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🚨BIG: Trump Speaking LIVE Right Now At EMERGENCY Military Press Conference | MIRACLE Rescue in Iran
02:22:07
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- [00:05]
Donald Trump
Havoc, this is 1.
- [00:06]
Benny Johnson
We need close air support.
- [00:07]
Donald Trump
90 degrees at 500 meters.
- [00:09]
Benny Johnson
Gains are close. How copy?
- [00:11]
Donald Trump
Bravo 4, 068 is entrance. Bravo 4, this is Dragon 26. I believe if you take a look now, you'll find your Tangos have been cleared out. Have a nice day.
- [00:40]
Benny Johnson
Jerry, you gotta cut it out with the goats. You gotta send me, bro.
- [00:45]
Donald Trump
Okay.
- [00:47]
Benny Johnson
All right. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our special live broadcast of President Trump's military emergency press conference where he will be joined by what we hear to be the top brass in all of the United States military. Perhaps he will be revealing the identities of the pilots who were dramatically and spectacularly rescued. This weekend we're going to be talking to former Navy seals about this on the show. We're going to bring you that live in all of its glory. We're also going to be again describing how impressive of a feat it is to build an airfield in the middle of occupied territory deep in the heart of a nation that you are at war with, and then to extract these high value targets after days hiding in the mountains. It is so impressive. I'm not sure I've ever joined this program more. Proud to be an American. I love this country. I am a unabashed and unashamed patriot. I love this nation so much and damn it, I'm so impressed with what we were able to pull off and I'm sick of people acting like they're not. I'm sick of people tearing down this country. You can have political disagreements and you can not like various subject matter. I spent most of the weekend actually with a number of old friends visiting. This is why I'm a little stuffy today because everybody has kids now. Some of those kids got too many vaccines scenes or they're in too much public school and they bring all these poisonous little bugs into my household. So I'm a little stuffy. Anyway, the point, any parent, like, understands the struggle of this, right? Having like 50 kids under roof and then your kids get sick and then you get sick and whatever. Anyway, I blame Dr. Fauci and the communists on all of it and I also blame the communists on shooting down our plane. It's become quite clear that Russians and Chinese are coordinating to try and help the Iranians in the shoot down of our planes, but it didn't work this time. Gotcha, bitch. It's going to you.
- [02:59]
Donald Trump
You got close.
- [03:00]
Benny Johnson
You got cl. Oh, you came so close. But now, ladies and gentlemen, President Trump, I think is going to change the world over with a massive announcement live on the show. We have a couple of little birdies telling us that this is going to be the one to tune into the. Things are going to change pretty dramatically today. And so this is why President Trump has called an emergency military briefing live. And so we will be locked in for that Ch. We almost got it. Uh, so let's celebrate this great country together. Uh, President Trump is due in approximately 45 minutes and we have a locked in show for you with Representative Eli Crane and Brandon Herrera. Joining our program, Chuck Devore as well, former Army Intelligence Lieutenant Colonel Eli Crane, a Navy seal. Brandon Herrera, just one of those guys who is just so deeply respected in the military community, will be running for Congress. Ask his questions, ask him some questions on all this. Obviously, my name is Benny Johnson and this is the Benny Show. You know, crypto, it's something that obviously is a brand new and exciting and dynamic economy. But there is also a problem with crypto that most wallets still plug into the same systems that we're trying to escape from. Rumble Wallet does not. Rumble built Rumble Wallet as a self custodial wallet that lives inside of the ecosystem that actually defends free speech and financial freedom. No bank holding the balance, not even Rumble can touch your funds. It's your money, your keys, your terms. So if you're already using Bitcoin or Stablecoins, Rumble Wallet gives you even more power to execute and to get out of a financial system that is rigged against you. Direct fast tipping for your favorite creators on Rumble without waiting weeks. And by the way, shout out to our Rumble audience.
- [05:00]
Donald Trump
We love you.
- [05:01]
Benny Johnson
On chain payments for assets like Bitcoin, Tether Gold and usat, you can move the value globally without asking anyone permission. Most wallets stop at storage, ladies and gentlemen. Rumble Wallet connects your money to the marketplace of ideas and refuses to cave to censorship. If you're serious about your sovereignty, sign up for Rumble Wallet today. Go to rumble wallet.com. that's wallet.rumble.com it is right here on the screen. You can also click the QR code wallet.rumble.com search for rumble wallet in your App Store. Ladies and gentlemen, let's rock and roll here. I just want to put up a diagram so you can understand. And we're going to go step by step as to what just happened because I don't think that anybody quite understands the dynamicism, the pure throbbing pride that you must have in your American military and the leadership of our American military to finally unshackle are great skilled, best on earth, best soldiers in the history of earth, no doubt what you are watching is peak military performance unlike anything that we have ever seen in human existence. It is dire what happened this weekend. Let's take a step back and explain. The F15E that got shot out of the sky using new Chinese and Russian technology has been shipped in to the Iranians. I'm sure Trump won't forgive or forget that, but they were able to get a strike on an F15E. Now this is a fourth generation platform fighter. It is certainly not our most sophisticated fighter. It's good for delivering payloads to bad people in bad places. But it is not a stealth jet. It is not even remotely close to our most sophisticated jets. The F22 Raptor platform and then other Lockheed platforms that are currently in development. The B2 bomber, famously, these are stealth platforms. This is not a stealth platform. So the shoot down of this jet based on its heat markings became something that the Iranians could conceivably do. And that is what they did. Now both pilots ejected, thank God, while the platform itself was lost. The F15E was a total loss because it was hit by shrapnel from the heat sensing missiles that kind of just like do a figure eight in the sky until it can lock on the plane. The plane fired its flares, but the explosion itself is enough to destabilize the platform that you'd have to bail. And that's what the pilots did. One of the pilots, the actual pilot of the plane. And this is a two man platform. So you have the pilot and then you have the weapon systems operator. One of the pilots got picked up immediately and got taken to safety. The weapon system operator did not landed and broke his ankle. And so let me like describe the situation that we are in and exactly how perilous it is. You can rewind the clock back just a few short years ago and you have Benghazi where you have not exactly one to one, but a somewhat similar situation where like deep in enemy hostile territory, you have Americans and American forces that are going to be subject potentially to complete and total propaganda humiliation, getting dragged through the streets, having their bodies desecrated, being used by these animals. And again, this is while the crash was in a somewhat rural area. This is right outside of the second largest city in Iran. There's no shortage of people, vehicles and municipal capacity that could go out and snatch up this pilot. This pilot could have potentially gotten the Benghazi treatment. And if we had a president, Kamala Harris would have been subject to torture, rape. You saw what they did to Muammar Gaddafi. Christopher Stevens and the five Navy SEALs that were trying to protect him in Benghazi when things went south. These are the same people. There was a $60,000 bounty on this pilot's head. $60,000, we looked it up. Is multiple years wages for the average Iranian goat herder and farmer in this agrarian area of Iran. And so you're talking this one pilot versus tens of thousands, if not millions. There's 90 million people living in Iran, millions of people attempting to capture him, broken ankle, totally in a foreign land. The odds are insanely against you. And more importantly, we've seen this play before. It's a rerun. What's a rerun? Well, when the Iranian regime fell the first time in the 1970s in the Iranian revolution, you had a major hostage crisis in the American Embassy and American consulates. Those hostages were kept in hostile, insufferable conditions for years and used as bargaining chits against America. They had to come up with extremely creative ways to get them up and out. Argo, Is that the right name? Yeah, Argo is the name of the Hollywood movie that I would encourage you to watch. Quite fascinating. But we were helpless to get our soldiers up to get our people up and out. Some of them State Department, some of them military, a lot of them State Department employees. So in fact, like modern hostilities with Iran stem from a hostage situation that you do not want to get back into this hostage situation again from the 70s, we've like our deep state has never recovered from. This is quite frankly why they wish to topple Iran. And part of the reason why is the open humiliation that the Iranians were able to subject Americans to the first regime takeover. And so this is a bad situation. It's a bad, bad, bad situation. Having this pilot get captured will would be used as a propaganda tool. He would be paraded through the streets of Tehran. He might be. This pilot might be publicly executed or violated or desecrated in some manner that would go worldwide and would humiliate America and would cause deep national sorrow and shame. You are in a bad situation here. So what happens next? Well, the pilot was shot down on Good Friday and was recovered on Easter. Let me tell you what, nothing short of a miracle is what happened next. Probably the single most miraculous rescue, without doubt the single most successful and impressive rescue in US military history. Okay, here we go. Weapon system officer, a lieutenant colonel, is injured during the ejection and becomes separated from the pilot. The U.S. air Force pararescue Special Forces soldiers in Jolly Green. Two helicopters mount a rescue accompanied by an MC130 refueling aircraft. They extract the pilot but are unable to reach the other crewmen. Two helicopters are hit and a 10 Warthog is also hit and crashes. No, no. Americans were stranded. So here we go, the escape Friday into Saturday. Here's where it gets unbelievably perilous and miraculous. On a broken ankle, this weapon systems operator is able to follow his training and hike a crevice deep in the Iranian wilderness up a mountainside and hide from everywhere in the world seeking them out. I mean, listen, you're talking about infrared drones. This is, you know, this is a world where you could absolutely be found. It doesn't have to just be a goat farmer that finds you. You could be found by any manner of technology if you show yourself at all. The officer hikes away from the crash to evade detection. Armed with his handgun, he intermittently uses his emergency beacon. But this also risks giving away his location to Iranian pursuers. He climbs up 7,000ft terrain and it covers at least 20 kilometers. Get your cardio and man, how impressive. Both American and Iranians. This is Saturday. The hunt continues. The hunt with. With the world at stake. Listen again, I cannot be under, I cannot be understated, overstated, how dire this situation is truly for this pilot and what the ramifications would be if caught. Both American and Iranians hunt for the officer. He's eventually located by the CIA, hiding in a mountain crevice. It is unclear how the CIA starts a deception operation to convince the Iranians that he's already been rescued. An MQ9 Reaper drone watch over the officer and attack anybody within 3km of the location. The two drones are shot down. Two drones are shot down while attacking Revolutionary Guard search parties so they know they're getting close. Oh boy, Here we go. Second rescue. Saturday morning, U.S. special Forces teams launch a search and rescue mission with commandos from elite SEAL Team 6, also known as DEV Group, and land on a desert airstrip near the town of Mayhar. The seals fly 4 MH6 little birds and rescue the officer from his mountaintop hiding place before returning to the makeshift airstrip. So you're under heavy enemy fire. This officer is wounded, hiding in the mountainside, and they just built a forward operational air base in the middle of the desert and landed some of the biggest planes on earth in the middle of the desert. Those planes had helicopters in the back of them that were assembled by the Navy SEALs. So the Navy SEALs built helicopters, then flew up to the mountainside and extracted the wounded pilot. Two C130 aircraft get stuck in the desert landing strip, forcing the commandos to wait for hours as new de Havilland Dash 8 aircraft are sent to the rescue team. Drones strike Iranians approaching the airstrip. Before leaving, the SEALs blow up the two struck aircraft, at least one helicopter, and make their escape. What happens in between all of this? As all this is going down, hellfire is raining in on this team. The entire Iranian nation is surrounding them. They are having to be fended off by A10 Warthogs and by various drones. They blew up roads, bridges, electrical systems, TV stations. They had to bring down an entire infrastructure in order to keep this remote part of the desert, like, clear in order for operations to continue. Do you understand, like, the sophistication? And I know you do because you're in this audience. You're a patriot, you love this country, you're proud of this country. But the deep sophistication of this, let me put it in perspective for you.
