“Push Israel Aside And Be A Leader!” Ana Kasparian vs Conservative On Trump's Handling Of Iran War

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Well, I think that the only way to secure the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, so you have transit of incredibly important cargo including you know, energy supply that the globe needs is to do so diplomatically. If there were a military option to do so, I believe that that military option would have been used already, but we don't have that military option.

[00:00:24]Just to give you a comparison when the United States was at the height of the war in Iraq, we had about 250,000 soldiers dedicated to that war. Right now we have what? 10 to 15,000 military personnel. We're not even talking about the entire you know, number of troops being in combat or even able to engage in combat in the Middle East right now as we speak. So the point that I'm trying to make is there is no military option.

[00:00:53]When you look at the military weaponry we have, when you look at our THAAD missile interceptor system and the fact that we've depleted 80% of our missile interceptors, that puts our troops at a significant disadvantage. And I'm not the one saying this. The Wall Street Journal reported very specific details about how much of our weaponry and interceptors have been depleted already.

[00:01:16]And we do not have the manufacturing capacity to build quick enough in order to basically withstand the very cheap drones that Iran is able to quickly produce. So the point that I'm trying to make here Pierce is that you have to reach an agreement diplomatically and leaders lead, meaning that President Donald Trump has the leverage, has the power to force this in a diplomatic fashion. He just needs to basically push Israel aside and actually be a leader, not have Israel you know, dictate our foreign policy. Curtis Sliwa, welcome to you to Uncensored.

[00:01:56]You're a former Republican candidate for mayor of New York and I should just say at this point my thoughts go out to Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York and to his family. He's he's in critical condition in hospital which was very sad news in the last few days and I interviewed him actually on our sensor only 2 weeks ago.

[00:02:13]So my best wishes to him and his family and I hope he comes through that. But in terms of this war, a lot of Republicans I've been talking to are now having serious doubts about this the longer it goes on. We were assured it was going to be over in 2 to 3 weeks, then 6 weeks and now here we are over 2 months into this with no sign of it coming to any end anytime soon.

[00:02:35]And the obvious economic damage it's causing with you know gas prices and with inevitably food prices because of the loss of fertilizers being held up and so on.

[00:02:46]What what do you make of it? Are you are you still supportive of this war? Do you think as John Bolton does that now you're in it, you've got to finish it and maybe try to affect regime change as well?

[00:03:00]Okay, so I'm happy that you played John Bolton who was the national security advisor for Trump in his first 4 years because remember it was Bolton who barged into the president's office and said, "Mr. President, you have to launch the Air Force because the Iranians just shot down a very expensive drone over the Straits of Hormuz." And the President Trump said, "It's unmanned, right?

[00:03:24]Where's the proportionality?"

[00:03:26]And Bolton wanted us to just bomb bomb bomb Iran. He's a war hawk. That's why I'm shocked that President Trump who didn't get who kept us out of these ongoing foreign disputes did not get us involved has suddenly flipped the script and now he's war hawk number one and we all know why. He's been pushed into this. BB, an excellent salesman, convinced him that if you come in with us, there will be regime change, there will be insurrection in the streets, even though our CIA and Marco Rubio told the president the next day after that meeting, that's not going to happen. And we see that Trump got bamboozled by Bibi. This is Bibi's war. We should not be involved in this.

[00:04:09]Deborah Lee, are you supportive still of this war?

[00:04:15]Well, first off, this is obviously not Bibi's war. Let's not throw Trump. Trump is a sovereign leader of the United States of America. He's our president.

[00:04:21]All of his decisions are his own.

