Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, Weekend Review, Ben Ferguson with you, and here are the big stories that we talked about this week that you may have missed. First up, talk about liberal logic since the attack on Iran. Liberals are afraid of Iran's response to what Donald Trump is doing, say, you can be starting World War three, yet they're not afraid of Iran actually getting a nuclear weapon.
We'll break that down for you. Also, the DoD Secretary Pete Headseth briefing doing it directly to the media, calling them out to their faces on their lies about the damage assessment. And finally, the big question moving forward is what's next and what can happen if we screw up the endgame. It's the weekend Review and it starts right now. Let's talk a little bit about the liberal logic that has been coming out of so many Democrats since this
attack took place. And the people who seem to be obsessing over Iran's response, implying that their response is Donald Trump's fault that they're going to respond are the same idiots that we're not afraid of Iran getting a nuclear weapon. Can you explain that liberal logic.
Please. Sadly, Today's Democrat party sides with every enemy of America. They side on the other side.
Look.
JK Rowling tweeted this weekend about this person, India Willoughby. Now I'll confess I have no idea who India Willoughby is. But JK Rowling tweeted, India a fan of women, hating gay hating, authoritating authoritarian regime. Color me astonished. So I went and googled who is this India Willoughby person? And it turns out, according to Wikipedia quote, she is Britain's first transgender national television newsreader. Now pause for a second.
Ben Iran murders transgender people. They throw them off buildings. If you are gay, they murder you. And think about the mindset of a leftist who this transgender news reader in I guess the UK is like, even though the Iyahtola wants to murder me, I stand with the Ayatola rather than America. That is how messed up leftists are right now, They're like, oh, homicidal theocratic women are pressing gay, murdering, torturing, genocidal lunatics. Those are my people.
It doesn't make any sense to me and then you go back to also the quotes that people have been posting, and I think it's really important that history reflect. You go back to Bill Clinton, Senator, and he said that Iran couldn't get a nuclear weapon. Hillary Clinton when she was a senator, Secretary of State and running for president, said Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon. Barack Obama said
that he cannot get a nuclear weapon. You had Joe Biden that said they couldn't get anclear weapon, and then they're at sixty plus percent and Donald Trump stops him, and then all of the lefts like, you can't do that. You're gonna start World War three. This is somehow your fault. You're the aggressor.
And understand the reason we are here is because of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Barack Obama negotiated the disastrous Iran nuclear deal that flooded billions and billions of dollars into Iran. Listen, remember Obama literally flew one point seven billion dollars of cash unmarked bills on a palette to deliver to the Iyahtola. That agreement set the stage for Iran to get nuclear weapons. Donald Trump, when he came in as.
President for a second, and just now, in hindsight, what really was that deal? Was that dal a, Hey, I don't want to have to deal with you guys, so let's just you kind of play nice for me and then I'll kick the can down the road to another administration. Like, in hindsight, what was that? Why did we do that deal?
It was rat ideology. You know, when Barack Obama first became president, he went and gave a speech at the University of Cairo in Egypt, and in that speech he said Iran has a right and he used the word right, a right to nuclear technology. Now that is nutty. That is, I'm familiar with the right to the pursuit of happiness. I'm not familiar with a right to possess thermonuclear weapons.
And at the end of the day, I think Barack Obama and his entire team came in with an ideological view that America's role in the world is fundamentally illegitimate, that we are colonial oppressors. Look, as you know, my last book was Unwoke, How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America. These are the cultural Marxists. They view America as illegitimate and therefore they viewed that we have no business, we
have no right stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Listen, the Obama Ran nuclear deal would inevitably lead to I Ran with nuclear weapon. And these guys are not idiots. They knew that. They're fine with that outcome because they believe America has no right to prevent it. My view is, yes we do. If you've got a lunatic who's sang death to America and we have the power to stop him from getting nuclear weapons, we will use that power because the commander in chief is not going to fail
to protect America. And I got to say, by the way, the useful idiots across the globe a you've got the Democrats today who are all chirping about how dare you act to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. We also had the Secretary of the United Nations, Antonio Guterras, who put out a statement I'm going to read it to you quote. I am gravely alarmed by the use
of force by the United States against Iran today. This is a dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge and a direct threat to international peace and security. There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control, with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region, and the world. I call on member states to de escalate and to uphold their obligations under the UN Charter and other rules of international law. At this perilous hour,
it is critical to avoid a spiral of chaos. There is no military solution. The only path forward is diplomacy. The only hope is peace. What a blithering idiot. I'll tell you what I tweeted today. I tweeted, of course, the UN sides with Iran clown face emoji clown face, emoji clown face emergent. The only thing they couldn't decide is which chant they agree with more strongly, quote death
to Israel or quote death to America. And then I asked a simple question, Remind me again why we're paying their bills.
