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cover of episode Iran’s Threats should NOT be Towards Americans, Air Superiority over Tehran & Tucker doesn't buy Iranian Assassination Plan Week In Review

Iran’s Threats should NOT be Towards Americans, Air Superiority over Tehran & Tucker doesn't buy Iranian Assassination Plan Week In Review

2025/6/21
logo of podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz

Verdict with Ted Cruz

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Tucker Carlson
通过深入调查和批评,卡尔森对美国和全球政治话题产生了显著影响。
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Ben Ferguson:特朗普总统明确警告伊朗不要攻击美国或美国利益,否则将付出代价。特朗普政府会明确表示,对伊朗的行动是以色列的行为,但如果伊朗以此为借口攻击美国人,将面临严重后果。 Ted Cruz:如果伊朗袭击美国军人,美国将采取大规模报复行动,这就是威慑。拜登政府的软弱无法形成威慑。敌人惧怕美国总统有助于威慑。孤立主义的观点是错误的,因为它会导致更多的战争。强硬的态度和对敌人的明确警告可以避免战争。以色列正在采取必要行动,为世界提供巨大服务。以色列正在进行大规模轰炸,但其弹药和目标数量有限。以色列没有足够有效的掩体炸弹来摧毁福尔多深埋地下的实验室。美国应该向以色列提供掩体炸弹,摧毁福尔多核设施。以色列是一个小国,正在冒着巨大风险与美国的敌人作战。以色列摧毁伊朗的核能力对美国有益,因为这能使美国更安全。如果以色列完成摧毁伊朗核能力的行动,这些袭击可能会在几周内结束。看到伊朗的阿亚图拉倒台和毛拉失去权力,将极大地增强美国的安全。我不主张派遣美国士兵去实现这一目标,但我主张使用最大压力和经济制裁来促使伊朗政权垮台。将试图杀害美国人的人从权力中移除,能使美国更安全。以色列的策略似乎是打击伊朗的领导层,这些人压制和沉默伊朗人民。以色列决定不直接针对阿亚图拉,而是打击所有可能用于发动战争的伊朗高级军事官员。以色列削弱了伊朗压迫人民、发动战争、杀害以色列人和美国人、资助恐怖主义的能力。特朗普总统是美国历史上最支持以色列的总统。拜登是美国历史上最反对以色列的总统。特朗普政府完全支持以色列。我与特朗普总统交谈,是为了告诉他,他通过允许以色列摧毁伊朗的核武器来使美国更安全。特朗普总统也保护了美国军人,并对此表示赞同。我的首要考虑是保护美国的国家安全利益,确保美国人的安全,这是美国优先。特朗普总统的外交政策也是我的外交政策。特朗普总统认为我和他在外交政策上是双胞胎。

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Hey, it's Karen in Georgia from My Favorite Murder. Thanks to Hyundai, we got to take a post-show drive in the Ioniq 5. We had snacks, laughs, and we even recorded a special episode featuring some unforgettable car-themed stories. Take a listen. I'm going to tell you a story today, Karen. It's about a pivotal role that cars played in none other than the Montgomery bus boycott. Okay. Well, yes. It's right there in the title. Right.

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Call of Duty Mobile is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for free today. Rated M for Mature. Welcome, it is Verdict with Ted Cruz. Week in Review, Ben Ferguson with you. And here are the big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week. First up, Donald Trump making it very clear to Iran, do not attack Americans or our interests in the Middle East. And if you do, there will be hell to pay. All

Also, Israel gains air superiority over the entire state of Iran. And now the people of Iran may realize the regime is not as strong as they thought. And finally, Tucker Carlson doesn't believe Iran wants to assassinate or plan to assassinate Donald Trump. It's the Week in Review, and it starts right now.

That note that he put out there was very clear because he's saying, hey, we weren't involved in this. And we're going to state that clearly. This is Israel doing their thing. But if you think for a moment that you can use this to justify attacking Americans anywhere in the world, there will be hell to pay if you do that. Yeah, look, I think if Iran carries out a significant strike on American servicemen and women,

Then I think America, if they think the bombs coming from Israel are bad, I think they will face massive retaliation. And then that's called deterrence. We want them not to strike our servicemen and women. And and by the way, that's the difference between Joe Biden, who was so weak he couldn't deter anything. It helps deterrence.

