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Steve Bannon
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Steve Bannon
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Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
Having spoken to people who have reviewed the video. You know, you see the car come crashing through the door. You see what appears to be shell casings being ejected through the driver's side window as he's firing. And then you see the car gets all the way down to the end of the hall and then this fire starts. So it's suggestive that it was a ramming attack for anybody who was in the hallway, which happened to be clear at the time, a shooting attack for anybody who was an available target, which were the security people who shot back. And this explosive attack, where it appears at least he was able to initiate, ignite, detonate some connection to these explosives that were in the back of the vehicle, which if they didn't explode, they certainly caused that conflagration that caused that fire that blackened the hallway, filled the building with smoke. And right now, as we're sitting here, two things are going on. The one, FBI, ATF and the Oakland county bomb investigators are trying to figure out, is anything in the back of that car something that is still live or explosive that needs to be dealt with? And structural engineers are coming in to see is the structure strong enough so that they can move that car out of there and process it somewhere?
Neil McCabe
Well, Anderson, we're here in this neighborhood of fairly upscale townhouses, this kind of courtyard of townhouses here in Sterling, Virginia, learning a little bit more about the suspect and the suspect's family. This Suspect, identified as 36 year old Mohammed Bailor Jalow, a former Virginia National Guard member who, as we've been reporting, served nearly seven years in prison after pleading guilty to trying to aid the terror group isis. Officials at the time saying he was trying to procure weapons for an ISIS attack. Now, at the specific address where we believe the suspect lived, there is a sign, a paper sign taped to the front door saying, quote, we do not wish to speak to the press. End quote. I knocked on that door three separate times. Twice. A man answered. The first time, he just pointed to the sign and said, we really don't want to talk to you, and then closed the door. The second time he answered, he said. He said, I'm going to try to be as nice to you as I can about this, but we really don't want to talk to the media. He said, you have to understand we're going through a very tough time. I asked him if he was the suspect's father. He did not answer that question. And then a young lady standing behind him said pretty loudly, seriously, and then they shut the door. Others, other neighbors that we spoke to here, I spoke to five different neighbors who describe a very large family living at that residence, multiple members of a family of multiple generations. But they say the family really didn't interact with neighbors and that neighbors really did not interact with them. One neighbor I spoke to who said he often would walk by the suspect when he would take his walks in the neighborhood, said the first time he passed the suspect, he said hi to the suspect. He said the suspect didn't say anything. He just looked to the ground. He said every single time he would pass him after that, the suspect would just look to the ground. And in the words of this neighbor, quote, something about him just didn't sit well with me. Another neighbor said, anderson, I'm surprised that they released him and let him come back here. So neighbors here expressing some shock, some surprise, some frustration that he was in the neighborhood. And as we described CNN been reporting here tonight, it was a very grisly scene inside that ROTC classroom with other students subduing the suspect and one of them apparently stabbing him to death.
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
Scott Bessant said the U.S. navy will
Pete Hegseth
be escorting oil tankers through the Strait.
Neil McCabe
That was always in our planning that
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
there's the chance that U.S. navy or perhaps an international coalition will be escorting oil tankers through. There are in fact tankers coming through
Steve Bannon
now, Iranian tankers, I believe some Chinese
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
flag tankers have come through.
Steve Bannon
So we know that they have not mined the straits. My belief that as soon as it
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
is militarily possible, the US Navy and
Steve Bannon
perhaps with an international coalition will be
Pete Hegseth
escorting vessels through.135 fueling tanker crashed after colliding, it appears, with another tanker which
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
ultimately landed safely in Israel.
Pete Hegseth
But there, you know, are a lot of questions surrounding centcom's statement which they. In which they said that this was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire because An Iranian proxy group based in Iraq has now come out and
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
taken responsibility for downing that aircraft.
