Welcome.
It is Verdict with center, Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you. It's so nice for you to join us today. And we've got a lot to talk about. The world's talking about Iran right now, Senator, and we've got updates from where we are in this war with Iran.
Well, we're in week two of the war with Iran, and I will say the success is continue to build up. If you look at the first day of this conflict, Iran launched three hundred and fifty ballistic missiles. By day eight that had dropped to fifteen. The second day of this conflict, Iran launched five hundred and forty one drone attacks. By day eight that had dropped to twelve. What we have done in less than two weeks now, we have taken out Iran's air defenses. We've taken out their missile
launching capacity. We have taken out their missiles, we have taken out their missile manufacturing. We've taken out their drone launch capacity. We have taken out their drones. We have taken out their drone manufacturing. If you look at their navy, virtually every ship in their navy has been sunk to the bottom of the ocean. That effect in less than two weeks is profound. And I want you to listen to the Secretary of War Pete Hesith talking about what's been accomplished and what to expect next.
Give a listen.
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All right, center, So so let's play for very interrupt you let me interrupt you right now, Ben.
So you're right now in Caba. I am that's true.
Yes, yes, that's true.
And I just want to thank you on behalf of every Verdict listener, but especially the Verdict viewers. So there are a lot of vertict viewers who watch on on on YouTube, who watch on Facebook, and I just want to say, I'm really glad that you are not in Aspito right now.
I am not I am in a suit, a jacket.
Or even worse, a borat.
A borat, Yes, that like covers the equipment and goes over your shoulders. I'm just gonna say, to be honest, we don't know if you're in aspeito a borat because the camera shot is is only chest up.
Yeah, this is this is what you call hazing. When when when when crazy?
One of us is at work, Like I've spent the whole day in the Senate, I'm working. By the way, it's your spring break, it's my spring break. My girls were skiing on spring break. I went for a day and a half and then got on a plane and I flew back to Washington, d C.
Because some of us have a job.
Yeah, I know.
And I'm proud. I want you to know that I'm proud of you. As I was clear on the beach today.
Benjamin has had nineteen dakeries today, and and and if I asked him to walk in a straight line and spell the alphabet backwards, he couldn't do.
So.
I did have two Miami vices today, just an interview. I knew you would.
I don't even know what a Miami vice is.
You that's that's just said, I'll introduce you the next time we're hanging.
Out in Kabba.
What what is a Miami Vice.
It's it's a pinnaclouda strawberry dodacri together. They called him Miami Vice. You never had a Miami Vice in your entire life. As I'm sitting here in Caba, I mean this sincerely, I just don't care. That's how happy I am. All Right, So here we go. Here's peteread Seth. We're gonna start with Peter head Seth giving an update on the war. I want you to take a listen to what he had to say about where we are now and what is happening.
Take a listen to this.
On day ten of Operation Epic Fury, we are winning with an overwhelming and unrelenting focus on our objectives, which are the same as the day I gave my first briefing here on Operation Epic Fury. They're straightforward, and we are executing them with ruthless precision. One destroy their missile stockpiles, their missile launchers, and their defense industrial base missiles and their ability to make them. Two destroy their navy, and
three permanently deny Iran nuclear weapons forever. It's a laser focused maximum authority mission delivered with overwhelming and unrelenting precision, no hesitation, no half measures.
Well, let me ask you this sinator as you hear him lay that out, I want to know what the pulsees in DC as you guys are there talking about this. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly the Democrat talking point is. I've seen like four or five of them that they've been kind of throwing jello at a wall to.
See if anything will stick.
They're obviously wanting to hurt Donald Trump and this or trying to say he's gonna get into forever or it's not really working.
So what are your colleagues saying in the Senate about this?
And also among Republicans as well, there's even been there was an interesting moment by the way, where like they were trying to bait you into trashing Lindsey Graham and others are trying to turn Republicans against Republicans. And as I was sitting here on the beach drinking my Miami Vice, I enjoyed watching You have to deal with that on TV because I just got to be a spectator.
