Steve Bannon (4:06)

Do you think you can actually have a, a targeted and precise tactical hit here that has enough power in back of it that it actually gets done what you want to get done and just doesn't drag you?

Dave Brat (4:21)

Did it work, Steve?

Steve Bannon (4:22)

Now this.

Dave Brat (4:24)

Did it work? Is there reporting around. Yeah. Is there reporting around the extent to which these mountain facilities were penetrated? I sincerely ask.

Steve Bannon (4:38)

Matt Gaetz. What we like to do is keep your number and reach out to you if any other developments occur. I want to thank you for sharing your thoughts and your wisdom and there's a lot of wisdom there, sir, here in the war room tonight. Thank you, Matt. 1 what's your social media? I want people to follow you because you're putting up great stuff. Where do people go I might lost Matt Gates. Let's go and put it up. Do we have Charlie Kirk? Okay, we are going to. John Solomon is going to be up here in a moment. Charlie Kershaw, join us. Eric Prince, Matt Boyle. We got to wait for the bomb damage assessment. What actually we need to know if.

Matt Boyle (5:16)

It worked right like and we'll find out sooner or later here pretty soon I would imagine. I, I defer to the military experts on absolutely. You know, whether or not that stuff. I don't know that stuff but as.

Steve Bannon (5:26)

Good as the general. We'll get Eric Prince. We'll get Eric Prince. We'll get a couple of the top mercenaries.

Matt Boyle (5:31)

I'm a political guy. I could tell you how Capitol works and how DC Works, but I defer to the military guys as to whether or not this strike was successful. But, I mean, look, we have to figure out was the strike successful. Once we figure that out, then we have to see what the Iranian response is. Maybe the response is meager and nothing. And if that's the case, then Trump is going to go down in a very big way a winner here.

Steve Bannon (5:53)

What is, what, what is, what is your definition of success? What do you think President Trump's definition of success?

Matt Boyle (6:00)

I think they've been very clear. Look, I've talked to President Trump about this many times over the years before he was president, the first time during his first term, in the interim between the two terms and during his presidency. Now, I've talked to Steve Witkoff about this. I did a huge interview on camera with Steve Wyckoff a month or so ago at the White House. The fact of the matter is, is that, again, the President has been extraordinarily clear. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. They cannot have the means to make a nuclear weapon that means no enrichment. So I don't think we could be any clearer about this. Right? So that's the point. If they succeed in taking out the means by which they were going to, you know, allegedly make a nuclear weapon, then the fact is that it would be viewed as a massive success. So I think the President, you know, and again, I think that the fact.

Steve Bannon (6:50)

That in the broader, in the, in the broader context, does this engage us in whether he, whether the president wants it or not, right. Forces have, does this engage us now as a combatant into a regional war between Israel and Iran that could expand? And is this, does this go back on his understanding that he said for years, decade, they can't have a nuclear weapon? Does this go back on. I'm not going to get engaged in any Middle Eastern forever wars.

Matt Boyle (7:18)

I don't think that it goes back on that at all. I think the President's been very clear about the threat that Iran represents to the west with a nuclear Iran would represent. And frankly, the Iranians have been engaged in attacks against Americans dating back decades. So I think that the President is always putting America first. I don't think the President's done anything wrong about that. And I think that the process, this debate that we're having here on this show tonight is the same process that was going on in the Oval Office tonight as the President made his decision in the Situation Room. I would imagine that he probably went down there. I don't know if he did or not. I'm just speculating. But the point is that, and this is the process that the President's gone through for the last 10 days and then he's going to continue to go through. Cuz I know that he deeply cares about where the people are on these things. He always asks me whenever I see him, he's always asked me, you know, where's the Breitbart audience at on this? Where's the Breitbart audience? He always wants to know what, where the people are at. That's the thing he cares about. And he's always listening and he's always taking input from other people. So I think that as we go through from here. No, I first off, I don't think that he's violated any campaign pledge. I think if anything he's following through on it and he's following through on what campaign pledge? He said Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

Steve Bannon (8:40)

Was that a higher pledge than the three planks of our no far and war?

Matt Boyle (8:44)

So he's got, he's got. Right. But he's also made it clear for several days lead up to this, he said he doesn't believe that he's going to entangle us in a larger war.

Steve Bannon (8:52)

Was this about this at the White House and doing this strike, Is this more limited than you thought it was? Because at least what it's been described by him, it sounds a little bit.

Matt Boyle (9:02)

More expansive than we thought it was.

Steve Bannon (9:04)

Why did you. Because it hit the other facilities.

Matt Boyle (9:06)

Right. Like because we were just talking about Fordo and now they're talking about the other two.

Steve Bannon (9:10)

Of course we don't know if there's multiple bombing runs or not. We've been all the strike packages we've.

