The Young Turks - Ted Gets Tuckered - June 18, 2025

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month Shopify trial and start selling today at ⁠shopify.com/tyt Tucker Carlson utterly annihilates Senator Ted Cruz in a fiery interview. Trump warns that Iran may have missed its chance for a nuclear deal, calling the country “totally defenseless.” Hosts: Ana Kasparian SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞  https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK  ☞   https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER  ☞       https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM  ☞  https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK  ☞          https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH  ☞      https:/www.shoptyt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. I'm so upset. Oh my God. Bega! Hello, hello, welcome to CYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and I'm exhausted. So bear with me today. I've been traveling a lot. Just flew in from New York, from New York to L.A. this morning. And have to gotten very very good. little sleep, but there's a lot of really interesting stories in the rundown today, including I never in a million years would have thought I would say this, but maybe the best interview

of a United States senator I have ever seen. Tucker Carlson interviews, Senator Ted Cruz. Wow, wow. So we're going to spend some time on that because they did touch on a lot of different topics. Clearly, Tucker Carlson came very prepared. Ted Cruz thought he was going to be able to squirm his way out of uncomfortable situations in the context of that interview, of course. So we're going to get to some of the highlights that I've noticed people aren't talking about as much. So we'll get to that first. We're also going to give you an update on the latest as it pertains to what feels like us barreling toward a regime change war in Iran. This whole nuclear weapons thing, I believe, is a facade. I believe it's just the excuse to drum up enough support

for us to get involved in a regime change war in Iran. I really hope that it doesn't happen, but there hasn't really been a lot of great updates, especially over the last few days when it comes to that story. And we've got a lot of other things to get to, including, I guess, another Turning Point USA event in which Charlie Kirk said something to a young girl in braces, like she has braces, and he's giving her life advice, that for whatever reason really upset me and seemed so condescending, patronizing, and gross. But anyway, we're going to get to that later in the second hour of the show. By the way, unfortunately, my co-hosts today, had to, had some sort of emergency and couldn't join me.

So I'll be doing the whole show by myself today, which is excellent. It's a great day to do it by myself. But it's going to be fine. Kate Patino, our producer, is going to join me in the bonus episode with our members. And we're going to go over my CNN appearance last night on Abby Phillips's show. I really want to talk about it with you guys and see what you think. So we'll get to that in the bonus episode, t.yt.com slash join to become a member. All right.

Enough of that. Let's get to our first story. Are APAC's goals shaped by the goals of the Israeli government? And I'm just going to ask you a question straightforwardly. And if you say no, I think we both don't. That's not true. Hey, are they shaped by? Is that it?

Are they coordinating with the Israeli government? Are they talking with them? Yes. Israel directing them. What are, you want to talk about FARA, the law on lobbying on behalf of someone? Yeah. It is, I hire you and you lobby on behalf of me. I direct you.

Does Israel direct APEC? No. What you're now describing in a very defensive way, I will say, is foreign influence over our politics. No. And you began, and it's so transparently obvious to everybody. It's a very weird thing. The obsession with Israel.

Well, we're talking about foreign countries. It's hardly an obsession. You're not talking about Chinese. You're not talking about Japanese. You're not talking about the British. You're not talking about the French. The question, what about the Jews? What about the Jews?

Oh, I'm an anti-Semite now. Tucker Carlson carried out what I believe to be one of the best, if not the best interview of a sitting United States senator that I've ever seen. I mean, it was incredible. You just heard him, you know, in a bit of an exchange with Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who he sparred with throughout the entirety of their two-hour-long conversation. It's getting a lot of attention online. And I really went out of my way to try to find the points of that conversation that people

aren't talking about as much. Some of you may have come across the video that went viral featuring Ted Cruz, essentially letting the world know that he doesn't know basic facts about Iran, a country that he would like to see regime change in, a country that the United States might get involved in pushing for regime change in. Unbelievable, right? So that went viral for obvious reasons. He didn't even know the ethnic makeup of the residents of Iran. Didn't know the population. It's just, you might want to know whether or not, you know, it's ruled by Sunnis, Shiites. You know, like, it's just basic, basic.

If you're going to try to carry out a regime change war, you need to know the basics. Okay. I'm not going to talk about that because there's so many other topics that they touched on, including the influence of something we talk about quite a bit on the show. And that's the Israel lobby. Okay. It's not the Jewish lobby. It's the Israel lobby.

It's known as A-PAC. And I say Israel. lobby because this lobby isn't about helping Jewish people across the world. This is a lobby that is powerful because of its involvement of evangelical Christians, and yes, Zionists as well. And it's not to make life better for Jews in America, for instance. It's all about basically lobbying our government to carry out policies that are preferential and beneficial to Israel. And I was shocked to see that Tucker Carlson wanted to take crews to task over this. So without further ado, let's take a look.

I've never taken money from the Israel lobby. Have you? Taken money from the Israel? From AIPAC. So APC raises a lot of money for me, but it's actually a misnomer because the people who raise money are individuals. So it's not the PAC itself, but they're individual members who believe in the American Israeli friendship and relations. Is AIPAC for foreign lobby?

No, it's an American lobby. It's the APAC stands for the American. America, Israeli political action. What is it lobby for? So, to be honest, not a whole lot effectively. Listen, I came in to Congress 13 years ago with the stated intention of being the leading defender of Israel in the United States Senate. And I've worked every day to do that. APEC, a lot of times, APAC I wish were much more effective.

