- 2 days ago
Jesse Watters Primetime 2/28/26 FULL END SHOW | ᗷᖇEᗩKIᑎG ᑎEᗯS Tᖇᑌᗰᑭ February 28, 2026
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you for watching. Remember, it is America now and forever. Pray for our troops. Pray for the region and
00:06for the people of Iran. Jesse's next.
00:46President Trump says the Ayatollah is dead. Iran's top leadership killed 40 of them.
00:52And over 900 strikes launched in less than 24 hours after U.S. Central Command commissioned Operation Epic Fury.
01:00A barrage of overwhelming and unrelenting blows to completely collapse the Iranian regime and destroy their military capabilities.
01:08And the Iranians never saw it coming. Human, satellite and cyber intelligence gave the United States and Israel the perfect
01:16picture of the Iranian leadership's whereabouts.
01:19We were waiting for them to meet and this morning they did. What's left of the regime has been retaliating,
01:25but they've been largely ineffective.
01:27Sources say the air campaign could last weeks. Nate Foy is our national correspondent in Cyprus. Nate.
01:36Hey, Jesse. Yeah, we're in the eastern Mediterranean right now because the airspace over Israel is closed. We'll get in
01:43there as soon as we possibly can.
01:45But the big news here in the past 15 minutes, more explosions in Tehran. And we're also learning that not
01:50only was the supreme leader killed in this morning strike at his compound in Tehran,
01:55but according to Iranian state media, several members of his immediate family were also killed, including his daughter, son-in
02:03-law and grandchild.
02:04Also, several top leaders in the Iranian regime were killed in that initial strike this morning in Tehran.
02:11A U.S. defense official says between 5 and 10 were killed. Israel puts that number at 40. So either
02:19way, a massive success.
02:21This was also a strike of opportunity. Israel says that they infiltrated the intelligence within Iran's security apparatus.
02:28And there's also reports that the White House got an indication that Iran was considering a preemptive strike and that
02:35President Trump didn't want them to get the first punch.
02:38So he struck them first and he landed a massive blow to start this off.
02:43The IRGC commander also killed as well as people who worked in Iran's nuclear program as well.
02:49But as you mentioned, it was the beginning of massive strikes throughout the day, more than 900 U.S. strikes
02:54in the first 12 hours.
02:56Israel says this was the largest air campaign in its country's history.
03:01As for Iran's response, they have hit both military and civilian targets just in the past hour and a half.
03:07We learned of a drone attack at Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi, where at least one person was killed,
03:14seven others injured.
03:15An airport also hit in Bahrain, a hotel in Dubai.
03:19Iran hit every country that has a U.S. military base, some of them more friendly, some of them not,
03:26like Saudi Arabia.
03:27Saudi Arabia took fire at several U.S. bases.
03:31And Israel reports one death, 121 injured.
03:35But the big question is what happens next with President Trump saying that many in the IRGC are asking for
03:43immunity at this point and that they're ready to stop fighting.
03:46We'll see if that actually happens.
03:48Both Trump and Netanyahu say this is the opportunity for the Iranian people to take back their country.
03:53Jesse.
03:55Nate, thank you.
03:55Jim Hanson is a former U.S. Army Special Forces and Chief Strategist for the Middle East Forum.
04:02Jim, how ambitious is this operation?
04:06It's huge to quote the man who is running it.
04:10And I think it's been tremendously successful.
04:13I don't think anyone would have counted on getting confirmation that Khomeini had returned to ambient temperature on the same
04:20day of the strikes.
04:21And what that does, there is no succession plan.
04:24He was losing power.
04:26Their regime was fading.
04:27Nobody knows who's set to be the next leader of what remains of that regime.
04:33So this has been a success beyond anything I think the Trump administration, the Israelis or the world would have
04:39expected.
04:41So when do they cry uncle?
04:43The president said he's willing to go as long as possible.
04:47And I guess we have to wait to see what happens on the ground.
04:52Well, you've got to wonder, if you're one of the IRGC leaders who's left or the Ayatollahs who's left, do
04:58you want to be the guy who pokes his head up and says, I'm in charge now?
05:01You know, I think some of them are looking at the idea that, hey, I've got a bunch of money
05:05stacked in offshore accounts.
05:07Maybe it's time to buy a few extra wives and retire.
05:09And I think what remains to be seen now is who steps up among the Iranian people.
05:15And we heard of a meeting that happened last week in London among 30 leaders of opposition groups who put
05:22aside their differences and formed the Iran Freedom Congress, the largest group of opposition leaders.
05:27They may be in a position to be the next government if we can get the regime out of the
05:34way.
05:35So we're hearing reports that we smuggled some of Musk's star links into the country.
05:41We're obviously helping facilitate those communications.
05:44Do you have any indication that we have special operators inside Iran?
05:50I would not be surprised in the slightest if in some of the border provinces, you know, the Kurds, the
05:57Azeris and the Baluchis have major beefs and have in the past risen up in large fashion.