Matt Boyle (9:15)

Seen, all we have is what the President said.

Steve Bannon (9:18)

Right.

Matt Boyle (9:18)

So at this point and truth and.

Steve Bannon (9:19)

True Social has crashed.

Matt Boyle (9:21)

Social has crashed because I think the whole world is going to True Social right now.

Steve Bannon (9:25)

Devin Nunez, you may thought it might for nights like night that you needed more servers. It appears that all the airmen are out of harm's way. Right. President Trump very specifically gives a hat tip to them and a Bravo Zulu for their performance.

Matt Boyle (9:42)

Yeah. Though that's, that's a really good sign. First night of this and it's like like I said we were talking about before, it's like 3:30 in the morning over there.

Steve Bannon (9:50)

Well the next sign. Dave. Brett, I want to go back to your initial concern and in fact in Your three minutes where you were trying to tell the President essentially, don't do this. Right. Your warning was the other troops, the 40 or 50,000 troops in the area. Dave's gone. Okay. Oh, it just got. Boyle. Okay, fine. Cool, Cool. Just. I was. Dave, Brad had his big moment here. What about the region? What about the region? The blowback. Because these guys.

Matt Boyle (10:17)

It depends on what the response looks like. Right. Like. And we know that the Iranian rocket launchers, the. Have been taking those out repeatedly.

Steve Bannon (10:23)

So the ballistic. Have done a good job on that.

Matt Boyle (10:24)

Right? Yeah.

Steve Bannon (10:25)

Although they've been hit pretty hard.

Matt Boyle (10:26)

They have been hit pretty hard. And so we don't know yet. So, like, we don't. I'll caveat everything by saying we don't know. We don't know.

Steve Bannon (10:33)

And we do know this is the fog of war.

Matt Boyle (10:36)

Right? This is the fog of war. And it was actually pretty.

Steve Bannon (10:40)

Well, President Trump just tweeted this, put true social for Dow is gone.

Matt Boyle (10:44)

Well, if that. If it was successful, then this is. This is going to go down as a major success for him.

Steve Bannon (10:49)

Let's say there's. I guess he's not saying that somebody's interpreting what he said. That's why I say we haven't seen the bomb damage assessment. Although.

Matt Boyle (10:57)

Well, this is the. And again, it's going to be.

Steve Bannon (11:00)

I think he's linking that. Right.

Matt Boyle (11:01)

By the way, Charlie, Kurt just sent this out, and I just. He just sent this to me as well. He says Iran gave President Trump no choice. This is from Charlie Kirk. Iran came. President Trump no choice. For a decade, he has been adamant that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon. Iran decided to forgo diplomacy in pursuit of a bomb. This is a surgical strike. Operated perfectly. President Trump acted with prudence and decisiveness.

Steve Bannon (11:26)

Look at that right there. He's just reposted on truth. President Trump for Dow is gone.

Matt Boyle (11:32)

Yeah. So that ends up being true. That's gonna.

Steve Bannon (11:34)

That's a. That's a big. That's a big.

Matt Boyle (11:36)

It's gonna be big. So, like, again, we. We don't know what we don't know. We do know what we do know.

Steve Bannon (11:41)

Yeah.

Matt Boyle (11:42)

The one thing I would say is, is that this is just a definite major escalation. The United States has taken a huge step here with President Trump, and I think the president was deliberate and thoughtful about it before he did it. I think that any other American president would have jumped into this at least in the last 30 years. Right. Either of the Bushes, Clinton, Obama, Biden, anyone dating back to Reagan, I think would have just without questioning it at all would have just jumped right in. And I think President Trump showing a thoughtful deliberation before he made this decision shows why I think a lot of America first, it's why we elected him. Right. Like so I think this is a huge moment for the president and how he handles the steps from here are going to define his legacy in a big way. Right. Like does he stay true? Continue to stay true? Because I think this does stay true to that third plank along with trade and immigration of those campaign pledges. The third Frank remains limited.

Steve Bannon (12:44)

Do not get engaged in a.

Matt Boyle (12:45)

Well, that's the question. That's. Therein lies the question. We don't know yet.

Steve Bannon (12:48)

But the central part of that is how prepared. A big part of it is how prepared we are for a counter hit by the Iranians Right on troops on straits or her moves. Look, they may be so. They may be so decapitated you don't get a big response. I'm sure his intelligence assessment walked that through. We're trying to get up. Charlie Kirk, we are trying to get up. John Solomon is going to join us. We had Dave Brat, by the way. We got. There are definitely some people in MAGA that are not exactly ecstatic about this. A lot of people are because some people are saying, hey, he lived up to this pledge and not to let the Iranians have a nuclear program, although we have to get the bomb damaged. A assessment definitely a military strike did take place. We're going to take a, we're going to take a short commercial break. Hopefully John Solomon on the other side we got Jack Pasovic on the other side, possibly Eric Prince. But Ryan, shotgun with me is Matt Boyle. Thank you for coming in tonight, man. I told you something. Hey, did I tell you something? I told boy. I said get over here. Something's gonna happen.

