BECAUSE AFTER A YEAR OF DEEPLY UNPOPULAR DEEPLY UNWISE DECISIONS, AND SOME OF THEM ABSOLUTELY CRAZY, DONALD TRUMP MAY HAVE JUST MADE HIS WORST DECISION YET. AN INCREDIBLY COSTLY AND RECKLESS DECISION THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SEEM TO ALREADY HATE. WE'RE ON DAY FIVE OF TRUMP'S WAR WITH IRAN.
OVER A THOUSAND IRANIAN CIVILIANS ARE ESTIMATED TO HAVE BEEN KILLED. SIX AMERICAN SERVICE MEMBERS HAVE ALREADY BEEN KILLED. Four of them were previously identified.
And today we learned the identity of another one of those service members, 45-year-old Jeffrey O'Brien of Waukee, Iowa, Army Major, excuse me. Our hearts are with his family, of Of course, you can see him on the screen right there, just 45 years old. A new NBC pullout tonight finds that voters disapprove, of course, of Trump's handling of Iran by 13 points.
And voters disapprove of the war with Iran and it's not at all hard to see why. I mean, let's start with the reason why this administration THE UNITED STATES HAD TO THE UNITED STATES HAD TO ATTACK IRAN IN THE FIRST PLACE. ON MONDAY, SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO TOLD AMERICA THAT THE REASON WAR WAS NECESSARY WAS BECAUSE OF THE IMMINENT THREAT THAT IRAN WOULD ATTACK THE UNITED STATES.
HERE'S WHAT HE SAID. THERE ABSOLUTELY WAS AN IMMINENT THREAT AND THE IMMINENT THREAT WAS THAT WE KNEW THAT IF IRAN WAS ATTACKED, AND WE ANIMALS TO RESORB A BLOW. SO SAYS SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO.
NOW, THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH that, according to Reuters, is that the Pentagon told Congress that there was no imminent threat of an Iranian attack, as in the Pentagon in the same administration. And when the White House sent notification of those strikes to Congress, they made no mention of any imminent threat. So that explanation didn't hold up for long or really at all.
Then there was the other part of Rubio's explanation. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.
Okay, so Rubio, part of what he says there is that the U . S. new ISRAEL WAS GOING TO ATTACK IRAN, SO WE HAD TO ATTACK THEM FIRST.
NOT A JUSTIFICATION FOR WAR EVER, JUST BY THE WAY, OBVIOUSLY. BUT I MEAN, IT IS ALSO QUITE CLEAR TO BASICALLY EVERYONE I THINK IT'S GOING TO BE PARTICULARLY A FACTOR HERE IS PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU OF ISRAEL FINALLY DRAGGING A WEAK AMERICAN PRESIDENT INTO PRE-EMPTIVE MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAN, SOMETHING he has been trying to do for decades. But Trump didn't like Rubio's explanation that Israel forced his hand, so when Trump was asked about what his own Secretary of State had to say, he said this.
ISRAEL DIDN'T FORCE THEIR HAND. ISRAEL DIDN'T FORCE YOUR HAND TO LAUNCH THESE STRIKES AGAINST IRAN? NO.
I MIGHT HAVE FORCED THEIR HAND. REALLY? ISRAEL DIDN'T FORCE OUR THEY WANT TO TAKE THEIR HANDS.
WE FORCED THEIRS. I MEAN, IF YOU SAY SO. AND ALL OF THE CONTRADICTORY EXPLANATIONS CONTINUED FROM THERE.
IT DIDN'T STOP THERE'S MORE. I MEAN, FOR INCENT, SECRETARY HEGSETH TODAY SUGGESTED THIS WAS IN PART A REVENGE MISSION BECAUSE OF IRAN'S FAILED ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE PRESIDENT TRUMP TWO YEARS AGO. THEN THERE'S THE absurd justification that a combat unit commander reportedly told his officers that this was biblically sanctioned and signals the rapid approach of Armageddon.
Points for creativity there on that one, I suppose. But of all the explanations we got, I think the one that is perhaps the least satisfying and there's a lot of competition for that and perhaps maybe the most accurate was this one from Trump himself. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first.
They were going to attack if we didn't do it. They were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that.
Okay, everyone. It was his opinion. He had a feeling.
He felt strongly about it. Trump started a war with a country of 93 million people because, well, he felt like it. He had a feeling.
And ridiculous as that sounds, that explanation now appears to be what the White House has settled on. I think the president prior to that phone call had a good feeling that the Iranian regime was going to strike United States assets and our personnel in the region. President had a feeling again based on fact that Iran was going to strike the United States.
The president's feeling based on fact that Iran does pose an imminent indirect threat and these decisions are not made in a vacuum they are made by the president's feeling that THAT IRAN WAS GOING TO STRIKE THE UNITED STATES. COULD YOU TELL THE FEELING BASED ON FACT WAS LIKE A PHRASE WRITTEN SOMEWHERE? I MEAN, THE THING ABOUT FEELING BASED ON FACT WHICH ROLLS IT'S NOT A THING, I MEAN TRUMP'S FEELINGS ARE JUST FEELINGS IF THEY DON'T HAVE FACTS, RIGHT?
AND WE HAVEN'T HAD FACTS REALLY LAID OUT FOR US HERE. AND IT'S PROBABLY NOT THE the best justification for leading the country into a war, to state the obvious. And if you think the Trump administration's reasons for starting this war are confusing, just wait until you hear their explanations for how it's supposed to end.