That our enemies are afraid of the commander-in-chief. That's where, actually, in the debates about foreign policy, those who argue for isolationism get it wrong. Because if you're

So terrified to engage with your enemies that then you end up causing more war. I think Reagan was right. I think Trump is right that when you're strong, when you tell your enemies, if you attack and kill Americans, your military leaders are going to die. What happens is most of the time they say, you know what, we're just not going to attack. And you end up avoiding war because because they're scared of the commander in chief.

So where does this go from here? And this is where everybody's saying, hey, look, we want an off ramp, right? Like that's something we do want. We want this. We want to protect lives. But at the same time, Israel is, I think, making it very clear we have no choice but to do this. And we're doing the world a huge service by doing it. Yeah. So the Israeli government is talking on a time frame that this could last another week or two.

They're engaged in massive bombings. And at some point, you know, at some point, the question is, how much ordinance do they have? How much capacity do they have to keep bombing and how many targets do they have? You know, I will say also one of the most significant sites is Fordow. Now, Fordow is a nuclear bunker that is built into the side of a mountain.

And it's built deliberately to make it very difficult to strike, to carry out an airstrike. And it's where much of their nuclear research is being conducted. Now, there were reports on Sunday that Israel carried out a strike at Fordow. But at least based on publicly reported material, Israel does not have sufficiently effective bunker buster bombs to be able to take out the deep underground laboratories at Fordow.

And so one of the open questions is, to the best of my knowledge, the only military that has those bombs is the United States. We have really big bunker busters that are made to take out...

deep, deep underground facilities like the Fordow nuclear facilities. And so one open question I have for a long time called for the United States to make those bunker busters available to Israel. I think taking out Fordow makes a lot of sense. I think if Israel does it and by the way, I'll point out, look, Israel is is is a small country. Israel is about the size of the state of New Jersey.

And they are fighting against our enemies, our enemies who have pledged they want to murder us. And they're doing so at great risk to themselves. And so that is something to be grateful for. But understand, they're taking out Iran's nuclear capabilities is very, very good for America because it makes America safer. And I think if Israel...

finishes the job of taking out their nuclear capability, I think these attacks likely end within the next couple of weeks.

You look at Donald Trump saying we can probably get a deal done. Is that after we accomplish the mission? If you're reading between the lines here, I mean, you've spoken with them. Is this a, we got to allow our ally Israel to do what they need to do in that timeframe as well. So listen, I'm skeptical that Iran will ever, ever cut a real deal. I don't think you could negotiate with crazy. And I think these people are crazy. And, and, and so,

I think one of the things that would enhance American security massively is to see the Ayatollah fall and to see the mullahs lose power, to see different leadership come to Iran. I think that would make Israel much safer. I think that would make America much safer. And I think that would make the Iranian people better off. Now, let me be clear. I'm not advocating that we send in a bunch of American soldiers to make that happen.

I am advocating that we use maximum pressure and economic sanctions to pressure the regime in a way that might encourage this regime to fall, because I think that they have demonstrated that they are...

and murderously directing their urges towards killing Americans. And so removing people from power who are trying to kill Americans makes America safer. Let me also go back to something you mentioned earlier, and this seems to clearly be part of Israel's strategy, which is,

you go after and take out people that are, in essence, holding down the people and silencing the people in Iran in the leadership roles. That's part of who they seem to be going after. That could be huge for allowing what you just described to actually happen, a revolution within Israel, or I should say within Iran. Well, and listen, one of the conscious choices, it appears, that Israel made was not to target the Ayatollah himself.

And I don't have, I have no classified information on this. Why is that, by the way? Yeah. Why is that, out of curiosity? So I don't know for sure. I have no classified information on this, but I can give an educated guess, which is that taking out

the leader of a country, uh, through military forces is a significant step. Now, mind you, the Ayatollah is perfectly fine hiring hit men to try to murder Donald Trump. So the Ayatollah has no problem doing it. And I have no doubt that if the Ayatollah could, could murder, uh, prime minister Netanyahu, he would do so in the blink of an eye. Uh, I,

He has not been able to do so, but I think the Israelis, given their success in taking out everyone else, I think it's reasonable to assume that they would have had a real prospect of taking the Ayatollah out had they chosen to do so. My guess is that they made a decision that taking out the leader of the country could backfire, especially given that he is also a religious leader and you run into a danger of potentially making him a martyr, right?