My understanding, having known what to AACC, is that it lobbies on behalf of the Israeli government. Oh, okay. When was the last time APEC took a position that deviated from Prime Minister Netanyahu? All the time. Okay. Let me go back and give a little history. If you want to do a deep dive on APEC. I don't. I want to do a shallow dive that gets- No, I want to get to the core question. A-PAC is lobbying for a foreign government. And I don't, it's not. No. It's lobbying for the United States. It is lobbying for a strong U.S.-Israeli relationship. Guys, guys, I have never seen anyone in media, okay, whether we're talking about left-wing

media, right-wing media, I haven't seen a single journalist in this country, ask an aggressive line of questioning like that about A-PAC and its influence on U.S. foreign policy, especially in the Middle East, obviously. That was amazing. I mean, look, I hate to be in a position where I'm praising a man. man who I have far more disagreements with than agreements with, but I don't care. I don't care. This interview was incredible. First of all, how illuminating is it that we literally have a sitting United States senator who openly says that he came into the Senate promising to be the

number one representative and defender of Israel of a foreign country, of a foreign country. If that doesn't infuriate you, there's something wrong with you. He was supposed to represent this country, the constituents who voted him in the great state of Texas, right? And he feels like it's totally okay to openly say, I came in, I came into the Senate, you know, committed to be the number one representative supporter. I can't remember the exact word he used, but basically to represent Israel's interests. So look, given that he feels comfortable saying that openly, which I'm not interested in having anyone in Congress who prioritizes any foreign country over our own.

I'm Armenian American, right? If someone came into Congress and said, you know what, I came into Senate wanting to be the number one representative of Armenia, I'd be like, but why? But why? No, I don't, we have problems here. And I think I finally figured out what's making Tucker tick, like what the big change with him has been. I think he's looking at the conditions we're all living in in this country, the drug overdoses, the extreme poverty, the homelessness. And he's asking himself, why are we so focused on foreign conflicts or what's happening outside of the United States?

Okay, so. There's more because you can tell Ted Cruz is getting a little bit uncomfortable. He's getting increasingly defensive. But then he finally just can't, he just can't hold back anymore. And he says the quiet part out loud. Let's watch. How much contact do you think? APEC leaders have for the government of Israel?

No idea. I imagine some. I think the government of Israel is often frustrated with APEC. Do you think there's not nearly strong enough? Do you think there's any coordination between the government of Israel and APEC? Do they talk? Sure. If you're lobbying for more U.S.-Mexico trade, would you talk to people in the U.S.

and the government? Sure. My question is not, is it outrageous that foreign governments lobby the United States? They all do, okay, including Israel. My only question is why don't we admit that is what's happening? what's happening. You're denying it, but it's true. And why aren't they registered as a foreign lobby? Because they're not.

They're not a foreign lobby. No, they're not. I'm only trying to get to the question of what APAC is, and I don't think you're being straightforward about it. APEC is lobbying on behalf of the interests of a foreign country, and they're not registered. And you're saying, no, that's not true. You're saying that they don't coordinate with the Israeli government. Do they talk with them? I don't know what they do.

I can tell you. But why don't you care? Isn't it meaningful if a foreign government? foreign government. Hey, I've talked with with Israel all the time. I've talked with foreign countries all the time. But the law is, and a lot of people have prosecuted under this law, that if you are lobbying on behalf of foreign government, you must register. That's it. That was incredible. Senator Cruz has never been asked those questions in an interview, ever, ever. He did not come prepared to be asked about the foreign influence of our foreign policy through

groups like APAC, that was so important for a conservative or right-wing audience to hear about because it helps people to understand why policies are what they are in this country, why we pursue the type of foreign policy that we pursue. So I really appreciated that Tucker didn't, you know, he had the follow-ups, he held Senator Ted Cruz's feet to the fire. And I I think that it was illuminating for a lot of people who might not have known the extent to which APAC basically influences our politicians to carry out policies that don't really benefit Americans, but certainly benefit the country of Israel, and in a lot of cases, also destabilize the Middle East, especially when we're talking about regime change wars. So I want to just quickly talk about the big lie that he tried to tell in that line of questioning, right? So Ted Cruz is like, no, no. I mean, it's not a foreign lobby.

But these are Americans. They're not doing any coordination with Israel. But they are. But they literally are. So one of my favorite journalists, Lee Fong, posted this on X. Let's take a quick look at this. So you'll see a picture there of, you know, Israeli population. politicians. And it's a post, he quote tweeted a post by Israel Cats. And he says,

Lee Fong says in his response to it, Ted Cruz told Tucker Carlson that APEC doesn't coordinate with the state of Israel, thus does not need to register under FARA. That's plainly not true. They discussed coordination openly. Here's an Israeli minister stating that he asked APAC to lobby Congress on the international criminal court issue. So Israel Katz wrote that this evening I met with APAC leaders and he names them. The state of Israel owes them much for their longstanding support. I asked them to work with the administration and Congress and Congress to take dramatic steps against the decision by the prosecutor of the ICC to demand arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and the defense minister. So, I mean, that's just open admission

of coordination. You have an Israeli politician openly admitting that these Israeli officials are meeting with, coordinating with members of Congress in order to get the type of policies they want. And it's told, I mean, if this were a group of Russian politicians, it would be considered foreign influence. It would be considered coordination. And failure to register as a foreign agent would be a problem. It might lead to prosecution. But for whatever reason, Israel tends to benefit from this weird double standard. And so this is all to say that Ted Cruz, whose top contributor, campaign contributor is in fact APAC, was lying. Was Lana Tucker lying to you, liked to the entire audience.

