The Megyn Kelly Show - Understanding America's Goals in Iran, with Erik Prince and Mark Geist, Plus Team USA Star Matthew Tkachuk, and Bill Clinton's WILD Epstein Comments | Ep. 1264

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

Megyn Kelly is joined by Erik Prince, co-founder of Unplugged Technologies, to talk about polling showing the American people unclear about the goal of the Iran war, the incredible difficulties America will face in fighting the Iranian regime, the reality of the munitions challenges America is facing, Israel's involvement in getting the U.S. involved, what the best course of action now is, and more. Then Mark Geist, retired U.S. marine and co-author of "13 Hours," joins to discuss the reason it's important for the Trump administration to take preemptive action in striking Iran, what might happen if the U.S. doesn't act now, and more. Then Megyn brings highlights from Bill Clinton's wild deposition last week, where he was asked if he likes young girls, saying Epstein died after he "finally got caught," exhibiting a notable dynamic with his lawyer, highlights from Hillary Clinton's deposition too, and more. Finally Matthew Tkachuk, Team USA and Florida Panthers hockey star, joins to talk about what it felt like to win the gold for America for the first time since 1980, what his coach said to the team before that historic overtime, the incredible performance of his teammates, getting the call from Trump and visit from Kash Patel, going to the State of the Union, their relationship with the Team USA women's team, and more.   Prince-https://unplugged.com/ Geist-https://markgeist.com/ Tkachuk-  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wingmen-with-matthew-brady-tkachuk/id1851307432   Herald Group: Learn more at https://GuardYourCard.com Riverbend Ranch: Visit https://riverbendranch.com/ | Use promo code MEGYN for $20 off your first order. Byrna: Go to https://Byrna.com or your local Sportsman's Warehouse today. Relief Factor: Break up with pain—Relief Factor targets inflammation so you can move better and feel better; try the 3-Week QuickStart for just $19.95 at https://ReliefFactor.com or call 800-4-RELIEF.     Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKelly Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShow Instagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShow Facebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow  Find out more information at:https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Megan Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at New East. Hey, everyone, I'm Megan Kelly. Welcome to the Megan Kelly Show. I want to tell you later today, we have an interview with one of the heroes from Team USA Olympic men's hockey team, the gold medal winners. Matthew Kachuk will join me in an interview. I think you're going to find him totally charming. Very excited to show you this. We taped it yesterday, and we all just fell in love all over again.

He was wonderful. So anyway, you're going to enjoy that. But we begin today with the news as America's War in Iran continues. And if you look at the early polling, there are serious questions among the American people about why we're there and what our goals are. I mean, if you are having questions about what the mission is, you are not alone. For example, a Washington Post poll lists eight choices for what people think the Trump administration's main goal is in Iran. The top response, show power or take control, which gets 14%. 14%.

The lowest response, protecting U.S. and allies, gets 7%. So every answer, all eight, gets between 7 and 14%. The American people do not know why we're doing this. I mean, when you're getting no more than 14% for each possibility, the American people is confused. They are confused. They don't know why we're doing this. And what you're seeing now is support falling basically along partisan lines. Republicans, a majority support the president. Independence and Democrats are totally against the president on this war, which makes some sense because, look, I've told you guys for the past 20 plus years, I'm a registered independent. I haven't been a registered Republican in more than two decades. And I'm with the independence, you know, as I told you yesterday, most of my Republican audience is supporting the president on it, although a lot aren't. And actually, there's an interesting poll showing it's breaking down more severely along gender lines where a hefty majority of women are against it. And men are

split almost 50-50. So that's all very interesting. But there is no question that the American people don't understand why we're doing it. So they're kind of resorting that the hard partisans, Dems and Republicans are resorting to their, you know, their partisan stripes. Like, I support Trump. I hate Trump and kind of going from there. It's also hard to follow what's actually been happening on the ground. After all, we have no ground troops in Iran yet. But here's the latest as we understand it. According to multiple reports,

the Israeli Air Force struck a building where senior clerics had gathered in Iran to elect the new Supreme Leader. The Assembly of Experts has 88 members, though it's not known how many were in the building at the time or if there were any casualties. I mean, why are they still meeting, like, above ground? You have to ask yourself, like, that doesn't seem smart, not exactly sure what they're thinking over there.

Iran is also fighting back outside of its borders and somewhat effectively. Both the U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are now closed after they came under drone attacks. As of now, thank God, no reported casualties. We hope it stays that way. But they are definitely causing trouble for the United States and for Israel.

Before we get into the details of that, the State Department, not taking any chances, officially urging all Americans in the region to, quote, depart now due to serious safety risks, but people cannot get out. I mean, have you seen the videos

of the long, long lines at the airport in places like Dubai? They can't get out. They didn't have a heads up that this was going to happen. And now they're being told, get out now, get out now.

Well, they can't. the lines are too long, the flights are too few, there's chaos at the airports, and there are a lot of Americans over there who are starting to panic, that they may not be able to get out as the interceptors that stop the missiles from falling on these areas

are running low. And that's one scary piece of all this. Iran, well, it may or may not have been building up its nuclear arsenal since we devastated it, or obliterated to use Trump's word, in late June. it certainly has been building up its missile storage capacity, thanks to, in part, China.

We read, and Russia. We read about Russia shipping it a bunch of missiles that were intercepted by the United States on one Navy vessel not long ago. But plenty more have gotten through because they seem amply supplied to be targeting all of these U.S. outposts, our military bases, not to mention all over Israel. And both the U.S. and Israel are running low, reportedly. We'll get into it. The president's disputing it on these interceptors, which would make the missiles ineffective. And by the way, the interceptors are extremely expensive. Extremely expensive. But you know what we were doing? Giving them to Ukraine for the past few years and giving them to Israel over the past year or so. And using them to fight the Houthis in what turned out to be a rather brief conflict, using them ourselves when we went into Iran over the summer. I mean, we're low, according to an independent analysis of where we are. The president, I'll tell you exactly what he's saying. He's admitting some of it and denying others. But the point is, do we have enough interceptors? Because if we don't, and if we let these military bases sit as exposed targets who can't stop the missiles, that's a deep

problem. We start today with one of the brightest minds in the defense industry. Eric Prince is co-founder of unplugged technologies. Eric Prince is on the record, warning President Trump against sending ground forces into Iran and was against this conflict. But now that it's started, definitely has thoughts, having been all over the previous Middle East conflicts that we've experienced these past 25 years. Our sponsor, the Electronic Payments Coalition, says Washington politicians are always getting in your wallet.

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routing transactions over cheaper, untested networks with weaker security and fewer protections. Find out more at guard your card.com and consider telling Congress to guard your card. Eric, welcome back. Great to see you. Thanks, Megan. Nice to be back. Okay, so let's just start with your overall view on whether this was a good idea. I know you've said you don't really think so, but explain why. Look, I am no fan of the Iranians or of the Mullahs. and glad to see the Supreme Leader gone.

I mean, I've been on the Iranian hit list for years. I was personally denounced by the guy twice, but I don't necessarily agree with this approach to doing it, and I definitely do not understand how we allowed ourselves to be dragged in by the Israelis. And their problems are not necessarily our problems. I think how we got to that decision, that certainly there'll be books written about that

I am all in favor as America comes towards 250 years we probably need to re-declare our independence from what Washington warned about overseas entangling alliances that drag us into the situation I agree with Tucker

I think the president was extremely uncomfortable in doing these strikes, whether he was arm twisted, coerced, extorted, I don't know. I don't have that kind of information, but I can't imagine anybody that thinks this is a fantastic idea other than the typical neocon chorus. The last big Bush last summer, right,

the 12-day war, it burned through 16 years worth of interceptor production. And now we're having to, pull huge amount of supply out of Indo Paycom, war reserve for that. What's that? Indo, our supply in the Pacific, right? The different theater. So we're pulling down magazine supply from there to try to defend all these U.S.

facilities in the Gulf for being smashed. The Iranians are really good at asymmetric warfare, meaning high payoff, low cost for them. They built that $20,000, $30,000 drone, which costs the United States a million to $3 million per drone to shoot down because our interception missiles are so expensive. The Iranians have built thousands and thousands and thousands of those. There's 44,000 mountains in Iran, and they've been busy tunneling for years. I would have hoped that a lesson was taken from the conflict against the Houthis. Remember, the Houthis were in Yemen. They're shooting a lot of missiles at ships passing by, jamming up the southern end of the Suez Canal.

And for all the billions of dollars of precision weapon we tried to do, never really degraded the Houthis ability to keep shooting at ships. And now to go into Iran, into the... are prepared homeland. You know, Iran does not have an independence day because they've not been conquered since Alexander the Great, hundreds of years before Christ. So I just don't, look, I think it's great. I appreciate what the president said two days ago when he said, I have repaid, I've paid a great gift to the Iranian people in killing.

the mullahs, the leadership of the Iranian government that killed all those thousands and thousands of protesters. Great. Good on them. But now declare victory and be done. Treat it like a Roman, like a punitive Roman raid, right? When Rome, the Roman Empire had been getting ravaged for years and years by the Carthaginians, by Hannibal, right? the guy who took elephants in. When he came, the Roman Senate met after the Battle of Knais. I think there was 80,000 Romans killed in that one battle in the morning. And the senator said Carthage must be destroyed.

So they sent Scipio Afrikanus, punitive raid. That worked. Carthage was not a problem again. This is a way for Trump to do it to Iran. pound them. He's done that. Fine. They just struck the, uh, the, the, the, the, the, the, the people we were thinking would take over. They're dead to. Not sure that's going to be. Let that be the message to the Iranians to say, behave, be decent to the Iranian people, or we'll come back and do it again. I think the other, um, construct that should be offered to the

mullahs is to give them a, a city like mashad. and let that be their holy city, their Vatican. They can go whatever strict super Shia, supremacy, Islamic fundamentalism there, fine, let the rest of the Iranian people breathe free. But Trump is, the president is not well advised if people are telling him to go deeper and deeper and deeper into this for weeks because our interceptors are exceedingly expensive.

The Iranian weaponry is relatively very cheap. And they have built lots and lots of those, and they will smash not just U.S. facilities, but the other Gulf infrastructure, which they've been very active at. And this is not going to go so well for the United States. So I would encourage them to declare a punitive raid, deliver the lesson. And it's clearly unprecedented, amazing intelligence that they were able to strike that many high-value targets at one time. but this idea of trying to foment regime change to the perfect person and the idea of putting ground troops is extremely bad, extremely bad. Why?

Please do not do. Why is it bad? Well, we had a hard time, the United States had a hard time pacifying Iraq. Iraq has effectively been lost to Iran as it is. There's a 250,000-man Shia militia that is loyal. oil to Iran. Those are the guys that have been shooting missiles and drones at U.S. facilities just over the last few days. But it took us trillions of dollars and thousands and thousands of lives to try to pacify Iraq, which was less than a third, almost a quarter of the size of Iran.

So the idea that we're going to do it to a much better prepared Iran with the RGC is it's a 10x worst decision than going into Iraq was. That's scary. And yet the president said yesterday he doesn't get the yips when it comes to putting ground troops in. And, you know, even Tom Cotton was on the Sunday shows suggesting, yeah, well, maybe a small ground force if we need to. But clearly they're opening that possibility because everyone, experts like you, who have been

neck deep in warfare for a long time, have said, there's not really going to be a regime change unless you actually do put boots on the ground. Like you, that's not something we can do from the air, not at least in a country like Iran, which doesn't have just like, I don't know, the 40 leaders who were there running the country who were hit at that meeting weren't anywhere near to, quote, the regime. There are tens of thousands who make up the regime. Correct. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps really behaves like the old SS in a Nazi Germany state. They are a military power into themselves, really with effectively more power than the Iranian military. They are hyper loyal to the regime. They are of by and for the regime. That's how they

make money as well. And the Iranians have really gone to a dispersed command and control system, figuring that the West would smash their command and control infrastructure. They dispersed that authority and responsibility out to the various regional commands to maximize the mayhem that they can spread. So this is an exceedingly difficult situation. Who takes over? I don't know. I don't think it's going to be Razel Pahlavi.