Pete Hegseth
Of course they did not provide evidence, but these proxy groups, they do have surface to air missiles. And so it's possible, for example, that what happened was these tankers were trying to evade a missile. Or perhaps this was just an incident of a mid air collision of these tankers just flying too closely together. I mean, there's so many possibilities here. But the bottom line is that four US servicemembers are now confirmed to be dead. Two others, apparently the search is ongoing for them. Unclear what their whereabouts and their condition is. As of this moment between our air force and that of the Israelis, over 15,000 enemy targets have been struck. That's well over 1,000 a day. No other combination of countries in the world can do that. So today as we speak, we fly over the top of Iran and Tehran. Fighters and bombers all day picking targets as they choose. As our intelligence gets better and better and more refined. Looking up the IRGC and Iranian regime sees only two things on the side of the Stars and Stripes and the Star of David. The evil regime's worst nightmare. Iran has no air defenses, Iran has no air force. Iran has no navy. Their missiles, their missile launchers and drones being destroyed or shot out of the sky. Their missile volume is down 90%. Their one way attack drones yesterday down 95%. And as the world is seeing, they are exercising sheer desperation in the straits of Hormuz. Something we're dealing with, we have been dealing with it and don't need to worry about it. We're on plan to defeat, destroy, disable all of their meaningful military capabilities at a pace the world has never seen before. They're confused and we know it. Our response, we will keep pressing, we will keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemies. Yet some in this crew in the press just can't stop. Allow me to make a few suggestions. People look up at the TV and they see banners, they see headlines. I used to be in that business and I know that everything is written intentionally. For example, a banner or a headline, Mideast War intensifies. Splashing on the screen the last couple of days alongside visuals of civilian or energy targets that Iran has hit because that's what they do. What should the banner read instead? How about Iran? Increasingly desperate because they are. They know it and so do you. If it can be admitted or more fake news from CNN reports that the Trump administration underestimated the Iran war's impact on the Strait of Hormuz. Patently ridiculous, of course. For decades, Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This is always what they do, hold the strait hostage. CNN doesn't think we thought of that. It's a fundamentally unserious report. The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better. Another example of a fake headline that I saw yesterday. War Widening. Here's a real headline for you. For an actual patriotic press. How about Iran shrinking, going underground. You see, Iran's leaders are hiding in bunkers and moving into civilian areas. The only thing that is widening is our advantage. Not to mention our Gulf partners stepping up even more now. Going on the offense and have always been with us on the defense with collective and integrated air defenses.
Steve Bannon
Said that the US Military has essentially aerial superiority, naval superiority over Iran.
Pete Hegseth
Yet we're not escorting ships to the Strait of Port. Mute.
Matt Boyle
Why?
Steve Bannon
How did you not plan for this?
Pete Hegseth
We planned for it. We recognize it because ultimately we want to do it sequentially in a way that makes the most sense for what we want to achieve and ensure that we're sending the right signals to the world when we do so. So when Chris Wright speaks or we speak, it's based on a full assessment of what we're up against, what we want to say to the world, how we want them to see and understand the conflict. It's like this whole idea of the war widening. That's what the press wants to make it look like. Like it's widening and chaos is ensuing. No, we're actually closing in on, grabbing hold of and controlling what objectives we want to achieve and how we want to achieve them.
Matt Boyle
Shape.
Pete Hegseth
It's called shaping operations and setting the conditions. But when you shape the environment, you don't always tell. I mean, foolish political leaders and foolish military leaders of the past will hang an exact deadline on it. Or here's exactly when we'll do what we're going to. How long it's going to take us. And then if you meet that, maybe you meet it. But if you don't, you fail. And if you're far beyond. We know exactly what we're shaping and why we're sending those signals. Working across the interagency. The Strait of Hormuz is something we've paid attention to from the beginning. And the American people can rest assured we will ensure that our interests are advanced. No doubt the force.
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
Absolutely.
Matt Boyle
Has Iran placed any mines since the war started?
Pete Hegseth
Is Iran placing new mines? We've heard them talk about it, just like you've reported recklessly and wildly about it. But there's we have no clear evidence. We have no clear evidence of that.
Neil McCabe
Thank you, sir.
Pete Hegseth
Mr. Secretary, given everything the US have
Matt Boyle
accomplished in the last 24 hours, as of today, how do you define success?
Pete Hegseth
Iran's leadership is in no better shape. Desperate and hiding. They've gone underground. Cowering, that's what rats do. We know the new so called, not so supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured. He put out a statement yesterday, a weak one actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement. He called for unity. Apparently killing tens of thousands of protesters is his kind of unity. Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why. His father dead. He's scared, he's injured, he's on the run and he lacks legitimacy. It's a mess for them. Who's in charge? Iran may not even know. With every passing hour. We know and we know they know that the military capabilities of their evil regime are crumbling. They can barely communicate, let alone coordinate. They're confused and we know it. But war in this context and in pursuit of peace is necessary. Which is why each day on bended knee, we continue to appeal to heaven, to Almighty God's providence, to watch over and give special skill and confidence to our leaders and to our warriors, to those warriors who this nation prays for every single day. I hear from all of you out there who pray for them every day. Stay on bended knee and pray for them. I continue to say to them, godspeed. May the Lord bless you and keep you and keep going.
Steve Bannon
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies. Because we're going medieval on these people. Christians not get 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.
Pete Hegseth
And where do people like that go
Steve Bannon
to share the big lie?
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
MAGA media.
Pete Hegseth
I wish in my soul, I wish
Steve Bannon
that any of these people had a conscience. Ask yourself, what is my task and
Neil McCabe
what is my purpose?
Pete Hegseth
If that answer is to save my country, this country will be war room.
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
Here's your host, Stephen K. Banner.