Throughout his career, he has taken in $562,593 from APAC specifically. Just something to know about. Now, as I know all too well, if you have specific critique or criticism of the great country of Israel, regardless of how credible or valid that criticism is, you're automatically shut down as an anti-Semite. Israel defenders never substantively address the criticism or critique. And so what you're about to see is Ted Cruz essentially try to pull the same tactics. Let's see if it worked. It's a very weird thing. The obsession with Israel, when we're talking about foreign countries, it's hardly an obsession. You're not talking about Chinese. You're not talking about

Japanese. I'm talking about the British. You're not talking about the French. The question, what about the Jews? Oh, I'm an anti-Semite now. Senator, you're asking the questions, Tucker. You're asking, why are the Jews controlling our foreign policy? That's what you just asked. I am hardly saying that. And I have- That is exactly what you just said. Well, actually, I can speak for myself and tell you what I am said. It's interesting you're trying to derail my questions by calling me an anti-Semite, which you are. I did not. Of course you are. And rather than be honorable enough to say it right to my face, You are in a sleazy feline way implying it or just asking questions about the Jews.

I'm not asking questions about the Jews. I have, there's nothing to do with Jews or Judaism. It has to with a foreign government. Isn't Israel controlling our foreign policy? That's not about the Jews. You said, I'm asking you. And by the way, you're the one that just called me, I think, is sleazy feline. So let's be clear.

It's sleazy to imply that I'm an anti-Semite, which you just did. No, I just said, why is that the only question you're asking? You answer it. Give me another reason. If you're not an anti-Semite, give me another reason. I will. The obsession is Israel. I am in no sense obsessed with Israel.

We are on the brink of war with Iran, and so these are valid questions. Let's just briefly discuss the hilarity of someone like Ted Cruz, who just earlier said, I was voted into the Senate to be the number one representative of Israel, accusing Tucker Carlson of being obsessed with Israel. And by the way, at no point, at no. point in this conversation, did Tucker Carlson say anything about the Jews, ever? And that's another tactic that gets used. I mean, I just experienced it myself when I was debating someone on her take about potentially going to war with Iran over nuclear weapons that don't even

exist. All he could do was accuse me of supporting Hamas. I hate Hamas. You guys know what my comments were about Hamas after October 7th. You guys know what my comments were in regard to some of the people who are defending Hamas after October 7th. I am in no way, in no way supportive of Hamas. Oh, you love the Iranian regime. No, I just don't want to do a regime change war and further destabilize the Middle East and destabilize a country of 90 to 92 million people with no strategy, no plan in place. But it shuts down the conversation real quick when someone just accuses you of being an anti-Semite. And that's the one smear that for the longest time would stick to people.

It would stick, even though there was no evidence of it. But I think those who use that tactic have overplayed their hand. Because now so many people have spoken out against Israel's war crimes, for instance, that everyone's been called an anti-Semite if they've had the right stance in criticizing Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu for the war crimes that have been committed. So it's lost its power. And I think that as a result, it kind of empowers someone like Tucker Carlson to just be like, no, no, I'm not an anti-Semite. I know what you're doing here, answer my questions. And I really appreciated that. You know, for whatever it's worth,

this is not me providing cover for anything he said in the past. This is not me co-signing onto everything that he believes. This is me talking specifically about how he handled himself in this interview and it was fantastic. I have no problem saying it. I wish that this served as an example to all journalists, all people in this profession, because I want to see more of this. I don't want this to be so novel, but it is. It's novel. In fact, watching how he carried out this interview made me self-reflect. How can I do better? How can I challenge by, you know, interviewees and get interesting answers from them. So anyway, I thought that was an illuminating part of the conversation.

I think people are waking up to the influence that the Israel lobby has. You know, John Mearsheimer, political scientist, you may have heard of him. You know, he does a lot of media, especially these days. He was like, he and his co-author were like run out of town because they're the ones who published that book, The Israel Lobby. It's a fantastic book. It explains how foreign policy gets made in this country, why so much of our foreign policy seems to be beneficial to Israel. And they were just automatically smeared as anti-Semites.

I remember reading, before the book was published, there was like a long essay version of the work that they were doing. And that was what we read in one of my graduate school classes. And people were so offended. But I was like, wow, this is really interesting. I mean, it's cited. Obviously, they're providing receipts. This seems to be a bit of a problem. But I think a lot of people are afraid of being smeared as anti-Semite.

So they just kind of go along to get along. But when you do that, you're not really living in a country where your government puts you first. And I think that's a huge problem. And that's what Tucker Carlson was trying to get at there. All right. There's more. Okay, because I want to get to other portions, other subjects that they discussed. So let's take a quick break.