Matt Boyle (13:48)

This morning we talked this morning and both of us were like something's happening tonight. We do, we do.

Steve Bannon (13:53)

I talked to Rob Sig and Rob said let's do five to seven and then we said, well let's. Can we get another hour? Let's go seven to eight. And now we're going to. Now we're in the eight o' clock hour right now. Okay. Historic night in the White House. Historic night in the imperial capital. President Trump pulls the trigger. A military strike on the nuclear, the nuclear, I guess enrichment sites and bomb making sites, all three of them it looks like by air assets, I guess coming through Guam, De Garcia, all of it. More information we get, we'll pass along. Short commercial break Johnny Khan will take us out and we'll be back in a moment. Lost your pride? But I'm American made. I got American, I got American faith in America.

Stephen K. Bannon (15:00)

Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.

Steve Bannon (15:06)

Okay, welcome back. Announcement. The President United States is going to address the nation from the White house at, at 10pm we will stick around for that, obviously. Do we have John Solomon yet? I think John's trying to come in. John Solomon's trying to join us, the bum. You know, the president's got to, you know, make the address. I also think he's got to talk to maga. There are a lot of MAGA that's not happy about this. I'll just be blunt. We can tell this in the chats right now. There, there are a lot of the chats that are just saying, hey, I hear you, but you know, you promise you wouldn't do this, I hear your thing and maybe they didn't negotiate. So I do think, as I said, I believe he will get MAGA on board, all of it. But he's got to explain exactly and go through this. And remember I said today the party is on using that World War II phrase, who's going to host it? And early in the evening we were hoping and working with people and saying, hey, maybe Israel is going to step up here. I think a big question is going to be why Israel did not take the lead and do this. Because right now this is back to the United States and I understand maybe we could get Fordeau, but I think that's got to be explained. Israel did not finish what they started. That's the bottom line. And I'm telling you, a lot of people I know that are Israel supporters are going to say why are we doing the heavy lift here and why are we engaging in combat operations in a war that's a war of choice. Sure.

Matt Boyle (16:34)

By the way, myself included. At the same time the other side may come back and say on this, the very pro Israel side, well, Israel doesn't have the capabilities to do what we just did, which is true as well. So the, but that being said, the United States just, just got engaged in this, in this thing and Trump is going to have to communicate this, a speech that he's going to give at 10 o' clock tonight. He said just now in a follow up message on Truth Social that he's going to address the nation at 10 o' clock from the White House. So much for that lid, by the way. Remember we were joking about this when they called the lid. I was like you know, there's always a head fake, right. They'll call the lid and there'll be a great time to do it.

Matt Gaetz (17:15)

Right.

Steve Bannon (17:15)

Like Biden, they used to call the lid at o' clock in the afternoon.

Matt Boyle (17:18)

So you go take a nap again.

Steve Bannon (17:21)

You said they're going to have a.

Matt Boyle (17:23)

Nice little bowl of ice cream and.

Steve Bannon (17:25)

The peaches, the mashed speeches. When you said that they're calling a lid, I said, well that's when President gets, goes and calls 200 reporters, right? He works the phones, right?

Matt Boyle (17:33)

Right. No, but that's the thing is that it was a sign to me the fact that they were so clear about this and so open it like they were. There were a lot of head fakes that were going on. And the thing that made me start.

Steve Bannon (17:46)

To think those things had started earlier in the day.

Matt Boyle (17:48)