- [17:09]
Donald Trump
If a
- [17:11]
Benny Johnson
Iranian soldier, an Iranian pilot, had been shot down over Chicago, okay, this is Iran's second largest city. So we shoot down an Iranian air platform over Chicago. Unthinkable that an enemy air platform would even be flying over Chicago, of course, would have been vaporized while it even came close to the nation. As long as it's Donald Trump in charge and not Joe Biden, who let a Chinese air balloon fly over. Anyway, the point is the air platform gets to Chicago. The enemy air platform gets to Chicago, our second biggest city. It gets blown out of the sky. Finally, the pilots crash land somewhere between Chicago and St. Louis in a field somewhere. The Iranian military is able to then build an air base in the middle on the border between Missouri and Illinois. No farmer, no American, and no American military member is able to get near it without getting vaporized. The Iranians are able to go extract from the top of a grain silo, their wounded pilot, without any farmer or any American or any convenience store worker or any truck driver or any military interfering at all. Then their planes don't take off from their makeshift airfield, so they're able to fly in new planes and use their airstrip to get out without losing a single Iranian between St. Louis and Chicago. Does that, does that sound impressive to you? And there are people who still say that Iran is winning this war. There are people that still are cheering for America to lose. No, this is the single most impressive thing that our military has ever done. That includes the Osama Bin Laden raid. In my lifetime, I'm not sure if it's in all lifetimes, but in My lifetime, and we are privileged to be witness to, is also a miracle. The first words of this pilot was, God is good. From his crevasse hiding spot deep and high in the mountains of Iran within enemy territory. The, the, the impressive nature of this, the absolute majestic beauty of this swells your heart to the brim if you are in fact indeed a patriot. Ladies and gentlemen, President Trump speaking moments ago on the rescue. Alx Clip B. Is this from at the White House? This is from at the White House just seconds ago. Okay, President Trump is going to be speaking. Trump, next to the Easter Bunny, which is how normally how you get military species. Here's President Trump from moments ago. President Trump again will be speaking quickly and quickly at his press conference. We'll be going to Brandon Herrera right after this. Here we go.
- [20:30]
Donald Trump
And what about the rescue that took place yesterday? What about something that you rarely see? You know, it was giving me a briefing about that and they said, normally when you're in very hostile territory, and I don't think it gets much more hostile than Iran, they're capable fighters, they're very tough people. And there are others like that. You don't mind when the enemy is weak, but that enemy is strong. Not so strong like they were about a month ago, I can tell you. In fact, right now, they're not too strong at all, in my opinion. But we're soon going to find out, aren't we me. But when a thing like that happens where a pilot shot down, in most instances, you're really not able to go in because you'll go in with 200 people and lots of jet fighters and helicopters, and you really don't have a chance. They get shot down, you lose 200 in order to pick up one. It's a horrible thing, but it's very rare that you can do it. And what we did yesterday is we picked up not one. We picked up. Picked up, too. We kept the first one quiet and we were able to keep it quiet for about a day, which made it a lot better. But those two pilots were incredible brave and we thank them. And we're going to be having a news conference today at 1:00 clock at the Oval Office. And we look forward to it.
- [21:48]
Benny Johnson
Ladies and gentlemen, a patriot joining our program right now, Brandon Herrera, Please celebrate with us. By the way, let's have our applause. Ready? Brandon Herrera's exciting primary victory in Texas. Welcome back, Brandon. The cat loves you. The cat loves you, bro.
- [22:18]
Donald Trump
How's it going, bro?
- [22:19]
Benny Johnson
You know, we need a new chant, we need a New chant killer client. We need one of us. One of us. You're one of us, bro.
- [22:28]
Brandon Herrera
Let's go. Brandon's been working pretty good so far. I. I like that one also. I just have to say, I'm very jealous that you. You got to go to the Artemis 2 launch. That looked like a blast, man.
- [22:37]
Benny Johnson
You know, all you're gonna do, my brother in Christ, all you're gonna do is flash your congressional pin, which I will never have one. And you'll be able to go anywhere you want. Unless it's the UFO files or the Epstein files.
- [22:50]
Brandon Herrera
Yeah, people get a little weird about those. I was going to go. I had to cancel because I had a work thing come up last minute, but I was. I was so jealous watching it. I was live streaming.
- [22:57]
Benny Johnson
It sucks, dude. Well, it was amazing. And I look forward. We'll go to the next one, right? And you'll be sworn in, right? During the next one.
- [23:04]
Brandon Herrera
Absolutely.
- [23:05]
Benny Johnson
Okay. So here's something that I wanted to speak with you about. One, you have a massive audience of veterans and of people who really appreciate and. Or served in the Special Forces. They know. They know you to. And even though, as far as I know, you, you didn't, sir, I haven't signed up for the military. You. But we respect these people. We defend them. They need defense, quite frankly, in the arena of public opinion, because for the vast majority of my life, Brandon, they have been handcuffed, seemingly unable to do their jobs and unable to go and execute in wartime on behalf of our nation, which is a nation of fighters, a nation of gun enthusiasts, a nation that simply wants to win. We don't want detente with people. We want execution. This is why we pay our taxes. We want execution of bad guys. We love seeing missions like this. And the floor is yours. I would like to see more of it.
- [24:02]
Brandon Herrera
Absolutely. Well, there's ways to conduct war, and I think there's a lot of. There's a huge debate, especially in the military and the veteran community. There's a lot of people that don't want to see us getting wrapped up in foreign entanglements and things like that. And that's a sentiment that I echo as well. But if you're going to go to war, let's show these guys what $1 trillion in defense spending per year looks like. You know, we. We don't go in there with this Dick Cheney policy anymore of, okay, well, we're gonna. We're gonna hit him with some airstrikes, and then we're gonna send a bunch of 19 year old kids from Arkansas to stand at a gate with a rifle for 15 years and, and wait to get attacked and wait to get mortared and wait to get blown up, go in, take out the bad guys, get out. And if this is what it looks like, man, I mean, again, there's, there's a conversation to be had about America's role and intervention and should we be involved. But if we're going to be involved, our kill death ratio right now is absurd, especially what we've taken out with their Air force, with their missile defense and what's soon coming if they don't agree to our terms, their, their critical energy infrastructure and everything like that going forward. I mean, we are, it's one thing to say that, oh, I don't know why, you know, if we should be there, but it's another thing to say, like a lot of the people on the left and you know, God forbid on Reddit are saying, which is, oh, well, we're losing, we're getting steamrolled by Iran. It's like, no, we are rolling this country over. Like, make no mistake about it.
- [25:22]
Benny Johnson
Yeah, I like, I hate that doomer mentality. I am completely split. I think this audience knows that I like have screamed from the rooftop and the rafters that this should be the year of domestic policy wins and that if we don't lock back in on cheap groceries, cheap gas and, and cheap homes for working Americans, then all of it is for not. And so I, you know, really hate the foreign entanglements, to be quite honest with you. But nobody asked me, Brandon. You know, weirdly enough, I don't have a security clearance and so I wasn't brought into the Situation Room as much as I'd like to, although it'd be illegal and I'd be shot on sight. You know, they didn't ask my opinion, right? And I voted for Trump three times. And you get good Trump and bad Trump and you know, three time Trump voter just enjoy the ride, I guess. And you're going to agree with some things, you're going to disagree. So it is what it is. That's not really what I want to talk about here though. And we can do another show on that. What I want to talk about is how like refreshing it must be. And I want to hear perhaps from your audience or from your district. I know there's a ton of veterans in your district. They must swell with pride to be able to see this operation, single most successful military operation, search and rescue operation, perhaps in the history of, of the World. And all the Iranians were left with was this pair of underwear from American Eagle. That's it. That's all he got.