It's a fair question. And you've got to wonder what's the even point of being involved that if this is how insane they actually are, so what's move?
But by the way, Ben I also so observed, I think Tehran would make a lovely UN headquarters, just located right there. Maybe on the smoldering ashes of FDA, we can put put the UN there, and they can all get together with their anti Israel hate and their anti American hate, and they can sit there and glow radioactive while they talk about developing developing nuclear weapons to bomb America.
At least it would be intellectually honest, like where's the UN. It's in Tehran. Okay, that makes sense.
Look, that's who they This should not be complicated Iran, Like, let me ask you, Ben, seriously, put yourself in the head of the UN Secretary General. How do you look at this and say where do I stand? I know with Iran, Like what thought pressis goes through your brain?
Yeah, what's the upside of doing that? And why? And especially if you know what Iran just did and how many terrorist organizations they've supported that are just beyond I mean factually accurate hamas HESBLA, and the UN's like we got you, We're going to cover for you. Don't worry, we got your back. It is and that's the reason why I think it delegitimizes the United Nations to the point where I just roll my eyes at them. Now I don't pay attention to what they say. Final question,
and this is what is next. It's very clear. There's a warning from this present don't screw with us moving forward. If Iran is dumb enough to retaliate against Americans in the Middle East, maybe even shutting down the Strait of Horn Moves, what is the presence obligation moving forward on that.
Well, one of the consequences of the bombing run is the parliament in Iran did vote to shut down the Straits of her Moves. Now, the Parliament's not the decision maker at the end of the day, the Iatola is the decision maker. So it's not clear if Iran is going to do so or not. If it did so, it would impact America, but it would impact China even more. Roughly half of the oil that China uses travels through the Straits of hor Moos. A very small percentage of
American oil travels through there. But that being said, if the Straits of our Moves were shut down, it would impact Americas because it would drive up global oil prices, it would drive up gasoline prices at home, and that
would impact Americans. I hope that doesn't happen. I think if they try to shut down those major trade routes and commerce fruits, I think we will see, we will see force to open them up because Iran does not have the right to shut down the ability of America and the rest of the world to engage in trade
and commerce. That is a possible escalation. I think the most likely escalation is going to be continued a tax on civilians in Israel, because at the end of the day, I think the Iotola and the Mullahs they hate the Jewish people, and murdering innocent civilians is something that they believe in. I worry, as I said, about the risk of terrorist attacks as well. I think those are, sadly the two most likely the people of Israel. I know the government of Israel that the Iron Dome, they're working
hard to protect their civilians. America is assisting in that, and here at home, law enforcement and Homeland Security in the Department of Justice are all working hard to intercept and stop any terrorist attack before it occurs. But understand, these are dangerous times. But they're dangerous times because we have enemies that wish to do harm to America. And that's why the responsibility that the President has is so
grave and serious. And I will say, listening to President Trump speaks Saturday night, I think there are times where the weight of the job really falls on his shoulders and he feels it, and I think Saturday night was one of them, because it was an incredibly consequential moment in our nation's history, and a very positive moment of the President standing up and saying, my first responsibility is to defend America, and I will not shirk for that responsibility.
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week. Now onto story number two, Senator, I want to play for everybody Pete Headseth at the Pentagon briefing about how effective this attack actually was and saying it directly to the media's phase. Take a listen be.
Some of the assessments that have been provided, because whether it's fake news, CNN, MSNBC or The New York Times, there's been fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment.
I've had a chance to read it.
Every outlet has breathlessly reported on a preliminary assessment from DA I'm looking at it right now again. It was preliminary a day and a half after the actual strike, when it admits itself in writing that it requires weeks to accumulate the necessary data to make such an assessment's preliminary. It points out that it's not been coordinated with the intelligence community at all. There's low confidence in this particular reports, it says in the report.
There are gaps in the information. It says in the report.
Multiple lynchpin assumptions are what this assessment a lynchpin assumption?
You know what that is.