And again, this is something that was instigated and pushed by the Israelis. it does not have to become an American problem for the next weeks, months, and certainly years. They wanted this. It's it. They, they, they broke it. They bought it. And I find it really ridiculous to think of sending U.S. troops when Benjamin Yatt, whose own son, 34-year-old, able-bodied male, is hanging out in Miami Beach, hasn't even gone back to serve in the IDF himself.

Come on. That's ridiculous. Mm-hmm. But he'd be thrilled to see my son or yours go over there and die for Israel. I mean, that's how it seems to me. He'd be perfectly happy to see any American military service personnel go over there and give his life so that he can feel better about having defeated Iran and having used U.S. troops to do it, Eric. I understand the people's argument that say, well, Iran's been at war with us since 79. Yes, they've been taking shots and pushing back and all the rest.

And the Iranian regime is terrible. But this is ultimately up to the Iranian people to decide their future. It doesn't have to be us. Just like the French helped us. The French fleet showed up for a couple months around Yorktown in 1781. But it was the American people that did the fighting that took on then the most powerful empire in the world, the British Empire, and got our freedom. the Iranian people have to rise up. And if people want to do action, fine.

All the super hardcore hawks on Iran, they can volunteer. They can go be trainers and train and work with the Iranian people to help them gain their freedom. It does not have to be active duty U.S. forces at an extremely, extremely high cost of delivering energy, whether it's defending themselves from incoming weapons, or the weapons that were sent. I am confused by the messaging because I thought all the strikes last summer took out their nuclear program.

Now, Netanyahu's saying, wow, they're still just weeks away from a nuclear program. I don't know. I think the president should say, we did our part. We punished the regime that killed all those protesters.

Now the protesters have to figure out what they're going to do. and take their country back, it is not a responsibility from 8,000 miles away to do that. The New York Times had a very in-depth article that posted late yesterday on exactly how we got into this, and it talked about how the reason we didn't go in during the midst of the protests was we were not ready. We did not have the military assets we needed in the region in order to support this war. Israel, too, was saying it was not ready. It needed to replenish some of its missile defenses.

we needed to get some more assets into our military bases in the Gulf. And so that seems to be the reason that we waited from when he was slaughtering his people, the Ayatollah, to now to go ahead and do this. But it also makes very clear that, as we reported yesterday, as now Marco Rubio and Speaker Mike Johnson have said on the record, the reason we actually decided to do it is that Benjamin Netanyahu went in and told President Trump, we're doing it. We Israel are doing it. And the Trump team understood that that would lead to retaliatory strikes against us. We're considered the big Satan. They're the little Satan. And that we thought it would make more sense if that were the case, that we went in there first in tandem with Israel and sort of started this thing on our terms.

I don't know what to believe there, to be honest, Eric, because we could easily have looked at Netanyahu and said, no, you're not going to do it. And I think he would have listened to us. I mean, he depends on us for ammunition and military backup. Do we really believe that if Trump had looked at BB and said, it's a no, we just bombed the nuclear facilities for you in June. And there's not an appetite of the American people to have Iranian bombs raining down on our military posts in the Gulf, thanks to you. So no, you will not be going in there and starting yet another war that he would not have listened? Yeah, no is a complete answer. And F no is an even more complete answer.

And I wish the president had given that answer. But now that he is, now that he has taken the first step, not just the first step, a lot of steps. We're lucky that we've only lost five or six killed in action so far. And I'm sorry for their families. Terrible. The fact is an aircraft carrier battle group that doesn't. deploys every six months, loses people. The military is a dangerous job.

But we must be exceedingly cautious with the blood and treasure of America. And the president can look great as the statesman to say, enough, we have killed the bad mullahs, the guardian council, the supreme leader. we have taken them out that killed all these protesters, figure out you Iranian people, what that next government's going to look like, but it's not going to be dictated and we're not going to bomb them into oblivion until then. The other thing the Trump administration could do

is there is real change afoot in Afghanistan now because the Taliban, most of the Taliban, and of course all the former part of the normal, you know, free government are all really sick of the five crazies that have been running the country. And even the Pakistanis are also really sick of the Taliban government because they've been supporting

the Pakistani Taliban. There is a real opportunity to remove the crazies from the Taliban government and have a more reasonable one, which would at least let us go back into Baghrum to use as a deportation center and as another, let's say, position on the eastern flank

of Iran. If you're going to, if you want to do regime change in Afghanistan, in Iran, fine. You don't have to do it with all kinds of U.S. troops or aircraft going over the border. You can actually take Iranian people that want to defend and, and fight for their liberty, train them in Afghanistan, and send them back in if you, if you remove the Islamic crazies, who have now alive themselves fully with Iran next door. So that's a second. I'm sure Trump is thinking he can't be going back in an Afghanistan. I mean, like given the reaction he's had so far from a large faction of his base, that's the last headline they want to see. And now we're back in Afghanistan and we're doing regime change there too. Oh, no, no.

Those are that that's, that's, and that's my frustration. When you have a CIA, that's not willing to do their job. If you think of the continuum of foreign policy, you have diplomats and embassies on one end of the spectrum and you have aircraft carriers and B2, bombers on the other end, the 80% of the middle is the intelligence space. And what should have been done with covert action, I don't think was done. I don't think the Iranian opposition has been prepared in organized, not just in protest, but you have to give them just enough kinetic capability to take away the inevitability of the regime. So that when you had millions of people in the streets, just a few months ago, when the regime, four years,

came to kill people that you have the means on the ground by Iranians to push back and to defend and to take away the inevitability regime. That is a much smarter way. And that's done for less than a few. That's less than an hour worth of launching of all these interceptors. But sadly, we have an agency that has not embraced for decades that kind of clever. use of innovation and American power. And so it defaults to the big Pentagon with that cost structure and that will truly bankrupt us. So it is frustrating. Megan, I did it. What about the Kurds,

Eric? I mean, you spent more time than in Iraq and places like it than anybody I know. And there's a report out today that, I think in Axios, that Trump has called Kurdish leaders to help in the Iran war effort, calling Kurdish leaders in Iraq. So saying the Kurds have thousands of soldiers along the Iran-Iraq border and control strategic areas that could be significant as this war develops, that Iraq's Kurds have close ties to Iran's Kurdish minority. And I guess, according to this article, written by Barack, Ravid and Markaputo, the Israelis came in Netanyahu promising big things with the Kurds.

He came in and said, oh, they're going to come out of the woodwork. They're going to rise up. He's, quote, been relentless and urging strikes on the regime in Iran. And he first advocated for the Kurds in a White House meeting, saying this is the quote in the article. When he first came over and sat with Trump for hours, you would have thought Netanyahu had it all figured out, said the official. He had the successor planned out.

He had the Kurds all figured out. Two sets of Kurdish groups here and there. This many people are going to rise up thinking that they could get them from Iraq to go into Iran, help their fellow Kurds, and be the first. fighting force because the people have no arms, you know, the regular Iranians to fight the IRGC. Trump's plan yesterday, as he suggested, was he was just hoping that they would put down their arms and join hands with the patriotic Iranians in saying, no, forget it. We're not going to be the people we've been for all these decades.

But in any event, what do you make of the Kurds is a possibility here? See, to me, look, Iran is not Iranians. It is ethnic Persians, ethnic Azeris, Akwazi Arabs, some from Balochistan, and of course, Kurds. So it is a multi-ethnic mix. I actually did a clandestine political poll in 2013 inside of Iran, 2,000 respondents from all over the country. And we polled what would get you back into the streets and what happened to the revolution. Why did you go to the streets in 79? And they said they wanted freedom. They wanted to be more Western. And they do not want to live under a mullahocracy. I get that. But I don't think

the Israelis certainly haven't. And I don't think the CIA has adequately prepared an opposition with real force to actually push back on the regime at the ground level, this top-down approach, I don't know of anywhere in history, however wonderful and spectacular the precision weapons are, air power alone does not change a regime. And it certainly doesn't create spontaneous order. I mean, heck, I met Raza Pahlavi for the first time six weeks ago, and they were talking about a... Just FYI, that's a, I think most of our audience knows, but he's the son of the deposed Shah who's been living in America for all these decades and is Iranian, but not really. He's kind of more American than we are at this

point and doesn't have a lot of support amongst the Iranian people. But he gets mentioned as a possible next-gen leader, even though he's not, doesn't sound like Trump has a lot of faith in him. Keep going, Eric. Yeah, I'm agreeing with you. But if that, if no one has gone through the steps of, hey, how are we going to set up defense committees inside of Iran, that when you have a city, how do you defend it? How do you protect it? How do you defend your people? How do you take away the Coeds Force IRGC capability town by town? I don't know of anybody that's done that. And maybe I'm just not informed, but my God, when you have millions of people in the streets over the last decade plus, would have been a good time to roll out that capability or having seen the absence or the need for those,

you'd think the intelligence community would have been building that capacity on the ground or next door in Afghanistan or in Kurdistan, northern Iraq, to be ready for this day. But nobody's done that. And so the top-down approach with air power alone is not going to get us there. I pray, I beseech the president to not send ground troops into Iran. the actual geography of the country just speaks to defense. And it is...

Here's what's so scary to me. The president is talking about, I could do it in a couple days. Or four weeks, five weeks. You know, I can do this. I can trust me. And his officials from his administration are saying, like, it's not going to be Iraq. Just stop. Like, it won't be a rack.

It's going to be quick. but many people online pointing this is just one of many we could have pulled a lot of these Dick Cheney back in March 2003 about the Iraq war this is three days before we launched it Sot 5 if we do have to take action do you think it will be a long war or a short war my own judgment based on my time of Secretary of Defense and having operated in this area in the past I'm confident that our troops will be successful and I think it will go relatively quickly. But you can't, you can't, months. Months.

Weeks rather than months. There's always the possibility of complications that you can't anticipate, but I have great confidence in our troops. Eight years and eight months later, we finally pulled our troops out. It was not weeks. It was not months. It was nearly a decade, not to mention what happened in Afghanistan. And tens of thousands of wounded. Look, a sliding door moment in that conflict. the head of Iraqi intelligence came to see me early in 2004, like February.

So the U.S. had been there for about nine months. And, you know, you get the initial pause and calm after the invasion, and then the chaos starts. And he said, we're seeing all kinds of evidence of the Iranians sending agents into Iraq, building cells. to kill opposition, to exert force, and we want to, we want a capability to drive them out. So he said, yes, this was back in my Blackwater days. The CIA was going to pay for it. It was a tiny cost compared to what was being spent per day. And blocked by Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Advisor.

Wow. No, Iran is not our enemy. We have to respect the political process, all the rest. If we had severed and prevented the Iranians from getting their hooks into Iraqi society, we wouldn't have had all the problems in Iraq. But now to think we're going to wade into Iran into the IRGC's hometowns and say we're going to impose regime change and consider U.S. troops, please. That is a bad idea. If people are so hellbent to do it, fine. Let them go volunteer.