- [26:41]
Brandon Herrera
The. I mean, it was a. It was a. It was a massive success, to my understanding. Not a single American casualty. We did take, you know, some, some hits on aircraft and things like that. And that's actually a tweet I wanted to bring up today. I don't know if you've already mentioned it before, but somebody posted a picture of the aircraft that were damaged or lost in the attack, says, lose all this to rescue one pilot and call it your greatest military success of all time. And then somebody responded to it. I'm noticing a lot of foreigners who do not seem to understand why we'd risk hundreds of lives, millions of dollars, and sacrifice several aircraft to rescue one guy. And the reason they don't understand this is also the reason people can't be made American by a piece of paper. It's like, that is. I could not have said it better myself. You know, I hate trying to steal from Twitter, but at the same time, the man nailed it. I mean, this is the one thing I am absolutely certain about in this operation is that every every Saturday night on a bar, on post, this pilot will absolutely be telling the story about how he did Behind Enemy Lines Sandbox edition. And he will never pay for a
- [27:42]
Benny Johnson
drink for the rest of his life, I believe. And based on some of the stories that I've been hearing, that there is. We haven't even heard the half of it. I mean, this is why we're live for President Trump's commentary here, because I think we're going to hear finally the full story of what actually happened. Building air bases out in the middle of the desert, bro. Like, being able to do this, being able to extract, like, from deep behind enemy lines and build forward operating bases, it's so impressive. I don't think people quite understand, like, most airports in America can barely run, but our, but our military can build them behind, like, deep in enemy territory. Right outside of Chicago in Iran, right? Like, right outside of the second biggest city in all of Iran, we're able to do this. It really does. It really does. Like, it really does. Hopefully black pill some of the doomers out there. I really, I really do hate the people that are saying, like, we've lost and Iran's defeated us. It makes me so mad.
- [28:42]
Brandon Herrera
Yeah, that's, that's a take that I, you know, there's, there's a lot of disagreements we can have again on foreign policy. And things. But to say that we are losing is just absurd. It's an incredible. An incredibly. What is it? The cognitive dissonance is off the charts.
- [28:57]
Benny Johnson
We have the tweet here that you were talking about. This was.
- [28:59]
Brandon Herrera
Yes, perfect.
- [29:00]
Benny Johnson
This flew yesterday. And can we just. Let's go to the. The main post here, please. The op. The mil. The.
- [29:08]
Donald Trump
The.
- [29:09]
Benny Johnson
This is. They literally did. The European mind can't comprehend this. They did the meat.
- [29:14]
Brandon Herrera
Did you see the one earlier too? Because I saw that guy has a French flag in his. In his bio or in his. His name there.
- [29:20]
Benny Johnson
Perfect.
- [29:21]
Brandon Herrera
Did you see the one from the French general? It was a couple days ago. About our plan to. Our alleged plan to. To build airfields out there to extract the uranium.
- [29:32]
Benny Johnson
Yeah. He said you should stop doing cocaine. Right?
- [29:34]
Brandon Herrera
Yeah. Did you see the reply to that one as well?
- [29:37]
Benny Johnson
Which one was that?
- [29:38]
Brandon Herrera
Says the Americans can do thing that. Things that the French need cocaine to even fathom.
- [29:44]
Benny Johnson
There it is. I mean, here's the actual clip. Yeah, clients got it.
- [29:47]
Donald Trump
This is great. Oh, perfect.
- [29:48]
Benny Johnson
Yeah. This is him saying, stop snorting cocaine. Says the French general. Yeah, you're exactly right. So they did the meme. The European mind can't comprehend it. Could you please explain this? Given the fact that no doubt you'll be in Congress, you'll be on, you know, armed forces, you'll have a big say when it comes to the veteran community that trusts you and really cares about you and cares about your voice that need better voices, quite frankly, in Congress. Could you speak to what the difference is here that is on display? Like, what does it mean to leave no man behind? What is it that the Europeans can't grasp here when they're like, look, look, there are planes. You left planes in the desert. How dare you know people aren't worth planes. What is that, Brandon?
- [30:37]
Brandon Herrera
You know, it's something that reminds me a lot of the Russian mindset on how they approach lives and things like that. And we've seen fold display. I mean, in Ukraine, everybody knows about it from. From World War II, but I mean, we've seen their approach to. To how they treat their people in the Ukrainian war. But Americans have always had this mindset. It's like, no, no man left behind. We can make more airplanes, but those American lives are very valuable, and that's something that we. We. We take very seriously. And again, to. To stand on the soapbox for a second. That's one of the reasons why I think so many Americans are opposed to foreign entanglements for no reason. Now there's there's certain instances, of course, where we need a strong defense, sometimes a strong offense. We need to be able to be the American power, be the American that the Japanese think that you are, you know, that sort of thing. But the. As a friend of mine who's a very, very strong veteran advocate, as he says very often, and I echo the sentiment, sentiment, if you want to help veterans, stop making more of them. You know, if you want to help these people, you know, don't submit an entire generation to unnecessary PTSD just because we want Raytheon to make more money. There goes all my Raytheon donors. But that's fine. But, you know, it's that kind of sentiment. It's, it's, let's, let's, you know, protect our people. And I agree with you. Let's, let's make this the, the year that we start focusing on domestic policy, because I feel like that's what, that's what the voters care about. If we want to preserve the house in the midterms, let's get these, these gas prices down. Let's get the cost of living down. Let's get affordable housing. Let's, let's continue to do all the great things that we've been doing in health care through, you know, RFK and through President Trump's executive orders, man, that's the sort of stuff that we need to steamroll. Speaking of steamrolling, I'm looking forward to Iran being out of this conflict fairly soon so we can get back to domestic policy.
- [32:17]
Benny Johnson
Yes, that's right. Okay, so this is a great question about, like, like, what are you going to do when you're in Congress to ensure that our war fighters can go and execute and kill the bad guys and then get the hell home, right? Like, what is, what are you going to bring to Washington, D.C. to ensure that this continues? What I'm hearing in all of my comments, Brandon, is a bunch of old gwat veterans being like, this is what we wanted to do in Afghanistan, in Iraq, right? Like, blow shit up, get rid of bad guys, but then, like, stop filling potholes, right? Like, take care of our people, then get the hell out. Based on all of the, based on all of the posturing, right, from the Defense Department to our interview with Vice President Vance like, a week ago. And that seems to be like the, the narrative here. You can argue about Iran one way or the other, but the narrative here seems to be we want to get the hell out of there, right, as fast as possible. So no forever war. Thank God, at Least we've crossed that.
- [33:18]
Brandon Herrera
Yes.
- [33:19]
Benny Johnson
How are you going to make sure that this is the way that America conducts wars on behalf of the war fighters? When you get to Congress as much
- [33:25]
Brandon Herrera
as I can, unfortunately, it doesn't seem like in the last few decades of American war fighting, they seem to care what Congress thinks at all. But I'd like to see a return to that as well. But that being said, there's certain things that I can do and certain people I've talked to and like the higher ups in the chain of command when it comes to the armed forces, the United States army, where they need other voices in Congress to help them make our war fighters more lethal for less money. You know, being able to cut these costs, you know, when you've got a module from a helicopter that, you know, really costs $300 to manufacture, but being sold to the American military for $42,000 on behalf of the American taxpayer, that's the stuff we need to cut. Start focusing on more domestic engineering, domestic manufacturing, in house manufacturing, so we can reduce these costs and make the American war fighter more lethal while not making it at the, the detriment of the American taxpayer. Because if we can afford to, you know, again, give them more training, give them more equipment, give them better equipment while also reducing the cost that the taxpayer has to pay for all this stuff, I see it as a win win.
- [34:33]
Benny Johnson
Do you think that you're going to get potentially more recruitment based on the fact that we have made this sort of national, worldwide announcement that we care for our war fighters more than we care for our equipment? Do you think this is going to help and give a little bump spree de corps sort of question?
- [34:58]
Brandon Herrera
I think that's a, that's a secondary bonus. Hopefully that wasn't the thought process behind the decision, which I don't think it was. I think that's something that we've exemplified time and time again throughout all of American history, is that we care for our people, which is really a lot of what has set us apart from other nations. Again, some in Europe, that we're seeing that on display in full right now. But we, you know, we actually deeply care about our people, and that's something that we're willing to.
- [35:24]
Donald Trump
We're going.
- [35:24]
Brandon Herrera
We're willing to go to bat and we're willing to, to send more Americans into harm's way. Who signed up for that express purpose to go out and find and save and bring Americans home. Because that's one thing I will tell you, the search and rescue guys that we have in our armed forces. They do not play around. Those are some of the best trained, most lethal individuals on the entire planet. And that was in full display and what I believe might be one of the first, if not the first conventional small arms conflict of this entire Iranian conflict. So that the fact that we were able to get in, get out with, to my understanding, at time of recording, is still 0American casualties is just another flex to add to the list of flexes that we've done to the rest of the world this entire time.
- [36:11]
Benny Johnson
Just as, as we were putting it in perspective. Imagine an Iranian surviving on the south side of Chicago after getting shot, shot down.
- [36:20]
Brandon Herrera
I don't think I could even survive in the south side of Chicago for that long.
- [36:27]
Benny Johnson
Yeah, that's right. Americans can't do it, much less build an airfield. Right. And again, I mean, the Chicago Bears are leaving Chicago for this exact reason. So it's wildly, it's just wildly impressive. And we, you know, frankly, we just, we want, we want the win, just like the Artemis launch. Like, we want the win, we want the refocus back on American greatness and to get back to the business of taking care of Americans. Like, obviously that needs to be like the position here. And hopefully that's what's announced soon at this press conference from President Trump. Just a final campaign update. I know that our audience is locked in and cares a lot about you, Brandon, and your campaign. How's it going? Everything good?
- [37:09]
Brandon Herrera
It's going fantastic. The Democrats keep trying to say that, oh, my opponent has a chance. Oh, this is a flippable district. We have yet to see one poll where I'm not ahead. Even their push poll where they would not release the initial ballot. So basically they said, oh, you know, Brandon Herrera is the son of Satan. Did you know this? You know, that being said, would you. Who would you vote for? I was still up by two points.
- [37:29]
Donald Trump
Points.