It means your entire premis is predicated on a lynch pin.
If you're wrong, everything else is wrong.
And yet still this report acknowledges it's likely severe damage.
Again, this is preliminary, but.
Leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike I wasn't successful. I'm gonna get to the chairman in a moment, because he's going to lay out the particulars for you based on his professional military experience. But here's what other folks are saying. THEDIA that put that report out says that this is a preliminary, low confidence report and will continue to be refined as additional intelligence becomes available.
How about the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, The devastating US strikes on four doh destroyed the site's critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable. Have any of these quotes made their way into the New York Times or The Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN, any of these quotes? How about this one? This is a new one from the UN. The United Nations no friend of the United States or certainly Israel often. Here's the head of the UN Atomic
Energy Agency this morning, Raphael Grossi. US and Israeli strikes caused enormous damage to Iran's nuclear sites.
Don't take my word for it.
How about the IDF's chief of staff. I can say here that the assessment is that we significantly damaged the nuclear program, setting it back by years.
I repeat years.
The Iranian foreign minister the spokesman, our nuclear instrations have been badly damaged, that's for sure.
I'm sure that's an understatement.
John Radcliffe, the director of the CIA, putting out a statement just last night, CIA confirmed that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear program has been severely damaged by recent targeted stripes.
This includes new intelligence from.
A historically reliable very different than preliminary assessment with low confidence.
He's saying historically.
Reliable and accurate source and method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.
You listen to all of that data, and I love how he laid it out. He's not just saying this is from our administration, this is from people that hate us, this from the UN, this is from ran Like, how the hell did you guys go with this report when it's so aw from reality.
Look, I think the evidence is indisputable and it's worth noting, he said. The Secretary of Defense said in that press conference that the Iranian nuclear weapons program has set been set back years. I can tell you I spent an hour and a half in a classified briefing. I can't tell you what was in that briefing, but we heard nothing that was inconsistent with what the Secretary of Defense said in that press conference, which is that this military
attack set Iran's nuclear program back years. It was incredibly effective, and so that is caused for celebration, which is why the Democrats don't want people to know about it. The media don't want people to know about it. But I have to say I mentioned at the outside of this program, we we're going to discuss what happened, but every bit is importantly We're going to discuss what's going to happen next.
And listen, it's one thing to talk about where the puck is today, but you've got to look at where the puck is going to be tomorrow and where the puck is going to be tomorrow. There was a CNN report that came out this week that said, quote, the Trump admin is considering offering I ran a series of may your benefits to bring it back to the negotiating table.
According to the report, Washington is considering helping Iran establish a nuclear program for the purpose of producing civilian energy at a cost of about thirty billion dollars, easing sanctions and unfreezing billions of frozen Iranian dollars. And I will tell you within the Trump administration right now, there is
a battle. There were voices within the Trump administration. These are the voices that opposed the strike on Iran, that wanted to have weakness and appeasement towards Iran, who are now saying, well, after the strike, after victory, we should flow billions of dollars to Iran. We should let them sell oil, let them sell oil to China. We should let them make billions. And I got to tell you this is the same failed approach of Barack Obama and
Joe Biden. We should, under no circumstances allow the Ayahtola, who chanced death to America, who has been actively trying to murder President Trump. We should not let him win a windfall and get billions of dollars to use to wage war against America.
How did we even get to this point where this was a real possibility. Where is this coming from? Because it is shocking. Like you said, you don't want to do the same thing. There was a failure with the last administrations where they're like, hey, here's billions of dollars, we'll put it on a plane, and here's a bunch of American money. You have a great day.
