Welcome.
It is Verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. It's so nice to have you with us. Many of you are listening on radio stations around the country to this show as well. We welcome you in and we want to say don't forget download Vertic with Ted Cruz wherever you get your podcast is. We do the show three days a week.
Center.
We've got breaking news and it is a major world event, Israel going after Iran, hitting targets there. This is obviously woken a lot of people up around the world. As we're doing this show.
We are gathered right now at a time of war, that time when Israel is striking back at Iran, striking back to ensure that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons. And you and I are recording this podcast at is twelve oh seven am on Friday morning, So the events may change in the next forty eight hours, but at twelve oh seven am, the war is just unfolding and we're seeing what's happening, and what's happening so far. Israel strikes by by the early reports, have been enormously effective.
Israel has taken out the chief of the IRGC Israel has taken out the successor to the chief of the IRGC. Israel has decimated the Tons, a major nuclear site in Iran, and Israel is carrying out multiple military strikes right now as we speak. Now, I will say, by the time you listen to this podcast, it may be Friday during the day and you're listening to the podcast. It may be Saturday or Sunday and you're listening to this show
on the radio. Things may have changed by then. But right now we are seeing war in the Middle East. We are seeing Israel acting decisively to protect herself. And I will say there are several messages that every one of us need to hear, but the two that are most important. Our number one, America stands unequivocally with the state of Israel. We are with Israel and her right to defend herself with no daylight whatsoever. Two a message to the Iyatola.
We have an.
Enormous number of American servicemen and women in harm's way in the Middle East. The Iatola needs to understand if you strike out and attack American servicemen and women, if you kill even a single American servicemen or women, I am absolutely confident President Trump will respond with overwhelming force, and so the Iyahtola should know, do not attack America as a response to this military assault.
Amen to that.
And look, this is such a hard time right now for so many in Israel, and so many that listen to the show have asks what can I do to help? How do I stand with the people in Israel? They need our help now more than ever. And that's why I want you to get involved with an organization that I'm heavily involved with. It's called the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. And we are seeing something that's disturbing, anti Semitism on the rise around the world. Sadly right
here in America. You have seen Jewish schools that have been targeted, synagogues that have been threatened, families that are living in fear. And that's happening in the US. Imagine what's happening right now in Israel. And that's why I want you to know about the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. They're on the front lines and they're providing hope and help when it is needed the most, especially right now, they're giving food and shelter to Jewish families
that are under threat. They are building countless bomb shelters for children to keep them safe. In Israel, they're helping survivors of hate rebuild their lives. And they don't just respond to crisis, they work every day to prevent it. Now, your gift of only forty five dollars not only will help support life saving work by providing food and shelter and bomb shelters and armored vehicles, but it will give them peace knowing that there are people standing with the
people in Israel. So if you've thought of out helping, now is the time to do it. Call them and make a donation eight eight eight for eight eight IFCJ. That's eight eight eight four eight eight four three two five. You can also go online to IFCJ dot org.
Every dollar truly does help.
Don't wait be the difference of his IFCJ dot orger eight at eight for eight eight IFCJ Right now, All right, Senator, so let's start with the basic question, and that is what how did this begin? What have you learned being in Washington, d C. About this strike on these Iranian nuclear sites and military targets. What do you know tonight that that you can tell people listening.