06:04So it would not be surprising at all for there to be helpers bringing them things that could facilitate both
06:10communications and potentially the next step, which is brush fires that require both communications and potentially the next step, which
06:18is brush fires that require the regime to try and tamp them down.
06:22And if they try to do that, it's open season on anything they send to try and shut down those.
06:27So I think this could rapidly be moving away from them.
06:31I don't want to get ahead of myself.
06:32There could be a long slog before the end of this, but I believe the Islamic Republic has hit its
06:38expiration date.
06:40So the retaliation strikes hit a bunch of Arab states.
06:43Doesn't sound like a very strategic response.
06:47Why would they do that?
06:49Are they going after U.S. bases?
06:53It wasn't so much the U.S. bases.
06:55I think they were trying to drive a wedge between the Gulf states and the U.S.
06:59and get them to blame us for the fact that they're taking incoming fire.
07:03And I think that was a major miscalculation.
07:06You know, they may have actually taken the Abraham Accords, which was an agreement in theory mostly,
07:12and turned it into the Abraham Alliance of people who are all united against the Islamic Republic and wishing it
07:20to meet its demise.
07:21So there can be prosperity and security in the region.
07:26It's funny how that works, doesn't it?
07:28Jim, great to talk to you as always.
07:29Big night.
07:31Always a pleasure, Jesse.
07:32Patrick Davids, the founder of Valuetainment.
07:35I know you have some personal history here.
07:37You want to tell us how you're feeling tonight?
07:41I mean, this is a very special day today.
07:43And I'll tell you why.
07:44Because since 1979, when these guys took over, Iran's been chaotic for people that live there.
07:50Eighty-one percent of the people there do not want the IRGC.
07:53I left Iran July 15th of 89.
07:55June 3rd of 89, Khomeini died.
07:58Not killed.
07:59Died.
08:00I was in school at Gulbengian.
08:02We're in the streets.
08:02I'm trying to find my parents.
08:04It was absolutely insane.
08:05Eventually, we did.
08:06Six weeks later, we escaped one to Germany.
08:08Fast forward from 89 till today.
08:10Now, the Supreme Leader Khamenei being taken out.
08:13This isn't like taking out the President or General of the Army or even the Prime Minister or even the
08:18Pope.
08:19You took out the number two to God in their religion.
08:23You took out the Supreme Leader.
08:24This is a statement to everybody.
08:27Bret Baier put out a post about the fact that they took out 40 of their leaders.
08:30Think about what that conversation looks like right now to say, listen, guys, you have a couple options.
08:34You can either work with us or you're next.
08:37Does anybody want his job?
08:38Does anybody want to be the Supreme Leader next?
08:40Because the target's on you.
08:42What do you guys want to do?
08:42So that conversation, I believe, is taking place right now.
08:45But the world just got safer today because of all the leaders that we're taking on.
08:49And God willing, if the mission is done, the world's going to be a safer place.
08:54How do the Iranian people feel about this?
08:58Ecstatic, to say the least.
09:00They're dancing.
09:01They're parading.
09:01They're crying.
09:03They're emotional.
09:03You see the celebration amongst women.
09:07Women feel free that finally this cloud that they have over them that they can't do anything
09:12and don't put this on and don't put that on.
09:14I mean, this is a massive, massive moment for them.
09:18They've been waiting for this for 47 years.
09:20And you have to realize for 47 years we've had a lot of different presidents.
09:23We've had a lot of different Iranian leaders that have tried to make this happen.
09:26But the one thing that's very different is the president.
09:28The president made this happen.
09:30The Iranian people.
09:30I wouldn't be surprised if moving forward in the Iranian community, a lot of the people
09:36that couldn't stand the president because they were liberals or, oh, my God, he saw this, he saw that.
09:41Watch how many Iranians who were Democrats could overnight become Republicans saying, I support this man here.
09:49How do you think this changes the political dynamic here in the United States?
09:54You've kind of seen some wishy-washy comments from Kamala Harris, from Gavin Newsom.
09:58Yeah, Ayatollah's a bad guy, but this is an illegal war and I don't support it.
10:03How do you think that's going to play?
10:06I mean, they have to play their politics.
10:08I'm not surprised.
10:09We're going to get a lot more of that.
10:10And by the way, here's the part that we have to realize.
10:12You know, for viewers that are watching this, I want you to think about this.
10:15What is the heaviest decision you had to make that nobody knew about?
10:18What is the most recent heavy decision that you had to make?
10:21Maybe kids, maybe marriage, maybe finances, maybe you lost a client, maybe you lost a business.
10:26And it's carrying all this burden on you, right?
10:28Think about everything that we're dealing with.
10:29So, a few days after Supreme Court rules against the president, publicly everyone's talking about
10:36they're going to attack Iran, but no one knows it.
10:43I mean, this is not an easy thing to do for a leader.
10:45When a leader's carrying burden, you typically will feel something from them.
10:50You felt nothing.
10:51This is why Iran, the IRGC, was shell-shocked how it happened.
