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- [00:00]
Stephen K. Bannon
this is an iheart podcast guaranteed human
- [00:05]
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- [00:37]
War Room Host/Moderator
this is the primal scream of a dying regime pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people granger's not got a free shot all these networks lying about the people the people have had a belly full of it i know you don't like hearing that i know you try to do everything in the world to stop that but you're not going to stop it it's going to happen and where do people
- [00:59]
Stephen K. Bannon
like that go to share the big lie maga media i wish in my soul i wish that any of these
- [01:07]
War Room Host/Moderator
people had a conscience ask yourself what is my task and what is my purpose if that answer is to save my country this country will be saved
- [01:19]
Stephen K. Bannon
war room here's your host stephen k ban
- [01:27]
War Room Host/Moderator
saturday the twenty eighth of february y twenty twenty six war and the rumors of war no longer rumor the united states commenced major combat operations as the president of the united states commander in chief told us earlier this morning we're here we got captain fennell brandon weiker doctor bradley thayer sam fadis joe allen d mike davis a whole crew today to actually walk you through exactly what is going on and potentially what direction is this going to take want to start with our own jack bosobic jack been very impressed the last couple of days on human events daily you've gone back to your roots as a naval intelligence officer i think you made captain fennell very proud walk us through where we are today because what we're going to do is try to take out the opinions and really focus on some of the smartest people we know that know the region know the assets that have been deployed can walk through strategy tactics et cetera so the war room posse who will be inundated with people's opinions and the yelling and screaming about the politics of it all will have a good basis in exactly what in the hell is going on jack posobec the floor is yours well steve
- [02:36]
Stephen K. Bannon
thank you very much on human events daily we've spent all week saying that we expect strikes on iran this weekend we we said all the indications and warnings are there you saw these amassed forces of naval combat power that were sent to the gulf that were sent to the east med the lincoln and then of course the ford arriving just a couple of days ago and so with that in place plus the massive amount of air power that the us as well as the refuelers sent over to the middle east to the region saudi arabia israel operating off of these airways and runways we know that that these were not sent over for negotiations these were all the indications and warnings and we heard the signal out of the white house as well that strikes were imminent i think for me one of the top indicators was the deployment of almost the entire fifth fleet out of bahrain there in the gulf adjacent to the kingdom of saudi arabia them departing port that of course was done in terms of a classic defensive dispersal movement in preparation for retaliatory strikes from iran those strikes have come in the face of these initial strikes from the united states so you know we went in and we explained how all of this was marching towards the united states was clearly marching towards military action in iran all week and that of course is what we saw and we put up potential strike packages that we could see for the united states it does appear that the us at this point what we're told that these strikes were conducted using tomahawk land attack missiles those of course fired from destroyers it does it appears that the f twenty two s were used for suppression of enemy air defense so we know those air defense assets were targeted we know that military anti air missiles were struck we know that ballistic missiles were struck we're told the irgc command posts this is iranians revolutionary guard corps in particular their naval ports and their naval hubs were hit chabahar bandar abbas and other areas along the gulf because of course the president and the white house understand the irgc's initial goal in terms of all this one of their initial most deadly courses of action would be closing the strait of hormuz to be able to inflict massive economic chaos on the entire world that being the key naval choke point for all of the oil the petroleum liquid natural gas coming out of the gulf and so we see those strikes from the united states on the israeli side it does appear that the israelis were targeting leadership again remains to be seen and i would say as always truth is the first casualty in war so some of these initial reports we do need to be circumspect we do need to wait for full confirmation either from the department of war from folks on the ground who are giving us direct reporting about what exactly was hit what the battle damage assessment is what capabilities these sites these facilities have been leadership if any leadership was taken out whether or not that's actually confirmed by both sides so again we need to be careful when it comes to that but i will say this in terms of strategy appears that these strikes the strike package operation epic fury which the president has launched in the early hours of this saturday morning here this is not going to be one salvo this is not going to be one round of strikes this is going to be days not hours is what we're being told i've dubbed it de escalate to de escalate strategy where president trump is going to run a series of strikes israel is going to run a series of strikes you may see that over the course of one to two days then wait to respond to the iranian strikes at that point pause assess for battle damage assess for whether or not they're seeing signals from the regime cracking and being willing to make this deal or potentially even regime collapse as the president himself said in his historic address that he announced and released in the early hours of this morning calling for the iranian people to rise up so steve that's where things stand right now we're also of course seeing iran retaliating with strikes on us naval bases us military installations all across the gulf we're even seeing iran target jebel ali the port of dubai that was that missile was intercepted but again iran really looking to inflict that economic damage that economic pain on the united states our gulf partners israel and of course the regime knows that they are in survival mode right now in tehran that's i
