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Jesse Watters Primetime 3/2/26 FULL END SHOW | ᖴO᙭ ᗷᖇEᗩKIᑎG ᑎEᗯS March 2, 2026
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00:14President Trump was very clear, he is calling on people and just he moved me here to have
00:36what's left of the Iranian regime is reeling as Operation Epic Fury continues to take its toll
00:41on the mullahs. 49 of its top leaders have been eliminated. The Ayatollah is now dead.
00:46Trump says, I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first. The Iranian
00:53remnants are lashing out, haphazardly firing off rockets across the Middle East. They've been
00:58mostly ineffective, but CENTCOM confirming that six U.S. service members were killed in action.
01:05American fighter jets were also shot down by the Kuwaitis in a friendly fire incident. Thankfully,
01:11they're in stable condition. And this just in, the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia has come under
01:17attack. Two Iranian drones have made impact and another one is bearing down. Luckily, the embassy
01:23was empty. In the past 24 hours, B-1 bombers struck deep inside Iran, targeting the country's ballistic
01:30missile capabilities. The goal is to take their stockpiles down to zero. Same with their navy.
01:36Two days ago, the Iranians had 11 vessels in the Gulf of Amman. That number today, zero. They're at
01:44the bottom of the sea. Since Saturday, we've flown over 1,000 sorties. American aircraft has been
01:51hitting Iranian targets with laser-guided 30,000-pound bunker busters. The president says
01:57we haven't even started hitting them hard. The big wave is yet to come, and we're way ahead of schedule.
02:06We're already substantially ahead of our time projections. But whatever the time is, it's
02:13okay. Whatever it takes, we will always... And we have, right from the beginning, we projected
02:19four to five weeks. But we have capability to go far longer than that.
02:26Tonight, we ask God to protect our troops and the mission to be successful.
02:32Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance, joins us now. Mr. Vice President,
02:36why this operation and why now?
02:41Well, good evening, Jesse. So to step back just a little bit, if you go back to Midnight
02:45Hammer in the summer, what the president wanted to do with that mission was eliminate Iran's
02:49ability to build a nuclear weapon. And we did destroy the nuclear enrichment facilities during
02:54Operation Midnight Hammer over the summer. Now, here's the thing, Jesse. We destroyed Iran's
02:58ability to build a nuclear weapon during President Trump's term. We set them back substantially.
03:03But I think the president was looking for the long haul. He was looking for Iran to make a
03:07significant long-term commitment that they would never build a nuclear weapon, that they would not
03:12pursue the ability to be on the brink of a nuclear weapon. And after months, really almost a year of
03:18painstaking diplomacy, what the president determined is he didn't want to just keep the president,
03:23or excuse me, keep the country safe from an Iranian nuclear weapon for the first three,
03:28four years of his second term. He wanted to make sure that Iran could never have a nuclear weapon,
03:34and that would require fundamentally a change in mindset from the Iranian regime.
03:38So he saw that the Iranian regime was weakened. He knew that they were committed
03:42to getting on that brink of a nuclear weapon. And he decided to take action because he felt that
03:47was necessary in order to protect the nation's security.
03:50So Senator Marco Rubio, Secretary Rubio, and the president have both said something along the lines
03:55of, you ain't seen nothing yet. We can hit three times as hard. What does that mean?
04:04Well, what it means, Jesse, is we have a lot of capacity here. I think there's a lot of chatter
04:08about what our objectives is, what our goal is. I mean, I think the president's been extremely clear
04:12about our objectives. And it's that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. But there's also been a lot
04:16of conversation about what are our capabilities. And look, I know this stuff. Obviously, I'm not
04:21going to reveal classified information here on air, but the president of the United States knows what
04:26we're able to do. He knows that we have much greater capacity to inflict damage on the Iranian
04:31nuclear program, but also on various missiles that threaten our troops. As you've seen, they've
04:37been launching those at our troops for much of the past three days. So I think the president has made
04:41it very clear that the United States has a lot of optionality here. And, you know, we could go for
04:47a little bit longer. We could go for a lot longer. But I think the president just wants to make
04:50it
04:50clear to the Iranians and to the world that he is not going to rest until he accomplishes that all
04:55important objective of ensuring that Iran can have a nuclear weapon, not just for the next few years,
05:00not just because we obliterated Fordow or some other enrichment facility, but because the Iranians
05:05themselves commit long-term to not building a nuclear weapon. You know, after Iraq and Afghanistan,
05:11some people say, oh, here we go again. Is that something here you're thinking about?
