"I'm Gonna Bomb The S--T Out Of Em."

Summary

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Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: "I'm Gonna Bomb The S--T Out Of Em."
Date: March 2, 2026
Host: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the dramatic escalation of U.S. military action against Iran under President Trump, following a pivotal strike that killed the Iranian Supreme Leader and much of Iran's senior leadership. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty dissect the legality, politics, and global implications of the attack, compare Trump’s approach to former administrations, and explore both the Iranian and broader Middle Eastern reactions. They also comment on media narratives, public opinion, and the transformation of conservative media voices on these issues.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Trump Doctrine in Iran: Decisive Force and Its Message

• Trump’s extraordinary late-night speech giving Iranian military leaders a chance to surrender or face “certain death” sets the tone: a President unafraid of blunt, existential threats ([02:47], [17:52]).
• Jack Armstrong: “To have a President of the United States come out in the middle of the night and say, ‘Here’s your chance… the Ayatollah is dead. Here you go.’” ([02:47])
• This show of strength stands in stark contrast to what the hosts see as the “fecklessness” of the Biden-Harris era ([03:39]).

2. Legality and Authorization of the Strike

• The legality of the operation is hotly debated; some Democrats call it an “illegal act, an illegal war,” while legal analysts like John Fetterman and Andrew McCarthy argue Trump was within his rights ([04:21] - [05:44]).
• Jack Armstrong: “I’m all for this... but you gotta go to Congress. One guy doesn’t get to decide it.” ([05:03])
• War Powers Resolution (1973) specifics—no “boots on the ground,” notification complied with ([04:59]).

3. Strategy: Regime Change, Deterrence, and Unpredictability

• Trump's administration expresses a mixture of goals: nuclear containment, anti-terror, and possible regime change, leading to shifting, sometimes contradictory, narratives ([05:58]-[07:56]).
• Joe Getty: “We’ve decided the status quo is not acceptable anymore... If we can merely set Iran back as a sponsor of terrorism... it’s a limited success, but we’ll take it.” ([06:59])
• The show explores what "victory" might look like—regime change, reduced threat, or simply disruption of Iran's capabilities ([08:28]).

4. Decapitation of the Iranian Leadership

• The hosts marvel at the scale and precision of "Operation Epic Fury"—over 40 top Iranian leaders killed in minutes ([24:53]).
• Joe Getty: “It’s the most devastating decapitation strike in the history of mankind.” ([25:28])
• Analyst reflection: never before seen military and intelligence precision; every future enemy meeting now haunted by the possibility of surveillance ([18:58], [20:39]).

5. Iranian and Regional Response

• Middle East correspondent Dale Gavlak (CBS News, Amman) describes the cascading effects: regional air raid sirens, Gulf states under missile fire, and general public anxiety ([25:51]-[29:58]).
• Dale Gavlak: “US Allies in the Gulf have come under attack... civilian places like Dubai Airport and two hotels in Dubai.” ([26:29])
• The hosts highlight Iran’s paradoxical strategy: attacking surrounding countries and pushing them from neutrality to open hostility ([12:39], [21:14]).

6. New Military Technology and the Changing Face of Warfare

• Israel’s use of the “Iron Beam” laser air defense system is described as a historic development, shifting the regional military balance ([31:36]).
• The U.S. also unveils previously unseen weapons, raising questions about future warfare and deterrence ([32:46]).

7. Media Coverage, Public Sentiment, and Political Divides

• The media’s role—contrasting Trump’s clarity with the Biden/Harris “half measures” ([33:12]).
• Debate around public support for the strike: Early polling is viewed skeptically, with hosts arguing Americans are often less informed than supposed ([13:54]-[14:44]).
• Speculation about whether this crisis is distracting from the Epstein files (satirical note from SNL) ([14:44]).

8. Fractures Within Conservative Media: Trump vs. Tucker Carlson

• The episode delves into the rift between Trump (pro-Israel, hawkish) and right-wing influencers like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens (accused of anti-Semitic themes) ([36:13]-[43:45]).
• Joe Getty: “Tens of millions of dollars per year... preaching down with the Jews, which again means there’s lots of people that are interested in that message.” ([36:55])
• The hosts discuss the immense reach and financial power of new right-wing media, foreseeing possible political realignments ([39:59]-[44:45]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Lay down your arms or face certain death.” – Donald Trump (quoted at [02:47], [17:52]), symbolizing the new U.S. stance.
• “Operation Epic Fury: Has there ever been anything like this in world history... where you take out their leadership... in like a minute?” – Jack Armstrong ([25:17])
• “If you mess with us, we will be a horrifyingly fearsome enemy. And we have lost that for a long time.” – Joe Getty ([11:14])
• “Does Israel know about this one, too?” – Discussion of intelligence precision and deterrence effect ([20:27])
• “Don’t.” (on the U.S. message to Iran) – Repeated, deadpan warning ([33:12], [33:20], [37:10]): “I’m gonna bomb the shit out of them. It’s true. I don’t care.”
• “World War III?” – Reflection on global instability and the possibility of broader conflict ([35:25]-[36:07]).