- [07:13]
War Room Host/Moderator
mean and we have brandon reichert and captain fennell who i think were very consistent over the last couple of weeks both of these individuals were saying hey look these negotiations if something was happened it'd be great but these negotiations president trump is really waiting to get all the assets in place and once he gets the asset in place the party's on in president trump's address and we're gonna break that down and play it in pieces so people can it we've had this theory that if he's not going to get tapped along in these negotiations now the oman mediator let's call him that flew from geneva to washington actually went to the white house i believe he met with the vice president to talk about how he thought there were big breakthroughs coming from the persians he then gave an interview on cbs saying he thought there were breakthroughs he's in shock now but it doesn't look like this is coercive diplomacy that the president's given him a tap to say you're not going to drag us out i want a deal i want the whole nuclear effort you got to say it's shut down i think it's deeper than that because he's essentially calling for the iranian people to rise up and use these strikes as a almost if not total decapitation strike a limited decapitation strike to call for the iranian people to rise up and have regime change am i correct in that well steve
- [08:36]
Stephen K. Bannon
that's that's what the president said himself he said he he did not talk only about or particularly about the nuclear program in his speech he talked about forty seven years that he called chaos of the iranian revolutionary regime the islamic republic of iran since the takeover in nineteen seventy nine he talked about the attacks on us forces in iraq when that was ongoing and how ir and iranian proxies shia proxies and militias were behind so many of those attacks and he talked about how he perceived iran as a great threat to the region a great threat to stability and he responded by saying that now is the time for the iranian people to rise up so you know what we're not seeing i would say in contrast with two thousand three and the bush strategy or afghanistan two thousand one we're not seeing boots on the ground we're not seeing american forces we don't see those marine expeditionary units we don't see army forces you know national guards being called up that sort of thing we're seeing air we're seeing naval power but we're not seeing boots on the ground that being said president trump clearly calling for the iranian people to take aim at the iranian regime and has targeted the us military as such as well well
- [09:52]
War Room Host/Moderator
and calling for regime change remember we're in the first what eight hours of this right in calling for regime change it doesn't look the least right now it's insertion of any either special forces and or ground troops but he's calling for the iranian people to take it into their own hands like a couple weeks ago when scott besant had broken with breaking the currency they took to the streets he's calling for the iranian people to do the regime change it looks like we'll go in and try to do as much decapitation as possible
- [10:26]
Stephen K. Bannon
well that's right and i certainly wouldn't preclude the option of a commando force we saw the maduro raid not long ago also conducted on a weekend similar to this and so i wouldn't preclude the president he certainly has that option to call up special forces tier one operators this is what they do whether it's delta whether it's seal team six to be able to go in and target either leadership or target these weapons of mass destruction stockpiles either either these enriched uranium sites or anything that's still available anything that they deem as either nbc nuclear biological chemical any of those potential sites or research sites that they could be looking at within the regime certainly israel has conducted commando raids within iran in the past has used leave behind assets deep insertion of mossad units idf special forces as well so we could be seeing that type of activity i would say pretty much everything's on the table and i would also point out that these initial strikes could even just be shaping operations for larger strikes that are still yet b two s or others that the president if he chooses could send into into battle now
- [11:36]
War Room Host/Moderator
we don't have reports of in in in the june in the twelve day war the initial strike on that thursday night friday morning all throughout that saturday it was obvious that there were insertion of mossad they actually took out certain members of the revolutionary guard other senior commanders that looked like a regime change strike at the time as we were the first to bring up here on war room when we were covering it has there been any indication at all they've had that type of infiltration and the type of the tactics the mossad used the first time to take out individuals that they had targeted that were senior members of command and control
- [12:21]
Mike Davis
well