I mean, this was Donald Trump on the day he announced the strikes. To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Take over your government.
It will be yours to take. This will THIS WILL BE PROBABLY YOUR ONLY CHANCE FOR GENERATIONS. TRUMP DON'T HIS SPECIAL USA BASEBALL CAP THERE AND TOLD THE PEOPLE OF IRAN TO RISE UP AND TAKE OVER THEIR GOVERNMENT, WHICH IS KIND OF SOUNDS TO ME LIKE A CLEAR AND AMBIGUOUS CALL FOR REGIME CHANGE, DOESN'T IT?
BUT THEN HERE WITH SECRETARY HEGSETH TALKING ABOUT THAT OBJECTIVE, SAME QUESTION SORT OF ON THIS IS NOT A SO-CALLED REGIME CHANGE WAR, NO NATION-BUILDING QUAGMIRE, NO DEMOCRACY BUILDING EXERCISE, NO POLITICALLY CORRECT EXPECT WARS. SO WHICH IS IT? I MEAN, IS THIS ADMINISTRATION TRYING TO ENSURE REGIME CHANGE OR NOT?
IN ALL SERIOUSNESS. I MEAN, DID YOU GUYS EVEN MEET ABOUT THIS BEFORE LAST WEEKEND? BECAUSE THESE SEEM LIKE PRETTY OBVIOUS, TOP-OF-THE-LIST THINGS TO REALLY COORDINATE THE REASONING ON, MOST IMPORTANTLY PRIVATELY, AND OF COURSE your answers on publicly so that people out there understand what's happening and why.
And then there's the question of who will be in charge after the regime change they aren't calling regime change. I mean, they killed Iran's supreme leader. Surely they had someone in mind to take over Iran after he was gone?
Well, most of the people we had in mind are dead. So, you know, we had some in mind from that group that is dead. And now we have another group that may be dead also.
So the people of Iran should rise up and take over, but there isn't going to be regime change, or maybe there is, but they did assassinate the leader of Iran and they do want to replace him, but all their preferred leaders are dead. Got it? See, none of these goals make any sense.
And typically, these are the sorts of questions that you really pour over for months among national security leaders, even among briefings with Congress. And that appears that the most likely next leader of Iran will be the son of the guy they just killed, who is reportedly even more of a hardliner than his father. Nobody knows why they're doing this, why the country, why the United States is involved in this.
Nobody knows what the goal is and crucially, nobody seems to know how long it's going to take either. We projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that. Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks, it could move up, it could move back, it could be IT COULD BE SIX, IT COULD BE EIGHT, IT COULD BE THREE.
OKAY. NOT MUCH CLARITY THERE. NO CLEAR TITLELINE FOR THIS.
ON MONDAY THE PRESIDENT POSTED TO HIS SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT, QUOTE, WARS CAN BE FOUGHT FOREVER AND VERY SUCCESSFULLY. AND IT'S JUST AS UNCLEAR HOW FAR THE ADMINISTRATION IS WILLING TO GO IN CARRYING OUT THAT WAR. OVER THE WEEKEND, SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM, A CLOSE ALLY OF THE PRESIDENT, PERHAPS THAT'S THE BIGGEST IRAN, ONE OF THE BIGGEST IRAN HAWKS IN CONGRESS RULED OUT PUTTING BOOTS ON THE GROUND AS PART OF THIS OPERATION.
THERE WILL BE NO AMERICAN BOOTS ON THE GROUND. THIS IS NOT A ROCK. THIS IS NOT THIS IS NOT GERMANY, THIS IS NOT JAPAN.
WE'RE NOT GOING TO HAVE ANY BOOTS ON THE GROUND IN IRAN. NO BOOTS ON THE GROUND, SO SAYS THE SENATE'S BIGGEST IRAN HAWK. UNDERSTANDING A BIG It's a big question.
Lots of people out there have, but then the next day in an interview with the New York Post Trump refused to rule out putting boots on the ground, sending American troops into Iran to fight another war. None of the messages out of this administration are consistent. None of them make sense.
Even Donald Trump's own allies don't seem to know what to say or how to talk about it. I mean, some Republicans seem to be in denial that this even is a war, even though President Trump calls it a war every chance he gets. We're doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly.
We're not at war right now. We have unlimited middle and upper ammunition, which is really what we do. We have unlimited middle and upper ammunition, which is really what we're using in this war.
This isn't a war. We haven't declared war. We may have casualties that often happens in war.
Strategic strikes are not war. Really? Is it all clear to you yet?
Because I'm just as confused as you probably are. I mean, some Republicans have gotten so confused by this whole thing that they can't even keep their NARRATIVE STREET from one sentence to the next sentence. This is war and we're taking out the threat.
You can see this is war. We haven't declared war. They declared war on us, but we haven't declared war.
They declared war on us, but we haven't declared war on Secretary Hexas. We haven't declared war on Secretary Hexas. We haven't declared just now you said this is war.
They've called it war. They've called it war. What I was saying, okay, well, that was a misspoke.
That was a misspoke, everyone. A misspoke. Nobody in the Trump administration or seemingly people who are speaking vocally on their behalf from the Republican Party seems to know what the hell is going on.
So for the only reliable information we have been able to get has come from the handful of Democrats who have been briefed on the matter.
