← The Morning Meeting
The Morning Meeting
Trump Says Threatened U-S Strikes on Iran's Energy Facilities Are "Postponed" Due to Promising Talks
01:07:37
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- [00:02]
Commercial Narrator
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- [01:04]
Mark Halperin
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the morning meeting. Larry and Kevin are here. And the president, 7 o' clock this morning ripped up the program and ripped up the news cycle, ripped up everything. But a lot of questions remain. So we'll talk about the impact of the president's true social post, declaring the ultimatum he gave to be null and void. And markets have reacted to Iran has reacted, the world has reacted. And doesn't solve every problem. But it means that we'll not all be waiting around all day to see what happened at 7:40 tonight Eastern. Larry Kevin, welcome in. On a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being no surprise and 10 being shocked. Larry, how surprised are you that the president found an off ramp for this portion of the narrative about a 6 or 7.
- [01:49]
Larry
He likes to shake up the Etch A Sketch now and again.
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Mark Halperin
6 or 7, Kevin 0 meaning no surprise. 10 meaning shock.
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Kevin
3. 3. This is like, you know, it's all messaging in the market as we're seeing
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Larry
I go in the wrong direction.
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Mark Halperin
Okay, yeah, you meant three. You meant three. I'm not, I'm not surprised at all. I'm surprised he did as quickly as he did. But of course, if you saw what markets were doing pre open, you would know that of course it made sense. So we'll talk about the president's post again, declaring his ultimatum null and void and saying he and the Iranian, the Iranians, the United States have been talking. We'll give you our latest reporting on that and everything about the war and a few more topics. And then of course, your questions, comments, suggestions, critiques, concern about my background, whatever you want. Please raise your hand if you'd like to get in on the conversation. If you're here on the two way platform, just raise it. I and if you're watching on x or on YouTube, no second to chat. We had some great first time participants and from the community last week and again we'd urge you the water's safe here. Kevin and Larry are extremely kind, generous, almost nurturing. All really just highly paternal in their sensibility. So please don't be afraid.
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Kevin
I've always said that.
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Mark Halperin
I've always, always said that. Please raise your hand. Quick sponsor word and then to the daybook and then to your questions, comments, concerns. After we kick things around, all the
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Larry
questions are going to be about the whole course. Are you gonna do a scene from Equus later?
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Mark Halperin
Really?
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Kevin
More like it's still a family show, Larry. It's still a family show.
- [03:21]
Mark Halperin
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Mark Halperin
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Mark Halperin
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Mark Halperin
The President today, having shaken up the world with his 7:00am Eastern Time post on Truth Social, heads to Memphis where he's doing a law enforcement event. As you know, Memphis is one of the cities that the immigration folks have gone into. So he travels to Memphis, does an open press event and then and then from Florida, where he stayed this weekend, and then to Washington D.C. no, no events for the Vice President that at this point. Pete Hegseth is with the President for the 1:00pm Eastern Time Memphis Safe Task Force Roundtable Energy Secretary Wright is participating in Sarah week in Houston. A big energy conference House is out. Senate is going to debate Mark Mullins Mark Wayne Mullen's nomination for DHS secretary. Confirmation note could come this evening. And bipartisan group of senators continues to work on a solution on the border issue and the DHS funding issue with more optimism on both sides today than there has been in quite some time. Republicans are giving a little bit of ground there. And Rob Emanuel is in Wisconsin, La Crosse, Wisconsin for a, for a town hall. Homeland Security committee is going to have a hearing on the effects of DHS shut down with officials from the Coast Guard and other agencies on Wednesday unless they get a solution by then. Senate Foreign Relations on Wednesday getting this is our Week Ahead briefing on the Russia, Ukraine conflict. Armed services is getting a briefing on on this conflict and in Iran on Wednesday also. So those are two big briefings. Mike Johnson is expected to try again on DHA funding on Thursday again unless there's a negotiated solution by then. Amongst Jimmy Kimmel's guests, this week's the great Elizabeth Banks. Elizabeth Banks. Kevin, what's her finest role in your view?
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Kevin
I mean she was great. And Pitch Perfect.
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Mark Halperin
Pitch Perfect. That Valeria. That's the dancer. Unless you want to spoil the consensus. Yeah, God forbid.
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Larry
No.
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Mark Halperin
Okay.
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Larry
In fact I couldn't name another movie. Oh no, wait, wasn't she in 40 year old virgin as well?
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Mark Halperin
I think she is. And is she also not in Best in Show? I think she's invest in show too. Anyway, it's the correct answer. Is Pitch Perfect somebody.
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Larry
I just remember her in that, in that, that, that, that great music video that all the Hollywood celebrities did for Hillary Clinton at the DNC in 2016. Scene.
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Mark Halperin
Forgot all about.
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Larry
This is my fight song.
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Mark Halperin
Oh, the fight.
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Larry
It's called Montana.
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Kevin
It was called the Macarena and It was in 1996. Larry, stop. When they were doing it.
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Mark Halperin
Amongst the Tonight show guests this week, cardi B&BTS. All right, here's the news of the day, folks. 7:00 clock this morning the President went on Truth Social and posted this number 103 please. I am pleased to report that the United States of America and the country of Iran have had over the last two days very good productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East. Based on the tenor and tone of these in depth, detailed and constructive conversations which will continue throughout the week, I've instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for A five day period subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. Trump. Here's how the Iranians responded to the announcement. They denied talks have taken place. 119 statement says Iran agency denies report of talks to end war. That's the Reuters account. Here's Barack Ravid of Axios. His reporting's correct here. Matches my own. There are talks in this sense, he says, three countries and I believe there's a fourth and maybe a fifth country who've been involved as well. He says Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan have been passing messages between the US And Iran over the past few days in an effort to de escalate US Sources say three senior officials from three countries held separate talks with Steve Witkoff and the Iranian Foreign Minister. Here's the thing about it, ladies and gentlemen, when we say the expression the bazaar is always open. Here's how the bazaar is always open. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner both have cell phones, okay? And so anybody can call them and say, hey, I'm from Turkey or I'm from Pakistan. And the Iranians are saying this. So I think the Iranians are pretending that there aren't conversations. There definitely are. It does raise the question who in Iran is talking for on behalf of the Iranian government since we don't really know who's in charge. So, Larry, a lot of people will spend the day speculating about why the President did what he did, but where he's trying to be forward looking here. The President didn't say the Israelis, the US Would stop hitting Iranian targets. He just said he wouldn't hit, they wouldn't hit the energy target. So what happens next, Larry? What happens next? Now the President's put this on Truth Social.
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Larry
I think what happens next is we wait until the President makes his next post on True Social. I mean, honestly, Mark, I. Listen, I think you're right. I don't like using the term off ramp, but I think he was looking for some positive excuse or reason or hook to be able to come down a notch. We have seen this. This is how the President has engaged in these things. You amp it up, you amp it up, you bring it down a notch. And if you don't get the results you want, you amp it up again and amp it up, bring it down a notch, and then it reaches a point where you amp it up so high that there ends up being a strike. I think that if past is prologue, you look for a resolution here to the President's liking in the next week or so, or else you're going to have a strike. Another Kevin speaker escalation, I should say militarily.