10:55It's not like they did it at 2 o'clock in the morning or 3 o'clock in the morning.
10:588.15, it's like in your face.
11:00We're going to do it when you're awake, because we want you to know.
11:03We went inside, you had a mole, the same way many years ago we've all seen the movie
11:07Donny Borasco with Joe Pistone that went into the mob for five years and ten months,
11:11and then all of a sudden every one of the mobsters gets caught
11:13because this guy started leaking all the information.
11:15If there was a mole inside, IRGC, that's leaking information,
11:20now this may be the most humiliating thing that ever happened to these guys.
11:23It's a massive loss for the massive victory for America and the world.
11:28Yep, hopefully this continues to go as well as the first 24 hours have.
11:32PBD, thank you so much.
11:34I agree.
11:35Let's bring in Britt Hume, Chief Political Analyst.
11:38Britt, put this into perspective for us.
11:41How earth shattering is this moment?
11:46People did not see coming and many thought it might never come.
11:50It's obviously a huge relief for the Iranian people who have, you know,
11:54chafed under this ghastly regime, lo these many years.
11:58It's a great relief for the Iranian diaspora around the world where, you know,
12:03in this country we saw celebrations in the streets of a number of cities.
12:07So that's where it is in terms of the immediate fallout from it.
12:11And it's gone very well so far.
12:15So far so good.
12:17We all know how history can play out though.
12:19What does this do with the region?
12:21Tell me about how this affects the Middle East but also China and Russia.
12:28Well, this witless decision they made to attack their neighbors I think was,
12:34you know, a real strategic mistake.
12:37And it helps to further the possibility that the Abraham Accords could spread now
12:43between Israel and other nations, not just what it's done so far with the UAE.
12:51So I think, you know, there's a lot of possibilities there.
12:53And, of course, everything ultimately, Jesse, depends on how this plays out.
12:58You know, I think that the regime is likely to fall.
13:03I guess it could, you know, the remnants of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps could put up a fight for
13:09a while.
13:09But it's very likely the regime will fall.
13:11Then something has to be put in its place.
13:13And that is the hard part, I think, to predict.
13:19There's no obvious opposition leader because such a leader was never tolerated.
13:25And so it's not at all clear who might step into that void there.
13:29And, you know, how the government could get organized or reorganized, as the case would be.
13:36Sectarian fighting could break out.
13:38They could have a bloody civil war.
13:39So there are a lot of things that could go wrong.
13:42Now, it's quite obvious to me, and I'm sure it is to you as well, Jesse, that the planning for
13:47this has been pretty meticulous, as was illustrated today.
13:50And the administration and its allies in the Middle East and Israel and the others may have something in mind
13:57here that they're ready to go with.
13:58But we don't know what that is yet.
14:00So a lot of uncertainty remains.
14:02And regime change has not had a particularly happy history in recent United States times.
14:07So, you know, there are a lot of uncertainty here that could turn out beautifully.
14:13Iran could emerge as a democratic republic, a force for peace in the world, a source of energy, a wealthy,
14:20happy country.
14:21But such outcomes have tended to be scarce in recent times.
14:26And however it plays out is obviously going to have certain repercussions here in the United States domestically.
14:33It's a midterm year.
14:34This is obviously a major foreign policy action that people are going to be talking about for quite some time.
14:41How does it shape the next few months going into November?
14:47Well, it just shows you the unbelievable speed of the news cycle.
14:52The news cycle used to last a while.
14:55Just, you know, just the other day, the Supreme Court struck down the president's tariffs, as your previous guest mentioned.
15:00And then after that, of course, we had the State of the Union address.
15:03And that was going to dominate everything for a while.
15:05And the excitement about that lasted about three days.
15:08And now we have this, which is bigger than either of those two things, really.
15:11Who knows what's going to come next?
15:13This president is consequential, to say the least.
15:17And who knows what else will happen between now and the midterm election.
15:21I mean, if I had to guess, Jesse, I would say that the great likelihood is that the Republicans will
15:26lose the House just because their lead there is so narrow.
15:29And the first term of a new president usually means losses for the incumbent party.
15:33But who knows?
15:35If the economy picks up and we don't have, you know, a closing of the Straits of Hormuz and the
15:41spike in gasoline prices and all the other possible things that people worry about, the president could hold the Senate
15:48and emerge in pretty good shape after this midterm election.
15:52But a lot will depend, as we've been talking about here, Jesse, on how the situation on the ground in
15:57Iran goes.
15:58If it goes well, that will be a real feather in his cap, to be sure, marking him as an
16:02historic figure who did something important and beneficial to the world.
16:06Yeah, I guess we'll just have to take it one day at a time.
16:10Mr. Brit Hume, thank you so much for your analysis.
16:12It's always good to see you.
16:13You bet, Jesse.
16:16More breaking coverage on Iran next.
16:22Fox News alert.
16:24Iran's supreme leaders dead.
16:25So were 40 of their top leaders after the U.S. and Israel unleashed a barrage of strikes in a
16:31historic mission called Operation Epic Fury.