It was great.
Yeah, look, last night.
I was on Laura Ingram, and Laura's a friend and she's supporting President Trump in this military com But she asked a whole series of questions about aren't you upset that it's been reported that Lindsey Graham was talking to Prime Minister net Yahoo? And she basically said, isn't Lindsay acting as a lobbyist for Israel? And I said, Laura, with all due respect, now, and that's really a silly question. Listen, Lindsey. I agree with Lindsay on some issues. I disagree with
Lindsay on other issues. You look at the Iraq War.
Lindsay was a big.
Proposent of the Iraq War. I think the Iraq War was a serious mistake. I think it did harm to the United States. And I've said that for a long long time. So Lindsay and are on totally different pages when it comes to Iraq. When it comes to Iran, Lindsey and I agree. I think when the Ayatola says death to America, he means it. I think President Trump is right to act to take out the leadership in Iran because having radical islamistle readership that wants to murder
Americans is bad for America. The regime in Iran has been the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism for forty seven years. They provide ninety percent of the funding for Hamas, for Hesbaala and for the houthies. They've killed nearly one thousand Americans in the last five decades. The Ayahtola he leads mobs channing death to America, and he hires two different crews of hit men to try to murder Donald J.
Trump. Yeah, by the way, two and can you pause on.
That, for one was just convicted the last week of doing so.
Yeah.
I was gonna say, let's spend a moment on this because this is part of the Democrats talking point and I've been fighting this pretty hard on TV as well, and they're like, well, they weren't. There was not a direct threat here. This was not a direct threat to America. This is you're now putting people in harm's way. Let's make it very clear on this show as you described it, not one but two that we know about were sent to try to take out and kill the President of America.
That came directly from Iran.
And by the way, the hitman told the Department of Justice, I was hired by Iran. I was trained by Iran, and my purpose was to murder President Trump. There's no dispute that it was Iran that was paying for this. And I will note if you remember last year when I was interviewed by Tucker Carlson, it was an unhinged interview.
But he disputed me.
He said, no, no, no, I've never heard that Iran's trying to murder Donald Trump, which was insane and totally counterfactual. And it's hard to actually argue with someone for whom facts don't matter and they just make up facts. But then Tucker said, bizarrely, well, and if Iran was trying to murder Trump, we should attack them now, we should
nuke them, Yeah, which was insane. And by the way, I will say, in Monday's podcast, we pointed out Tucker has become such an Islamist shill, such an Israel hating zealot, such an advocate for every Islamist enemy of America that he has argued this week that President Trump's demand for unconditional surrender of Iran means that Iran should expect American soldiers to rape their wives and daughters. Yes, that is an absolute slander of our American servicemen and women. It
is totally false, it is ahistorical. We don't do that. Other armies do that. America does not. And he also argued that he thinks America is going to nuke Iran. To be clear, that's what Jahadis Tucker said in his interview we should do if Iran was trying to murder President Trump. We now have one of the hit men convicted in a federal jury for trying to murder Trump. So Tucker's bad faith, disingenuous position is we should nuke them. Of course we should nuke them. We're not gonna nuke Iran.
That is bizarre, that is wrong. We're also not There is no circumstance in which American soldiers are going to rape the women of Iran. But do you know who is broadcasting Tucker's broadcast right now?
Literally, Iran state sponsored media is broadcasting it to their people.
The government of Iran is broadcasting Tucker to their people. The Muslim Brotherhood has retweeted and put out Tucker's broadcast to the world r T the press organization Russia. Russia today is pushing out Tucker. So you want to talk about a damn effective propagandist for people who hate America. And this is the slippery slope of Jew hate and Israel hate. You start with just hating Israel and Jews blaming everything bad in the world, it's the Jews, and you very quickly get into.
The problem is capitalism.
By the way, Tucker is now attacking capitalism on a daily basis and embracing He's embraced Comrade Mondami as the mayor of New York.
He's defended him repeatedly.