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Mark Halperin
Well, but, but in the next week, will the Israelis continue to hit Tehran? They hit Tehran pretty hard overnight. Continue. Yeah. Okay, here's the present moments. Here's Maria Bartiromo. Moments ago, the President talked to both CNBC and Fox Business in the aftermath of his post. Here is Maria Bartiromo said that the
- [10:36]
Maria Bartiromo
talks, I said five days to halt or postpone strikes on the electrical infrastructure. It could happen sooner, he said, but I have put down five days. I asked him what his reaction is to Iranian test state television saying that there are no talks. And he said he's not sure what they are referring to because the most recent talks happened in fact last night with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and their counterparts. When I asked about the Iranian TV saying that no talks have happened, he said it's hard to get any information there because of the US's blowing up so much of their infrastructure. So again, he wasn't sure whether Iran state TV was talking about because the most recent talks, he said, happened last night with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Again, the President just told me moments ago that the Iranians want to do a deal badly. The market, of course, has reversed course. This morning, after the President posted this morning in the middle of a big decline in markets, he said that he has directed the military to postpone strikes on the electrical infrastructure and the power plants for five days as these talks continue. The Dow Industrials immediately reversed course when the president came out with that post and remained higher. The Dow right now up 750, the S&P up 100 and the NASDAQ up 380. The President this morning, a moment ago confirmed with me on the phone that in fact, Iran wants to do a deal, quote, badly. Let's take a look at the reversal in oil where we see brent trading down 7 and a half percent at 10373 and crude oil down 7% at 9141.
- [12:32]
Mark Halperin
So again, the markets were deep in the red in the futures before the open. And we'll see what happens at the open in 20 minutes. But Kevin, I see in the chat, I don't read it, but I do glance at it, that people are saying, well, he's, he can't only cry wolf so often. He can cry wolf as many times as he wants, I think. But what, what do you think happens now? For instance, what about all those Marines headed to the region. What about the notion that we were about to invade and take carg. Does. Does all. Does everything get suspended now? At least until the president changes course? Are we. Are we in a holding pattern? Will the Israelis be in a holding pattern?
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Kevin
Yeah, I don't think we're necessarily in a holding pattern. I think he's also playing for time. And we've seen this before with, you know, with Maduro in terms of telegraphing one thing and doing another thing. So I think those Marines. There's over 2,000 Marines, are still there. It's going to take a few days for them in terms of reinforcements to reach the area. And again, your question mark is so important in terms of what Israel is also doing. I think, you know, you're seeing, you know, a different definition of talks. Right. So, obviously, it's the case that we are telegraphing things for those four, three countries that you just mentioned. It's not a summit. We're not. Wyckoff and Jared Kushner aren't sitting down with the Iranians now. But it seems like there are messages going back and forth, and we're quabbling over the definition of what, you know, talking means. I think at this point, based on. Based on the reporting
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Mark Halperin
up until now. Go ahead, Larry.
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Larry
I was gonna say, isn't this what Trump does all the time, whether it's negotiating with Democrats in Congress or it's negotiating with foreign countries over tariffs, or it's this kind of thing? I mean, this is great example of the tariffs.
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Kevin
Right. You know, he announces it and then the markets go crazy. Like we saw back and forth with China.
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Larry
Number of times he resets the table. And I have no doubt. And by the way, it was very specific what he said. We're gonna suspend the strikes on these things, which, by the way, we haven't really been striking much. Anyway. He was. He threatened to strike as of 7pm tonight, I think was the deadline. So he's basically suspended what he threatened to do that we haven't done yet. So other than that, everything goes according to the way it's been.
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Kevin
Well, the key thing is what the Israelis do, too, because I do think there is, you know, reporting that they have been targeting some of the energy infrastructure there.
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Mark Halperin
Yeah. Overnight, they hit a lot of stuff. So the Iranians up until now have said any deal that they consider would involve reparations and no American military bases in the region and a promise not to be hit again. Those are non starters. I could use a stronger word than non starters, but those aren't going to happen. So, Kevin, what is a deal, let's say their negotiations, whoever's involved, direct, indirect, what could a deal look like that would end the war without American boots on the ground, without significant destruction of more, of more targets in any country? What would a deal look like?
- [15:29]
Kevin
Well, the Iranians need money and they need it now. And you saw some, some aspects of that play out with the oil question in Iranian tankers in the administration, allowing for some of those that shipping to go forward because, again, the legitimacy of the regime is so focused on the state of the economy. And it's been devastated. It was devastated before these attacks started. That's what prompted a lot of those demonstrations that we saw break out in late December. So it's money on the Iranian front. And I think for us, it's the nuclear program and the missile program. I think those are the two key factors. That way the president can say, declare victory. We've decimated them. The American people overwhelmingly support taking out their nuclear capacity and setting that back. So I think those are the two factors. Money for the Iranian regime to prop it up more, unfortunately, and our commitments when, when it comes to missile and nuclear technology.
- [16:23]
Mark Halperin
Larry, given how critical the president's been of the Obama administration giving Iran money, some in his party might object. But is that a deal that the president could make? No.
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Larry
I agree with Kevin on the, on the, especially after the use of an intermediate, intermediate range ballistic missile that is within the range of our Western European allies over the weekend, that the, the missile program and the nuclear program have to be obliterated and ended. And I think the only way money flows to the Iranian government is not in pallets of cash. It's by striking some sort of business arrangement. Trump has been talking about wanting to get Iran back into the world community and actually ending its hostility in the region. I don't know if that's realistic or not, but if they're going to have any money to help, you know, refund their, their government and their operations, it's going to be through business dealings, not through cash payouts. There's no.
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Kevin
And that's what I mean, I mean, it's, it's their ability to sell their own oil. Right. Which is what the Obama deal was a part of, too, is their, their own cash.
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Larry
More, though, and more. I mean, I think that's why Kushner is involved. That's, this is what Kushner does, right? He gets all these parties in the room and somehow everybody ends up making money in a business deal.
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Kevin
And Wyckoff too. I mean that's a driving factor with them.
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Mark Halperin
But, but could that, could that be done with whatever the current regime is or does that require some sort of. Yeah, I don't think so either.
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Larry
So I don't think so.
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Mark Halperin
I don't really understand what they're, it's
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Larry
their way of doing regime change through a boardroom instead of with boots on the ground.
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Mark Halperin
So just as a binary. Yes, no. Are the current quote unquote talks going to lead to a settlement and an end of end of hostilities or is this just an interlude? Yes or no, Will this the settlement talks likely to lead to it? Will the current talks negotiations lead to an end of the end of the war? Yes. No.
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Larry
Larry, if no means interlude, no.
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Mark Halperin
Kevin, is this going to end?
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Kevin
I think it means whatever. I think it means an interlude and I think it's a play for time. As I said, as the Marines get there and more resources get, get to the area.
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Mark Halperin
Right. So before the president posted the were a number of topics that we were going to talk about. Again, always being forward looking. Let me just run through some of them and, and hear what you guys think. Israel's missile defense let through some attacks this weekend. And of course the Saudis have missile defense too, the Gulf states do and, and these are not perfect. We've always known that. But Israel has yet to explain how those missiles got through. Is that, is that a here's Times of Israel headline. Iranian cluster missile impacts caused damage but no injuries in central Israel. They're lucky fortunate that there were no injuries or fatalities but they did get through. And again last I saw the Israelis hadn't explained it. Kevin, is this, is this a strand we need to keep watching if, if Israel is and because clearly Iran can still fire missiles despite President Trump's claim that we have destroyed their capacity. So how serious should we be looking at that going forward?