They can train the Iranian people. carve out some part of Iran that they that they that they that they that they that they that they that they that they that they that they conquer and free and build from there but it does not have to be done by our active duty forces period here's what the report is on the munitions problem today uh it's written by kelly bucar vlehos of uh responsible statecraft dot org she spent some time working for fox news she's she's got she's got she's got the right back for this reporting. She's taking on the president's truth social overnight on Monday, which reads in part as follows. The United States munitions stockpiles have, this is Trump,

at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better. So medium and upper medium, never been higher or better. As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons. Wars can be fought forever, he writes,

and very successfully using just these supplies, which are better than other countries finest arms. At the highest end, we have a good supply, but we're not where we want to be. Much additional high-grade weaponry is stored for us in outlying countries. Sleepy Joe Biden spent all of his time and our country's money giving everything to P.T. Barnum, Zelensky of Ukraine, hundreds of billions of dollars worth. And while he gave so much of the super high end away, free, he didn't bother to replace it. It says, fortunately, he's rebuilt it. But this is Trump saying we're good on medium and upper medium grade and that we can basically raid our outposts

if we need more on the high grade weaponry, which we are low on, he admits, thanks to Ukraine. Now, here is what she reports. Okay, she says by all measures, by every measure, this is not true. It would never be true. But in the case of today, after four years of emptying our stores for Ukraine and then more two years, more than two years for Israel, fighting the Houthis, defending Israel twice in Operation Middye Hammer in June, and now Operation Epic Fury. Well, you remember the nursery rhyme. She writes, Old Mother Hubbard, the cupboard is bare. Perhaps what is most absurd, she writes about Trump's words, other than the lack of truth,

he did not rebuild the stockpiles in one year following Biden. The missiles are still being sent to Ukraine under previous agreements. And then he told the Europeans they could buy them, depleting the stores even further. But she says, but his joint chiefs, the staff chairman, Dan Kane also warned that an operation, especially an extended one, could be risky. Washington Post reporting last week, we brought this to you yesterday as well, Dan Kane expressed his concerns when they were planning this at a White House meeting last week that any major operation against Iran will face challenges because the U.S. munition stockpile has been significantly depleted by Washington's ongoing defense of Israel and support for Ukraine.

Trump immediately went to true social to contradict the story, but as we reported here, she writes, the military was already raising the alarms last summer about the shocking, that's in quotes, number of missiles that had been depleted from the stockpiles. She writes, the standard missile variant was down 33 percent. Those cost 12.5 to $28 million a piece. Each interception attempt requires at least two missiles, and often more than that, boarding a few missiles can easily end up costing more than it does to buy an F-35. According to reports, the U.S. used a quarter of its thad missile interceptors during the 12-day war in June, the one in Iran, alone. The Guardian reported it in July the U.S. only had 25 percent of the Patriot missile interceptors it would need for the Pentagon's future military plans, with many already sent to Ukraine and more promised.

It goes on. She talks about how we were expending Tomahawk cruise missiles air-to-air to counter the Houthis, which one of the reasons why Trump ended that so. abruptly is we were running out of those. The Tomahawks lost at an extraordinary rate in operations around the globe, not just that one, but in the Middle East against Iran, against the Houthis, and against Nigeria on Christmas Day. On and on, it goes, the point she's making here, Eric, is we don't have the military defenses and weaponry that we need to defend against an Iran that's not just rolling over. Correct. And if what's more strategic value to the United States is keeping the CCP from rolling over Taiwan because they make all the computer chips that we need to run a modern economy. That is far more strategic. We don't need anything in the Middle East for oil because we're independent thanks to Texas fracking. So, yes, it's a math problem and it's a production problem.

You, over the last 20, 30 years, you've really allowed a cartelization of our defense industry. You have the five supermajures, which make super exotic, very high-end weaponry that, as you just listed, is ridiculously expensive. And so the cost of delivering energy, right? There's two things a military commander does. You coordinate information and release energy. Move that airplane from here to there, move that ship, or put that warhead on a forehead. The cost of doing a warhead on a forehead in the United States is grotesquely too high. And Trump administration, to their credit, is trying to bring reform there and bring more competition to it,

but haven't been able to go nearly fast enough because they have a lethargic, worthless Congress, which doesn't really change procurement rules to open up the throttle on production and procurement. But those are, yes, what you just listed are very real math problems. And if we deplete stocks further, now you leave the entire Pacific Theater and the West Coast of the United States extremely open to incoming attack from anybody, really. And they don't get made overnight. This amidst reports as follows that the U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have closed after drone attacks. You mentioned that the Iranians are using not only missiles, but drones very effectively. And they've got some untold number of them.

and they're using them against U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and now we've closed those after they were attacked by drones. The U.S. are urging Americans in the region depart now. Again, they're asking themselves, how? How do we get out? It doesn't seem that easy. Then there's a report that the UAE and Qatar are having interceptor issues, that the United Arab Emirates and Qatar via Bloomberg, are privately lobbying allies to help them persuade Trump

to reach for an offer. ramp that would keep U.S. military operations against Iran short. Privately, both the UAE and Qatar are working to quickly improve their air defense capabilities. The UAE has requested assistance from its allies with medium-range air defenses while Qatar has asked for help to counter drone attacks, which have emerged as a greater than ballistic missiles threat. Katar's stocks of Patriot Interceptor missiles will last four days at the current rate of use. not for nothing, but the UAA and Qatar denied these claims when contacted by Bloomberg on them. But the Wall Street Journal has similar reporting.

They read a crucial variable is whether these monarchies start running out of interceptors before the Iranian regime runs out of projectiles. At current burn rates, it could be very soon. The UAE, they write, by Monday evening, had been targeted by 174 Iranian ballistic missiles, eight cruise missiles, 689 drones in three days with no missiles and 44 drones actually hitting.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar. These are all Gulf allies came under heavy barrages with Bahrain reporting 70 incoming ballistic missiles. It usually takes two or even three interceptors such as missiles for the Patriot or Thad systems to shoot down one ballistic missile and we talked about how expensive those are.

So these are all our Gulf allies who are taking the brunt of it right now. of course. You know, Israel's getting attacked, but so are all of our Gulf allies and so are our embassies. And in the meantime, the question is whether we've gone to Iran to say, hey, do you want to talk? Do you want an off-ramp? Because we're not projecting that publicly. I did see at least one unconfirmed report that we had tried to do that through the Italians and that we were told no. But right now, it's full steam ahead. In fact, all the administration keeps saying is, you have haven't seen anything yet. We're about to unleash a much bigger, fuller, heretofore unseen barrage.

Yeah, Megan, I haven't noticed. I've not had a security clearance in more than 15 years. So maybe I'm just not very well briefed. But at the end of the day, I think it's a math problem when you have an enemy like Iran that can field weapons that are $20,000 to $30,000 like a Shahhead drone. And we have to to shoot it down with, I thought the standard missiles were 1.2 million. What you just read, they were in the 10 to 12 million per copy. It's insane. Insanity that we've allowed our cost structure to get away from us that badly. And yeah, this is a, this is not a great situation.

But the president can say, look, we did our part. We smashed the Iranian leadership. and now we're done. Yeah, you're welcome. That's it. Our part's done. And if Israel wants to stay over there and do something, although I guess that's fraught too,

because that's kind of how we got into this mess. You know, Israel, I mean, look, there's two roles for Israel here. Number one, Bibi has been lobbying President Trump for the better part of a year to do this. He desperately wanted to strike Iran. He's wanted war with Iran for decades. He's pleaded with every U.S. president

to allow him to do this. and to help us, to help them do this. And finally, he found a taker in President Trump. So it's been very clear that he's wanted to do it and he wants to do it with our help. The specific catalyst was allegedly, according to Rubio and Speaker Johnson, that he came into Trump and said, okay, we're going to do it. And Trump and team said, well, if they're going to do it, we're the ones who are going to be taking the responsive strikes. So let's join in. We'll do it in tandem. him. So yes, I mean, on a sort of short-term basis, it was also potentially his fault, but that undermines the obvious truth that Trump could have told him, no, you're not doing it either.

And Trump didn't do that. And I think that reverts back to point A, that he'd been getting convinced by Bibi for a year that this was necessary. And we had this chance, especially Bibi was reportedly arguing, especially after the nuclear facility strike in June, They're weakened. You know, now's the time. Strike while the iron's hot. And he talked Trump into it, Eric. You know, now the president's defenders are like, oh, no one talks Trump into anything.

And like, oh, come on. Trump didn't run on this. Trump wasn't promising war with Iran. Trump wasn't running around saying, I'm going to take out the Ayatollah. That was Bibi all along. Clearly, he was persuaded by Netanyahu. This was a good idea. Persuaded or coerced or extorted?

I don't know. I'm not at that decision-making level. I don't claim to be. I just claim to understand math. And right now we don't have a great math scenario. Look, the U.S. forces for what they were asked to do performed amazing. Of course, when the enemy shoots back, sometimes their rounds are going to get through. And the friendly fire incident over Kuwait, losing three aircraft, we are exceedingly lucky we didn't lose those crews.

But it's not time to go deeper into Netanyahu's war. And I think he's been to Washington at least six times. You think he could have taken his son back. And the White House at least seven. Okay, seven. You think he could have grabbed his son from hanging out on the beach of Miami and taken him back to at least serve in the IDF instead of asking America's sons and daughters to do the same. Yeah.

Why do we have six dead American troops now while his son's on a beach of Miami? That's a good question. He went on with Sean Hannity last night, and I'll show you the exchange, that one. You know, there are people that say, well, the Prime Minister of Israel dragged Donald Trump into it. And as somebody that's been friends with him over 30 years, nobody drags Donald Trump into anything, number one. But I want to get your reaction to that. Well, you're right. I mean, that's ridiculous.

Donald Trump is the strongest leader in the world. he does what he thinks is right for America. And we have to understand that we're fighting here. We're fighting here the bad guys. We're the good guys. I mean, the evil laugh is just right on brand there. But I just think, so, okay, they're setting it up such that, look, I'm just going to be honest. Hannity is a supplicant to Donald Trump.

He would never say anything other than to puff Donald Trump up. And it's not, we all love Trump. But let's be real. Like, he can be flattered into thinking, yes, this is your idea, and it's a great one, and you're the leader of the free world, and we need you, Mr. President. Bebe's not dumb. He would know how to talk Trump into it, which is clearly what he did. And then you have Rubio on record, and you have Speaker Johnson on record saying this is kind of the ultimate catalyst.

And now Trump comes out today and says the following, this just hit. Watch. Mr. President, did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran? Did that he offer full the United States into this war? No, I might have forced their hand. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack.

If we didn't do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that. And we have great negotiators, great people, people that do this very successfully, and have done it all their lives very successful. And based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first. And I didn't want that to happen. So if anything, I might have forced Israel's hand. Okay, that's just not true.

There is zero. He didn't mention that at all in any of his explanations about why we started this war. All the intel that's been leaked in the reports to the Washington Post and the New York Times that every publication has been, the calculation was that we would get hit by Iran preemptively after Israel struck them, not that they were just going to out of nowhere attack the United States if they had not yet been attacked. And that while we were having these negotiations with them where we made demands, they were never going to meet, Eric. I mean, in no world where the Iranians going to promise they would never have a nuclear plan,

civil or otherwise, ever. I mean, that's just as much as we'd love that, there was no way they were going to. We set these terms that they, of course, were not going to meet while we removing our aircraft carriers into the region, getting ready to execute BB's plan. Your thoughts on it? Look, I love the president. I love largely the decisions he's made, but I love them enough to also tell him when he's going down the wrong path. And in this case, putting ground troops or extending this war longer is the wrong course of

action. So I hope that he seeks wider counsel, looks at history. and says this one is not the best path for the American people to go deeper into Iran, period. You don't think there's any way of forcing regime change without boots on the ground and a lot of them? Not our boots, not American boots. Iranians? Sure. You have a very young population there. Like 70% of the population is under the age of 30. They are not a fan of living under a mollocracy when they protest. the mullahs killed them, give them the means to defend themselves. That's what covert action is supposed to be.