- [37:30]
Brandon Herrera
That being said, we can't get complacent. I mean, Poly Market had us up fairly significantly. I think I was checking this morning. We were up 67 to 26, I believe is the Poly Market odds, last I checked. So, like, we're, we're doing pretty good, but we're still fighting like we're behind. You know, this is going to be a tumultuous midterms again if we, especially if we don't get the policy, domestic policy down and get the conversation back on domestic policy, this is going to be a rough midterm. And so we want to make sure that we are able to retain The House. Whether we're able to do that or not is still up in the air, but I'm going to make sure that we don't. We don't lose it because of District 23, that's for sure.
- [38:08]
Benny Johnson
All right, Klein, you got that Poly Market? Pop it up. Let's go ahead and see here.
- [38:13]
Brandon Herrera
There is 65, 36.
- [38:15]
Benny Johnson
65, 36. Okay. Sitting good. Sitting good, brother.
- [38:19]
Brandon Herrera
Not too bad. Not too bad. I'll take that bet.
- [38:21]
Benny Johnson
We still would love to go to the district. Maybe we can help you. Maybe we're going to help you film for your YouTube channel a reenactment of the search and rescue. That'd be great.
- [38:30]
Reporter
Yeah.
- [38:30]
Brandon Herrera
I'll tell you what, anytime you want to come down, man, we. We've got rallies planned for. For later on this year. We're trying to get that 2016 Trump spirit alive. You know, the. The America First. Make America great again and just get some. Some really big, big names out there. So if. If you'd like to come out, brother, we'd have you anytime.
- [38:46]
Benny Johnson
Here's Brandon's website right here. And obviously you can follow Brandon Herrera here on x. He's got 700,000 subscribers. He's got millions more on YouTube. Follow him in both locations, and Godspeed, Brandon. That little congressional. The Congressional pin, man, it's going to look great on you. You'll never miss another rocket launch.
- [39:04]
Brandon Herrera
If you could scroll down a little bit on that. That X page, there was more that just came out today on my former opponent, I will say the sitting congressman, Tony Gonzalez just got. It just got released that there was another staffer that the text messages were just released. So it's just. It's getting bad. And these.
- [39:24]
Reporter
I just.
- [39:24]
Brandon Herrera
The reason I bring that up is not only just to dunk on that again, but also because people said, oh, I was making it up and I was lying. And I'm like, we've known about this for quite some time, but it exemplifies the kind of people we're trying to get out of office. These are the kind of Republicans that put on the mask and they pretend to be one of us. They don't care about America first. They don't care about the district. They don't care about conservative values. But they play the part because they want the power so they can abuse it. And that's what we're trying to fix. And we need more of the good people like you and I in the fight and off the couch so that we can actually get some stuff done.
- [39:58]
Benny Johnson
Brandon is so correct there. The only time we're actually cooked, the time when we're actually over worst lights out for America is when good men stop doing these things. Stop standing up and running for office and saying, like, I can go and I can assist in saving this country. That that's when we're actually cooked. So the fact that this is happening is happening across the country, it should inspire you. Godspeed, Brandon. We look forward to visiting the district, man. Be awesome.
- [40:23]
Brandon Herrera
It's a pleasure, man. Thank you for having me on.
- [40:25]
Benny Johnson
See you, bro. Ladies and gentlemen, what is really happening right now, gold and silver are breaking out to new all time highs. There is a lot of instability all around the globe. Make sure that you are locked in with a winning strategy that, well, quite frankly, doesn't really change from day to day. A lot of strategies do, in fact collapse in real time. I've been part of them. And so that's why I can firmly declare to you and recommend that you invest in gold with my friends at Advantage Gold. Text Benny to 85545 right now and get locked in to a golden era portfolio. Text Benny to 85545. You'll instantly get a free gold investment kit and don't wait while instability continue to erode in the market. Text Benny to 85545 right now. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, when I want to get a take on the Special Forces and on the activity of our United States military, specifically in the elite forces, there's only one member of Congress to call. That's Eli Crane. He's a former Navy seal. He's somebody that is rock ribbed freedom fighter and who represents a vanishingly small number of veterans and special Forces operators in the United States military today. And he is joining us live right now. It's an honor to have him. Let's go. Congressman, welcome back to the program. What a beautiful background you have there. Tell me about it.
- [42:05]
Eli Crane
Thanks for having me on, Benny. So obviously we've got some SEAL art in the background. This is the last piece of kit that I wore while I was deployed with the SEAL teams. And, you know, it's. It's an honor to be with you, man.
- [42:21]
Benny Johnson
It's amazing. Okay, so you must be beaming, swelling with pride after watching the execution of this mission. But you're one of the very, very few Americans who actually understand what happened on this mission because you bet on missions like this, at least like through intermittent territory before. Talk us through it, Congressman.
- [42:44]
Eli Crane
Well, Benny, you know, I, I am, you know, proud that we were able to you know, rescue these pilots. I'm also more relieved than anything, you know, just that's one of the scariest things you can ever face as a soldier, airman, is being separated, being shot down and, you know, wondering if you're ever going to see your family again. Wondering if you get captured, you know, am I going to be, you know, executed immediately, am I going to be tortured? The United States military does do a pretty good job of trying to prepare us. All of us go through SERE school, survival, evade, you know, resist escape training. You know, I went through it myself and you know, it's, I'm just, I'm just grateful I wasn't there for the operation. So I'm not going to talk to exactly, you know, what happened because I don't know. I can tell you some of the things that, as I'm reading reports that I think back through my training and some of the, some of the things that I've done in my time in special operations and you know, to try and fill in some color for you
- [43:50]
Benny Johnson
guys, please, please, can you talk us through perhaps some of the things that somebody like myself, I've never, I've not served in the military. Like what, what are we seeing when we, when we look through the evidence here of, you know, traveling 7,000 miles? I mean, just the ability to do that on what is reportedly a broken ankle, to climb a 7,000 foot ridge and to evade capture. When you're next to Iran's second largest city and there's no doubt tens of thousands of people searching for you, what goes through your mind in a moment like this?
- [44:23]
Eli Crane
You know, well, Benny, you'd be surprised what your body's capable of. You know, when, when the chips are down and you know that there's a good chance that you're not going to make it out. I don't know, you know, this, you know, this, this pilot. I don't know these pilots. I don't know if they have families or not. But, you know, the motivation of getting back to see your family and getting out alive will allow you to do things that most people never thought their bodies were capable of. And I will tell you that in. It was 2010, my unit, SEAL Team 3 Delta Platoon, we were tasked with looking for a former Air Force pilot named Major Troy Gilberts who had been shot down in Fallujah. My unit was working in the area and it was four years later and we were still looking for him. They were taking a full SEAL platoon and tasking us to go try and find this Guy. And that's how seriously the United States of America takes this. And I'm so glad that we do, Benny. And I was listening to some of your interview with my friend Brandon Herrera, you know, before I came on. And a lot of people will never understand that, you know, we put human life over equipment every day of the week. And I'm so glad that we do, because not only does, gives you, like, when you go into a lot of these, you know, situations where you're going into the worst places on earth, very violent places, and, you know, there's a chance you're not going to come home to know that they're not going to ever stop looking for me and they'll. They'll do everything they can to bring me home. It gives you a level of confidence, right?
- [46:00]
Brandon Herrera
Yeah.
- [46:00]
Eli Crane
And it was interesting because even in that story, Benny, where we were searching for Major Troy Gilbert four years after his F16 went down, and I will say he went down doing a gun run, trying to bail out some other special operations troops who were in a tick or troops in contact, they were pinned down and his, his plane was shot down. And we didn't end up finding Troy Gilbert on my deployment. I think he was recovered a year or two after that in, in the same region that we were looking for him in. But I can tell you I went to a. I went to a veterans event. I think it was fold of honor or something like that. And I actually got a chance to meet his wife, Ginger Gilbert, and it was just amazing, Benny, because I, I knew I connected the dots, you know, really quickly on who she was then I was looking for her husband, and I didn't want to bring up any bad memories. So I was hesitant on whether I should even go say hello and say I was one of the guys looking for your husband even four years after. But I ended up going up and talking to her, Benny, and she was the sweetest woman I've ever met. And I actually got to bring her and her family out to Tucson, Arizona, where I was at. And we took them to a racetrack and they got to race around in some cars. And I got to show them videos of my unit looking for their dad. And we were, you know, in the videos, we were digging up concrete slabs we thought he might have been buried under, you know, and I just wanted her to know that when she's being told by generals and admirals, we're looking for your husband, that she knew that that was true because we, we were still looking for her husband.
- [47:42]
Benny Johnson
Congressman, what does it mean to finally let off the chain, the special forces and the operators to go do their jobs. I know that there's been much to be made about overly politicizing and putting handcuffs unnecessarily on our special forces, but it seems like the Trump administration has taken those handcuffs entirely off and has loosed our special forces to really, like, take. Take care of themselves and take care of Americans in harm's way is. Am I reading this correctly?
- [48:14]
Eli Crane
Absolutely. You know, Vinny, and this is one thing that many of us were talking about before this, even this last campaign for president, and the fact that President Trump repeatedly talked about on the campaign trail, returning our military to a state that was where we were focused on lethality. We weren't focused on DEI anymore. We weren't focused on making the military some social experiment. You know, it was all about meritocracy. It was all about violence of action, and it was all about making sure that we had the baddest military force in the world. And you're seeing when our military is used in that righteous manner, what it's. What it's capable of.
- [48:52]
Benny Johnson
Yes. And so did you have any personal experience having politicians or committees come in and say, no, don't, you know, don't be. Yeah, don't go kill the bad guys. That would hurt their feelings?