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Important Timestamps

• 02:47 – Trump’s “lay down your arms” speech: new U.S. posture toward Iran
• 04:21-05:44 – Debate over legality of the strikes; Fetterman and McCarthy analysis
• 17:52 – Recap of Trump’s speech; “the big wave is yet to come”
• 24:53-25:28 – Summary of Iranian leadership decapitation; “Operation Epic Fury”
• 25:51-29:58 – Dale Gavlak interview: on-the-ground regional impacts, Iranian tactics
• 31:36-32:46 – Israel’s “Iron Beam” and new U.S. weapons: future of warfare
• 33:12, 37:10 – “Don’t” / “I’m gonna bomb the shit out of them” (signature moment)
• 36:13-43:45 – Trump vs. Tucker; explosion of anti-Semitic right-wing media influence

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Flow, Tone, and Style

The show maintains its trademark blend of sharp political analysis, direct plainspoken language, and moments of biting satire. The hosts express skepticism toward both media narratives and government explanations, peppering commentary with memorable catchphrases, blunt humor, and frequent asides about the state of American discourse.

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Useful Takeaways for Listeners

• The Trump administration’s strikes against Iran mark a historic shift in U.S. use of force, with both unknowns and new risks on the global stage.
• The conflict’s legality and goals are hotly debated, often reflecting partisan divisions and broader anxieties about American leadership and deterrence.
• The technological and intelligence leaps on display foreshadow significant changes in warfare and regional security dynamics.
• Conservative media is experiencing turbulence, with split allegiances and massive audiences influencing the political landscape in real-time.

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For further insights, listeners are encouraged to check out expert guest Mike Lyons in the following hour and follow Armstrong & Getty for ongoing coverage of the shifting global crisis.

Transcript

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[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center,

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Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

And now here's Armstrong and Getty. I once again urge the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian military police, to lay down your arms and receive full immunity or face certain death. It will be certain death. Won't be pretty. Lay down your arms or face certain death. That speech Trump gave in the middle of the night Saturday night was amazing. You get so used to Trump saying stuff that, like, doesn't fit in with anything you've heard your whole life. But to have a President of the United States come out in the middle of the night and say, here's your chance, take it. Take your country back. This might be your only chance. The Ayatollah is dead. Here you go.

[Joe Getty]

Well, and as a contrast to the horrifying fecklessness of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. But don't, because we won't do anything to discourage you. But don't.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wouldn't you love to be able to view a parallel universe where Kamala wins and all the things that would or would not have happened since Trump was president, some of them might be good and maybe, you know, maybe the, no tariffs or whatever like that might have been better, I don't know. But, but this, the, the Maduro would still be in office. The Ayatollah would still be running Iran, no doubt about it.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I'm not sure any good would balance the continued erosion of American deterrence, which is just horrible.

[Jack Armstrong]

So lots of discussion, and I'm pretty interested in this, on whether or not Trump had the authorization to do this. A number of Democrats are calling this an illegal act, an illegal war. Senator John Fetterman, Democrat, on one of the shows yesterday, said this provide 48 hours of notification and President Trump had done that.

[Joe Getty]

And then that means after 60 days, then they have to withdraw those soldiers or perhaps even for an extra 30 day extension. Neither of those things have been broken for that.

[Jack Armstrong]

There are no American boots on the

[Joe Getty]

ground that did not violate War powers Resolution from 1973.

[Jack Armstrong]

So I'm guessing John Fetterman has talked to legal minds about this. He believes Trump is in the right. You know, it tends to, not always in this case, but it tends to come down on whether or not you're in favor of hitting Iran or not. And if you, you don't like the idea of taking out the Ayatollah, you think it's illegal. And if you do think that, you're more okay. Although I've heard plenty of conservatives say, I'm all for this. This has been our friend Tim Sandifer's thing. I'm all for this. We should have done it a long time ago. But you gotta go to Congress. One guy doesn't get to decide it, which is kind of where I am, I think. Although I need to read the piece in the National Review by. What's his name, their legal guy?