That's the path forward, but it doesn't have to be U.S. aircraft and certainly U.S. troops on the ground fighting a unconventional or conventional war, not the best course of action. Eric Prince, thank you for your service to the country and your expertise. today. We appreciate it. You bet, I'm good. Have a good day. Yeah, you too. This is very tricky wicket. Up next, we're going to have the other side. Someone who I respect who's a supporter of the president on this,

and we'll hear his rebuttal to some of these arguments. And as always, you guys will be able to make up your own minds. My audience is very, very bright. And we just want to make sure you're armed with the facts on both sides. This is not a President Trump bashing show, but it's also not, it's not a supplicant show. As you well know, the president and I have crossed paths many times positively and negatively over the years. There's a mutual respect there, if not always total agreement. All right, stick around. We'll do the other side next. If you are looking to make

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Use the promo code Megan to get 20 bucks off your first order. Joining me now, someone who fully supports the president's actions in Iran. Mark Oz Geist is a retired U.S. Marine. After retiring from the military, he began doing contract security work in Iraq during the height of the war. He was also a member of the security team that fought off Islamic militants during the siege of the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, back in 2012. That attack left four Americans dead, including the U.S. Ambassador, Chris Stevens. To this day, Geist still has 16 pieces of shrapnel

in his body from the attack. He is now founder of the Shadow Warriors Project, an organization that helps military contractors who need medical and financial assistance. He's also the co-author of 13 hours. Mark, great to see you again. Thank you so much for being here today. All right, so there's no one I can think of that I respect more than you in terms of your service and your sacrifice for this country. So please try to sell me on this war, which I am definitely not sold on right now. Well, and I understand that I think a lot of Americans are not sold on it yet. You know, we got to look back at history. You know, when we first started engaging with Iran and or them engaging with us was in 1983 when their proxies started bombing our U.S.

U.S. Embassy and Marine Barracks in Lebanon. Since then, through the IRGC, they've built up their proxies, expanding them into Yemen, into Hezbollah, Hamas, which is really what's the core of things that have kept peace from really happening in the Middle East, I think. And with that, you know, I guess you look at their development of nuclear weapons, the nuclear capability. I do hear the argument that,

you know, well, they don't have it right now. They're not going to be able to have it, but when is when. And it's not necessarily ICBMs that we have to also worry about. We have to worry about dirty bombs and their capability to do that. And there's got to be a time when we decide to look at the ultimate way of destructive,

of preventing it or deterring it, is getting rid of it. and I think between what we've seen over the last probably four or five months with the Iranian people who are very fed up with the Mullahs, they want a change. They just don't have the capability of doing it without a little bit of help. And I think where we're at right now is taking out the leadership of both the Mullahs as well as the IRGC leads them or gives them the, permission that they're looking for to take back their country. Okay, but how practically does it work? We take out the top leadership. We've taken out 40 to 200 people at the top, reportedly so far. Yesterday, the report was 40 and then 200,

including possibly 100 civilians now. I'm sure it's much larger. But President Trump says, we're not, you haven't seen anything yet. We're about to go back with our biggest assault on Iran. So we'll see where that goes. But how does it work? Because you've got the IRGC throughout the country who are armed and vicious, I mean notoriously vicious, who literally were shooting protesters in the head a couple of weeks ago. And what President Trump is saying is hopefully they'll put down their arms and join with their fellow Iranian patriots. That doesn't sound like a plan. So what, how do we actually get those guys to work with the freedom-loving Iranian people for actual regime change in Iran? Well, I mean, one is,

It is a plan, Megan. I mean, the thing is, that could be the plan. Everybody wants to sit there and say that the plan has to go all the way through completion of the Iranian people taking back their country. You know, one is the United States has never been good about changing dictatorships. We've failed at it so many times, whether it be through direct military action or through the CIA. What has to happen is it has to come from the people within Iran. and they're the ones that have to decide if they're going to take their country back.

What we have to look at is how do we protect America, our soldiers, our allies that are in the region, and we have to do that by eliminating their capability of bringing offensive action to us. And that's really what this is about right now, is eliminating their ability to do that to us and holding us hostage to a nuclear weapon. I mean, we were told by this administration that the nuclear facilities and capabilities were obliterated. That's Trump's word in June. So it's very hard to believe that they were anywhere close to meaningfully rebuilding that eight months later. And indeed, we heard yesterday that the intel, as briefed to the gang of eight, did not suggest they were anywhere near that, nor were they anywhere near short of a decade of.

of getting ballistic missiles that could reach the continental United States. So there was no imminent threat. That's really what many of us are hung up on. Like it's one thing if we really did have intel that they were about to launch something massive against us. But it seems to me they were still, they were doing the stuff that Iran's been doing for decades, which is saber rattling and dreaming about one day having a nuke. Well, if you look in immediately after we destroyed their capabilities or the capabilities

that they had, there was a onslaught. of Chinese moving into and bringing in more technology for them to utilize. And we define the threat, and everybody keeps talking about the threat being an ICBM, because we're sold on this idea that that's a big threat. I mean, we got to look at Russia, or not Russia, but Korea. North Korea has ICBMs. But do we worry about them? Why don't we worry about them as much as we do about Iran?

And it's because they have a more stable and not such a radical environment. They are looking at protecting themselves and using it as a deterrent. Iran has always said that if they have the ability to build any type of nuclear device, and that's what it's got to be looked at is the threat is the device, and it doesn't necessarily mean the delivery is just a different item, how that's delivered. And with the fact that we had open borders over the four years of the Biden administration, the amount of people in sleeper cells that have came into our country, and that can pose a threat internally, all they have to do now is provide that source to those sleeper cells that are here and use something like that, whether it be chemical or nuclear, and are going to have a problem that is 10 times worse than what 9-11 was. imagine if they took a oil ship, a transport ship, and put a nuclear device on it, floated into New York Harbor under the guise of another country, and blew that up.

What would we see there? Something 10 times worse than what 9-11 was. And we cannot allow that to happen. Well, I agree with that. What happened to we obliterated everything? Well, I mean, come on. Do you think that we really did? No.

And how hard is it to rebuild a small nuclear device? Maybe I was naive. I believed the president and the secretary of defense. I believe them both. They repeatedly, it was the left that continued running around saying, these are lies. These are lies they didn't obliterate. And those of us who believed in President Trump and took him at his word and Pete Hexeth were defending them saying, we believe them when they say that it was annihilated.

We talk about the bunker busting bombs. We played the presser with Pete and Dan Cain. And now here we look like fools because they're like, oh, gee, or no. they were about to drop the bomb on us. What does it take to build a dirty bomb? How long does it take to have that if you have the material? We know they didn't get rid of all of the material, I'm sure. We've seen the BDA that showed the obliteration of their ability to build an ICBM,

to be able to take it to that level. What we're looking at is there's still the threat there of other devices and other capabilities. And if you have the opening to be able to allow the Iranian people to take back their country. And if we see that happen, I mean, right now we've seen what Iran has done has even solidified the relationships that we have with other countries in the Middle East that much more. something they did not ever expect was Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, becoming an ally to fighting Iran. We're at a position that we need to take the spread out and get rid of it. Nobody mentioned anything about a dirty bomb until, like President Trump spoke twice on Saturday.

Once again, the administration put out messaging on Sunday. Then the president spoke again yesterday. Marco Rubio spoke yesterday. It took three days for them to finally be like, and maybe a dirty bomb. Like this was, nobody said, here was President Trump's. Can we play the soundbite that we played yesterday,

Deb, Dab and sought two or three, whatever it was? This is what President Trump said was the reason. This is how he explained why we had to do it on Saturday morning. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating eminent threats from the Iranian regime. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted death to America and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States our troops and the innocent people in many, many countries. It's been mass terror, and we're not going to put up with it any longer.

Iran is the world's number one state sponsor of terror and just recently killed tens of thousands of thousands of, of its own citizens on the street as they protested. It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular, my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon. I'll say it again, they can never have a nuclear weapon. They've rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can't take it anymore.

We're going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated. I just, I don't believe the dirty bomb story. It would have been in the initial justification if it were true. Well, the thing is, though, is, I mean, you got to look at it like this, Megan. What threats have they always had or tried to develop? Okay. We want to sit here and stick on, okay, because I'm not an advocate for war by any means. It is not what we should do unless we have to, okay? But the history of Iran, since 1979, when the Mullahs took over, they have done nothing

but try to kill Americans. And if they got a nuclear weapon, what do you think that they would do with it? Would they use that as a deterrent for us to attack them? or do you think after all of the history that we've seen of them, they would use it to destroy Israel and destroy America? And I have no doubt that that's what they would do. I mean, Iran would fully understand, I think Iran would understand that any sort of attack

on the United States of America involving nuclear would be certain annihilation. I mean, they're not dumb. They would understand that it would be annihilation for them. all of their people. So that, I do have doubts about whether Iran would actually use it. And what Steve Whitkoff is saying today, the negotiator for President Trump on this, is that, well, let me just finish. He's saying that they told them on the first day of the meetings, he and Jared were told by them, that they still have enough enriched uranium to make 11 nuclear bombs. He said, that's how they

opened, that they still have enough to make 11. So if, like, if they had enough to make 11, why didn't they make the 11 and drop bombs on us if they were prepared to nuke us? I mean, I just think, like, what is your idea of if Iran were prepared to do that and was going to do that if it got a bomb, it would have done it? What is your idea of nucus? Nukas is an ICBM. That's what everybody talks about. That's the big thing that you're thinking of. Okay. Two is show me where any terrorist is worried about dying. The mullahs don't care about their people. They, as you've said, They've killed over 10,000 of them just in the last few months because of them rioting. They don't care if they sacrifice all of their people.

What they do care about is destroying America. I mean, it is paramount to what hate happens to a person and how it takes somebody from having common sense to not being able to go to every extent possible to blow something up. I mean, I've been in the Middle East in and out of 40 years. I've seen kids wear a suicide vest to go blow up a marine or a facility. How do you get somebody, where in there is any sense that they would utilize what we think of from our Judeo-Christian principles, our morality. We can't put that on them because they will not listen to it. It's not common to them to have that. They're willing to sacrifice everything for the destruction of America, because what do they do if they die? They go to heaven and they get 72 virgins and they live in paradise. I mean, if I can promise you that, what would you not do? Yeah, I hear you, and I certainly am not defending the Iranians and their intent as good people, the mullahs, who run Iran. However, I think generally we've been of the mind that we don't.

start wars unless there actually is an imminent threat against us. And this has been an exception to that. And I mean, even though the president used the term imminent threat, he was undermined immediately by those around him who's leaking to the Washington Post and the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. And I think that with respect to like the nuclear program, that's why we took it out in June. Like that because we understood that Iran could never have a nuclear weapon. And I think the American people were behind Trump on that. I was behind Trump on that. Like I was, I defended the strikes. in June. I was thrilled to see them target those sites, but nothing's changed since June.

They didn't rebuild their nuclear program. So what did we do that for? So what else is the threat? What other threats do they have? What other capabilities do they have and have they always had and are they willing to use them? And at what point do we decide to make sure that we take, I mean, not only the threat of the nuclear weapons, but the capability or the the possibility of bringing around regime change in a way that is not going to involve our troops because I think if anything that involves us putting... But it is involving our troops. Let me finish, Megan.

If it's involving anything where we put boots on the ground, then I am not for that. I think there's other ways to do it. And I go back to it's up to the Iranian people to take charge. We give them the opportunity to take over their country. And at some point, when you have a bully in the backyard around the playground, somebody has to face up to that bully and punch them in the nose. And we have done that. And we need to continue to do that, giving the rest of the people on the playground and showing them that, you know what?

You can take over this bully as well and make your own playground safe. And that's what really I think is a lot behind this. What about making it so the Iranian people can have an environment where they can take over their, country and choose the people of Iran choose what they want, not what some Mullah wants to tell them they have to have. It would certainly be nice if it could happen. I just, I have my doubts given how ingrained the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is in the country and the regime's emissaries are in the country.

There are reportedly thousands of them. I've heard the number 10,000. So it's not going to be that easy. It's not just like, okay, the Ayatoll is gone and now the country's free. No. This is going to be a war. But nothing worthwhile is ever been. We're going to the Kurds.

Nothing. Well, we got to remember. I know, but like this is Quagmire, we didn't need to do. Two things is one is when is anything worthwhile been easy? It never has. Two is when we talk about the Kurds, I mean, most people don't understand what the whole Kurdish nation or Kurds that part of that race involves. I mean, you have Kurds that live in and have been in Iran.