- [49:08]
Eli Crane
Yeah, you know, we. We did see that type of thing, as a matter of fact. I mean, one of the most frustrating things that I've ever seen overseas is when and. And there's so many layers to these politics, Right. You've got the local regional politics of the host country that you're. You're fighting in from. In my case, it was Iraq. And then you've got the pressures on the American side, you know, where, you know, a lot of people are, you know, more concerned with, you know, other things than they are. Whether or not you win the war, that can all be frustrating. But I can tell you, you know, I had personal experiences. I had one personal experience, and I'll try and get this right. They all kind of get jumbled together, but we chased. Chase this guy down that we were tracking. I think we. We chased him for probably, you know, probably, you know, 15, 16 hours during the day. Two different groups of our SEAL platoon that were chasing this guy around the country, he was very good at evading, you know, evading, you know, our. I don't know if he got tipped off or what, but we were watching him in the talk. My group, we were the second group to go out after this guy. We were watching him jump in and out of different vehicles to try and evade US Forces trying to capture him. And I. I know he, you know, when he was running from us, he ran into a house. He, you know, he executed somebody there. I think probably because they wouldn't allow him to stay in their home. You know, he. He got back on the road and he knew that we were. He was being followed with ISR and, you know, aerial platforms. And, you know, we find. I ended up being the point man of the second group when we finally knew where he was bedded down that night, you know, who walked our platoon into where the house that he was at. And I woke him up with my gun in his face in a backyard. And it was, you know, it was great. It was high fives that, you know, we'd gotten this guy, you know, as we were debriefing on the way back home, when we got back to base. And then we found out, I think it was a week or two later that somebody in Iraq came in, you know, with like $30,000, dropped it on the judge's desk, and he was let out the next day. And so those are the types of things. And I think, Benn, we had, I think 16 or 17 F16 check on and off platform that day to follow this guy around. We had multiple air assets and I. The bill to the American taxpayer just to catch that guy and then have him be released for $30,000. Those are the types of things that you see in war. And it's hard to watch, man, because, you know, we knew we all risk our lives just going out and trying to, you know, capture this guy. And then you see corruption like that. And it's like, you know, sometimes. Sometimes you get the feeling like, what the hell are we even doing here?
- [51:56]
Benny Johnson
Yeah, that's exactly right. The President, ladies and gentlemen, has just taken the press dais. He's there with the CIA, Director of the CIA and with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and with the Secretary of War. And so we are going to cut on over to the President. God bless you, Congressman, thank you so much for joining us and Godspeed. We look forward to having you back on to talk more about this.
- [52:25]
Eli Crane
Thanks, Vinny. Appreciate it, man.
- [52:26]
Benny Johnson
Thank you.
- [52:29]
Donald Trump
To discuss. We'll go into pretty good detail. And we have the people that are most involved. We'll give you exactitude. And we're here today to celebrate the success of one of the largest, most complex, most harrowing combat searches, I guess you would call it, a search and rescue mission ever attempted by the military. Generally, when planes are knocked down in war, especially when you're fighting a strong group, an evil group, you can't really do this because you send in 200 men to pick up one. And it's something that's usually not attempted as much,
- [53:12]
Benny Johnson
ladies and gentlemen, for some
- [53:13]
Donald Trump
reason, you want to attempt.
- [53:15]
Benny Johnson
There we go.
- [53:16]
Donald Trump
And bad things happened to that one or two. And in this case, we did, too. And might not have been attempted before, but we did, and we got. We had great talent. We got a little luck, too, I would say. And we were helped by a lot of people, a lot of great people, and it was an honor to be involved with it. Very historic. This is a rescue that's very historic. It'll go down in the books. Late Thursday night, an American F15 fighter jet went down deep inside enemy territory in Iran while participating in Operation Epic Fury, where we're doing unbelievably well. Well, at a level that nobody's ever seen before. The entire country can be taken out in one night. And that night might be tomorrow night. Both members of the crew ejected from the aircraft and landed alive on Iranian soil. I immediately was asked to make a decision. I ordered the U.S. armed forces to do whatever was necessary to bring our brave warriors back home. A risky decision because we could have ended up with 100 dead as opposed to one or two. It's a hard decision to make, but in the United States military, we leave no American behind. We don't do it. Within hours, our armed forces deploy 21 military aircraft into hostile airspace, many flying at very low altitude, being shot by bullets. You bring rifles into play when you're going that low. But there are also certain advantages. And in broad daylight over Iran for seven hours, at times facing very, very heavy enemy fire. We have a helicopter that's got a lot of bullets in it. It's amazing. We just realized how good those. Those weapons are, those our machines are. Nobody has. Nobody has the equipment that we have. Nobody has the military that we have not even closed. The most powerful military anywhere in the world by far. The flight crews and war fighters aboard those aircraft took extraordinary risks to rescue their fellow service members. This first wave of search and rescue forces successfully located the pilot of the F15, and he was extracted from enemy territory by an HH60 Jolly Green 2 helicopter. Fabulous machine. As our warriors faced gunfire at very close range. It's amazing that when you look at the machinery, what happened, that nobody was even injured. Meanwhile, the second crew member, a weapon system officer, highly respected colonel, had landed a Significant distance away from the pilot. When you're going at those speeds, even if you go out two or three seconds later, miles. It's miles and miles away because you're going fast. He was injured quite badly and stranded in an area teeming with terrorists from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps rough group, as well as besieged military, militia and local authorities. Many on top of everything else they told the communities actually with inside of Iran, the people of Iran, they were given a tremendous incentive to find this pilot. Despite the peril, the officer followed his training and climbed into the treacherous mountain terrain and started climbing toward a higher altitude, something they were trained to do in order to evade capture. They want to always go as far away from the site of the shoot down. You want to go as far away, because they all head right to that site. You want to be as far away as you can. And he was injured, and he was an amazing, amazing thing. He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds, and contacted American forces to transmit his location. They have a very sophisticated beeper type apparatus that is on them at all times. And when they. When they go out on these missions, they make sure they have lots of battery space and they're in good shape. And this one worked really well, amazingly saved his life. We immediately mobilized a massive operation to retrieve him from the mountain holdout. And he kept going higher and higher. The mountain kept getting rougher and rougher and really very, very hard to find. The second rescue mission involved 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, 13 rescue aircraft and more. We were bringing them all over, and a lot of it was subterfuge. We wanted to have them think he was in a different location because they had a vast military force out there. Thousands, thousands of people were looking. So we wanted them to look in different areas. So we were right on top of them. We had seven different locations where they thought, and they were very confused. They said, well, wait a minute, they've got groups here, they've got groups there. It's an amazing thing. I was listening to these great people, these great generals, General Raisin Cain, who's amazing, and Pete Hegseth was amazing. But I listened to the whole thing. It was pretty amazing. So they had all these different sites where everybody thought he was located. We think we have him over there because they have nine planes circling a little area that's 25 miles down the coast. So in a breathtaking show of skill and precision, lethality and force, America's military descended on the area, the real area, engaged the enemy, rescued the stranded officer, destroyed all threats and exited Iranian territory while taking no casualties of any kind. The heroic F15 weapons system officer had evaded capture on the ground in Iran for almost 48 hours. That's a long time when you're in tough shape and when you're bleeding. It's a long time when. When we left, as you probably know, we had two large planes, old, pretty old planes that carried a lot. We needed a lot more equipment going in than coming out, obviously, because going in we needed to be able to scale mountains and we had a lot of equipment. But the sand was, it was sandy, wet sand, so we thought there may be a problem taking off because of the weight of the plane. And then we also had all the men jumping back onto the planes and they got pretty well bogged down. And we had a contingency plan which was unbelievable where lighter, faster aircraft came in and they took them out. We blew up the old planes, we blew them up to smithereens because we had equipment on the planes that frankly we'd like to take, but I don't think it was worthwhile spending another four hours there taking it off. So we didn't want anybody to have the best equipment anywhere in the world. We didn't want anybody examining our anti aircraft and other equipment. So these were large planes that were old and pretty old, and we blew them up and we had faster, lighter planes come in and they were able to land on the sand. We needed the bigger planes because we had so much equipment that we knew. We took three helicopters over there which were very strongly used and couldn't have lived without them. They did. They performed unbelievably well. And if you'd see it, you wouldn't believe it. They came off the plane and these guys had them. The, the rotors were off. They rebuilt these helicopters in less than 10 minutes. And that was one of the more amazing things. These are helicopters, small, unbelievably powerful, but small helic, very small. So it can get into certain areas. And they got them off the plane and they rebuilt all three of them in a matter of less than. I would say less than 10 minutes. It's pretty amazing what the genius of these people. Who would think that you'd think it would take five days to build them and in some companies it would take five days and they wouldn't do it well, but they served us well. As commander in chief. I never forget the extraordinary risk taken by the warriors that we send into battle and the genius. I mean, think of it. Having a contingency of three planes waiting because we think the sand is so bad that we probably won't be able to take off. And the planes really got bogged. Sand was. This was not much of a Runway. This was a farm, not a Runway, a farm, but it did the trick. But to have a contingency as opposed to having to wait two days. Can you imagine right in the middle. This was central. This was. Right. You would call it central casting if you were doing a movie for location. And probably the toughest area of Iran, where we'd be sitting there. So these planes came in. Those pilots came in so fast and so quick and got out of there. Everybody got aboard and just got 15 minute intervals. One load out, one load out, one load out. The three. It happened. And we were watching and we said, that's amazing. In many ways, I was almost more impressed by the contingency that we had than the fact that, you know, if we would have had a Runway or decent soil. But it was an amazing thing. But we thank God for every single one of them. And the talent. The genius is not even talent. It's genius. It's the whole ball game, every one of them. If you look at what we did with Maduro, we went into a military compound, a massive. With thousands and thousands of soldiers. And within a matter of minutes. And he lived behind iron doors. There were steel doors, broke them down so quickly and within almost minutes he was in the back of the. These planes. It was a similar group. Incredible. We have incredibly talented people. And if the time comes, we move heaven and earth to bring them home safely. We're going to bring our people home safely. I want to thank every member of the US Armed forces involved in these historic operations. They really were historic. It's just not something that's done and you'd understand it. Not that they don't want to do it, but when you're going into areas, when you look at these helicopters, when you look at the amount of bullets and everything else that they took, when you go into these areas, you don't come out like we came out. God was watching us tell you, well, it was the Easter. We were in Easter territory, I guess, but God was watching us. Amazing. Because when you look at the machinery they took. They took damage. Tells you. First thing I said is these are unbelievable machines, how they flew back and not even much of a problem, but these two extraordinary rescues. Because it was two. And as you probably know, we didn't talk about the first One for an hour. Then somebody leaked something which will hopefully find that leaker. We're looking very hard to find that leaker and talked about there's somebody missing. They basically said that we have one and there's somebody missing. Well, they didn't know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information. So whoever it was, we think we'll be able to find it out, because we're going to go to the media company that released it and we're going to say, national security. Give it up or go to jail. And we know who. And you know who we're talking about, because some things you can't do. Because when they did that, all of a sudden the entire country of Iran knew that there was a pilot that was somewhere on their land that was fighting for his life. And it also made it much more difficult for the pilots and for the people going in to search for him. All of a sudden, they know that there's somebody out there. They see all these planes coming in. It became a much more difficult operation because a leaker leaked that we have one, we've rescued one, but there's another one out there that we're trying to get. So actually, the country, Iran, put out a major notice, you all saw it, offering a very big award for anybody that captures the pilot. So in addition to a hostile, very talented, very good, very evil military, we had millions of people trying to get an award. So when you add that to it. But we have to find that leaker, because that's a sick person, probably didn't realize the extent of how bad it was. I can't imagine that the person did. But we're going to find out. It's national security. And the person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn't say. And that doesn't last long. And I think everybody would understand that. They put this mission at great risk. They put that man at great risk, and they put the hundreds of people that went in looking for him. Because everyone now knows that we're going in. Over the past 37 days, America's armed forces have carried out more than 10,000 combat flights over Iran, unheard of, striking more than 13,000 targets. The F15 we lost last week was the first manned aircraft downed by the enemy in this entire operation with thousands and thousands of flights. They got lucky. It was a lucky hit. You know, eventually you get lucky. But we got lucky, too, because we got both of them back. But it's a record that is unparalleled in the history of Military air operations. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. It's such an honor to be involved with it. We were up late at night, and then we were waiting for those contingent planes to come in. And we say, come on, let's go. Get in. Because they're waiting out on this farm without a Runway, with wet, crummy soil, sand. Mostly sand. Wet sand. And it eats planes alive. And we're waiting, and we're saying, I hope that one can land and take off. And they came in like magic. Boom, boom, boom, One after another. It was like genius. So impressed by that, because we were a little concerned. We said, boy, if they don't get in and get up fast, we're sitting in the middle. And that's called Iran Prime. Right, General? That's where the whole bed is. And here we are sitting there, waiting for a plane. But they came in so fast and so hard, and these guys knew exactly what. Let's go. Come on, get in. Let's go. They came one right after another. Not at the same time. They don't want to come at the same time. They had to come right after each other. They didn't have any room. There was barely any room to land. Tiny little patch of very wet earth and sand. So I just. I'm so proud of the people that I have standing up here with me and many others that worked. I mean, so many. Steve Witkoff's over here. He's doing fantastically. Jared Kushner. But the people that are here, the job they did is amazing. And I think I'm going to introduce the head of the CIA, and he is a man who. Central casting. Okay. If we cast a movie, he's going to play the head of the CIA. He's one of the few. John Ratcliffe, he. He did a phenomenal job that night. He did something that. I don't know if you want to talk about it. If you want, you can. I'm not sure he's supposed to. I'm not going to talk about it. But he really. The CIA was very responsible for finding this little speck. It's like they used an expression on one of the shows the general was talking about. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. Finding this pilot and the CIO is unbelievable. And you may, if you can, you'll talk. It might be classified, in which case I'd have to put him in jail if he talks about it. And I don't want to put him in jail. He doesn't deserve that. So, John do you want to say a few words? Thank you.
- [70:16]
John Ratcliffe
Thank you, Mr. President.
- [70:18]
General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr.
It's a privilege to be here with
- [70:19]
John Ratcliffe
you today to share what we can about this exceptional mission and to recognize the ingenuity and bravery of those who executed it, as well as the leadership and resolve of the President who ordered it. One thing that has been clear to me in this role is that the flawless military operations that the Department of War is known for are hostage to flawless intelligence. We saw that in the skies over Iran in Operation Midnight Hammer last summer. We witnessed it in Venezuela during Operation Absolute Resolve. We've seen it against the cartels in the Western Hemisphere, and we're seeing it every day in Operation Epic Fury, including this mission to rescue an aviator buried deep behind enemy lines. Because it is the unique tradition of the U.S. armed forces that we leave no man or woman behind, this was a no fail mission. That was the spirit in which the President put us to work, and we were determined not to let him down or our airmen down. As an agency, the CIA possesses unique capabilities that only the President can deploy. Some of these capabilities fall under covert action authorities. And because covert means exactly that, I'm not going to be able to tell you everything that you want to know. At the President's direction, we deployed both human assets and exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service in the world possesses to a daunting challenge comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert. This was also a race against the clock, as it was critical that we locate the downed aviator as quickly as possible, while at the same time keeping our enemies misdirected. For that reason, in addition to the human and technical assets deployed by the President to find our airmen, CIA executed a deception campaign to confuse the Iranians who were desperately hunting for our airmen. On Saturday morning, we achieved our primary objective by finding and providing confirmation that one of America's best and bravest was alive and concealed in a mountain crevice, still invisible to the enemy, but not to the CIA. That confirmation was relayed by Secretary Hegseth to the President, and the operation quickly moved to the execution phase. Following the successful exfiltration on Saturday night. Our intelligence reflects that the Iranians were embarrassed and ultimately humiliated by the success of this audacious rescue mission. When the President asked me to lead the CIA, he made it clear. Get back to basics. No politics, no agendas. Tackle the hardest problems, and execute the toughest missions. This President is about results. And now that's what his CIA is about, too. The professionals at the agency and at the Department of War deserve immense credit for their flawless execution during this daring mission. Their skill, creativity and courage are unmatched on the battlefield, wherever they step. But none of that matters, and all of that is wasted without a president with the political courage to put them into action. Mr. President, I've had the privilege of seeing you act with political courage in the best interest of the United States up close on a daily basis. And I'm grateful that this successful mission has given the American people a window into that as well. The Secretary and Chairman will tell you that our service members confidence is boosted by a Commander in Chief who has their back the same way they have yours. And I know that the confidence of CIA's officers is boosted by the knowledge that their work is informing a President who's not afraid to make the hardest decisions when the stakes are highest. And to the American people, your confidence should be boosted by knowing that the security of the nation is in the hands of a President who's willing to take on problems that have confounded both sides of the political aisle for nearly half a century. It is an honor to serve under a leader who just proved that you can believe him when he says, no matter what, we will leave no one behind. We will come for you. Thank you.
- [75:27]
Reporter
Well, John, thank you for the collaboration. The CIA as well. Incredible and ongoing partnership. Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Americans, and especially the brave warriors in our armed forces. Over this Easter weekend, the United States military has once again proved why we possess the greatest fighting force the world has ever known. In two extraordinary combat search and rescue operations deep inside enemy territory in Iran, our warriors executed missions of breathtaking skill, courage and precision. When our warriors are unleashed, as this President has allowed them to be, they are unstoppable. When American airmen were down behind enemy lines, our forces and our President did not hesitate. Special operators, supported by elite air crews and intelligence professionals, moved swiftly and decisively into treacherous mountain terrain under the constant threat of Iranian forces closing in. Ultimately, it was an impotent Iranian threat. And today, as the CIA director mentioned, Iran's military, and we know this, is embarrassed and humiliated, and they should be. Now, these are not routine operations. They were high risk, high stakes missions conducted in the heart of enemy territory. This was not just barely into Iran, this was deep into Iran involving coordinated strikes to suppress threats, deception tactics to protect our teams, and full synchronization across air, ground and special operations. The Iranians are still asking themselves right now, how did the Americans do this? One downed airman evaded capture for more than a day. Scaling rugged ridges while hunted by the enemy. When he was finally able to activate his emergency transponder, his first message was simple and it was powerful. He sent a message. God is good. In that moment of isolation and danger, his faith and fighting spirit shone through. You see? Shot down on a Friday, Good Friday. Hidden in a cave, a crevice. All of Saturday. And rescued on Sunday. Flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday. A pilot reborn. All home and accounted for. A nation rejoicing. God is good. Despite incoming fire and unforgiving conditions, our troops brought every American home. No American lives were lost. We leave no man behind. And that is not luck. It's the result of unmatched training, superior technology, and unbreakable warrior ethos. And sheer American grit. Our special operators, pilots and support crews performed with near perfection under fire, and they were lethal. Just ask any Iranian soldier who dared attempt to get anywhere near that pilot before or during that mission. Death from above. Our troops turned a potential tragedy into a resounding demonstration of American resolve and capability. That's what excellence in uniform looks like. But make no mistake about it, none of this would have been possible without the courageous leadership and ironclad determination of President Donald J. Trump. From the moment our airmen went down, President Trump made it clear, we will leave no one behind. The first mission, the first of two, was an audacious daylight thunder run right up the middle. It was authorized in less than two hours from that pilot going down when we knew where he was. And it was authorized in the middle of the night because anybody that's worked for this man knows he's up in the middle of the night. Authorized immediately, without hesitation, audaciously. The second mission, as soon as we knew where that pilot was, and John was certainly helpful in that, also executed immediately. You know, I looked up at my screen when the final mission was complete inside our skiff, our secure facility, and we have a running vtc, a running coordination cell, and the top of it read 45 minutes and 45 hours and 56 minutes. For 45 hours and 56 minutes, we held that call open for coordination. From the moment our pilots went down, our mission was unblinking. The call never dropped. The meeting never stopped. The planning never ceased. The President demanded rapid, decisive action. He backed our military with the full weight of his resolve, refusing to let enemy propaganda or tactical setbacks deter us. His leadership ensured that every lethal and non lethal resource was brought to bear, that our forces had the authorities and the support they needed to succeed. When the President says He has the backs of our war fighters. He means it, and it means a great deal. And it's a big difference. On the battlefield, President Trump understands that peace through strength is not a slogan. It is a doctrine that saves American lives. His unwavering commitment to rebuilding our military and restoring the warrior spirit has paid dividends in missions just like this one under his command. America projects power with confidence and brings our people home with victory. And that continues today. By the way, per the President's direction, today will be the largest volume of strikes since day one of this operation. Tomorrow, even more than today. And then Iran has a choice. Choose wisely, because this president does not play around. You can ask Soleimani, you can ask Maduro, you can ask Khamenei. To those heroes who planned and executed these rescues, your nation stands in awe. I stand in awe. The Chairman stands in awe. We all stand in awe of your professionalism and bravery. We serve for you. You embody the very best of America. To the rescued airmen and their families, welcome home. Your courage and endurance, the quiet declaration of faith amid the storm inspires us all. God is good every day. And to our adversaries watching from Tehran, let this be a clear message. The United States military will go anywhere at any time to protect our own and complete the mission we execute with precision. We control the sky. You see, we flew for seven hours in daylight over Iran to get the first pilot, and we flew seven hours in the middle of the night to get the second. And Iran did nothing about it. We fight with honor, and under President Trump's leadership, we win. So God bless our troops, God bless President Trump, and God bless the United States of America.