And it is not clear if you toppled him in those circumstances, you might get a younger theocratic lunatic take over instead. And so I think it is a reasonable decision for Israel to say, rather than target the Ayatollah directly,

Let's take out every one of their top military officers that they would use to prosecute a war. And by the way, those are the same people they use to push down an uprising to oppress their people. And so degrading their capabilities, it's what they've done with Hezbollah. They've taken out their top leadership. It's what they've done. It's what they've done with Hamas. And I'll tell you, on Saturday, Israel conducted a strike in Yemen.

killing the Houthi chief of staff, Mohammed Abdul Karim al-Ghamari, who was responsible for overseeing Houthi military operations and directing the procurement and deployment of a number of weapon systems for them. The Houthis are another arm of Iran. And so what Israel has done is weakened Iran on every front, and that approach...

oppressive infrastructure, their ability to wage war, their ability to kill Israelis, their ability to kill Americans, their ability to fund terrorism and their ability to to suppress their people. All of those are substantially weakened.

That's a very good thing. Final question for you on this is, as we move forward through this week, I think it's pretty obvious the media is obsessed with Donald Trump somehow not standing with Israel or trying to drive a wedge. Do you think there's any chance at all that can happen? Because in the in the early questions, it was almost like you guys are idiots. Come on. I think President Trump has been the strongest pro-Israel president in the history of America.

It's an exact contrast with Joe Biden. Joe Biden was the most anti-Israel president in the history of America. The fact that they occurred back and back, you want to talk about whiplash. You'll recall we did this podcast when Bibi came to Washington, and I met with him for about two hours. He is a good friend. I have not spoken to Bibi since this war broke out, although I did speak with the Israeli ambassador to the United States on Thursday night, the night

the war began. And listen, their successes are significant, but they have the complete backing of the Trump administration, and that is important.

I do think there are some voices within the administration that are pressing back. And part of the reason I talked to President Trump today was to say, what you're doing is exactly right. You're making America safer by allowing Israel to take out Iran's nukes. And you're also protecting American servicemen and women. Keep doing it. And he agreed emphatically.

Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week. And here we have a specimen from the early 2000s, a legacy investing platform. Please don't touch the exhibit, folks. It could crash. Ready to step out of the financial history museum? At public.com, you can invest in almost everything, stocks, bonds, options, and more. You could even put your cash to work at an industry-leading 4.1% APY.

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USA and you'd use code USA10 for 10% off your first order. Again, that's allfamilypharmacy.com slash USA with code USA10 for 10% off. Hey, it's Karen in Georgia from My Favorite Murder. Thanks to Hyundai, we got to take a post-show drive in the Ioniq 5. We had snacks, laughs, and we even recorded a special episode featuring some unforgettable car-themed stories. Take a listen.

The Montgomery bus boycott success was dependent on the action and dedication of many individuals, of course. Today, we're going to focus on the work of one of those people in particular, a woman in her 30s. And yes, I love her name. It's Georgia Gilmore. Oh, yes. Yes.

Today's story is centered on a group of courageous women dedicated on taking down Hitler. During World War II, they banded together to form an all-female ambulance corps, which became the first unit of its kind to join an official combat division on the Western Front. This is the story of the Rochambeau Group, best known by their nickname, the Rochambells. Oh my God. Right? Right.

This episode is brought to you by the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5. Now on to story number two. Let's also talk about what's happened with the air superiority or the lack of security that Iran actually had over their own country. Yes. And that could also spell trouble for the leadership in Iran because now the people may realize, wow, we may have been played by these horrible leaders, right?

And there is total air superiority now by Israel or anybody that wants to go after Iran. So Israel and potentially America have complete air superiority over Iran. And Israel has taken out Iran's air defenses. So they're not able to stop Iran.

Israeli jets in the air and the bombers are bombing the hell out of. As of two days ago, there had been over 720 military strikes in Iran. The number is substantially higher now. I don't have the current number, but it was 722 days ago. And Iran is not able to do anything about it because their air defenses have been destroyed.