05:19Well, Jesse, if you think back to Afghanistan, 20 years of mission creep, 20 years of not having a
05:24clear objective, and 20 years of the United States trying to bring liberal democracy to Afghanistan.
05:30Iraq was a little bit shorter, but we were still in that country for nearly a decade with no clear
05:35mission, no clear definition. What's so different about this, Jesse, is that the president has
05:39clearly defined what he wants to accomplish. And there's just no way, I said this before the
05:44conflict started, I'll repeat it again, there's just no way that Donald Trump is going to allow
05:49this country to get into a multi-year conflict with no clear end in sight and no clear objective.
05:54What is different about President Trump, and it's frankly different about both Republicans and
05:59Democrats of the past, is that he's not going to let his country go to war unless there's a
06:04clearly defined objective. He's defined that objective as Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon
06:08and has to commit long term to never trying to rebuild the nuclear capability. It's pretty clear,
06:14it's pretty simple, and I think that means that we're not going to get into the problems that we've
06:18had with Iraq and Afghanistan. Do you and the president care who runs the country now,
06:23or you can just kind of sit back and kind of shape it from the sea and the air?
06:31Well, I guess, Jesse, you know, in a perfect world, yeah, we would love it if somebody came
06:36to power in Iran who was willing to work with the United States, who was willing to show some
06:41respect to the United States, and again, most importantly, made that long-term commitment
06:45that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. But ultimately, Jesse, whatever happens with the regime in one form
06:51or another, it's incidental to the president's primary objective here, which is to make sure
06:56the Iranian terrorist regime does not build a nuclear bomb. So, you know, there are a lot of
07:02things that could happen with the regime. Obviously, the president and I would prefer that you have a
07:06friendly regime in Iran, a stable country, a country that's willing to work with the United States
07:11as opposed to, you know, bomb our soldiers and try to build a nuclear weapon. But fundamentally,
07:15so long as we achieve the president's objective to make it clear that Iran can't build the bomb,
07:20I think the president will be happy with the outcome.
07:22And you saw evidence that they were still trying to enrich?
07:28Not just that they're trying to enrich, Jesse, and this is one of the almost comical elements of
07:32the diplomacy that we've been engaged in for the past month, the past few, the past year, I should
07:37say. You know, Steve Whitcoff, Marco Rubio, Jared Kushner, they did such a good job, such a deliberate job.
07:43But the Iranians would come back to us, Jesse, and they'd say, well, you know, having enrichment for
07:48civilian purposes, for energy purposes is a matter of national pride. And so we would say, OK, that's
07:53interesting. But why are you building your enrichment facilities 70 feet underground? And why are you
07:59enriching to a level that's way beyond civilian enrichment and is only useful if your goal is to
08:05build a nuclear bomb? Nobody objects to the Iranians being able to build, you know, medical isotopes.
08:12The objection is these enrichment facilities that are only useful for building a nuclear weapon.
08:17Even some international organizations that usually don't agree with the United States
08:22were very clear that Iran's only purpose in building these underground, highly enriched facilities
08:27was to build a nuclear weapon. It just it just doesn't pass the smell test for you to say that
08:33you want enrichment for like medical isotopes while at the same time trying to build a facility
08:3970, 80 feet underground. Yeah, they were trying to jerk you guys around. And that obviously didn't
08:43work. Mr. Vice President, God bless you guys. And God bless our troops. Thank you so much.
08:50Pray for our troops, Jesse. Thank you. Thank you.
08:54Jim Hanson's former U.S. Army Special Forces and Middle East Forum's chief strategist. Jim,
08:59is there anything the vice president said you want to react to?
09:03I would like to agree with everything the vice president just said. I think the administration
09:08has been perfectly clear. And I think the people who are saying that there is no plan,
09:12there are no clear goals, the mission is undefined, are simply playing politics.