He's embraced Nicholas Maduro, the Marxist America hating dictator of Venezuela, who Donald Trump went and rightly apprehended for being one of the biggest drug dealers in the world, killing Americans. Tucker is defending him, and that pattern is incredibly dangerous. We're seeing it play out every day.
By the way, side note, this is going to be interesting.
I want you to guess in two thousand, this would probably be two thousand and nine, eight or nine, my big today today to date, right now, the biggest contract I've ever been offered in mind higher life to do radio TV.
Do you know who it was from?
I'm guessing Tucker, And what I want to ask is, did you have to buy a home and cut her?
Like he has no.
No, that's a good guess, but no, it was not. My biggest offer in the history of my career was RT. They tried to hire. They were trying to hire conservatives, and so in two thousand whatever year they like, they came into America in the marketplace.
How much did they offer you?
Oh dude, it was seven figures.
I mean it was I don't remember, Like seriously, I get rich, like instant, get rich money.
So like they offered you over a million dollars.
Yes, over a million dollars.
So the likes to say Vladimir Putin is wise and a damn good looking man.
So this is how they entrap people. As I describe it, I was in the bush years. I get a phone call from a former worker slash, you know, TV executive from Fox News Channel, and they said, Hey, I've moved on to something else. I'd love to meet with you. I'm like, sure, more than happy to me. I'd worked with them before at Fox News Channel. Like, okay, big deal.
I go to lunch in DC, that's where I was living the time, and she hands me her card and she's working for RT and I'm like RT like Russia today, like and she's like yes, and she's like, we would love to have you come on and just give your viewpoint. We would never tell you what to say. We would never tell you what to like. You know, we want you to just be exactly who you are. We want a fair and balanced conversation about the world. We think you would be great. I was like, I was like,
I'm still in shock. I'm like, this is I'm like looking for cameras. I'm waiting for, like you know, somebody to come out like from the side room like we got him.
And I'm like I literally looked.
I was like, there's no amount of money that is gonna make me work for the Russia and for BLA. I think, I said Vladimir put and they were like, well, here's the offer, and they slid across the table.
It was like a scene ow of the movie. And I opened it.
It was I mean it was seven figures and I literally I literally number.
Tell me what seven figures means?
Do you remember that it was well over a million per year but it was a multi year deal, so it was like.
It was like a million one, a million nine, like I can't remember if.
It was like I want to say again a long time. I want to say, it's like a million two or three. And that was their first offer per year. And so I leave the meeting and I'm like, look, I'm not gonna do it, but things, I just think about it, and I'm like, I'm not gonna do it, but things They're like, well, if you ever want to come as a guess or if you ever change your mind. So I leave and I called John Ashcroft at the time, he was the former Turity General. I was like, John,
I just got offered money from Vladimir Putin. He was like started chuckling, like Santa. He was like Russia today. I was like, yay. He's like, you're like the eighth person's called me today to tell me the last week they're getting an offer from russiaday because they're trying to legitimize themselves in America for their propaganda, and then they were on TV until they invaded Ukraine and then Artie
like fired everybody in America. But I knew people that took the money and got rich, Like I knew like legitiularly, like yeah, take the Russian cash like, no problem. That is by the way, the reason why I bring it up is because with Tucker Carlson, when everybody's like, well, there is there really money to be made to be like anti America, anti Israel? Yes, there is lots of money that people are getting paid. I don't know who's getting paid, but a lot of people are getting so just know that much.
So, by the way, we know that a foreign funders for US universities.
Yeah, the number one country in the world. You know what it is?
Is it China?
Nope?
Really, Russia?
Nope? Iran nope?
All right, who is it?
Cutter?
Oh that okay, there you go.
Six point six billion dollars with a b.
Six point six billion comes from cut to our universities.
To our universities.
You want to know why our universities are so rabidly anti American, so rabidly anti Semitics, so rabidly anti Israel, so rabidly anti capitalism, so rabidly. Look you look at the anti Semitic protests that we had on college campuses all across the country. Yeah, did any of you notice that the tents all matched?
Yeah? There you go.
And to be clear, cutter.