[Joe Getty]

The National Review, Andrew McCarthy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, Andrew McCarthy. He says that Trump did have. And he doesn't always back Trump by any means whatsoever. Andrew McCarthy, National Review, their legal guy said Trump is within his rights to do this, maybe for the reasons Fetterman just said.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. So I read a piece and it's a good one in the. I guess it's the Wall Street Journal. Trump's shifting goals for Iran complicate the military's mission. And it's a description of how both within the administration and supporters and allies like Lindsey Graham are going back and forth between, we're just trying to disarm Iran, make sure they don't get a nuke, they were an imminent threat, and talking about regime change, talking about, you know, that's it with the ayatollahs and the people of Iran need to take their country back and blah, blah, blah, and how that's been inconsistent. And that's true as far as it goes, but I think it's not sufficient, because if we decided as a country, we could no longer take the approach to the last 45 years and manage Iran and beg them or bribe them not to continue to sponsor terrorism, develop their nuclear program, etc. That was just. It failed. It was time to end it. They'd never been weaker, and so now was the time to end it. It's not the best. It's not great, but I completely understand. What the administration is saying in effect, is we've got to see how it goes. We've decided the status quo is not acceptable anymore. We're not sure how this is going to play out. We are going to manage the, like, really negative possibilities vigilantly, but we've just got to see what opportunities present themselves. If we can merely set Iran back as a sponsor of terrorism and a proliferator of nuclear arms for 15 years, okay, it's a limited success, but we'll take it if we can get more, you know, more practical, more approachable guys from the same regime in there and maybe work stuff out, okay?

[Jack Armstrong]

Or maybe we get complete regime change

[Joe Getty]

and Iran rejoins the brotherhood of nations. All of those are better than the status quo. I can't. That's what they're saying.

[Jack Armstrong]

I can't imagine a situation that's as bad or worse for the world and for the United States. You could end up with as bad a situation for, you know, Iranian citizens. They could get an evil dictator again. But an evil dictator that is a religious nut who wants to attack America or wipe Israel off the mat.

[Joe Getty]

Matt.

[Jack Armstrong]

I doubt it.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Seems unlikely.

[Joe Getty]

If it is a similar regime, but with vastly reduced capabilities and finances, well, that's a win.

[Jack Armstrong]

So we played the clip of Trump saying, lay down your arms or face certain death. Pete Hegseth just said to the Iranian security forces, choose wisely. Which is saying the same sort of thing. Who was I listening to yesterday? I guess maybe it was Trump saying that somebody that they're getting contacted by lots of leaders of various military outfits in Iran saying, hey, we're, we're willing to, you know, what do you want us to do? God, that'd be tough, though. You'd be looking around thinking, if I say this out loud, am I going to get shot in the back or the, the, whoever I whisper it to is going to say, yeah, me too. What do you suppose we ought to do?

[Joe Getty]

Well, and what do you do? Do you, like, just go on Google and try to find the number for the White House? Or what if I found out, like a colonel in the send cinema? Revolutionary Guard, dearest White House.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[Jack Armstrong]

I surrender. So many different pieces of information on this. Trying to figure out what order and which ones are the most important for you. We are going to talk to Mike Lyons later in the show, and he tweeted out he's a military analyst that we really like Iran will attempt to execute something we have never really seen before. Win a war of attrition in the air Force the United States to deplete its air defenses. The US Must focus completely on the launchers. Take out the archers, you take out the air arrows. Iran is trying to hit Israel enough. And, and, and also just do enough stuff that we, as he said, we use up all our capability.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Which is not impossible. Right.

[Joe Getty]

And then they exact so high a cost that we are pushed to abandon the aerial attacks on Iran even though they're defenseless. That math doesn't work. But it's the math of the desperate.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm meandering. David Harsanyi tweeted out, I like this. I'm Old fashioned, but I think regimes that have slogans like Death to America should be terrified at all times. I would agree, and I think they will from now on. Which was George Will's point, that this has reestablished deterrence around the world. Be scared of the United States you start messing with this fofa. Yeah, George Will didn't say that, but it's true.

[Joe Getty]

The other side of that coin has got to be, hey, if you're our buddy, let's. Let's do business. We will protect you. You know, we'll be a good and loyal friend. And then we have to be.

[Jack Armstrong]

I got the letters backwards. It's not.

[Joe Getty]

It's not F off, F around and

[Jack Armstrong]

figure, figure about or anything like that. I got the letters backwards. Sorry about that.

