‘Why Is Trump LYING About Iran DEAL?’: Rep Smith Vs Def. Secy Zimmerman ERUPTS Over Trump’s War LIES

本站添加: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Mr. Zimmerman, can you explain to me how it works? Why it is considered to be intelligent for the president day after day after day to keep saying that Iran has agreed to things that very clearly they have not agreed to, which then becomes obvious to the entire world within some 24 to 48 hour time period?

[00:00:21]Help me out here. What is the strategy between of the president standing up and saying, "We have defeated them. The war is over. They've agreed to everything."

[00:00:29]I mean, doesn't that just make us look like a bunch of clowns past a certain point when it becomes obvious that that's not the case?

[00:00:37]Uh Congressman, the the president's willingness to act decisively to protect Americans and our partners and allies has advanced US credibility. It is not It has not sunk US credibility.

[00:00:49]Well, but addressing this specific issue, we could have that debate a different direction, but he has repeatedly said that Iran has agreed to things that they obviously have not agreed to. Hey, let me ask the question this way. Is the president misinformed? Are people doing a bad job of informing him about what's going on?

[00:01:08]Is he that ignorant about the circumstances? Or is he just making it up as part of some, I don't know, sixth-dimensional stress uh sorry, chess strategy here. So, why?

[00:01:21]The president has the best information available to to any head of state.

[00:01:25]>> Why does he keep getting it wrong then?

[00:01:28]The president does not keep getting it wrong. Uh the their The White House is leading these negotiations to find a long-term solution.

[00:01:36]>> I'm sorry, I have 12 seconds left here, but he doesn't keep getting it wrong. He says, literally, "The strait is open.

[00:01:43]Iran has agreed to give up their nuclear weapons. Iran has agreed to give up their ballistic missile programs."

[00:01:48]That's your basic question. Is the Strait of Hormuz open? Has Iran given up their nuclear weapons?

[00:01:54]Uh the Strait of Hormuz is a is a complex situation right now uh where you have a severely degraded foe.

[00:02:02]>> I hope you look back at this and understand how bad this is making you look. I mean, look, you you can answer question now. You can challenge me in a thousand different ways, but [snorts] to just pretend that reality isn't reality and say it over and over again in a public hearing.

[00:02:17]I'm sorry, that's not helping our credibility. Thank you for the indulgence, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

[00:02:21]And then finally, just to give an update on the Iran negotiation, the Iran situation, I just talked to the president very briefly before I came out here. It's actually a very simple proposition here. There are two options, two pathways we can go down when it comes to the Iran situation. So, step back for a little bit. What the president of the United States has said is number one, Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. And I think it's important for the American people and all of you to appreciate that when we say that it's not just that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, it's what would happen if the Iranians did get a nuclear weapon. We know that a lot of nations all across the Gulf would then want their own nuclear weapon, and then a lot of nations all across the world and what has been a very effective bright spot of American foreign policy really for the last 20 or so years would disappear overnight. If you have every country in the world scrambling to try to get a nuclear weapon, it would make us all much less safe. And Iran would really be the first domino and what would set off a nuclear arms race all over the world.

[00:03:20]That's very, very bad for the safety of our country. As the father of three young kids, I don't want them to inherit a world where 20 additional regimes, half of them very dangerous and very sympathetic to terrorists have nuclear weapons. We want to keep the number of countries that have nuclear weapons small and that's why Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon on top of all the other things that we might be worried about that they themselves could use it, that they could use it in leverage and economic control or economic negotiations. We just don't want them to have a a weapon.

[00:03:51]Now, what we did here is that we effectively degraded their conventional military capability. That has been done.

[00:03:57]That has been successfully done. You could always do a little bit more, but where we are now is the president has asked us, has told us to aggressively negotiate with the Iranians. Why did I go to Islamabad, Pakistan? Why did I spend, I think probably, 22 hours on a plane going there, 24 hours coming back, and then 21 hours on the ground negotiating with the Iranians is because we wanted to show a sign of good faith.

[00:04:20]The Vice President of the United States is willing to cut a deal so long as the Iranians are willing to meet us again on that core issue of never having a nuclear weapon. Uh we think that we've made a lot of progress. We think the Iranians want to make a deal. The President of the United States has asked us to negotiate in good faith, and that's exactly what we've done. So, we're in a pretty good spot here, but there's an option B. And the option B is that we could restart the military campaign to continue to prosecute the case, to continue to try to achieve America's objectives, and we could talk a little bit about what that looks like, but that's not what the president wants, and I don't think it's what the Iranians want, either. We have an opportunity here, I think, to reset the relationship that has existed between Iran and the United States for 47 years. That's what the president has asked us to do, and that's what we're going to keep on working at, but it takes two to tango.

[00:05:10]We are not going to have a deal that allows the Iranians to have a nuclear weapon. So, as the president just told me, we're locked and loaded. We don't want to go down that pathway, but the president is willing and able to go down that pathway if we have to.

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