And so they're just sitting ducks. They're just, and I will tell you the dynamic. So there's a delicate question. Israel has been able to, and it actually has succeeded in taking out a massive amount of the military leadership of Iran. They have also succeeded in pounding the hell out

out of Iran's nuclear facilities, like the Natanz facility, which is where they do much of the nuclear enrichment, Israel has bombed the living crap out of it. The one exception that Israel is not able to take out is the Fordow nuclear research facility. Now, Fordow is built literally in the base of a mountain, and it was built into a mountain particularly to withstand

a bombing attack and israel does not have the military hardware to take out fordow their bombs are not big enough america does we have bunker buster bombs that are 30 000 pounds that are massive bombs that can take out an underground under mountain nuclear facility like fordow israel also does not have bombers that are big enough to carry a 30 000 pound bomb that's a big-ass bomb

And so the B-2 bomber, which America has, is big enough to carry that bomb. Israel doesn't have bombers that big. And so one of the open questions, Israel has asked America, will you fly in the B-2 bombers and drop your bunker busters on Fort O and take it out? As you and I sit here at 12, what is it, 1243 a.m. on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning,

I do not know if President Trump's going to do that. This is being actively debated. It could, by the time this podcast comes out, it is possible that America will drop those bunker busters. I think that is a real possibility in the next few hours, in the next few days. And, and,

In my view. With that being said, then I got to ask this question so that people understand. I said this earlier tonight on Chris Cuomo's show, and I said it on Pierce Morgan's show, and I said it on Fox, the same thing. I am not in favor of putting Ben Jordan on a lot of lefty shows. Pierce Morgan. I'm fighting the commies every day, my friend. You're not in favor of it.

You know, is is like does Bernie Sanders have a show AOC? Like are you going on with with Xi of China? I'm trying to go on with Tucker next, you know, and just see if I can I can I can explain to him what my foreign policy is. But it's I'm not in favor of putting troops on the ground. Donald Trump's on favor of putting troops around. Absolutely. No, no, no, no troops on the ground. So what we're advocating for is simply this. If America gets involved.

It would be to do exactly what you just said. It would be to do what Israel can't do to take out a nuclear program, which is a threat. Yes, to drop a couple of bombs, to drop a couple of bombs that Israel can't like their bombs are not big enough to take out Fordow. And I will say this from a perspective, my overwhelming touchstone is.

is what protects American national security interests, what keeps Americans safer. It's America first. It's President Trump's foreign policy. That is my foreign policy. And I will say, when he and I talked on Sunday, his comment when I was telling him, you're doing a great job, what you're doing is fantastic, his comment is, he said, Ted, on foreign policy, you and I are twins. And that's right. I agree with him on foreign policy. The reason...

There is, I think, a compelling argument for America to take out Fordow. Is Fordow, they are doing research on nuclear weapons technology. They're trying to develop nuclear bombs. They're not doing it because the Ayatollah thinks climate change is a problem and he wants to create civilian nuclear power generation. It is entirely creating a bomb that could murder millions of Americans or millions of Israelis. They put it in the basement of a mountain because they didn't want to be bombed.

Only America can take them out. And I got to say, I think dropping those bombs, I have zero interest. We will not send boots on the ground. We're not going to invade Iran. And I have zero interest in coming into the country and trying to turn it into a democratic utopia. Look, it would be wonderful if Iran woke up tomorrow and it was Switzerland. But I'm not willing to risk your children or my children to go in and fight a war to make that happen.

It is a very different calculus to say, should we drop a couple of bombs and take out

A lab and facility where they're developing nuclear weapons to murder Americans. And I think that's a compelling argument. And I got to say, I think there's a real possibility in the next few hours or days. That's exactly what's going to happen. Final question on this. If Donald Trump does, in fact, make this decision, I actually don't think this is a tough decision or a hard decision. I think it's a simple decision, as you described it, of

We must protect the homeland and we must protect our allies at the same time. And we're both the target. And we know what Iran would do if they got a nuclear weapon. And we know that even if they didn't do it, they might give it to their proxies to do it as well. You add all that up. I think this decision is actually pretty clear. If the president does that.