- [82:47]
Donald Trump
Thank you.
- [82:50]
General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr.
Well, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. A note before I start. I know many of you want specific details in these briefings, we will share what we can, but I will retain what I must in the event that we have to go do this again sometime. And I cannot stress the importance, as the President said, around operational security. The Secretary and I will do a more detailed briefing tomorrow morning and we look forward to sharing the details that we can. On Thursday 2nd April at 10:10pm Eastern Time, 4:40 in the morning, local Iran time, the Joint Personnel Recovery center, which handles the Central Command area of responsibility, declared an isolated personnel recovery event for a US Air Force F15E Strike Eagle call sign Dude44, which was down in hostile Iranian territory. The pilot and weapon system officer had both safely ejected and were isolated behind enemy lines. Following confirmation of active rescue beacons and on the direction of the Secretary and by order of the President, a rescue operation was launched with the stated purpose of bringing both Americans home safely. As the Secretary said several hours later on the morning, after positively locating the front seater call sign dude4 4 Alpha and aware of an aggressive ongoing search by the enemy, a U.S. central Command plan was approved by the Secretary and the President. Shortly thereafter, a US Air Force Combat Search and Rescue task force comprised of a 10 Warthogs in their Sandy role. And I'll describe what that is in a minute. HG130 Combat King Twos, HH60 Jolly Green 2 helicopters and air Force Special Warfare Airmen. A package comprised of combat rescue officers and pararescuement operators audaciously penetrated enemy territory in broad daylight to find, Fix and recover Dude 44 Alpha from behind enemy lines. This was an incredibly dangerous mission, an incredibly dangerous undertaking, but a filled promise made to every American warfighter that you will not be left behind. We will always come find you and we will always bring you home. Over the next hours, the Search and Rescue task force crossed the beach, entered into Iranian airspace protected by a fighter strike package and moved into the objective area. All under fire en route. As some of you have seen on social media, the helicopters took gas off the C130s and pressed onward and forward up into the objective area. While this was ongoing and out in front of them, the Sandy flight of A10s and other remotely piloted aircraft, drones and other tactical aircraft were violently suppressing and engaging the enemy in a close in gunfight to keep them away from the front seater and allow the pickup force to get into the objective area. During this engagement, one of the Sandy aircraft, the one primarily responsible for communicating with the downed pilot, was hit by enemy fire. This pilot continued to fight, continued the mission and then upon exit flew his aircraft into another country and determined that the airplane was not landable. This was one of our A10 Sandy aircraft. The pilot then made the decision to eject over friendly territory and was quickly and safely recovered and is doing fine. After picking up Dude 44 Alpha, the HH60 Jolly Green fight was engaged by every single person in Iran who had a small arms weapon and one of the aircraft. The trailing aircraft took several hits. The crew sustained minor injury and they are going to be fine. A note for those of you that do not know what a Sandy does, named after the flight call sign that did this very mission in Vietnam flying A1 Sky Raiders and A7 Corsairs. A Sandy has one mission. Get to the survivor, bring the rescue force forward and put themselves between that survivor on the ground and the enemy. They are committed to this. This is what they live for and this is what they've trained for over many, many years. The A10 force and the rescue force did fantastic, did a fantastic job rescuing Dude Four Four Alpha. He was recovered Friday afternoon. As I said, and the nation needs to know this, this was an incredibly brave and courageous mission and a testament to the courage, skill and tenacity of the joint force and our leaders. And especially a daylight option. Having the guts to try means so much to so many. Meanwhile, the backseater, as the president and secretary have said, had continued to work and survive through the hours of daylight. Dude44 Bravo. The backseater evaded using every means available, the efforts of the United States military, the central intelligence agency, and others were attempting to find and locate with precision dude 44 Bravo, the back seater, A note on the back seater and the front seater. The single most important contributor to a successful rescue operation is the spirit of attack inside the heart of that downed aviator. Their will to survive, their will to evade, their will to recover is everything. In this case, the Backseater's absolute commitment to surviving made much of our efforts possible. On Saturday for April, after establishing positive communications with the backseater, we learned, as the president said, that he was injured and actively evading enemy forces. And thanks to our interagency partners, we were able to get eyes on his location and positively ID him. Throughout this entire time, the enemy force continued to search for 44 Bravo and the joint force continued to strike them over and over and over again, fighting off marginal weather in Iran and the enemy search for a second time. On Saturday, at the recommendation of the CENTCOM commander and at the approval of the secretary and the president, we launched a rescue task force to recover dude 44 Bravo. Again, this came to the president and the secretary for approval, this time with a much larger force package based on the time that the enemy had to Prepare to find 44 Bravo. Again, this force was protected by a 10 Warthogs using the Sandy call sign. And this force had one single mission, do everything they can to bring an American home. This meant having a plan, being prepared to execute that plan, and more importantly, being prepared for multiple simultaneous contingencies and because of this force's professionalism, grit and determination, fight off two enemies at the same time. The enemy searching for 44 Bravo and contingencies, which anyone who has done these types of missions knows we run into every single time the force fought off both of those enemies Incredibly well. During the period of darkness on Saturday, and as the Secretary said into Easter Sunday and into the daylight, the force fought its way in and rescued dude 44 Bravo. They were protected overhead by an air armada including tactical drones, strike aircraft and others. The Force fought through multiple simultaneous contingencies, something no other nation, no other military can do, and safely return dude 44 Bravo, the back seater home, and all other Americans home as well. At midnight 12 local Eastern time, Easter Sunday, more than 50 hours after the start of this operation, the Joint Personnel Recovery center declared dude 44 Bravo, both the front and back seater return to friendly territory. The courage demonstrated by both the pilot and the weapon system officer while isolated and them invading the enemy cannot be overstated. Their grit and war fighting tenacity is a direct result of the absolute trust they have in our rescue forces, their training and their will to survive and return. They always knew that we would be ordered to go get them, and they always knew that we would be coming to get them. These two operations reflect our nation's most sacred obligation to our military service members. We leave no one behind. Bless you. It also perfectly captures the first truth of our special operations forces, that people are more important than hardware. That is the standard we live by. And the rescue forces that execute these missions operate under, under a clear motto. These things we do that others may live. Their actions were a direct embodiment of that commitment to others. And I could not be more proud of each and every one of them today, as the Secretary said, to our enemies, this operation serves as a clear reminder of the capability and will of America's Joint Force. The United States of America will recover our war fighters anywhere in the world, under any conditions when we want to. We will always bring overwhelming skill and firepower to every member of the Joint force, our interagency partners, the leadership at CENTCOM, and our leaders at the department and above. Thank you. I'm proud of each and every one of you and thankful to our deployed forces and their families. And lastly, and most importantly, to dude for four. Welcome home. Job well done. Thank you.