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Kevin
I think very serious. And Larry made the excellent point in terms of the range of the missiles that we are now finding out in terms of the regime's capabilities, especially targeting Diego Garcia, which is our joint base with the Brits. But the missile technology and the capacities there are the key focus. I think one other illustration of just how desperate and dangerous and despicable the Iranian regime is. Now they're using cluster munitions in terms of these missiles. So cluster bombs are far dangerous. We had this debate a few years ago with Ukraine, Russia and the use of cluster munitions just because of the deadliness of it and the fact that they're using those cluster munitions on innocent Israelis. It speaks volumes again, about this regime, Larry.
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Larry
My understanding is the nature of. They should be concerned because the nature of those clusters is that's what makes it easier for these projectiles to make it past the Iron Dome or the David Sling and Rocker, the various names that they have for their missile defense, that those are the ones that can get through. And my understanding is I don't know if the Israeli government has made an official announcement, but my understanding of it is that that's why they were. They were able to sleep through, seep through, because of the cluster munitions. It should be a concern, and it also be a concern that they've depleted a lot of their arsenal with regard to the missile defense, and that's going to reach a breaking point, too.
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Mark Halperin
Is that cluster bomb thing you're reporting, or have you seen other people report that?
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Kevin
Other people reported it. It is the cluster munitions that they're using.
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Mark Halperin
Huh.
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Larry
Well, that has to do.
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Kevin
That's Larry's point. That's why so many targets have been hit, because it's so obviously, it breaks apart and it's deadly.
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Mark Halperin
So. So the President's history, when he moves assets, human or hardware, he uses them. He doesn't move stuff and then doesn't use it. And we've seen a bunch of stuff move to the region since hostilities started, including more Marines. And I don't know what the latest development does for the prospect of putting Marines on the coast to help clear the prospect of traffic going through the strait or taking carg. Larry, where are you on the introduction of ground troops, ground forces as an option at this point?
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Larry
I think the President doesn't want to because he keeps saying he doesn't want to. But the threat and the increased threat with the new troops, of the new Marine units that are coming in are meant to back up exactly what you just said, Mark, which is this is what he will do. And if Iran doesn't want to reach some sort of settlement, they will be utilized probably at Carg Island. So I hope that's a good answer for you. I'm. But I'm torn between what I think is going to happen and what I don't want to happen. But I think if Iran hunkers down and they don't move on this, then, yes, we're going to be utilizing our Marines for certain, certain actions.
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Mark Halperin
Kevin. Will Marines, you think Marines are headed to be on the ground? Unless there's a massive breakthrough in whatever talks there are.
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Kevin
Yeah, certain. Certain targeted actions. To Larry's point and to your point, Mark, the President really, as we've seen, doesn't bluff with this stuff. And again, I think is also, as I said earlier, it could be a play for cover for some time to move more of those resources into the area.
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Larry
But the key distinction is that they will be used for operations and not for an invasion and not for a occupation, but they'll be utilized for specific operations and then they will be withdrawn.
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Mark Halperin
Right, okay. And then lastly, the Iranian regime, like, we have no idea what's going on. We know they're not so decimated that they can't put out statements of propaganda and statements that are threatening to the United States. We know that they can fire missiles with capability to get through the Israeli defense to send intermediate or long range missiles beyond what we, the west, knew that they had. And we know that they can keep tight control over their domestic descent because there still seems to be very little. And we know that they can keep them from being mass defections from within the government. So, Kevin, how would you appraise our current sense of how formidable, not just as an asymmetrical force, but as a functioning government, that that is a formidable foe for the United States? Iran currently is.
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Kevin
Yeah, I mean, that's what we're seeing, just the strength of this regime despite 40 plus years of total domination of the people. And we're seeing how that plays out. Again. The difference is we have in our minds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And we have to remember this is a country 92 million people, twice the size of Texas. This is a massive, massive country. And this chokehold that the regime still has, despite us not even knowing necessarily who's in charge. We've seen a few statements from the ayatollah, the new ayatollah, the son who's taken over. We've never seen him yet in public, obviously. Pete Hegseth last week said that he was disfigured and wounded in that first attack that took out his father. But the fact that you're still seeing this regime necessarily in place, I think speaks volumes to the, the totality of its control over its own people.
- [24:48]
Mark Halperin
Larry, he's probably. Go ahead.
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Larry
Do you know, is it Iraqi and Larajani that they're actually engaged? I mean, we know on our side who's doing the talking, but who's doing the listening on their side.
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Mark Halperin
I mean, I assume the foreign minister, but who knows who he's talking to?
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Larry
Yeah.
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Kevin
And the president, the Iranian president is still kicking, supposedly as of this morning.
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Mark Halperin
Yeah. Yes. Let's talk about domestic. The president's doing this event in Memphis today. And every Republican strategist I talked to still says House is lost and maybe, maybe north of 25 seats and maybe and the Senate's still okay because of the race by race. They can still hold the Senate. In fact, I actually think if you go race by race, you can't reach any conclusion. But there's still the favorite to hold the Senate. But the president's numbers remain bad. Here's Harry Anton on CNN talking about the president standing with independence on the economy110 please.
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Harry Anton
On it be he's the leader of the pack or last in the pack when it comes to 21st century presidents and and how Americans are viewing them on the economy, at least among independents. Look at this 21st century presence. Economic net approval ratings at this point in term two among independents, Trump is 48 points underwater. Just one in five independents, excuse me, just one in four independents say that they approve of the job that he is doing when it comes to the economy. His net approval rating on the economy among independents, twice as bad as Barack Obama's was at this point, who was 24 five points underwater and double digits worse than George W. Bush was among independents, according to CBS News. At this point when it comes to the economy, look, these are numbers that if I were a Republican running for Congress, I would be shaking in place because there's really nowhere to hide if you're a Republican running for Congress and President Trump is in this bad a shape among independents and Americans overall when it comes to the economy. Jessica.
- [26:56]
Mark Halperin
Okay, now the election's not tomorrow, but Republicans think they're going to get $200 billion emergency defense bill are wrong. They're not going to get it through reconciliation. They're not going to get it through 60 votes in the Senate. So I don't know where that stands. But this war is still not very popular. It's not as unpopular as it was based on the latest polling.
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Kevin
But Mark, just a point on that. You don't think it's going to again, I think that's the only hope is that it comes through reconciliat. You don't think that happens.
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Mark Halperin
Here's why I don't think it happens. Number one, it would take a long time and, and by then the war, the war will be over. The reconciliation almost under any circumstances. The war will be over before reconciliation.
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Kevin
It's a lengthy process in terms of the structure of it.
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Mark Halperin
And reconciliation has two additional problems. Number one, it needs offsets. You're not going to get $200 billion in offsets. I saw some Republican senator talk about waste, fraud and abuse. No. Or, or entitlement reform. You, you're not going to do that in an election year in a Republican only bill. You're not reforming entitlements in a reconciliation bill. And once you open the bazaar and reconciliation, what else is going in?
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Kevin
And everybody.
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Mark Halperin
Yep.
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Andre
Yeah.
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Mark Halperin
So. I know. I think it's, I think it's ludicrous now.
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Larry
I don't know. Just, just put a clause in that says Minnesota and California don't get any more Medicare funding because of the fraud that's been uncovered there. Medicaid funding. That might, that might bring it up to 200 billion.
- [28:21]
Mark Halperin
It wouldn't.
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Larry
I'm being snarky.
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Mark Halperin
I know.
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Larry
No, but you're right.
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Mark Halperin
Did you guys. Yeah.