- [12:22]
Stephen K. Bannon
steve at this point i would say it's too early to tell or perhaps just too early to confirm we're seeing rumors that members of irgc leadership are taken out there's a rumor spreading across social media some people say the ayatollah was taken out some people say that he was secured in another location again this is this is the fog of war and we are in the fog of war truth is the first casualty in war so my recommendation to everyone that is stay frosty although of course we know going from the twelve day war back last june that is certainly the mo of mossad that is certainly the mo of idf and working with those partners in a coalition force as the united states did at that time it would not surprise me at all if those commando units or in those types of raids were used we're also hearing by the way reports that the united states for the first time ever used war one way attack drones or kamikaze drones these of course are ubiquitous on both sides of the ukrainian conflict now being used by the united states according to reports in the first ever time for combat operations so again targeted kamikaze drone attacks that would certainly be something that could be used against leadership
- [13:33]
War Room Host/Moderator
jack you got to step out you're going to rejoin us later in the program we've got a packed agenda of all of our best and brightest just closing thoughts in the question is always timing when you saw the president's eight minute video and we are hearing that the president in fact we've got mccabe at the white house brian glenn's on up and working about the timing of this why now why early on a saturday morning on the last day of february in the year of our lord twenty twenty six sir well steve of
- [14:03]
Stephen K. Bannon
course the president operates on the president's time and clearly just from an operational standpoint what they were waiting for was for the ford to arrive off the coast of haifa which is the port of tel aviv jerusalem area there in the eastern mediterranean it was very obvious that that's exactly the moment that they were waiting for and we were tracking the uss ford as it crossed through the strait of gibraltar as it was crossing through the east med president trump i think you know just having spent time with him on air force one last week he repeatedly brought up those protests in the streets of tehran he said over and over it looks like the people are ready to rise up but perhaps they just need a little push you know they need a little pressure on the regime we know that the economic forces the currency the sanctions that secretary bessen and other countries have put on iran have really broken the economy broken the currency in iran that's leading to a lot of the economic pressure that's causing some of these protests and it appears that president trump thought that this was the right time to
- [15:06]
War Room Host/Moderator
pull the trigger jack social media until we get you back in the war room where do people follow you sir
- [15:13]
Stephen K. Bannon
we're going to be up at jack posobic and of course human events for all breaking we'll be here all day
- [15:18]
War Room Host/Moderator
thank you sir appreciate you see you in a little while twenty four seven with jack posobic former naval intelligence officer short break we're going to be back we've got fennell fatis weichert thayer and much much more in the war room
- [15:35]
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- [16:05]
President Donald Trump
a short time ago the united states military began major combat operations in iran our objective is to defend the american people by eliminating imminent threats from the iranian regime a vicious group of very hard terrible people its menacing activities directly endanger the united states our troops our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world for forty seven years the iranian regime has chanted death to america and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the united states our troops and the innocent people in many many countries among the regime's very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the us embassy in tehran holding dozens of american hostages for four hundred forty four days in nineteen eighty three iran's proxies carried out the marine barracks bombing in beirut that killed two hundred forty one american military personnel in two thousand they knew and were probably involved with the attack on the uss cole many died iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of american service members in iraq the regime's proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against american forces stationed in the middle east in recent years as well as us naval and commercial vessels in international shipping lanes it's been mass terror and we're not going to put up with it any longer this regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the united states armed forces i built and rebuilt our military in my first administration and there is no military on earth even close to its power strength or sophistication my administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to us personnel in the region even so and i do not make this statement lightly the iranian regime seeks to kill the lives of courageous american heroes may be lost and we may have casualties that often happens in war but we're doing this not for now we're doing this for the future and it is a noble mission we pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear armed iran we ask god to protect all of our heroes in harm's way and we trust that with his help the men and women of the armed forces will prevail we have the greatest in the world and and they will prevail the islamic revolutionary guard the armed forces and all of the police i say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity or in the alternative face certain death so lay down your arms you will be treated fairly with total immunity or you will face certain death finally to the great proud people of iran i say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand stay sheltered don't leave your home it's very dangerous outside bombs will be dropping everywhere when we are finished take over your government it will be yours to take this will be probably your only chance for generations for many years you have asked for america's help but you never got it no president was willing to do what i am willing to do tonight now you have a president who is giving you what you want so let's see how you respond america is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach this is the moment for action do not let it pass may god bless the brave men and women of america's armed forces may god bless the united states of america may god bless
- [20:38]
War Room Host/Moderator
you all thank you commander in chief earlier this morning the hour of your freedom is at hand he's telling the persian people a couple of notes number one the white house i believe just came out and said the president will all rumors and discussion of the president addressing the nation today are inaccurate that's from the white house so it looks like what we got from the president is what we've gotten also the foreign minister of iran is saying the initial strikes on senior leadership of the iranian government has failed the wall street journal is actually reporting they think two senior people who they don't identify have been taken out we got captain fennell and brandon weickert captain fennell it looks like you wrote part of that you go back president trump went back to the marine barracks went back to the uss cole your assessment of what the president just said sir and also you talked about the naval assets the airstrikes et cetera what's your assessment of this at least the initial strike package
- [21:46]
Captain Fennell
well steve it's really a serious time in our history and the history of the region i say that it's a result of forty seven years of inaction by previous administrations and so the political side you said we won't talk to today but you are seeing what military planners inside the pentagon have been looking at for forty seven years the culmination of of examination and looking at targets across iran and the president in his statement today said they were going to destroy missiles and the missile industry annihilate the navy stop terrorism which means stop the leadership of iran both the government leaders the mullahs the irgc which is their revolutionary guard corps military and then their regular military and then he said no nuclear weapons and again he talked about the leadership so those are the basic great categories then you have the targeting that's been done and we don't know the extent of how many targets were struck i would guess something of over a thousand or more targets were identified probably closer to two thousand given the scope of how big iran's country is the size of their military and these general categories and and so we don't know all the details jack was right we're in the fog of war right now there's obviously i would say the iranian regime is in a state of shock in terms of their ability to assess what's been hit so we don't have all the details of all the results of the tlam strikes that went against all these assets and targets in iran on the on the naval side i think it's really interesting and i think the us has abraham lincoln was probably the lead on the naval portion of this strike whereas the ford and the other ground based air assets that we have in the region were probably conducting more strikes deeper into iran in fact the ford is actually closer to tehran than probably the lincoln was in terms of the naval we should not forget that in nineteen eighty eight the uss samuel b roberts was struck by an iranian mine and three years enduring operation praying mantis and then three years later in nineteen ninety one the uss tripoli and the uss princeton were both struck by mine so as the president said iran has been terrorizing the region and killing them for a long time and this is what the attacks are going after to make sure to defend their ability to reach out and disrupt international
- [24:19]
War Room Host/Moderator
shipping i want to get brandon in on this thing but real quickly just to make sure people understand you're saying the ford which is in the eastern mediterranean probably probably had more impact on this than the lincoln that's in the
- [24:32]
Captain Fennell
north arabian sea in terms of attacking ground targets we don't know what naval targets were struck we haven't had any reporting out of what happened in bandar abbas and kharg island the naval platforms themselves where is the iranian navy i would expect that much of the iranian navy is either below the sea and sunk or is inoperable or isolated because of the lincoln and that array of naval armada that's there and it's not just surface ships it's not just the aircraft carriers it's also the submarines and one last point jack mentioned is this issue with what can we do in terms of special operations we shouldn't forget that there is expeditionary mobile base or esb three the chesty puller is in the gulf of oman or in those waters south of iran and they have the capacity to bring special operation forces in to do special operations like we saw in absolute resolve in venezuela so we have all the assets in the area that we need to be able to continuously pound the targets that we know that we need to get after to defang tehran and you'll notice i've
- [25:40]
Stephen K. Bannon
been hang on hang on hang on
- [25:42]
War Room Host/Moderator