Steve Bannon
Matt Boyle, national political editor of Breitbart News, joins us this morning riding shotgun. We're also going to go to the White House, the Pentagon to break all this down. Matt Boyle also going to talk in depth about next week, the Save America Act. Looks like the Senate's going to deal with it. Don't know if that just optics is going to be real. Boyle's going to tell us also the Corn and Paxton situation. So we got a lot to cover in little time. Want to thank our sponsor Birch Gold I think now more than ever you need to understand the pattern recognition and the process that drives the value of gold. Why? Gold is both a hedge against times of financial turbulence. It's also now become a financial asset of the central banks of the world for I think going on the third year or buying physical gold at record rates. Birch gold go to birchgold.com promo code Bannon end of the dollar empire we now have a hard copy called the Patriots Edition that you can get if you if you want to flip through it. It's the Birch Gold team and the War Room team did a great job on pulling it together. Also you can get it online. Most importantly talk to Philip Patrick and the team about why may be the time for you to start to invest in physical gold. Check it out. A world in Turbulence right now. Pentagon Brief we're going to get to General Kane, Matt Bull, all next in the war.
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Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comdisclosures hey, it's
Pete Hegseth
Bobby Bones from the Bobby Bones Show. You know Eddie and I recently stopped by. Yeah, in Nashville. It's an incredible nonprofit empowering kids through music education. Thanks to Hyundai, we recorded a special podcast episode while we were there. Check it out. What's the dream for? Yeah, in the next few years we
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where what they may create with an
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those that may not want to be
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on stage but lack the opportunity at school to have an entry point into music. The full episode is out now, presented by the Hyundai Ioniq 9. To donate and learn more about Yah's mission, just visit yahrocks.org When I was
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Steve Bannon
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Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
War Room here's your host, Stephen K. Band.
Steve Bannon
Okay, Matt Boles with us. We're gonna break down the Pete. We're cutting the General Kane to get it down to the succinct about the military operations. You know, Pete's Pete Bulls with me. Pete's Pete. He's Always going to lean in and be aggressive. But I think if you, you know, they're very focused on what's been accomplished from a military perspective. And that's, that's good. I think you can derive from this, Matt Boyle, that we now have air supremacy. We're over Tehran, picking targets as we want. We can now use gravity bombs instead of the, what is Pete called, the exquisite standoff weapons. And one of the reasons I don't, I think we're running out of standoff weapons, but we've got air supremacy and we're doing targets and we're bombing the Revolutionary Guard and leadership and so at will, number one. Number two is that the new ayatollah looks like President Trump put this up on thing on Truth Social last night. He may be injured in one of these raids, disfigured. That's why everything, you don't hear his voice, you don't see his face, you just hear written proclamations. And the third is we're working on the Straits of Hormuz. Now, I think what's most important about Hormuz is what Scott Besant said. The Financial Times is reporting of London right now is reporting that Italy and France are in direct negotiations with the Iranians to get ships that are flagged or with cargo or oil for France or Italy out. We know the Chinese Communist party, I think, 11 million barrels. And Scott just said, look, it doesn't look like it's mined because certain nations are getting through. I think that's the big takeaways from this briefing this morning. We're gonna get to Kaine in a minute, but Matt Boyle, national political editor of Breitbart, your thoughts?
Matt Boyle
Yeah, well, I think that's a succinct assessment also, you know, you kind of gotta love Pete Hegseth taking, you know, a blowtorch or a nuclear weapon to the face. Fake news. So maybe he's got one mode, right, which is destroy, right? He goes in there and he lights up these losers in the establishment press. But I mean, look, I think the big thing that people want to see right now from the Trump administration is the update on the specific progress, what still needs to be done and where things stand and what still is, you know, what hurdles are still in the way ahead. So I think that's the information that people are looking for. And you're able to glean that, I think, Steve. But, you know, sometimes maybe we get a little distracted with destroying the fake news and their fake news attacks on the administration and on the administration's efforts but overall, you know, as long as we get the upper on the details throughout the whole thing, and I think you're able to pick that out of the press conference this morning, then that's, that's good. And it does appear to be good news.
Steve Bannon
Let's go back. Okay, let's go back. The, the, the Reuters is reporting this morning. Various voices inside the administration are saying, hey, this is what we got to do. Other people saying, this is what we got to do. Some are stay the course and keep it going for a couple more weeks. Others are, let's get an off ramp, let's figure out the sing Hormuz and get off. You just mentioned people are looking for, as you see it right now, Matt, how, what would you discern as at this, right this moment, right here, what are the military objectives of this that, you know, once accomplished, we can, we can, then the president can start making decisions about how much longer this thing lasts?