Listen their voices in the Republican Party who have decided to embrace isolationism, who has decided to say we should withdraw from the world. You and I talked previously on this podcast about the interview I did with Tucker Carlson. I knew what that was going to be I knew when I accepted that interview that Tucker was coming after me, that he was going to do everything he can to blast me, And he and I spent two hours. It was a it was a bloodbath. We were pounding the
hell out of each other. But every single thing Tucker said about Iran and Israel proved wrong. Tucker said publicly, if America strikes Iran, we would be dragged into World War three. Thousands of Americans would be killed, and in World War three we would lose. Now, Ben, that wasn't slightly wrong, It wasn't a little bit wrong. It was totally catastrophically utterly false. Tucker also argued with me at great length, it's not true that Iran is trying to
murder Donald J. Trump. Well, you know, it's one thing if you're a talk show host and you can just kind of yell into the microphone and ignore facts. But facts matter, The truth matters. It is an objective fact that Iran has been trying to murder Donald J. Trump has been trying to murder him for several years. And I pointed this out in the interview. I put it out afterwards. I put out the yield indictment from the Department of Justice indicting Iranian hitmen who were here in
the United States trying to murder Donald J. Trump. I put out video of President Trump talking about the Iranians trying to murder him. I put out video of senior Iranian leaders talking about their intention to murder Donald Trump. I put out a video that the IRGC put out an animated video of an Iranian drone murdering Donald Trump on the golf course at mar A Lago. And it
is an objective fact. And this is where again the sort of isolationist rhetoric is weird, because when I said that Iran was trying to murder President Trump, and Tucker said, I've never heard that, and then he did his kind of weird, high pitched cackle. He then came back with this bizarre statement, Well, if that were true, that Iran were trying to murder Donald J. Trump, well then we should attack them immediately, we should nuke them. And I got say, I kind of wondered if if like Tucker
Carlson's old neo Kon. To be clear, Tucker carl said was someone who during the Iraq War, was a cheerleader for the Iraq War. He basically put on a short skirt and pom poms. I think the Iraq War was a mistake. I've been vocal about that for years. Tucker cheered it on. It is loopy, It is fruit loops to say you should nuk Iran because they're doing that. No, the right thing to do is what President Trump did,
which is take out their nuclear weapons capability. And I got to say Tucker's voice and their allies of Tucker in the administration who were desperately trying to convince the president, do not attack Iran, do not take out their nuclear weapons capability, do not support it Israel, abandon Israel. They were wrong, and they lost this battle. But the second iteration, and this is coming is there. They're now saying, Okay, that you've won, give the Iatola billions of dollars because
it works out really well. When you give billions of dollars to a theocratic lunatic who says they want to murder you and is still actively trying to murder you, that is incredibly foolish. And so I'm merging the president, don't listen to those voices. They were wrong before and they're wrong now. Do not send billions of dollars to the Iatola as before.
If you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and now the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing. I want to get back to the big story number three of the week. You may have missed where things are going now and how we could screw up the in game here with a ran with some in this country saying well, maybe we should appeased them a little bit, doesn't make a lot of sense. Yet that's where we are.
Consider you had this to say on Haydi's show about as well.
Say something else, Sean. There are voices in the administration now that the president has scored an historic victory, who are urging, let's cut a deal. Let's let Iran sell oils, let's lift all the sanction, Let's make this a victory for the Iyatola. Understand this Iatola still hates America, a chance death to America, and he's been trying to murder Donald Trump, and so it would be a catastrophic mistake to flood billions of dollars into Iran.
I agree with you. What if they use a proxy to attack Israel. Does that end the ceasefire? Because I would imagine that's plant that's the next plan real quick.
You know.
I will tell you one of the best indications of how successful this attack was. Within hours, Iran was rushing to have a ceasefire. That's because they are utterly decimated and weakened, and that's why they wanted to cease fire. But don't think for a minute they suddenly love America or love Israel. They still hate us. They are still our enemy, but we use taking away their ability to murder Americans.
If they use a proxy to attack Israel, are they to blame?
Of course they are the proxies. Hesbel and Hamas work for Iran. They pay for them, and they control them.
All right, Senator Ted Cruz, we always appreciate your time, Sentator.
Thanks strong clothes their centator. And that's it's the truth. This is what people are trying to do now.
