Why Democrats Must Oppose Trump's Iran War

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Welcome to Plenty of America, I'm John Faber.

I'm John Levit, I'm Tom Edithor.

On today's show, we're at war with Iran, violence is spreading all over the Middle East,

against soldiers, or losing their lives.

The administration is struggling to explain why it's happening, and Democrats are struggling

to explain why it shouldn't be happening.

We'll talk about what we know and don't know, and where we are on all of it.

We'll also hear from Senator Rubin Gallego on how Democrats are responding and how he's

thinking about the midterms.

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All right, let's start with what we know as of Monday afternoon Pacific time about the

latest war that Trump and Netanyahu have started in the Middle East.

The US and Israel have been launching airstrikes in Iran since Saturday aimed at destroying

the regime's military capabilities and killing its leaders, dozens of whom are now dead,

including the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Kamini, Iran and its proxies have retaliated

with strikes against at least 10 other Middle Eastern countries, targeting US military bases

and assets, but also hitting airports and hotels.

The US and Israel have killed at least 550 Iranians so far, including at least 175 people,

mostly children in an Israeli strike that hit a girls elementary school in southern Iran.

Iranian retaliatory strikes have killed at least 10 Israelis, six civilians across the Gulf,

and now six American troops, with at least 18 other Americans seriously wounded.

Trump's initial reaction to the first American deaths of this war came in a pre-taped video

message. He released from his golf club on Sunday. Let's listen.

We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to

the families of the fallen, and sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That's the way it is.

It's the way it is. It's the way the cookie crumbles.

Trump's first live remarks about the war came on Monday morning during a medal of honor ceremony

at the White House, where he did not take any questions. What's listen?

Today they said, oh well, President wants to do it really quickly after that. He'll get bored.

I don't get bored. There's nothing boring about this. Do you agree with that, Pete?

I don't think there's anything, Mr. General. There's nothing boring about it. See that nice drape?

When that comes down right now, you see a very, very deep hole, but in about a year and a half

from now, you're going to see a very, very beautiful building. I picked those drapes in my first term.

I always like gold, but I think we can save a lot of money. I just saved curtains,

because I built many a ballroom. I believe it's going to be the most beautiful ballroom anywhere

in the world. And when you hear all that hammering out there, you know why the First Lady is not

thrilled exactly. When I hear that sound, that beautiful sound behind me, it means money,

so I like it, but my wife isn't thrilled. We are at war right now. He did say that after the

news that at that time four Americans were killed now, six. So you guys have any initial thoughts

on the seriousness and sobriety, with which the commander-in-chief is talking about a war that

is now killed Americans? How about a pill? So we've gone to several stupid wars in American

history. A bunch of Republicans launched a war preemptively in Iraq, and they tried to do it

in the most sophisticated way possible. They were also smart, and they had all no history, and they'd

had all the years of expertise and research to explain how that was going to be so easy and quick.

We would be welcomed as liberators. These were the smart Republicans. We were told. These were

the people that had really thought it out. They knew what they wanted. They knew their objectives.

They were willing to lie to get there, because they were so convinced of their point of view.

They had an ideology and they were going to pursue it to its end, and that turned into a disastrous

quagmire that cost thousands of American lives, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives,

unleashed chaos, were still dealing with the consequences of this group of fucking Yahos.

So glib, and virtually every way they talk about this, barely offering a rationale, the rationales

they do offer completely in conflict with one another from a golf club in Florida, while he's

wearing not enough to stay back at the office to launch the preemptive war in Iran, and we're

expecting this to go well with these fucking schmucks in charge. It's unbelievable. And the fact that

we can watch these sort of cavalier and second-rate people lead our country to war, and not only do

they do that, but they have the backing of Republicans in Congress. They have even Democrats in

Congress afraid to criticize them, or afraid to put their names either yes or no in favor of this.

Like the whole thing is such a kind of statement of like rot and decline. It is disgusting. I was

disgusted, and I like sort of watch it all happening over the weekend, and just sort of like I,

it was sort of, it's not just how awful these people are. It's the way in which it's treated.

They're treated with a level of seriousness in how they're approaching it when we can all see

with our fucking eyeballs that they're so in over their heads and unqualified and ridiculous in

how they handle it. That's where I'm at. Tommy, remember Obama responding to the death of American

troops by saying that's the way it is in a tape's message from Hawaii? We weren't always perfect

on the death of Americans, but yes, I know what you're saying. Like I have a stylistic and a

substantive critique here. As a communications matter, the fact that he launched a war on Saturday,

and then didn't comment on it until like live in person until Monday morning at an unrelated

event about just like a metal of honor. Need a war and a run topper for these remarks.

It's baffling. I mean, like after the event's oil operation, Trump did a press conference

immediately. Rubio was on all the shows. Like we're now we're just doing a video message from

your country club that does not suggest like confidence in the policy. And I think like big picture

over the weekend, I was consuming news and like doom scrolling. And then every once in a while,

I would just like get so angry that I wanted to scream because this is a war of choice.

And the first choice was 2018 when Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear agreement,

which Iran was complying with and would have prevented them from getting a nuclear weapon.

And it led to a series of choices that got you to Saturday when Trump launched a war of choice

that has now led to six U.S. service members dying and apparently a school full of girls

and Iran getting bombed. And like Iraq, this is a war of choice built off of a lie. Like we'll

get into the details in a minute, but there's no imminent nuclear threat. There is no imminent

threat of Iran having a ballistic missile that could hit the United States. There is this new

spin that they're on the cusp of creating a missile shield for their nuclear work. That is

totally bullshit. But this choice is going to get a lot of innocent people killed. We are going

to spend tens of billions of dollars at a minimum on weapons and it could play out for years.

So like I think the Neocons are back. Like we might as well have Dick Cheney in charge

given this policy. I was worried that over at the bullwork, Bill Crystal would be reactivated

like a mentoring candidate and all of a sudden his body moving in ways he doesn't totally understand

it as not a control of going back to the old Dick Cheney controls. It's very upset.

Good. It's very upset about it. It must be a conflict in there. I will say that it is mostly

stylistic, the communications, communications critique here. But there's something substantive

about it too, which is like, and we can talk about Obama, but it's like, I don't know,

George Bush, Biden, anyone. You send Americans to war. You talk to the American people about it

and you take questions from their representatives in the press. Like that's just what you do. And

the fact that they don't do that, the fact that he spent 300 words towards the end of a two-hour

state of the union on Iran, not even bothering to make the case, not bothering to make the case

in the lead up, not even bothering to try to make the case to the rest of the world,

not responding to any questions from the press about this, doing a couple of tape messages

from Florida while this is happening. It just goes to shit. They don't give a fuck what we think.

They don't give a fuck what anyone thinks. They think that they're in charge. They make the

rules and everyone else can go fuck themselves. Well, it also goes to the lack of any kind of

real congressional debate, any sense that Congress ought to weigh in as our representatives. Like,

yes, it's a process. Question is not about the substance of whether or not this is right or wrong,

but the way those things connect is in a democracy. We are supposed to weigh in because we understand

that the stakes of an action like this are very high. Trump's not really a details guy,

which is why he's left the nitty-gritty of explaining his government's rationale for starting

this war, as well as their objectives in Iran, to the substitute weekend Fox host who now runs

the Pentagon in between a push-up contest with the Health and Human Services Secretary.

Pete Hegseth held a press conference on Monday alongside the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

General Dan Raisin-Kane here are the highlights from Hegseth.

We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it. Turns out the regime

who chanted death to America and death to Israel was gifted death from America and death from Israel.

This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change.

No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise,

to the media outlets and political left-screaming endless wars. Stop. This is not a wreck.

This is not endless. What is our exit strategy here and when will it be deployed?

I would never hang a time frame from our perspective. The Commander-in-Chief sets the

opt-empo in terms of this fight. As I said, it's on his terms. What are our objectives?

And can you share more information on how the soldiers who were killed were killed?