And we move forward. There's also this big obsession in the media now that there's some massive divide in the MAGA world, and this is going to split the Republican Party. I actually think it's going to be a blip, and we're going to move back on to all the issues that we do agree on. I'm not taking the bait on that. I want your take on it as well. Yeah, look, so I did Sean Hannity this evening, and Hannity had a poll that just came out that showed 75% of Americans agree with President Trump.

that we should act against Iran to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapons using. And the question in the poll was whatever means necessary. 75%. I don't know that 75% of Americans agree on, on butterflies or rainbows or Peter, but peanut butter and jelly, like that's a big percentage in today's divided world. And so it is frankly a handful of,

of people who are disagreeing. Tucker is really an outlier on this. And I made the point, and we're going to talk about this. Friday's pod is going to be all about this. But Tucker used to be, 20 years ago, Tucker was a neocon interventionist who was a cheerleader for the Iraq war, and he practically had on a short skirt and pom-poms. I think the Iraq war was a catastrophic mistake.

And so I think he was far too interventionist. And Tucker does too. He thinks he was wrong. And I respect that. Look, intelligent people will assess changed circumstances and be willing to change their position based on the facts. And so I respect that he changed his views. But the point I made is

He went from being an interventionist far too eager to send in the Marines to being an isolationist who says we should never, ever use the military, even when we've got a lunatic theocratic zealot who is trying to murder Americans and has murdered hundreds of Americans. And so I actually think that view is a really fringe view in America. It's a fringe view in MAGA.

And it's a fringe view across the country. And I think the American people want a president who's going to say we will protect ourselves against people who want to kill us. That's exactly what Donald Trump is doing. As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.

And here we have a specimen from the early 2000s, a legacy investing platform. Please don't touch the exhibit, folks. It could crash. Ready to step out of the financial history museum? At public.com, you can invest in almost everything, stocks, bonds, options, and more. You could even put your cash to work at an industry-leading 4.1% APY.

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Hey, it's Karen in Georgia from My Favorite Murder. Thanks to Hyundai, we got to take a post-show drive in the Ioniq 5. We had snacks, laughs, and we even recorded a special episode featuring some unforgettable car-themed stories. Take a listen.

Oh, yes. Yes.

Today's story is centered on a group of courageous women dedicated on taking down Hitler. During World War II, they banded together to form an all-female ambulance corps, which became the first unit of its kind to join an official combat division on the Western Front. This is the story of the Rochambeau Group, best known by their nickname, the Rochambells. Oh my God. Right? Right.

This episode is brought to you by the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5. You know, in the book of Genesis, God makes a promise to your offspring. I promise this land. Now, that promise is the foundation of Israel, a land the Jewish people have returned to after centuries of exile and bondage and even the horrors of the Holocaust. But that promise is still under threat, especially after October 7th.

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I want to get back into the Tucker Carlson interview that you did and center. There was some interesting themes that came out of this interview. He was obviously attacking you. He was attacking Israel. He was attacking groups that support Israel. But then there was an even weirder point where I think Tucker probably is hoping that we don't play this or that people didn't watch the whole interview and hear this part.

It was about the Iranian regime. They've been trying to murder Donald Trump. They've hired hitmen. They've been trying to hire hitmen. They've come after former cabinet members of Donald Trump. And when you brought it up, he acted like he'd never heard of this before and that you were either lying or this is shocking news to him. Yeah, this was utterly bizarre. And I got to say, in the whole course of the two hour interview, this was the strangest portion.

For the last two years, Iran has been actively trying to murder President Donald Trump. Iran has hired hitmen to murder President Trump. Iran also has been trying to murder President

Mike Pompeo, President Trump's former Secretary of State, John Bolton, President Trump's former National Security Advisor, and Brian Hook, President Trump's former Assistant Secretary of State. All of them, Iran has hired hitmen and has been targeting them. Bizarrely, and this has been widely reported, these are objective facts, but bizarrely, Tucker Carlson insisted this has never happened. Here, give a listen.

I just want to pull that thread because it's so important. I voted for Donald Trump. I campaigned for Donald Trump. He's our president. And we're on the cusp of a war. So if Iran, if there's evidence that Iran paid hitmen to kill Donald Trump and is currently doing that, where is that? What are you even talking? I've never heard that before. OK, where is the evidence? Who are these people? Why haven't they been arrested? Why are we not at war with Iran? That's a great question to ask. How do you know that that's true?