You have Kurds that are in Iraq. You have Kurds that are in Syria. And you have Kurds that are in Turkey. All of them are not, though they are all Kurdish, they're not all on the same side all the time. I mean, we saw it in Iraq. I used to, I mean, I was up with Barzani and Talibani, a lot up in the Kurdish portions of Iraq. They fought each other left and right when Saddam was still in power because they're vying for power themselves. And that is one of the problems that we're going to see in Iran is all the little different factions.

Because as your previous, as Eric Prith previously stated, it's not all Iranians. I mean, they're all Iranians, but they're not necessarily all Persians. There is Baluchis, there's Kurds. we've got several different factions. And yeah, they're going to have a problem. They're going to have trouble figuring it out. But at some point, as I listen to you talk, I'm like, oh, my God, we don't want this. We just got over 20 years of this.

I don't want to hear anything about the fucking Kurds or Barzani or Turkestani or any of the onis. I don't care about them. I care about my kids. Americans care. They want a mortgage. They want to be able to work a single family. income to live on a single family. They want it to be able to take a vacation.

They want to send their kids to a decent school without being overwhelmed with illegals. They want the illegal deportations to continue. And how are we going to focus on that when we're also focusing on in Iranian war? We are not going to do both simultaneously. Like, I'm sorry that the Iranians have a terrible man

ruling their country or did until two days ago. The next one they were looking at doesn't look so great either. But I don't give a shit. I just feel like we have our own fucking problems to worry about and I just, I have so little bandwidth for them. And Megan, I would agree with you completely on all of that. I've been in probably in my life overseas,

I've been to probably 50, 60 different countries. And you know what? Everybody in every country wants the same thing. The problem is not the people. The problem is the governments. And that's the problem that we are always going to run into. And at some point, we have to do what we can when we can, can, whether it's a lot or a little, to help other people have a better life. And I'm right there

with you. I think our focus should be on what's going on in our country right now, because we have a lot of things that we need to focus on and fix. But at the same time, when an opportunity sees is opened, we can't just turn away from that and hope that it just goes away. Because it's not going to just go away. The mulas, the IRCG, the capabilities that they are trying to develop, it is going to affect us at some point in the future if we don't deal with it. As much as I wish in a perfect world, it would just go away. It's not going to. I've been, I've seen it too much. I respect you. Listen, you've been boots on the ground over there. You know better than anyone, so I greatly respect your POV and for you sharing it here.

Thank you. Mark Oz, Geis, great to see you again. Thank you so much for having me on. It's my honor. I'm honored just to know you, Mark. And all the best of the rest of the guys, too. Those guys are badasses out of that Benghazi compound. And I was lucky enough to come to know them when it went down. Okay, we have a bit more ahead.

And then Matthew Kachuk from the U.S. men's Olympic gold winning hockey team. He's here. Let's be honest. America can still be a dangerous place, and you cannot afford to wait for help. Sure, you could use a firearm, but in today's America, defending yourself with deadly force could have legal consequences. According to FBI data, 99.9% of all altercations do not require lethal force, and that's exactly why so many are turning to Burna. Burna is proudly American, hand-assembled in Fort Wayne, Indiana. These less lethal self-defense launchers are trusted by hundreds of government agencies, law enforcement departments, and private security companies.

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While last night, video of their depositions was released by the House Oversight Committee, and there are some interesting moments that we have got to get to. Okay, where to begin? I kind of want to start with Bill because he was entertaining. Let's start with 51, where he was asked, why Jeffrey Epstein would say, quote, he likes them young. In the Epstein cases that Epstein said, you, quote, like them young. Why would Epstein say that about you? Most of all, that's not true.

What's not true? That I have any interest in underage. I didn't say underage. I said young. But it's still not true. Is an intern young? Yes. Okay.

In my age, anybody younger than I am. Oh, my gosh. Bruttle. brutal, brutal, brutal. I'm so uncomfortable watching the whole thing. Is an intern young? Yes, yes. That's, of course, why Jeffrey Epstein said, you like them young.

Don't make me show the picture again, Mr. President, of you leering at my friend's breasts when she was 20 years old at the Bombay Club in Washington, D.C. My pair of friends, we were all around 20 at the time, and they were in Washington, D.C., and so are you. you were still president, it was 1999, and you were leering down her blouse with your hand sneaking up the side on the side boob of my other friend. Okay, so Meg Florence and Abby Rittman might dispute your statement that you don't like him young. I saw it myself. In any event, there was that. Then he was asked about that viral hot tub moment that we all saw from the

Epstein files where you can see him, it's larger than a hot tub. It's like a bath, like one of those traditional Roman baths. It's like large, and you can swim around and it bears more of a resemblance to a pool when you see the larger shots. And he was asked about this. Here's how that went. Sought 50. Do you recall the details of this photo? Recall the photo being taken.

No, I don't think I never knew the photo was taken. This picture was taken in Brunei. Were there other people in that pool or hot tub with you as well? I don't think there's anybody in the hot tub, but I don't even, I didn't forgotten that there was anybody in the hot tub. There's a girl over here. Is there someone? Yeah, I don't know who that is. But he's also asking you in the pool area, where there are other individuals?

I don't know who that is. Okay, so you don't know? No, and then there were other people in the pool. Okay, so do you remember, were they under 18? No. No. Were they part of your traveling party, he's asking you? Yes, they were, I think.

I think everybody there was part of our party. I swam around, I sat in the hot tub for five minutes. I got it and went to bed. And I have to ask us, did you engage any sexual activity with this person? I went to bed. Who is with you? That kind of gets to one of the core issues. This is so uncomfortable.

But it's fair game. He was very close with Epstein. He was all over the world with him. He was on the plane 17 times. Like, these are fair game questions of Bill Clinton. Hillary didn't seem to know anything, but Bill knew a lot. And part of what was interesting about the dynamic was watching his lawyer. It was very annoying her speaking objections.

You know, when you take a deposition, the lawyer defending the deponent is not supposed to do a bunch of speaking objections. But, man, it was, and so was the male. He was flanked by two lawyers, a female and a male. And both of them were completely trying to telegraph to Bill Clinton the answers. he's asking you to get into Jeffrey Epstein's mind and opine on what he may or may not have been thinking. You know, like, you're supposed to say objection to form at a deposition. That's all you're supposed to say so that you can observe, sorry, preserve your substantive objection for when this case ever proceeds to, let's say, a trial if somebody got indicted.

So these speaking objections were inappropriate and ubiquitous yesterday. You didn't see much of it there, but trust me, because I watched a lot of this. There's another one here about whether he thinks Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. That's the $64,000 question for many. SOT 55. Do you believe that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself? Are you asking him to speculate on how Mr. Epstein died? I'm asking what the president thinks.

So you're asking his opinion? Mr. President, was your friend Jeffrey Epstein suicidal? Are you classifying him as a friend who he has testified that he was friendly? He has called a friend in a letter. He said he was friendly, but not you've asked for his. Mr. President, do you believe that Jeffrey Epstein was suicidal? Do you know? Was he ever suicidal?

I don't know. I only know what the medical finding was. I think maybe he finally got caught and I don't know. I've accepted it in my own mind. I don't know what happened. Mr. President, what did you accept? That he killed himself or that he did not? But he did, but I don't know. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. None of us know. Did you hear his lawyer say, that's it. He tried to cut him off from answering. And Bubba was there to chat. He was ready said. I think he got caught. Caught what, sir? Caught what? I mean, really, that's the, that's the interesting conversation. He wasn't prepared to give up too many details on that, of course. But it is interesting to hear him talk about his own theory on Jeffrey Epstein. He can only imagine what he was thinking because they had known each other very well. Trump, too, for that matter. What was

thinking the day he heard that Epstein allegedly killed himself. Like, after all the hours they'd spent together, I mean, I'm sure Bill Clinton was like, oh, shit, this is going to turn into a nightmare now, because when there's no actual resolution in a court of law, as there ultimately would have been against Jeffrey Epstein, you know, the unanswered questions are sometimes the most dangerous ones. And that's, I think, proven true in the Epstein case. So there you have it. I think he got caught. He got caught. He got caught. Very interesting answer. This, the following clip has gone a bit viral because he was smiling as he looked at

Epstein documents showing, for example, a photo of him framed in Epstein's home in Manhattan. This is, the picture is from a New York Times piece in 2025. Some had mistakenly thought it was that same picture that we just showed of him in the pool. It's not. It's a different photo of him. And you can watch, it's interesting to sort of watch his. reaction to it in SOT 57. It's it.

Okay. Mr. President, we have about five minutes remaining in the majority of his first hour. Okay, what's interesting about it is because he's all smiles for the listening audience. He's like ear to ear with a smile as he looks back over the New York Times article and his lawyer takes it from him. Clearly, she doesn't want him getting too interested in this subject. And Ben sees the picture of himself. Epstein. And by the way, for the listening audience, it's a picture of the two of them looking like BFFs, just looking at each other, like bros in a picture. He's not in a hot tub. He's not

naked. He's not with a girl. He's just with Epstein like a great friend. We're showing the audience the picture. They're like side by side. Looks like they're at some sort of like a bar or a table, both arms up on the table. And looking at each other like, I mean, can you imagine being a fly on that wall and hearing that discussion? What we wouldn't give. Okay, so overall, it wasn't, you know, earth-shattering that he denied any knowledge of Epstein's sex crimes when asked if he ever had any communications with Epstein related to young women or girls. He said no. He briefed lawmakers on the backstory of his history with Epstein and denied having any knowledge again of the sex crimes before he was prosecuted. He denied having sex with a mystery woman pictured next to him in that hot tub.

again, he explained it was taken at a lavish hotel in Brunei with the Sultan inviting him there. He said my team was working on the AIDS issue and Epstein was there, as was Galane Maxwell. The Sultan of Brunei was a man I had gotten a no well. I want you to stay at this hotel and I hope you'll use the pool, he said. So I did. He could not identify the woman in the hot tub with him and was adamant that he did not have sex with her. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. By the way, he was asked whether he's ever lied under oath before, like when he said he didn't have sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky.

And listen to how that went. Short thought here, 54. First question I have for you, Mr. President. Have you ever lied in a deposition? No. Have you ever lied while under oath? No. No, he says. Okay.

I mean, he was impeached for doing exactly that, but he did deny the charges even then. pretty sure it wasn't true. And he said he did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. And that's pretty well established. But I think he just did it again, quite frankly. That was another lie under oath. Let's see. Oh, then there was a question about Trump and Epstein asked of Bill Clinton here in Stop 58.

I hate this because I don't believe I should inject anything. But I do not want to leave the impression. But since there was no follow-up question, he never, the president, never, this is 20-something years ago, never said anything to me to make me think he was involved in anything improper with regard to abstain either. He just didn't. That's the truth. As I said earlier, the only conversation I had with President Trump about this was in the early two days. thousands. And I have no information that he did anything wrong. Well, and that's the relevant time frame because Bill Clinton was hanging out with Epstein

right after his presidency in that 2000 to 2004 time period. And President Trump, then just Donald Trump, was very close with Epstein from, I think, 2006, backward 10 years. So when they were talking, would have been the relevant time frame. And he's saying, He never said anything to me about Epstein and young girls and anything, knowing any of that or participating in any of that at the relevant time frame. So that is interesting and probative. And by the way, also puts the lie to Bills and Hillary's claim that they had absolutely nothing of value to offer and no relevant information to discuss.

He did. She didn't really have too much to say, but he absolutely did. And it was very wormy that they tried to get out of it by claiming they knew nothing. was not true in his case, and that was made clear by the deposition yesterday, notwithstanding his lawyer's best attempts to make him look like he, like he, in fact, wasn't known nothing. Here's Hillary in the moment that's getting a lot of attention because she, I got to say, this was kind of bullshit. So Lauren Bobert was there, among others, when Hillary was deposed, and she decided to take a picture of Hillary and to leak it to Benny Johnson, who put it on

his social media during the middle of the deposition. Well, the depot was going to be made public. It was understood and agreed that it was going to be made public, the videotape of it. So it doesn't make it really like a capital offense, what she did, because it was all becoming it's not like, oh my God, we never would have seen it had not been for this Lauren Bobert snapshot. But I'm not going to lie. It was a classless thing to do. Follow the rules of the depot, all right? Like, you may hate Hillary Clinton, but she's the former Secretary of State.