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Larry
It's not going to be reconciled.
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Mark Halperin
Did you guys, did you guys watch Scott Bessant on Meet the Press?
- [28:32]
Larry
Yes, he was.
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Kevin
I did. Yeah.
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Mark Halperin
All right, Larry, you said he was great.
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Larry
I thought he was great.
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Mark Halperin
Okay. Many people in my life thought he was great. They thought it was typical, like master class, blah, blah. I want you to watch this moment and tell me what you think, Kevin. First, this is Scott Bessant being asked, will you consider raising taxes to pay for this war? Something that's been done in American history. This is a non anti tax party, but there's also a big deficit and debt, by the way, which Scott Bessant says he's determined to help deal with. Here's Scott Bessett asked by Kristen. Kristen Welker, no new taxes. 109, please.
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Maria Bartiromo
Would the administration ever raise taxes and in order to fund this war?
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Larry
Again, Kristen, the terrible framing. I think that it's just a, it's
- [29:23]
Mark Halperin
a simple question that I think a lot of people have.
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Commercial Narrator
It's a ridiculous question.
- [29:27]
Maria Bartiromo
But what can you answer it?
- [29:31]
Larry
Why would we do that? That the, that we have plenty. That we have $1 trillion the. In this year's budget for the military. And President Trump, even before the conflict started, had said that he would like to further build out the military.
- [29:49]
Maria Bartiromo
So just. Is raising taxes under consideration at all? You're saying you have plenty of money?
- [29:55]
Mark Halperin
Not at all. Okay, Kevin, what do you think of that answer at a time of debt and deficit?
- [30:02]
Kevin
Well, he certainly doesn't want to REPLAY the George H.W. bush moment in terms of. Read my lips. And again, you know, I think Besson is very effective in the sound bite space in terms of not being able to be clipped saying something like that, like the Trump administration is Considering raising taxes. Okay, that's an attack ad right there. So he does his verbal judicial messaging, especially to the markets, and I think that's why he's effective about that. Even with Welker pushing. You saw that, you know, her pushing him on Bob Mueller, too. And what the president said in that true social post, you know, in terms of asking him, you know, is this okay? Or to condemn this, and, you know, four times he played that off. So you're not going to get him to admit to anything that's going to hurt the administration. None of the cabinet secretaries really are.
- [30:52]
Mark Halperin
Yeah. Larry, is that moment we just watched amongst the moments you thought were good, or that's an exception to your rave review of his performance?
- [31:01]
Larry
Well, I think in terms of the content, I thought it was good. It was one of the few moments where he was caught a little bit. It sounded like he was stammering a bit and trying to search for the words, which is not normal for him. But I thought that substance wise, it was the appropriate way to answer it, because I think that he was caught off guard, because who on earth has been floating the idea that Trump's going to raise taxes for anything, let alone for this?
- [31:22]
Mark Halperin
Well, I agree, and I'm not here to be accused of being someone who just wants to raise taxes. That's not my position. But we. We do usually like to not charge our children for things that we choose to do or our grandchildren.
- [31:34]
Kevin
I think that's gone by the wayside.
- [31:36]
Mark Halperin
Well, well, you know, it.
- [31:39]
Larry
It has, but why start now?
- [31:41]
Mark Halperin
Well, because typically you ask people to sacrifice in time of war. Again, I'm not advocating a tax increase, but all I'm saying is it's not a ludicrous question to say this is not part of what. Whatever the president wanted a trillion dollars more for, for defense spending, it didn't include this war. And so I don't think it's ludicrous.
- [32:00]
Larry
Yeah, well, Larry, who's gonna.
- [32:02]
Mark Halperin
Who's gonna pay for.
- [32:03]
Larry
Remember, Larry, who's gonna.
- [32:04]
Mark Halperin
Who's gonna pay for our work? We do have taxes already. It's not like we don't have taxes. So the question is, what should they. What level should they be at? And I'm just saying it seems like not a ludicrous question to say, if your policy is you want to spend $200 billion more of my grandchildren's money, then explain how you're gonna pay for it. If the answer is, we're not gonna raise taxes, we're just gonna charge you. Mark Halpern's great grandchildren say so.
- [32:28]
Larry
Well, I don't think that's the answer either. But, Mark, the reason why I think it's ridiculous is that, first of all, they tried to get George W. Bush on this during the war on terror. And George W. Bush's answer was, you know, go out and spend money and go to the mall. That will help things out, build the economy up, number one. But they tried to do the same thing. It's a time of war. We should all be asked to sacrifice. Why aren't you asking us to sacrifice? Because, yeah, that's what a president wants to do. Everybody make a sacrifice. Number two, I don't remember Kristen Welker or whoever was sitting in that chair pressing Barack Obama about how he was gonna pay for all of the things that he paid for, including the Affordable Care act, which is why we're in the position we're in right now. Because when Barack Obama is the president, he gets away with saying, oh, it's not gonna cost us any penny. This is budget neutral. Look where we are right now. How budget neutral does Obamacare feel? So that's why it's frustrating for my perspective, because it's a double standard that Republicans are always asked to meet and Democrats never are.
- [33:21]
Kevin
It's never a winning strategy. To Larry's point, for any president going back to the Malay speech, sacrifice a little turn up. Turn up that thermostat, what have you. We are a consumption consumer mentality where even, even the rise in gas prices is what's going to drive the end of this war. Because Americans going back to the victory gardens in World War II are not used to sacrifice anymore during times of crisis.
- [33:46]
Mark Halperin
All I'll say is. I didn't hear. I thought Scott Besson seemed not just taken aback by the framing that he didn't agree with. I don't think it's a substantively answerable question without telling the truth and think he didn't want to tell the truth in that case. Two pilots died at LaGuardia today when a Air Canada plane hit a fire truck. Not clear that this has anything to do. There's no reason to think it does with the ongoing airport security lines because of tsa. There might be some reason they're connected, but not that we know of. Horrible accident. And the video is just chilling today. In theory, the president and I think the Homeland Security send ICE agents to the airports to try to help tsa, uh, deal with the. The shortfalls. The lines continue to get longer. We've all. I'm sure heard horror stories. Here's the headline from CBS News. Officials and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been scrambling to carry out a weekend directive from President Trump to have immigration agents provide security at airports amid the partial government shutdown. It's obviously going to be a scramble, although they have the right, you know, some of the right skills to assist. Obviously integrating a whole different group of people into TSA is going to be complicated. And you know, there's now stories of 5 and 6 hour long waits to get through at Hartsfield and other airports. The punched poll reports that John TH. Asked the president if they could accept a deal where all of all of DHS would be funded except ICE and that the president said no, you've got to pass the Save America act first. LARRY Tom Homan seems determined to find a negotiated settlement. I think we're closer than we've been to a settlement. Does it end this week or not?
- [35:33]
Larry
Yes, I think by Friday you'll have DHS refunded and this will be resolved. I don't quite understand that punchbowl story, by the way, in terms of fund everything except ice, because isn't ice funded through 27 right now? What are they going to well, it
- [35:46]
Mark Halperin
just, it just means not vote vote for them any new money, I think is what it means. Kevin, does it end? Do you agree it ends this week? Kevin?