By the way, it's been publicly reported they hired spies to spy on me. They view me as their biggest opponent in Washington, and listen, it's very simple. I don't have anything against the Kutaris other than they welcome and host.
Hold.
Let me finish this, Let me finish this. I don't have anything against the Kataris other than that they welcome and host the senior leadership of Hamas. They live like billionaires, They live in lavish luxury. They support Hamas, they encourage Hamas. They fund Israel haters, America haters, communists, people tearing America down. They propagandize our kids. I'm perfectly happy to welcome the Qataris into the society of civilized nation if they will
stop funding people trying to destroy America. And I don't take it kindly when you write lots of checks to people who hate American or trying to destroy our nation. I view that as less than friendly conduct.
Having just come back from Israel, I want to paint you a picture. It's midnight, sirens are blaring and and you have only seconds to grab your child and run. Now imagine your elderly your legs don't work like they used to. Getting downstairs feels impossible, and after all of that, you end up in a bomb shelter for hours, even days, because you can't make the trek again. This is what's
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By the way, to everyone in guitar, that's a spy listening right now. I just want you to know. And this is the comment Ted's life is very boring. Sometimes he really is sathnical. It's not there's nothing exciting happening there.
I just want to be cool, right, can I can I tell a story And it's a story some of our podcast listeners will will will remember. So back in twenty sixteen, when I'm running for president and it's it's getting down to to the end of the race, and it's me and Donald Trump and we're neck and neck. And in that race, I won twelve states, Trump won twenty four and no other Republican one more than a single state Kaseikuan, Ohio, Rubio one Minnesota, and trumpet I
won every other state in the country. And in the course of that campaign, there was a story that broke in the National Inquirer that said I was having five simultaneous affairs and.
This is front page, big story.
Cruise caught yes, and look, Ben, you know my wife, Heidi da.
I had to call Heidi.
And for anyone married, let me say to everyone listening and watching this spot, if you're married, I got to tell you it sucks to pick up the phone and call your spouse and say a sweetheart. So there is a front page story that is in every checkout aisle of every supermarket in America that said I'm having five simultaneous affairs and I ad dore Heidi.
She's my best friend the world. But I was nervous about this call.
That is not a fun If you had a call on and say that, that would be a call that sucked.
So I make the call. Do you know Heidi's reaction, Well.
I I know this story and I know exactly the reaction, which is the best part about the whole story.
Heidi burst into a uporious laughter.
She's like doubled over laughing, and I actually got offended. I'm like, sweetheart, it's not true, but damn it, I could. I mean, like, what are you saying? Like? I like, I didn't, but but.
You're that undesirable. That's what she's saying right there. There's no way.
And I gotta say for the Qatari spies, I think they were frustrated because look, I have dinner many nights in DC at Capitol Garrell.
You and I have had dinner many times there. Yes, we had my black fact.
To be clear, I don't think you and I have ever had dinner anywhere else in d C. But there. That's how mondand Okay even exist in DC. In the world. Look, I'm if you're cheating on anybody, it's capital grill. That would be the story.
I'm a homebody. Listen.
When I was in law school, I lived in the dorms Hemingway. I lived in Hastings Hall, which is a dorm. I lived there three years. Right next to it was Hemingway Gym, and then right next to it was Gannett House was the Law Review.
That triangle was maybe three hundred yards.
I spent almost every waking moment of three years of law school in that triangle between my dorm, the gym, and the lar Review. That was basically I would go to class occasionally, but it was essentially that triangle DC. I rarely, like, like cap Girl is six blocks away from the Capitol.
I rarely go beyond that that that radius.
But I will tell you in twenty sixteen, my opponents, and more than one of my opponents, was like flashing major chunks of cash, trying to get waiters and waitresses to like rat on me, like running around and getting busy with some Washington Line.
They were looking for an Easter and Peo don't realize this. This is real in politics, like they.
Go to they're dragging through trying to get.
Me hand out cash to anybody.
They'll give them a story so they can report it as someone who says in this world, and I.