But I do think that the communication staff and I think that the military and intelligence folks were deliberately trying to send these head fakes to the media because I don't think they liked the fact that the media was so laser focused on this question for the last 10 days of Willy Wonti. But I do think that it also showed the nation just how deliberative the President was. So I think that when the President speaks tonight, he, he's gonna have to be very clear with the American public about that deliberative process and what he went through, who he listened to, why he made this decision and where things go from here. He's gotta lay out some very clear objectives and clear parameters and what to expect and what not to expect. And I think that people don't like uncertainty. So this happening on a Saturday night, the markets aren't open again until next week, so you won't really see market react until Monday, which is a good thing. But I do think that the, the public wants certainty and I think that the MAGA movement wants certainty. The America first movement wants certainty. So I think the President, who is an excellent communicator, we've seen him do this how many times now, right. Is incredible at giving addresses. So when we see the President come out tonight at 10 o' clock, we're all going to be looking for, you know, those things. What is he going to be able to do in terms of providing certainty, clarity and also walking through his decision making process, I think telling the public about how deliberative and thoughtful he was, that he isn't just flipping with a military decision or a grave decision like this. This is a huge decision, right? Deciding to commit American military resources. This is a life and death decision that President Trump just made. These are matters of war and peace. Right. And I think that as the president addresses the public, he needs to communicate just how serious he takes it, because I know that he does. Right. Like, and I know that you know, anybody that knows him well. I know you know him well, Steve. Are a lot of the other folks here in the war room posse know him very well. Like the, the fact is, I know he is very deliberative on this. And I think that capturing that in those remarks and explaining to people, you know, because he knows how heated this debate got in this movement, right? Like this debate got very heated. You had, you know, people on one side like a Mark Levine really aggressively advocating for things. And you added people on the other side, Luca Tucker, really aggressively advocating against it. He's got to win this movement over and bring them with him and take proactive steps to do that. Now, I think he can easily do that because he is clearly the leader of this movement and he commands a lot of respect. I think that President Trump has earned a lot of that respect too, after everything he's been through. But because of the fact that the president, you know, because of the fact, and it's not even his fault, it's the fault of people like Bush and Obama and Clinton, you know, and Biden, you know, even though, or whoever was controlling the auto pen at the time in the Biden presidency, the lack of trust that these globalist losers of both political parties have sown across the United States with average Americans. I think President Trump, it's sad that he has to do this, cuz he shouldn't have to because he hasn't committed these offenses that these globalists have. But he's got to win that trust back from Trump.

Steve Bannon (21:18)

People, I think, beginning tonight with the explanation, I think the, one of the most important explanations, I think one of the most important things. He has to or he should, I shouldn't say he has to. He should is why did we not give time for Israel? Take a crack here. Bibi Netanyahu told the New York Post, we will do it. There was word out that, that, you know, they were, they were not going to wait the two weeks that, you know, this was it like they're dictating to us again. The Wall Street Journal is reporting, Marco Rubio is telling guys in Europe that President Trump's preferred path is negotiation. Now, the way President Trump is talking, it looks like he's using this as coercive diplomacy. He's telling the Iranians, let's get Back to the table. Right. Let's get it. I think he just said, let's get a deal done. Is that not what his.

Matt Boyle (22:04)

He says he wants peace, like, and then put that in all caps. That embalms were in all caps. True social. Right. Like so. But the fact is, what I love.

Steve Bannon (22:13)

About these things is that new phrase he's got, which I think is genius.

Matt Boyle (22:16)

Thank you for this matter. Oh, it's a running. I love that. It's, it's my favorite. My, my most favorite.

Steve Bannon (22:23)

It's like you're getting a letter from dmv. Right.

Matt Boyle (22:26)

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Steve Bannon (22:28)

Right.

Matt Boyle (22:28)

Like the best. But in all seriousness, though, he wants peace. I know that he wants peace. He doesn't want to go into war. And I think that he needs to make sure that that is really clearly communicated when he speaks to the public tonight. So. Because I know that's where his heart of hearts is. Right. Like, he really questioned. In fact, I always tell people that he won the 2016 election. The moment he won the election, not just the primary, but the general election too, was there was a debate in South Carolina in the Republican primary. And there was. Jeb Bush was still in the race.

Steve Bannon (23:01)

I mean, the first Republican, by the way, John Salman's looking for a zoom hookup, if you guys can take care of that.

Matt Boyle (23:07)

Go ahead, sir. In this, this debate in South Carolina, it was in the primary. Jeb Bush was on the stage, but he brought his brother George, the former president, with him. And Trump addressed. He dressed down the Bushes and what they did in Iraq war. And in this South Carolina debate, there.

Steve Bannon (23:21)

Was a gasp in the audience because George Bush was there.

Matt Boyle (23:24)

George Bush was there. And it was shocking to see this from a Republican debate stage. And I think that moment won him not just the Republican nomination for president in 2016, but the presidency as well, the general election.

Steve Bannon (23:39)

Okay, so hang on. So some of his most loyal followers tonight, we can tell in the chat, are saying, hang on, I want. Where's that guy? Because that guy basically read, he rode to power with calling the Bushes out, no more forever wars. And here, right in getting involved in combat operations, even in a surgical strike, can you back off and tell the Persians, hey, with just one time, we're out deal with the Israelis. It's no regime change.

Matt Boyle (24:06)

Well, this is the challenge of what he's going to face in his remarks that this evening. It's a challenge in what happens next. Over the course of the next several days and weeks ahead of us. Does this spiral out of control or does it, you know, does it continue to escalate or not? I will say President Trump, I have long said is the luckiest man alive for a number of reasons. I've been saying, I don't know, you.

Steve Bannon (24:31)

Make your luck, though, right?