I'm sure you're sure that they can't use that conventional umbrella to continue a pursuit

of nuclear ambitions. As it pertains to the U.S. casualties every once in a while, you might have

one, unfortunately, we call it a squirror that makes its way through. And in that particular case,

it happened to hit. Right before the squirter comment, which is a, that's going to be a hard one

to forget, Hegseth did lay out after a couple contradictory statements like endless war. Come on,

this is an endless war. So what's the time frame? I would never put a time frame on this war,

but he did lay out what's maybe the closest the administration has come to defining the military

objective in Iran. Tommy, what did you make of his answer there? How many times you think he

practiced those lines in the mirror in the morning as he was shaving? Too many like sing-songy,

just bad. Not a regime change war, but the regime sure did change. Death to America,

but we gifted them death to that. Not a regime change war, but the Israelis killed the supreme

leader of Iran, who was in charge of the country since 1989, and also seen as a religious figure

in the leader of the armed forces and the, you know, final say in all political decisions. But,

regime evolution, I guess, is what we're saying. Yeah, and that the attack is surgical and not

utopia. And however, Iran, take back your country, we're not just going to destroy their

missile capability or the nuclear capability, but their ability to, quote, project power,

right? So whatever that means. So yeah, the new line is that they're on the cusp of like

seemingly making so many ballistic missiles that they would have a, quote, conventional umbrella

that would allow them to pursue nuclear weapons. That's just, that's not a thing.

The country's got a nuclear umbrella. That means you can use a threat of nuclear retaliation

to deter attacks. That's what the North Koreans do. The idea that Iran could have enough

ballistic missiles to prevent the US from intervening to take out a nuclear program is just

made up bullshit and the magical force field. Yeah, and the reason you know what's made up

bullshit is because like the US and Israel over the past year have had their way with the Iranian

military whenever they wanted. They bombed them repeatedly and no, you know, conventional deterrent

has changed that. So I don't know why they're trying these new lines. I don't know whether

they're trying this bullshit out. The messaging changes are so stark like you were saying, like on

Saturday, we're talking about a regime change and the people rising up. Now that's gone. Trump's

like clearly has no plan for the future. He talked to like 10 reporters and one of them he was like,

oh, we got a list of three guys who should take over. Then he called another reporter. It's like,

oh, those three guys are dead now. So I they're just winging it. Yeah, why do you think

there's all these shifting explanations for the rationale for this war?

Who fucking knows? It's really, it is. Well, so Rubio also kind of underscored what Hegg said,

he said in Iran in about a year where you're in a half would have crossed the line of immunity.

I don't know what the line of immunity is. There's no such thing. They would have so many

missiles that they could hold the whole world hostage, which is of course quite a claim because I have

resuggesting that the Iranian conventional arsenal would have been unable to be defeated by

the United States of America. I don't think that's what our military would say about it. But then

okay, that's a year and a half. And so then he's asked, Rubio's asked, like, is it imminent?

And he says, yes, because we were aware of Israeli intentions and understood what it would mean for

us and understood what it would mean for us and had to be prepared to act as a result of it. So

he's saying it was imminent because Israel was going to strike imminently. And if Israel

striked Iran imminently, Iran would strike back at us. But Kane, the chairman of the Joint Chief,

says in that conference with Heggseth, that Israel acted on US intelligence when it did the

strikes against Iran's leadership. We were not only aware of it, we were instrumental to it.

And so the argument is now from directly from Rubio, we had to strike because Iran was going to strike

after we struck. Like that's where they're at. Which I feels like actually the closest to the truth.

Well, we talked about this in the last episode, but that random administration source, or it was

in and around the administration source, to Politico, that basically said the hope within the

administration was that maybe Israel would go first because then Iran would retaliate and we

could retaliate against Iran. And it turns out they thought that that was a possible scenario and

then said, yeah, instead of letting Israel go first, let's just go with them because that's

going to happen anyway. Yeah, that political leak was that they thought it would be better politics.

Right. For the Israeli strike first. And that was also insane. Yes, completely insane. And then

Rubio today, there was a leak over the weekend that there was an imminent threat, right? That the

US had to preemptively strike Iran because the Iranians were going to hit us or hit our bases

in the region and lead to a mass casualty incident. And who's that idiot over at CNN that

fucking Goober who's always yelling on the panels that I Scott Jennings tweeted this out credulously,

which was like not believable, not credible in any way. And what Rubio did today to clarify it was

to say, we knew the Israelis were going to strike, which meant the Iranians were going to strike

back. So we had to be involved on the front end to preempt that or keep American forces safe.

Which I think kind of like cuts out the step where maybe you could talk Israel out of doing

something that would put US personnel in the region at risk. Well, also you traditionally the

United States doesn't publicly say we are only going to full scale bombing across a Middle Eastern

country because kind of Israel drags us into it. Let's get let's get that inside. But on this

missile point, like the Iranians have a lot of missiles, but they do not have an ICBM. The

Defense Intelligence Agency did an assessment last year that found that if Iran decided to

have one, they could have an ICBM by 2035. So that assessment has basically been the same since the

90s that there are a decade away from having this technology. So the suggestion that that Iran

was on the cusp of having a missile that could hit the United States is a lie and it is undercut

by the US intelligence agencies period. It seems like all of these lies have all been undercut

by now too. It's like, you know, it's always like they throw out a bunch of lies at the beginning

and then they stop trying to defend them. Like because now now where we are is the Rubio rationale,

right, which is not an ICBM, which is not they were a week away from having a nuclear bomb or

nuclear material, whatever the fuck they were trying to say. It was not any of this. It was just,

well, Israel was going to do it. And so we decided to just go with Israel, which also by the way,

if you're at the Long New York Times piece and we can get into like how Trump got to this,

got to yes on war. It was BB Netanyahu who played a huge role here and the two of them were

talking about this since I guess December was the first time BB brought it up to Trump. And then

they kept talking about it and then Trump was going to go after the regime started murdering all

of the protesters and then BB was like, no, no, we're not quite ready yet. So just wait a little

bit and then we'll do it together. So this idea that like, oh, Israel just went, we had to we were

going to they were intent on going. And so we just had to go with them like BB and Trump were

planning it the whole time again. And just again, the chairman of joint chief said that Israel

acted up if that when Israel struck the leadership of Iran, they did it with US intelligence.

So it was with with our participation, we are instrumental to this happening. We are aware

that it is happening. That is a joint effort. So I don't understand how this is we had we

created. We had to the imminent threat was from the campaign we were starting. That's what

make it imminent. We are the imminent. I wouldn't think too hard about it. Yeah. I think there's two

I think the conflicting rationales come from like, I think the reasons were at war with the

runner, Trump's ego and Netanyahu. The ego point is I think Graham, Linti Graham, people like

that and the Neal cons are saying, take out Maduro, take out the Iranian regime, then we'll get

the Cuban government next and it'll be this grand historic figure. And Trump I think is seen like

capabilities of the US military. There's one story that said he thinks he has like godlike powers

that they have godlike powers and he wants to use them. And then there's Netanyahu who has been

pushing Trump really hard to act like you guys were saying and put out a statement, I think yesterday

saying this coalition of forces allows us to do what I've yearned to do for 40 years. He just

said it. So last June when I said, you know, I thought I feel like the United States got dragged to

war by Netanyahu, Jonathan Greenblatt at the ADL said that was anti-Semitism. And now this is

what Marco Rubio was saying and this is what Netanyahu was saying happened here, which is that he

talked the United States into joining him in this insane war of choice that doesn't actually directly

threaten the United States. Yeah, I realize there's a lot of folks, especially on the right to say,

you know, the Israeli government controls the US foreign policy and then people say that that's

like vaguely anti-Semitic and certainly anti-Zionist. But like in this case, it seems pretty clear,

the administration is saying that Israel helped. Now I do think Tommy to your point about Trump's ego.

I'm sure that BB fed into that during hit like what he's trying to make the case to Trump, right?

Because I'm sure BB's not just like, I really want this. Please do this for me.

For sure. For me, like, sir, you could be the greatest president of all time.

I also think that the Obama and the nuclear deal, theism is a big part too because they probably

told him that pussy Obama, he did this terrible deal and you can you can show him up by actually

showing that you did this the right way and it would be easy. And so I'm sure that Obama was a part

of it too. And did you read, I'm sure you read the New York Times story about this.

Vance of all people convinced Trump to do this because he was leaning towards. Remember,

he was thinking about doing a quick strike and then maybe saving the big one for later,

or he was going to do the big one. And Vance was like, well, if you're going to do it,

go big and go right away. And then Trump apparently after that meeting started thinking about

what Vance said and was like, okay, that was a good idea. Yeah. The other part of this too.

J.V. Vance, though, who wrote that op-ed the best part? What was the best part about Donald Trump

is he's not going to get us in any more form. Yeah, and then I do think part of this too is Trump.