Matt Boyle
Well, I think the biggest question is, is what's left behind in Iran, right? So, you know, the news that the new ayatollah, the son of the old ayatollah, who was killed on the first night, is disfigured and, you know, in serious, you know, medical issues, apparently, you know, hurt in an attack, not even able to appear on camera or even a voice recording is a significant development. So is he going to lead the country or not? Or is this a temporary thing? Is this, you know, an oligarchy around him that's really controlling and pulling the strings? Who are those people? What does this look like? So I think that, you know, what does, you know, I know that they say the goal wasn't regime change. Well, they changed the regime because they killed the ayatollah on the first night. So what is left behind? And does it, you know, is it any better for the American interest if and when, you know, we walk away? And I'm pretty sure that the day is coming where we're going to walk away. Secondly, is Iran's or are Iran's entire military capabilities disabled and disintegrated? Right. Are they able to shoot these missiles? You know, we've been hearing about Iran having these weapons for a long time, and then Iran proved it on the first night in response. What did they do? They fired at every Gulf nation, right? So, in fact, I do think that the Iranians did more to unite the Gulf countries than anything the west or the Gulf countries have done at all in the last 30 years, in just a matter of weeks here by firing at Qatar and Saudi and UAE and Israel. I mean they're all kind of in the bunker today together now if you will and responding to this together. So I think that you know, what does the Iranian miss capability look like and what, you know, what is remains of their nuclear program, if anything. And you know, are they able to rebuild it at some point or not. And as long as that is the addressed and answered and we know what takes their place, I think it's time to figure out what are the. What does the exit look like here? Right. Like it does appear to be a massive military success.
Steve Bannon
Yeah, hang on for one second. Let's get to General Kane. We got about three or four minute thing on Kane and I want to have your comments and Neil McCabe's on this. Let's go and play it.
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
And thank you for joining us today. Before I start with an update, I also want to address the tragic loss of our KC135 refueling. The incident occurred over friendly territory in western Iraq while the crew was on a combat mission and again was not the result, as CENTCOM has said, was not the result of hostile or friendly fire. We're still treating this as an active rescue and recovery operation. As CENTCOM announced this morning, four airmen have been recovered and the Air Force and US Central Command will provide updates as information becomes available. Please keep these brave airmen, their families, friends and units in your thoughts in the coming hours and days. Our service members make an incredible sacrifice to go forward and do the things that the nation asks of them. It's a reminder of the true cost of the dedication and commitment of the joint force. We're also aware of a fire on board the USS Gerald R. Ford. We're thinking about the crew there who were injured in the fire. We believe and hope that everyone will be okay and we're grateful for that and for any further questions on that, we but we'd refer you to NAVCENT or to the Navy. This morning we enter the 13th day of operation Epic Fury and we continue to make progress towards our military objectives. As the Secretary said, today will be our heaviest day of kinetic fires across the operating area. CENTCOM continues to attack ballistic missile and drone capabilities so that they are no longer a threat to US forces, our bases or our partners. Their continued continuing to destroy the Iranian Navy to ensure freedom of navigation. And this means going after Iran's mine laying capability and destroying their ability to attack commercial vessels. And we're targeting their defense industrial base so they cannot rebuild the capabilities that can harm America's interests or our partners. In the future. As Admiral Cooper said in his update on Wednesday, Iranian combat power continues to decline as a result of the continued strikes. As the Secretary talked about, We've attacked over 6,000 targets and our strike packages continue to launch every hour. And we've maintained an unprecedented number of sorties up overhead of Iran. CENTCOM is now persistently over the enemy and a result we've seen a reduction in missile and one way attack fires. As the Secretary said, in less than two weeks we've rendered the Iranian navy combat ineffective and continue to attack naval vessels including all of their Soleimani class warships which were armed with anti ship missiles and anti aircraft weapons. We've made progress but Iran still has the capability to harm friendly forces in commercial shipping and our work on this effort continues. But I want to make something clear. The only thing preventing commercial traffic and flow through the straits right now, which there is some through the straits is Iran. They are the belligerents here holding the straits closed, although there is some traffic moving through there. We've made it a priority to target Iran's minelaying enterprise, their minelayers, the naval bases and depots in addition to the missiles that could influence the straits. And CENTCOM continues to attack those efforts. And we continue to make progress on the industrial base to include factories, weapons, warehouses that are stored in. And we will continue to do so in the coming days, especially today.
Steve Bannon
If we were to cut that tighter and start at day 13. Matt Boyle. That's about 2 minutes and 15, 20 seconds. I think it's one of the reasons that President Trump really holds General Kaine in high regard. Because right there you got a bang, bang, bang, bang. Here's exactly what we're doing. We're doing it methodically here. The results have been, here's what they got. Your thoughts? Give me a minute, Matt, before we go to break on Kaine.
Matt Boyle
Yeah, I think that General Kaine has it together. I mean that's as detailed as you can get. I mean we're less than two weeks into a war and it appears as though again without any ground troops sent into Iran, we've basically won. Right? I mean they're talking about the final bows that they're tying here and the final knots that they're figuring out. This is, this is the, the end, right? Like, I mean there, you know, there's a little bit left of Iran's naval capabilities.
Steve Bannon
This, this. Yeah, this is, this is what, yeah, this is what I think. Hang on, we're gonna go to break and we'll bring you Back Matt Bolt, national political editor at Breitbart. It is certainly close, closing in on the end of their conventional and nuclear capabilities and industrial base, etc. Now we gotta discuss asymmetric warfare because that's, that's what they're trying to hang their head on in the Gulf and in other places. Matt Bowles with us. Neil McCabes at the White House were packed this morning. Updates on where the war is. Also the war on Capitol Hill for the Save America Act. The President of the United States. Pretty, pretty blunt. Nothing happening until that gets passed. We'll see if it's optics or reality next in the war room.
