Liberal Logic on Iran, Hegseth takes it to the Media & Screwing up the Iranian End Game Week In Review
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This is an iHeart podcast. Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz weekend review. Ben Ferguson with you. And here are the big stories that we talked about this week that you may have missed. First up, talk about liberal logic. Since the attack on Iran, liberals are afraid of Iran's response to what Donald Trump is doing, saying he could be starting World War III. Yet they're not afraid of Iran actually getting a nuclear weapon. We'll break that down for you.

Also, the DOD Secretary Pete Hedgeseth briefing doing it directly to the media, calling them out to their faces on their lies about the damage assessment. And finally, the big question moving forward is what's next and what can happen if we screw up the endgame? It's the Week in Review and it starts right now.

Let's talk a little bit about the liberal logic that has been coming out of so many Democrats since this attack took place and the people who seem to be obsessing

over Iran's response, implying that their response is Donald Trump's fault, that they're going to respond, are the same idiots that were not afraid of Iran getting a nuclear weapon. Can you explain that liberal logic, please? Sadly, today's Democrat Party sides with every enemy of America. They side on the other side. Look,

J.K. Rowling tweeted this weekend about this person, India Willoughby. Now, I'll confess, I have no idea who India Willoughby is, but J.K. Rowling tweeted, India, a fan of women-hating, gay-hating, authoritarian regime, color me astonished. So I went and Googled who is this India Willoughby person, and it turns out, according to Wikipedia, quote, she is Britain's first transgender national television newsreader.

Now, pause for a second, Ben. Iran murders transgender people. They throw them off buildings. If you are gay, they murder you. And think about the mindset of a leftist who this transgender newsreader in, I guess, the UK is like, even though the Ayatollah wants to murder me, I stand with the Ayatollah rather than America.

That is how messed up leftists are right now. They're like, oh, homicidal, theocratic, women oppressing, gay murdering, torturing, genocidal lunatics. Those are my people. It doesn't make any sense to me. And then you go back to also the quotes that people have been posting. And I think it's really important that history reflect. You go back to Bill Clinton, Senator, and he said that Iran couldn't get a nuclear weapon.

Hillary Clinton, when she was a senator, secretary of state and running for president, said Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon. Barack Obama said that he cannot get a nuclear weapon. You had Joe Biden that said they couldn't get a nuclear weapon. And then they're at 60 plus percent. And Donald Trump stops them. And then all of the left's like, you can't do that. You're going to start World War Three. This is somehow your fault. You're the aggressor.

And understand, the reason we are here is because of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Barack Obama negotiated the disastrous Iran nuclear deal that flooded billions and billions of dollars into Iran. Listen, remember, Obama literally flew one point seven billion dollars of cash, unmarked bills on a pallet to deliver to the Ayatollah. That agreement set the stage for Iran to get nuclear weapons. Donald Trump, when he came in as president for a second and just now in hindsight, he

What really was that deal? Was that deal a, hey, I don't want to have to deal with you guys, so let's just, you kind of play nice with me, and then I'll kick the can down the road to another administration? Like, in hindsight, what was that? Why did we do that deal? It was radical ideology. You know, when Barack Obama first became president, he went and gave a speech at the University of Cairo in Egypt.

And in that speech, he said Iran has a right, and he used the word right, a right to nuclear technology. Now, that is nutty. I'm familiar with the right to the pursuit of happiness. I'm not familiar with a right to possess thermonuclear weapons. And at the end of the day, I think Barack Obama and his entire team came in with an ideological view

that America's role in the world is fundamentally illegitimate, that we are colonial oppressors. Look, as you know, my last book was Unwoke, How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America. These are the cultural Marxists. They view America as illegitimate, and therefore they view that we have no business, we have no right stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Listen, the Obama-Iran nuclear deal would inevitably lead to Iran with nuclear weapons. These guys are not idiots. They knew that.

they're fine with that outcome because they believe America has no right to prevent it. My view is, yes, we do. If you've got a lunatic who's saying death to America and we have the power to stop him from getting nuclear weapons, we will use that power because the commander in chief is not going to fail to protect America. And I got to say, by the way, the useful idiots across the globe, A, you've got the Democrats today who are all chirping about how dare you act to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. We

We also had the Secretary of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, who put out a statement. I'm going to read it to you. Quote, I am gravely alarmed by the use of force by the United States against Iran today. This is a dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge and a direct threat to international peace and security. There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region, and the world.