Matt Boyle (24:32)

That is very true. And by the way, he's a perfect case of this where he makes his luck. I've been saying this for years before he was even shot and survived it. Shot in the head and survived it, by the way. So people that know me, I've been talking about President Trump like this. I call him the luckiest man alive. I've always called him this. And the reason why is because of exactly what you just said. You make your luck. And I think that President Trump can mold these circumstances moving forward to keep the United States out of a long, drawn out, prolonged conflict here. If he can do that and he can force the Iranians to the table, which, by the way, he'd be the only person that it would just be an absolutely incredible coup of a diplomatic and leadership victory if he's able to do that. But the fact is, is that, you know, he has a major challenge ahead of him and we're going to see the first bits of it tonight with this address. This is why this speech tonight at ted, I think is so important for him. He has a huge task ahead of him.

Steve Bannon (25:28)

He has not been. He's not been. He's not a fan of doing addresses from the Oval Office. That has been something he has not. He's always said he doesn't like. Now he's been a master. And I'm not saying the one he's done has been. I think they've all been great. But I know he's not a fan of it. He is a master of the press avail. We just invite the president. Of course, the first team is is not except for Ben and Boyle. Solomon and Brat are the first team. We're not working tonight. We're going to take a short commercial break here on Real America's Voice. The President United States at 10:00pm Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday, 21 June in the year of our Lord 2025, will address the nation as we have now become a combatant in this war between Israel and the Persians. Guess you say it's now a broader war, although the president tried to keep this to a very tactical strike. John Solomon's going to join us next. Dave, Brad is here. Short commercial break. Back in a moment. You gotta believe. Open your eyes. No time to be blind. Open your Mind to see we're in a modern day holy war Coming after the mind divine your soul is true modern day.

Stephen K. Bannon (27:00)

Here's your host, Stephen K. Ma.

Steve Bannon (27:05)

Welcome back. Where I go to Real America's Voice, John Solomon. John joins us. John, in 30 minutes we're going to have a, we're going to have a address to the nation by the President, United States, about the military activity tonight. Give us your thoughts.

Matt Gaetz (27:21)

Well, we entered the war now, and though it's a limited strike, it opens Iran up to wanting to attack us back either through cyber terrorism or through traditional means. So we'll have to see what the answer is. But I was struck by three things. One, it was pretty obvious it was going to happen today when the president avoided the cameras going into his sit room meeting a little bit ago, a few hours ago. He almost never avoids the camera. So you knew something big was up. Obviously the B2s had been deployed earlier in the day. And tonight I think you will hear him say this was a limited strike and it's time for peace. I think even in the last sentence of his social post he said it's time for peace, time to make a deal. I think President Trump's goal all along was to have a limited participation in this, make sure that all three of those nuclear sites are inoperable and anything in them is blown to smithereens, and then go back to the table and try to get a deal. And if Iran doesn't, then I think the president will let Israel carry out the rest of these bombings until there's regime change in Iran.

Steve Bannon (28:31)

Walk us through your understanding of the strike and the strike package. I mean, it seems expansive in the fact that he went to other nuclear facilities, which I'm kind of surprised at because I thought the Israelis had those. And then it didn't seem, I mean, it gave very limited information, but it didn't seem the intensity of what some people, John, you and I had actually talked about. You might need multiple runs over for door to actually take, for Dow to take it down. Your thoughts on the strike package? At least what President Trump's told us.

Matt Gaetz (29:01)

I think at least three B2 bombers dropped on Fordo. That is an awful lot of ammunition. That's almost the equivalent of a small nuclear bomb in terms of its incredible implosion capabilities. And the early satellite imagery, I'm told, shows a complete destruction of that zone. So that's Fordham and then there was the Tans. That was always expected. I think the surprise one is the third one. It's called. I don't want to mess up the name here, but it's called is. And it was the place where the very sensitive work of putting the, taking uranium from the state that Iran had enriched it and turning it into a metallic sort of capability that could be put on top of a warhead. Striking that one may have been a little bit of a surprise to people. We must have had intel that some of the nuclear materials were still there and rather than take a risk or allow Iran to move them, we hit that one. So I think the third one was the trickiest, also the least expected. I think the fans and for now were expected to be struck. And I'm told the three planes that struck Bordeaux left quite a, quite a crater, turned a mountain into a crater.

Steve Bannon (30:14)

Why were you surprised that Israel didn't take a crack at this first? I mean, I think one of the reasons that, and there are, I would tell you a lot, if you go in the chats, there's a lot of upset people, right? There's some people say, hey, President Trump did what he had to do, but there's a lot of people that are quite upset in the MAGA movement. Why do you think Israel did not lead this raid?