16:34Benjamin Hall is our senior Fox News correspondent.
16:37Benjamin.
16:39Correspondent.
16:40Benjamin.
16:41Well, I think that I would agree with almost everyone on one point, and that is that justice has been
16:46done.
16:46You know, I spent a lot of time in the Middle East.
16:48I've seen the work that the Iranian regime have done.
16:50I've seen how they have instigated terrorism around the region, 500-plus American soldiers who were killed by their charges
16:57in Iraq.
16:58So there's no doubt that what happened today was justice done.
17:02The big question, you've been saying it, everyone's saying it, is what comes next?
17:05Does this drag on to be many weeks?
17:07Is there someone waiting in place to take over?
17:10Can this move towards a democratic country?
17:12And I think that's where we'll all be looking.
17:14President Trump has made it very clear.
17:15And he said earlier this morning, it is the people of Iran who must take to the streets.
17:20We have given them this opportunity.
17:22We have taken down the regime.
17:24Now they must rise up.
17:26And we've started to see it already today.
17:27A number of cities already have seen people coming out onto the streets.
17:30But can they grasp this opportunity?
17:32I think President Trump has been clear.
17:34We will help you.
17:35Israel will take care of many of the leaders.
17:36We will take care of the ballistic missiles that bother us.
17:39But can the people of Iran also now stand up and keep moving forward?
17:44Are the people of Iran armed?
17:46I mean, do they have the capability to stand up and overthrow what's left of this regime?
17:53They're not very well armed at this point.
17:55We have seen some of them using weapons.
17:57But I think what many people are waiting for is who within the regime can come out,
18:02who will stand alongside the protesters.
18:04If you look back to 1979 when the Ayatollah came to power, the first Ayatollah,
18:09it was the air force that turned against the Shah.
18:12And once you had one group inside Iran that backed the protesters, it turned.
18:16And so you have to imagine that both the CIA and Mossad have been talking to people inside Iran.
18:21Are there politicians, mid-level politicians?
18:23Are there technocrats?
18:24Are there people who support Pahlavi, the crown prince?
18:27Can they get involved and can they rise up?
18:29But you need to see some cracks appearing within the regime itself.
18:33The IRGC is going to hold onto this no matter what.
18:35The Ayatollah is gone, but the IRGC, that's the Revolutionary Guard,
18:38they controlled a lot of the commerce, a lot of the power.
18:41We need to see some cracks appearing in them, and I think that's what we're looking for now.
18:47And we know there's a mole, or six or a dozen moles,
18:51because we've gotten such great intelligence to lead up to these strikes.
18:55How significant is that and how scared are some of these remaining leaders?
19:02Yeah, I've got to say that I was really surprised to hear that the Ayatollah
19:05was having a meeting with 40 of his top leaders this morning.
19:08You know, has he not learned by looking back at when Nasrallah was taken out,
19:11by looking out back when Israel was hit, Iran was hit by Israel in the 12-day war,
19:16that if you get together, Mossad and the CIA know you are there.
19:21Mossad has hands and fingers all over that country, and so they are worried,
19:25and they will be hiding at this point.
19:27And that's the question, is can they go in and go for the president?
19:30Can they go after the head of the IRGC?
19:31There are a few main leaders that I think they will still want to take out
19:34before they think they have gotten rid of that top, top regime.
19:37And then, again, it's over to the people of Iran to really rise up.
19:43All right, Benjamin, well said. Thank you so much.
19:45Thanks, Jesse.
19:47Let's bring in Congressional correspondent Bill Malusian to find out how D.C. is reacting to the strikes.
19:53Bill.
19:54Well, Jesse, Congress obviously isn't in session right now,
19:57but members on both sides of the aisle have been posting tweets
20:00and getting on television to give their reaction to these strikes in Iran.
20:04Some have been posting tweets and getting on television to give their reaction to these strikes in Iran.
20:08Some Democrats want Congress to come back to D.C. immediately to vote on a war powers resolution.
20:14Congresswoman Ilhan Omar writes on Twitter in part, quote,
20:18President Trump is unilaterally dragging this nation into an illegal and unjustified war with Iran
20:23without congressional authorization, without a clear objective,
20:26and without any imminent threat to the United States.
20:29This is a reckless abuse of power that puts both innocent civilians
20:32and American lives on the line for a conflict the American people do not want.
20:37Then there's Republican Congressman Thomas Massey
20:40who is suddenly finding himself on the same page as Omar.
20:43He posted in part, quote,
20:45I'm opposed to this war.
20:46This is not America first.
20:48When Congress reconvenes, I will work with Ro Khanna to force a congressional vote on the war with Iran.
20:53The Constitution requires a vote and your representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war.
21:00Well, today, Senator Fetterman was once again willing to call out his own party.
21:05He said he supports these strikes.
21:08You can just put out, you know, tweets and statements, you know, to support peace.
21:13But to actually create real peace, you have to do these kinds of actions just like happened.