09:17Secretary of War Hegseth this morning laid it out perfectly. And when he said that we not only need
09:23to take out any of their nuclear program that remains and they're trying to reconstitute,
09:27also their ballistic missiles, but the conventional forces that protect that stuff and allow them to
09:34have safe haven inside their country to do those foul deeds they're attempting to do. So that's why
09:40we're blowing up all of their dangerous toys. And I think that's the mission, not trying to topple
09:45the government. We had you on Saturday night when this was just breaking. We're now here Monday night.
09:50How do you think things have gone so far?
09:54Oh, I can tell you the military leadership and national security leadership are thrilled.
09:59You know, there has been a tremendous degradation of all of the things they set out to destroy.
10:04So essentially, yes, there are some missiles and drones and other things that are making it through,
10:09and that's dangerous. And the deaths that come from that are horrible. But to take on a country with
10:14as much of that capability as Iran, and to wipe out most of it, to control the skies and the
10:20rest of
10:20it, it's been tremendously successful. And the Iranians kind of lashing out like a wounded animal,
10:26missiles going here, they're going there indiscriminately. Do we have the defensive
10:31posture to protect our troops and our allies at this point?
10:37We have as much as anyone could expect in there. And like I said, some are going to get through.
10:43Nothing is perfect. But it's been amazing to watch just how much they have done and how they've been
10:48able to keep the vast majority of people in the region safe. You know, when China looks at this,
10:53or the Russians look at it, or anybody looks at this, what we've been able to do since Saturday
10:57morning, what do you think they're feeling?
11:02I think they're feeling that the United States has once again reasserted itself as the global
11:08superpower, and as we should. If we abdicate that responsibility as we have too often in the past,
11:14they will fill the gaps, they will make a vacuum, and it's not a good thing for anybody.
11:19So now, if we do get a regime in, or a new non-regime in Iran, that's going to be
11:26better for
11:27everybody and stop China and Russia's influence. And I hope that we can get Reza Pallavi to join
11:32with people like the Iran Freedom Congress and others who are moderates who want to unify the
11:37country in resistance and bring Iran into the community of nations as a prosperous and secure
11:43part of the Middle East.
11:44Yeah. Peace in the Middle East. That would be something. Great to see you, as always, Jim.
11:50Jack Carr is a former Navy SEAL and New York Times bestselling author. Jack, you heard the vice
11:54president spell out the case for this operation, and it's about not just preventing Iran from getting
12:01a nuclear weapon the next couple of years. It's forever for any president, for any generation of
12:06Americans to have to deal with this threat. Does that make sense?
12:11It does, but in the lead up to this in negotiations, the administration talked about three objectives for
12:16those negotiations. That was a non-nuclear Iran that was no support for terrorist organizations and
12:22the degradation or elimination of their ballistic missile capability. So those were the three things
12:26going into this weekend. Now the vice president has narrowed that down, it seems, to just one,
12:32and that is eliminating Iran's nuclear weapon capability going forward. Maybe you just didn't
12:38mention the other two, or perhaps maybe they've narrowed it down to just this, but that still begs the
12:43question of what are these unintended consequences? Because there will be unintended consequences to what
12:48we're doing now. And what we do from there is adapt. And we need to adapt faster than an enemy.
12:55We didn't do a very good job of that in Iraq and Afghanistan. And my hope is, and hope of
13:00course
13:00is never a very good strategy or a very good course of action, but is that we've learned from those
13:05lessons of the past and can apply them to this current problem set as wisdom. But this is a hard
13:10sell
13:10for me and a lot of guys like me who spent a lot of time on the ground in Iraq
13:14and Afghanistan.
13:16So narrowing it down to this one thing, what happens when we walk away from it, when we
13:20totally eliminate this nuclear weapons capability? I don't know.
13:24So Rubio is talking a lot about the ballistic missile program. You're not going to wait around
13:28for them to get the long range ones that could hit the east coast of the United States. So they
13:32want to drop that to zero. They want to take the naval vessels down to zero. That seems like just
13:39a
13:40complete defanging of the regime where they don't really even care who takes charge that,
13:46you know, who they'd prefer, but it's not going to be someone that can project power outside of
13:50their borders. Yeah. If they don't have the capability to that, whoever comes into power,
13:56but they're still in an area that has, is obviously right there bordering the Strait of Hormuz.
14:01That's significant for us and for the rest of the world as well. Regional instability from a civil war
14:07inside Iran, that spills over across borders as well. Refugee crisis and all the rest that goes
14:12along with that. So I know we're not going down that route of if you break it, you own it.