Matt Gaetz (30:36)

Probably because their planes couldn't drop the sort of bunker buster that would make a difference. And the last thing you want to do is strike Iran and not be able to take out the facility. So, you know, the truth of the matter is Israel has known from the beginning, even when it started this war, that its planes would never be able to get at least take out Fordham. It's just too fortified and too deep in the ground with a big mountain sitting on top of, of it. America was the only option to do that. We're the only one with the capability of this bomb. And rather than take a half, half hearted attempt and give the Iranians propaganda or give them time to move packages or people, I think the President decided he would do this, it would be on his terms. I think the Iranians were thinking they had a couple of weeks, they had a couple of days, it turned out. And I think the final decision to go today was driven by the rhetoric out of Iran. The last 24 hours they have not signaled any desire for peace or negotiation or meaningful engagement. And so why waste any more time? I think that was the President's thinking.

Steve Bannon (31:39)

You know, we knew Witkoff had a tough time, even told the European side. They couldn't even find out who was in charge to have a meeting. Of course, the rhetoric only, only heated up a couple of things. John, before we let you go, assessment of, you know, the strike back of the Persians around the region, both in Iraq where we have troops, the naval assets, we have Persian Gulf even hitting back maybe at some of our allies. What's your assessment of that? Because that's going to set the table. Does this get escalatory or not?

Matt Gaetz (32:09)

Yeah, I think the place that we need to be most on alert, most vigilant about is on our own soil with activated Hezbollah cells. While Al Qaeda has always captured our attention in America because of the horrific 911 attacks, Hezbollah are much more professional. They are the best terrorists in the world, sadly. And they've had sleeper cells on our soil that we've known about and God knows what they swept into the country would have been during Joe Biden's years. It would have been a lack of diligence for Iran not to take advantage of the open border. So we don't know who's here. I think the second thing that we will be watching for according to my US Intelligence sources, is some sort of cyber attack aiming for the grid or satellites. And then the third strike would be striking something in our, in the Middle East, Middle east region, in the Persian region. I think Iran is going to be hard pressed. They are trying to reserve all of their missiles for Israel. So striking troops there probably won't be in the top options for them. I think they want to create some shock, awe and terror in Americans minds to turn the American public against the President on this. So I would be watching for non conventional, non traditional warfare in the next 72 hours.

Steve Bannon (33:29)

About Bibi since they didn't take, they weren't involved in actually this, this the pass tonight to shut down the nuclear weaponization enrichment. Their goal has obviously been regime change. How do you think that plays in? Do you think President Trump has backed him off that? And that may be a sine quan non of his getting involved at this level. I mean, do you have any thoughts on that?

Matt Gaetz (33:51)

I get the sense, and again that's from talking to both Israelis and Americans that the President has given wide latitude to let Netanyahu wage the sort of war that he wants to. For what? For what he thinks is best in Israel's interest. Israel stands much closer to the danger of a nuclear missile and other armaments than we do. And I think the President gave some deference there. I would not be surprised if this strike tonight is followed up by a decapitation strike by Israel aimed at trying to take out the political leadership, the military leadership is extraordinarily decimated Iran has been in chaos. Some of their plans for Iranian missiles based on our intercepts, they didn't go according to plan because they literally don't have senior officials able to make the call. And so some of their missile launches, what they thought they were doing in Iran and what actually got launched were a little off. Which tells our American intelligence that Iran is disorganized, that those decapitation strikes and the military leadership have had some operational effect. I would not be surprised if Israel decides to take a decapitation strike against the leadership, whether it's the ayatollah. My sense of it is that the president is giving Bibi Netanyahu whatever latitude he needs to finish the job. At this point, nobody expects Iran to make a deal, although the president will keep pursuing that. And I think the alternative now is for Israel to finish the job is, I think, what a lot of people are thinking. Again, this is a dangerous situation. It's why a large part of MAGA has the concerns that it does about war and picking a fight with Iran, specifically because of their asymmetrical warfare, their terror warfare. So we're going to have to be on high alert for a while and see what comes next in this process. But my understanding, at least, is what the President set out to do today, limited strike to blow up three significant nuclear facilities. The military assessment, at least from satellites, is it achieved the mission.

Steve Bannon (35:55)

John, hang on one second.

Matt Boyle (35:56)

I have a little bit of news. This is a statement from the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Jim Risch. And this guy is not the biggest, like MAGA America, first guy in the world. But there's a couple of things that are in it that are actually particularly revealing to me. He says, quote, among other things, by the way he talks, praises Trump, et cetera. But then later in the statement, he says, quote, this war is Israel's war, not our war, but Israel is one of our strongest allies and is disarming Iran for the good of the world. I've also always said that Israel would not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons. And he goes on and on about Israel there for another couple sentences, but then he goes the quote, this is after another paragraph praising President Trump, says, quote, this is not the start of a forever war. Again, this is Senator Jim Risch, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He says, quote, there will not be American boots on the ground in Iran. This was a precise, limited strike which was necessary and by all accounts was very successful. As President Trump has stated, now is the time for peace so if you're hearing that kind of a thing from Senator Jim Risch, who's, like, not the most MAGA America first guy in the world, he's a decent Republican guy from Idaho. But that's a good sign, I think, that this may work for President Trump.