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
War room, here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
Steve Bannon
Okay, welcome back. Neil McCabe is at the White House. We're going to go back to Matt Bowell here in a moment. Neil, your assessment of what you saw this morning. General Kaine, Pete Hexith, an update. Looks like the methodical takedown of the conventional forces of the Iranian government goes on. And now with air supremacy and the ability not to use these very expensive standoff weapons but to get in the old fashioned way and just start dropping them looks like making real progress according to General Kaine. Your thoughts? Yeah, absolutely. And you know those targets are also moving into the east, which is more difficult terrain and where things are, where things are buried into the mountains. So you know, it was a four week program. It seems to be ahead of schedule. And I think that, you know, everything
Pete Hegseth
on the tactical operational side is working. The problem is with the strategic and
Steve Bannon
geopolitical because you know, you have people in the administration who are, you know, watching the midterms, watching the polls, like Matt was saying. I thought it was really important that this press conference got some information out because a lot of times, Steve, it's not what is said but why it is said and why they had to come out this morning and put out this information was to say, hey, this is what's going on, we're making progress, things are good. You know, geopolitically I was pretty concerned that France and Italy are kind of like negotiating a separate piece, but I think that'll all play out in the end. Well, that's in. I think the importance here is that we've been advocating, I don't think you can get too much of General Kane and Admiral Cooper. I think when you talk about military objectives and what the driving force of this is, you know, Clausewitzian, the center of gravity of this fight is it's a military operation at the end of the day and where do we stand the military operation? We then can say, hey, these target sets, these objectives have been met. And then obviously you're dealing with the geopolitical and the geostrategic and economic and all that. But right now, the most important thing is still to continue to look through and see these things are being accomplished as they're accomplished. I will say and duly note that in the objectives of, of General Kane and centcom, we have not heard unconditional surrender or we've not heard the, to take away the ability of the regime to do power projection on their people. That was a, that was an objective last week. It's not an objective now. I think we're back to the original objectives of this military operation. Matt Boyle, what about holding together? Are you seeing any squeamishness on Capitol Hill? I know there's a lot of pressure on Besant. Eric Bolling is going to join us about the how much is actually being released by the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? We've got the midterms, and obviously we have this huge issue next week of Save America. But just on the war itself, what temperature do you have of where people are?
Matt Boyle
Well, I think that first off, Republicans on Capitol Hill are very much united in the threats from Iran and they stand with the President on this. At the same time, there are political consequences here. The question is with the gas prices going up and the questions regarding the Strait of Hormuz, right, like people are seeing, I mean, look, we had gas prices well under $3, what, a couple weeks ago, and now they're up a little higher, right, because of all of this. You see the price of oil going up and down. You see the markets responding, right? So, you know, if this is just a temporary thing for a few weeks, as the president keeps saying, it's all gonna work out just fine. But, you know, again, the people on Capitol Hill, they're, they're concerned about their reelections, they're concerned about poll numbers, they're concerned about that kind of stuff, in addition to the threats from the Islamic Republic of Iran. So, you know, that's, that's going to be the big concern moving forward here is, you know, that's why I keep saying the big question is, is what is the exit strategy? What is the end game, Right? What does this look like? What is, you know, that. And you're beginning to get answers to those questions from the Secretary of War, from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I think from the President. The president keeps talking about how this thing is almost over this thing is almost over. And he's been saying that for the last several days, if you listen to him. Right. So getting that from our military leaders now about what does this look like when it's over and when we're done in Iran, and what is the end strategy look like? I know that Hegseth is saying that he doesn't want to put a time constraint on it. That's a reasonable point. But at the same time, it's like they've got to figure out what is this end. Like, what does this end game look like? And what is, you know, us leaving.
Steve Bannon
Well, the president has been saying. He has. He has been saying, hey. He has been saying, hey, I want to make sure we don't leave before this is all done. Right. There are a set of objectives. Air supremacy itself. Yeah. It's what you do in that. Now, the asymmetric part, the part with the. Because Bloomberg's got charts out there. The longer Hormuz stays closed, and as we now know, Hormuz is closed to certain flags. If you have the Chinese Communist Party flag, you get out and get the oil, which I don't understand why we're allowing that. But greater minds than mine are working on this. Now, we know from the Financial Times that our great allies in Italy and France are in direct negotiations with the Iranians to see if they can't get into the friendly flag business, they can get their cargo and get their oil designated for them out of the Persian Gulf. Your thoughts on our great allies also the Arabs? I think it's pretty evident they turned out to be paper tigers in this situation. That's why you got Lindsey Graham having a couple of bourbons and branches and then screaming at the Saudis that you got to stop double dealing us. You got to get in this fight. Your thoughts, sir?
Pete Hegseth
Yeah.