And when we come back, we'll do just that. And then we'll give you an update on the war in Iran, potential war in Iran. What's up, everyone? Welcome back to the show. I just want to read a few super chats before we move. on to the next portion of this insanely good interview carried out by Tucker Carlson. So Rage Rock for now says, I'll give Ted Cruz credit for one thing. Not walking out on the conversation, the full video of those two is nearly two whole hours. You know what? Fair, fair,

because he was being grilled endlessly. Some people would get frustrated and they would walk off. I mean, I would never in a million years do that. I think that's like a sign of weakness. I would if I'm being like genuinely disrespected, although I've experienced that recently and I did not walk off set because I actually wanted to debate the substance of the topic we were debating. But let's go to some other comments. Kathulhu says, happy birthday, me, Anna, happy birthday. Our birthdays are kind of close. Mine's coming up, unfortunately. New members, welcome to Sessing, Siss and also Sarah Bartfeldt. Or Bartlett, thank you for being members. I hope you guys enjoy the show. We got a lot more content to get to. So without further ado, let's get to one other or two other parts of this interview that I think is worth drawing attention to. So during Tucker Carlson's interview of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, one of our favorites, the topic of the Bible came up.

And usually I wouldn't be all that interested. I don't want to hear two grown men talking about the Bible, right? I don't, it's not for me, it's for other people. However, Ted Cruz brought up the Bible in the context of why he supports the country of Israel so aggressively. Fair enough. Now, one thing that I know for sure about Tucker Carlson is that he is a man of faith. He's not faking it. He talks about his faith all the time.

And since he's knowledgeable about the Bible, he thought he would challenge Ted Cruz a little bit. So without further ado, let's take a look. Growing up in Sunday school, I was taught from the Bible. Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed. And from my perspective, I want to be on the blessing side of thing. Those who bless the government of Israel? Those who bless Israel is what it says. It doesn't say the government of.

It says the nation of Israel. So that's in the Bible. As a Christian, I believe that. Where is that? I can find it to you. I don't have the scripture off the tip of mine. You pull out the phone and use the general. It's in Genesis.

So you're quoting a Bible phrase, you don't have context for it and you don't know where in the Bible it is, but that's like your theology? I'm confused. What does that even mean? Tucker. I'm a Christian. I want to know what you're talking about. Where does my support for Israel come from? Number one, because biblically we are commanded to support Israel. But number two. Hold on. No, no, no. Hold on. You're a senator and now you're throwing a theology and I am a Christian and I am allowed to weigh in on this. We are commanded as Christians to support the government of Israel. We are commanded to support Israel. Is the nation God is referring to in Genesis? Is that the same as the country run by Benjamin Netanyahu right now? Yes, yes. It is.

Okay. That is psychotic. Okay, what Ted Cruz said there is psychotic. Really, you're going to hide behind the Bible to explain your unwavering commitment to a man who's running a government that's carrying out a genocide right now. Really? that's what your, that's what your theology is. See, people like Ted Cruz, unfortunately, for those who are actually genuine about their faith,

a detriment. People like Ted Cruz turn people off to religion. I mean, obviously there are other reasons why people don't believe in religion. They might be agnostic, you know, atheist, spiritual, whatever. But part of the reason why I personally got turned off by Christianity, which by the way, I grew up going to Sunday school every Sunday from like three to 19, okay? At no point did I learn in Sunday school that to be a good Christian, you have to support the government of Israel. Ted Cruz just made that up. He just made that up. And so he's hiding

behind his religion to carry out whatever he wants to carry out, for whatever reason he wants to carry it out. I mean, obviously, he's backed by APEC to a pretty significant degree, has taken more than half a million dollars in campaign contributions from them throughout his Senate career. But don't hide behind your religion, bro. Like, just tell the truth. I mean, tell the truth. Tell us why you think it's so important to prioritize a foreign country over the country that you were elected to serve. I love the fact that Tucker Carlson challenged him on that. Because I don't know, I'm not in Tucker's head, so I can only speculate if you are sincere about your faith as Tucker is hearing someone like Ted Cruz cite Christianity, especially in this

context of what the Israeli government is currently doing, to provide cover for what the Israeli government is currently doing, it's just unacceptable. It really is. I would be so offended by that if I were still a practicing Christian. But it doesn't end there. I mean, there were so many topics that came up, and I want to go to one more. Because this one has really been grading on my nerves. And I'm going to say that both political parties are absolutely guilty of perpetuating what I suspect to be a lie because we haven't said.

seen a shred of evidence on it. So let's let me set this up. So Senator Ted Cruz is getting interviewed by Tucker Carlson, lengthy two-hour interview. They touched on so many different topics. But then obviously, because of what's happening geopolitically right now, the issue of a potential regime change war with Iran came up. So at that point, Tucker Carlson just wanted some information from Ted Cruz about, you know, But there's this narrative that Iran has tried to assassinate the president.

And I just want to know more about that. Like, what's the evidence? Has anyone been arrested? And honestly, my favorite part about all of this is just watching Senator Cruz go from being so confident, like unearned confidence to just squirming. Squirming like crazy. So let's watch. What is true is Iran is trying to assassinate Donald J. Trump? and they have hired hitmen. Now, you pointed out, he said that they tried to have tried twice to kill him. And I don't know that I don't have any evidence. That's true. But I sort of wonder if that is true, why aren't we worth them already?