Got to say, like, my life is just pretty damn boring on that. And I will tell you I actually I want to take a minute. I want to speak to the men listening to this podcast. I want to share some wisdom. So our pastor is Greg Mott, and actually you now go to our church. You used to go to Second Baptist, you now go to First Baptist. Greg Mott is a wonderful, dear friend. He's a man of God. Before you moved First Pastor, Greg did a sermon series. It was like I think six weeks and
it was on King David. And I really enjoyed that sermon series. King David was remarkable person in the Bible. And I remember he was covering the chapter on Bathsheba. And if you remember, King David is standing on the roof of his palace and he looks down and he sees Bestsheba, the most beautiful woman in the land, and he gazes upon her, and he ultimately ends up bringing her in and sending her husband your riot to the front lines and killing him and sleeping with her and
then marrying her. And God extracts the price of killing her firstborn son, although her next son was King Solomon. So he did continue the line. But Pastor Gregg is talking about and he just stops. He says, all right, I want to talk to all the men in the congregation, and he says, you may be by.
The way if you're this podcast and you want to hear greg Mont's voice, like, go listen to one of his sermons and you'll understand how good he is at delivering these types of lines.
Continue it's and by the way, Pastor Gregg started his ministry.
He was a student at Texas A and M.
And he started a little Bible study in his dorm room or his apartment, and it started with a few students. It grew into what's called away and he would have ten thousand students a week meeting in the basketball gymnasium. So where we go to church. First Baptist Church is an institution in Houston. I went there as a little kid. Doctor John Bassania was the pastor forty years ago and he was a Houston institution. By the way, the church was founded, do you know the story? Do you know
when the church was founded? No, so the church was founded. I don't know the exact year, but Texas was an independent nation between eighteen thirty six and eighteen forty five, and First Baptist Church of Houston was founded somewhere in that nine year period.
I don't remember the year.
And Pastor Greg said one time, he said, look, this church was actually founded by American missionaries who were coming to a foreign nation. And the foreign nation was the Republic of Texas. So American nations went from America to
the Republic of Texas and they founded the church. Anyway, what he said to the men in the church, and by the way, so so Pastor Greg built up Breakaway and it was getting ten thousand students a week to come to this Bible study at A and M. And then when doctor Bassanio retired, First Baptist did a search, who's our new pastor and they actually found Pastor Greg. He was thirty three years old and they brought him in.
He'd never pastor to church. He just like led this Bible study at A and M. They brought him in and he's led.
Pastor.
Greg and I are exactly the same age, we're both fifty five, and they brought him in like and he's become our pastor, and he is.
He's a great pastor.
But what I admire most about him is he's incredibly humble.
Yes, like Heidi doesn't like megachurches.
She grew up in a very small church in the central coast California. She likes small, intimate churches where you have forty people there on Sunday morning, like like where everyone knows everyone. And First Baptist is a huge church. The only reason we go there is because she likes Pastor grew so much that she's just like, all right, I will endure the larger.
The larger crowds. Yeah.
But part of the reason she likes him and I like him is he is genuinely humble and he's a godly man. Like he's a lot of pastors of megachurches are are are frankly arrogant. I mean, hubris, look hubris is.
They become rock stars in a bubble.
Pride is a temptation in the ministry. It's a temptation in politics, it's a temptation in the media. Like you like it's it's easy when you're surrounded by adulation to believe it, and it's hard to resist it. And I will say Pastor Greg does an amazing job. He and I spend every month. Actually something we've started this year which I'm really grateful for. He's begun coming over to my house once a month Sunday afternoons or evenings, just to have a Bible study and prayer session together, which
I'm grateful for. But anyway, his David sermon, when he talks about Bethshiv, he says, I want to talk to the men in the congregation, and he said, you may think you are strong, you may think you have an integrity, you have resolved, and he said, I want to tell you when temptation presents.
Itself, run run, just get away.
He said, the mistake David made is he's on the roof of his palacies looking down and he kept watching. What David should have done is turn around. And by the way, the Bible describes David as a man after God's own heart. And he said David should have turned around and just gotten himself out of that.