[Joe Getty]

We were all tracking with you. But anyway, you know, we will be a good, strong and loyal friend, but if you mess with us, we will be a horrifyingly fearsome enemy. And we have lost that for a long time. That's not to. That's not to advocate for military adventurism or unnecessarily brutal conduct around the world at all. But we had lost the stick.

[Jack Armstrong]

So Trump had announced last night that the Iranians want to negotiate. He's hoping that, you know, we can pause the fighting and negotiate. Their current leader of some sort, who knows who's in charge. That's gotta be a mess. Who's making the calls on this stuff? Like, who ordered the attacks on the nine countries? One the Ayatollah, or any of the 40 people below him, they're all dead. So who made that decision, I wonder?

[Joe Getty]

Well, then, plus, you gotta have a fair number of guys in the regime where they're like, congratulations, Muhammad, you are the new minister of defense. Oh, you know, boy, that's such an honor and thanks, but I got two kids in travel, soccer, and, you know, I'm just so busy these days. Exactly. You could probably find somebody better. Please find somebody. Literally anybody but me.

[Jack Armstrong]

But their current something or other said, we will not negotiate with the United States, and put that statement out yesterday. Okay. Again, I don't understand their strategy. You're not going to negotiate with the United States.

[Joe Getty]

You.

[Jack Armstrong]

You're attacking all the countries around you who have gone from neutral to, okay, well, now we gotta fight you. So what.

[Joe Getty]

What.

[Jack Armstrong]

What are you. What are they. What are they hoping to do? I don't know.

[Joe Getty]

Michael. Michael. Ready clip 56. This is Abbas Unpronounceable, the temporary Iranian foreign minister.

[Jack Armstrong]

Our military is in place. They are capable Enough to defend our country. They are more prepared and capable than previous war, before 12 day war. Quality wise, quantity wise, they are in a better position.

[Joe Getty]

So they've got a bigger and better military than before the 12 day war in June. That was a quick turnaround. Congratulations. Your recruiting must be excellent.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I do understand the critique of. There was not enough explanation from the administration to the American people on what we're going to do and why. We've been talking about this for weeks that we were about to get into a war with less discussion than has ever happened ever by a lot.

[Joe Getty]

The only counter argument I can come up with is they didn't want to. Trump didn't want to telegraph what was about to happen, but there was plenty of telegraph and wasn't there?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I don't think that's, I mean

[Joe Getty]

moving all the, all those forces to the Persian Gulf.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. My cynical explanation is nobody cares and I'm not gonna, you know, give them the heads up just, you know, to start the argument and have a bunch of people out there saying no, we should do it, let's just go ahead and do it, worry about it afterwards. People don't care enough if you watch the new, if you paid attention to the news at all. Yes, you knew this was coming and it would have kind of driven a conversation, but people just don't care now. I saw some poly early polling yesterday. Reuters was head out. I'm not gonna, I didn't even write it down because it was an online poll and it's early. But it just seems so unlikely to be true. It had it overwhelmingly the United States, including Republicans were against this and I just, I don't, I find that hard to believe.

[Joe Getty]

But yeah, let's ask again tomorrow. Uh huh. Well this needs to be said and I'm sorry it's taken this long. This is all a distraction from the Epstein files.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's what Saturday Night Live opened with. Yes.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, really?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Great minds think alike. Yeah, I didn't see it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, they had their Trump impersonator who is amazing. We've had him on the show. He is absolutely fantastic. This is good to distract us from the Epstein files. And the crowd cheered like crazy. I know people personally who believe that. So.

[Joe Getty]

Oh Lord.

[Jack Armstrong]

What are your thoughts? And we got a lot more on the way. Stay here.

[Dale Gavlak]

Armstrong and Getty.

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[Jack Armstrong]

I call upon all the radiant patriots who yearn for freedom to seize this moment to be brave, be bold, be heroic and take back your country. America is with you. I made A promise to you, and I fulfilled that promise. The rest will be up to you. You talking to me? We'll be there to help. Wow, that's Trump from over the weekend. Trump just told CNN the big wave is yet to come in the war with Iran. The 2000 strikes in 48 hours is not the big wave. The big wave is yet to come.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, so his warning to the Revolutionary Guard and the army officers and everything to lay down your arms or suffer consequences. The consequences of, you know, not yet come. Want to get to Pete Hegseth's message to the troops at some point in the next hour. We've got a reporter from the region coming up in a couple of minutes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Plus Trump also. Yeah, Trump also said we'll get this from CNN. He just. He just talked to him. The U.S. military is knocking the crap out of Iran. There you go.