I call on member states to de-escalate and to uphold their obligations under the UN Charter and other rules of international law.

At this perilous hour, it is critical to avoid a spiral of chaos. There is no military solution. The only path forward is diplomacy. The only hope is peace. What a blithering idiot. I'll tell you what I tweeted today. I tweeted, of course, the UN sides with Iran. Clown face emoji, clown face emoji, clown face emoji.

The only thing they couldn't decide is which chant they agree with more strongly, quote, death to Israel or, quote, death to America. And then I asked a simple question. Remind me again why we're paying their bills.

It's a fair question. And you've got to wonder what's the point of being involved if this is how insane they actually are. So let's move. But by the way, Ben, I also observed, I think Tehran would make a lovely UN headquarters just located right there, maybe on the smoldering ashes of Florida. We can

put the UN there and they can all get together with their anti-Israel hate and their anti-American hate and they can sit there and glow radioactive while they talk about developing nuclear weapons to bomb America. At least it would be intellectually honest. Like, where's the UN? It's in Tehran. Okay, that makes sense. Look, that's who they... This should not be complicated. Iran, like...

Let me ask you, Ben, seriously, put yourself in the head of the U.N. secretary general. How do you look at this and say, where do I stand? I know with Iran, like what thought process goes through your brain?

Yeah. What's the upside of doing that and why? And especially if you know what Iran just did and how many terrorist organizations they've supported that are just beyond, I mean, factually accurate. Hamas, Hezbollah and the U.N. is like, we got you. We're going to cover for you. Don't worry. We got your back. It is. And that's the reason why I think it delegitimizes the United Nations to the point where I just roll my eyes at them now. I don't pay attention to what they say.

Final question, and this is what is next. It's very clear there's a warning from this president. Don't screw with us moving forward. If Iran is dumb enough to retaliate against Americans in the Middle East, maybe even shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, what is the president's obligation moving forward on that?

Well, one of the consequences of the bombing run is the parliament in Iran did vote to shut down the Straits of Hormuz. Now, the parliament's not the decision maker. At the end of the day, the Ayatollah is the decision maker. So it's not clear if Iran is going to do so or not.

If it did so, it would impact America, but it would impact China even more. Roughly half of the oil that China uses travels through the Straits of Hormuz. A very small percentage of American oil travels through there. But that being said, if the Straits of Hormuz were shut down, it would impact America because it would drive up global oil prices. It would drive up gasoline prices at home, and that would impact Americans.

I hope that doesn't happen. I think if they try to shut down those major trade routes and commerce routes, I think we will see forced to open them up because Iran does not have the right to shut down the ability of America and the rest of the world to engage in trade and commerce. That is a possible escalation. I think the most likely escalation

is going to be continued attacks on civilians in Israel, because at the end of the day, I think the Ayatollah and the mullahs, they hate the Jewish people, and murdering innocent civilians is something that they believe in,

I worry, as I said, about the risk of terrorist attacks as well. I think those are sadly the two most likely. The people of Israel, I know the government of Israel, the Iron Dome, they're working hard to protect their civilians. America is assisting in that. And here at home, law enforcement and Homeland Security and the Department of Justice are all working hard to intercept and stop any terrorist attack before it occurs. But

understand these are dangerous times, but they're dangerous times because we have enemies that wish to do harm to America. And that's why the responsibility that the president has is so grave and serious. And I will say, listening to President Trump speak Saturday night, I think there are times where the weight of the job really falls on his shoulders and he feels it. And I think Saturday night was one of them because it...

was an incredibly consequential moment in our nation's history and a very positive moment of the president standing up and saying, my first responsibility is to defend America, and I will not shirk from that responsibility. 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.

Now on to story number two. Senator, I want to play for everybody. Pete had Seth at the Pentagon briefing about how effective this attack actually was and saying it directly to the media's face. Take a listen. Some of the assessments that have been provided, because whether it's fake news, CNN, MSNBC or The New York Times, there's been fawning coverage.

of a preliminary assessment. I haven't had a chance to read it. Every outlet has breathlessly reported on a preliminary assessment from DIA. I'm looking at it right now. Again, it was preliminary, a day and a half after the actual strike. When it admits itself in writing that it requires weeks to accumulate the necessary data to make such an assessment, it's preliminary. It points out that it's not been coordinated with the intelligence community at all.

