00:00The president's made it clear and the Pentagon's made it clear we've decimated their navy.
00:04We continue to take out their ballistic missile sites.
00:07There was a launch last night.
00:08You know, the Iranians said back in February that their missile capability was only like
00:131,200 kilometers and they launched a intermediate ballistic missile, 4,000 kilometers to try
00:19to hit one of our UK, US bases.
00:22So obviously their capabilities they said they were having and what we thought they had,
00:26they have much more than that.
00:28So at this point, obviously the president and the administration want to secure the
00:32Strait of Hormuz as much as possible to be able to get back to normal shipping.
00:37He's sent A-10 warthogs.
00:39He's sent Apaches.
00:40I think those ground troops that they're moving to the region, although not on the ground there,
00:46are there to secure the strait.
00:48That obviously is a focus now because you're seeing oil prices and energy prices increase
00:53because the tankers aren't able to get through that strait.
00:56But the president has said the U.S. doesn't use the strait.
01:00We don't need it.
01:01So should the U.S. try to secure that strait?
01:04Well, I think it's like a 20 percent of oil that goes through that comes to the United
01:08States.
01:09It's 80 percent of the world's oil that goes through there.
01:11So obviously, even though we can produce at home, that obviously impacts overall global
01:17oil rates and oil rates right here at home.
01:20We're seeing the price of the pump increase all across the country.
01:23So I think they want to get that back to normal.
01:25There's also a number of fertilizer that goes through there.
01:29Potash comes through that region and there's a lot of fertilizer.
01:32So you're seeing impacts in the agricultural sector as well.
01:35So the president, I think the administration wants rightly so to secure that as much as
01:39possible.
01:40I think the Japanese yesterday when the prime minister was in town agreed to help assist in
01:46securing that.
01:47I think once that happens, I think you'll see the economy kind of level back out once
01:53that there's able to move traffic through the strait.
01:56You served in Iraq.
01:57You're an army jag.
01:58I'm curious what your experience in that conflict does to inform your sense of how this one is
02:02unfolding.
02:03Of course, there was a lot of complaint and concern about how that was lengthened and how
02:07there were so many different rationales delivered for it.
02:10How are you thinking about this conflict in the context of that one in which you served?
02:15Well, I'm relieved in the fact that the administration and Hegsteth and the president have been very
02:19clear that we're going in accomplishing a mission and we're getting out.
02:22We're going to take out their ballistic missile capability.
02:24We're going to take out their nuclear capability.
02:26And we had the intel hearing this week where I think they kind of got into some of that
02:30and the open hearing where the public was able to hear some of that.
02:34So I'm very positive about the fact that we're going to go in, accomplish the objective
02:40in the mission and get out and we're not going to be there for an extended period of time.
02:44We haven't put boots on the ground there like we did in Iraq in the early time in the surge.
02:49I served there from 06 to 07, which was one of the more violent times to be there.
02:54I don't want to see our troops on the ground in the country.
02:57I think having troops in the region to be able to secure the strait, I think is very important.
03:02But we've already shown very quickly that we can go in with both air power and naval power
03:08and destroy the things that we need to destroy without putting boots on the ground.
03:12I want to follow up on that because the president, there have been reporting the president is
03:15considering or has asked for plans to possibly take Karg Island.
03:19That may or may not require boots on the ground.
03:21If the president wanted to do that and it required a U.S. military presence on that island,
03:26would you support that?
03:27Yeah, that island is pretty strategic because it's right there by the strait.
03:30And the Iranians have a number of different assets there that allows them to put mines
03:37in those boats they use.
03:39So I could see a limited deployment just to that island to ensure that the Iranians can
03:43continue to use that to harbor and harm the shipping through the strait.
03:50I think that would be a smart move if that was something that we did in a limited capacity.
03:55I think, again, we have the ability through our air power and our naval power to be able to
04:00push back on a lot of the capabilities that the Iranians have.
04:03I think we've destroyed a number of their ballistic missile capabilities.
04:06They still have more, which is why you're still seeing strategic targets.
04:10But I think a small, limited incursion to that island to ensure that the traffic through the
04:17strait of Hormuz, I think, is a good approach, a limited approach, where we're ensuring that
04:23the international traffic that's going through there is secure as it's traveling through.
04:27But as David mentioned, limited actions in the lease, especially when it comes to the
04:32U.S. trying to do limited actions in the lease, often drag on for years and sometimes decades.
04:36Is that not a concern?