Steve Bannon (37:17)

Well, he knows that the Idaho MAGA group out there doesn't. John Solomon, how do you interpret that?

Matt Gaetz (37:24)

Listen, I think there is a messaging discipline among all of the Republicans, and I think it's a good thing. It emanates from the president's leadership. The president has been clear, I might do this, but it is limited and it has a sole intention. This is Israel's war. Otherwise, in that process, he also is giving Israel the latitude to conduct the war they think that they think they need to carry out. I think this dynamic changes. If Iran is able to strike Americans somewhere in the west, if there's an asymmetrical attack or a cyber attack, that will be what all of our country will be watching for. Our top intelligence, our top cyber warriors.

Steve Bannon (37:59)

Isn't that the issue? Isn't that the issue and the issue really of maga, when you say give them the latitude, they essentially forced President Trump's hand. I mean, they started a war a week ago that they couldn't do what President Trump did tonight. They didn't have the capability. And here, the United States, where an overwhelming majority of the people don't want to get involved in any of this, now we're involved. I realize a limited strike. Limited strike to say, tell those guys, particularly since they jerked him around here in the last 72 hours, that their. Their rhetoric has been the exact opposite. I agree. Of anybody you thought would get a deal done, John, but do you think that this puts more pressure, like Rish says, that this puts more pressure for us to tell Israel, hey, it's your war. If you're going to decapitate them, you own it.

Matt Gaetz (38:46)

My reporting is that the president was in on this from the beginning. He let Israel decide when to do it, but he never told them he would veto it or stop it. And he became as concerned as Israel did when this new intelligence came that the ability or the completion of getting the nuclear materials to a state that then could be turned into a nuclear weapon in several weeks or months was a threshold that had always been in President Trump's back of his mind. I have had the sense since Tuesday or Wednesday that the president was going to do this on Saturday from my reporting, but I don't think the President. Listen, if the president wanted to stop this. He could have stopped it. Israel would have toed the line. I think there are weeks of planning. I think the President gave explicit and implicit approval for Israel to do what it is. So it's not just Israel's war in the sense that the President knew it was going to happen and then the president partook in the small part that he knew only America could accomplish and that is to implode these nuclear sites. But I don't get the sense that Donald Trump got forced into this and he's just cleaning up Israel's mess. This has been far more coordinated than most of the reporting and some of the head fakes. Listen, there's a lot of head faking going on. Donald Trump is a fantastic poker player. This week thing he was announcing on Friday it was all to throw the Iranians off. And I think his plan was to this one, two punch was probably where Donald Trump was three or four weeks ago from my reporting.

Steve Bannon (40:14)

John Solomon, where do people go on social media this weekend to get you before the show's back on?

Matt Gaetz (40:18)

Yeah, Jay Solomon reports on social media. Just the news dot com. It's always great to be on with the great Matt Boyle. He's an amazing reporter.

Steve Bannon (40:26)

Sir, thank you very much. Thank you for joining us tonight. We're getting ready for the President. I say short commercial break. Dave Bratz with us. Matt Bull's with us. The President's going to address the nation here in about 10, 15 minutes. We're gonna take a short break, be back in a moment. We will fight till they're all gone. We rejoice when there's no more. Let's take down.

Stephen K. Bannon (41:00)

Here's your host, Stephen K. Back.

Steve Bannon (41:04)

Okay, we're back here. By the way, I only got it an hour off. I'm not doing the strike packages. We're going to because I got ball myself. We have a very thin staff. At 9 o' clock we're going to, we're going to take a break. Right. Probably come back, I don't know, 939 for 5. We will be here for the President's address to the nation and then follow on analysis, etc. But I think it comes upon us to work the phones for a little bit.

Matt Boyle (41:28)

Let's get some guests on.

Steve Bannon (41:31)

To work the phones and finally get some more detail backup about what's going on. The so tremendous. Look, President, the United States tonight made probably the biggest and boldest move of his first or second term. Right?

Matt Boyle (41:46)

Sure.

Steve Bannon (41:47)

What he doesn't want to do is get dragged in this thing as we talked about earlier. So that overwhelms his presidency because we still got the, we still got to, we still have to, you know, we've got 10 million illegal alien invaders to repel. Right. So I'll take this to 820. Let's just start, give me. Let's start with 10.

Matt Boyle (42:10)

Right.