So before we wrap, I want to get back to something else political world that I do think is important for us to cover real quick, and that is the one thing that the Democrats seem to be being able to grab on. And thing tangible here is gas prices. I know you've been around the president. See the President's been pretty queer about this. This is going to be short terming increase. Democrats do seem to be latching onto this. Like remember when egg prices is like a big thing
and the put a world. Yep, this is the new egg price thing, right. Oh my gosh, Donald Trump say's a lower price to the pump for you. Look at it now, Look how bad it is. Now it's gonna be you know, ten hours a gallon in California, it's gonna be five six hours gallon everywhere else.
The presents come out and says it's gonna be short term. I believe him.
I think also seeing how hard we're hitting a ran right now, is also showing the timeline here that they are wanting to do everything as fast asy can. Why drag this out, go all in, do it quickly, get the pain over with and let those people hopefully rise up and take over a ran and actually move forward.
Are you that worried about about the gas prices? I'm I'm not yet.
Like if it's three months from now or two months from now, I'm going to be more worried. But right now I feel like this is exactly on schedule or ahead of schedule, as the White House has described it.
Yeah.
So, look, there's been a short term increase in gas prices, and anytime there's a military conflict in the Middle gas prices go up because a lot of oil comes from the Middle East, and so military conflict has an effect on supply demand. I think this will be short term. One of the things to remember is, so six months ago, gas prices were about I don't have the exact number off the top of my head, but about two dollars and fifty cents a gallon.
They've risen about a dollar. They're about three dollars and fifty cents a gallon.
This is national averages, and so it is true that over the last six months gasoline prices have risen. Where were they eighteen months ago? Under Joe Biden there were nearly six dollars a gallon, So by any measure, they're massively cheaper than Joe Biden. Yes, they've gone up from about two fifty to about three fifty, But I think
this is a short term increase. And I got to say, if and when the Iranian regime collapses, and by the way, we've utterly degraded their military and we've taken out the Ittolin, the senior military leadership, if and when we have a government in Iran that is not a radical theocratic Islamist government who wants to murder America, who is funding terrorists all across the world, who is actively trying to murder Americans every single day, if we have just a normal government,
I don't really care who we have, just as long as it's not a crazy person killing Americans. The effect on global gas prices will be to lower them significantly. So I actually think this conflict in the long term or even the medium term, will have a substantial downward pressure on gasoline prices. There's a short period where prices have spiked somewhat, although to be clear, they're much much lower than under Biden, but they are higher than they
were six months ago under Trump. Look, I think the Democrats are attacking gas prices because they hate Trump and they're just everything Trump does is wrong. This is an incredibly important decision that Trump has made for advancing US national security. And I will say part of the reason why, when like I was being questioned on Lindsay Graham, I like Lindsay as I said, I agree with him sometimes, I disagree with them sometimes. But what the questioning really
was about, isn't the Iran war about Israel? Isn't this all about Israel? And the suggestion was Israel or is a puppet master controlling Donald Trump? That's just a blatant lie. This military conflict has very little to do with Israel. The reason President Trump decided to attack Iran is because Iran has been waging war with America for forty seven years and they've killed nearly a thousand Americans and they're
the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world. And so the people trying to say I don't want another war for Israel, I don't want my children to die for the Jews, that is that is not honest, Because we're doing this because the regime in Iran is killing Americans. And to be clear, if they had the capacity, if they had nuclear weapons, they would kill many, many more
Americans if they could. They would kill you and me right now, Ben, if they could, every listener of this podcast, they would kill If they had a nuclear weapon, I believe there is a real possibility they would detonate it in the skies of Tel Aviv or New.
York or Los Angeles.
And I'm not interested in seeing a day where hundreds of thousands of Americans are murdered by an iatola channing death to America. That's why President Trump acted. But it was not about Israel. It was about America, and I think we need to be very very clear about that.