Well, let me say, first of all, I believe this attack was inevitable, that Iran was hell bent on acquiring nuclear weapons. President Trump said repeatedly and unequipped that the only option for Iran was a complete and total dismantlement of their centrifuges, of their enrichment capacity, of their ability to enrich uranium. I led a letter with fifty two Republican senators where we said, united, we agree with President Trump. This is the red line, complete and total dismantlement of
their nuclear capacity. Now, what President Trump said is there's two ways they can do this. One they can do so peacefully through negotiations, and that's what the Trump administration was trying to do. Or two, if they refuse to dismantle, they will have the centrifugees dismantled through warfare. Well, this morning, the Iranian regime announced it was not going to shut down even a single centrifuge. Instead, it was going to
build more. That they were hell bent on building more centrifuges, enriching more uranium, and they were on the path to a nucle weapon. And I got to say, Ben, the consequences of the statements this morning were Number one, there were a gigantic middle frank finger to President Trump. They were saying, we don't care what you say. We want nuclear weapons, and we're not gonna be dissuaded. We're not
gonna be deterred. But number two, they were a very clear message to Israel, attack us now, because we are barreling towards acquiring a nuclear weapon, and if you wait, you may find yourself with an enemy that has a nuclear weapon and that can detonated over the skies of Israel and kill millions of Israelis. And so Iran set us on this course, and the government of Israel is
acting to keep the people of Israel safe. But it is nonetheless an extraordinarily perilous time for Israel, for America, and for the world.
Sara, you just mentioned that this was inevitable, and it does feel like it was a long time coming, and there was a question of who was going to do it. Was it gonna be America, was it going to be Israel. Clearly now we know this is Israel that is launching this preempt to strike, and some would even argue this was long overdue.
Yes, and I will say President Trump announced on April twelfth, that Iran has sixty days to negotiate and agree to this sixty days. This attack was launched on June twelfth, Thursday, June twelfth, exactly sixty days after that. That is not an accident. Iran understood they had a timeframe, but you got to understand the Iranians when they negotiate, they want
to delay. They want to delay, they want to continue to reap the benefits of Joe Biden and the Democrats weakness and appeasement and fuel the money that they received into developing nuclear weapons. And so Israel made the decision. They made the decision they were going to attack. They were going to attack on exactly the sixty day expiration of President Trump's deadline. And I think that was driven by Iran beginning Thursday by saying we're not changing a
damn thing. We're gonna keep building centrifuges and effectively we want a nuclear weapon and there's nothing you can do to stop us. Israel acted to demonstrate that was not right.
Senator, I want to also remind people we do the show as a podcast, so you can grab it three days a week wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget subscribed to vertict with Ted Cruz. And let's get into what Netnya who had to say as well, Senator netna who came out and was and spoke very boldly, not just to the people in Israel, but also to the world.
So on Thursday evening, as the military strike was beginning, Prime Minster Netnyah who addressed Israel and addressed the world. Here's what he had to say.
Moments ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Uranian threat to Israel's very survival. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat. For decades, the tyrants of Tehran have brazenly openly called for Israel's destruction. They've backed up their genocidal rhetoric with a program to develop nuclear weapons. In recent years, Iran is produced enough highly enriched uranium
for nine atom bombs. Nine In recent months, Iran has taken steps that it has never taken before, steps to weaponize this enriched uranium, and if not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year, it could be within a few months, less than a year. This is a clear and present danger to Israel's very survival. Eighty years ago, the Jewish people were the victims of a holocaust perpetrated by the
Nazi regime. Today, the Jewish state refuses to be a victim of a nuclear holocaust perpetrated by the Uranian regime. Now its prime minister. I've made it clear time it again. Israel will never allow those who call for our annihilation to develop the means to achieve that goal. Tonight, Israel backs those words with action. We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear enrichment program. We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear weaponization program. We targeted Iran's main enrichment
facility in Atans. We targeted Iran's leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb. We also struck at the heart of Iran's ballistic missile program. Last year, Iran fired three hundred ballistic missiles at Israel. Each of these missiles carries a ton of explosives and threatens the lives of hundreds of people. Soon, those missiles could carry a nuclear payload, threatening the lives not of hundreds, but of millions. Iran is gearing up to produce ten thousands of those ballistic
missiles within three years. Now, just imagine imagine ten tons of TNT landing on a country the size of New Jersey. This is an intolerable threat. It too must be stopped.