- [35:55]
Kevin
Yeah, Senate and House are in obviously there's a recess that they're looking down next week. So I think they move on this. Mark, you reported Homan on on the Hill last week, meeting with Democrats and Republicans and it is interesting to see soon and the team team Thune release that information that, you know, Senate Republicans are on board with this Democratic proposal to fund everything except this and Trump is the stumbling block. That's the interesting I don't know if he's giving cover to his members because of the frustrations at the airport saying we're willing to do this. The president is still pushing on the Stave Act. I thought that was an interesting tidbit, that it's almost throwing the president under the bus that he's the stumbling block now with Senate Democrats and Republicans in
- [36:34]
Mark Halperin
agreement, the Republicans are giving a fair amount of ground to get where they are in the hawks and Democrats, of course, much to nobody's surprised. They're emboldened by this. Now that Republicans are giving some ground. They're they're, they're going to wait and see if they can get more. But I think, I think this is going to be settled this week and I think you're going to see a lot of capitulation on the part of Republicans and the White House to get it done. All right.
- [36:58]
Kevin
And you saw Mark Mullen being fairly conciliatory on some things, you know, disagreeing, calling out problems with Christian Noem's leadership as he takes the helm tonight, potentially.
- [37:07]
Larry
Do you think it was Thune throwing Trump under the bus or do you think Trump said, you know, yeah, I'll take the shot on this one. If you, if you need to throw someone under the, I mean, I wonder if they willingly said, yeah, I'll take the heat. I'm fine standing my ground on this issue.
- [37:22]
Mark Halperin
Great question.
- [37:22]
Kevin
Yeah, it's a good question. I don't know. I actually, I don't know who's telegraphing, whether it's in the president's interest to say that he's still looking tough on SAVE act. Nothing's going to get passed because again, what they said, the administration said two weeks ago is, you know, save ACT is everything. Nothing passes except reopening dhs. Seems like that's a change this morning in terms of the reporting saying, oh, no, that's, that's included into it too. We're not reopening, you know, DHS before the SAVE act.
- [37:49]
Mark Halperin
Right.
- [37:49]
Larry
The elegance of having ICE come to the rescue and be the good guys, though, to alleviate the pressure on the American citizens, I think is just, it's beautiful. And the harmony involved there.
- [38:00]
Mark Halperin
Do they really know how to do it, though, Larry?
- [38:03]
Larry
Do what? I mean, what they're going to do is basic crowd control, watching doors, checking IDs, which TSA agents have to do as well. So the TSA agents can do the actual day to day X ray machine and things like that that they do. Of course, they're fine. They're professional law enforcement. They'll be great.
- [38:19]
Mark Halperin
All right. All right. I wish they were flying today so I could thank them. Last topic for us tomorrow.
- [38:25]
Larry
So I will.
- [38:25]
Kevin
I'm flying tomorrow, too. So last, last time, your gift cards
- [38:29]
Mark Halperin
and then your questions and comments, please raise your hand if you're here on the platform. If you've never raised your hand, today's the day. Was it one of you who told me to listen to Governor Pritzker on that New York Times podcast? Was that one of you guys?
- [38:47]
Kevin
No, it wasn't me. No.
- [38:49]
Larry
Somebody saw the one clip that was going around on Project 2029, but he killed.
- [38:54]
Kevin
He killed at the gridiron. He killed at the gridiron.
- [38:56]
Mark Halperin
He did kill it. He did kill it. Degree as did Sarah Huckabee Sanders. But yeah, somebody. Somebody told me, mark, if you don't understand why people are so high on Governor Pritzker as a potential nominee, go listen to that thing. And whoever told me that, I'm asking you now to give me my hour back.
- [39:11]
Larry
I.
- [39:12]
Mark Halperin
It was. It was.
- [39:14]
Kevin
It wasn't me. It wasn't me.
- [39:15]
Mark Halperin
It was. It was the same as always. I. Again, I have nothing against the guy. I do not. But nothing in that podcast suggests to me that he should or could be the Democratic nominee. And, and the, the woman who does those New York Times podcasts. She is. She is. Should just be a. A DNC member ex officio.
- [39:35]
Kevin
I mean, is he number three? Is he number three right now on your 8 for 28 mark?
- [39:39]
Mark Halperin
He was number three on the march rankings. There's no way he will be number three. None. After listening to that podcast.
- [39:44]
Larry
Zero to the podcast hosts benefit. She did rock the Annie hall look, though. She's bringing back that Diane ke.
- [39:50]
Mark Halperin
Yeah. Isn't she? Yeah, she is. I. I know what you mean because I saw this still. But I listened to it. I didn't watch it, but I just. Oh, okay. I just. But I did see it still. I know you're talking about. I just. I don't understand it. Anyway, here's my question. If you take the war and you take the DHS funding fight, has any Democrat who might run for president advanced themselves. What's the word I'm looking for? Help themselves? Elevated. Whatever. Has anybody. Has anybody over the course of the last couple weeks on those two stories elevated themselves above the field on those issues that come to either of your minds?
- [40:28]
Kevin
Yeah, not. Not particularly in terms of. Well, again, the real leaders.
- [40:33]
Larry
Not on your list. Yeah, I'd say. I'd say Chris Murphy for the base. Chris Murphy has gained himself some. Some fans in the base, although he's not on your list yet.
- [40:44]
Mark Halperin
Okay, Anybody think Josh Shapiro has helped himself?
- [40:47]
Kevin
Well, again, I mean, this is mostly negotiations in the Senate and stuff like that. I think the governors actually have some. You know, it actually helps the governors that they're not involved necessarily in this. And again, they're not. They're not involved in the long lines right now too. Right. So they can say, I'm trying, you know, that.
- [41:03]
Harry Anton
That's.
- [41:04]
Kevin
That's the Senate in the House right now. That's not the governors and Mark Kelly,
- [41:07]
Mark Halperin
who drew enthusiastic but tiny crowds in New Hampshire. Do either of you think he's helped himself in the last couple weeks?
- [41:13]
Larry
Well, if you can tell me what
- [41:14]
Mark Halperin
he said, okay, that answers the question. I mean, he's.
- [41:17]
Kevin
What Mark Kelly's been doing in the last couple of weeks is going to all these donor events and, and, and obviously building those relationships. And all accounts are that he's really effective in those small rooms with Democratic major donors, whether it be in Utah or what have you.
- [41:33]
Mark Halperin
I think he might have helped himself based on what I've heard, but we'll see. All right, quick word from a sponsor, then. To your questions, please raise your hand. Right now, you want some free money. You can get it from the free upside app. Download the app and it will help you just make some purchases as you would normally do for gasoline restaurants and, and supermarkets, and you get cash back. There's no, there's no trick here. There's no catch. It's just a way to save some money. With the free upside app, cash back, you still get all the points and everything else you get with your credit card as you normally would. 100,000 stores, locations around the country participate. You go in the app and it tells you where they are. No cash, no points, no credits, just cash back. You open the app, claim an offer, and pay with your card like normal. That's it. You can earn three times more to cash back with upside than with loyalty programs or credit card rewards alone. They give away a million bucks a week to its users and they've given up over a billion in the course of the app. So go to your phone right now and download the upside app and you can save an extra 25 cents on your first gallon of gas if you use the promo code mark. So try it. If you got to get gas this week, just download the upside app, put in the promo code mark and save 25 cents more than the normal savings on a gallon. Every gallon of gas you purchase on your first tank.
- [42:54]
Kevin
I've been trying to use that promo code Mark across other websites too.
- [42:58]
Mark Halperin
Yeah, it works. It works. It works almost everywhere.