It absolutely is. And I'll tell you one point that I made on Hannity that I think is powerful. We started this show by talking about how the Democrats in the media are trying to claim the attack was not effective. If that were true, why did Iran immediately want a cease fire. Look, Iran has been at war with Israel for years. They had been lobbing missiles. They had been funding Hamas and Hesbela. Understand Hamas more than ninety percent
of Hamas's budget comes from Iran. Hesbela more than ninety percent of Hesbela's budget comes from Iran. Iran, when the Iatola chance death to America and death to Israel, he means it. They have spent millions of millionions of dollars. They have killed thousands of American servicemen and women. They have been the leading state sponsor of terrorism for decades. And after this, look, Iran has had a really rough year. October seventh. They funded October seventh and since October seventh,
Hamas has been utterly decimated. Hesbela has been utterly decimated. But shar Asad, who was their puppet leader in Syria, he has fallen. The Huthis who they were funding, who were attacking American ships and shipping through the Suez Canal, they are badly degraded. And now Iran, when they were on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons. Look, if you're the Ayatola and you're weak and you're collapsing. Getting a nuclear weapon is you're hail Mary. It's the one chance
to say, Okay, we're relevant, we're strong. And then Israel devastatingly takes out their military capability, their air defenses. The entire course of this war, the Twelve Day War, Iran had no control over their air defenses. Israel had totally superiority. And then the United States when we went in and did our bombing run, Iran could not defend themselves. And then America comes in. I think Iran believed they could talk, talk,
talk and avoid any real consequences. I think they felt that Forida was deep enough under a mountain there was nothing they could do about it, and that America would never use bunker buster bombs against him. And by the way, Joe Biden never would have. The Democrats never would have. But Donald J. Trump, he's not an isolationist, he's not weak, he's not interested in a prolonged war. Note, we did not invade Iran, we did not send boots on the ground.
We're not going there trying to turn them into a democratic utopia. We're not trying to turn them into Switzerland. The objective of the mission was very, very focused. It was to stop Iran from having nuclear weapons capability. And by the way, Ben, the reason I went on Tucker Carlson just a week ago was to make clear that President Trump is right and Tucker Carlson was wrong. And I think I was unhappy with Tucker because he's been
attacking President Trump. He said that President Trump was complicit in the attack on Iran. He claimed amazingly enough, that Donald Trump was not America first, that if you attack Iran, you're not America first. And President Trump quite rightly came back and said, look, I invented the damn term, and what I say is what America first is. And he said to Tucker, he said, look, if you want i Ran to have a nuclear weapon, that ain't America first,
because these lunatics want to kill us. President Trump is exactly right, and this has been I'll tell you. I texted him this week and I told him, mister President, this past week has been the single finest leadership you have had the entire time, and I'm incredibly proud of the job you're doing, his commander in chief.
You know, one of the comparing contrasts that you talk about with these this administration in the past was brought up at the White House Press briefing room. Carolyn Levitt, I think did a great job of explaining the difference, very much like you just described it. And here's what she said to the press about the real story here.
Gani and regime was weeks away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon that would threaten the entire world before President Trump took this decisive action on Saturday night to obliterate their nuclear capabilities. The contrast and leadership could not be more clear. Barack Obama and Joe Biden sent palettes of cash American taxpayer dollars in a failed attempt to buy the Iranian regime's compliance with a weak and ineffective deal. President Trump sent a fleet of American warplanes
to destroy Ouran's ability to produce a nuclear weapon. The United States and the entire world are safer because of this President's decisiveness. Despite agenda driven leaks by the fake news media aimed at undermining this incredible accomplishment achieved by President Trump and our brave fighter pilots, there is broad consensus emerging already that Iran's nuclear capabilities were indeed destroyed.
The United States, Israel, the United Nations, and even Iran all agree they can no longer build a nuclear weapon. So what did the president? Why did the president immediately turn to obliterating after the Iranian nuclear threat? Securing peace? Within forty eight hours of the devastating strike, President Trump and his team broke her to historic ceasefire between Israel
and Iran and officially ended the twelve day war. The Middle East is now shifting away from chaos and bloodshed and moving toward the beginning stages of a new era of peace and stability that President Trump has long called on them to achieve. This was unthinkable at this time last week. And this is what peace through strength looks like.
I mean, it's just laying it out right to their faces, right. This is what the President said, this is what he believed, this is what he was gonna do. We're not back down. And she also said something else that also the dard said several different ways, how dare you not just give some accolades the men and women that risk their lives to pull this off and did it flawlessly?
Look?
Peace through strength is exactly what this is. And the Left that they have a bizarre view that weakness and appeasement somehow avoids war. Listen, if you look through history, the opposite is true. Weakness and appeasement encourages our enemies. They engage in more hostilities, you get more war. I have joked, but there is a reason nobody goes and studies at the Neville Chamberlain School of Foreign Affairs. Appeasement doesn't work. Donald J. Trump is a strong commander in
chief just like Ronald Reagan was. And I'll tell you your family and my family, all of our families are safer because President Trump act decisively to take out Iran's nuclear weapons capability.
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Center Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal with my podcast and you can listen to my podcasts every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson podcasts, and we will see you back here on Monday morning.