You listen to Netnahu there, and not only was he very queer and direct, but it was I think a argument that if you're a sane person wherever you are in the world, and you're looking at the position that Israel is in with a Ran next door, they had no choice but.
To do this.
Yes.
Look, as you know, I know Prime Minister Netne who very well. He is a friend. We've spent a lot of time together. When he was in DC last month, he and I spent two almost two and a half hours together, just one on one. I will tell you, in the thirteen years i've been in the Senate, I've met a lot of world leaders. That's part of the job,
as you meet the leaders of foreign countries. There is only one who has taking my breath away, Prime Minister Netna, who the adjective I've used for him I've not used for anyone else is Churchillian. Because I think he has a seriousness of purpose. I think he has a gravitas. He understands that he is facing literally a threat to annihilate the people of his country, and he is committed
to doing everything necessary to prevent it. You know, I'll tell you when Obama was president, and when Obama was negotiating and announcing the Obama Iran nuclear Deal, which was catastrophically devastating, the House of Representatives invited Prime Minister Netna who to come and address a joint session of Congress.
And when that happened, I invited Ellie Wizel, who is the Nobel Laureate, incredible, incredible man, to come participate in a conversation with me on what the threat of a nuclear Iran was.
Now.
Ellie, he wanted it to be very mache bipartisan event. So I invited Chuck Schumer to participate.
He said no.
I invited multiple Democrats to participate, one after the other after the other. They sayed said no. Finally I told Ellie, no Democrat will participate. We did a gathering in the Capitol. We had over five hundred people come in the Capital. Listen Ellie Wizzel talk about his experiences seeing the horrors of the Holocaust, seeing the horrors of evil and Nazi Germany.
And I got to say when Ellie was l talked about never again means never again and the greatest threat of another holocaust on planet Earth is a nuclear Iran where these theocratic lunatics use nuclear weapons to murder millions of Israelis.
It was powerful.
It took my breath away to be sitting at the table with him. But it also spoke volumes that not a single Democrat was willing to be in the room. And I'll tell you about so. On that speech on the Senate floor, I was there. I listened to Prime Minister net Yahu's speech, which was powerful, it was incredibly important, and we saw a vast number of Democrats boycott the speech, refuse to attend. We saw that again when when when the Prime Minister addressed Congress more recently, and again Democrats
boycott of the speech. Kamala Harris boycott of the speech, refused to listen to the democratically elected leader of Israel. And it is a sad dynamic that today's Democrat party is dominated by the Prohamas faction. Today's Democrat Party isn't panic because right now, far too many of their radicals sympathize with Iran over Israel and that that may sound like hyperbole, but you know what we are going to see. I'm going to predict this, you and I. This is
this is early Friday morning. We are going to see Democrat after Democrat saying to Israel, un need to restrain yourself, not calling out Iran, but calling out Israel, because that is where the dank on Israel that party is.
Yes, Yeah, after the attack, they've came out and said they must show restraint, before they'd even been able to figure out what had happened in Israel're like, well, they need to show restraint, They must show restrained.
Everything the Biden administration over and over again said, do not kill the terrorists, do not kill the terrorists. They cut off weapons to Israel. The radical left in the Democrat Party hates Israel, and that battle is only.
Going to get worse.
One of the things I love about doing the show Center is moments after this attack took place Israel on Iran, you were actually on the phone with the ambassador from Israel. What did he tell you about this attack? How long had they been planning this, What was the final decision that made this happen in the last several hours.
Well, understand, this show happens real time. It happens real time in real life. You and I are recording this early in the morning Friday morning. This podcast will come out later in the day on Friday. So some of you will be listening to this on Friday, others of you will be hearing this on radio on Saturday or Sunday. And so the world may have changed forty eight hours. At the time when a war is initiating, it is
a mountain of time. What I can tell you is late Thursday night, as Israel was launching it its attacks, before Iran has engaged in a counterattack, I was on the phone with the Israeli ambassador of the United States and he told me that the attack at least so far, had gone extraordinarily well, that they'd taken out senior leadership of the IRGC. And I got to say, by the way, that's a huge victory for the United States of America.