[Joe Getty]

That's some analysis. Speaking of analysis, this is from an analyst who I hadn't previously known. Sherlock on Slim Pereira, but good, good writing. He says they did not bomb Iran. They waited for Iran's entire leadership to sit down in the. And then they bombed Iran. Months of intelligence, thousands of hours of surveillance and signal intercepts. One variable, the movement of the Supreme Leader. The President and senior military command gathered in a single location at the same time. He describes the. The time, the situation, how normally the attacks come at night, et cetera. And then he gets into the movement of Khomeini before or after the strike is kind of a distraction. But his point is, if it's the one case, someone inside Tehran's inner circle told Jerusalem when and where the meeting would happen if after the strikes hit the room and he survived, blah, blah, blah. Because Iran's leadership now knows three things. Israel knew where they were meeting, and I would suggest the US played a little more role than this guy's giving the CIA credit for. But we're not sure and probably never will be. But anyway, Israel knew where they were meeting. Israel knew when they were meeting. Israel knew who would be in the room. And everything we watched over the past month, the F22s at Ovda, the tankers at Ben Gurion, El Adade emptied to 0.270transport flights. All of it was the delivery architecture for one precision strike on one gathering. Every future meeting of Iran's senior leadership now carries one question. Does Israel know about this one, too?

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. Well, and every bad guy or country is an enemy of us. And the entire world is wondering, does the CIA know exactly who's in this room? Right now, if they decided to do something.

[Joe Getty]

Couple more quick notes. This is not a military operation. This is the destruction of institutional trust inside a regime. Every general sits with Khomeini tomorrow. Well, that ain't happening. We'll wonder who told Jerusalem about today. Every IRGC commander who receives a meeting summons will calculate whether attendance is duty or a death sentence, blah, blah, blah. And then he gets into them spraying missiles all over the region. The Gulf coalition that did not exist yesterday exists today because Tehran built it by attacking everyone simultaneously. This is not a battle. This is. That is checkmate disguised as a first move.

[Jack Armstrong]

How did Iran think that hitting a luxury hotel in Dubai would make them pressure the United States to stop?

[Joe Getty]

I think the calculation, which seems kooky, is we will sow destruction and pain and the world will say please stop, please stop. All the Gulf states will say to the US You've got to stop because they're knocking down our hotels. Not so. Wow, yet another unbelievably bad calculation by the Iranian regime.

[Jack Armstrong]

God, I would say we need to talk a little bit. We got a good guest coming up, but we gotta talk a little bit later about some of the new weapons that were unleashed by Israel and the United States that had never been seen before that got used over the weekend, including this new laser beam thing that Israel has, the iron beam that they had never used. I'm surprised they held it back all this time, but a lot of really cool technology. I hope you can stick around. If you miss a segment or an hour, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on Demand

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Armstrong and Getty

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[Jack Armstrong]

lenovo

[Joe Getty]

the Iranian regime shaken to its core, more than 40 of its leaders dead in strikes carried out with astonishing speed and exquisite intelligence. Within minutes of the opening strikes, not only was Iran's supreme leader killed, but the head of Iran's armed forces, the Defense Minister, and seven senior military leaders, along with dozens more commanders.

[Jack Armstrong]

Operation Epic Fury has there ever been anything like this in world history against a major country with a major military? No. Where you take out their leadership, all of their leadership, in like a minute.

[Joe Getty]

It's the most devastating decapitation strike in the history of mankind. I think we have the good luck to have with us now Dale Gavlak, who is the Middle east correspondent for CBS Radio News and has extensive background in studying the region and is reporting from Amman, Jordan. Dale, welcome. How are you?

[Dale Gavlak]

I'm okay, I'm okay. But as we speak, yeah, there have been air raid sirens going off in Jordan. And we've heard many, many warplanes from U.S. bases in Jordan flying off throughout the day.

[Joe Getty]

As someone who studied the Middle east for a long time, what do you make of the Iranian strategy to spray ordinance at all of the Gulf states and Jordan and spread mayhem around? Did they calculate that that would bully the other countries into not cooperating with the U.S. what do you think they were thinking?