one sec hang on one second i got to get brandon in here in this segment just hang on captain we're going to get back to you stay right there brandon weickert you called this just like cabin fennell he said hey they're negotiating to negotiate if anything pops it'll be interesting but he's waiting till he gets his assets in place and then he's going to hit your assessment now sir that it looks like that's
- [26:01]
Brandon Weickert
what happened that's exactly what happened and i don't take any pleasure in saying that but it is here now and it was an excellent assessment by both captain fanel and jack so well done thank you but i think we need to also confirm something i have been told that the wall street journal report is correct that they have killed at least two irgc commanders i have also been told that there is some concern now that the houthis are getting ready to launch long range strikes against israel i would like to note that so far according to my guys in the uae the american air defense or the air defense systems in the region have so far held up which is something i did not think would be possible which either indicates to me that the americans and israelis were more effective in knocking out those missile launchers than i thought they would be or the iranians are still trying to organize an effective counterpunch but i think that's some good news this morning and also it looks a lot like according to bloomberg two hours ago and i think this was going to happen anyway the oil companies are now redirecting the flow of oil away from the strait of hormuz to other areas because the houthis are already starting to impose their blockade again of the red sea so to me it looks like the first strike packages of the united states and israel have been relatively effective the iranians have countered although i am not convinced that the iranians have gotten a kill shot shot in yet which is good for us yeah
- [27:42]
War Room Host/Moderator
brandon hang on for a second yeah it looks like there were there was a counter strike but maybe not totally coordinated even able to pull off okay short commercial break you're in the war room fatis eric prince joe allen weikert fennell only all stars this
- [28:06]
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- [28:35]
Stephen K. Bannon
war room here's your host stephen k banner okay
- [28:39]
War Room Host/Moderator
we're gonna get to every aspect of this already it looks like it may be this may be expanding regionally as everybody thought it would brandon weickert's here fennell faddis we got everybody thayer mike davis is going to come in about the authorization the president's going to use let me play i'm gonna play a clip now from cbs news this what you're going to hear is the oman let's say he's the mediator he was the notepasser that even trista farsi said that the persians or the iranians had to get in direct discussions with president trump he wasn't going to get tapped along he actually left geneva they're supposed to be in vienna monday for another follow on meeting he left geneva flew to the united states think he went to the white house let's hear him bring in brandon weickert for his response
- [29:26]
Oman Mediator
because if the ultimate objective is to ensure forever that iran cannot have a nuclear bomb i think we have cracked that problem through these negotiations by agreeing a very important breakthrough that has never been achieved any time before and i think if we can capture that and build on it i think a deal
- [29:59]
Grainger Advertiser
is within our reach what has iran agreed to to you that they have never done before can you give us
- [30:06]
Oman Mediator
any sense the single most important achievement i believe is the agreement that iran will never ever have a nuclear material that will create a bomb this is i think a big achievement this is something that is not in the old deal that was negotiated during president obama's time this is something completely new it really makes the enrichment argument less relevant because now we are talking about zero stockpiling and that is very very important because if you cannot stockpile material that is enriched then there is no way you can actually create a bomb okay
- [31:04]
War Room Host/Moderator
that's the amount mediator that kind of go between that everybody realize you can't have these gobi kings if you're not going to have direct negotiations president trump's gonna get tired of that quickly brandon weikart your comments and observations you're saying the whole time hey look that's fine if something happened but the president clearly in that message early this morning is not simply talking about a nuclear weapon anymore he's talking about something much more fundamental sir and i yeah this was
- [31:34]
Brandon Weickert
something i might have said to kurt mills or you i can't remember in the weeks ago i was saying that it really isn't about nuclear weapons anymore this is really a joint us israeli issue and therefore the israelis are going to have veto power as much as the americans are when it comes to negotiations and for the israelis it's never been just the nukes it's really been the ballistic missile and hypersonic weapon threat that iran poses and in order to get the iranians to agree to no enrichment that the omani was referring to trump basically had to verbally say okay i'll drop the ballistic missile reduction issue and that there's no way that the israelis are then going to come on board with that that's the issue right now because this is not just about america and iran unfortunately it's also about israel now so that's why i was saying that this was all sort of
- [32:24]
War Room Host/Moderator