14:17Colin
14:18Powell's Pottery Barn rule. But at the same time, we do want to bring Iran into that American camp so
14:24it
14:24stays away from the Russia and Chinese camp. And we have to remember that $400 billion trade agreement
14:30that the Chinese have with Iran and them essentially propping up that regime for all these years and
14:35what this means globally, not just for the region, but what it means for Russia and China, who of
14:40course would love us, would love nothing more than for us to get bogged down in another quagmire right
14:45there. But knowing the people that I know in the administration, I would hope that they're going
14:49to keep us out of that sort of a thing this time around. I think so. And if you can
14:53sever the Chinese
14:54from the Iranians, I mean, that is a huge geopolitical victory. Can you shape the
15:00domestic politics of a war ravaged Iran from an aircraft carrier? Is that possible?
15:09I don't see. I mean, anything is possible, but I don't see with the experience that we have,
15:13especially if we look at Iraq and how we tried to shape that government with the inner Iraqi
15:17government officials. And then what came came later, the bad decisions that we made and the
15:21failure to to adapt as we went. I think it's highly unlikely that you can run a country from an
15:26aircraft carrier, especially as it descends into chaos. And we saw the vacuums that came into play
15:30after the the Arab Spring. So we saw what popped up in in in multiple countries. So there there is
15:37some precedent here. But one situation is not always exactly like others. That's why you need
15:42to use those lessons of history and apply them to a current problem set, but adapt to them in real
15:47time. Well, I trust the administration's learn those lessons and and I have faith that it works out.
15:53Hopefully it does. Jack, great to see you as always. Thank you.
15:57More live coverage of Iran straight ahead.
16:01Fox News alerted today. Three of Operation Epic Fury. Iran's retaliating after their Supreme Leader
16:07and 49 of the country's top brass were killed. Our U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia was hit by two
16:13drones. A third one is on its way and could strike at any moment. Chief National Correspondent Jennifer
16:19Griffin is live from the Pentagon. Jennifer, Jesse, we've just confirmed the U.S. embassy in Riyadh
16:25was hit by two incoming Iranian drones. It's not clear whether that third drone managed to
16:31hit the embassy, which was basically empty at the time. Smoke and fire can be seen coming from the
16:36embassy. No injuries have been reported. Americans are being told to shelter in place
16:41in cities across Saudi Arabia. In the last 24 hours, U.S. Central Command says it has sunk all 11
16:48of the
16:48Iranian Navy ships since the operation began, releasing this video of one of the U.S. military's
16:54airstrikes on an Iranian naval vessel in the Gulf of Oman. Overnight, B-1 bombers from South Dakota flew
17:01roundtrip for 34 hours with a 75,000-pound payload, which it dropped on Iranian-hardened missile sites.
17:09They were fueled by the same midair refueling tankers used by the four B-52 bombers that flew
17:1537 hours roundtrip this weekend from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri with dozens of 2,000-pound bombs.
17:23General Dan Cain told a Pentagon briefing today the U.S. and Israel have now taken out all of Iran's
17:29Russian and Chinese air defenses.
17:32The combined impact of these strikes, swift, precise, and overwhelming, has resulted in the establishment
17:38of local air superiority. This air superiority will not only enhance the protection of our forces,
17:45but also allow them to continue the work over Iran.
17:50Secretary Hegseth would not rule out having U.S. troops on the ground in Iran and was asked if he
17:56was worried about it spiraling into a widening war.
17:59This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both. Our generation knows better,
18:07and so does this president. He called the last 20 years of nation-building wars dumb,
18:13and he's right. This is the opposite. This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission.
18:22Destroy the missile threat. Destroy the Navy. No nukes.
18:25Three American F-15 Strike Eagle fighter jets were shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses in a friendly
18:33fire incident today. All six American pilots evacuated safely. The death toll from that Iranian
18:39missile or drone that struck a U.S. tactical operations center is now six after they found
18:45two American service members buried under the rubble. Jesse.
18:48All right. Thank you, Jennifer. The Secretary of State was on Capitol Hill today briefing the
18:55Gang of Eight on Operation Epic Fury. Rubio said it was now or never.
