Trump Said “I’m Going To Bomb the Hell out Of” Iran on the Campaign Trail: “He’s Doing What He Said”

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[00:00:00]Blake, welcome in. Tell folks who don't know where you are, what's on your mind for Larry and for Kevin.

[00:00:05]Hey Blake, good morning. Good morning.

[00:00:07]Hear you well.

[00:00:08]>> Blake. Epic beard, my friend. Thank you.

[00:00:10]Thank you.

[00:00:11]>> Great backdrop, too.

[00:00:12]Um I'm from Illinois. I'm 27. I've been as right as right can write. And I can't be more disgusted with this war in Iran.

[00:00:24]Um I've always felt that Trump kind of brought back the anti-war Republican, at least uh publicly. And a lot of us, especially younger, rallied behind that.

[00:00:37]And this has been such a slap in the face, I feel like, for us that really rallied um in that particular portion of the MAGA movement. Are you Are you concerned about the cost to the taxpayers? Are you concerned about the slippery slope? What What What What piece of it bothers you? It was more about the premise. It was more that there was somebody saying, "No new wars." And we all rallied for that versus how every candidate was essentially for something like this. Yeah. Kevin.

[00:01:15]No, Blake, I you you speak to, quote, Mark Halperin for tens of tens of millions of Americans. And And And I think quite a few uh of the president's base. And we're seeing that in the numbers directed towards this The The The fact that again, we're so siloed in terms of our polling 50% on one side, 50% on the other. But the numbers that Mark has showed in terms of the popularity of this war dip into the president's MAGA base because of this particular issue. And I think, you know, again, you speak for millions of of folks that feel, I think, let down by this president when it comes to the notion of what he campaigned on and now what he's you know, obviously doing with Iran.

[00:01:54]And then we'll see potentially with Cuba. I give the administration a lot of credit for what they did in Venezuela in a very targeted fashion. Seemingly that we're, you know, getting some major concessions there.

[00:02:06]But but this extended campaign that we're seeing without, you know, a lot and insight necessarily, I think speaks volumes to the the the his mega base of supporters. I'd be interested more here to hear what Larry thinks as a spokesman of the the mega right.

[00:02:20]>> I'm not at all the spokesman of the mega right, but I'm also not a Democrat who worked for Joe Biden, Kevin.

[00:02:25]>> With all due respect.

[00:02:26]>> a surrogate for him, never paid. If I may. If I may, Blake, so I'm confused because I've been a Republican since Ronald Reagan was in the White House.

[00:02:32]I'm not quite sure what you mean by anti-war Republicans because I think Republicans and conservative values have always maintained that it is an ideal and virtuous American principle and value to utilize our military for America's interests of abroad. That's Wouldn't you agree that that's something that our party has always stood for?

[00:02:52]I don't I don't disagree with that on premise. I think there's there's an age difference in in that viewpoint where we Donald Trump really brought the idea to the stage that we can be pro-military and anti-war within our party. Well, sure.

[00:03:09]And listen, I don't think the president or frankly any I'm not pro-war.

[00:03:14]But but the president I mean maybe we looked at a different campaign. He did in fact say no more forever wars. He did want to end the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iran and excuse me, in Iraq and get us out of there because uh from his perspective they were ill-advised and they had sort of gone through what many would suggest would be mission creep and they had lost the plot. But when he was running for office, he said no more forever wars. He didn't say he wouldn't use the military.

[00:03:42]Uh the president actually was on the campaign trail saying unlike these other guys who complain about Iran and let them get nuclear weapons and send them pallets of cash, I'm going to bomb the hell out of them. That's what Trump said when he was running for office, Blake.

[00:03:55]So, I'm confused by I think that you're sincere and I understand your position, but I am confused as to where it's coming from because the president is doing, frankly, what he said he was going to do. Well, I guess to the point that you just made. So, I as you stated that the Afghanistan and Iraq war were both ill-advised.

[00:04:13]Are you Are you claiming that this war isn't not that? Because it seems very ill-advised because we keep being told that one thing has happened and that we've received victories and now we're not getting those and we have to continue. Well, it seems like the same nonsense that we didn't want from the last two forever wars. Well, I disagree in many respects and the most fundamental is there is no occupation, there is no invasion even, and there's no attempted nation-building. That is a fundamental difference between Iraq, Afghanistan, and what we're doing right now. So far. So far to to Blake's point.

[00:04:48]>> That absolutely so far. Thank you. But I don't think he'll follow through.

[00:04:52]>> got to work with here, Kevin, is where we are right now and what has happened, right? Yeah, I guess that's where most of our fear stem from is that it sounds so familiar. Fine, and it's up to us to hold this admin- Blake, I agree with you. And it it let's not prejudge what's happened and let's not say this is awful because we fear what might occur. Let's instead judge it for what it is, which is a military success and a frustrating diplomatic process that is yet to be resolved and is very nascent. Number one. And number two, let's actually focus on what we've got in hand. The the in versus what we are afraid the president might do because the president continues to say that he won't do it and I for one trust him at his word. I I think it's fair to judge um when it comes to our leaders based on previous ones, specifically on this topic, because I each one of those from Syria to Afghanistan to Iraq, not in that particular order. We were told weren't going to be the disasters that they were. So, when we're we're being fed this story now, and it's very easy for most of us to say, "Hey, I we've had this meal before, and we didn't like the way it tasted." Uh brother, I hear you, and I understand you. I do think the difference is we knew going We had 200,000 ground troops going into Iraq.

[00:06:09]We knew that was happening. We knew that nation-building was going on. They told us that was the plan. So, this is not the this There wasn't any deception there, I guess, is what I'm saying. Like thank you. You speak You speak for tens of millions of very very grateful people for coming on and being so principled and articulate and being a great member of the community. Thank you. Hey, want to be part of the Two-Way community all the time? Hit the subscribe button.

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