Matt Boyle
I mean, look, at the end of the day, what we want to see is the open flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz and through all of the straits in the Middle east and throughout the world. And so if we can figure out ways to get there, that's a good thing. So I get it, why the Italians and the French would be pushing for this, right? Like, and why they would be trying to get their, you know, their ships through and frankly, you know, other nations as well. But the fact is, is that. And the end of the day here, this needs to be about an exit strategy, right? Like they can't stay there forever, right? Like it's not. Like this is not Iraq, right? Like this is not you know, we're going to be there for 10 years and we're going to have, you know, thousands of Americans on the ground. That's not going to be the case in Iran. Right. Like, that's abundantly clear from this administration. So now it's, I think it's, we're at the end game here, right? Like, what does the exit strategy look like? What does the Strait of Hormuz look like after this? What does the current leadership in Iran look like? What is the eventual leadership in Iran look like? And how do we get out of there now that it appears as though our military targets are mostly taken out throughout Iran. Right. So I think delineating what's left of military targets in Iran and then figuring out out the exit strategy and then alleviating the economic pressures on the world and then all of this is going to sort itself out. And I think the president's exactly right when he keeps talking, the way he talks about this is that, okay, the oil price is going to go up a little bit because obviously when you're at war in the Middle east and commerce is disrupted, that happens. But as soon as it's over and it's wrapped up and the US Military is, is returned home and we're not there anymore, then not operating inside Iran anymore, then I think that when we get to that point and the end game is clear and we're out, then, then I think you'll see commerce basically resume as normal. Right. Like. And when that happens, well, hang on.
Steve Bannon
Normal. Let's talk about next week. Please explain to this audience the Kabuki theory. Are we. The president said, and I don't think they got it because they're talking about bipartisan housing bills and there's many things that they're working on that can start to address certain of the issues about the economy. But it's really the president's actions has the biggest impact. President said, and correct me if I'm wrong, he said, look, I don't want to hear it. I want the Save America Act. I want it passed. If you got to do the talking filibuster, do it. If you don't have to do that, then fine, but I want it passed. This is essential for the midterm elections and you've heard nothing but Thune give every reason in the world why he can't do it, why he don't have the votes. Now, I think is overnight we believe that there's going to be actually putting it forward next week in some long debate that could take Many days or weeks. What do you know, sir?
Matt Boyle
Yeah, well, they're going to start the thing next week. The question is is will they be able to get the bill to the President's desk? And so their opening way of doing it is they're going to do it as a question posed by the House, right. Like to the Senate and that allows them to get on the bill with a 50 vote margin.
Steve Bannon
What? Hang on, hang on. Explain, explain, explain, explain that, explain technically, what does that mean? So the audience, because the audience.
Matt Boyle
The House is already patched. Yeah, the House has already passed this. So the Senate rules allow for them to do it that way rather than to have a 60 vote motion to proceed onto the legislation. Normally there's a number of different 60 vote margins to get on legislation, to get to final consideration of it and then to the final passage is usually simple majority. But these are the Senate arcane rules. They're very complicated. So what they're going to do is they're going to get on the bill a motion to proceed, basically. But their way they're doing it is, is that it's a question posed by the House because the House has passed this bill, the Save America act, and they're going to do it that way. They haven't done this in a long time. So that's a way to get around the 60 vote threshold on the outset of it. The problem is there's still a 60 volt threshold on the, the back end. Right. Like, and this is the issue that Cornyn th. All these guys are standing in the way of. They refuse to change the Senate rules. Right. Like, so President Trump has said we should get rid of the filibuster. That's the filibuster rule. Right. The 60 vote threshold on the back end of legislation. So they're getting rid of the 60 vote threshold actually on the open side of the legislation to get on the bill, which is a significant development by the way. So, like that's a good step, but it's still not enough to get off the, to get, you know, to final passage of the bill and get it to the President's desk. So is it, is it Kabuki theater? Essentially, yes.
Steve Bannon
Like, well, hang on, hang. Well, no, but it's not Kabuki theater. Are you saying by getting on the bill and doing this methodology, we're actually going to have the Democrats forced to sit there and defend why they don't want voter id, why they don't want the cleanup of the voter rolls, why they don't want mail in ballots. All those critical parts of the. Which they said is, this is voter suppression, it's Jim Crow law. If we get it at the start, are we going to have two weeks of Tim Kaine and Murphy and these guys being forced to. To go to the Senate?
Matt Boyle
Yeah, but the problem still is, is that there's still no legislation going to the President's desk unless they eliminate the filibuster or they get through it a different way. Some people have suggested this whole, quote unquote talking filibuster thing, which is you make the Democrats talk until they drop. The problem for that is, is that the Republicans would have have to staff the Senate floor with senators for just as long as that goes on for. And I don't know if they can physically do that. Right. Like, I think there's a lot of very old senators, like for instance, John Cornyn, who's up for reelection. He's 74 years old, right? Like, so can he stay there for three weeks straight? Like, can, can some of these other older senators do that? Like, you know, Chuck Grassley, he was a very older guy. I mean, you know, great senator, but very old guy. You know, these guys out in Idaho, like Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, I mean, they're old guys, right? Like, I mean, the average, the mean age of a senator, a Republican senator, I believe is 64, 65 years old. Right. And that's including people who are in their 30s and 40s, like guys like Tim Sheedy, who are really young.