spoken but but even with the blessed missile this is what i get to what the president said today is this is he wants he's calling for the people to rise up in the streets and take their this is a regime change is it not exactly and remember and he's not saying he's going to put boots in the ground but he's implying i'm gonna do what i gotta do and you take it from there and in fact the police remember there's a massive army besides the revolutionary guard revolutionary guard is obviously the layer on top that controls things but he's he's telling police he's telling law enforcement he's telling the army if you put down your weapons or if you turn against the regime you'll there will be no there'll be no implications against you if you don't do that you're all gonna die i mean he couldn't be more blunt about that so this was not at least with the protest it was
- [33:11]
Brandon Weickert
never about the military right it was always about and he said i told you this a few a few weeks ago when he's been pulled in by the protesters he's you know he has heart and he wants to support people he thinks are in need and i think this is his sort of his belief that we need to do this and you know i we'll see if it works out but it is interesting to me because you mentioned shaping operations earlier and you mentioned boots on the ground i'll just say that since last year's twelve day war i know for a fact that israeli intelligence has infiltrated and has stayed infiltrated in iran i suspect that might be why we're having these very effective targets in iran you
- [33:50]
War Room Host/Moderator
you you said something that's gonna it's made our audience's head blow up you said israel has veto power what do
- [33:58]
Brandon Weickert
you mean unfortunately unfortunately this is not just an american operation trump is partnered you know for better or worse trump is part netanyahu and he is clearly doing this in part because the israelis want this done and we don't want to get too political here and i'm not going to dive into that cesspool but ultimately i've always said it was a mistake not to put america first and let's just hope that the military operation continues to be successful because this is not just for america that we're
- [34:31]
War Room Host/Moderator
doing this clearly you're going to hang on we're going to get more information intelligence from you on how these strikes are going i've got a short package mike davis is going to join us the whole up on capitol hill there's a firestorm right now about what the authorization is and the president will play a clip and bring in mike d mike davis let's go and play it
- [34:49]
Sam Faddis
i do think that there are a few tiny differences between the way the administration dealt with congress before the venezuela operation and before this iranian operation before venezuela the administration didn't do much outreach to the members that you would typically see an administration do outreach to in this instance my sources tell me and my colleague julia jester that secretary of state marco rubio actually did do his best to reach out to all members of the gang of eight that's the top four congressional leaders from both parties and then of course members of the senate intelligence committee from both parties rubio was able to make those calls he wasn't able to get in touch with all of them because some of them were traveling not able to pick up the phone but i do think that that is one key difference of course it does not explain away the fact that if trump is calling it a war and warning of american casualties he did not do this through congressional authorization but i think there's something the administration is going to lean on in the coming days here because a us official is telling ms now that rubio during that briefing on tuesday that he did with the gang of eight before trump state of the union the us official is saying that rubio consulted with congressional leaders during that speaker mike johnson put out a statement this morning where he said that rubio during that gang of eight briefing on tuesday said that strikes might be needed or imminent to protect american assets in the region i think all of that is going to suddenly become very important it was definitely important before but now in light of who's authorizing what and on what legal grounds the administration is acting acting it's going to be key because coming out of that briefing democrats like chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries had a lot of questions and they were not supportive of what the administration was telling them and certainly that's going to be important as the administration might maybe try to argue well we consulted with members of congress certainly members of congress have not voted on any of this and that's key but i think we're watching these fault lines begin to emerge as we start questioning what happened here under what authorization and importantly what might come next okay mike
- [36:51]
War Room Host/Moderator
you've been one of the leaders in this in this thinking of the article two powers of the president particularly his article two powers as commander in chief you're one of the one of the biggest advocates of using the alien sedition act from what seventeen ninety eight about the situation with venezuela and trinidad and the invasion of our country you also were around during the bush years just technically walk me through we still have this what military authorization use that's from two thousand one i think is what the kind of the legal documentation that has been used to do various military operations so just give us the range of what's out there your interpretation now of his article two powers they've already had a gang of eight briefing once again the administration is saying that ruby has got the lead on this where do we stand with actually the technical technically how the commander in chief can
- [37:43]
Mike Davis