There's low confidence in this particular report. It says in the report there are gaps in the information. It says in the report multiple linchpin assumptions are what this assessment, a linchpin assumption, you know what that is? That means your entire premise is predicated on a linchpin. If you're wrong, everything else is wrong. And yet, still, this report acknowledges it's likely severe damage. Again, this is preliminary. But leaked information.

because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn't successful. I'm going to get to the chairman in a moment because he's going to lay out the particulars for you based on his professional military experience. But here's what other folks are saying. The DIA that put that report out says that this is a preliminary low confidence report and will continue to be refined as additional intelligence becomes available. How about the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission?

The devastating U.S. strikes on Fordow destroyed the site's critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable. Have any of these quotes made their way into the New York Times or the Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN? Any of these quotes? How about this one? This is a new one from the U.N., the United Nations. No friend of the United States or certainly Israel often. Here's the head of the U.N. Atomic Energy Agency this morning, Rafael Grossi.

U.S. and Israeli strikes caused enormous damage to Iran's nuclear sites. Don't take my word for it. How about the IDF's chief of staff? I can say here that the assessment is that we significantly damaged the nuclear program, setting it back by years. I repeat, years. The Iranian foreign minister, the spokesman, our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that's for sure. I'm sure that's an understatement. John Radcliffe.

The director of the CIA putting out a statement just last night, CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear program has been severely damaged by recent targeted strikes. This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable, very different than preliminary assessment with low confidence, he's saying historically reliable and accurate source and method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed.

and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years. You listened to all of that data, and I love how he laid it out. He's not just saying this is from our administration. This is from people that hate us. This is from the UN. This is from Iran. Like, how the hell did you guys go with this report when it's so off from reality? Look, I think the evidence is indisputable, and it's worth noting. He said, the Secretary of Defense said in that press conference—

that the Iranian nuclear weapons program has been set back years. I can tell you I spent an hour and a half at a classified briefing. I can't tell you what was in that briefing, but we heard nothing that was inconsistent with what the Secretary of Defense said in that press conference, which is that this military attack set Iran's nuclear program back years. It was incredibly effective.

And so that is cause for celebration, which is why the Democrats don't want people to know about it. The media don't want people to know about it. But I have to say, I mentioned at the outset of this program, we were going to discuss what happened. But every bit as importantly, we're going to discuss what's going to happen next. And listen, it's one thing to talk about where the puck is today, but you've got to look at where the puck is going to be tomorrow. And where the puck is going to be tomorrow, there was a CNN report

that came out this week that said, quote, "The Trump admin is considering offering Iran a series of major benefits to bring it back to the negotiating table. According to the report, Washington is considering helping Iran establish a nuclear program for the purpose of producing civilian energy at a cost of about $30 billion."

easing sanctions and unfreezing billions of frozen Iranian dollars. And I will tell you, within the Trump administration right now, there is a battle. There are voices within the Trump administration. These are the voices that oppose the strike on Iran, that wanted to have weakness and appeasement towards Iran, who are now saying, well, after the strike, after victory,

We should flow billions of dollars to Iran. We should let them sell oil, let them sell oil to China. We should let them make billions. And I got to tell you, this is the same failed approach of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

We should under no circumstances allow the Ayatollah who chants death to America, who has been actively trying to murder President Trump. We should not let him win a windfall and get billions of dollars to use to wage war against America.

How did we even get to this point where this was a real possibility? Where is this coming from? Because it is shocking. Like you said, you don't want to do the same thing that was a failure with the last administrations where they're like, hey, here's billions of dollars. We'll put it on a plane and here's a bunch of American money. Have a great day.

Listen, there are voices in the Republican Party who have decided to embrace isolationism, who have decided to say we should withdraw from the world. You and I talked previously on this podcast about the interview I did with Tucker Carlson. I knew what that was going to be. I knew when I accepted that interview that Tucker was coming after me, that he was going to do everything he can to blast me. And he and I spent two hours. It was a bloodbath. We were pounding the hell out of each other.

But every single thing Tucker said about Iran and Israel proved wrong. Tucker said publicly, if America strikes Iran, we would be dragged into World War III. Thousands of Americans would be killed. And in World War III, we would lose. Now, Ben, that wasn't slightly wrong. It wasn't a little bit wrong. It was totally catastrophically, utterly false. Tucker also argued with me at great length.