You have Rubio out there saying they were a year away from having a hyper-advanced conventional

umbrella that would made them immune. But meanwhile, the lesson they took from operation,

I don't remember what the fuck. I mean, that fear at midnight hammer is that actually Iran's

capabilities are not something we have to worry too much about. They're actually in a weakened

position now would be the time right in the wake of these protests. Look, the idea that like

Benjamin Netanyahu with U.S. intelligence is not decapitating the entire Iranian regime

without U.S. if not encouragement per mission, right? And so even Rubio going out there and

saying, well, Israel was going to do it. So we had no choice. I always needed encouragement.

Well, I'm not saying they would need encouragement, but they're not going to start the campaign

unless they feel pretty confident that you support. Support, support, yeah. I mean, support,

right? And like, so Rubio going out there and saying, well, the Israelis were going to do it,

and therefore that was going to create some kind of imminent threat. I don't understand why in this

moment they feel the need to act as though they were dragged into it. Maybe that's in part because

of their own politics about not wanting to seem like they were just choosing a random day to

start a giant new conflict in the Middle East. Maybe they are worried about their own politics,

but that's the only way I can see to kind of undercut the idea that we weren't dragged into this

in part because Benjamin Netanyahu has been gunning for a war with Iran for the entire time he's

been in public life. Yeah, I thought another notable detail in that story was that Intel officials

had predicted that a popular uprising against the regime after a strike was a remote possibility,

which is interesting in that Trump when he first announced this was like, take your country back.

Yeah, I mean, just like a large unarmed population is just going to rise up against a security

forces. They have no plan. They're just winging it. Again, there's all these people talk about what

the options are. They're like, well, maybe there's a Venezuelan option where you find the vice

president. There's like a Delsea Rodriguez of Iran. I don't think that exists.

Iran has stronger power centers. There's air G.C. There's the Basit-Malisha. There's all these

groups that are armed and to tell an unarmed population to rise up and take those people on

is laughable. The people are going to get killed. Also, Iran, tens of millions of Iranians vote

for the hardline government. We see the videos of people in Tehran celebrating the death of the

Supreme Leader, but we don't know what the whole country thinks. And so the suggestion that

there's some uniformed opinion about what happened here that everyone will support what the U.S.

just did is just wrong. And then there are also like ethnic and religious minorities who might

see this as their moment to rise up and take the Kurds base. There's the Kurds. There's the

blue separatists. There's Sunni minorities. And so I'm sure there's some listeners like from

who are Iranian listening to this, like yelling at us through the phone, being like the regime is

bad. We need a regime change. And like, I hear what you're saying, but like, I obviously hate this

regime too, but like, it couldn't get worse from here. We've seen it happen before. And like,

that's the concern. And also ultimately, you're trusting Trump and Pete Hegseth to manage a war

with Iran, which seems bad idea to me. Taliban was a murderous, repressive regime. Saddam Hussein

ran a murderous, repressive regime. Like, Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Un. We don't go to war with

governments that aren't repressive and dangerous. So far, so far. Sorry, we used, yeah, used to.

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So looking forward Trump's been all over the map on what an exit strategy might look like and

has basically had a different answer for every reporter who has randomly dialed his number which

apparently happens quite frequently now. There's the, as Tommy mentioned, the Venezuela type outcome

where he gets his delsea Rodriguez of Iran who's willing to work with the US, I guess because

I don't know what they're promised. The oil money corruption gets them, gets degreased the

wheels there and then they just depress their people. There's also telling the Iranian people to

overthrow the regime entirely which as we discussed is pretty remote. And then it's like, well, maybe

if it's fine if we just degrade their military capabilities to the point where they can't cause any

real trouble for at least a few years, do you think Tommy that the administration is trying to be

strategically ambiguous? Is there any chance on the outcomes or do they just have no

fucking idea what they actually want? No, I mean, look, I sort of think I walk through a second

ago what I think. I don't think they have a plan. I don't think they have a plan for what comes next.

As Trump, you know, like we were saying before Trump called a reporter and said I have a short

list and then he said they're all dead to the next reporter he talked to. So even if they find

a delsea Rodriguez type, I think that person is likely to get killed by the IRGC or other

existing power structures unless we have boots on the ground to support that person.

Like just saying rise up and take your country back like that's not a plan. They're just winging it.

They don't know what will happen next. I think they're just letting rip. What are some of the

different ways this whole thing could go south really fast? I'm going to walk through some of those

aside from the fact that just, you know, more Americans could die in the prosecution of the war.

So what you feel from what Hegg said says there when he says like, you know, this is not a rock

and what Trump is saying. Like there's this idea that as long as we don't claim ownership of

the consequences, we're not going to be responsible for the consequences, right? As long as we don't,

we're not there. They're avoiding saying we will not put troops like boots on the ground.

They won't say that explicitly, but obviously they don't want to put boots on the ground and

all of their language around like this wasn't regime change, but the regime changed. Whatever,

whatever it is, it is around saying we're doing what we're going to do for their military

capacities for their capacity to put drones and do damage to our bases and our allies in the

region. Iranians are going to own the consequences of that, right? Like that's what they're

kind of saying. And whatever chaos comes next, if there's a civil war, there's violence in the

streets. If a new repressive regime emerges and puts down anyone who tries to fight it, whatever

happens next, like not our problem, not our problem, but of course it will be our problem one way

or another. We will be dealing with the ramifications of it. Our allies will be we will Israel

will be U.S. bases in the region will be the impact on oil and gas prices. We will live with

the consequences, even if you don't claim them. Yeah, Trump does not seem like he wants to live

by the pottery barn rule, opposite that. Yeah, opposite that. If you break it, sue the pottery barn.

For those of you who weren't alive during the Iraq war, that was, who said it was a colon

Powell? That said that. Yeah, the Powell doctrine, if you break it, you bought it. Not so for Donald

Trump. I mean, look, there's there's this concern that, first of all, we've already seen like

violence and chaos spill out, not just in the Middle East, but all over the world. We've seen

at our embassies in Pakistan, I see Iraq, Jordan, right? There's like protests outside the embassies.

There is this idea that like if Iran becomes a failed state, it's not only a haven for terrorism

and civil war, but it precipitates another refugee crisis. There's, you know, the oil shocks all

around the world, how many fucking tens of billions of dollars will this war cost the American

taxpayers? There's also like the idea of terrorist attacks against American interests,

American troops abroad. And even here, inspired terrorist attacks here, we saw a shooting in Austin

over the weekend. Potentially the shooter was sort of inspired by what happened in Iran. So,

this just like, and this is just what, a couple days into this thing. I mean,

Yeah, started on Saturday. I mean, Iran has decided to attack everyone. They're fired. They

think they've, there's been tax on like 11 countries or 12 countries. They're firing at all these

Gulf countries, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait. Some of those shots are fired at where we have

US bases, but some are just at like civilian infrastructure. And the Iranians use ballistic

missiles and then use these cheap drones called Shahed drones. It costs like 20 grand, 50 grand

a pop. They have tons of them. They could fly 2000 kilometers and they basically just like GPS

to a point and then detonate when they hit it. The interceptor missiles we use to take them down

are in short supply. And they're really expensive. So those things cost 20 to 50 grand. The Shahed

drones are interceptors cost million bucks, a couple million bucks a pop. And so we're running

low on them. The UAE is running low. Qatar is running low. And it's this whole thing is a big

war of attrition, which is to say, what's going to run out first? The interceptor missiles or

the Iranian ballistic missiles in drones. So like, that's a big thing we're all watching.

There's the economic cost, which is the Iranian said they would close the straight-ahir

moves. They haven't mined it, but they've been firing at ships. 20% of the world's oil goes to

the straight-ahir moves. They'll have a huge economic cost. And then to their allies, by the way.

Their allies also rely on the Chinese and everyone does. And then the longer this goes on,

the more likely there is to be civil war, sectarian conflict, some sort of failed state,

some sort of refugee flow. And again, we're talking about a country of 90 million people.

And the administration from Trump on down has repeatedly in the last couple of days since

this started refused to rule out boots on the ground in any like significant capacity,

which is also pretty terrifying. They won't rule it out. They won't rule it out.

Trump didn't just refuse to rule it out. His comments were very weird. He said,

I don't have the yips with respect to boots on the ground. Like every president says,

there will be no boots on the ground. I don't say it. I say probably don't need them or if they

were necessary. I don't know what he's trying to signal there. I could imagine a

commando raid that includes the US and Israel that is designed to get the H.E.U. or the nuclear

materials that they think are somehow buried somewhere. Beyond that, though, it's like, what are we

talking about? I really like so much of what this is is in response to the things they don't like

about Democrats, right? And they always felt like the date certain is around Afghanistan.