[00:04:23]There's nobody who can bully him into a war. Every decision he makes, even the bad ones, are because he solely wanted to do them. As far as this war, as somebody who has wanted to see the end of the Iranian regime or the Islamic Iranian regime for a very long time, since childhood, growing up around Jews who fled from Iran very young, I'm kind of surprised that the war is still going on at this point. And as far as Anna said earlier, diplomatically, ideally, this would be a diplomatic exit. But a big challenge that we've seen, I can't attest to the exact numbers, but they prepared for this exact situation. There are factions split across the entire country. So, even if the United States were to make a deal with somebody in Tehran, there could be a separate faction up in the north or in the south or somewhere that would challenge a diplomatic exit that would really create uh safety for the entire region. So, at this point, I never thought that they were actually going to go after the Ayatollah. That was shocking for me. I didn't think that the United States of America could really take that chance, not knowing that we can guarantee regime change. Would I love regime change?

[00:05:16]Absolutely. Do I see a clear off-ramp for this war? Absolutely not. But we cannot just surrender to Iran because simply with flights, I'm flying to Israel in a few weeks, if we tell Iran that at any point they launch ballistic missiles, they can shut down airfare for the entire Middle East, can take complete control of the Strait of Hormuz. That is a dangerous position to leave them in. So, I think we're at a really unfortunate time, but that's why I trust the leadership that I voted for in this administration. I trust them to get out of this in the best way possible. And at the very least, if we do get out without no more additional changes, it was avenging the close to a thousand Americans who've have been murdered by the Islamic regime over the last 47 years. So, it wouldn't be a total loss. But, you know, when you say you trust this administration, okay, but you voted for them, and Donald Trump couldn't have been clearer when he campaigned to be president in 2024. He was not going to take America into any more of these Middle Eastern wars, and then within a year or so, he's gone into the biggest one imaginable. And we've all seen the consequences.

[00:06:12]>> Sorry.

[00:06:14]Well, President Trump has also been very clear that he will not allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. And Iran is committed to a nuclear weapon. I know we destroyed a lot of their weaponry last June. That was miraculous, but at the same time, they're not going to stop building.

[00:06:25]They're not going to stop enriching uranium. We saw this with the Obama Iran nuclear deal, which was horrible. They are committed to building nuclear weapons and trying to destroy the western part of this world with everything that they got. They will divert every resource to try and destroy western civilization. And so, I'm not surprised that we need to keep our, for lack of a better word, our knee on their necks to make sure that they are not trying to destroy the world that we know and love.

[00:06:47]Yeah, I'm just not quite sure whose knee is on whose neck at the moment, uh cuz it looks to me like, as I've been saying regularly, there's an asymmetric war going on. One is the military conflict, which America and Israel has have overwhelming superiority, and I don't doubt for a moment they've caused enormous damage to Iran's military. Uh but, there's also the economic war being waged around this Strait of Hormuz, which has enormous global consequences, as we're seeing. And at the moment, that strait remains shut. Uh despite all the protestation and late-night rage tweets from the president, it seems to be very little he can do to get it open again.

[00:07:24]Uh let me bring in Adam Mokhtar. Welcome to Uncensored, Adam. You've obviously hit the headlines uh in the last few days. Uh for those who haven't seen it, I think it's up there with my Russell Brand clip as the two most memed and republished clips of the week. Uh so, let's take a look at your one. This is you with Scott Jennings at CNN.

[00:07:44]I mean, honestly, they have been at war with us for 46 >> We all know that Scott Jennings is more than happy to defend a war with the country that starts with the letters IRA that we are [laughter] currently failing that is going to put us trillions and trillions of dollars more in debt. I was only a few years old while you were in the administration defending prior endless wars. Now, this war is failing.

[00:08:00]>> Eight weeks is endless to you? Okay, you said it was going to be four to six weeks. Wait, you have the attention span of a gnat? Is that what you I debated you on TV four to six weeks ago and you said we were weeks away from it. Now, you're making condescending remarks because you can't defend the fact that this war is not going your way. Wait, one more time. Not going, not going your way. Name one political concession. Name one political concession. Honestly, I'm not I'm not going to have this guy make up >> Everybody, everybody, hey, hang tight, okay?

[00:08:23]No, everybody calm down, okay?