She did show up. She's answering the questions. Like, fucking just go along with the protocol. And it's not up to you to upend the whole situation by taking a stand. shot and leaking it. Benny Johnson did nothing wrong, but I don't think Lauren Boebert should have done that. But, okay, she did. And when Hillary found out about it, because it hit social media seconds thereafter, and that

they had violated the agreement between Hillary's team and the House Oversay Committee, she wasn't happy. Here's a bit of that. Excuse me, can I interrupt? I have photos that are being released of the secretary as she is testifying from inside this Can you please advise me as to whether or not that's permissible and consistent with the rules, particularly given that we have asked for a public hearing. If there are photos that are being released of the secretary as she is testifying,

can you please explain how that can occur? I'm done with this. If you guys are doing that, I am done. You can hold me in contempt from now until the cows come home. This is just typical behavior. We will go off the record. Oh, for heaven's sake. So I would like to understand how that's permissible.

It was before the hearing was. It doesn't matter. We all are abiding by the same. Same rules. I will take that down. Yeah, well. I would like to take a break at this moment. I'd like to have a conversation for now. Go off the record. I'm going to shock you, but she was right.

Like, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm on her side. They shouldn't have done it. Like, these things are always negotiated. I've taken countless depositions, and they're always negotiated the terms of what's going to be available, what's going to be publicly available, what's on the record, what's not, but all the stuff. And it's the subject of countless phone calls and letter writing, with the lawyers before the event. And everyone there is expected to live up to the terms. And we were always going to see Hillary on tape offering her testimonial.

So there was no reason for it. Okay, there was no reason for it. And I think Lauren Bober jeopardized the day's proceedings with a stupid thing that was kind of pointless. All right. So write it down in the calendar. What's today? March 3rd. I'm in agreement with Hillary Clinton.

I've got one more. and this is where she has a heated exchange with Nancy Mace and SOT 60. I know Howard Lutnik because when I was Senator, on 9-11, the firm he headed, Cantor Fitzgerald, suffered the greatest loss of life. As I recall, something like 650 of his employees were murdered by terrorists that day. Howard Lutnik missed being a victim because he was delayed, dropping his child off to kindergarten. You asked the question.

I'm going to answer your question. Now you're going to yell at me. This was what I spent my time doing. I'm a survivor trying to look out for others. Well, and I was taking care of the people who lost 3,000 lives at World Trade Center. You have emails. You've denied that Jeffrey Epstein that you tried to get Jeffrey Epstein to give money to you. I did not.

If you have an email with me asking Jeffrey Epstein for money. I have an email from Howard Lutnik sending it. sending it to Jeffrey Epstein and his people to raise money for you for an event, an intimate event for you at his offices at Canter Fitzjohner. If you would let me finish. And say to this committee, you didn't try to get money from Jeffrey Epstein. I didn't. Okay. That went on.

I will say Hillary did a good thing in the longer answer where she said to Nancy Bates, because you heard Nancy May say, I'm a survivor. And Hillary said, I'm aware of your story and I respect what you've been through. and you're testimonial about it that I heard on the floor of the Congress. Like, she had her moments there. You know, sometimes you've got to give it to her. She's no dope. And she practiced law for a number of years, so she knew how to handle herself in there. But not, look, the bottom line is, no substance really was offered in the Hillary portion of the event.

And it did not appear that she knew that much, or at least wasn't prepared to give up that much. All right, I want to get to what happened with Christy Nome, though, at a different hearing. Okay. She was on Capitol Hill today, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in an oversight hearing on DHS operations and had a remarkable exchange that I happen to have some knowledge about with Senator John Kennedy, a Republican. All right, this is a Republican who's given her a hard time about the television advertisements she's put out featuring herself at DHS. Watch. You have spent $220 million running television advertisements that feature you prominently. Sir, the president tasked me with getting the message out to the country and to other countries

where we were seeing the invasion come from with putting commercials out that told them that if they were in this country illegally, that they needed to leave, or we would detain them in. remove them and they'd not get the chance to come back to America the right way. That has been extremely effective. Ask you to run these advertisements. Is that right? We had that conversation. Did you bid out those service contracts?

Yes, they did. They went out to a competitive bid. The people that you ended up picking were people who had formerly done your political work back in South Dakota. Is that right? No, that's not correct. sir. No, it's not. The careers who they chose were two different media firms. The president approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country

in which you are featured prominently. Yes, sir. We went through the legal processes. Did it correct? Did the president know you're going to do this? Yes. He did. Yes. Well, I happen to be in a position to be able to back her up on that. Sort of. I was told by a source close to Secretary Nome more than a year ago that President Trump, well, just under a year ago, that President Trump did indeed want her out there doing those advertisements, that he viewed it, you know, like the bit she did down at Seacott, where she showed up in the T-shirt, and she was at the jail in El Salvador and some of the other ones, because President

Trump really thought, according to this source, didn't confirm it with him directly, that that would be a very effective deterrent, that he wanted her to be calling attention to some of these efforts they were doing because he thought, let's advertise it and get the word out. Like, you too could find yourself shipped off to El Salvador if you don't just get out. And we have had a significant number of these illegals self-deport. You could make the case, as a result in part, at least, due to those ads. So while I think Senator Kennedy thought this was a vanity project for Secretary Nome, and I get it, but I don't actually think that's true in this particular case. I think she did have the blessing of the president. I don't know about the numbers, you know, the 220 whatever million, but to get herself on camera and call attention to what DHS and ICE were doing as a measure of getting the word out that there was new sheriff in town and that none of this illegal bullshit was going to be permitted anymore. So anyway, it's interesting that they're taking. a look at it. I wonder what Senator Kennedy, who is very charming and always interesting,

was up to there. But for what it's worth, I think the secretary was telling the truth, what I know about it anyway. Okay. In the minutes we have left, I want to tell you the very latest, it's just a bit in the Nancy Guthrie case. As Zach Peter is saying on his social media, they never found the lady. What happened to that lady? That's how I feel too. I can't believe they haven't found Nancy Guthrie after all this time. The media's moved on. It's now just a couple of very sad Kim Kardashian wannabe lookalikes. I mean, in their dreams, they actually look like Kim Kardashian. It's not the case, but they're doing their best. Standing out in front of, well, near the Nancy property, trying to make hay of this family's pain. Like the actual journalists have left,

the influencer crowd that was helping has left. And now, it's really just down to the remnants. It's kind of sad. And Brian Enton dropping this just moments ago. First of all, I should tell you that Michael Ruiz of Fox reported yesterday that yesterday morning, the case was handed off to a task force featuring Pima County homicide detectives and FBI agents. So a smaller footprint that's now a task force involving some from the sheriff's department, some from the FBI. Sheriff Nanos did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what Ruiz's sources were reporting there. Now, today we get this from Brian Enten of News

Nation. The Pima County Sheriff did an interview with NBC saying, quote, I think the investigators are definitely closer to finding Nancy Guthrie and the suspect, to finding the Nancy Guthrie suspect, is what he says, says new video of a car, 2.5 miles away has not been identified, and they are looking at hundreds of thousands of other vehicles, says the backpack that we saw in that video of The Man on the Porch may not have been purchased at Walmart. That's new and unfortunate. Remember, we believed it was a backpack you could only get at Walmart,

though we did point out on this show. It doesn't mean it wasn't available secondhand in a thrift store, Salvation Army, or a gift, a re-gift. And sure enough, the sheriff says to Brian, it could have been purchased secondhand. that tells us that they came up empty on the Walmart records and video records of people purchasing the thing. So that is very unfortunate because that was a real lead that could have led somewhere, but like every lead in this case didn't. He then adds, quote, we have information on this case

that we think is going to lead us to solving this case, but it takes time. I mean, what does that mean? What does it mean? Right? He says, I think the investigators are definitely closer to finding a suspect. And we have information on this case that we think is going to lead us to solving this case, but it takes time. Wouldn't you love to hear what exactly he was talking about? I don't know. We'll keep you posted. We don't know. Okay, in the short time I have left, I want to end on this. We've been talking so much about negative things. Like the Iran war, it's stressful, like MAGA being divided over it. It's just, it's all stressful. You know, it was wonderful. Something wonderful, wonderful, wonderful happened in my life this past weekend. My daughter was in the high school play. And the play was Mama Mia.

And we went and saw these young men and women, boys and girls, put on a play that was spectacular. The performances, my daughter's just in the chorus, she's just ninth grader, but the performances by the leads had me, my jaw was slack. I couldn't believe my eyes. I desperately hope that especially the two lead girls go on to perform on Broadway. The, like the singing, the high notes, the pizzazz, especially of the woman who played Donna from Mama Mia, when she got up there, it was like just belting it out. And I was the, like, the, You wasn't a dry eye in the house. I couldn't cheer loudly enough. The guys, too, gave it their all with the singing and the dancing. And I was so moved by it. And you should go to your high school plays. Even if you don't have a kid in the high school play, go to them.

Go to your local high school play. It's uplifting. It's joyous. It's restorative when you see the youth of this country doing something amazing that they're great at. It makes you feel good inside. And I left on cloud nine. And I think everyone there. So hats off.

to the high schoolers who actually acted and sang and danced and the tech crew who put it on and to the director who, you know, didn't have a lot of time for this particular play, but got it on. That was standing snow days in a short window in a way you would never have known they were up against any of those challenges. Loved every second of it. Okay. Coming up, we are going to say goodbye, but we are going to play our interview with Team USA gold medalist Matthew Kachuk. Next, we did an interview with him at the end of the show yesterday. hasn't yet aired, and he is such a charmer. Okay, so enjoy. That's up next. And after that, we will just see you tomorrow. Thanks for watching, everybody. Ever been in a bad relationship? You know, the kind of just wears you down. You settle in, even though deep down, you know this is

not how it's supposed to be. Well, that's what daily aches and pains can feel like. You stop expecting to feel good. You start thinking, maybe this is just life now. But it doesn't have to be. With relief factor, you can break up with pain, just like Anthony did. He wrote, quote, I was dealing with debilitating pain and fatigue. I've been taking relief factor for about two months and now I'm back to running my business, fishing, gardening, doing the things that really matter to me. If you have back pain, knee issues, or stiffness, slowing you down, relief factor could give you your mobility back. Relief factor is 100% drug-free. It targets the inflammation that causes pain, helping you move better, feel better, and actually

enjoy life again. Try the three-week quick start for just 1995. Go to Relieffactor.com or call 804 relief. Break up with pain and get back to what matters. Hey, everyone. It's me, Megan Kelly. I've got some exciting news. I now have my very own channel on Sirius XM. It's called the Megan Kelly channel. And it is where you will hear the truth, unfiltered with no agenda and no apologies. Along with the Megan Kelly show, you're going to hear from people like Mark Halperin, Link Lauren, Callahan, Emily Dushinsky, Jesse Kelly, real clear politics, and many.

more. It's gold, no BS news. Only on Megan Kelly channel, SiriusXM 11, and on the SiriusXM app. As anyone who has seen this show in the last few weeks, well, no, last week and a few days, knows I can't get enough of the gold medal winning U.S. men's Olympic hockey team. Can you? And last week, we saw that even President Trump wanted his own piece of gold. Watch. I'm not going to have a pound. One of the guys letting him put it on. I thought I never have this on. And that guy is with the Florida Panthers, and his name is Matthew Kachuk.

His brother Brady also played on the team. They are sons of hockey legend Keith Kachuck, himself an Olympian, who never was able to take home the gold. Like his teammates, Matthew received a hero's welcome from his hometown team. in Florida, but he did not forget to give the game puck to a 101-year-old World War II veteran named Jim Salino. Watch. Panthers forward and Team USA alternate captain, Matthew Kucha. Skating around the rink holding the American flag, shaking hands.