21:19And most Republicans have praised the operation, saying the winds of change are blowing.
21:28It's supposed to be from Mark Wayne Mullen.
21:30They're basically saying that the Iranian people, now's your chance to take advantage of this.
21:34Use the might of the American military.
21:36This is probably your one and only shot.
21:38Jesse, we'll send it back to you.
21:39Yep.
21:40All right.
21:41Sounds good.
21:41Thanks, Bill.
21:43Yep.
21:43Kayleigh McEnany is a former White House press secretary and the host of Saturday in America.
21:48Kayleigh, this country has such a wicked hangover from war in the Middle East.
21:53Why does it feel like this time is different?
21:58Well, it feels like this time is different because you have a president who's taken action and decisive action.
22:03Look, I've been there, Jesse, when President Trump's been in the deliberative process.
22:07And there's all these people around him and he listens and he takes it in and he asks a ton
22:13of questions.
22:15But he has a gut instinct and he goes when that gut instinct says go.
22:19And he's not looking for foreign policy adventurism.
22:22He's not looking for a legacy.
22:23He's looking to better the interest of the American people.
22:26And we've seen him take decisive action with Maduro and on Fordow and now this time with Iran.
22:33I mean, no one thought that Kamini would be taken out right away at the get go.
22:38It's inspiring.
22:40It's courageous.
22:41This is not a foreign war.
22:42It's not foreign policy adventurism.
22:44J.D. Vance made that very clear.
22:46President Trump, that is not in his gut, not in his core.
22:48This is decisive action.
22:50And now you have two huge dictatorships taken out.
22:52And you know who's isolated?
22:53China's isolated.
22:54And Russia's isolated.
22:56And the world order has shifted.
22:59Do you think the Democrats in Congress are going to accept this?
23:04Or are they going to try to divide the country?
23:07I mean, you can speak out against military action.
23:10Of course, that's your right as an American.
23:12But if this goes well, and as you say, Maduro's gone and the Ayatollah's gone and it looks like things
23:19are going down the right path, this is a great opportunity for the country to come together.
23:24Are they going to seize that opportunity?
23:27I think the majority of them will because I was monitoring very closely today their statements.
23:32And it was a wait and see approach.
23:35It was tepidly criticizing military action.
23:38We need to be brief.
23:39But Iran is bad.
23:40That is essentially what every statement said.
23:43But in the wake of Maduro, after like 24, 36 hours, there was a guy who came out and he
23:48said, I worked for Clinton.
23:49I was on Biden's National Security Council.
23:52I voted for Kamala Harris.
23:53But I'm not a blind tribalist.
23:55And I recognize when something good has happened for this country.
23:59And it is good that Fordow happened.
24:01So I think you're going to see a little of that.
24:03There are sober foreign policy minds on the Democratic side.
24:06I think they're going to win the day.
24:08You will still have the AOC's and the Ilhan Omar's crying impeachment over here.
24:12But I do think as time plays out, they will be the foreign few.
24:17And the president tried diplomacy for almost eight months.
24:23And he had Kushner and Wifkoff running all over the world trying to get this deal done.
24:28And he even gave the Iranians a 10-day deadline.
24:31And he said, you know, we'll take care of the uranium.
24:34We'll have a civilian nuclear program.
24:36We'll do it for you.
24:38What else can we do to make this work?
24:40And it doesn't look like they took the deal.
24:42And now, if they had to go back and do it again, I'm sure they would have taken it.
24:49But President Trump, I think at his core, remembered the Obama deal.
24:53And I mean, I'm looking at this litany of statements in front of me.
24:55From 1995, Clinton, we have to contain Iran.
24:59And then I'm looking at Obama's statement, Iran can never have nuclear weapons.
25:02And remember the famous Iran deal and the bushels of cash that went to Iran.
25:06And then you had Joe Biden.
25:08Iran can never have nuclear weapons.
25:10Past presidents have paid verbiage to that notion.
25:13And I think President Trump remembered very clearly in his head, I cannot be Obama.
25:18This is not a regime that honors deals and diplomacy.
25:21This is a regime that understands hard power, force.
25:26They didn't understand Fordow.
25:28But they sure as heck understand right now when their supreme leader is gone alongside 40 IRGC leaders.
25:35We have waited 47 years for a moment like this, Jesse.
25:39And it just took President Trump to come and make it happen.
25:43Yeah.
25:44And they all had this stupid meeting all at the same time.
25:47If that window opens up, I see why they took it.
25:49But Kayleigh, thank you so much.
25:52Yeah.
25:53More prime time coverage on Iran.
25:55Straight ahead.
26:00Fox News alert.
26:01Operation Epic Fury took out Iran's supreme leader along with dozens of its top brass.
26:07Over 900 strikes launched in less than 24 hours.
26:10The Iranians never saw it coming.
26:13Jack Carr is a former Navy SEAL.
26:15Jack, why is this not Iraq?
26:18You said something quite poignant in the last segment about us having a hangover from the wars in Iraq and
26:25Afghanistan.