Steve Bannon (42:11)

President makes a really a, you know, Abraham Lincoln type. Because you now are part of this war. You may say I'm limiting this war. I'm not going to get involved in it. I'm not part of Israel's regime change. Incrementalism, you're going to have to fight. It's going to be huge pressure by the Mark Levin and Nikki Haley and that crowd, Lindsey Graham, to do more. Right. So we got to get the bomb damage assessment from this. I got Brad, Dave. Brad, you want to give some closing thoughts? Like I said, At 9 we're going to come back for the President's address, maybe even a little early here in real America's Voice as we get sorted on this huge night tonight, the president made a decision to have a limited strike to take out the nuclear facilities. We don't have full bomb damage, but we understand there's some, some video coming in that shows the place on fire. Also some aerials that may show the place destroyed. We don't know the depths of the destruction yet. President Trump says it's done. Dave Brat, you gave the, your recommendations to the president even as it was happening on the show. You didn't know that was to watch, was to make sure that he thought through the second and tertiary, you know, results here of what the Iranians could do. Your thoughts now, sir?

Stephen K. Bannon (43:27)

Yeah, well, I agree with Matt. He's got to come out and he's got a high hurdle in front of him as far as Mag is concerned. He's the commander in chief, so he knows all the dots that are connected that led to his decision. The good news for MAGA and the American people is that Trump has always been the most transparent president imaginable. He just comes out to the sticks and so I think he's going to give us the full rundown. But that said in the reporting from Matt and John, a couple connect the DOT moments. Number one, if Israel goes forward with decapitation of the leadership and the ayatollah, etcetera, which was pointed out then. Secondly, John just said he's seen a lot of coordination between President Trump and Israel and Iran is watching this. So this, this is very difficult terrain. Right. Let me, let me just Repeat that. If Israel goes forward and decapitates Iran's leadership, and we bombed them, and it comes out through reporting that Trump was very highly coordinated, then, you know, we got, we got some work to do. The good news is that President Trump now took the lead with that news. Right. He said he's reestablished that the US Is in front of it. We helped out, but now we're after peace. So I think the USA is now in the lead. Trump took the lead from Israel with that statement and I think that's needed. I'm all in favor of Israel taking out the bad guys. Amen. Hallelujah. All political views are my own. And then the threat to President Trump himself, the FBI and the CIA. When Matt Boyle's talking about the, you know, the speech that Trump has to.

Steve Bannon (45:24)

Give.

Stephen K. Bannon (45:26)

The MAGA base is very, very skeptical, beyond skeptical. We have receipts now, right, on the FBI and the CIA, their action behaviors over the past years. So they're giving intelligence at the last minute. We want to hear a story that really makes sense there. And then the FBI, for the sake of President Trump's own life, the FBI and the CIA ought to update. The most serious threats to America is not traditional Catholics anymore. Right. It's not global warming, it's not white Presbyterians. Right. And this is. I'm deadly serious on this. Right. This stuff was at the front. It was the thesis statements in many of our agencies at the highest level of government. And that's what I say. It's going to take a while to turn this ship around. Now all the secretaries under Trump are going to have to be reestablishing these protocols and getting them right. They're up to it. We got great people in these slots. But the mega base really wants to, to hear a lot of dots connected on the issues that I just went over.

Steve Bannon (46:40)

Dave, thank you. Hang around. We're at 9 o' clock. We're going to take a short break. Maybe 9, 39, 45, maybe get you back at your hotel on zoom. Matt Boyle.

Matt Boyle (46:48)

Yeah, I can call. Come back on later.

Steve Bannon (46:51)

Close. By the way, Iranian TV is putting up the map of all the local.

Matt Boyle (46:55)

And we're starting to see more and more Congressional Republicans weighing in. And there's varying degrees of, you know, those statements from Thune and Johnson and the House and Senate intel chairs and whatnot. And there's varying degrees of, you know, I still think the best statement there's the one we read there from Jim Rash, the foreign relationship.

Steve Bannon (47:15)

We're not getting him that I don't.

Matt Boyle (47:17)

Think we're getting that kind of a statement from these other guys. So we'll see. But the point is that again the president has a huge task ahead of him tonight.

Steve Bannon (47:24)

So big test. Okay, we're gonna take a break, probably be back 9:30. Let's play on 9:45. Get right back in the chats. President comes on at 10 o' clock. I got my hour right. President's got going to address the nation and particularly I think talk to the, to the MAGA base. Understand some of you are quite skeptical. More information has to come out. We understand that others are saying, hey, job well done. President Trump is I think in a good place, at least good place as far as the true social goes. He's going to be up at 10 o' clock and over the White House. They're working on it right now. We're going to make some calls, make some, get some information. Correct Matt. And we'll be back up here let's say at, at 9:45. We'll be back up 9:45. And the president addresses the nation at 10. We'll see you then when you'll be back in the war room.