You rightly pointed out, there's no evidence that this clown in Butler, Pennsylvania, who shot the president was working for the Iranians. I don't think he was. There's no evidence of that. But what is true and what your newsletter didn't acknowledge, is it true or false that Iran is currently trying to murder Donald J. Trump and has paid hit men to do so. Well, that's the question, and I don't know, the Butler, Pennsylvania thing. Butler Pennsylvania wasn't, let's just put that aside. I don't know. So Netanyahu misspoke poke when he said those two assassinations were because of Iran, but what he was saying that is right is they're actively trying to murder Donald Trump. Is there, okay, so you're aware of a plot to kill Trump? Yes, that Iran is paying for. And by the way, when?

It has been over the last, I'd say, 18 months to two years. In the United States? In the United States. Yes, and let me point out. Has anyone been arrested? For the Trump attempted assassination, no. If there's in a plot to kill Trump by the Iranians, Okay, so you discused that the Iranians are trying to kill Trump?

Of course, I mean, that's the most important question. The Prime Minister of Israel just said there have been two assassination attempts against Donald Trump by the Iranians. And I think it's a very fair question. Maybe you disagree to ask, what are you talking about? about. Okay, and I agree with you that he misspoke. Okay, genuinely, because I might be missing it. And if I'm missing it, I want to make sure I give the appropriate people credit. Has anyone else other than people like us at TYT and maybe a few other independent people and independent media, has anyone else asked for evidence of these claims that Iran, you know, is plotting to assassinate President.

Donald Trump, whether they're on the left or the right in media, whether we're talking about politicians, by the way, because I remember the first allegation that Iran was plotting to assassinate Trump came in the context of the Biden administration. And then just recently, you have the most dishonest person imaginable in terms of like, you know, being a leader of a country, Benjamin Nanyahu. I mean, the guy's been lying to us for literally decades. He's been telling us that Iran is about to have nuclear weapons for 33 years. That guy lies. So right now, he wants the United States to carry out offensive strikes against Iran. Not only do they want us to give them these insane bunker buster bombs that cost $3.5 million each that are like 30,000 pounds. Okay. Homeboy

wants us to actually engage in a regime change war. The nuclear stuff, That's just the cover. That's just the cover. This is all about overthrowing the Ayatollah with really no plan in place, no idea of what comes after. So in order to like egg people like Trump on, oh, you know, the Iranians, they're planning to assassinate you. Okay, can we see the evidence? Can we see the evidence? And get a load of Senator Cruz.

Get a load of Senator Cruz. Once he's backed into a corner, he provides. cover for Netanyahu. Well, you know, Netanyahu, you misspoke. He misspoke. Did he, did he misspeak? Doubt it. I doubt he misspoke. I really hope that Trump isn't as buffoonish as I think he is. And he doesn't fall for these ridiculous lies from Netanyahu. We're going to have to wait and see. But, you know, he has not inspired much confidence. He really hasn't. And so we'll wait and see. But I am so sick of these insane, outlandish claims being made by people in positions of power, by foreign leaders, without providing even a shred of evidence to back it up. And what Tucker Carlson was trying to get at here, and I thought it was a masterful strategy, if you listen to the entirety of that portion of their conversation,

He was basically trying to make a point about how, okay, so let me get this straight. There have been assassination plots against the United States president by a foreign country, a foreign government. And we're not at all interested in going to war with them over that. But we want to do a regime change war in Iran over nuclear weapons that don't exist. that was that was the bottom line and Ted Cruz realized it and I think he realized how laughable that idea is that we would be more concerned about a prime minister who's been lying to us for 33 years about Iran having nuclear weapons or coming close to having nuclear weapons we'd be more

concerned about that carrying out a potential regime change war on by way Ted Cruz wants that regime change war in Iran. He does. So he is in favor of military engagement in a regime change war in Iran to appease Israel. But if he genuinely thought, if you really believe that Iran was plotting to assassinate Donald Trump, wouldn't he want to go to war with Iran over that? Wouldn't he want to do something about that? I thought that was so well done by Tucker Carlson. I don't believe that there's any evidence of Iran wanting to or having any plans or plots to assassinate the president of the United States.

I could be wrong, but I'm not just going to believe what government officials tell me. I'm not going to, I'll never believe a word that comes out of Netanyahu's mouth ever, ever, ever. I need to see the receipts. And quite frankly, we haven't seen any receipts. So there you have it. That was so well done. I highly recommend you guys check out the whole conversation. You know, people, of course, look, I get it.

In America, our political system, our politicians, people in positions of power, they do cynical, gross things all the time. So I get it. You know, it's hard to ever believe that someone who seemed like so dug into his neo-conservative ideology has changed. I'm starting to believe that on those foreign policy issues, Tucker Carlson really has changed. He talks about his remorse for being a neocon all the time. And at some point, you just have to believe him.

There's been enough time, enough years of him questioning U.S. foreign policy for me to actually believe him when he says he's concerned about getting engaged in these wars that we shouldn't be engaged in while our country falls apart. So anyway, check out the whole conversation, obviously not right now because we've got other stories to get to, which we will do after we come back from this break. Okay, Bart needs to save that one because I think that might be my favorite now. Okay, the random bacon drop was so good. But anyway, that's bacon. That was a DJ Bark Kyle on the ones and twos. Now let's stop having fun because we're about to talk about war with Iran.

So we've got some updates on that. We're also going to, I don't want to forget about what's happening in Gaza as we're barreling closer to a war with Iran because the people of Gaza should not be forgotten. So we're going to get to that as well. Let's start with the updates on Iran, though. Mr. President, have you given to answer questions about whether you are moving closer, or you believe that you have to move closer to striking Iranian nuclear facilities. Where is your mind now? Obviously, I can't say that, right?