Congratulations. These are two American heroes right here. Wow. Joining me now, Matthew Kachuk. Matthew, welcome to the show. How does it feel to be called a hero? I'm not, I'm not a hero. First of all, thank you for having me on. I love listening. But yeah, not a hero, just a hockey player. And very lucky to be in the situation that I've been in. And very lucky to be having this around my neck right now. But the veterans and all the first responders, military, they're all the heroes. Not me. We just we just, we just, we just, play the game we love. And we were very honored to represent the greatest country in the world doing it. And the support we've gotten has actually been so insane that I still can't really believe it from being honest. So just trying to enjoy all the celebrations that have come from it.

And I'm trying to have this around as much as I can because it's kind of like the Stanley Cup. It's what it does to people when they see it. The smiles, it's kind of what it's all about. All right, now I'm going to tell you something. I should have told you, I should have emailed you, knowing that you guys would win a week ago. There is a product called Party Smart. And if you take it in the midst of your alcohol, it makes the next morning a lot easier. I feel like I'm going to send a case of this to the entire team. But you're a young man, so you probably don't have that problem anyway. I want to know everything. There's a lot I have to ask you about. First of all, let me ask you this. You make this team, the Olympic hockey team. I realize it wasn't 1980. It wasn't like a bunch of college kids up against the Soviet. What was the messaging internally? Was it like, no, we have a real shot at winning gold, or was it it going to be very tough to get past those Canadians? I would say that we definitely weren't saying it publicly,

but privately in our room, it was gold and bust. We felt we had the team to do it. We felt we had the characters to do it. We felt we were the perfect team to break the street, the 46-year streak. And so many proud Americans in there that the sacrifice from, what I saw guys on our team do, like everybody's, you know, the best players or one of the best players on their team back at home. And to see like the sacrifice that guys have made, playing

less minutes, playing different role, not playing power play, less five on five minutes, maybe not even playing at all. And that's when I first saw the sacrifice in that first practice, I knew we had a real legit shot. And I mean, it took to overtime in the gold medal game to do it. It took probably the best goal-tending performance of all time by Helibuck. And it really takes a village, like the trainers, the equipment guys, all the staff. I mean, we put in so many hours. I know it was only a three-week tournament, but everything that built up to it. The culture with USA hockey, starting with the guys that came before us, and now after winning

the guys that are going to come after us, it's a culture of USA hockey is something that's so special. And I'm just so lucky to be a part of it. It is so special. I didn't know this. I don't, I'm not a sports person, but I'm so inspired by the culture of USA hockey. I'm so sad. I'm moving all my kids over to immediately. They don't skate a lick, but they're going to.

We're starting. How is USA hockey so patriotic, so bonded, so on message, totally having each other's backs? It is not like that in every sport. I just think it's like a group of guys that are so selfless. and like I just talked about the sacrifice, like willing to do whatever it took, like put their bodies on their line for the country, play a different role.

I thought which was really cool that we've talked about a little bit since, but kind of going back to like the alumni and the guys that have come before us, like I obviously talk to my dad like every day. He was a four-time Olympian and played for 20 years and we've become close over the years with guys like Chris Chelyos, Jeremy Roneck,

like Brian Lee. So for example, like before every, single game, there would be like five or six of us out in the hall taping our sticks or getting our skate sharp or tying like laces, whatever we were doing to warm up. And we would FaceTime Chris Chalios, talk to him for a few minutes. We'd FaceTime Brian Leach, talk to them for a few minutes. So I felt our team did a great job of keeping the alumni of USA hockey, like, involved. And then we go into the dressing room and they all sent us like these huge letters that we had like plastered all over the walls of messages. So, like, we just have such a tight brotherhood,

whether you're Mike Ruzioni, who's however old, or you're Jack Hughes, who's 24 years old. Like, everybody in between so tight. And we're so lucky to have guys like Mike Ruzioni on the 1980 team who, they were really the guys who influenced guys my dad's age. And then my dad's age, guys with Chris Chelyos, Jeremy Ron, Brian Leach, Mike Madonnell, all these guys influenced you know, the Patrick Cain's and then us. So it's really just a trick-of-on effect. And who knows, hopefully our team right now is influencing the next generation or generations because that's really what it's all about and creating the greatest culture around it. Is patriotism part of it? I think that it is. Like, we're so proud to be American. We're so proud to represent our country.

And, like, that was the greatest honor I've ever had in my entire life is representing the United I'd say it's wearing the red, white, and blue at the Olympics at the greatest stage ever. And I don't know if you're ever going to get a greater honor than that, you know, other than maybe being in the military or a first responder. It was when I saw my carousione say that, and it really hit home when I put that jersey on over in Milan for the first time. It was so surreal and so special and just realized, like, you're playing for everybody in the United States. and just a special feeling.

So you're in the finals, you're up one to nothing for virtually the entire match, and then right at the end of the game, toward the end of the second period, the Canadians scored, now it's tied. And the game ends, and it's tied. Now we go into sudden death. And it could easily have gone the other way, unfortunately, maybe not easily given Hella Buck in the goal. But were you on pins and needles to you at your level?

Because now you're a professional hockey player at this point. Do you feel nervous when this is happening? Maybe a tiny bit going into the game, but once the game happened, I was totally fine. And before overtime, I thought our coach, Mike Sullivan, gave an unreal speech where he was really just talking about, like, there is a hero in this room that's going to change the course for generations to come with this goal.

And, I mean, at the end of the day, I just looked to the right, and we had Connor Hellebuck there and had just calmed right down. He was in his zone. that no, it was probably the greatest goal-tending performance in the history of hockey. And he was so calm going around. He was actually so calm. He didn't even know that it was three on three. He thought we were going back to five-on-five like we do in playoffs.

So it was, he was in a zone that you dream about your starting goalie being in. I think he even might have nat. I don't know if it was that game or the game before. He was sleeping on the bus on the way to the game. Like he was just so chill. Wow. And in a zone that we all dream about being in. I felt great about our chances.

Everyone talks about the world-class players Canada has. We have the same. And it was our time to break through. USA hockey's been knocking at the door for a while. But Canada's had our number. And it was time to finally break through and we did. Wait, tell me more about the coach's speech and when that happened. When exactly?

And what did he say? So always coaches come in before each period. So they come in after warm-ups before the first period. You know, they give a speech. They announce a starting lineup. And then they come in before each period after. that and since we went in overtime at the Olympics they they did like a flooding of the ice like the zambonies came up there so we had a 20 minute intermission and Sullivan comes in I think he comes

at 10 on the clock so halfway through and all he just kept saying was American swagger American swagger this is our time somebody in this room is going to you know make the difference and change the way hockey's looked at in the United States forever and a couple great saves by hellabuck and the guys that were out there did an amazing job I don't I don't think it can be stressed enough. Obviously, Jack Hughes being the overtime golden goal hero, but the play he made defensively on McDavid, who's the best player in hockey before, that was absolutely unreal. And then the play Zach Wrenski made to beat Nathan McKinnon, who's probably like the second

best player in the world at a puck battle, gave it to Jack, and then Jack did the rest. So so many things that led to that goal. But yeah, I think we really got it. I mean, every single day, it's so funny. We have our team group chat still going, and it's going, like, at all times during the day. It's the best. And one time a day, somebody texts, thank you, Heli. So every day he's been getting a text for the last week or eight days, and, like, everybody loves or likes the message or whatever.

So, yeah, we got Heli to thank for that. That's so sweet. We did a story last week about how he wasn't even heavily recruited. Like, he wasn't some star when he was much younger, like, finished. high school or college where everybody wanted him. It was more of like a Tom Brady situation. Yeah, I think he was definitely a late bloomer. And then when he came to the NHL, I think it took him a few years to become a starter.

I really don't know exactly. But he proved himself that he's, if not the best player in the world, like the most, I mean, he was the MVP of the Olympics. He was the best player. He was the most important piece for us. and just put such an all-world performance. That save right there, that stick save will go down in history as one of the best saves, if not the best ever. It actually looks divine.

It really does. It looks otherworldly like he had somebody helping him with the stick that day, because that just doesn't even look like a hit. It's so funny, too, like where that hit on the stick, it was above the tape. So it was like almost at like the bottom of, it's hard to explain. But anyways, he said.

The part where you hold on the stick. He said that after the game, there's a perfect puck mark on that spot, like on where the paint is. And I'm like, I don't know. One day that thing might be worth $50 million. Make sure you keep that tight to you. Totally. So he better not sell that or use it again in normal play. Is there in hockey, is there like your favorite stick that you use all the time?

Or is it like, no, like tennis where you've got 10,000 different rackets? We probably have like 10,000 sticks, but it's all like the same company, whatever one you have like a deal with or whatever. So each company made like special theme sticks for the Olympics. So it was all USA theme, which were those are limited edition. Okay. That's so cool. All right. So now I'll ask you about the ridiculousness that followed.

But let's, before we get to that, let's stay in the celebration mode. So there's the moment, let's play it when Jack does score that golden goal. We just want an excuse to play it because we all love it. SOT 60. Describe that feeling. Oh my gosh. It's like my life. Just press pause for five.

minutes and everything was like slow everything like you just remember everything that was going on every hug with the guys every I love you every little jump you had looking in the stands to see my family it was uh out of all the guys too I think the last guy on the team that I got to for a hug and I and I love you as my brother which I don't know why it happened to be like that but we had such a special moment there at Center Ice um one which with my brother, one with my brother and the Hughes boys. We call ourselves the Golden Brothers is our group chat name right now. And we kind of like grew up with them and have been so close with them for a while.

So those two embraces is like it's just why you play the game and it's why we do what we do. I wonder if you could feel like the power of the world's embrace of you guys in that moment. I mean, millions of Americans, like my family, on our feet in our living room, screaming, screaming for your win. And that was just one little example. It was happening with millions of Americans all across the country and the world in that moment. It was just been 46 years. They love you guys. They love USA hockey.

It was such a hard-fought battle. Like, could you feel it? Could you feel that worldwide energy, like zapping you all? That's a hard one. I mean, we definitely felt like in that moment, like, yes, we got them. Like, we've been knocking at the door for so long, and we finally, like, kicked right through it and got them. And I don't think it hit us until going to, like, the USA Winter House,

which is where all the athletes and their families got, like, their hangout spot, bars, restaurant, everything. When we went there, it was, like, mayhem. And it was just, like, one of the craziest parties. I think that's when we realized the effect of everything. And then definitely after the game, when we're seeing like on our phones, like all these watch parties, all the celebrations back in the U.S. And then we land in Miami and it's insane.

And then that first night in Miami was just out of control. And we're like, oh, my gosh, this is different than anything we've all experienced. And I don't think we are even going to realize the magnitude of the situation. It's been a week since. And I still don't really understand or know what's going on and how crazy this is because everybody comes up to me, no matter what city, like they're just so excited. and hockey's the cool thing right now, and it's because of our team and the women's team, obviously.

So it's just so special. Yeah, what a gift you've given back to the sport you love. Brady is your younger brother, right? He's a couple years younger than you are? Yes. Also in the NHL? Yeah, yeah, but it's just such, I mean, hockey's been so good to us. It's created lifelong memories, friendships, everything.

And it's so cool, like, with our team, too, with the U.S. team, everybody kind of overlap with each other at some point in their careers. So, like, I played youth hockey with some of the guys. I played in summer tournaments. I played for the U.S. NCDP with a lot of them. A lot of them are some of my best friends. So even though we play against each other in the regular season and you don't get to see them as much, you go to this tournament, you meet in New York before flying to Milan. It's like, just brings you right back to 2015 when you're playing in Ann Arbor, Michigan with them. And it's just, that's the best part for me is being able to win,

but being able to win with some of your best friends, it's just, it's unreal. Now, I imagine having been a hockey player your whole life, the risk of injury is not unfamiliar to you. The loss of teeth may not be unfamiliar to you. When you saw Jack Hughes's face after taking the stick to the mouth, did that phase you at all, or is that a day ending in why for a professional hockey player? Well, as you can see, I thought I was going to be Jack Hughes last night in my game against the Islanders. I was like, come on. Why me?

