00:00I rise today to stand with the brave people of Iran.
00:03These are people who have been in a fight for their freedom.
00:07For the past two weeks, they have taken to the streets in 185 different cities in all 31 of the provinces in Iran.
00:15It's unlike anything the country has seen in a generation.
00:19Iranians are rejecting the poverty, the repression, and the ruin which has been brought forth by four decades of tyranny.
00:28Americans stand with them.
00:31I think free people everywhere are watching.
00:34From Europe and South America to right here in the United States, we bear witness to the contrast,
00:40and it's a dramatic contrast between the Iranians' people's bravery and the Iranians' regime's brutality.
00:48The regime's answer to these legitimate protests, and we've seen it, has been mass murder.
00:53Ayatollah Khomeini has unleashed his Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and they're doing tremendous damage.
01:01He's unleashed them to massacre his own citizens.
01:06Credible reports estimate that thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, are dead in Iran.
01:11This surpasses the death toll of previous crackdowns throughout the Iranian regime's history of bloodshed.
01:18Tens of thousands of protesters have been thrown into prison, we understand.
01:23The regime has shut off Internet and phone access, and the regime is doing that because it's anxious to hide its crimes.
01:31It's failed.
01:32The truth has gotten out.
01:33The world is seeing it.
01:34For decades, Iran's government has been the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.
01:38The world knows it, and now it has turned that same terror onto its own people.
01:45Mr. President, I applaud President Trump's leadership on Iran.
01:49President Trump's strategy has brought Iran to this breaking point.
01:53He withdrew from a failed nuclear deal.
01:55He destroyed Iran's nuclear program.
01:58He rebuilt the sanctions the previous administration had torn down.
02:02President Trump has made a significant difference around the world and certainly in Iran.
02:07Maximum pressure has strangled the regime's revenue, and it exposed its weakness.
02:14A weak Iran is a safer America.
02:17The Ayatollah has a history of paying his henchmen, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, other terrorist groups.
02:26Iran kidnaps American citizens, holds them for ransom.
02:28We've seen this.
02:30Iranian-backed militias killed one in six American troops during the war in Iraq.
02:34Today, it continues to target our troops throughout the Middle East.
02:42Iran's allies and enablers today are in Beijing and in Moscow.
02:46They share Iran's hatred of our freedom and our people.
02:50They share its determination to undermine our strength.
02:54That's why it's important for us to stand with the people of Iran.
02:56Their co-conspirator from Venezuela, Nicolas Madero, is now behind bars, thanks to a brave military action led by our commander-in-chief.
03:07What's happening in Iran today will determine the future of this entire axis of aggression that's opposed to what we do as Americans, as free people.
03:19President Trump has made it very clear where the United States stands.
03:24Those who massacre innocent citizens will be held to account.
03:28This week, President Trump announced that any country that trades with Iran will face tariffs of 25 percent.
03:35We must continue to take action to help the people of Iran.
03:39In recent weeks, the United States has successfully seized several tankers that were smuggling oil from Venezuela.
03:46Where were they doing?
03:47They were smuggling it in violation of international sanctions.
03:50Well, we must now do the same with Iran's vast so-called ghost fleet and stop them with the same resolve.
03:58Those vessels smuggle Iranian oil in defiance of sanctions.
04:03Cash from the oil fills the regime's war chest.
04:06It funds its murderous ways.
04:08Every dollar that we deny Iran's government is one less bullet that they can fire at their own people.
04:16The regime in Iran today is weaker.
04:19And it is weaker than it has been at any time since the revolution of 1979.
04:27The Iranian grip on power is slipping.
04:31The world sees Iran as true evil.
04:34And we must stand with those who risk everything for freedom.
04:38That's what it means when we talk about American peace through strength.
04:42When America stands for freedom, our nation and the entire world is safer.
04:49But that's written by and welfare.
04:49And there is a conspiracy for everyone.
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