19:00The purpose of this is to destroy that missile capability. Why does Iran want that ballistic
19:06missile capability? What they are trying to do and have been trying to do for a very long time
19:10is build a conventional weapons capability as a shield where they can hide behind, meaning
19:16there would come a point where they have so many conventional missiles, so many drones,
19:20and it can inflict so much damage that no one can do anything about their nuclear program.
19:26Mark Lucas is an Afghanistan veteran and the founder and president of Veteran Action. All right. So
19:32we basically cut the head off the snake and these guys are still firing off missiles.
19:39How long can they continue to do that?
19:43Well, President Trump had a really difficult decision to make. He was done playing this
19:48cat-and-mouse game with the Iranian regime that was really a decades-long game. And I guess one of
19:54the problems was the dilemma that we faced was that nobody wanted Iran to have a nuclear weapon,
20:00but also nobody can predict what happens after the regime falls. And I think we're going to have a
20:06multi-week operation. But like Secretary Hegseth said this morning, that we're not going to play to anybody's
20:13timelines. And part of the reason why we're so successful with this operation was because we had the element of
20:19surprise. President Trump has had an incredible record with Maduro and taking out the Ayatollah. Both those
20:26operations took less than 24 hours. If you compare that to the forever war people like George W. Bush and
20:32Barack Obama,
20:33it took us 10 years to kill Osama bin Laden after 9-11. And it took us eight plus months
20:39to get Saddam Hussein
20:40after the initial Iraqi invasion. That's why Iran is nothing like those forever wars.
20:46All right. So they decapitate the leadership and they just start decimating the missiles,
20:53the Navy, and the infrastructure until, what, someone cries uncle? How's that work?
21:01And no nation building. Like P had said this morning, we're not going to get into a decades-long
21:06affair. We're going to shape this operation. We're going to make sure that they have no ballistic
21:11missile capability, no nukes, and no Navy. And we also want to ensure that the next regime that comes
21:17in, whether they're friendly or not, does not have the ability to spread terror around the globe.
21:22And I just want to remind people again, President Trump, in 2016, he said that Iraq was a big,
21:28fat mistake. He wants to avoid another forever war. He gave Iran plenty of opportunities to off-ramp
21:34and they decided death instead.
21:36Okay. So an unarmed Iranian regime, hopefully someone we can do business with and hopefully
21:43not a fanatic. Got it. Mark, good to see you. Thank you. Iranians are celebrating Operation Epic Fury
21:51straight ahead. Fox News alert. The FBI investigating potential terror links after a lone gunman shot up
22:00a bar in Austin, Texas. Congressional correspondent Bill Malusian is live from Capitol Hill. Bill.
22:07Well, Jesse, experts have been saying if there are any Iranian sleeper cells or regime sympathizers
22:12in the U.S. right now, now is probably the time they would choose to strike. And we may have
22:17just had
22:18such an attack in Texas over the weekend. Police say a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in
22:22Senegal carried out a mass shooting at a bar in Austin, killing two people and injuring more than
22:28a dozen others. Now, Fox News has obtained this photo of the shooter armed and wearing a property
22:33of a lost sweater. On top of that, we've also obtained this photo of the shooter's body after
22:39he had been killed by police, showing he was wearing an undershirt with a logo of the Iranian flag on
22:44it. The FBI now says they're investigating the shooting as a possible act of terrorism.
22:50Now, all of this is happening, Jesse, as DHS remains unfunded for our third week in a row now
22:55with TSA, FEMA, Secret Service and Coast Guard employees now missing paychecks. Republicans are
23:02now putting pressure on Democrats to end their blockade on DHS funding. But Democrats, they're
23:08holding firm. They've drawn their line in the sand and they're accusing Republicans of trying to
23:12distract from what they say are illegal strikes in Iran. The Republicans are saying that because
23:19they launched an illegal disastrous war in Iran, we should give them permission to continue using
23:27ICE to murder American citizens, to allow them to get the funding to tear gas schools.
23:34And Jesse, as you and I both know very well at this point, massive numbers of single adult men from
23:40the Middle East came into the country through the open southern border during the Biden administration.
23:44Most were caught and released. Some were never apprehended. Those are the gotaways. There's just
23:48simply no way to know who really came into this country during those four years. We'll send it back
23:54to you. Yep. No one remembers that more than you, Bill. Good work. Thank you. Yep.