Steve Bannon
Yeah, Hang on one second. We're gonna go to break. They sound like mere kids. We're gonna get into this as our hold up. The ability of the Republican Senate to step up here anyway. Matt bowl on the other side. Spread the world all through Hong Kong.
Pete Hegseth
We will fight till they're all gone.
Neil McCabe
We rejoice when there's no more.
Steve Bannon
Let's take down the ccp.
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
Steve Bannon
Okay, in a couple weeks it's going to be in Grapevine at the same place we did the kickoff for the Prop 10, which was amazing. Gerd Wilders, Glenn Beck, myself, Grant Stitchfield and others. It was incredible. Led to the overwhelming vote down there. The tickets now are 17 bucks for the War On Posse. So you gotta go to that. What is it? Cpat.org warroom. Do that today. You get a special if you're part of the war room posse. $17. Four days CPAT and you don't want to miss it. All the real American voice stars are going to be There Patriot Mobile is going to be with us in a joint booth. Going to be amazing and extraordinary. Matt Boyle, let's play. I want to play this. Ken Pax, I think just put up an ad or there's an ad. Let's go ahead and play it. And what your observations on this.
Neil McCabe
The senator didn't say who he intends to support, but he did double down on who he believes the Republican Party should not nominate, and that is former President Donald Trump.
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
Cornyn saying, I think President Trump's time has passed him by. And he adds, I don't think President
Pete Hegseth
Trump understands that when you run in
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
a general election, you got to appeal to voters beyond your base. President Trump fed that fantasy by repeatedly claiming the election was stolen, the president's actions were reckless.
Pete Hegseth
Do you believe that the president committed impeachable offenses?
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
I'm going to listen to the what's presented. It is our responsibility to get to the bottom of what exactly happened due to Russian involvement in our election. This question of whether there are any ties to the Trump campaign, that's a legitimate area of inquiry, and the committee's engaged in that.
Pete Hegseth
It's not a witch hunt.
Stephen K. Bannon (War Room Host)
It is a legitimate area of inquiry. We simply do not take classified documents out of a secure facility. He's created a circumstance for himself which is, I think, very, very serious. This one is basically something that he's admitted to. Ms. Monaco is a lifelong public servant. I believe she's well qualified to serve as Deputy Attorney General, and I plan to support her nomination. I have a lot of admiration and respect for Director Mueller.
Steve Bannon
John Corner of Texas told CBS News he simply doesn't think Donald Trump can get along.
Pete Hegseth
Elected president. Quite a statement from Senator Cornyn.
Neil McCabe
He won't be supporting former President Trump and neither should other Republicans. You believe the former president's time has passed?
Steve Bannon
I do. While Cornyn fought Trump, Ken Paxton has
Neil McCabe
always stood by the president.
Steve Bannon
He's done a terrific job for Texas and for our country. Attorney General Ken Paxton, a really great advice. I'm Ken Paxton and I approve this message. Matt Boyle. Pretty hard hitting there, sir. Your observations?
Matt Boyle
Yeah, well, I think it's abundantly clear now that in the 10 days since the Republican primary in Texas, John Cornyn has blown his opportunity to secure an endorsement from President Trump. At least as it stands right now, all the reporting suggests that John Cornyn will not be endorsed by President Trump, at least anytime soon. We'll see if that possibly changes. You never know with President Trump. Right. Like so. Again, I would just say hold it, hold it.
Steve Bannon
Hold it.
Matt Boyle
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Steve Bannon
Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. You're giving us a scoop. This is kind of a bombshell. Can you just hit rewind and repeat that?
Matt Boyle
Yeah. I think that it's abundantly clear that John Cornyn has blown his opportunity to win a Trump endorsement ahead of the Texas runoff. Again, all the proper caveats here. This could change at any given moment. But it does appear as though the president, who was apparently ready to endorse John Cornyn after the primary, after all of those things came out, many of those things in that ad, which is a very brutal ad over the last week or so, I think the president has given serious pause to this all. I have not spoken to the president, so I'm not speaking for him, but I'm just saying that all indications are that it does not appear as though the president will be endorsing John Cornyn anytime soon. In addition to that, I think that we have now, both sides were kind of waiting to see if the President endorsed somebody for the week or so after the primary. Now the campaign is back in full swing, right? So Cornyn's team is out running a really stupid ad attacking Ken Paxton for supposedly stealing a pen a decade ago, and now Paxton's out with this brutal response. And so the campaign is back in full swing. Both sides are now campaigning again after the primary and as we enter the runoff. And again, I think that the edge is this is Ken Paxton's race to lose. Right? Like or win. Win or lose, Ken Paxton is the. The candidate in the driver's seat going into the Texas Senate. Run it. Runoff. John Cornyn. It does not appear to have a clear pathway to victory without a Trump endorsement. And even with a Trump endorsement, the numbers are a little bit muddled, and we don't even know if that would be enough, which I think also the.