We know that it's true because we have been told that by the military and our intelligence community for the last two years. We meaning who? Congress has and the public. I mean, we had multiple testimonies. I can send you a testimony. Do we know the names of the people or where this happened or what they tried to do to kill Trump? We do not. We have not apprehended an Iranian hitman trying to kill him. We know that Iran is trying to do so. In the United States? Yes.

Yes. And by the way, like Iran, this just seems like a huge headline and you're acting like everyone knows this. I didn't know that Iran put out a whole video about murdering Trump. Right. But I've never heard evidence that there are hit men in the United States. I mean, trying to kill Trump right now, we should like have a nationwide dragnet on this and we should attack Iran immediately if that's true.

Don't you think? No. If they're trying to assassinate our president? They have been for two years. Then why are we at war with them?

Well, we are trying to take out... Why don't we just nuke Tehran if they're trying to murder our president? There's nothing that you could do that would be worse for the United States than murdering Trump. And I just don't understand why you're not calling for the use of nuclear weapons against the Ayatollah right now. I'm serious. If you really believe they're trying to murder... The use of nuclear weapons... Whatever it takes... That's part of the problem of... What do you mean? You don't seem to take the allegations seriously. I do. If you believe they're trying to murder Trump, we need to stop what we're doing and punish them.

I mean, insanely bizarre. We went from let's not do anything to, oh, they're trying to kill Trump. Well, if that's true, let's just nuke them. So you're right. The entire two hours, Tucker's position was do nothing on Iran, do nothing on Iran, do nothing on Iran, do not support Israel, do not support Israel, do not support Israel. But if Iran is trying to murder Trump, then we should nuke them. Okay, Ben, that's absolutely wacky. And, and, and,

Look, it's the sign of someone who's not presenting an argument in good faith. No, we should not be nuking Iran. That's not a good idea. And by the way, this is a point where actually facts matter. And part of what was frustrating about this interview is that Tucker just says things that are blatantly false, and he doesn't care if they're true or false.

So this is an objective fact. I'm going to read to you from a political article on November 8th, 2024, not very long ago. Here's the title. Iran ordered an operative to assassinate Trump before the election, federal prosecutors say. The alleged would-be assassin is believed to be in Iran and remains at large, prosecutors said.

Here's the beginning of the article. The Iranian government ordered an operative to assassinate Donald Trump before the 2024 election, Manhattan federal prosecutors said Friday. The latest in a string of assassination plots directed at the former and future president in recent months. Prosecutors charged Farhad Shaqiri with murder for hire and providing material support to foreign terrorist organization. He is believed to be in Iran and remains at large, prosecutors said. The article continues, quote,

According to a criminal complaint unsealed in Manhattan federal court, Shaqiri said during an FBI interview that in September he was directed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran to surveil and kill Trump.

whom the charging papers identify as victim for. When Shaqiri told an IRGC official that doing so would prove expensive, the official responded that money's not an issue, which Shaqiri understood to mean that the IRGC had previously spent a significant sum of money on efforts to murder victim for, and was willing to continue spending a lot of money in its attempt to procure victims for assassination, according to the charging papers.

So there's literally a Department of Justice indictment specifically against an assassin for attempting to murder Trump. There also, by the way, was a separate assassin who was arrested for renting an apartment next to John Bolton, an Iranian assassin that was there to murder Trump's former national security advisor. And as I noted, the Iranians put out an entire video, a minute and a half video,

I want to get rid of this. It's possible.

"We are a bunch of unfortunate sailors who were killed by the military, who were not our target. We can kill Trump, Pompeo, McKenzie and the military commanders who gave the order to kill them. But they did a military job and we should have done a military job and we would have given them the order. And that was their action."

So let's just be clear. That's the IRGC commander live on Islamic Republic of Iran state TV. And tell people what he just said. Well, his name is Amir Ali Hajizadeh. He's the commander of the IRGC. He's on national television. And he says, quote, God willing, we'll be able to kill Trump.

Pompeo, General McKenzie, and other U.S. commanders. That's on TV. Now, Tucker spent the entire interview denying...

that Iran was trying to kill President Trump. That's objectively false. Facts matter. And bizarrely, he said, well, if that fact was true, he thought we should immediately attack Iran and we should nuke Iran. Well, no, that's not the case. We should not nuke Iran. But we should do what President Trump is doing right now, which is support Israel in taking out Iran's nuclear capability and their senior military leadership. That actually makes sense. And I'll tell you, the day after our interview aired, President Trump,

President Trump was asked about the conflict between me and Tucker in the Oval Office. And here, give a listen to the back and forth President Trump had in the Oval with a reporter. You see the Tucker Carlson and Senator Ted Cruz interview. It seems like this issue on whether or not the United States should strike is kind of dividing a lot of your supporters. No, my supporters are for me.