26:25I thought that was very clever.
26:27It was almost like we had 20 years of our senior level leadership drinking and waking up at that hangover,
26:32but never learning from it and taking steps to mitigate it the night before or during said drinking binge.
26:38And we can trace this all the way back, end of World War II, two years afterward, 1947.
26:43We changed the Department of War to the Department of Defense.
26:46And ever since then, our track record was not that great, leading all the way up to the disastrous withdrawal
26:53from Afghanistan in 2021.
26:55Now we have a Department of War.
26:58Precision in language reflects precision in thought.
27:00And since we've changed that name to the Department of War and we have new leadership in there with on
27:04the ground experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, you and I both know many of the people in the administration that
27:08did serve downrange during that timeframe.
27:10And now there's been a different track record over this last year.
27:15So I think that means something.
27:18Also, if you break it, you own it.
27:20That coal and power pottery barn rule that we applied to Iraq and Afghanistan, we broke it in.
27:27So nation building, I think, this time is off the table.
27:30We learned from that hangover.
27:31We learned from that drinking binge.
27:32We learned from those 20 years.
27:34And then the boots on the ground.
27:36More often than not, we became targets.
27:38We became a rallying cry.
27:40We became propaganda for the enemy where jihadis from across the whole globe could come to fight the infidel in
27:47these lands.
27:48So I think those people that are in our establishment now at those senior levels of leadership understand this and
27:53are applying that to the current problems of that.
27:56I think they do.
27:57And you use the word precision.
27:58And I'm just struck by the overwhelming superiority of the U.S. military and the Israeli military, the intelligence, the
28:09pinpoint accuracy of the strikes, suppressing their air defense first.
28:13This seems to be a new paradigm like Maduro.
28:16You can go in.
28:17You can go out.
28:18You can be lethal, but not sloppy.
28:23This seems like a game changer.
28:26It seems like we learned from the attacks of last summer targeting Iran, learned from what just happened in Venezuela,
28:33learned what we could accomplish against former Russian defenses, which are also in Iran.
28:40And bang, we can take all those lessons and apply them to a more large scale attack.
28:45And a lot of people that came up in my generation hear this regime change.
28:50And I think we shouldn't look at it like that.
28:54And I don't think that's exactly what it is.
28:56This is a decapitation.
28:57The president has been very clear that it's time for the Iranian people.
29:01Now they have the opportunity.
29:03But I'm going to be very curious in years to come to find out if the United States, meaning the
29:08CIA or Israel, meaning Assad or the crown prince, had people in mind to step up into what might become
29:15a power vacuum to take control.
29:19And also.
29:22Someone who has the backing of the military, because there's going to be need to be a purge of people
29:26loyal to the former regime is going to be bloody, it's going to be violent.
29:30But I'm going to be very curious to know if we had someone in mind or a primary, secondary, tertiary
29:36person in mind to step into that role, or if we're just leaving it up for grabs and hoping that
29:42someone steps into this role that's going to put themselves in the United States camp and not the Russia or
29:47Chinese camp.
29:48But hope is never a very good course of action.
29:50So I'm thinking that we have someone or a few people in mind.
29:55Yeah, well, we had someone in mind in Venezuela.
29:58We had Delancey, the number two, who we were back channeling with for months before we went and grabbed them.
30:04So hopefully they plan for this outcome as well.
30:08Jack, great to hear from you.
30:09Thank you so much.
30:11Take care.
30:14Harley Lipman is a foreign policy expert and geopolitical analyst.
30:17Harley, do you want to react to anything you just heard from Jack?
30:21Yeah, of course.
30:22It is nothing like Iraq.
30:25I mean, number one, Iran represented an existential threat to the United States.
30:31There's no nation in entire American history that for 47 years has been saying every day they want to destroy
30:38the United States.
30:40Then they build nuclear weapons and the missiles to carry them here.
30:44So it's pretty plain if you just use a little bit of common sense that you really had to take
30:49action.
30:50This is really about America's national security.
30:53But it's also unlike Iraq because there won't be boots on the ground.
30:57And in Iraq, the United States went to de-Baathize Iraqi society.
31:03The Baath Party controlled Iraq.
31:05And that left a power vacuum and no one could govern.
31:08So that created a civil war.
31:09That's not happening now.
31:15The Baath Party controlled Iraq.
31:35So there's a lot of reasons why this is going to be a dramatically better outcome than what we experience
31:42in Iraq.
31:43So the aftermath, Iran surrounded by mountains.
31:47It's a police state.
31:49Are other countries going to come and try to meddle?
31:53Could it be a bloodbath?
31:56You know, the population doesn't rise up strongly enough.
31:59They get put down and we can't do anything about it because we just can't do that from the air.
32:05What do you think the eventualities are?
32:09Well, I think it's in the good hands of the Iranian people.
32:12The United States did everything they could.
32:15Now we have to look for them.
32:16This is really their best opportunity they'll ever have to obtain freedom.