do this sir under article one of the constitution congress has the power to declare war and there's a difference between declaring war and making war under article two the president of the united states is the commander in chief and going all the way back to the federalist papers our founders all agreed that the president has the inherent power to repel an invasion or an imminent attack on the united states we have not had a declaration of war since world war two and in nineteen seventy three congress passed over president nixon's veto they overrode the veto and they passed the war powers act of nineteen seventy three that's been on the book for over fifty years the the problem for that statute is is no president democrat or republican has ceded its constitutionality every president has said the war powers act of nineteen seventy three is not constitutional and no pressure president has complied with the war powers act of nineteen seventy three any court that has addressed this issue when people have sued the president to try to stop for example president obama's attack on libya the courts have said that these are political questions that the courts will not decide meaning this these are questions for the political branches for the for the congress and for the president to to fight it out to figure out who has the power and who does not under the war powers act
- [39:36]
War Room Host/Moderator
one second most don't don't i don't say most conservatives but most textualists and originalists don't they believe the war powers act itself may be unconstitutional yeah every
- [39:50]
Mike Davis
and not only do textualists and originalists think it's unconstitutional every president since nineteen seventy three when it's enacted democrat and republic republican has said the war powers act of nineteen seventy three is unconstitutional one of the big problems with it is is it provides a legislative veto which is unconstitutional according to the supreme court's i think it was chaka versus decision in like nineteen eighty six you can't have legislative vetoes by congress how the war powers act is supposed to work if any president ever complied with it or acknowledged its constitutionality which no president has done democrat or republican is that the president provides notice to the speaker of the house and the president pro tem of the senate within forty eight hours of of the of the actions taken against a foreign country and then there's a state sixty day time periods where troops must must be withdrawn unless congress authorizes the military action and that's that that's the problem with the war powers act that's what makes it unconstitutional you can get an extra thirty days on top of that ninety days to draw down the troops but if congress does not authorize the action within that within that sixty day time period the president has to pull out all the troops within ninety days no so
- [41:18]
War Room Host/Moderator
this is ever followed that this is after so after nine eleven we went to this concept of military use authorization right and we and that was agreed to or put forward in two thousand late two thousand one i believe two thousand two and that's been something we've relied upon for essentially twenty five years
- [41:38]
Mike Davis
correct yes and not only do we have the use of the use of force in two thousand one after nine eleven that gives the president broad power to go after terrorism including some would argue i think president trump would argue and many others would argue that that applies to iran there's the two thousand two military authorization against iraq and its proxies and presidents have used that as well i mean here's the the bottom
- [42:08]
War Room Host/Moderator
line hang on one second before you get to the bottom line we're taking a short commercial break mike davis is talking about because already on capitol hill there's rumblings as we say there's rumblings up on capitol hill mike davis is going to explain it all to us particularly declaring war versus making war sam faddis joe allen we've got a cast of characters here today to break it all down for you and make it make sense short break
- [42:35]
Stephen K. Bannon
here's your host
- [42:36]
War Room Host/Moderator
stephen k ban okay we talked about geopolitical risk now maybe the time that you finally decide you want to go find out why gold has been a hedge for five thousand years remember we never really talked about the price of gold we talked about the process now is maybe the time to learn why it's been a hedge for times like wars and rumors of war go check it out today take your phone at text abandoned b a n n o n nine eight nine eight nine eight the beast in the industry that's birch gold go check it out we started doing the end of the dollar empire i don't know four or five years ago gold was what around eleven hundred bucks five thousand three hundred don't know if gold will move i'm not into the forecasting business like that but you have to know why it's a hedge so go check it out today take tex bannon b a n n o n nine eight nine eight nine get the ultimate guide for investing in gold and precious metals in the age of trump and do not forget silver i think silver's closed at eighty four gold at five thousand three hundred or just about maybe a dollar two hundred but go find out why mike davis explain to us you made a comment that's difference between declaring war and making war that is one of the reasons for the military use authorization explain to people what that is how it came about and how it looks like it appears that that's what president trump is going to use as his authorization to go do these strikes particularly since he's had the secretary of state and his national security advisor because remember rubio is the first guy since kissinger doing both to go up to capitol hill and brief the gang of eight that's not a random that's not a random thing that
- [44:12]
Mike Davis