- [43:00]
Matt Ebert
I started with one shop. No college degree, no big investors. It was just a willingness to work. Over time, that one shop turned into a multibillion dollar business called Crash Champions. All the lessons I learned along the way came from the grind. And that's what my show Pod Crash is, is all about. We have real conversations with people who've built things the hard way. We talk to founders, athletes, and blue collar leaders who kept going when things got tough. You'll hear stories of grit, leadership and growth, plus real world lessons you can take back to your team and your life tomorrow.
- [43:34]
Mark Halperin
When you get momentum you step on the gas.
- [43:37]
Tom Lewis
That's how you get separation from everybody else. I was at Harvard Law School.
- [43:41]
President Donald J. Trump
I was.
- [43:41]
Tom Lewis
Blah, blah, blah.
- [43:42]
Mark Halperin
I looked up, let me tell you something.
- [43:43]
Tom Lewis
There's kids in my neighborhood putting in
- [43:44]
Mark Halperin
sheets, Sheetrock that is smarter than you.
- [43:46]
Tom Lewis
AI is going to disrupt a lot of stuff.
- [43:48]
Kevin
It is never going to disrupt physical
- [43:50]
Mark Halperin
blue collar trade skill.
- [43:52]
Kevin
And the guy just looked at me and he said, it's bloody impossible.
- [43:55]
President Donald J. Trump
So I asked him this question.
- [43:56]
Kevin
I said, it's impossible.
- [43:58]
Matt Ebert
Unless that's. Podcast with me, Matt ebert, watch on YouTube and listen wherever you get your podcasts.
- [44:09]
Mark Halperin
Tom, welcome in. Thank you for being part of Two Way Unmute. Tell folks, President talking. Let's listen.
- [44:16]
Larry
He's talking. President's talking.
- [44:22]
President Donald J. Trump
Major points of agreement. I would say almost all points of agreement. Perhaps that hasn't been conveyed. The communication, as you know, has been blown to pieces. They're unable to talk to each other. But we've had very strong talks. Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner had them. They went, I would say, perfectly. I would say that if they carry through with that, it'll end that, that problem, that conflict. And I think it'll end it very, very substantially. We have very much in mind our partners in the Middle East. We've had great relationships with a lot of them, as you know, a lot of them were surprisingly hit, and I was surprised to see it, and so was everyone else. But we have, they're very much in mind in the discussions. So the discussions took place yesterday. They went into yesterday evening. They want very much to make a deal. We'd like to make a deal, too. We're going to get together today by probably phone because it's very hard, hard to find a country. It's very hard for them to get out, I guess. But we'll at some point very, very soon meet. We're doing a five day, four day that goes. And if it goes well, we're going to end up with settling this. Otherwise, we'll just keep bombing our little hearts out.
- [45:44]
Mark Halperin
Who is Steve witkoff speaking with, Mr. President?
- [45:47]
President Donald J. Trump
A top. A top person. Don't forget, we've wiped out the leadership. Phase one, phase two, and largely phase three.
- [45:55]
Mark Halperin
Yep.
- [45:56]
President Donald J. Trump
But we're dealing with the man who I believe is the most respected and the leader. You know, it's a little tough. They've wiped out. We've wiped out everybody. No, not the Supreme Leader. We don't. Well, nobody's ever. Nobody heard of the second Supreme Leader, the Sun. Nobody. We have not heard from the Sun. Everyone Every once in a while you'll see a statement made, but we haven't, we don't know if he's living. But the people that seem to be running it and they seem that based on really fact because things they've said have taken place.
- [46:30]
Interviewer
Mr. President, again, Mr. President, I know you deploy.
- [46:34]
President Donald J. Trump
Because I don't want him to be killed. Okay? I don't want him to be killed. Nobody wants, nobody wants that job right now. You know, nobody's exactly looking forward to being the head of that particular country. But perhaps we'll be able to solve that problem. Mr. President, you've deployed ICE agents to American airports.
- [46:54]
Mark Halperin
Newsmax, sir.
- [46:55]
President Donald J. Trump
You've deployed ICE agents. You're not doing a very good job.
- [46:57]
Larry
You've deployed ice ages.
- [46:58]
President Donald J. Trump
You're not doing a good job. Did you hear me? Okay, go ahead.
- [47:01]
Interviewer
What exactly do you want?
- [47:02]
Kevin
Wow.
- [47:03]
Mark Halperin
Whoa.
- [47:04]
Kevin
The Newsmax attack.
- [47:07]
President Donald J. Trump
We're looking for all of the things that, that we've been talking about. We want to see no nuclear bomb, no nuclear weapon, not even close to it, low key in the missiles. We want to see peace in the
- [47:18]
Mark Halperin
Middle east, low key on the missiles.
- [47:20]
President Donald J. Trump
We want the nuclear dust. We're going to want that. And I think we're going to get that. We've agreed to that. Yeah, we're going to. We've agreed to that.
- [47:28]
Interviewer
You want the enriched uranium before you can end this?
- [47:31]
President Donald J. Trump
We want no enrichment, but we also want the enriched uranium. Where if this happens, it's a great start for Iran to build itself back. And it's everything that we want. And it's also great for Israel and it's great for the other Middle Eastern countries, Saudi Arabia, uae, Qatar, all of them, Kuwait and Bahrain in particular. So it's great for all of them.
- [47:58]
Interviewer
Mr. President, do you still need $200 billion?
- [48:04]
President Donald J. Trump
It's always nice to have. It's always nice to have. It's a very inflamed world and the Democrats inflame it. You know, largely that.
- [48:12]
Larry
I think we can all agree on that.
- [48:14]
President Donald J. Trump
Yeah. Let me just talk about the other. So ICE has done very well. I've requested. Now, you know, I'm a big believer that they should be able to wear a mask when they go and hunt down, you know, murderous criminals and others. But for purposes of the airport, I've requested that they take off the mask. I don't like it for the airport and I believe they are willing to do that.
- [48:34]
Interviewer
Mr. President. ISIS wear masks. Not at the airport. But they need to do it when they're out in the country.
- [48:39]
President Donald J. Trump
The people coming into the airport, typically speaking, aren't murderers, killers, drug dealers, et cetera. There may be a few of them, but there aren't many. There are people that want to come into the country or that people want to leave the country. Country going to maybe their home country. So I didn't think it was an appropriate look for an airport. I think it's a very appropriate look when they're out on the street trying to find one of the 11,888 murderers that Sleepy Joe Biden let into our country.
- [49:07]
Interviewer
Elon Musk, you gave a $10,000 bonus. Sorry? Last year, you gave a $10,000 bonus to Tuesday workers who kept showing up to work during the shutdown. Will you do that again?
- [49:16]
President Donald J. Trump
Well, it could happen. It's amazing. There's such people that are really, really loyal and great and it's not easy for them. And this is all caused by the Democrats, just so you know, all this money was approved. Everything was approved. This is done. The Democrats went in and they want to have radical left lunatics come into our country. They want to have drug dealers, they want to have murderers come into our country. They want to have open borders, and we're not letting it happen. That's what this is all about. They don't want voter id, they don't want proof of citizenship, they don't want mail in ballots. They're so corrupt. What they want, the only thing they want, is mail in ballots. So we also added, as you know, into the, into the Save America act, and it's called Save America, it's not the Save act, but we added no trust, transgender mutilization of our children and no men in women's sports. Elon Musk, these talks go well and you reach. I don't think he's going to be a doucheback. If these talks go well and you reach a ceasefire agreement with Iran, do you believe Israel would abide by that agreement?