[00:08:26]Now, somebody who was repeatedly actually manhandled by Russell Brand, I think you uh you know, your your manhandling was at least uh a little bit removed. There was there was daylight between your arms and Scott Jennings. But, what was interesting about the exchange to me uh was not that he was not entitled to get annoyed with the way you were gesticulating. I probably would have done, too. Uh but, I've not seen him that rattled. Scott Jennings is normally ice-cool on that panel show. I watch it a lot. I think he's a really interesting commentator for the right on CNN. It's an unusual beast. They don't have many of them. And he holds his own often against three or four people. And on this occasion, Geraldo was also on the panel, I noticed. And we'll come to Geraldo with his view of it in a minute. But, I haven't seen Scott Jennings react like that to anybody. And that to me, in the same way that I'm seeing with Donald Trump's slightly erratic and you know, quite angry and testy uh social media activity in the last few weeks. It just looks to me like people have gone all in on this war in Iran.

[00:09:28]Now, it's not playing out in any way that they predicted or told everybody that it was going to play out. They're they're getting testy. They're getting quite angry about it, which is a natural human reaction, but is increasingly obvious. And I thought your exchange with Scott was indicative of that. What did you think?

[00:09:46]I don't want to take away from the point that I was making in the question that I was asking in that moment because I have sat on panel after panel after panel with Scott Jennings as he lies about this war, not bound by any facts whatsoever, as he makes failed predictions, not bound by any timelines whatsoever, and as he condescends and trolls and provokes everyone else on the panel. I mean, even in the same panel, he made a fun of my bedtime like 5 minutes earlier. So, this is a man that's not bound by any facts or timelines or rules. So, I said, "I'm not going to be bound by rules that my opponent is not playing it." So, you can say that I was gesticulating a bit too much. That's a fair criticism, but he could have politely asked me to tone it down. That is not what he did. He snapped because he realized he does not have an answer to the simple question, "Name one political concession we've gotten from Iran 60 days into this war."

[00:10:32]We've had moving, shifting timelines, shifting objectives for this war.

[00:10:37]They've been lowering the threshold for what victory is considered as, and just because I asked the question of, "Hey, what concessions have we gotten?" That pisses him off. We've seen uh billions of dollars spent. We saw dozens of people uh thousands of people in Iran have died, tens of thousands, but we saw over a dozen US soldiers die. So, I'm going to continue to ask this very same question, "What political concessions have we gotten from Iran 60 days into this war?" The answer is absolutely none, and he knows the answer is none.

[00:11:04]That's why he freaked out. Yeah, I think it's a perfectly reasonable >> No, no, I don't think you should be apologizing.

[00:11:10]No, I mean, let me bring Geraldo in first of all cuz Geraldo, you were on the panel. I want to play uh your reaction on NewsNation to what you saw on that panel.

[00:11:20]The kid was a dick. I mean, he smart, eloquent, had his argument together, had obviously debated Scott before, and he was really being a dick.

[00:11:31]I mean, it was like I shut up, you know, go out go out and get some life experience.

[00:11:35]>> different I wasn't sure if you're talking about Chris Chris Cuomo there, actually, Geraldo. I I clarify you were talking actually about Adam Mockler. Um >> [laughter] >> Now, You still think so? Well, Adam, I mean, what do you want to say to Geraldo? He called you a dick. Do you have a response?

[00:11:52]Yeah, it's not a dick to try to force a critical question and try to force the conversation to where the American people want it. Geraldo, you were there when Scott made fun of my bedtime 5 minutes earlier. Again, this is somebody not bound by any rules whatsoever on this show. He's able to lie over and over. Why should I be bound by some decorum that my opponents aren't bound by? Do you see what I'm saying? It's not the '80s anymore. It's not even 2010 anymore. We are in a new era where we are playing in a reciprocal manner. So, I'm not playing the game as where I have to be nice. On a slightly wider point here, it's very interesting to me. I've just interviewed Megyn Kelly for 20 minutes at the start of this uh show.