You don't seriously think I'm going to answer that question. Will you strike the Iranian nuclear component in what time exactly, sir? Sir, would you strike it? Would you please inform us so we can be there and watch? But would you say you're closer to one? You don't know. I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran's got a lot of trouble.

Well, he's right about one thing. No one knows what he's going to do, because our president is not guided by any particular ideology, feels like he shoots from the hip, and even though a huge component of his base consists of individuals who do not want war and specifically voted for him because they don't want war. He might wake up tomorrow and say, you know what, I want to bomb Iran. Why not? He might do it tonight. I might get another surprise during our bonus episode today. But nonetheless, that was our president Donald Trump at the White House this morning, just flippantly responding to a question about whether or not the United States is about to engage in a hot offensive war with Iran, which would be, in my opinion,

a complete and utter disaster. Now last night he posted on social media that we have total and complete control of the skies above Iran following a post that simply said this is so clownish. Unconditional surrender in all caps. Okay, so let's just pause and talk about the stupidity of this.

Like the stupidity of the ask, okay? So Israel carries out a surprise, offensive attack on Iran. They take out nuclear scientists, you know, high level officials, civilians died because they also like made sure to bomb the nuclear scientists home as they were at home sleeping with their families. Entire apartment building. So there were other, I mean, hundreds of people have already been killed in Iran. What would make Donald Trump think that Iran, which like let's not pretend like Iran is not a country with decent military capability. Why wouldn't they want to defend themselves? Why would they agree to continue negotiations? And by the way, what does

unconditional surrender even mean? It's just, this is what I mean when I say that he is not really guided by any particular ideology or strategy. Sometimes that yields interesting results. Sometimes it yields devastating results. And that's what I'm worried about here. So he was asked by reporters, what exactly that meant. And well, his answer wasn't really reassuring. What does unconditional surrender mean? Can you explain it for those who don't? Very simple.

Unconditioning surrender. That means I've had it. Okay, I've had it. I give up. I go blow up all the, you know, all the nuclear stuff is all over the place. They're totally defenseless. They have no air defense whatsoever. Totally captured the air.

We're going to bomb a lot of their nuclear stuff. It's all over the place. Multiple sources, including a senior intelligence official and a department of defense official told media outlets last night that the U.S. is indeed seriously considering getting involved in the offensive against Iran. And if we do, by the way, one possible target is a nuclear site that I'm sure you guys have heard of before. It's the Fordo site. And it's an underground uranium enrichment site that's believed to be the most likely location for a hypothetical, hypothetical nuclear

weapons program. Because, guys, Wall Street Journal actually published an incredible piece yesterday. And in that piece, they go into the details of how the Israelis had shared intel with the United States, with the Trump administration, indicating that Iran was like weeks away from having nuclear weapons. And you want to know something? The Trump administration rejected it because it totally conflicted with what our intelligence community had found. And I'm sure you guys have seen that video of, you know, the direct. of the, you know, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, you know, she's speaking before Congress and she's like, you know, there's no indication that they're building a nuclear weapon. She did admit that they've enriched uranium quite a bit to 60%. You need it at 90% in order to have weapons grade uranium. But she even addressed the 2003 suspension of Iran's nuclear program. She notes that the Ayatollah did not lift, that suspension, they haven't started building any type of nuclear weapon. I mean, obviously, there's conflicting intel here. We have U.S. Intel, and then you have intel coming from the Israelis

who want us to go to war on their behalf. And anyone who tries to gaslight you and tell you that's not true, look, all you have to do is go on X, go on social media, follow what some of these Israeli politicians are saying. There was a picture I came across today. on X featuring like these big banners that were posted in Israel, essentially encouraging President Trump to join the war. I mean, look, Israel cannot defeat Iran by itself. And Netanyahu knew that, which is why he did this surprise attack. And he's hoping that the U.S. gets dragged into it and that, you know, Trump is going to be forced to, you know, help Israel. I don't think that they're going to be able to defeat Iran. I'm just keeping it real. I think they might

destroy Iran, but I don't know what happened to the Houthis in Yemen. Houthis guys. Houthis are backed by Iran. It's an Iranian proxy in Yemen. We went to war with them for years and we didn't defeat them. So what gives anyone the idea that it would be a cakewalk, that it would just be maybe a few months, you know, do a quick little regime change sesh. No, no, it would be incredibly difficult. A lot of innocent people would die. You would need boots on the ground. You can't do what Israel is doing with aerial bombardments of Gaza, along with shooting hungry Palestinians to death as they're at humanitarian aid hubs, hoping to get their hands on some flowers so they don't die. But this is crazy. This is absolutely insane. So American Assistant,

could, by the way, include providing air cover for Israeli commandos who go into Iran on the ground. But official said, the more probable outcome is a strike by U.S. B2 stealth bombers armed with the massive ordinance penetrator, a weapon that theoretically has the ability to bore into the mountain that shelters the underground Fordo facility. People think that this is a crazy thing to say. I don't think it's crazy anymore at all. You have to keep in mind that a lot of countries that are governed in ways that we don't agree with, like Pakistan, for instance, Pakistan has nukes. Israel does not want Iran to have a deterrent, and nuclear weapons are deterrence.