23:59They're chanting something different in Iran. It's not death to America after they killed
24:04the leader. The Americans and the Israelis did it. It's not death to Israel and death to America. It's
24:09thank you. It's a new day dawning. It's the Iranian people that have been telling me over and over
24:15and over again, we want this. It's not just Iran. It's written in the skies of LA and on the
24:22ground.
24:22Those don't look like Mexican flags.
24:44While most Iranians are jubilant, the Washington Post's lighting a candle for the Ayatollah.
24:51Quote, with his bushy white beard and easy smile, Ayatollah Khomeini cut a more avuncular figure in
24:58public than his perpetually scowling but much more revered mentor. And he was known to be fond of
25:05Persian poetry and classic Western novels, especially Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.
25:11Is this the same guy that just slaughtered 30,000 civilians? And guess who's back? Jane Fonda.
25:19And she just ID'd a war criminal. This is a desperate, immoral act in the hopes that he
25:28can score a victory and be declared war president. And this is a sad, unhinged man. He is at war
25:37on
25:37many fronts. He is at war against democracy. Let regime change start at home.
25:46Democrats spent decades calling the Ayatollah a fanatical dictator, so dangerous he could never
25:52get a nuclear weapon. They tried everything. Treaties, bribes, sanctions, inspections.
25:58Nothing worked. Iran kept digging deeper and deeper tunnels to enrich.
26:02They financed terrorism, killed Americans from Beirut to Baghdad, took hostages, shut down shipping,
26:09tried to assassinate the commander-in-chief. Democrats all agreed the number one state sponsor
26:15of terrorism was a rogue state, hell-bent on destroying America. But the minute Trump took
26:21action, they say Iran's a pussycat. It was a brutal dictator. This is a murderous regime.
26:27But at the same time, it posed no imminent threat of attack to the United States.
26:32He didn't describe the existential threat of the moment, the immediacy of the crisis at hand.
26:38There wasn't one. He manufactured it. Obama and Biden sent billions to the mullahs,
26:43and all they did was beef up their ballistic missiles, nuke sites, and terror proxies.
26:48President Trump didn't want to wait for Iran to build missiles that could hit New York,
26:52or a nuke in a bunker so deep we couldn't see it. He believed this was the last window of
26:57opportunity to destroy the Iranian regime, so they couldn't blackmail the global economy
27:02with a nuclear weapon. They were at a very weak point, so he took a shot. Trump's already laid
27:09it all out, but Democrats aren't listening. As I see this, hey, there's no real plan here. I think
27:15the president owes the American people an answer on what is the strategy here. Why would Trump
27:21brief the guy who told troops to revolt? Why show war plans to Congress? So what? Omar can leak it?
27:28Obama didn't get permission for Libya, Iraq, Syria. Biden didn't either. Why is Trump different?
27:35Donald Trump has dragged us into a war the American people do not want. He has put American troops
27:43in harm's way. I unequivocally oppose this war of choice, and everyone should.
27:50Kamala is decrying the Iran war from a street corner? Not a good look. We just wiped out the
27:5749 most dangerous men in the Middle East in one shot, and we're blowing up missiles aimed at
28:02American bases, American ships, American allies. What's Kamala's plan for Iran? Keep paying them
28:09off so they can nuke up behind our back? Trump's arguing this. He's not starting a war. He's ending
28:16one. A war the Islamic Republic has waged on the United States for 47 years. If he can pull this
28:23off, Trump will be the only American president loved by Jews and Muslims. Clay Travis is the
28:30founder of OutKick.com. Did you know the Ayatollah big fan of Les Mis?
28:38I didn't know he was a big fan of Les Mis, but I hope I get an obituary that nice.