Steve Bannon
Hold it. Hang on. You hang on. Slow down. You're dropping bombshells here. I want to make sure we get. I want to make sure I'm hearing it clearly. Hit rewind on that. You're saying without an endorsement, you don't see a path forward for Cornyn?
Matt Boyle
I do not see Cornyn being able to win. And by the way, that's not just me. I've talked to Republicans around Washington all week. I've been meeting with different folks, you know, across the party. I won't give out names, but I'm just going to tell you serious people inside the Republican Party understand that if John Cornyn does not win an endorsement from President Trump. He will probably not be the Republican nominee for Texas for Senate in Texas this year and it does not appear that such an endorsement is coming.
Steve Bannon
Matt Boyle, where do people get your writings? Where do we get, where do we get we go to get more of Matt Boyle over at Breitbart and on social media, Sir.
Matt Boyle
Yeah, just breitbart.com@mboyo1 on X and Real Map Boyle on True Social.
Steve Bannon
And you do what time is your your show though? SiriusXM. You, you, you. 10am Took over from a great host
Matt Boyle
I did from, from the one only, Steve. So 10am to 1pm Eastern Time on Sirius XM125, the Patriot Channel on Saturday mornings. So we'll be live tomorrow.
Steve Bannon
Tell my truckers, Tell my truckers I miss them best. Second the Warren Posse. Tops of a band. They're pretty Damn good that SiriusXM. The truckers on Sirius XM. Pretty darn good. Thank you, brother Matt. Fantastic. And thanks for the scoops. Appreciate you. You know the interesting thing about that ad, that ad could have been written, the script pulled and the cuts pulled by tens of thousands of grassroots hardcore Trump supporters in the great state of Texas, it's that all those comments are burned indelibly into their soul. This is why they're so adamantly against Cornyn and so strongly for Ken Paxton Birch goal. Take your phone out, text Bannon B A N N Owen at Birchgold at 989-898. Get access to the ultimate guide for investing in gold and precious metals in the Age of Trump. And you get direct access to Philip Patrick and his team at Birch gold. Stick around. Second hour is upon us. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
This episode of The War Room with Stephen K. Bannon dives into the current status of the U.S.-Iran conflict, takes a hard look at military, political, and economic developments, and offers insight into domestic political battles—especially the ongoing Republican Senate race in Texas. The conversation features an aggressive critique of mainstream media narratives, in-depth analysis from regular contributors Matt Boyle (Breitbart News) and Pete Hegseth, on-the-ground reporting from Neil McCabe, and a military briefing from General Kaine.
(03:06–15:20, 21:47–38:52)
"We fly over the top of Iran and Tehran. Fighters and bombers all day, picking targets as they choose. ... Iran has no air defenses, Iran has no air force, Iran has no navy. ... We will keep pressing, we will keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemies."
—Pete Hegseth (10:13-11:26)
“They say the goal wasn’t regime change. Well, they changed the regime because they killed the ayatollah on the first night. ... What’s left behind? Does it serve American interests if and when we walk away?”
—Matt Boyle (25:33-28:05)
“This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies. Because we’re going medieval on these people.”
—Steve Bannon (15:20-15:39)
(28:13–32:43)
“We continue to make progress towards our military objectives...Iranian combat power continues to decline as a result of the continued strikes. In less than two weeks we’ve rendered the Iranian navy combat ineffective...”
—General Kaine (28:13-31:45)
(40:06–42:18)
“It’s evident the Italians and the French would push for this… but in the end, this needs to be about an exit strategy. They can’t stay there forever.”
—Matt Boyle (40:08-42:18)
(42:18–47:13)
“Are we going to have two weeks of Tim Kaine and Murphy and these guys being forced to defend why they don’t want voter ID, why they don’t want mail-in ballots?”
—Steve Bannon (45:19-45:58)
(48:38–53:53)
“It does not appear that the president will be endorsing John Cornyn anytime soon. ... Cornyn does not have a clear pathway to victory without a Trump endorsement.”
—Matt Boyle (51:11-53:53)
This episode balances straight-faced military briefings with blistering media and political commentary, channeling the intensity and rhetoric of the MAGA movement. It heavily criticizes the mainstream press’s “fake headlines,” offers deep-dive analysis of current strategic military goals, and foregrounds the domestic political stakes—framing the midterm battles as inseparable from national security. The show’s tone is urgent, adversarial toward establishment voices, and openly revels in political theater both on the battlefield and on Capitol Hill.
For listeners wanting a hard-hitting, deeply partisan, and detail-rich account of the U.S.-Iranian conflict’s progress—with an eye toward both military and political repercussions—this episode is representative of the War Room’s signature style.