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I also think one of the other things that I think is really frustrating is just seeing how many people act as if somehow Donald Trump was hoodwinked by Israel for us to get involved in this war.
And you were asked about that.
I was asked about as well on TV, and I said, that is the biggest load of crap I've heard in a long time. President Trump isn't hoodwink by anybody. President Trump isn't walked around by anyone, And if you've ever been around them, you know that. I think it goes back to what you just said, the President understood the national security risks not to Israel. All right, there is America first, correct, it's America and the national security threat
to America. And clear the fact that they're trying to kill and have sent people and train people and pay people to try to kill the president of the United States of America. Also people in the last administration. John Bolton, for example, was one of those. There's several others on this list that have actually have been they've had.
Hits at all.
Brian Hook, Yes, exactly, So you go with the list here.
The President was clear about this that this is about America. And I think that's another example when I said there's like four or five working theories Democrats throw on Joe at to wall saying does any of this fit with Americans? I also think it's very interesting and final thing to you, I don't think the American people are buying this. And part of it's because I think Democrats have just said some of those orlandis and crazy things on every issue,
tried to hurt Donald Trump. Now it's becoming a little bit more of white noise, and that's that I'm thankful for that.
To be honest with you, Yeah, no, I think that's right.
And look, some of the reaction of the voters will depend on how this plays out. If this military conflict lasts many months or years, if we're sitting here a year from now and still mired to military conflict, if we've got a massive troop presence on the Great Ground, if we have hundreds or thousands of American soldiers being killed.
This war will be very unpopular.
Yeah, I think the chances of that happening are very very close to zero percent.
Iran is not a raq.
We're not going to see a massive troop presence on the ground. We're not going to see an extended military occupation. Actually, I want you to listen to Pete haig Seth making this point, and we're going to wrap up on this. Listen, listen to the Secretary of War, Pete hegg Seth.
You see, this is not two thousand and three. This is not endless nation building under those types of quagmires we saw under Bush or Obama. It's not even close. Our generation of soldier will not let that happen again, and nor will this president, who very clearly ran against those kinds of never ending nebulously scoped missions. Those days are dead. Instead, we're winning decisively with brutal efficiency, total air dominance, and an unbreakable will to accomo pumplish the
President's objectives on our timeline. We stay locked on the target because here at the Department of War, that's our job.
You listen to Pete there.
This is one of the reasons why I actually think it was a blessing that he was named and made it through confirmation.
He's a guy, he's a combat veteran who's been in harm's way.
Yeah, this is a guy that I think is genuinely in the room advocating to make sure that what happened to a lot of his colleagues when he was serving in uniform and deployed, that doesn't happen to this group of soldiers now.
And it's clear that this is personal for him.
That's why I'm so thankful that he's there in this position, because he lived the other side of it that he was just describing.
Right, Look, avoiding endless wars does not mean embracing isolationism. Yeah, peace through strength is what Reagan called it. Donald Trump just understands it as being a strong commander in chief that when people are killing Americans, he is going to respond vigorously to take them out. And by the way,
our enemies are terrified. As I've said before, at three am on January third, there was not a Latin American dictator who didn't have to change his shorts because that's when President Trump sees Nicholas Maduro, what is happening in Iran. The top leadership has been taken out. Every bad guy, every person who hates America is really really worried right now because this is a nation that defends itself. And by the way, that makes clear if you kill Americans,
there are going to be massive consequences to it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden's weakness and appeasement that if you kill Americans, oh well, we're not going to do anything about it, that invites more people to target and kill Americans. This is about avoiding war by being strong enough to take out the people that are killing Americans, and that avoids protracted military conflict. I think that's what we're seeing right now, and it makes America a whole lot safer.
Yeah, no doubt about it.
For everybody listening, thank you for joining us as we do a dual pod with the Ben Ferguson podcast and Vertic with tech Cruise. Don't forget hit that subscriber auto download button wherever you're listening right now, and if you want to watch the show, it's also on YouTube Vertic with teg Cruise. There you can watch it on Facebook as well, and we'll see you back here in a couple of days.