28:44I hope you get
28:44an obituary that nice. They made him sound like Santa Claus. And let me just give you an easy
28:51analogy. I haven't heard a lot of people say this, Jesse, but as I was listening to all those moronic
28:56Democrat takes where they all acknowledge that we can't allow Iran to ever get a nuclear weapon,
29:02but this is not the way we have to ensure that never happens. One of the biggest swings and misses
29:07as a country we had was allowing North Korea and that crazy rotund dictator of theirs, Kim Jong-un,
29:15to get a nuclear weapon. If we could go back in time to 1992 and make the decision to take
29:23away his
29:23opportunity to ever get a nuclear weapon, how much safer would the world be? I think actually North and
29:29South Korea would probably already be reunited. Instead, Kim Jong-un has a nuclear weapon and
29:35everybody is having to acknowledge that we have to put up with his insanity and the fact that tens of
29:41millions of North Koreans have no basic human rights. Here, and I want to say this clearly because I know
29:46a lot of these people are not very smart, so I want them to listen very carefully. From the East
29:51Coast
29:51to the West Coast, from Columbia to UCLA, we had college kids taking over campuses to protest on
29:59behalf of Hamas, the Palestinian cause, after they killed 1,200 Jews on October 7, 2023, and took 250 of
30:07them hostage. How come none of those campuses are having incredible celebrations right now? Because
30:13President Trump has given basic human rights potentially to 90 million Iranians. The people who are from Iran that
30:21live in this country now understand it, how come all those morons at Columbia who are paying, their
30:26parents are, $80,000 a year, and UCLA where they're paying tens of thousands too, how come they're not
30:32pointing out that what Trump is doing is the greatest sign and stand for human rights that we have seen
30:38probably since Ronald Reagan in this country? Yeah, you make a great point about little rocket man.
30:42We're all kissing his butt because we can't do a thing about it. And if we have to do that
30:47at Iran,
30:47that's right. Forget about it. I guess sometimes you have to do what you got to do and pray that
30:53it all works out. Clay Travis, good to see you. And yes, you will never get an obituary that nice
30:58from the Washington Post. I won't. I want it. I'm the nicest guy on Fox News. The second nicest
31:04behind Greg. Good to see you. What's the CIA doing in Iran right now?
31:16Fox News alert. The Pentagon and CIA are calculating what's next for Iran. The president urged the
31:21Iranian people to take their country back and also promised immunity for the Iranian Republican
31:26Guard if they lay down their arms. We would love to see this regime be replaced. As the president
31:32said, he would love for the people of Iran to use this as an opportunity to rise up and remove
31:37these
31:37leaders. They've been wanting to remove them from a long time. We've seen successive waves of protests.
31:41The bottom line is no matter who governs that country a year from now, they're not going to
31:45have these ballistic missiles and they're not going to have these drones to threaten us.
31:48That's the objective of this mission.
31:50Rick Prado is a former CIA operations officer and author of Black Ops, The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior.
31:59Rick, we're assuming we have CIA operators inside Iran proper. How do they shape the environment and
32:08do what they need to do?
32:11Well, I mean, this is a long-term process. This is not something that we just did last week. I'm
32:17very
32:17confident that we've been talking to opposition leaders, vetting them, seeing who is legitimate
32:24and building that kind of coalition. But the answer is yes, between the State Department and
32:28the agency, we do have access to a lot of the people in Iraq.
32:33And how do they protect themselves? I mean, they really put themselves at risk when they were
32:37gathering the intelligence, do it spotting targets, and now they're kind of the only ones
32:45really there with eyes and ears shaping the future of the country.
32:52Well, and that's the whole idea of the third option, which is what the CIA is referred to.
32:57You have the military option, you have the diplomatic option, and we're the third option.
33:02But we're trained to do the tradecraft, to be able to work in places where nobody else can really work.
33:10We also work tremendously through assets. We have some very vetted assets that we recruit and we train,
33:16and they have them in place for many years to help us. And I'm pretty sure that this is the
33:22case here.
33:23So how do you do that? It's a police state. It's run by kind of radical clerics,
33:29surrounded by mountains. The population's pretty much unarmed. How tall of a task is that?
33:37Well, you know, yeah, the population unarmed is a great Second Amendment conversation for another
33:42time. But, you know, my tactical advice would be let's go after the riot police. We should target
33:51them just like we targeted the Ayatollahs. Go after their headquarters. Go after their houses or camps.
33:59They would stop killing thousands of people, like you just mentioned a few minutes ago.
34:05And at the same time, it would allow the masses to go out and be able to demonstrate,
34:09take over buildings, and hopefully sabotage where it's necessary.
34:14Good. So you shatter the police force and it gives the population a little more room to maneuver.
34:19How do you stand up a legitimate revolution that can withstand any sort of crackdown?