My supporters are America first. They make America great again. My supporters don't want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon. Tucker's a nice guy. He called to apologize the other day because he thought he said things were a little bit too strong. And I appreciated that. And Ted Cruz is a nice guy. I mean, he's been with me for a long time. I'd say once the race was over, he's been with me ever since, right?

But very simple. If they think that it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, then they should oppose me. But nobody thinks it's okay.

This goes back to the very beginning and why I think Tucker was so hostile. He wanted a distraction from the fact that he had messed up with Trump. He had to call Trump and apologize. And he thought, all right, if I just go after Ted Cruz, maybe that'll fix all my problems. I don't think it worked. Well, and look, the reason that Tucker had to apologize to Trump is that he had been publicly blasting Trump. He said Trump was complicit in Israel's war. And he said, you know,

He said what Trump was doing was not America first. And President Trump tweeted out and said, look, I'm the one who created America first and I decide what it is. And allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon, that is not America first. And that's exactly what President Trump said in the Oval. You know what's amazing? We've laid out –

The facts that is undisputed, by the way, out of 100 senators, all 100 agree that Iran is trying to murder President Trump. Even the looniest, even Bernie Sanders, even Elizabeth Warren doesn't dispute that Iran is trying to murder Trump because it's an objective fact. I've laid them out, those facts out repeatedly. You know, Tucker has not responded once to that. He has not said, oh, I was wrong on that. He hasn't said, oh, well, gosh, I said if that was the case, we should attack Iran immediately and nuke them, which, by the way, to be clear, we should not.

At the end of the day, facts matter. And the good news is the commander in chief's job is to be clear eyed and do what is necessary to keep America safe. President Trump is doing that. I spoke to him just a few days ago and I said, Mr. President, thank you. Thank you for standing with Israel. Thank you for standing up for America. Thank you for defending our servicemen and women.

You notice Iran has not attacked our servicemen and women because the president has made clear the consequences would be massive for doing so. And President Trump right now is being strong and resolute. And I'm proud to stand with the president that he is doing exactly the right thing. He is embodying America first and he's keeping this country safe.

As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz. Ben Ferguson with you. Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards. I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast. And we will see you back here on Monday morning. You know what's great about your investment account with the big guys? It's actually a time machine. Log in and Zoom. Welcome back to 1999.

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Hey, it's Karen in Georgia from My Favorite Murder. Thanks to Hyundai, we got to take a post-show drive in the Ioniq 5. We had snacks, laughs, and we even recorded a special episode featuring some unforgettable car-themed stories. Take a listen. I'm going to tell you a story today, Karen. It's about a pivotal role that cars played in none other than the Montgomery bus boycott. Okay. Well, yes. It's right there in the title. Right. Okay.

This episode is brought to you by the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5.

It's Ryan Seacrest here. Summer quickly approaching. Yay. And of course, making sure we're feeling our best by keeping our gut health in check with the help of HealthAid Kombucha. I drink as many as I can in a week, powered with probiotics, which makes you feel good, makes me feel less bloated and more refreshed. What's better than a bubbly, refreshing beverage in the summer with so many delicious flavors like Pink Lady Apple, Passion Fruit Tangerine, and Pomegranate Blueberry? It's such an easy way to get your probiotics. Look for the brown bottle with an anchor on it. Find it now at Whole Foods.

Okay.

Call of Duty Mobile is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for free today. Rated M for Mature. I'm Rodney Williams. And I'm Travis Holloway. Welcome to the Wealth Break Podcast, a real conversation about finance.

Let's be honest, building wealth doesn't look the same for everyone. I feel like sometimes being broke is a cycle and that we might have to revisit that. And we're not stopping at success stories. What happens when it doesn't go right? How do you cope with it? Because wealth isn't just about money. It's about creating a life where you thrive and help others do the same. Listen to the Wealth Break podcast on the iHeartRadio app. This is an iHeart podcast.