32:21And they're dying to do so.
32:23And I think they'll take to the streets and do what they have to do.
32:26But there are two groups that will vie to influence what happens in Iran.
32:30One are what I'll call the bad guys, Turkey, Qatar, and they're going to try to influence Iran to go
32:36in one direction.
32:37But there are the good guys, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia.
32:42And they're going to have greater influence and they're going to try to influence Iran to go in the right
32:48way,
32:49which would be more of a democracy, align more with the West, certainly not radical Islam.
32:54Whatever comes of Iran, I guarantee you, it will nowhere be the threat that we've seen in the Middle East.
33:00And keep in mind, for the last 47 years, Iran has been responsible for all the wars and terrorism in
33:08the Middle East.
33:08That has cost the Middle East and the world trillions, if you look at it, over that period of time.
33:14That's not happening anymore.
33:16And when you add to the fact that, going back to your previous speaker and the one before that,
33:22every president since Jimmy Carter has wanted to do something about the regime in Iran.
33:26But they'd all kick the can down the road and they all left it to the next president.
33:32President Trump did the right thing by showing courage and making a difference.
33:37He seems like a man on a mission.
33:39He's not leaving anything to a successor.
33:42He's getting it done now.
33:45That incident in Butler probably had a lot to do with it, but you never know.
33:49Mr. Libman, thank you so much for your expertise.
33:55We'll have more breaking coverage on Iran.
33:57Straight ahead.
34:00This is a Fox News alert.
34:02As Iran is striking airports across the Middle East, Israel is launching a new wave of attacks,
34:07targeting Iran's ballistic missiles and aerial defense systems.
34:11We don't have an indication yet of when the U.S. will resume its own strikes,
34:15but President Trump today refusing to back down, writing on True Social that they will continue these strikes
34:21uninterrupted throughout the week or as long as necessary to achieve our objective of peace throughout the Middle East.
34:28And indeed the world.
34:30Now, this coming eight months after the U.S. launched Operation Midnight Hammer,
34:35targeting Iran's nuclear program.
34:37Now, at the time, President Trump said the program was obliterated.
34:41But Bloomberg was reporting this weekend that Iran has been conducting, quote,
34:46regular and unexplained activity at bombed uranium enrichment sites,
34:52citing United Nations atomic inspectors.
34:55Here with me to comment on this, try to make some sense of it, is Ali Reza Jafarazda,
35:01as Deputy Director of the U.S. Office of National Council of Resistance of Iran.
35:05Ali Reza, what's going on here?
35:08Like, we hear the program was obliterated, and then we hear about irregular activity.
35:15And, you know, there are a lot of people, you know, kind of saying, what do you believe here?
35:19Is this just kind of a pretext, or was this really happening?
35:23And what could they have been doing after those extensive strikes in the summer?
35:30Well, Laura, first of all, let me congratulate you, everybody, the people of Iran, the whole world,
35:36for the elimination of Khamenei.
35:39This is certainly a very important day.
35:41Now, when it comes to the nuclear weapons program of the regime,
35:44when we first had a press conference right here in Washington in August 2002,
35:50exposing the nuclear site in Natanz and a whole host of other sites,
35:55the world really had an opportunity to end the program because it was in the earlier stages.
36:00But, unfortunately, the appeasement policy opened doors for the Iranian regime
36:06as the whole world was watching.
36:08They expanded the program and extended it to various sites, various projects.
36:14They were working on weaponization.
36:16They had really the full program.
36:19And then, of course, the attacks came in June.
36:25That doesn't mean that, as far as the regime is concerned, they abandoned their program at all.
36:31Because, you know, the regime had spent $2 trillion.
36:35That's a lot of money.
36:37That's bigger than all the oil revenue that Iran generated since the mullahs came to power.
36:45Why would they want to do that?
36:47Because it's the tool for the survival of the regime.
36:51So they were trying to—this was like the last-ditch effort to try to see how they can rebuild,
36:58rectify, and revive their nuclear weapons program of the regime.
37:03And, of course, it tells you how desperate this regime has been.
37:10So that's the only thing they relied on.
37:13Alireza, thank you very much.
37:15And coming up, the pop-up protests and celebrations.
37:20Plus, President Trump's endgame.
37:22What is it?
37:24Shut him down!
37:25Shut him down!
37:27Shut him down!
37:29Shut him down!
37:31Shut him down!
37:31The f*** is this!
37:32F*** this war!
37:34Number one terrorist!
37:36Number one terrorist!
37:38U.S. imperialist!
37:40U.S. imperialist!
37:43Funny how they had those signs ready to go.
37:46Well, I mean, professionally printed.
37:50But in this critical midterm election year, and given Republicans slimmest of slim majorities in the House,
37:56Democrats do see an opening with President Trump's military strikes in Iran.
38:01Donald Trump is taking the United States into war on his own with no authorization from Congress.
38:10He is willing to sacrifice American lives for what?
38:14The President has not made the case to the American people why we need to go to war.