04:39I mean, I don't have that concern.
04:40You saw what happened in Venezuela.
04:43We went in, we got Maduro, and we got out, and we don't have assets there.
04:47And you're seeing a very positive improvement there in the country of Venezuela and the relationships
04:52that we've had.
04:53We had the interior secretary not too long ago.
04:55The Venezuelans are openly now selling their oil to us.
04:58It's a much different political and economic environment there than it was when Maduro was
05:02there.
05:03And there was a large group of people from the media that were saying we would be there forever
05:07and we would have troops on the ground, and none of that has happened.
05:10So I trust the president, I trust what's happening at the Pentagon and Hegseth to make this a
05:15limited campaign to go in and strike the strategic things that we need to strike and then pull
05:20out and allow whatever is going to happen with the people of Iran to happen, whether it's
05:26a democracy or a republic that comes there after the leadership is taken out and they have
05:31the opportunity to have democracy there.
05:33In the time we have left, I'd love to ask you about those hearings that were on Capitol
05:36Hill over the course of last week with DNI Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratliff.
05:40And a kind of thread through both of them was this issue of how imminent was the threat
05:44from Iran.
05:45Curious for your thoughts on that, but more so, there were some testy exchanges surrounding
05:50what DNI Gabbard said about who gets to make the determination of what is an imminent threat.
05:54And she said that's the president's purview.
05:56That's something that he can do.
05:58And I think there are a lot of former intel folks who said, look, that's dismissing the
06:01work of a rather large intelligence community.
06:03How did you read what she had to say?
06:05Is that something that raised any concerns for you?
06:08Well, it didn't.
06:09And she's right.
06:10I mean, at the end of the day, the president is the commander in chief of the military and
06:13has the ability to determine whether we need to be defended or need to go kinetic and be
06:20aggressive to protect the homeland and protect our bases in the region.
06:23And that's a decision that the president ultimately gets to make.
06:27I think there was a lot of discussion in the hearing about this immediacy and how we kind
06:31of define that.
06:32There were a lot more of that discussion in the closed door hearing that was classified
06:37in nature.
06:38And you heard several of them say when that question came up that there's more information
06:42that can be provided in a classified setting.
06:44Obviously, I can't go into that here.
06:45But I think that's I mean, we're seeing the ramifications of that just last night.
06:50People were saying that the Iranians, the Iranians themselves in February were saying that
06:54they didn't have any missiles that went over a thousand kilometers and they launched one last
06:58night, four thousand kilometers, and thankfully it didn't hit our base.
07:01So obviously, they have a lot more capabilities that one, they have said, and two, that a lot
07:06of people in the world thought that they had the capabilities to do.
07:09Obviously, the president has all of that intelligence in real time and is able to make a determination
07:15based off a threat that he sees to our bases in the region and to our allies in the region.
07:20Congressman, quickly, before we let you go, Congress is bracing for a Pentagon request
07:25that could be as much as $200 billion to help fund this war.
07:29Any concerns about spiraling costs?
07:31Do you think that's going to pass?
07:32And do you and your colleagues support that?
07:36For me, it's going to need to be offset by cuts in other places.
07:39We're $39 trillion in debt.
07:42We can't continue to keep spending and not go after the debt and the deficit spending.
07:47So for me, it's going to have to be offset some somewhere, somehow.
07:50I think that there's a lot of conservative members like myself that are in a similar circumstance.
07:55There are some members, and I've heard the reporting yesterday where there's a couple
07:59of members that said they're absolutely not going to support that.
08:02So you're going to have a challenge on the floor because we have a two-vote majority right
08:05now.
08:06Thomas Massey is going to be a no.
08:07If one more Republican is a no, then it's not going to go.
08:11If they try to do a rule on it, which I assume they would, and those members vote against
08:16the rule, we're not even going to get to a vote.
08:18I don't think you have two-thirds majority to be able to pass it.
08:21I don't believe, and I don't know this, but I wouldn't assume that the Democrats are going
08:26to support $200 billion for the Iranian war.
08:29Maybe there's a handful of them that would, but even if there's a handful of them, that's
08:33not going to get you over that two-thirds threshold.
08:35So that is going to be a challenge, getting something like that through the House, just
08:40by virtue of the fact that if you have two members on the Republican side that are down
08:45on the rule, you're not passing a rule.
08:46And I don't believe, as we sit here today, that the Democrats would support a two-thirds
08:52suspension bill on something like that.
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