We're kind of projecting what we were going to do to our enemies. And so I am incredibly reluctant

to put troops on the ground not to like excluding kind of short sort of tactical, like deploying

small units to do small tasks. But boots on the ground Trump is clearly worried about it.

But he kind of feels as though in order to project strength, I'm not going to tell you what I'm

going to do. I need to have that is, I think, him trying to be kind of leave his options open to

not sort of first wear a scary option to the Iranians. Or it means we have boots on the ground

right now. And we may also have boots on it. And I think there's a very good chance that

they're like special forces contingents who are on the ground. And then maybe they're not,

maybe they're deployed under like title 50s. So it's then Iable and that's kind of what he's

getting out here. I agree with you that like in Venezuela, there were boots on the ground, right?

It was a very short term. And I think what J.D. Vance focuses on what Trump tries to focus on is

we're not doing long-term occupation in nation building. But I think the response to that is

it's not necessarily up to you. If Iran remains a threat, if they keep firing drones and missiles,

if this regime in some form or fashion stays in place and the threat is not gone,

the threat is not gone. These rallies won't see the threat as gone. So what then?

I mean also, you know, George W. Bush kept saying that they were going to get troops out of Iraq

by the spring and summer of 2003. Sometimes like these the intentions to not have boots like one

thing leads to another. And then suddenly you feel like, okay, well now I got to stay in there.

And now they're firing on us here. And now we got to put in more, I mean it's it's it's fucking slippery

slope. It was just like the arrogance of believing you're in control of events. You've launched

a war. It's destabilizing the world is a dangerous place. You're not in charge of all the consequences

you've unleashed. And you know, there's this sort of like kind of macho thing that Hegset does.

There's a way Trump gets kind of puffed up by the people around him. Like, but yeah, man like

managing delicate relationships with regimes that are despicable and murderous to try to get

deals to protect your interests while without destabilizing like it's it's it's it is unsatisfying

on some level. It is hard to live in the real world and accept constant compromise and like long

term strategic thinking where the outcomes aren't certain. But you choose that over instability

because you have respect for how dangerous the world can be. How much worse things can get

even against your best intentions? And there's just that is to me like that is the connection to

the from the way they talk to the substance, which is like these people are cavalier about

American lives because they are just not thoughtful or careful. They are like decadent about history

and we and and it is dangerous to have people like that and just charging moments like this.

Incredibly dangerous. All right, let's talk about how the politics of this war were playing out so far.

One joke I saw going around on Twitter this weekend was a good thing Congress isn't alive to see

this. That was good. Sure enough, with a few exceptions, the Republicans who run Congress are all

on board with whatever Trump wants to do in Iran. Democrats being Democrats have split into a few

camps. You've got your very pro-Israel hawkish types like your Josh Gottheimers and your John

Federmans who are so far fully supportive of the war that that's definitely a minority position

in the party. You've got progressive Democrats and even a lot of mainstream Democrats like Ruben

Gallego who love it talk is going to talk to later. John Assoff, Tim Cain who've come out

strongly opposed to the war and then you've got the most Democrat response of all from a group of

Democrats who start their statements with a lot of throat clearing about how the Iranian regime is

bad. You must you must prove that you are not grieving the Ayatollah with your first couple

sentences because someone out there apparently there's apparently a bunch of liberals out there

grieving the Ayatollah that we I haven't seen them but they're out there and we've got to condemn

them and we got to make sure that we're not grieving for the Ayatollah. Every statement has to start

with Iran is Brad and that's where it goes. And then after you you do the throat clearing about

how awful and terrible and oppressive and murderous the regime is then you've got to mainly criticize

Trump for not consulting with Congress first and then you kind of just do a bunch of melee

mouth shit from there. You think some of these Democrats are scared of the politics here and if so,

why? I don't know why they would be scared of the politics. Like this is not a popular war that

there's not a close to a majority of people who want this war not Democrats not independence.

I think like what I want from Democrats is go after the war on the merits not on the process.

The process ship has sailed. Focus on what's happening here which is Trump lied about the threat.

Trump the Iran was nowhere near close to getting a nuclear weapon. He's lying about the threat from

Iranian ballistic missiles. They are nowhere close to hitting the United States. Hammer him on

that. He lied and then talk about the cost. Now six service members are dead more gravely wounded.

It's going to cost us tens of billions of dollars. No one wants to be spending money this way.

It's not a popular thing to be doing. And then I think we should just highlight the chaos around

the world. Like since this action the the war is not happening in Iran. It is terrorizing populations

in Israel and Lebanon and the Gulf. American diplomats are less safe. Embassies are getting overrun.

Americans either the gunman in Texas might have been inspired by what happened in Iran.

Like Trump is making us less safe. And like just hammer him on that. Go talk about the substance.

Yeah. As gay ago about this and he said the same like we should be focusing on like

why are we at war with Iran? Like why what was the goals? What is the objective? Why is it worth

risking American lives in this moment for this conflict? And all these people that are defending

this, if you would ask them a year ago, would you like to see the US in a regime change war with Iran

in the next year? They'd all have said no. They don't said of course not. And no one wants that.

And no one saying that the Republicans want that should be believed. We never would want that.

Of course not. But now that it's here and it's happening, all these people feel obligated

on the Republican side to support it. And then Democrats who I think there are some that I think

genuinely feel they're there are I think we're locked in both because of the politics and because

on some level they support the policy and they know that those politics aren't good either right.

Like they don't want to support the policy. I think on some level they're like you know what?

I wouldn't have done it this way but I hope it works. And I don't want to go out there and say I

think this is a bad idea if they can remove the IOTOLA. There's two flavors of that. There are some

who just quietly do actually want to see the Iranian regime toppled and a lot of them are kind

of the closest individuals to APEC for example. And then there's the other group, the old folks

of which there are many who think about like Gulf War I in 1991 and the people who were against

the first Gulf War and looked felt like they look stupid afterwards when it was popular and

successful and had 90% support. It's just like have we not lived through enough of these wars

that we're still thinking and responding in the binary here which is like oh well so then if

you're opposed to this you must love that Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism

around the world and has killed Americans and has destabilized the region because if you if you're

against that then you'd be for this war. There's no like oh yeah I want to see the Iranian regime

toppled too. I don't want to see the fucking IOTOLA there. I don't want to see a murderous regime

in Iran. I hope that like you know the hamburger from heaven falls from the sky and takes out the

whole regime and then democracy flourishes in Iran. Yeah of course that isn't that is something to

hope for. There's some obviously some stone cold moron at the free press tweeted if you call yourself

a progressive and you're not even a little excited by the prospect of a woman hating gay hating

Jew-hating Neanderthal regime that in no way represents the will of its people being crushed

you're not actually a progressive so like that. So whenever saw the IOTOLA pride.

So put on your progressive checklist Medicare for all death to the IOTOLA like what are you talking

about? No it's okay to talk about the downside risk of a regime change war of choice even against

a bad guy. Yeah look sometimes when you're trying to murder an 86 year old IOTOLA you have to also

kill over a hundred young schoolgirls. Yeah and that's just the way and I guess if you're a progressive

who likes women's rights don't you boy oh I guess that doesn't work there huh. We have to ignore

all the other fucking ridiculous. Well it's just this thought that like that after a couple strikes

that democracy is going to flourish in Iran and there's going to be no cost to do that like

what the fuck are we talking about here? We just did this in Iraq and like it starts out

less popular than any previous conflicts in part because there was no debate like the country's

waking up you know the country's Friday night you know people are like what what we're at war with

Iran but it's the weekend like there's just like no debate about it whatsoever we learn about it

from the press over the weekend the president doesn't give a big speech as you said

and like if it starts out in this way and then you look at what people say and they say well like

you know I'm there there is ambivalence in the polling for sure like that that's always there

because people don't like the Iranian government but you say like always it worth

American lives no the sports starts to drop is would you be okay with continuing the conflict

if gas prices are rising no they they wouldn't people aren't in people weren't in the market for

sacrificing American lives and our tax dollars and having the economy be hurt for a war with Iran

in part because no one ever made the case for that no one ever signed up to make that sacrifice

as a nation that just didn't happen. Just read out some of the polling there's been a bunch of

so far what stood out to me watching a post at a poll they did a thousand person poll they also

did that thing where they they text them as well um 39% strongly or somewhat support that was at