It's not true that Iran is trying to murder Donald J. Trump. Well, you know, it's one thing if you're a talk show host and you can just kind of yell into the microphone and ignore facts. But facts matter. The truth matters. It is an objective fact.

that Iran has been trying to murder Donald J. Trump, has been trying to murder him for several years. And I pointed this out in the interview. I put it out afterwards. I put out the sealed indictment from the Department of Justice indicting Iranian hitmen who were here in the United States trying to murder Donald J. Trump.

I put out video of President Trump talking about the Iranians trying to murder him. I put out video of senior Iranian leaders talking about their intention to murder Donald Trump. I put out a video that the IRGC put out, an animated video of an Iranian drone murdering Donald Trump on the golf course at Mar-a-Lago. And it is an objective fact. And this is where, again, the sort of isolationist rhetoric is weird because, again,

When I said that Iran was trying to murder President Trump and Tucker said, I've never heard that. And then he did his kind of weird, high pitched cackle. He then came back with this bizarre statement. Well, if that were true, that Iran were trying to murder Donald J. Trump, well, then we should attack them immediately. We should nuke them.

And I got to say, I kind of wondered if like Tucker Carlson's old neocon, to be clear, Tucker Carlson was someone who during the Iraq War...

was a cheerleader for the Iraq war. He basically put on a short skirt and pom-poms. I think the Iraq war was a mistake. I've been vocal about that for years. Tucker cheered it on. It is loopy. It is fruit loops to say you should nuke Iran because they're doing that. No, the right thing to do is what President Trump did, which is take out their nuclear weapons capability. And I got to say,

Tucker's voice and their allies of Tucker in the administration who were desperately trying to convince the president, do not attack Iran, do not take out their nuclear weapons capability, do not support Israel, abandon Israel. They were wrong and they lost this battle. But the second iteration, and this is coming.

is they're now saying, okay, now that you've won, give the Ayatollah billions of dollars, because it works out really well when you give billions of dollars to a theocratic lunatic who says they want to murder you and is still actively trying to murder you. That is incredibly foolish.

And so I'm urging the president, don't listen to those voices. They were wrong before and they're wrong now. Do not send billions of dollars to the Ayatollah. As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.

I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed. Where things are going now and how we could screw up the endgame here with Iran, with some in this country saying, well, maybe we should appease them a little bit. Doesn't make a lot of sense. Yet that's where we are. And, Senator, you had this to say on Hannity's show about as well. Say something else, Sean. There are voices in the administration now that the president has scored an historic victory.

who are urging, "Let's cut a deal. Let's let Iran sell oils. Let's lift all the sanctions. Let's make this a victory for the Ayatollah." Understand, this Ayatollah still hates America. He chanced death to America, and he's been trying to murder Donald Trump. And so it would be a catastrophic mistake to flood billions of dollars into Iran. I agree with you. What if they use a proxy to attack Israel? Does that end the ceasefire? Because I would imagine that's the next plan. Real quick.

You know, I will tell you one of the best indications of how successful this attack was. Within hours, Iran was rushing to have a ceasefire. That's because they are utterly decimated and weakened, and that's why they wanted a ceasefire. But don't think for a minute they suddenly love America or love Israel. They still hate us. They are still our enemy, but we have taken away their ability to murder Americans. If they use a proxy to attack Israel, are they to blame?

Of course they are. The proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, work for Iran. They pay for them and they control them. All right, Senator Ted Cruz, we always appreciate your time, Senator. Strong close there, Senator. And it's the truth. This is what people are trying to do now. It absolutely is. And I'll tell you one point that I made on Hannity that I think is powerful. We started this show by talking about how the Democrats and the media are trying to claim the attack was not effective. If that were true...

Why did Iran immediately want a ceasefire? Look, Iran has been at war with Israel for years. They have been lobbying missiles. They have been funding Hamas and Hezbollah. Understand, Hamas, more than 90% of Hamas' budget comes from Iran. Hezbollah, more than 90% of Hezbollah's budget comes from Iran.

Iran, when the Ayatollah chants death to America and death to Israel, he means it. They have spent millions and millions of dollars. They have killed thousands of American servicemen and women. They have been the leading state sponsor of terrorism for decades. And after this, look, Iran has had a really rough year. October 7th, they funded October 7th.