And quite frankly, look, there's no evidence that they're close to building a nuclear weapon. Even if they were at 90% enriched uranium today, it would still take them many months, maybe even several years to be able to build the nuclear weapons. So I'm not even worried about them having a nuclear weapon right now. However, let's say worst case scenario for the Israelis, they have a nuclear weapon already. Do I think they're going to drop a nuke on Israel? No, I don't. I don't think they're going to do that.

I think they are under the impression that Israel is out of control, is currently governed by a belligerent prime minister along with other members of that government, some of whom have been convicted of terrorism, wanting to just wreck that region of the world on their behalf, on their behalf. It's just ridiculous. So don't you think that some of Israel's behavior might encourage a country like Iran, which has been the target, the focus of Benjamin Netanyahu for 33 years? Don't you think they might want to build a weapon to deter someone like Netanyahu from invading? And yes, I know, I know.

Iranians in the past, especially under Ahmadinejad, who is no longer the president of Iran, okay, he's been out of power for a long time. You would hear the chance of like death to America. But if we're going to start engaging in regime change wars over chance, does that mean, hey, you know what? The Israeli government, a lot of those politicians have said some pretty, crazy genocidal thing. Should we invade that country? It's just so dumb. And that's the only answer. It's always war. War is the only answer. War is the only answer. And like Trump pressuring

Iran to engage in diplomatic talks to get a new nuclear deal, look, I want to encourage that because I don't want war. But can he at least, at least for once in his life recognize that ripping up the JCPOA, the original nuclear deal with Iran, was a complete and utter disaster. This guy loves to break things. And then if he succeeds in fixing it, he gives himself props. Like, I broke what I fixed what I broke. But in this case, it doesn't appear he's going to be able to fix it. Again, as we've said many times, despite Netanyahu's repeated claims that Iran is days away from acquiring a nuclear weapon, that is not true. based on actual facts. So a US intelligence assessment from earlier this year found that Iran is not building nuclear weapons. That was what Tulsi Gabbard was testifying about in Congress.

And just yesterday, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which the Israelis love to cite lately, double down on those findings. That's interesting. Let's take a look. I mean, there is this competition about who is wrong or right about the time. that would be needed certainly it was not for tomorrow maybe not a matter of years i would there be perhaps more serious about this and i don't think it was a matter of of years but this is speculation why these things we don't know because if there was some activity which was clandestine or hidden or away from our inspectors we couldn't know what we informed and what we reported was that we did not have, as in coincidence with some of the sources you mentioned there,

that we did not have any proof of a systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon. But you know, Israel has conflicting intel. I mean, they don't have a conflict or interest or anything, so we should just believe them and then go to war with Iran. absolute insanity like so crazy. Let's also not forget that Iran has been part of the non-proliferation treaty. Israel has not. Also, Israel is the one with nuclear weapons that they don't acknowledge. And the fact that they're not in the non-proliferation treaty, the fact that they do not have international inspectors come in as they do with a country that might be developing a nuclear weapon. It's just, it's the double standard drives me crazy.

And by the way, why does Israel have nuclear weapons? Do I think Israel is genuinely going to use nuclear weapons? No, they've learned other ways to kill off, possibly an entire ethnic group. However, I know that Israel probably has those nukes as a deterrent. I don't want to live in a world where nukes even exist. I hate nuclear weapons. I wish we could just get rid of them across the board, but we don't live in that world. And when you have an aggressor in the region, and yes, Israel is the aggressor in this region,

and they're constantly trying to annex parts of Middle Eastern countries as they've done with Syria. They've tried to do with Lebanon. Obviously, they've been occupying the West Bank. They're going to take it over entirely annex that. They're going to annex Gaza. Don't you think that maybe the belligerence of the government of Israel is encouraging or could encourage other countries in the region to desire a deterrent. like a nuclear weapon. Things don't just happen in a vacuum.

We have to talk about cause and effect here. But we live in America and we're discouraged from doing that when it comes to this specific context, when it's involving Israel, we should not go to war. It would be such a disaster at a time when we can't afford it, our country's falling apart. This would be lunacy. But getting back to the escalating conflict, unsurprisingly, after Trump ramped up his threatening rhetoric, Yesterday, that's when he did so. Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini responded in kind because that's what happens.

Let's take a look. The president of the United States in unacceptable remarks explicitly calls on the Iranian nation to surrender. But we say to him, first, make threats to those who are afraid of them. Threats have never influenced the behavior or thinking of the Iranian people. Second, telling the Iranian nation to surrender is not a rational statement. wise individuals who are familiar with the Iranian people and their history would never utter such words because the Iranian nation is not one that surrenders and will never submit to anyone's aggression. Right. And again, what does surrender even mean? What does that even mean?

Like, hey, listen, bro, we'd rather not spend trillions of dollars in a prolonged regime change war with you. So can you can we just like skip ahead to the regime change without the war? war, which by the way, I mean, if that would be amazing and miraculous if that happened, but that would never happen. That would never happen. All right. So meanwhile, let's talk a little bit about the war hawkery that's happening in this country because the battle between the isolationists and the warhawks is continuing to heat up. And honestly, that is a silver lining in this whole situation because it does prove to me that there is a portion of Trump's base. More importantly, I'm talking about the voters,

But even in elected office, you have some politicians who are willing to push back against this narrative that's being forced upon us by Israel, by the Warhawks. So anyway, this is one of my favorite videos. I watched it several times in a row because he's, it's like a parody of himself. This is Mark Levin. He's one of the top warhawks. He was on Fox last night. Get a load of this guy. Donald Trump is a forever war president. How so? He's going to do a. what every president before him since Carter didn't have the guts to do. He's going to put an end of this damn thing. And that's what needs to happen. That's not a warmonger.