happens sir yeah there's the difference under the constitution between declaring war which that power belongs to congress under article one versus making war which belongs to the commander in chief under article two there are serious legal ramifications if congress declares war that affects our civil liberties as americans the president has more authority over american citizens to fight a war than he does when there's not a declaration of war so i think people should be careful these libertarians who are urging congress to urging the president to seek a declaration of war there are serious implications for civil liberties if that happens but regardless our founders understood that there's a difference between the two under the if you go back and look at the federalist papers the president as the commander in chief under article two has the inherent power to repel an invasion he has the inherent power to stop an imminent attack and so if iran for example we saw the supreme leader of iran put out a video saying that he was going to sink american ships well the president has the inherent power the inherent duty actually as the commander in chief to make sure that the supreme leader of iran does not sink american ships regardless of whether there is a declaration of war and if you go back to two thousand one after nine eleven congress congress passed an authorization for the use of armed forces the au excuse me auaf and it was back in two thousand one i'll just read it to you and it's very broad talks about this that that the president is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations organizations or persons he determines planned authorized committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on september eleventh two thousand one or harvard sets such organizations or persons in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the united states by such nations organizations or persons and congress specifically noted in this aumf that this is consistent with giving an authorization under the war powers resolution so the president has very broad power to go after international terrorism particularly these islamists like the islamist who run iran who are who have been organizing and carrying out terrorist strikes against the united states for the last forty seven years is the
- [47:16]
War Room Host/Moderator
issue president trump went through the history you know i was over there this time in nineteen eighty i was in the north arabian sea on a combatant as a plane guard ship for and for air defense for the carry battle groups on ganzo and camel station in the workup to what was a failed attack i think it's in april or may april of not attack but a rescue mission that didn't work we've been around there and president went through that he went through the the marine barracks he went through the coal he went through nine is there do you think they get caught up in like what's the justification over the last week what's the justification you know what is it are they going to get are they going to get pressed on that hard
- [47:59]
Mike Davis
sir well i mean we have again we have a video from the supreme leader of iran very recently where he said he's going to he's going to he's going to sink american ships i think that video right there is all the justification that the president needs to flatten the supreme leader's home and take
- [48:19]
War Room Host/Moderator
him out you know mike people don't remember that we were attacked by japan and then we declared war we did not declare war that day on nazi germany hitler declared war on us i think three days later because he had a secret pact with the japanese also correct me if i'm wrong president lincoln never really had a declaration of war against the confederacy he didn't consider the confederacy a separate nation he had a proclamation early on around fort sumter about federal property et cetera but he ran it eventually congress set up a committee to oversee things or they thought to oversee things but president lincoln as you talk about civil liberties president lincoln did not go for a declaration of war in fact some people said he actually acted as a warlord particularly on people's first amendment rights during the during the civil war am i correct in that
- [49:07]
Mike Davis
yes and i would just remind people that iran has declared war on the united states for the last forty seven years and they've killed thousands of our people around the world for the last forty seven years they've gone after american military members they've gone after our diplomats they've gone after our citizens they've funded these terrorist attacks for forty seven years and when the supreme leader is threatening to sink american ships he learned the hard way that he's messing with the wrong president president trump leveled his house
- [49:39]
War Room Host/Moderator
mike davis where do people go to get you particularly over the next couple of days on social media sir article
- [49:46]
Mike Davis
three project dot org article number three project dot org you can donate follow us on social media and action action
- [49:54]
War Room Host/Moderator
action and thank you steve thirty seconds when do you think president trump will get into this whole thing on capitol hill today tomorrow or monday
- [50:02]
Mike Davis
that's a that's a good question i don't think he needs to if he if he wants to he can't but under under the under his article two powers commander in chief under this two thousand one congressional resolution against international terrorism he doesn't need to do anything he's done what
- [50:18]
War Room Host/Moderator
he needs to do mike davis thank you so much for taking time away on your saturday to join us declaring war versus making war next in the
- [50:29]
Captain Fennell
war room
- [50:35]
Stephen K. Bannon
this is an iheart podcast guaranteed human