[Dale Gavlak]

Hard to know, except that they, I mean, they did promise that they would, you know, unleash their own fury. And so basically, US Allies in the Gulf have come under attack from Iranian missiles and drones. We saw today in Kuwait that black smoke rose above the area around the US Embassy there. Loud blasts continue in Dubai. And in Qatar, Saudi Arabia shot its biggest refinery after drone strikes caused a fire there. And Iranian missiles have been targeting the Prince Sultan air base near the capital of Riyadh. Those were intercepted. But now Saudi Arabia says its military is raising its readiness level after multiple attacks by Iran. So Gulf of Arabs are not, not happy at all with what Iran is doing. I mean, these Arabs, Saudi Arabia particularly, and the United Arab Emirates had tried in, yeah, the recent past to, you know, basically have moderate relations with Iran, to, you know, build relatively good ties with them, not to, you know, do anything. And certainly they have not fired back. But Iran said that it would be targeting US Military bases in the Gulf. Well, they're also hitting civilian places like Dubai Airport and two hotels in Dubai.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, to that point, I mean, you opened a little bit nervous there in Jordan. Pretty much everywhere within nine countries or more, there's reason for everybody to be a little nervous about something coming out of the sky, right?

[Dale Gavlak]

Yes, no, for sure. I mean, great. We're grateful here that, yeah, the air defense mechanism as well as in many other places are working well. And so, yeah, so drones and missiles are being shot down. But I know in many Jordanian cities there is debris from these missiles and I'm sure the same in other places as well. But the reality is, you know, I mean, how much longer will Iran be attacking these various countries? You know, they do have short range missiles, which enables them to really easily hit the Gulf areas, but their longer range missiles are being targeted toward Israel. And a lot of those missiles probably are flying over Jordan en route to Israel, but they are being shot down as well.

[Joe Getty]

Are you at all surprised, given how degraded the leadership of the country is at this point, that they've continued to offer at least a semi coherent military response? And how long do you suppose might that continue?

[Dale Gavlak]

Not so much, because in the case. I mean, Iran has said this itself, but we've also seen it with its proxy Hezbollah. If you eliminate one line of leadership, they have got in place a secondary line and probably a tertiary line as well. So in that sense, not really. But, you know, Iran's top security chief, Ali Gharani said that Iran is not open to talks with the US and he says that Iran will fight on, but it won't surrender.

[Joe Getty]

Dale Gavlak of CBS Radio News from Amman, Jordan. Dale, thanks very much. Well done. I hope we can stay in touch.

[Dale Gavlak]

Yes, thank you.

[Jack Armstrong]

The average soldier in the Iranian, well, they got so many different versions of their military, whether it's a regular army or the Quds Force or whatever it is, but they might be willing to, a lot of them might be willing to surrender or lay down their arms or whatever, but all the people on kind of the leadership end of it, they're probably thinking, I could lay down my arms, but I'm going to get killed by somebody. I mean, when the people take over, they're not going to let me just go back to life. I was a leader in one of these divisions that were out slaughtering people in the street a month ago. They're not going to let me live. So for that reason, they're probably going to continue to fight because anybody at even the slightest leadership level has to realize they're, they're, they're not going to get out of this alive.

[Joe Getty]

And every army, and especially the armies of dictators are pretty good at making sure their guys don't surrender because they know that's a serious issue. So they have contingency plans. I mean, look at the Russians in Ukraine. Every single damn guy there wants to surrender, but he's got a gun in his back as well as the one pointing at him.

[Jack Armstrong]

But with the leadership gone in the 40 people below that, that the, plus they took out the Revolutionary Guard leader fairly recently. So the, the, the level of disorientation and who's in charge and can I trust this guy has got to be

[Joe Getty]

just off the charts and expertise for that matter.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. What a wild situation. Now. So she's in Jordan and everybody within many, many, many miles of Iran is worried about an attack because Iran's spraying rockets all over the place. This is an interesting one. For the first time ever on Sunday, Israel used the Iron Beam air defense system to destroy Hezbollah rockets. Hezbollah attacked Israel. Israel's now fighting Hezbollah again. They're going to get completely eliminated, I think out of this deal, Hezbollah will go away. Good. Is Right. But anyway, they use this powerful laser rather than interceptors for the first time ever. This is a dramatic development that will fundamentally change the nature of warfare in the region. Now, did Israel always have this weapon and just wait until now to use it? I mean, they've been under attack a lot in the last couple of years, or did they finally just get up to speed to where they could use it? I'd like to know that.