[00:12:28]And I could have been talking to you about some of these issues, right? Same with Tucker Carlson. You A lot of you have blended now into a weird family of people who have a lot of agreement about a lot of things. Iran, the influence of Israel, Donald Trump and his mistake as you see it and so on. Uh did you think a time would come when you would be siding rhetorically on these big big issues with so many who are on the conservative right? And what does that tell you about the state of the conservative right when you got people like Mark Levin saying, "Tucker's mentally ill." Everyone trashing Candace Owens and her trashing everybody else. There is a real split going on on the conservative right, and there's you firmly on the left as you've always been, but now siding rhetorically, to me it seems, on these big issues with people that would historically have been the complete opposite to you.

[00:13:21]Uh I'm going to get back to your question in just 1 second, but I have to say the debate about tone is the exact type of distraction that uh Zionists are hoping for so you don't actually debate the substance. Mockler, your tone was fine. Your hand was nowhere near his face. You have no reason to apologize.

[00:13:39]The reason why they're attacking your tone is because they can't attack your substance. Now moving on to Pierce's question.

[00:13:45]Somehow blames Zionists for that that's mental illness but okay. Yeah, okay, right.

[00:13:50]Oh, you're calling me mentally ill.

[00:13:51]Do you want to go there? Do you want to go there?

[00:13:53]>> What does blaming Zionists have to do with I'm going to answer Pierce's question calmly and not let you bait me because that's what you guys do.

[00:14:02]Pierce, to answer your question, I think that right now it's not really a question of left versus right on this issue. It's a question of good versus evil, America first versus a foreign country first. And right now this war is something that as Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel has said repeatedly, has been a dream of his for decades and he finally got his dream to the detriment of the American people since we're the ones paying for this war. We're the ones who lost 13 soldiers as a result of this war and we shouldn't be fighting it. And so I think Tucker, I think Megan Kelly, I think people like me and Cenk, regardless of our political views overall, look at this war, look at the undue influence of Israel over our government and foreign policy and we have a problem with that. We are America first. We have some very real problems here within our own borders that are not being addressed at all even though President Trump alleged that he was going to address those issues and in fact the very issues that people voted for him on including doing something about affordability, he has only made worse by agreeing to enter this war. So I think that's what's going on why there's a little bit of agreement when it comes to big picture issues like whether or not our leadership is America first, whether or not our foreign policy is serving us and whether or not we really want to continue this alliance with a country that has only sucked our resources and forced us into wars that we shouldn't be fighting. Okay, Deborah Lee, what was the point you were trying to make?

[00:15:31]At the beginning she referenced that this is Zionist distraction to talk about tone and I was just pointing out that to blame Zionist for pointing out the tone of this was a very viral interaction between Adam and Scott. A lot of people had a lot of opinions.

[00:15:42]That's the kind of mental illness that we ascribe anti-Semitism where it rots your brain and you start seeing these connections where they come from nowhere. And something very worth mentioning is somebody who's very passionate about making sure that Republicans win in this country for the midterms. If we stop this war tomorrow, that would really not move the needle for the Republican Party in terms of the midterms. And the biggest reason is because we have these rogue liberal activist judges who consistently overturn every single win from the Trump administration. And so until we rein back these activist judges in our country and ensure we can actually have the long-lasting wins that we voted for lasting in this country, that is the biggest challenge for the midterms.

[00:16:15]Americans are not feeling the I'll tell you honestly, I don't think that's going to be the problem. I think the problem for the midterms is going to be if this war drags on with all the economic havoc it's causing, uh then what's going to happen is that regular Americans are going to look at two promises Donald Trump made: not to drag America into pointless, expensive Middle Eastern wars and to focus on America first and getting the cost of living down. And if neither of those things have been achieved, in fact the complete opposite has happened, then I suspect the Republicans are in for an absolute shellacking in November. Now, there's still time to rectify this, but every week that goes by with this war is another week which is longer than we were told this was all going to last.