The IRGC has murdered over six hundred American servicemen and women. They are grotesquely hostile to the United States, and for Israel to take them out, it has enormous bend fit to America. But at the same time, the Israeli ambassador told me that the instruction had gone out in Israel to the people of Israel go to a bomb shelter, either be in a bomb shelter or be very near a bomb shelter, because they are anticipating early in the morning Friday morning, that Iran is going to launch a
massive counterattack with ballistic weapons. And Israel has extensive anti missile defenses, but Iran has sufficient volume that if they launch everything, they have the capacity to overwhelm the defenses, and so there is a very real possibility. The people of Israel are braced. They understand. Look, look that they're not playing they're not playing games that they are playing
with real stakes. They're playing with live rounds. The people of Israel understand right now, as you and I are recording this, that we may see Israeli's die right now, because Iran has enough missiles that if they launched them all, there will be Israeli's murdered in the minutes and hours ahead of us. But at the same time, Prime Minister Netanyah, who made the decision, it's a decision I agree with.
It's a decision that I think was right, which is the risk of Israelis dying and of Americans dying if Iran acquires a nuclear weapon is qualitatively different that we could face. With an Iranian nuclear weapon, we could face millions murdered. And so listen, I want to underscore what I said at the beginning of this podcast. Pray for the people of Israel and pray for our servicemen and women in har harm's way, because this is a very very dangerous time.
Right now, Well, let's talk about who is targeted and what this looks like moving forward from the standpoint of Israel. I mean, the objective here is clearly to put them back when it comes to a nuclear program, but they also went after people that were involved in that program, which is a really big way to move things backwards.
Yeah.
Look, this was a decapitation strike. It was targeted the senior military leaders in Iran. It was targeted at the nuclear facilities in Iran, it was targeted at the anti air assault facilities in Iran. It was a very targeted but massively effective strike. Now Iran is going to strike back. Understand that that that's not a possibility or a probability it is a certainty that Iran will hit back. Now, what I hope Iran understands is they should not hit
back at America. Hitting back at America would escalate this dramatically. And I will say the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, he put out a statement Thursday night. Let me read his statement. Quote tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We were not involved in strikes against Iran, and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for
its self defense. President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners. Let me be clear, Iran should not target US interests or personnel. Now. Look, I'm glad that the Secretary of State was putting out that statement defending our servicemen and women. I wish there had been more in that statement saying we stand with Israel. That was missing from the statement, and it shouldn't have been.
From my perspective, we stand unequivocally with Israel. But I understand why the Secretary of State didn't do that, which is that he's concerned that Iran may strike at US military forces. Now, in my view, the way to prevent that is not to say to Iran, hey, we had nothing to do with That was the main theme of the Secretary of State's statement, but rather to say, if you attack US forces, the consequences will be overwhelming. I
think Iran responds more to stick than the carrot. But we shall see, and it is any way you look at it, on unbelievably dangerous time.
Senator, Let's talk about some of the people that have been taken out here. There's two aspects of these strikes. One, nuclear scientists are being reported that they were targeted and have been killed, and that is the brains of the nuclear program. If you want to stop Iran from doing this, taking out new nuclear scientists is absolutely brilliant. It's the computer system, the nervous system of everything they're trying to accomplish.
That's incredible. But we also now know from virtually every news agency is reporting this that the IRGC tear chief Salami, has also been eliminated.
That is significant as well.