- [50:26]
Mark Halperin
I don't know.
- [50:26]
President Donald J. Trump
I think Israel will be very happy with what we have. We just spoke to Israel a little while ago, ago. I think they'll be very happy. This will be peace for Israel. Long term peace, guaranteed peace. If this happens, and you know, I can't guarantee it, but I think it's going to. My life is a deal. That's all I do is deals my whole life. Now I think this is something that's going to happen. And why wouldn't it happen? So tomorrow morning sometime their time, we were expected to blow up their largest electric generating plants that cost over $10 billion to build. It's a very good one. There was no dearth of money. And one shot, it's gone, it collapses. Why would they want that? So they called. I didn't call. They called. They want to make a deal. And we are very willing to make a deal. It's got to be a good, good deal. And it's got to be no more wars, no more nuclear weapons. They're not going to have nuclear weapons anymore. They're agreeing to that, any of that stuff. There's no deal.
- [51:34]
Interviewer
They offered a real target. You said you want to get the enriched uranium. How are you going to get the enriched uranium?
- [51:41]
President Donald J. Trump
It's very easy. If we have a deal with them, we're going down and we'll take it ourselves.
- [51:46]
Interviewer
Can I ask you. The treasury lifted sanctions on Iranian oil. That was out to sea. You criticized President Obama for giving Iran $1.7 billion.
- [51:55]
President Donald J. Trump
I just want to have as much oil in the system as possible. And we don't even know if Iran gets that money. Frankly, I think it's very hard for them to get it. But you have ships that are out there that loaded up with oil rather than keep it there. I would rather see it go to the system. Any small amount of money that Iran gets is not going to have any difference in this war. But I want to have the system be lubricated, even $14 billion. Where's the 14 billion?
- [52:24]
Interviewer
Because the inflated price. They get $14 billion from the.
- [52:27]
President Donald J. Trump
I don't think they're getting the money. I could tell you when this is all over, I will tell you who's getting the money.
- [52:33]
Interviewer
Mr. President, from California. Given that it'll take them weeks to arrive, it's the intention to police the straight or take.
- [52:40]
President Donald J. Trump
What are doing you.
- [52:41]
Interviewer
Well, it's been reported that there are Marines that left California, left San Diego last week at the end of the week. Why are they headed there now?
- [52:49]
President Donald J. Trump
Well, let me ask you this. If you were in my position and I asked you that question, you do you really believe I give you an answer? Crazy question, Mr. President. We don't talk about strategy.
- [53:01]
Commercial Narrator
Yeah,
- [53:04]
President Donald J. Trump
let it let in. Right.
- [53:05]
Interviewer
Biden for her family.
- [53:08]
President Donald J. Trump
It's devastating. These people were let in by Biden. We're getting them out. We're getting them out fast. That's why ICE is so important. They're doing such a good job. This, this animal. I saw the whole thing last night. They gave me a briefing, came in through Joe Biden with his open door policy.
- [53:26]
Mark Halperin
Let's keep monitoring It. But I want to talk about what he said, guys. He said the US Has a reliable interlocutor in the Iranian senior level of the Iranian government who's going to agree to get rid of Iran's nuclear program. And he didn't say eliminate the missile program, but he suggests seriously degrade it. The markets love this. And while this may not happen, the president made it clear it might not happen. It could happen, and it'd be an extraordinary, obviously not just development, but to be extraordinary accomplishment for the United States and Israel. So, Larry, the president also seemed pretty jaunty, seemed pretty upbeat.
- [54:09]
Larry
Yeah.
- [54:09]
Mark Halperin
What are your, what are your thoughts on what happens next, given what he said?
- [54:13]
Larry
So what really stuck out to me when, because he was challenged and said, well, you know, who is it you're talking about? And he said, I don't want him to die. I don't want him to be killed, number one. But when challenged about, well, how do you know this is somebody who can do something? He said, because they've been able to achieve certain things to basically prove that they have some control and are in charge of, of enough for them to sort of buy into this. So, I mean, that's extraordinary what, what he just communicated. And I'm with you. I think just going by his mood, considering the topic, and also when he said, my whole life is deals. We're making deals. I, he's, he sees this as the ultimate deal. And I think that he feels pretty confident right now that he's going to, going to land the plane.
- [54:58]
Mark Halperin
Yeah. And, Kevin, those Marines who are there could be the ones to go in and, and take the nuclear material if there is a deal along the lines of what the President said. Though, Kevin, it does leave one thread left that's pretty significant, which is the people of Iran. In other words, is the president going to make a deal that keeps the regime in place? Can he do that after telling the Iranian people, stay in your homes and when we're done, it will be your opportunity to rise up.
- [55:26]
Kevin
Yeah, it looks like that. Again, I think this president is after a deal to Larry's point and will declare victory if those two military objectives are secured. He's backed away from any kind of notion of regime change like you talked about the first week of the war. I'll have my winners and losers of the week just today. Winners. Kaitlan Collins for getting eight questions into the president. Loser is Newsmax. Poor guy. Whoever that is. Think might, might. There might be an open seat on Air Force One in Memphis today. That was Pretty.
- [55:56]
Mark Halperin
I. I didn't recognize that voice. All right, we'll keep. We'll keep monitoring the president frozen, that's for sure. It was not our friend James. We'll keep monitoring the president. And in the meantime, Tom, welcome in unmute. Tell folks who don't know where you are and what's on your mind for Larry and for Kevin.
- [56:11]
Tom Lewis
Yeah, I have you. By Tom Lewis, Upstate New Yorker in Saratoga Springs. I put a link in the chat of one of the greatest things I've ever seen on Hillsdale College. If you want to understand who Mark Halpern is, what his plans for the future are and an analysis of the mainstream media and why this two way platform is so successful. Watch it. I have a question mark. Give us a brief idea of what the future. How would the game show two way operate? That's something to look forward to.
- [56:59]
Mark Halperin
Well, the game show will be unveiled soon and it's fantastic. It's a brilliant idea. It's a brilliant use of two way. And as we said all along, many of you come here now for the political programming, but you're going to see programming in all sorts of categories including a game show coming soon. That just takes advantage of the fact that we now have the capacity to have two way communication. Game shows should not be in done done in studios. Doesn't make any sense. Everybody in the world should be able to be a contestant. So stay tuned for the game show but stay tuned for all sorts of programs. Music, entertainment, politics, sports, business, dating show. There's going to be a lot of two ways coming everybody's way. And I appreciate Tommy citing my talk at Hillsdale. And again, if you're interested in my view of two way in a more extended way, please go to the Hillsdale site or look at the link. Tom, put in the link and you can see what I had to say about all that. Tom, grateful to you for watching and for being part of two way. Thank you.
- [57:55]
Kevin
And another reason to log in the platform a little early because Mark usually leads us in trivia of the day
- [58:00]
Larry
which is a little preview game show lighting. See.
- [58:04]
Mark Halperin
Yeah, you do. I apologize for not for not saying more about the game show, but I want it to speak for itself. And we'll have a, we'll have a. We'll have the show to show everybody pretty soon. It's still in development but coming soon. Andre's welcome man, Hillsdale crowd is.
- [58:17]
Larry
Is great, isn't it?
- [58:18]
Mark Halperin
I loved.
- [58:19]
Larry
I gave a speech two years ago there.