[Joe Getty]

I wonder if it's the latter, and maybe it's AI aided, I don't know. But, yeah, so you don't have to stockpile, you know, 5,000 missiles to shoot the other missiles out of the sky with. You have a laser which obviously is rechargeable and usable over and over again.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. And we used a bunch of stuff that had never been used before that we've had in reserve that I'm sure we'll be learning about in coming days, weeks and months. That is pretty darned exciting and had to be terrifying for the Iranians.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah, yeah. We have a clip. That is gold, Jack. Solid 24 karat gold. We haven't used it yet. Michael, please, 20, if you would. What's the message to Iran?

[Dale Gavlak]

Don't.

[Weatherbug Announcer]

What is the message to Iran in this moment?

[Joe Getty]

Don't.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm gonna bomb the shit out of him.

[Joe Getty]

It's true.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't care. I don't care.

[Joe Getty]

Little contrast there for you.

[Public Investing Announcer]

Don't.

[Jack Armstrong]

There is not a chance under any circumstance, no matter how close they got to a bomb, that Kamala Harris would have been willing to try to stop it.

[Joe Getty]

No, no teeny tiny half measures. She was talked into by advisors because she has no will of her own, perhaps, never mind the senile one, Joe Biden, who momentarily ran for reelection, which still boggles the mind.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sirens in Tel Aviv as Israel under fire. Trang Yinx of Fox. I was watching him over the weekend several times where he, in the middle of a report, had to run for cover because they got rockets coming in.

[Joe Getty]

There's been some serious death and destruction in Israel too. They've. They've taken some hard blows, with part

[Jack Armstrong]

of the belief being that if Iran can shoot enough stuff at him, that Israel's defense capability will be depleted. And then at some point, they could just reign in rockets wherever the heck they wanted to. Although this new Iron Beam thing might be a different situation.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, but how. How many do they have? And how quickly can you move from one target to another? I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

What do you think of Trump telling CNN the big wave is yet to come. Do you think that's bluster or do you think that's true?

[Joe Getty]

I was just about to bring that up. Gosh. Given what's transpired so far, I think would guess it's true or certainly another big wave. But they've got to suppress Iran's ability to send missiles here, there and everywhere, including at our guys on our bases. I understand they dropped dozens of 2,000 pound deep penetration bombs already and more are on the way if there is a. Well, there are several worrisome aspects of this, but one in particular is, boy, we're spending a lot of ammunition, a lot of really advanced missile systems. I hope we've got enough in reserve and or can get them made quick because I know that that was an issue before this.

[Jack Armstrong]

My kids were as kids worried this was World War Three. We got into that conversation. It's not obviously, but Iran and, or rather Pakistan and Afghanistan at war as of last Thursday. We got a war between Russia and Ukraine. We got all this with nine countries being attacked by Iran. If China moved on Taiwan, you're getting pretty close.

[Joe Getty]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

The only reason to me that China wouldn't move on Taiwan right now is they just, you know, don't have their act together to do it yet. But from a timing standpoint, how could we possibly help Taiwan right now?

[Joe Getty]

It'd be weak effort.

[Jack Armstrong]

Maybe I'll ask Mike Lyons about that in the 8 o' clock hour just at the end of that conversation.

[Joe Getty]

Speaking of divisions, how stark is the division now between the Trump White House and the Tucker Carlson Netanyahu is controlling American foreign policy. Anti Jew crowd. I mean, because Trump reportedly was telling Tucker like last week or the week before, you got to ease up on the whole freak and the Israelis run everything down with the Jews stuff. According to sources. Now that is really, like I said, a stark divide.

[Jack Armstrong]

You should combine that with what you were telling me on Friday off the air about how much money Tucker and Candace make.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, let's talk about that. Maybe next hour.

[Jack Armstrong]

And you only make that much money because you got a big enough audience to justify it, folks.

[Joe Getty]

Tens of millions of dollars per year. And I don't mean 10 million, I mean tens of millions of dollars every year preaching down with the Jews, which

[Jack Armstrong]

again means there's lots of people that are interested in that message.

[Joe Getty]

Correct.

[Jack Armstrong]

Stay tuned for all that.

[Joe Getty]

What's the message to Iran? Don't.

[Weatherbug Announcer]

What is your privilege to Iran in this moment?

[Joe Getty]

Don't.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm gonna bomb the out of them. It's true. I don't care, I don't care.

[Dale Gavlak]

Armstrong and Getty

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[Weatherbug Announcer]

we're seeing folks like Tucker Carlson.

[Jack Armstrong]

I think we will see a complete

[Lenovo Announcer]

break of Tucker Carlson from the Republican Party probably this week. How many people does he take with him?

[Jack Armstrong]

How many people are actually part of

[Lenovo Announcer]

that MAGA base versus those who will sign up for whatever Donald Trump represents? Donald Trump currently defines the Republican Party.