52% strongly or somewhat opposed in fact strongly opposed was 39% so the number that strongly

opposes the same as total strongly and somewhat support why are we there they ask people why

are we there to take control wins at 14% unsure is uh in second 13% regime change at 12% stop them

from getting nuclear weapon at 9% getting their money and oil at 9% distract from the Epstein files

at 8% and then at the very bottom protect the United States at 7% coming in coming in after

distract from the Epstein files they have not really uh sold people on a clear vision for what

we're doing here there's also a they ask are you concerned about a full scale war 74% concern 25%

yes we're at we're having a full scale world that's the next question i know with i think i

think maybe when the strike started they were like maybe it's a few strikes who knows i don't know

but i know i had the same thought about that uh what is full scale i i do think like if you want

like the generous interpretation or sort of whatever to give it meaning would be soldiers on

the ground fighting on the ground in Iran yeah and then Reuters did a poll only but they found

only a quarter of Americans approved the strikes among Republicans the total was 55% still not that high

and 42% of Republican voters said that they will be less likely to support the Iran campaign

if it leads to US troops in the Middle East being killed or injured well there you go that has

happened now yep so that is the point i just like here's the thing if you're a Democrat and you're

i mean chummy you brought up the the George the first Iraq war with George Bush right so let's say

for principled reasons you come out against the war uh strongly right now and then i don't know uh

trump somehow gets the scenario where uh the regime falls or they get some other Iranian leader who's

in the regime to actually start working with the United States and being more pragmatic and it's not

full democracy in Iran but it looks more like i don't know Saudi Arabia one of these Gulf monarchies

or something and it's not great but it also doesn't like threaten the rest of the world and you were

opposed to the war i don't know what do you think it's going to happen you think you're going to

lose your next election you think that when when someone says that you weren't for the war that was

like that left sort of an okay middleing situation that we don't know about you think that you're

real like yeah well i didn't want to go to war and risk american lies in the war you think that's

going to be a problem for you in politics like i don't think that's going to be a fucking political

problem just say what you believe if the United States were attacked and Donald Trump uh responded

to some kind of an attack by taking the country into war and then there was a congressional

vote and it got behind it i would be terrified to have Donald Trump in charge of our military

during a time in which we had were dragged into a war truly if that were the situation actually

brought into a war that we didn't choose Donald Trump should be impeached and removed from

office for his various crimes he's the most corrupt president in american histories uh profiteering

off the office he is uh destroying and lawlessly um like dismantling government agencies unleashing

icies uh spending money without congressional approval he is a menace who is abusing his office

every day of course you should not support Donald Trump uh choosing to take our country to war because

he should not be in charge of our military should be nowhere near any of these authorities it's

great crime as a shame of history that he is in this job and that we have not been able to uh keep

him from returning to it and the fact that when even when Donald Trump is president you can't

muster the ability to say no i'm not in favor of going to war with Iran i will vote no if there's a

war power resolution i will vote no if there's an authorization for the use of force we are certainly

not uh it is not necessary for us to go to a war with Iran right now and certainly i would never

support giving this president even more authority than he's already had an abuse like the fact that

we can't make that it's ridiculous what we're talking about Donald Trump is prosecuting a war that

we did not have to fight and democrats a lot of them are afraid of their own shadow to come out and

just say this is fucking stupid and dangerous like that is ridiculous ridiculous putting everyone

down for a no out i think it's really unbelievable and then and then these fucking like all these guys

like obtusely saying i don't see how anybody can uh like how anybody can watch what's happening and

not be just proud and not just be proud but i mean it's like why can't we know fairman's like why

can't we just be celebrating what he is just insufferable kind of like well why don't you answer your

own question what do you do this performative performative idiocy this sort of like fake obtuse

ness where you pretend to not understand that there's a very legitimate argument against what you're

saying from colleagues you see every day and presumably have some respect for i mentioned that

republicans in congress support the war with a few exceptions rand paul tomas massi basically

beyond congress at least so far beyond congress there are plenty of maggot influencers who aren't happy

about this war and have already criticized trump daily wires matwalsh the federalist shan davis

which is some new ones there um steve bannon there were also reports that tucker krulson had been

personally lobbying trump not to attack do you think these guys eventually get on board or at least

just sort of quiet down or do you think this could be a problem for trump and further down the road

vance i think bannon tends to get on board matwalsh and shan davis probably will too i i think i

don't think tucker will ever get on board he's inconsistent about opposing the war in rand since

last june and did not come around when others came around it's our praising trump for midnight hammer

i also think look tucker knows his audience and he knows there's a big mega audience out there

for folks who want to hear criticism of regime change wars and some of it has to do with us

support for israel and he will be making the case the netanyahu pushed trump into going to war

and he's going to have a big i told you so he's got a good case it's going to he's going to play

that rubio quote uh over and over again today and have the big i told you so um but like i think

you know the jd vance element of him not only no longer opposing regime change wars but pushing

for the biggest boldest version of them i do think will harm him in the long term if uh you know

magas isolationist street continues to grow yeah i don't like i don't even if some of these people

get back in line i just i actually think the comments from rubio today will be really important

there's just going there is a big overlap between the america first anti-interventionalist mindset

and the conspiratorial anti- israel mindset the fact that now we have the secretary of state

basically saying we had to do this because israel uh was going to bring us into this will like have

a life of its own in those spaces and there'll be people that will go back to trying like

nothing nothing anti-Semitic is true and if it's true it's not anti-Semitic and so like if

this is what what rubio is saying like it's going to give a lot of purchase to that argument on that

that and and like that is going to have a lot of of power and i don't care what the republicans

and congresses are powerful influencers say i think from the bottom up people are going to be

enraged by this

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Two of the related stories before we get to love its interview with Gaiego first we talk last

week about Pete Hegseth threatening anthropic because the AI company won't let the government use

Claude their AI model from mass surveillance on Americans or fully autonomous weapons turns out

anthropic held firm and Hegseth carried through on his threat except he didn't decide that the

government just wouldn't do business with anthropic anymore he designated the company as a risk

to national security and essentially blacklisted them saying that quote no contractor supplier or

partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with

anthropic this decision is final unsurprisingly Elon Musk's X AI which makes GROC and then Sam

Altman's open AI which makes chat GPT agreed to Hegseth demands anthropic has pledged to fight

the government in court over Hegseth's decision anyone want to go off on how insane this is

yeah I mean just like again anthropics had to ask one was don't use our software to do bulk

mass surveillance of American citizens and then it was don't use it in autonomous killer robots

yet because it's not good enough yet yeah they can't do it yeah it wasn't even like that clear

of a moral stand you just said the AI wasn't ready and so it's not I'm sorry you're right that was

France right and so we we we learned over the weekend that uh honestly don't beat yourself up

over Claude Claude was Cla your fine just kill away you felt something strongly and you went for

the drone wasn't going to fly itself uh it turns out it was so Claude they used Claude against

in the Iranian operation over the weekend we learned somebody reported that but in response like

you said two things happens one the Trump administration they didn't just like pull Claude out of

their classified systems they're trying to destroy the company like designating them a supply chain

risk is crazy that is what the United States has done to Huawei a Chinese state backed telecommunication

system could provide a backdoor for the Chinese you know spies to get into all of our communications

and Kaspersky labs which is a Russian anti-virus company which you know you probably don't want to put

Russian anti-virus software under computer and then also that craving craving fucking dork Sam

Altman and open AI just swept in to gobble up the contract afterwards just to show that he is the

most amoral money focused like deplorable little schmuck so the the position of the pentagon is

that uh and thropic is so essential to our national security that the government can dictate

how its product is used and it can't be stopped by and thropic but also it's a national security

threat at the same time it can be banned from every company doesn't really make sense don't know

that that'll hold up and the great thing about a democracy is the Secretary of Defense don't get

to decide when decisions are final uh so uh good luck with with that the the issue here is like

okay and thropic in this case is at least publicly as far as we know like what they're demanding is

pretty reasonable it is more ethical than what the pentagon is suggesting that the pentagon argument

is uh all we have to ask of our contractors is that you know we're going to we use your product we

will follow the law but the law right now is not caught up to what AI is going to be capable of

it's not caught up to what AI can do right now they're not laws they're really governed this

certainly not at the national level that said like I know I don't think anthropic should be uh

making decisions about when and how our military uh can use AI I'm pretty uncomfortable with this

administration making those decisions like the the these are real these are novel issues like I've

seen people saying like well if uh if Raytheon makes a missile Raytheon doesn't get to decide how

the pentagon uses the missiles like okay that's an analogy you can use for AI if you want AI

like a missile now uh it's these are genuinely difficult and new and very like scary questions

about how AI is going to be deployed inside of our military they're meant to be taken seriously and

carefully and debated over time and instead we have uh like a a dunce fox news host making

domineering kind of sneering threats at the company you have kind of opportunistic

valueless people like Altman and Musk trying to come in and kind of take their market share and

kind of punish their adversaries meanwhile so it seems we're we're sort of like kind of uh

sleepwalking into employing a new and incredibly powerful technology that we don't fully understand

in charge of uh life and death decisions inside of our military so uh like it's the same response

to this is to to the fucking war on the whole like these are people that are not responsible enough

to be helping us figuring out how to make these difficult decisions over the long term.