- [58:21]
Mark Halperin
Yeah, great, great, great, great trip. Great community. I'M really honored to have been invited and participate in their conference that they did on the media. Lots of conversation about what going on in Iran has to do with Ukraine. And we've seen, we've seen some focus on it, but not enough. As always, Andrei, welcome in. Tell us what's on your mind.
- [58:42]
Andre
Hi. Yeah, we had conversations with the Witkoff team and Ukraine's team of four people who flew into Miami this weekend. But Ukraine, actually, the journalists I speak to are looking at a whole bunch of other things, including there's a Russian tanker headed to Cuba. We still don't know who's going to intercept that. That's a deadline for today to see if there's another red line that, that President Trump is going to either back up or back away. And then really what I want to ask about is what's going on with Orban right now? We had a lot of Orban news over the last four days, notably the Netanyahu endorsement, the Vance visit, a whole bunch of revelations about how Orban has been having his person tell the Russians exactly what the EU is talking about behind closed doors, not to mention all the, the way it's blocking support. So I want to know people's thoughts about how the US Is handling this with Orban being the one country really not listening to President Trump as far as stopping buying Russian oil. And you know, where we go forward from this.
- [59:50]
Mark Halperin
Yeah, it's a great topic. And he has been such a, I wouldn't say compelling, but distinctive significant figure for a while and enigmatic. And this end game is amazing. I'm jumping over to Sirius XM right now again, rolling into the second hour on Sirius Channel, making Kelly Channel 111. So if you'd like to be part of the conversation over there, come over to Sirius XM10 Eastern Time and I will see you tomorrow. But I'm going to leave you in the capable hands of Larry and Kevin to talk to Andre's question and then close out the show. And of course, I'll see everybody at 5 o' clock Eastern Time here with full coverage of all the developments during the day on two Way tonight. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Andres. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you, Larry. See you in a minute.
- [60:30]
Larry
Thanks. Thanks. First of all, Kevin, are you waiting to get your passport renewed or something? You look like you're in the waiting.
- [60:35]
Kevin
I'm just, as I said in the chat, you know, I'm getting ready for the SAVE act potentially. So I got to get all my documents in line, get the, get your
- [60:43]
Larry
marriage certificate all lined up? Yes, I have several friends at Newsmax. I've texted them all. They're all going nuts over there right now and nobody has been able to tell me who's in the pool for Newsmax today. So if I, if hopefully I'll find out during the show and I'll let you know.
- [60:58]
Kevin
Andre, It's a great question though.
- [61:00]
Larry
It is and I can, and as usual I want to ask you questions, but I can just tell you on the, on the in, in the American conservative sort of ecosphere, Orban is seen as kind of a put upon conservative, although imperfect and certainly doesn't do everything that we would support court or like. But we feel like he has been sort of ostracized and attacked unfairly in a similar way that Donald Trump has been in the past. And so there's this sort of instinctive embrace of him because of a lot of his support of conservative traditional European traditions that sort of makes him an outlier in Ireland compared to other aspects of, of the EU and other directions that we would disagree with. So we there, there's, there's very much a lot of vocal and visible support for him here and, and his government in Hungary. Although what he's doing with Putin behind the scenes, that, that's not getting reported a whole lot here, Kevin, at least I haven't seen it.
- [62:04]
Kevin
Yeah, I haven't seen a lot of that either. And Andre brings up the interesting point too with Bibi and, and his support, visual and otherwise support of the regime right now. Seeing Andre, though, it's a good segue to just say what the incredible things happening with Ukraine in the last 24 or 48 hours. You saw the great news of this Ukrainian company joining the Dow and taking off in terms of drone technology. Obviously Ukraine coming to our rescue and regional partners with Iran and making great advancements on the battlefield too, and increasing their capacities to target longer range targets within Russia to hopefully bring an end to this war on Ukrainian grounds, not Russian grounds.
- [62:54]
Larry
Can you expand on that a little bit? Because we're hearing reports that the Russians have really lost a lot of ground. What can you give us some details and verify a lot of that?
- [63:02]
Andre
Well, February marked the first time in over a year that Russia has lost more territory than then occupied. A lot of that people focus on the Starlink disconnection where their frontline forces aren't able to use that, nor their drones can use that. But then it's also the production of drones from the Ukraine side. As you guys mentioned, Ukraine is up to about 2,000 interceptor drones a day coming off the assembly line, they want to see 60,000amonth. And that's why they are able to produce more interceptor drones than actually their military conflicts can purchase for Ukraine, which is why Ukraine is able to go to the Middle east countries and be like, listen, we have these. The training isn't that hard. We'll set you up with training. And these will target the shahed drones that are 30, 35,000 each. We're producing these for less than that. The interceptor drones. You don't have to waste your Patriot batteries. That's another thing. I don't know if you guys follow this. When the Ukrainians came down to the Middle east, they realized that the Middle east countries are so effing wealthy with the Patriots that they were leaving their Patriot batteries on automatic that multiple Patriots were being used to shoot down the same thing, which is something that Ukraine doesn't have the luxury of doing. So Ukraine has been learning how to do more with less. I think going forward, that's going to be a big conversation, especially with our deficit here in the country about what we can learn from that going forward. Because by necessity, Ukraine has been doing more with less.
- [64:39]
Kevin
Well, that's great, Andre. Thank you so much.
- [64:41]
Larry
Yeah. And listen, considering obviously in an existential war for your, for your survival, the fact that you have been able to give the kind of support, whatever support you've been able to give to our effort against Iran is being noticed here and appreciated by the American people. So thank you.
- [64:58]
Andre
Oh, and the European commander said that in Congress last week. Like, he's just like, it's all, it's all all hands on deck right now. Yeah.
- [65:07]
Kevin
Thank you, Andre.
- [65:08]
Andre
Thank you guys.
- [65:09]
Larry
And, and Kevin, we've got, we've, we've got a. We've, we've reached the end. We've gone into overtime.
- [65:15]
Kevin
In fact, we have, we have. Mark mentioned two Way Live tonight.
- [65:18]
Larry
I don't get paid any extra for that.
- [65:20]
Kevin
I know, I know, I know. Mark mentioned two eight live tonight at 5pm and we've got another episode of Lifelong with Ethan with a special fitness coach, uh, Gabriella Moscano, at 7pm tonight. And then of course, the morning meeting back tomorrow, but we're off.
- [65:39]
Larry
Morgan meeting with Hogan and.
- [65:41]
Kevin
Hi.
- [65:41]
Larry
You know what? I'm. Well, it's, I, I just got a notification that I might be here, if that matters to any of you.
- [65:48]
Kevin
That's a nice.
- [65:50]
Larry
And Hogan, we're, we're. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's in negotiations
- [65:56]
Kevin
right now, so tune in tomorrow to see who we get.
- [65:59]
Larry
How's your bracket looking, Kevin, by the way? How many?
- [66:01]
Kevin
No, I don't. I stopped filling out when Barack Obama left office. I would just copy his and use that, so.
- [66:06]
Larry
Oh, how'd that work out for you? He always picked the number one seeds. It was, you know.
- [66:11]
Kevin
I know. If you like your team, if you like your team, you can keep your team.
- [66:16]
Larry
My entire Elite 8 is still intact. Three of my Sweet 16 are out, but I'm looking good. My bracket is not busted, and, of course, Michigan.
- [66:26]
Kevin
You better be making some money off of this.
- [66:29]
Larry
Sadly, no. Just bragging rights, but it's enough for me. Thanks, everybody.
- [66:33]
Kevin
Thanks, everybody. Have a great rest of your day.