34:33Well, again, that's a process that is long term. I think we've taken the fantastic first steps by
34:39decapitating the stake. Anybody who's, you know, moving up the ladder here should be worried because
34:46they're next. But absolutely. I mean, you know, getting the right people in there. I'm sure the
34:54State Department and CIA have vetted allies, Iranians that we know would be the right choices to lead the
35:05country. But we have to give them the stability. We have to give them the security. And we also have
35:12to neutralize the threat that they suffer inside. Yeah. And money helps, too. That always seems to work.
35:19Rick, great book. I'm enjoying it right now. Thank you so much. And thanks for your service and everything
35:24you've done for the United States of America. We appreciate it.
35:29All right. Good to see you again, Jesse.
35:31David Bellavia is a Medal of Honor recipient and Army veteran. Just watching this, David, it seems like we're looking
35:37at a new form of warfare. I don't know whether you call it the Trump Doctrine. You park the aircraft
35:42carrier off the country's coast. You negotiate. You set a deadline. And then you go all in space,
35:48cyber, air, sea. And you just overwhelm the country. And don't put boots on the ground and
35:55see what happens next.
35:59And don't tell the media what you're going to do. I mean, we're sitting here listening to all this
36:04criticism. I mean, Secretary Hanks, Seth, can we give the guy, he pulled Maduro out of a Snuggie
36:10at two o'clock in the morning. We had dogs involved. We had an MOH recipient land a helicopter on
36:16a
36:17machine gun nest. That story was unbelievable. Now we've got, you know, what's happening in Iran.
36:23God bless our troops. God bless those Gold Star families and comfort them for their loss. But
36:29just think about how absurd this is. America's killing bad guys again. And we've got people
36:35that thought, what, for the last four years, you think Tony Blinken playing a kick-ass guitar riff
36:40was intimidating anyone in the Middle East? When Obama backed up a bunch of pallets of cash?
36:46What do you think? Listen, you can tell it to the baristas. You can sell it to the tourists.
36:52No one in the Middle East respects that ideology. And they rolled you. And they rolled the Bush
36:58administration. They rolled Dick Cheney and all the neocons. We finally have a commander-in-chief.
37:05God bless our military. Thank you to all the people that served. But you know what? A special
37:10thanks to the people of Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania for electing a commander-in-chief
37:16that is now telling bad guys around the world, you are screwed if you mess with our allies or the
37:23citizens of the United States of America. What kind of message does this send? And you put these
37:27bunker busters from, what, 30,000 feet into, like, a doorway. And then you snatch Maduro out in the dead
37:36of night. And then you do this operation where you just decapitate the entire leadership in 30
37:42seconds. I mean, people must be looking around and say, you know, like, I'm not even going to try
37:47anything anymore. Well, all the people, too, when we look at the Ukraine fight, where was Putin
37:54getting all these drones from? Where was he getting all of his equipment from? The pressure this puts on
37:59China now. Where's China going to get their oil from? Venezuela's off the table. Iran's off the
38:04table. I mean, a little respect could go a long way here for what's actually happening. How many
38:10thousands of American soldiers were killed? We didn't get a response out of anyone. I love Ronald
38:16Reagan like the next guy. Ronald Reagan didn't do a damn thing when Marines bled and died in Beirut.
38:22We've been passing and kicking this can down the road forever. And finally, we've got a president that
38:27says enough's enough. And I just, I'm looking around and thinking to myself, what's next? Is,
38:34is, is, is April Cuba month? Is that what we're looking at right now? Because anything's on the
38:40table. That's for sure. I, you know, I didn't serve obviously, but you know, you got to look at what
38:44happened in Beirut. People are thinking about Buckley, the CIA officer who was taken and killed.
38:50Um, all the IDs that exploded in Iraq, uh, all these years dealing with this regime.
38:57How do the people feel about this operation that have served in our serving?
39:03Well, listen, every gold star family, and we've got six of them right now that are grieving
39:08that empty chair at that table is there. Time heals all wounds. They don't know anything. When you lose
39:15a kid prematurely, violently at the height of their life with their dreams all in front of them,
39:19this is horrible. And it's gut wrenching. And nobody gave a damn about that until president
39:26Trump. Vengeance is what happened to the Ayatollah. He deserves it. It's a very big day. Very
39:31important day. And thank you so much for your service and all those very kind words.
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