I mean it's also that what this says is if you start a company and you create a product or

technology that the government decides it wants to use and you don't want it to use it the way

that they want to use it because it will create or could lead to a great harm potentially catastrophic

civilizational collapse. Yeah there's tremendous great government day kind of stuff. Yeah that's on

the table I suppose. The government can just come and destroy your company that's what it is and

so here's one reaction quote this is simply attempted corporate murder. I could not possibly

recommend investing in American AI to any investor. I could not possibly recommend starting an AI

company in the United States. That is from Dean Ball who wrote the Trump administration's AI

action plan. Yeah it's something that these guys just have to go to like defcon 5 on everything

everything has to be all out war they can't just have a difference of agreement a lack of alignment

with the ontropic and say okay well we're just going to part ways on the use of this software

they have to destroy the company. Well the other like the and in the long term issue right is what

if they're worried if they're worried about master values they're worried about these tools

autonomously deciding like on targets and things like that you know one protection we have had

against master valence is just the amount of data just the amount of data that's been encryption

and the amount of data right like just there's vast vast amounts of encrypted data that's hard to

get at and there's just too much that's collected for human beings to parse like that's a protection

and AI says there's actually a world in which you don't to worry about anymore because it can

process vast amounts of data far beyond anything we can imagine today and the fact that they are not

willing to make so even even a temporary kind of willingness to say these will not be used in that

manner and if they are we under control of Congress anything to that effect they just want to kind

of dominate and say no you don't get to tell us we will do whatever we want but it just tells you

what kind of people these are and and like we are going to have to have this debate we will have to

do it when they're gone I suppose but like it's this is a frightening moment given how like

how much like it just doesn't take much imagination to see where this goes and we just don't have

the right people to have that debate uh another authoritarian news uh trumps billionaire political

allies just expanded their regime friendly media empire to include among other properties

CNN the elephants finally won their bid to acquire one of brothers discovery by overpaying

for it and offer that Netflix couldn't and wouldn't beat uh the result is that paramount

skydance under the leadership of the elephants and Barry Weiss their favorite conservative journalist

will now control both CBS news and CNN over the weekend uh Weiss responded to a tweet criticizing

Zoran Mamdani's opposition to the war in Iran with a fire emoji because she's a straight shooter

respected on both sides yeah there's also a tweet from CBS um referring to like Iran's nuclear

weapons which they don't have and they've never had i think uh CBS um this weekend the sunday

show had like all pro war voices on its panels so good stuff i don't watch a lot of cable news

anymore i i imagine you guys don't really there we have it on the office but like when i'm at home

except for times like this like when there is a war when there is a crisis i'm putting on CNN

where i'm putting on ms now because they're doing real-time reporting they have people like

in Tel Aviv you can see the missiles falling they people in Lebanon they like right like that

that is invaluable in the time of crisis and like the idea of Barry Weiss kind of thumb in the

scales at all times on all the news gathering is is really unnerving with bigger picture

i'm more worried about the tiktok us operations now being majority owned by oracle uh

another else another else than thing the silver lay capital they're like conservative backed

investor group and then um gx and abudabi based investment company right like i think that's

going to be more impactful in terms of their ability to impact sentiment about politics in this

country and do it secretly but yet sucks well there they're hitting every demo every age group

that's for sure what uh look what i'm moved by Netflix you're just going to get a couple of billion

dollars uh for having just kind of negotiated up this deal to a crazy degree and like kind of

thirsty fucking paramount paying just a huge huge premium to take on this like like asset like

cnn like uh whatever it's ideology like it's kind of like i don't know what the future looks like

but they have a lot of they have a lot of threats at cnn that aren't um the free press in Barry Weiss

so like i worry too about my bigger worry is the same as Tommy's which is like okay there's all

like whatever that the specific like kind of ideological tilt of cnn over time i hope the independent

journalist and anchors there get to continue to do what they do i hope that like the places that

have a strong culture like hbo don't suddenly have to run like anti woke versions of their shows to

to go along with like whatever industry more than that i just here's a just a sort of a drip trip

trip of like okay now you get tiktok isn't be controlled by uh right wing allies cnn is controlled

in that way fox news of course always was and like bit by bit you kind of lose these access access

points and the noise and all the kind of churn in the algorithm even if you are independent

you're kind of like kind of stuck in that uh to reach people as well so it's just a sort of bad

sign bad sign it is bad sign it's bad sign yeah well and you know authoritarian takeovers of uh

the media aren't always neat and tidy and just coming in and shutting them all down and having

state media and stuff like that you get you know what happened in uh orbonds hungry as well

right they start you get a few that there's a direct state tv and then you get some that are the

billion the you know leaders billionaire friends that own the media stations and it's just you

know so that's what they're trying to do they're trying to cobble together yeah regime friendly

media empire here is little tiktok little cbs will cnn they're just i do think they'll fail

ultimately i do like i just this is not hungry and we're a big fructose country with a lot of

different ways of getting information and one of them is crooked media crooked comm slash friends

please subscribe yeah like well i mean you're not if you're but if you are but like seriously if

people are subscribed to what we're doing right the algorithm matters less they're gonna get this

they can share this with other people like it will be incumbent on people to build an alternative

that we want to be a part of like that's real all right when we come back from the break you'll hear

love its conversation with senator rumen gaiego about iran and how democrats are doing including

today's center primary in texas where jasmine crocket and james taleriko are facing off we'll be right back

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joining me now to discuss this weekend's airstrikes is Arizona Senator Ruben Geiego

Senator welcome back to the pond thanks for having me so let's just start what are your initial

reactions to the strikes in Iran that began over the weekend and the deaths as of this recording

of six us service members in the campaign just what what your overall responses to it well before

coming on here i was just reading a statement that Rubio said that we had to attack because

Iran was about to was going to attack as they were about to be attacked so basically what Rubio

is saying is that israel was attacking uh because good attack Iran and because israel was going to

attack Iran it was the assumption of this country that we had to also join the on the attack so

we're essentially giving up our war making our war making decisions to another country i mean

did everyone did anyone even try to say hey don't do that did someone try to tell nenya who

like you're going to start a you know a regional war that we don't want to be a part of right now

or that we just now are we just now wanting nenya who didn't make these decisions for us

like what what is going on here whatever happened in america first i get and i'm the kind of guy

that understands like you know i actually do believe israel is an ally i do believe we should

you know help protect israel i in our allies but this is not this is ridiculous we lost six men

in women so far and i'm not sure there was a what kind of pre planning and planning was actually

created enough in enough time to actually be able to even execute this correctly like right now

i'm hearing that our stockpiles are running low and it takes forever for us to redo and rearm

ourselves all because israel wanted to take a chance at the fact that you know you know i ran was

was weak and we just had to follow them through if this is actually what happened this is what

mercury would just said to everybody that is an an absolute abdication of leadership by trump

and by everybody in his cabinet the fact that we were basically pushed into the war

by israel that was that is not what should be happening at all that is not our national interests

and you know now there's six men six men and women dead i don't know how people injured

who knows how much of our are you know depleted uh you know stock is now gone that we're

how much of a stock has been depleted how much is going to be drawn away from europe and from

from asia where it's needed all because we decided that we need to hand over our foreign policy

to net yeah who it's just disturbing and and disgusting yeah so i was actually going to play

the clip but you just you just sort of got into it uh before i created sort of a show no no no

it's a shocking it's a shocking thing to hear in part because there've been so many different

rationales for doing this so uh you have rubio basically saying the reason we had to do this

is we were preemptively preventing further damage because israel was doing this but

certainly uh Donald Trump would not say he's being uh led into this by Benjamin Netanyahu he said

that on that they were trying to it's at times a regime change operations a time it's not a regime

change operation at times it's about the nuclear program it's at times it's not what what do you

make of the shifting rationals well the rationale is probably rubios actual ration was a real reason

and now they're coming up with the actual other reasons because they know that that's not good

reasoning they know that even people that are pro israel that they want to see you know israel

continue as a sovereign state that know that that is not what americans want to hear and that we

just got involved in another middle east uh you know war because netanyahu decided that this is

the best opportunity for israel what does that have to do with our national interests how does what

like what how is this worth the the blood of our our men uh and and women and you know that is the

rationale and now they're going to come up with all these other rationalists because they're going to

try to basically make it uh you know easier because it's not the democrats are going to have problems

now it's their america first base that are going to have problems with i've never heard of any other

country essentially having to react in that manner and use their their you know their national

you know prestige you know their weapons there you know they're the whole uh you know war making

capability because another country is starting a war and therefore we are going to have to

react it's somebody even try calling our ran saying like hey this is not us we're going to be staying

out of this like no we just decided that we're going to let netanyahu choose our wars this is

it's very disturbing to me there is very disturbing everyone should be really mad about this and