But that's, I think everybody in the NHL probably has a chip tooth or something or cuts on their face. It's just. Can you even get to dental insurance as a hockey player? Are they like, no, it's a no. I think they do, but it's pretty expensive because they know it's coming a lot. But, I mean, Jack, if I'm Jack, I'm letting that look fly for his. long as possible. That's like the icon like look in the United States right now. I'd keep that for as long as possible. Yeah. Well, in your family, too, it runs in the family, because I know your dad,

he was no stranger to the lost teeth either. I think we have a picture of that. Stand by. Let's see. Yeah. This is when you guys were little. I can't. Right? So your dad's been through it too. Yep, him and my sister twins in that picture. I'm shocked my mom didn't make him go fix it, but that's hilarious. So, okay, so you're in your sister plays as well. I mean, like this whole hockey family. Yeah, she was field hockey for four years at UVA, which was, we loved going to watch her. I played totally different sport, but a little bit similar with the skills.

But she, everyone says she's the best athlete in the family, or at least was. So that's a lot of. Well, you should have to beat it to play at UVA. She had to keep up with us. She had to keep up with us. So you go. into the back locker room. You guys are partying. Why was everybody wearing blue goggles? Because of the champagne being sprayed and all the beer being flown around. They just have those in

the locker room for celebrities. I think for like smoking cigars too, I don't know, all the above. It's just people did. Yeah, I don't, I never put the goggles on. I embrace the, the eyes stinging from everything. It's all part of it. I'm not soft. The danger. Exactly. Okay. No, no one on that team That's clear. Now, do we know, were you, did you know Cash Patel? Like, how did he get in there? Do we know? Yeah, I did know him from before, from our White House visit from playing with the Panthers, uh, being on the Panthers Cup team last year. So we met like everybody when we went for our visit. After you won the Stanley Cup. A month or two ago for our Stanley Cup visit, yes. And he was in the room. There was so many, um, him, everybody was in the room. Like, there was so many people. Like,

the room was crazy flooded with everybody. And yeah, a lot of people, a lot of people were a part of the celebration. A lot of people that are big supporters of our team and love hockey and just love the United States. And let me just pause you because we have a little bit of that. Let me show it. And then you can take it on the back end. Here it is. That's cash after you guys won the Olympic gold.

Yeah, I mean. Yeah. And you were talking about the after the Stanley Cup. Yes. Yeah, so when we went after the Stanley Cup to the White House, that's where I met him and everybody. That's what I met by that last month when we went there. So then obviously knew him and everybody that was in the locker room after the Olympic gold medal game.

And that was where that video was taking place and everybody just having an amazing time. And just unreal, the support we got from everybody. Like it was the locker room was packed. Everyone having a great time. We were singing Dream on courtesy of Red, Red, White, and Blue, born in the USA. God bless the USA. It was like those four songs were just like on repeat going. And some of the greatest memories I'll ever have is that locker and party.

And then just like last year at the Four Nations playing for USA, we got a surprise call from the president of the United States, which is always just the most surreal moment. Like you have no idea that it's like we're hockey players. And now the president's calling us to congratulate us. like just all insane and it's amazing what that, what that game did. It was such an honor. So cool that the president of the United States was watching our game and just it was, it was such a surreal moment. Did you have any hesitation? Because it didn't sound like it when

he said, do you guys want to come to the state of union? We'll get you on a plane. Yeah. Like to me, it was very charming that there didn't need to be a focus group meeting before you gave your answer. But did you feel any hesitation before you said yes? No, I mean, just and going off like winning the last few Stanley Cups, like getting invited to the White House, no matter who's there. It's just the greatest honor as an American, one of the greatest honors as an American. So everybody on our team was so excited and honored and shocked to get the invite. And then they said the State of the Union was that night, which guarantee you nobody on our team's been to. So another really cool experience.

Or maybe even ever watched. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. And then so we had that experience. And it was just getting a call Sunday to go to that on Tuesday back in the U.S. being like, how are we going to get there? All right, they're sending Air Force too. It was just, it couldn't believe it.

So, just a real few days. So now, if the president makes this joke about the women's team, and by the way, we've played it on our social media. It's gone totally viral. President Barack Obama made a joke about the men's team when he called the women's hockey team, or sorry, soccer team after they won. I think it was the World Cup or some big match. But in any event, President Obama did the exact same thing. He did it about the men's team.

It seems we have an experience of all hockey teams and soccer and sports teams, being able to have a friendly laugh at a presidential joke about members of the opposite sex. But with you guys, certain people on the left tried to turn it into a capital offense. So how did you learn that this was blowing up into something, some very bizarre people wanted to take offense at. Listen, I was just telling a story this morning about how close we were with the women's team, how we were sharing the same floor on like the third floor.

The USA building was us in the women's team room, or sorry, floor. And like we became super, super tight with them over the few weeks. We went to their games. They went to ours. We had like watch parties for other events. A lot of people knew each other from before, but getting to know the rest of them. And yeah, like I think it's just all like completely blown up into something that's just not true because we were a great huge supporters of them and they were of us and being able to sweep both gold medals to the first time ever is such an honor. And one of the highlights, honest to God, one of the highlights of the whole experience was after we got back from the winter house, which is where our post gold medal party was, we went for because a bunch of us had like the late night munchies.

So we wanted to go in the dining hall. It was like 2 a.m. And the buses were picking us up at 4.30 to go to the airport. So a bunch of us were like, let's just go eat something quick. When we go down there, there was like half the women's team that just got back from closing ceremonies. They were doing the same thing. They were just eating quick before the buses, their buses were like 5 a.m. Nobody wanted to sleep.

Before you know it within 5, 10 minutes, full, both teams are down there. Everyone's got their gold medals on. everyone's eating lava cakes, having beers, telling stories. I mean, we were probably a little bit more drunk because we just had the big party and they were at the closing ceremony. So they probably thought we were outrageous with some of the stories. But might be the highlight of the whole experience was celebrating with the women's team, all of our team, all the gold medals on, like just looking at everybody and just,

can you believe this? Like, look what we just did. Oh, my God. More gold than you just did. find a Trump Tower. Look what we just did for our country. And what an honor. Everybody just going around and talking about how special this was, how special both of our teams were, just how what a great honor it was to represent the United States at the greatest single venue Olympics. Like it was, it was unbelievable. And to be able to share it with them was so cool.

Okay. Well, I was subjected to this and therefore you must be too. Now, everybody loved it. Here's Megan Rapino. What I like to call a classic ripping defeat from the jaws of victory. The United States men's hockey team in their utter moment of glory, childhood dreams come true, once in a lifetime accomplishment, sensational, ruin it for themselves. Because they allowed themselves to be totally co-opted. Co-opted, yep. By a clown.

And now you're a clown. You look like a clown. Cash Patel is in the locker room. He's partying. He's chugging beers. I'm not like decorum over everything. That's not what I need out of my FBI director. Like, what are we doing?

Your reaction to that, Matthew. I mean, I just think that we're in the locker room celebrating after probably the greatest win that we've all been a part of. And we were just sharing it with everybody. And I mean, that's really it. I've got nothing really to say that. Yeah, I think that's probably the right. That's probably the right attitude. By the way, she took a call from the president herself personally, who congratulated her after a big win and accepted his invitation for a visit.

to the White House. So literally not one word of what she said was sincere. It was just an opportunity to rip on a bunch of white guys, which is very much in favor amongst some on the far left, but not amongst normal Americans. So now you go back and you resume life at the NHL. And my understanding is guys to your left and to your right are on the Canadian team. You were just defeated the previous couple of days, right? So you're playing with some of your with some of your adversaries who are Canadian. Yeah. Um, That's awkward. Yeah, I guess it is.

But we're hockey players. We're professionals. I mean, we did this last year at the Four Nations. This happens a bunch. One of my teammates was on Sweden, who we beat. Three of my teammates were on Finland, who lost to Canada. Like, it's just the way it is. But you just move on because ultimately our goal now is now we want to win our third straight Stanley Cup.

Do they give you any jazz, though? Like, is there any sort of smack talk? What happens? No. No, no. And I'm not throwing out any jabs at them either. It's just been, I don't know, it's just, it's been weird, I guess. But I think they, I think what I respect a lot from them is they know how much this meant to me and Americans. I mean, they live in Florida. They live in the United States. They've seen the impact that's had in Florida. And so I think, I think as much as they would have wanted to win, I mean, they've been unbelievable about it. They're, they're super happy for me. And I think they're happy with. seeing the reactions in the United States. I think it's, uh, they recognize that. Um, now the White House decided to have some fun with some AI involving you and your brother and put together a video. This is not actually what you guys said, but they, they put it out,

and it's gone totally viral. People love it. Uh, it's, it's showing you guys, the fake versions of you bashing Canada. Here it is in SOT 52. boot our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple syrup eating fix a lesson. Canada, we own you, little bro. Then the rest is just a bunch of hockey game. The AI part was the top. Any thoughts on the White House superimposing a voice over the image of you and your brother there, as though it were you guys?

Well, obviously the AI part is not what we said. The rest of the video is great. Freebird and the highlights. Love that part. I don't know. I guess we were just so honored to be going to the White House and everything that came with that. But yeah, those words did not come out of our mouth. I know my brother's been getting a little bit of heat for that because he plays in Ottawa and Canada.

But yeah, we definitely did not say that. But you don't have to worry about it because you play in Florida. Yeah, I don't have. All your fans probably loved it, AI or not. Other than you asking me right now, I don't have to answer to it. My brother gets like probably 100 questions a day about that. So I'd rather be down in Florida. Tell us about your family.

Like, are you married? Do you have kids? Like, what's your social life like? Yep. I'm married. I have a kid on the way in a month and a half. And that's starting a family. And life's about the...

Do you already have the little booty with ice blades on the bottom of them? Well, I'm sure we've... She's ordered everything for, because we're not finding out the gender, for it's going to be a surprise. And the only thing I asked is, can we not just get so many clothes of both? Like, can we just wait until, and of course, we've got everything of both. So we'll see them up and a half. The answer was no. Yes, I'm on the side of your wife.

That's so exciting. I'm so happy for you both. Thank you. And I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you, speaking of kids about that beautiful moment with Johnny Goodrose Kids. after you guys won the gold. What did that mean to you? How important was it to you to pay honor to him, tribute him? It was fitting.

It was the only way we could celebrate the right way and honor the right way. Winning the gold medal was having him be a part of it. And even though it just sucks so much that he's not with us because he would have been on that team and a big part of it, we felt we have, I mean, his family was there. We wanted to include all of them, but just logistically it was so hard to get them

all down. So Werenzky and Larkin grabbed Noah and little Johnny. I got the jersey and that picture is one of the most special, emotional, just times of my life and skating around with his jersey, doing the lap with the American flag and his jersey. It was just, I mean, there weren't many dry eyes in that stadium in that moment, including us players. It was just so, it was just emotional. and yeah we miss him very dearly and he had to be part of that celebration with us oh sweet Noah was shown in that picture there so innocent and not not yet aware of all she's lost but boy she did gain a bunch of great uncles and you could see that as you guys kept him in your thoughts and prayers the whole time thank you Matthew thank you for giving us such an incredible

moment and something we'll never forget we're all so proud of you guys thank you so much Thank you for having me. All the best. And go Panthers. I'm a new, I'm a new NHL fan. I only root for the guys, for the teams that have our former guys on them from the men's hockey team. What a guy, right? That's like, that's exactly what you think they're going to be like.

Like humble, patriotic, cool, no nonsense, no bullshit. We're so lucky to have had that team play for us and to have them out there still available for our enjoyment. and our support. So we should get out there and support teams like the Panthers and the others that keep our guys employed and on the ice every day, such that they can do miracles for us when the big four-year Olympics come. Anyway, thanks to all of you, too, for watching, and we'll see you soon. Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show, no BS, no agenda, and no fear.