Well. We now know that Hussein Salami is lunch meat, and I feel a little cheesy making fun of him. But then again, the guy is a racist, genocidal, homicidal, lunatic. So I hope after Salami, Beloni and Pastrami both get eliminated as well. And if you look at the head of the IRGC, he has responsibility for murdering over six
hundred US servicemen and women. So if you love the men and women of the Armed Services, if you are grateful for friends, family, loved ones who serve defending this nation, then you ought to say tonight to the nation of Israel, thank you, thank you for taking out the head of the IRGC that is responsible for murdering hundreds of American
servicemen and women. President Trump when he was president the first time, he took out General Solimani, and now today the Israelis have taken out Solami a successor who is the terror chief of the IRGC, and he is now with his seventy two versions. So that I will tell you, much to his dismay, those virgins are all Gomer Pyle and it's not what he hoped for.
I got to say. One of the best parts about this story.
Just side note, if you look up Insamami on his pages on the Wikipedia, it already says, he's like the former guy in charge of the IRGC.
I love the Internet when they get it right really quickly. Center.
It is amazing to see this moment in history, because this is a moment in history. And I got to ask you this, Aran now is going to respond. I'm sure in some way. I'm sure Israel is expecting that. You made it very clear to night America's warning and from this administration. What happens next and what is Israel expecting in your mind.
Well, it depends on the escalation. I think it is one hundred percent certain that Iran will respond by firing missiles at Israel. Israel gets that, they understand that they're ready for that. There is some real possibility that Iran will respond by firing missiles or other weapons at Americans. And I think if they do that, they will dramatically escalate this conflict. I think they will provoke. If they murder American servicemen and women, I think you will see
President Trump respond with devastating force. And so again my message to the IATOLA is, do not do that. Their response to Israel, I don't know what it will be. There is a risk that their response is devastating that it is overwhelming. They have a massive number of ballistic missiles, so if they fire them, all the odds are significant that we will see a very large number of Israelis murdered. What I'm saying, Prime Minister Netanyah, who understands he knows that.
He knows that, but by virtue of engaging this attack tonight, there's a real risk of a significant number of Israelis being murdered. But he did this because he knows that if Iran has a nuclear weapon, many many more Israelis and many many more Americans are at risk of being murdered. Look the iatola chance death to America and death to Israel. I believe he believes that, and so acquiring a nuclear
weapon is not just an academic question. If he gets a nuclear weapon, I believe he is trying to acquire one because he wants to carry out his promises of death to Israel and death to America. And that's precisely why Israel has launched this attack, to stop him from getting that capability.
I also center want to play for you what the Israeli ambassador the United Nations had to say on CNN earlier. Here is what he had to say when he was asked a couple of different questions about this.
Also joining me is Reel's ambassador to the United Nations. They need to know and ambassador, it's great to have you here, sir. Just first on the strike that we were seeing play out tonight and what this means should we now consider is real to be at war with Iran.
Now was very clear. We took a preemptive attack to defense ourselves, to defend ourselves, and we are targeting the nuclear facilities and the badistic mission centers in Iran. So we don't go into declaration now, we take actions. We decided not to wait for Iran to attack us with nuclear capabilities. We knew that they were plotting to do that, and while they were talking with many countries and negotiating, they move secretly with a military plan to attack as well.
And what we did was an act of self defense. And we have abilities, you know, Okayatelean. Eighty years ago when Oswitz was liberated, we required the support of the Allies to protect our people. But today we have our own stage, our own military, our own alfos, and today we are protecting ourselves from another holocaust.
I mean these are much wider than the preemptive strikes based on what we've seen so far, especially in terms of targeting around top military leaders as well as senior nuclear scientists, kind of a mass based on what we have heard, do you know how many of those those top military leaders and nuclear scientists and Iran the strikes against the more successful, how many of them have been eliminated tonight.
No, I cannot go into those details, but I can tell you one thing. Those people who were involved in the nuclear production, those who were putting together the ballistic missiles, there are targets. They are part of the machine that threatened as well in other countries in the world. You know, if you look back at attack that it well took, whether it was against the Iraq or see. Yeah, we try to develop a nuclear reactors. I think today everybody
can think it well for those actions. So maybe today some people I'm not sure about why we are doing it today, But down the world a few years from today, the world will thank you well for the action we took.