I don't think this is not a like a left right issue this is not this is not like are you a pro israel

person or are you you know whatever these other people are right this is like the the fact that

our country gave up its war making that the the gave started inflicting damage on another country

because of another country's decision that is not that is not leadership that is not what you

want to see leadership doing it it's absolutely horrendous so uh there is a debate and you're right

there there is a divide that isn't like strictly democrat versus republican that's playing out in

Congress these strikes were carried out without congressional authorization you've said the Senate

should not hold any votes until it votes on a war powers resolution but uh as of this moment

of war powers resolution uh wouldn't have the votes to pass so so what it what what would be the

value of having a war powers resolution when the outcome would be uh rubio and trump and all these

people holding up and saying see they couldn't disapprove it and therefore they approve it

well we have so we do know that there's one coming up i think tomorrow or the day after so at least

we know that there is um i do think we also need to have a very uh different approach to this this

is not a very popular uh war like let's just put it very plainly it's it's only supported by about

30 percent of the population of this country it's deeply unpopular with the kind of the mag uh

base of the republican party the value in this would be that there is men and women put on record

that will have to go forward and defend this when they go home during recess and i think there's

going to be a lot of people um that are going to have a very tough time doing this especially now

that we understand the rationale the real rationale behind this right um there was no imminent

threat to uh our country imminent threat means that it was it was going to happen what we just heard

from you know Marco Rubio was essentially that we were going to get attacked because someone

was going to attack they were going to eventually attack us and it was therefore we decided to

pre-emptive attack like in what world world does that word sell it actually justify us going to

warn risking our men and women and that's what we we have to put on the record when it comes to

republicans uh and some democrats uh coming up pretty soon so one argument and it's an argument

that senator chris murphy uh has been making is a war powers resolution gets it a little bit

backwards it suggests that somehow the vote would kind of retroactively suggest support from

congress when what's actually needed is an authorization for the use of military force a failed

war powers resolution the the absence of disapproval is certainly not approval that really what we

ought to be doing is having a congress that asserts the president cannot conduct war without a vote

in congress that authorizes the use of force as we did in Afghanistan and as we did in a rock

when he was about he's right but if we in the majority we have that but that's uh like an AUMF

is not a privilege resolution i'm sorry i'm getting all dorky with you guys no no it's fine but

that's the reason why we're doing we're doing a war wars power because that's the that's the only

option we have that will actually bring a vote to the floor because if we try to choose AMF

then it has to go through the process and they're just going to kill it in committee right

but if you do a war power resolution it has to it gets to skip all the bullshit that the

republicans can use to actually slow it down and yes you're right it doesn't immediate end it but

it does put certain timetables that actually restrict at least some of that executive power so

no this is not the best solution at all but it's the only solution that we have when the democrats

are in the minority in the majority there's actually a lot more power we have but we have to do what

we can with what we can right now and this is actually the best kind you forces debate by the way

you force the you have to you take up time on the schedule it actually forces you know the the

conversation the national conversation to to focus on this but the senator Murphy is not wrong

it's just that that's not an option that we have immediately so political reported over the weekend

that some republicans in congress are hoping to use the conflict as a way to pressure democrats

around the department of homeland security claiming that the military action in Iran

increases threats and therefore it ought to increase pressure on democrats to fund dhs that's

been held up because of what ice has been doing are you buying that is there any truth to that argument

how you respond to that when they when all the FBI agents that are now looking for immigrants at

home depot go back to their desks when the hsi goes back to looking for money launders and especially

international drug cartel money launders and and potential terrorists go back to actually doing

their jobs and actually doing money laundering instead of looking for you know women and children

at bus stops when they actually start you know deploying you know as all these ice 45 day trainees

to the border to help make sure that no terrorists are crossing over the border then we could be

serious about this but right now dhs has 175 billion dollars more money than the marine

core they have enough money so matter of fact they have enough money they could be using a lot of

these guys to doing a lot other things for example you know backfilling the ATF right now

the ATF right now doesn't have enough men even to do a lot of the background checks that you need

the guy that shut up potentially the tears that shut up people in Austin bought a weapon legally by

the way if there was a fully staff FBI ATF they may have been able to flag that this guy was potentially

dangerous but where's ATF right now either they've been fired because of political reasons and

by the way also a lot of FBI agents that specialize in terrorism have been fired or they've all been

put as provisional ice agents and instead of them doing the things are really good at like background

checks investigations trying to track down you know bombs you know weapons things of that nature

they're chasing you know migrant workers through the fields and trying to hit the Stephen Miller quota

so these guys aren't serious right they're not serious about national security if they were

serious about it then these people would all go back to the work where they're supposed to they

actually keep it to keep our country safe they just want to actually put public pressure so they

could get their way and they could get an extra 30 billion dollars on top of the 175 billion

dollars they already have to go and do these massive portations and hit the the Miller quota they

want every day so I saw you endorsed main Senate candidate grand plan or this morning what why why

would you let you to jump on the planter train there's the planter planter some of that look

the planter planter right now we're in war right you know as a matter of fact grabbing I actually

were in Iraq at the same time he was down closer to Fallujah I was up closer to the Syrian border

we we need veterans that actually understand it number two jenny mills can't win

it's just that simple like there's no way that we we're gonna get jenny mills to actually win

in a year when people want you know authenticity want some level of of populism uh you know it's

a change election and to think that we're going to send a 80 year old nominee uh versus you know

I don't know how old Senator Collins is the appropriations share and that's gonna have a good

outcome I think it's fanciful and the elections in two is in in two months right now let

or sorry early ballots drop in two months we need to consolidate around Graham like Graham has

really lived real experience he was a young marine he was dumb he did dumb things and he is

actually apologize for them he's learned from that right now we have so many people that are

expecting this perfect candidate and we end up looking for these perfect candidates that don't

know how to connect with everyday voters and we just and we figure out oh my god I can't believe

we lost well we need to win Democrats can't just win in North Carolina I think we're gonna win

we can't just defend in Georgia we need to pick up seats or else one of the minority doesn't

help us if if it's Susan Collins you know is a little more moderate she still gives power to

John Thune to have the power to appoint Supreme Court judges to have the power to actually

you know do another reconciliation so it can super you know charge ice and so uh Graham's

you know when they can win that's it it's very simple and everyone else you could have your

excuses everything else like that there's only two candidates on the ballot right now there's

only one that could win and we need to win the seats and that's that's the pathway we do it

and the man has lived a real life he's a lobster man he's a working class man he knows how to

communicate not everyone's perfect welcome to politics but we will get him there and he will

certainly will be better than Susan Collins so he's under fire today he had done and and

started the labor of the details but I think they matter he went on the he went on a YouTube

channel did a live stream with a with a guy uh there's a pretty big channel he mostly talks about

guns military culture or military life he also does delve into some conspiracy theories including

anti-consumetric conspiracy theories around the the killing of Charlie Kirk for example among

others he also is somebody that went on a another channel that is virulently anti-Semitic okay

platinum goes on the first channel and has an hour long conversation talks about the values

of immigrants and his friends in the immigrant community in Maine it's a completely fine

conversation represents his message but people who are already suspicious of platinum because

of the tattoo because some of those previous comments as you mentioned uh are saying oh this is

just too much we have there's there's too many signs here there's a person that's comfortable in

these anti-Semitic uh environments yeah at the same time they exist they exist and he had a

well I mean it just speaks on those platforms let's let's back up uh who's going on Joe Rogan's show