38:20Now, they're demanding that Congress return to D.C. for an immediate vote on a war powers resolution.
38:26Now, remember, the resolution passed in 1973 over President Richard Nixon's veto in response to the Vietnam War
38:33allows a single member of Congress to force a vote to withdraw U.S. troops from a conflict.
38:39But the practical reality here is that these resolutions are essentially pointless.
38:44In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled that the President could veto them and that his veto could only be overridden
38:50by a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate.
38:54No such resolution has ever overcome a presidential veto.
38:59But nevertheless, the President is smart enough to know that he is risking a lot of political capital on Iran,
39:04especially since opposing wars of choice was a cornerstone of his original campaign for President.
39:10But today, the President said that the bombing, as we said, will continue uninterrupted throughout the week or as long
39:16as necessary.
39:17Here to weigh in is Wisconsin Congressman and retired U.S. Navy SEAL Derek Van Orden.
39:23Congressman, President Trump believes that this situation with Iran is easily distinguishable from the war in Iraq,
39:32where obviously the Republicans lost the House, the Senate, the presidency, and President Trump himself campaigned so effectively against it.
39:41Your reaction tonight, given the success of this military action thus far?
39:48Trump is absolutely acting within his constitutionally mandated authorities and rights and also within the legislative mandates that he's been
39:57given.
39:57So he is in compliance with the War Powers Resolution in 1973.
40:01He had 48 hours to notify Congress.
40:03He actually did it ahead of time.
40:04He has 60 days that he can prosecute this war without asking for authorization from Congress.
40:09So, you know, this is not about a midterm election like my Democrats are talking about.
40:14It's about the future of America.
40:15We've been at war with the Iranians for 47 years.
40:18They did the Beirut bombing in 1983.
40:20They did the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia.
40:22They're responsible from 17 to 20 percent of the casualties sustained in Iraq.
40:25And it's time for them to go, period.
40:27Now, Congressman, when you see the level of coordination here with our intel, Israel's intel, after Iran thought and Ahmadinejad
40:40said this a long time ago, but Iran thought, oh, we were going to root out any of the Mossad
40:47agents operating inside Iran.
40:49It turned out that their little unit that they developed were actually Mossad.
40:54So they were completely flummoxed by what Israel had done to shock the system within Iran on the question of
41:03intel.
41:05Your reaction to how, again, unbelievably well coordinated this was when so much politically and economically in terms of human
41:16life is on the line here.
41:19Laura, listen, Mahu Ahmadinejad is probably not with us any longer.
41:24And the Iranian regime failed to understand how deeply unpopular they were with not only the Iranian people, but with
41:31many members of the Iranian regime.
41:33And so for the Mossad to be able to infiltrate the regime actually really wasn't that difficult in the grand
41:40scheme of things, because how deeply unpopular this regime has been.
41:44They've killed tens of thousands of their own people.
41:46And no one likes that.
41:47And so right now, I'd just like to speak to the Iranian people.
41:49Now is your time.
41:50It is.
41:51And if you're part of the IRGC or any of these other groups of the Iranian government, just give up.
41:57Just quit.
41:58Let's stop the killing.
41:59Let's make sure that the Iranian people can live in peace and prosperity and they can no longer be a
42:04threat to their neighbors in the Middle East or even Europe.
42:06Right now, their strategic missiles can reach Europe right now.
42:09And that's got to end.
42:10They can't be trusted.
42:11They're the world's greatest state sponsor of terrorism.
42:13And that's going to stop now.
42:15And Congressman, this idea of the war powers resolution.
42:20I mean, it just makes me how laughing given the fact that the Democrats never had any problem when Obama
42:26was droning people.
42:28This is what they trot out to try to give themselves political cover.
42:32They say that they would never allow that Iran should never have what they trot out to try to give
42:37themselves political cover.
42:38They say that they would never allow that Iran should never have nuclear weapons.
42:43It's a terrorist regime.
42:44But they apparently just want to kick this can down the road administration after administration.
42:50They do.
42:51And listen, it takes bold, strong leadership.
42:53What do you think peace through strength looks like?
42:55We have been at war with Iran for 47 years.
42:58And the only way we're going to get to peace is to have the Persian people, the average everyday Iranian
43:04who's been living under the thumb of these mullahs, rise up and take charge of their government.
43:09And that's the only way this is going to change.
43:12I fully support Donald Trump and his leadership.
43:14Pete Hegseth, remember they said he was incompetent.
43:16He's pulled off some of the most magnificent military operations in the history of the world.
43:20Raising Cain, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
43:22They said Dan was incompetent.
43:24Look at what's taking place here.
43:25We're trying to reset the global world order so that we have peace and prosperity.
43:31And it takes a bold leader like Donald Trump to do so.
43:34And I'm very proud of his work right now.
43:36As should every American.
43:38And our prayers always with our troops and our allies in the region.
43:42Congressman, thank you very much.
43:44And coming up, America's next move, what should it be?
43:47And who could help?
Comments