And since October 7th, Hamas has been utterly decimated. Hezbollah has been utterly decimated. Bashar Assad, who was their puppet leader in Syria, he has fallen. The Houthis, who they were funding, who were attacking American ships and shipping through the Suez Canal, they are badly degraded. And now...

Iran, when they were on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons. Look, if you're the Ayatollah and you're weak and you're collapsing, getting a nuclear weapon is your Hail Mary. It's the one chance to say, OK, we're relevant, we're strong. And then Israel devastatingly takes out their military capability, their air defenses. The entire course of this war, the 12 day war.

Iran had no control over their air defenses. Israel had total superiority, and then the United States, when we went in and did our bombing run, Iran could not defend themselves. And then America comes in. I think Iran believed they could talk, talk, talk, and avoid any real consequences. I think they felt that Florida was deep enough under a mountain, there was nothing they could do about it, and they could not defend themselves.

and that America would never use bunker buster bombs against them. And by the way, Joe Biden never would have. The Democrats never would have. But Donald J. Trump, he's not an isolationist. He's not weak. He's not interested in a prolonged war. Note, we did not invade Iran. We did not send boots on the ground. We're not going there trying to turn them into a democratic utopia. We're not trying to turn them into Switzerland. The objective of the mission was very, very focused on

It was to stop Iran from having nuclear weapons capability. And by the way, Ben, the reason I went on Tucker Carlson just a week ago was to make clear that President Trump is right and Tucker Carlson was wrong. And I think I was unhappy with Tucker because he's been attacking President Trump. He said that President Trump was complicit in the attack on Iran. He claimed, amazingly enough,

that Donald Trump was not America first, that if you attack Iran, you're not America first. And President Trump quite rightly came back and said, look, I invented the damn term. And what I say is what America first is. And he said to Tucker, he said, look, if you want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, that ain't America first because these lunatics want to kill us. President Trump is exactly right.

And this has been, I'll tell you, I texted him this week and I told him, Mr. President, this past week has been the single finest leadership you have had the entire time. And I'm incredibly proud of the job you're doing as commander in chief.

You know, one of the compare and contrasts that you talk about with this administration in the past was brought up at the White House press briefing room. Carolyn Leavitt, I think, did a great job of explaining the difference, very much like you just described it. And here's what she said to the press about the real story here.

Iranian regime was weeks away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon that would threaten the entire world before President Trump took this decisive action on Saturday night to obliterate their nuclear capabilities. The contrast in leadership could not be more clear. Barack Obama and Joe Biden sent pallets of cash, American taxpayer dollars, in a failed attempt to buy the Iranian regime's compliance with a weak and ineffective deal.

President Trump sent a fleet of American warplanes to destroy Iran's ability to produce a nuclear weapon. The United States and the entire world are safer because of this president's decisiveness. Despite agenda-driven leaks by the fake news media aimed at undermining this incredible accomplishment achieved by President Trump and our brave fighter pilots, there is broad consensus emerging already that Iran's nuclear capabilities were indeed destroyed.

The United States, Israel, the United Nations, and even Iran all agree they can no longer build a nuclear weapon. So why did the president immediately turn to obliterating after the Iranian nuclear threat? Securing peace. Within 48 hours of the devastating strike, President Trump and his team brokered a historic ceasefire between Israel and Iran and officially ended the 12-day war.

The Middle East is now shifting away from chaos and bloodshed and moving toward the beginning stages of a new era of peace and stability that President Trump has long called on them to achieve. This was unthinkable at this time last week, and this is what peace through strength looks like.

I mean, it's just laying it out right to their faces, right? This is what the president said. This is what he believed. This is what he was going to do. We're not back down. And she also said something else that also the DOD said several different ways. How dare you not just give some accolades to the men and women that risked their lives to pull this off and did it flawlessly?

Look, peace through strength is exactly what this is. And the left, they have a bizarre view that weakness and appeasement somehow avoids war. Listen, if you look through history, the opposite is true. Weakness and appeasement encourages our enemies. They engage in more hostilities. You get more war. I have joked, but there is a reason nobody goes and studies at the Neville Chamberlain School of Foreign Affairs.

appeasement doesn't work. Donald J. Trump is a strong commander-in-chief, just like Ronald Reagan was. And I'll tell you, your family and my family, all of our families are safer because President Trump acted decisively to take out Iran's nuclear weapons capability.

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.

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