[Jack Armstrong]

We have gutted the actual two party system.

[Lenovo Announcer]

It is defined by whoever the president

[Weatherbug Announcer]

or the presidential nominee is.

[Lenovo Announcer]

A lot of people are just going to go with that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Tucker's going to break with the President and the Republican Party over striking Iran because he believes, like some people I was talking to over the weekend, that this is all about defending Israel. Israel calls the shots. We are Israel. Israel's puppets.

[Joe Getty]

Tucker has been entertaining flaming anti Semites with softball interviews. Then he has Mike Huckabee on who is an evangelical pro Israel person and just beats the crap out of him and engages in the full Tucker verbal trickery.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know. I don't know if you watched that, but Huckabee handled himself perfectly well. I mean you had to be a pretty big Tucker fan to come away from that thinking he easily won that.

[Joe Getty]

Oh yeah, smart guy. So came across this in the Free Press. Super interesting about Tucker Candace and the conspiracy theory podcast Grift as they call it. A 60 second host read a commercial on the Tucker Carlson show is listed at $45,000 as for 162nd commercial with a minimum spending of 450,000.

[Jack Armstrong]

We are in this business. That is a crazy amount of money and the only way you can charge that much money is if you can verify you got the listeners or advertisers have had the results to show that that's justified. So it's earned by a giant audience that Tucker must actually have because I've always wondered how big his audience is. It's really hard to nail down.

[Joe Getty]

Well to that point. Kansas Owens and Carlson's YouTube shows are two of the most popular in the US with 5.8 million and 5.2 million subscribers respectively, each posting more subscribers than the New York Times own channel. And then they go into several examples of their just ridiculous, bizarre, you know, ideas and programming and that sort of thing.

[Jack Armstrong]

I was about to say is there anything like this on the left, but is it okay to portray that as the right? I mean, I'm on the right and I don't have anything to do with what Tucker and Candace believe yeah, but whatever you call it, if this is the future where you have people like Tucker and Candace talking about this angle or you have another view, I don't know what it would be from people that are more popular at the Democratic Party. Communists, maybe. I don't know what they'll obliterate the evening newscasts in the New York Times and everything like that. In terms of. In terms of importance, podcast metrics, platform

[Joe Getty]

Vidiq estimates that Candace Owens now earns between this broad range, 163,000 and 480,000, $489,000 per month. So if you're to pick a number in the middle, $300,000 per month from the YouTube channel, and that's that alone,

[Jack Armstrong]

let alone merch and podcast sponsorships alone

[Joe Getty]

could net between 2 million, 10 million annually, not to mention merchandise fees for speaking engagements, which are five to six figures, etc.

[Jack Armstrong]

So Candace, who isn't as big as Tucker, she might be making 10 million plus.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Holy crap.

[Joe Getty]

Going around claiming a lot of money in that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Going around claiming that Erica Kirk works for the Jews and had her husband killed and she's making $10 million a year.

[Joe Getty]

Correct.

[Jack Armstrong]

Holy crap.

[Joe Getty]

Which brings us to another headline from the Free Press. Trump has had enough of Tucker Carlson. And this was last week, a week and a half, two weeks ago, that this was written. After months of warnings from inside and outside the White House, Trump is asking Carlson to cut his Israel bashing personally. Carlson has long had a close friendship with J.D. vance. Carlson helped persuade Trump to pick Vance as his running mate. Vance's public loyalty thus far has not wavered, etc. Through all of this, Trump has largely stayed on the sidelines, even defending Carlson. November, when pressed about his interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Things began to change at the beginning of the year. On 11 January, Trump said publicly what so many of his friends were telling him privately. When asked by the New York Times about his supporters that hate Jews and other minorities, Trump said, I don't think we need them. I think we don't like them.

[Lenovo Announcer]

Well,

[Jack Armstrong]

I was in the hall in Milwaukee for the convention when Tucker came out, and he got by far the loudest ovation outside of Trump that week. I mean, people just loved Tucker. I mean, he wasn't as out there about the Jews then as he is now, so I don't know where he

[Joe Getty]

is, but he's got nearly. But, yeah, he was revered.

[Jack Armstrong]

Where is this all going? The most interesting thing might be because Trump's in office. Where does J.D. vance in the Tucker thing go? Does he have to split with Tucker like openly at some point?

[Joe Getty]

I wonder?

[Dale Gavlak]

Mike Lyons Coming up Armstrong and Getty

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