I don't have to mention names but there's a lot of Democrats have gone on Joe Rogan's show Joe Rogan

has said anti-Semitic anti-Jewish conspiracy and tropes but because there's been these very

sophisticated democratic politicians no one has a problem with those guys going on there right

right some people do but yeah they take your point but I think some people do some people do but like

not to the outcry that's happening here right so like all you know a working class man goes and

has a a conversation on a platform that is very similar to what Joe Rogan you know talks about

not necessarily guns and stuff like that but everyone freaks out on this guy why because the

establishment doesn't want him I mean this is very simple the establishment does not want him

so they're going to make sure that he you know uh looks bad you know no one actually talks about the

fact that you know he got that that tattoo is a young man and then reenlisted twice and every time

you reenlist you have to go through a physical when you go through a physical the Marines and the

army which he you know went and and join later they check for tattoos and they check it against a

database of uh you know anti-Semitic and uh gang tattoos never ever was was hailed there then he

actually went and got a security of a very clear top security clearance to protect the ambassador

of Afghanistan also you have to get checked for that so clearly you know him and his mates when

they were young and stupid Marines like I was a young stupid Marines got a tattoo that looked like a

cross uh and skull bones which we have a lot of those in the Marine court like pirates but what

happens is years later when he finally gets him to politics someone like you know points it out

what do you do he gets rid of it but now because he's running against the establishment he's tainted

right because he was a young Marine young drum Marine he wasn't perfect when he was young now that

he's you know in his you know late 30s early 40s you know it's always going to hold against him but

he's a type of person actually understands how young stupid people are and how people change

and he's going to actually connect with not you know this governor who was who was 80 years old

but you don't hear about that you don't hear about the fact that like for all these times he

kept went through all these vets and he kept on passing the vet right all you hear is just the

fact that oh it's uh it's an SS mark no if you look at it it looks like skull skull and cross bones

and you know if you're a Marine you know we get stupid tattoos we get tattoos in different

languages don't even make sense and we get tattoos of things that look cool especially where you're

young that young and dumb and the man has actually made you know a mend for it but you know there was

you know there's already a movement there's a movement of people that want to continue helping

these elite people win even though they can't win the election and hoping that it will instead of

looking at the fact that you know the US government basically said that there was nothing wrong with

the tattoo for years so why would these young man think there was anything wrong until finally politics

pointed out to him and good thing they pointed out to him and what did he do he got rid of his who

he could yeah I look at people want to be suspicious of Graham Platner they don't like these associations

I'll just say I watch the whole conversation and it was a great conversation where it was good to see

a Democrat uh in that space being able to kind of have that conversation and after he gets off the

livestream which I nobody watch like all these people telling Graham Planner has nobody watch

after he gets off the livestream he's on this sort of conservative libertarian pro-gun channel that

does engage in conspiracy theories that I do not like which is why I don't consume them don't like

them uh he pulled his audience and they liked him ninety ten they liked him ninety ten and so

if you have a problem with him fine if you don't think he should be a senator fine but boy I wish

you had a better answer for what we do about not having people who can speak to these audiences

also by the way you can question like you know I'm not the kind of person like oh you should

in question this like absolutely question right I think it's legitimate people have some concerns

right like why wouldn't you right but also don't let's not also like lie ourselves into this

situation where somehow this this guy is some evil being because number one he's gonna win

he's gonna win that primary number two once we realize you know the full scope of what people are

talking about once people look at the old tattoo once people understand that the US government

gave this guy very very very very high security clearance knowing that he had that tattoo and also

assuming that it was also not anti-Semitic it all kind of starts making sense yes maybe he was a

stupid young man but now he wants to serve his country and he's learned and he's grown and guess

what yeah the majority of Americans are not a bunch of student council presidents just you know

being perfectly distilled people waiting to run for governor president senate whatever someday right

people you know or some of your colleagues some of your colleagues are student council presidents

seven presidents at their five years old I was just I was a dorky student council president so I want

I like I'm one of those people too right so like you know but but I'm saying in general like

there's there's a problem in this country where you know we want authenticity but we only want the

authenticity that's not that authentic right yeah we want some of the could cross over and talk

to these Republicans and and conservatives and bring in these young men but we want to do it in

a nice clean and neat way right we want this perfect candidate to be able to bring all these

people that aren't perfect into our coalition that doesn't exist right you have to accept a lot you

have to accept that some people are going to be you know a fault that they've made mistakes that

they said stupid things have they grown have they learned from it then that's that's what matters

but if you if you want that person that can figure out how to get those bros in how to get that

disaffected voter back how to get that Republican to cross over we have to have people that are

they're authentic first number two and have have some real lived experience to be able to go talk

to that person and connect because if not you're going to find ourselves in situation when we run

these cookie cutter candidates and these tough races I'm not saying you shouldn't you know you

you know there's some definite races where you could you know have a cookie cutter candidate the

perfect candidate but some of these races you're going to have to have someone can actually

reach across the way and we actually touch somebody because that person has you know lived your

life understands your struggles understands you've made mistakes and it's is is willing to accept

you into this coalition provide that we all understand that we're here to make sure that Democrats

win that we have control of the agenda and that we're not going to have another you know two years

potentially of Donald Trump in control of the Senate and the House last question because you're

on such a role on these on these Democratic primaries where are you and the Texas Senate Democratic

primary and when this comes out people be voting in Texas if you wait in on Telleriko versus

Cronkett where's your head at I mean I think they're both great candidates I think they're both

they both have a chance to win I'm going to you know help out whoever wants to to be helped

come Tuesday you know Tuesday and you know I'm going to be very excited Texas is you know the

Arizona of this of this year this is I feel like what what's happening Texas what happened in 2018

in Arizona where we just had a huge surge and got people elected to office up and down the ticket

I think you're going to see that also in Texas and look you know my endorsements are all over the

place we want to do one through through line is I'm helping people get elected that can make sure we

win we need to have control of the House we need to have control of the Senate and sometimes that's

going to be people that I think are on will be with consider on the left right that are populace

on the left some people it's going to be people that are kind of your middle of the road some of

that may be a little on the conservative side no I don't understand people don't see the world we

live in right now we're it's we're in a very dangerous situation we need to make sure we have

control we need to take anybody into our coalition that can help us win control of the House in the

Senate and then once we actually get out of this craziness then let's have a little purity battles

but this guy is the guy that nearly killed a lot of us on January 6th I was there on the House

floor right this is the guy just got us into a fucking war with Iran right just the guy that's

already taking you know ballot boxes and and stuff out of out of Atlanta Georgia and we're here

trying to have this purity battles when we should be looking to see who's going to help us win

these elections and by big margins for us to actually reset the agenda push the democratic agenda

forward and and that will be you know and the NBA if you have never noticed it's always in

some being a fairly progressive agenda and then hopefully in 2028 we could deliver that democratic

president democratic House and a democratic Senate but you don't get a democratic Senate for that

president if you don't win some seats by the way in 2026 because 2028 gets harder and then after

it gets harder right so people need to understand that we need to win first and people there's some

candidates right now that just aren't going to make it through time is running out for them

and I want to win I want to win so we could protect you know this country we could protect

them from Republicans and you have to make some tough choices and that's that's just how life is

last last question I just want to end because this is obviously on Iran you know there's

there's Democrats that have been saying we didn't go through Congress there's Democrats who oppose

a war powers vote at all which I think is strange because even if you believe

Iran the Iranian regime was a terrible government shouldn't Congress have authority but do you

think Democrats on the whole are doing enough talking about why preemptive wars are dangerous

in and of themselves no I don't think they are I actually think we need to get off this process

question you know I think voters are really smart and and you know I'm not saying that they

wouldn't understand this process question but I think before they even get to the process question

they want to have a values conversation and they want to know like what do you what do you think

about this right and you know maybe you know I didn't pull but I knew exactly what I felt because

of my horrible experience with the first Iraq war or the second Iraq war can't remember anymore

but like that makes a difference like people right now want to see like strong leadership and they

want to see like oh you know what this guy knows what he's talking about or this gal knows what

he's talking about they know that the war is bad for this country and then the process question

kind of will take care of itself right but we really need to show strong values when it comes to

whether or not we're willing to commit our men and women to to war to potentially death

and not just for us but also for Iranians or for other civilians in the world whether it is

you know Israelis and Israel or Jordanians or Saudis you know Saudi civilians that are all we

have all kind of exposed to this regional breakout right these are the things that we need to be

considering before we get into these big process questions well senator Ruben Gehago thanks for

a time thanks for talking to us and uh we'll talk to you again soon okay adios

that's our show for today thanks to senator Gehago for coming on if you live in Texas

hope you get out and vote today last chance Dan and I will be back with a new show on Friday

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