Today night the world will think Israel for the actions taking tonight.
Is that the big takeaway from all of.
This It should be, but understand that the pro hamas radical left in the Democrat Party is cheering on exactly the opposite side, So Ben Rhodes. Many of y all listening know who Ben Roads is. Ben Rhodes was a top national security official in the Barack Obama National Security Council. He is the lead architect of the Obama Iran nuclear deal. He is a hardcore leftist and tonight he's miserable. So Ben Rhodes. Late Thursday night, he tweeted out, quote, this
is all so unnecessary, all of it everywhere. Understand when Israel tax Iran to take out the nuclear capacities. Ben Rhodes, the leading national security official for Barack Obama is I think Ben is in tears right now. And listen. The Iran nuclear deal under Obama was a disaster. Under Joe Biden, their top foreign policy objective was to have another Iran nuclear deal. The only thing that stopped it as Iran
was so unreasonable they would not accept it. And there are so many in the Democrat Party right now that are cheering for Iran. I'll tell you what I'm cheering for America, dammit, And I'm cheering for Israel and people who are theocratic lunatics who say they want to murder us. I am not dismayed that we are seeing a military force stand up and take them out, and in particular take out their nuclear capacity. That is critically important. We do not want people who want to murder us to
have the tools to do so. And I think Israel's attack did enormous benefit to America.
You mentioned taking away their tools, and one of their tools was going after their scientists. I mean, this is the brains behind everything. This took a lot of planning and apparently as incredibly successful as well. I mean, this is taking out their nervous system, of the computer system, whatever you want to call it, for their nuclear program by going after the scientists.
It's absolutely brilliant, and they pulled it off.
They did, it was executed with amazing precision. Now it's early. Look, you and I are both talking early in the morning Friday morning. It is possible that problems developed later Friday, later Saturday, later Sunday. One of the challenges of doing a show like this at the beginning of military conflict is you don't know how things will shake out. But I will say this so Benjamin Etna, who is a strong conservative one of his predecessors as Israeli Prime minister
was enough Tally Bennett. Now enough Tally had been previously Netan Yaho's chief of staff. But then but then Bennett broke with nen Yahoo and ended up becoming prime minister himself, in significant part by opposing net Nyahu. But I want you to listen to this clip a former Israeli Prime Minister enough Tally Bennett talking about what this is all about.
Give a listen.
Well, israelis had a siren across the country indicating that Israel's air force is a conducting a prempt to strike against Iran's military facilities and perhaps also the nuclear facilities. I want to remind you that Iran's about a week away from being able to obtain the amount of enriched uranium for ten bombs. So this is not me saying this. This is the international nuclear community and the goal ultimately will be to remove the nuclear threat from the Middle East.
And sitting the head of the octopus of terror that's been causing all of the mess we've seen over the past couple of years in the region, I mean, there it is.
And I will say when today's Democrats in the Senate and House are to the left of that are saying do not attack Iran. And we're going to see I'm going to make a prediction in the hours and days ahead, we're going to see a massive rise in the attacks from the anti Semitic left. And the anti Semitic left is growing bigger and bigger, and so those who hate Israel will be really vocal. And unfortunately there's also a
contingent on the anti Semitic right. The anti Semitic right is smaller than the left, but both of them are absolutely wrong, and you're going to see online people say the Israelis are dragging us into war. I'm here to tell you the Israelis are acting to prevent war, to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, and those nuclear weapons could well be used to murder millions of Israelis or millions of Americans, and so Israel is acting in self defense.
And I want to be clear, America stands with Israel.
Don't forget.
Please make sure you share this podcast wherever you can on social media as we continue to stand with Israel. Also, we will to have the week in review. Maybe some of the big stories you missed this week will come out tomorrow as well. Hit that subscriber auto download, but in grab my podcast as well, the Ben Ferguson Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts, and the Senator. I will see you back here tomorrow for the week in review