don't even know what was happening here. Play this clip. Uh I want to correct one of your statements that you've made multiple times, which is false. I did not participate in a law enforcement activity, nor would I, because that does not exist within my authorities.

You were present on the scene. I was at Fulton County, sir, uh at the request of the president and to work with the FBI to observe. This action, uh that ha you were just observing and what w what'd you observe there, Tulsi? Wha why why why were you there, Tulsi, in the first place? What were you doing in Georgia? More questions here from Democratic Senator Kelly. Watch as he says, uh so you're all aware that Russia

is making huge amounts of money right now from this war in Iran, right? They're the ones who are benefiting a lot from this while killing Americans and Donald Trump's removing these sanctions against Russia. So they can sell their oil and make more money while they're tr targeting Americans with Iranians. What what what what say you here play this clip? That brings us to the war with Iran. So this has created one of the largest ever supply shocks.

To the global oil supply, which has sent gas prices skyrocketing for Americans. But not everybody is losing. Directors Gabbard and Ratcliffe, is it accurate that Russia has gained billions of dollars in additional oil revenue due to price spikes as a result of the war and loosens sanctions? Director Gabbard. Uh that is what has been reported. I'd defer to the director of uh uh secretary of treasury and energy on that front for details. Director Ratcliffe.

Yeah, uh not an economist, not gonna uh try and do those calculations. But as I talked about earlier, sometimes there are decisions made That will benefit adversaries at the same time, policymakers think that it will benefit the American people. Putin.

You know, does Donald Trump take a daily brief from the intelligence community? And then you'll notice that there is a non-answer? This is a yes or no question, Senator King. Is he doing daily intelligence brief? Like, oh, we call him like uh we speak to him like 15 times a week. They're all such Despicable liars. Here, let's play this clip right here. Move on. Does the president take a d uh daily brief from the intelligence community?

This is a this is a yes or no question. I think Yeah, the President um I would say, Center, in my estimation on average, I briefed the President of the United States on intelligence. Uh probably on average uh ten to fifteen times a week where I have conversations with him about uh specific discrete issues. Sometimes Uh there are dedicated sessions uh that last hours in length. Uh sometimes I'm briefing him on specific issues.

Sometimes three or four times a day. But I would say on average, uh my interactions where I'm briefing the president on important national security matters. Uh happens probably on average 10 to 15 times per week. Thank you. Well, there you have it, folks. Let me know what you think about this all. Hit subscribe. Let's get to seven million subscribers. Thank you all so much for watching. Wanna stay plugged in? caps from Ron Phillip.