That's a peacemaker. That is a man who's going to make sure this generation and future generations are protected from nuclear missiles coming out of the Middle East, from barbarian primitives from the seventh century. That's what he wants to do. And then I hear the questions. Well, won't this create a bigger war? Really, with who? The Israelis are kicking their asses left and right, and the U.S. hasn't even gotten involved directly.

Yeah, so where are they? They're nowhere. How about China? Nowhere. How about Russia? Nowhere. What happened to World War III? There is no World War III.

They all sound like a bunch of Marxist Islamists. They don't sound like patriotic Americans. Let me be clear. This is good versus evil. You're either a patriotic American who's going to get behind the President of the United States, the commander in chief or you're not. Folks, this is black and white. You're either on the side of the red, white, and blue, or you're on the other side.

It's that simple. Marxist Islamists. Why is he yelling? Like, why is he always animated? I get it. Look, we live in a glass house, especially Jake, Jake more than me. But I get, I get heated. It's usually tied to something that's making me angry.

In this case, you have Mark Levin, who seems to be getting what he wants. Why are you still angry? And let's talk about barbaric behavior. Let's do that. Because let's focus on Iran first, because there is barbaric behavior in Iran. I'm not an idiot. Okay, I don't think that the entirety of Iran is like this backwards, terrible country, people are primitive. Like, no, I don't believe that at all.

It's actually a pretty diverse country. the people of Iran absolutely do want different leadership. They do want regime change, but they do not want Israel to come in and do it. They're like terrified of that. By the way, how is Israel trying to do this? Hundreds of people, innocent people have already been killed. I'm not talking about, you know, the targets that Israel was focusing on. I'm talking about all the innocent civilians who have already died in Iran as a result of these strikes.

They're not in any way wanting Iran to, wanting Israel to come in. install some puppet government. So let's just get that out of the way because I keep seeing, you know, Israel defenders and people who want this war come to me. Like, oh, look at this. Paul. Look at what the Iranian people are saying. They want this. No, no, they say they want regime change. Not done by you. Not done by you. Very simple. Anyway, then you have the other bar. Oh, yeah. So in Iran, look, we covered that story of the young woman who was executed because she wasn't wearing her headdress perfectly. A little bit of her hair was showing.

She was imprisoned, there were mass protests around it, and eventually she was executed. And that was so barbaric and so gross. And a lot of countries across the globe do barbaric and gross things. We don't threaten to invade them. We don't risk the lives of our soldiers to invade them. it's not our job to be the world's police. But now let's talk about the barbarism and barbaric behavior on the other side. Are the Israelis who are currently carrying out a genocide in Gaza really going to tell us

about how this is a war between civilization and barbarism? Who are the barbarians here? Because I see a lot of barbaric activity happening and carried out by the IDF. Dude, they bombed the Iranian embassy in Syria. They bombed it. Think about how crazy that is. And in retaliation, you want to know what Iran did, that scary country that's going to drop a nuke on the United States and Israel.

You want to know what they didn't retaliation? They waited a while. And then they let the United States and Israel know 72 hours in advance. We're going to do these drone strikes. where the drone strikes are going to be. The U.S. shot him down. Jordan shot him down. Not a single civilian was harmed. Not a single person was harmed.

There was a little bit of property damage. But what are we doing here? Are we really pretending like the Israelis and the IDF, they're angels. They would never do anything barbaric. Like they would never do something as disgusting and barbaric as shooting and killing over a hundred Palestinians in Gaza yesterday alone as they were at those humanitarian Hub's trying to get flour, so they don't die of starvation. You know what that is? That's barbaric. That's barbaric.

Yeah, go ahead. Call me an anti-Semite when I give you a specific thing that happened just yesterday in Gaza. That is barbaric. Don't talk to me ever about how this is a war between civilization and barbarism. It's plenty of barbaric garbage happening right now at the hands of the IDF. that doesn't provide cover for the barbaric stuff that happens at the hands of, you know, the Shiite leadership in Iran. But if we're going to use this case as justification for invading Iran, well, the same argument could be made for Israel. So I would be real careful. All right, I got worked up. Sorry, I kind of lost my place. Now, luckily, as Janka shared with you guys on the show,

yesterday. I don't care. John Fetterman can kick rocks. I can't stand the guy. He wants to like drone strike them. But luckily, as Jenks shared with you guys on the show yesterday, the overwhelming majority of American people are not on the side of the hawks. Now, they might agree that it's not good for Iran to have nuclear weapons, but they do not want to engage in war with Iran. So a new economist, UGov poll released yesterday found that only 16% of Americans back U.S. involvement in the war. That's the most important. important number, okay? 60% say the U.S. should not be involved. And only 23% of Republicans said we should join the war. 23% of Republicans. Thank God. Okay. Thank God. I don't know if it's

going to sway Trump in any direction. I really hope he listens to his base. But I've grown to be super pessimistic about pretty much everyone in positions of power in our government. So I hope I'll be pleasantly surprised, but something tells me I won't be. We'll see. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, talk about some war crimes.