- [93:54]
Donald Trump
Pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. And these two gentlemen have been, from day one, they've been perfecto. You know, I got to know General Kane in my first term because he was able to take out ISIS in four weeks instead of the four year projection that was given to me by other much lesser generals. I said, you know, if I ever do this again, that's going to be the head of my Joint Chiefs of staff. And we worked it that way, didn't we? It's amazing. He took out isis. We defeated ISIS in four weeks. I was told it would take four years. I flew to Iraq to find out, with the greatest equipment in the world, why would it take four years? And he told me, sir, it won't. It'll take four weeks and you'll have time left over. And that's exactly what happened. So he's great. And Pete, all I can say is that he was treated very unfairly. And now those same people that treated him unfairly, that fought against him, they called me up saying what a great choice he was. They said, well, what happened during his nomination? What happened to you? I'm telling you, people that were not forum, senators, friends of mine, sir, I don't think you're doing the right thing. Now they're calling me up. What a choice. These two guys are fantastic. And John Ratcliffe was incredible. It was actually their genius that called us from. He was 40 miles away and he said, you know, we're seeing something moving up in the mountain. This is at night. And they kept the camera on him for 45 minutes. He wasn't moving. And they said, you know, probably wrong, but we're seeing something moving. This is a vast mountain. Vast, thick with bushes, trees. He said, we see something moving 40 miles away. The head of a human being. I'm telling you, it's moving. And then all of a sudden, 45 minutes later, he moved a lot, stood up and they said, we have him. And that was really the beginning of something incredible. We had an idea where he was, but not specifically. That's a big mountain. So I want to thank the CIA, too. I don't think they get enough credit for the great job they've done. Yes, please. Thank you very much, Mr. President, for this great opportunity country. It has super army. You make a difference. Mr. President. Thank you for your greatest leadership. Thank you. I have two quick questions, Mr. President. What was your reaction when you learned that Kurdistan region had resumed exporting oil to the international market with your support as United States of America? Well, I expected that. We've gotten along with the Kurds for a long time, so I expected that. Another question. What would. What would be your reaction if the Iranian people rise up against their regime during a case fire, Mr. President? Well, they should do it, but again, the consequences are great. I mean, they were told you if you protest, you will be shot immediately. You saw what happened to the young wrestler. He was a great champion, by the way. He was a great wrestler, one of the top in the world. And he and his two friends were hung, and all they did was say a little bit about liberty. They wanted liberty. And they were violently executed. But the number is up to probably 45,000 people were killed. So, you know, when somebody stays in a house, when they know if they walk out of the house to protest, they'll be immediately shot and killed. And they issued that. You know, that was publicly issued. Astonishment, secret. That's why so many people say, oh, well, why are you doing this? We can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. You know, we got regime change. We do. We're dealing with a much different regime than before. We're dealing with different people. They're smarter, I think they're sharper and far less radical. We have regime change, but we didn't do this for regime change. We did it for the fact. And my. My view is very simple. I saw somebody said, oh, he doesn't have a plan. I have the best plan of all. But I'm not going to tell you what my plan is. You know, they want me to say, here's my plan. We're going to attack at 9:47 in the morning, and then we're going to do this, and then we're going to. And if you don't do that, they say, I have a plan. These people know what the plan is. Everybody here knows what the plan is. But it's very unfair to say we don't. Because I don't mind being insulted. I've been insulted for many years by the. By the fake news. But you can't. It's so bad for the people that are so poor. You just saw two great. And John Ratcliffe, three unbelievable people. They have a plan. Every. Every single thing has been thought out by all of us. But I can't reveal the plan to the media. So, you know, but we're just thrilled by the success of this operation. Yes, please.
- [99:03]
Brandon Herrera
Thank you, Mr. President.
- [99:04]
Donald Trump
You've said Iranians would be mad if
- [99:06]
Benny Johnson
you stop these attacks, but why would they want you to blow up their
- [99:10]
Reporter
infrastructure to cut off their power?
- [99:12]
Donald Trump
Wouldn't that be punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime? They would be willing to. They would be willing. And it's suffering. They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom. The Iranians have. We've had numerous intercepts. Please keep bombing. Bombs that are dropping near their homes. Please keep bombing. Do it. And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding. And when we leave and we're not hitting those areas, they're saying, please come Back, come back, come back. These are the people. I don't know what they do. All I can tell you is they want freedom. They have lived in a world that you know nothing about. It's a violent, horrible world where if you protest, you are shot. Remember the great woman protest, where they had 400,000, 500,000 women, and they were all enthused and they were going to protest and everybody said, oh, the regime's going to come to an end. And then all of a sudden, boom, boom, five, six different areas, a woman would go down right between the eyes. They had snipers, they had five snipers. That's all it took. And those four or five hundred thousand women said, oh, my God, what's that? Oh, look over there. What's that? A woman shot right between the eyes. And after five or six of them go down, then you start hearing the purr through the vast number of people. And then they said, oh, my God, who would do that? And they're incredible people. But they've lived so horribly. They've lived so horribly. You know, Iran was a great country. If you go back 25 years ago or so, the Persian people, they're incredible smart, brilliant, actually. And I know so many. I know coming from New York originally, I know so many people from Iran. They're incredible people, incredible energy and. And very, very brilliant people. And. But when you're standing in a group and protesting and you have a woman, in the case of the woman, remember the great woman march, everybody was like, oh, this is the end of the country. And then snipers selectively picked. Every single one was shot right between the eyes from a long distance. They were on top of buildings. Nobody even knew where they were, where they coming from. This wasn't like a machine gun, which is also very bad. They've done that, too. They did that recently. This was snipers sitting on the top of buildings, aiming and hitting women. And when they see people go down and all of a sudden there's a riot in the reverse direction and they never came out again. And a lot of the news doesn't talk about that. They talk about, oh, women's rights. You want to see women's rights? You're not going to see it there. It's amazing when I see some of the stupid people, like, you know, AOC plus three, all that group, they talk about, oh, freedom for Iran. They don't tell you the real facts. Women, men, gays. How about gays for Iran? They kill the gays, they throw them off buildings. So I wonder what's going on. I can only say this. They want us to keep bombing even if it jeopardized because their life is in much greater danger. They want freedom for Iran, but it's very hard for them to protest. I actually tell them, I said don't go out. I fully understand. Nobody in this room would go out. I don't think there's any. Because frankly, it's not a question of bravery. We're all brave, right? You're brave, I'm brave. We're all brave, but we're also intelligent. If you have people shooting at you, expert shots with the best rifles you can get and hitting you right between the eyes every single time, and you're looking here and you're seeing and you're looking here, you're out of there. I don't care who.
- [103:08]
Reporter
Mark Meredith, FOX News.
- [103:10]
Donald Trump
I know that. Oh, thank you. Go ahead.
- [103:12]
Reporter
America's watching. Can we go back to the weekend? First off, was everyone on board with the operation or were there people that were trying to talk you out of going through with the operation this weekend?
- [103:23]
Donald Trump
Not everybody was on board.
- [103:24]
Reporter
Somebody else within?
- [103:25]
Donald Trump
No, there was military people, very professional, that preferred not doing it. These two were totally on board, which was very important. They weren't. I would have a little difficulty. But no, there were military people that said, you just don't do this. You don't go into the heart of a very powerful military. You know, this is, hey, you have countries and countries, you have some countries where military is not there, strong. So this whole thing is militarized like nobody's ever seen before. Half the people are wearing uniforms. And we had, we had people within the military. Usually it's not done. That's one of the reasons, you know, I was surprised somebody said it's the only time it's ever been done. I said, that's not possible. But it is possible because you're going into hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the path. I mean, look at some of the helicopters, how they got hit. So, yeah, there were people within the military that said, it's a wise. And don't forget, how many men did you send all together, approximately for the operation?
- [104:28]
General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr.
I'd love to keep that a secret.
- [104:30]
Donald Trump
Okay, well, we are, but I will tell you the number. I'll keep it a secret. But it was hundreds and hundreds of these people. It's pretty good. Is he central? Is he central casting? But hundreds of people went into this journey. Hundreds of people could have been killed. Forget about the equipment. A lot of equipment. Nobody kiss them. Hundreds of People could have been killed. So we had people that were within the military that said this is not a wise. And I understood that, but I decided to do it.
- [105:03]
Reporter
Was there a point that they were
- [105:04]
Donald Trump
gonna, that you were thinking there's too
- [105:06]
Reporter
much on the line and somebody was saying maybe we abort this now and wait. I mean, given the resource, like the general said, it seemed like there was so much on the line here. You must have been thinking this could have completely changed.
- [105:16]
Donald Trump
So the first one, which was in many ways as dangerous as the second, I guess it gets because we're flying over daylight. You know, we're the best at the world at night we have goggles that nobody. We have goggles, I've tried them. They're unbelievable. I see better with the goggles at night than I see without them during daylight. I mean, daylight today we have a beautiful day. You see just as well with goggles. In many ways it's enhanced. So we have the best in the world. So it's much safer for us to do it at night. Whereas other people, no other country has that capability. They don't have the, they don't have that particular piece of equipment like we do. But when I was told flying and in daylight, I think we flew seven hours over Iran and that's a long time over unbelievably hostile territory where they have nothing but weapons. We took out their antiaircraft, which is great. We took out their radar, which is great. We took out a lot. But they still have, you know what hit this one was a shoulder handheld, shoulder missile, heat seeking missile. So it's not like, you know, they're totally whatever, but, but, and they had probably a little luck because you got to get lucky. But they shot it and it got sucked in right by the engine. But these guys were out of there. They were great. The timing was great. But no, I was told that this is a very dangerous mission. They didn't say it's a foolish mission. They said, you know, we're going to be sacrificing hundreds of people do this. This is, I mean, you have tankers that are flying over this area so that they could. The flight was so long they had to refuel. It's a very dangerous mission. I just felt it was worth it. If you would have told me that we would have been successful, gotten both and nobody was even essentially injured, I would have said that would be impossible. Yeah. Mr. President, thank you very much.
- [107:11]
General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr.
Thank you.
- [107:12]
Donald Trump
Welcome back to you. Okay.
- [107:14]
Brandon Herrera
Given that you are now dealing, you say, with a more Reasonable, less extreme leadership in Iran. What does that mean for the protesters, for the human rights movement in that country after this conflict?
- [107:26]
Donald Trump
What's your expectation? Yeah, if they assume control, if we do something and they assume control, I think it's very positive, a big step. I don't think you'd see the radicalization that you have seen in the last. Look what happened. I mean, women are being executed because they're not properly clothed. They say they're not properly clothed and they execute the women. They absolutely. They shoot them right on the street. No, you have a much different group of people now. I'm not saying we are dealing with them. Essentially they have till 8 o' clock tomorrow night, Eastern time, but we are dealing with them. I think it's going well. Mr. Witkoff is here and JD is involved in the dealing. Mr. Witkoff is sitting right here and I think it's going fine, but we'll have to see. You have to understand, we've been dealing with these people for 47 years. I'm standing here with a much more powerful Iran as of a month ago, not anymore. Right now they are decapitated. But I'm standing here a month ago with a much more powerful Iran than it was at any point during 47 years. This should have been handled by seven presidents, a lot of presidents. And those presidents are saying now, every one of them to their friends, we should have done this a long time ago. So it's not something I like doing. It's very dangerous. And we're getting them at the height of their strength. If I didn't terminate the Barack Hussein Obama Iran nuclear deal, they would have had a. Don't forget, that was a path to a nuclear weapon. Remember this? He chose Iran over Israel, pure and simple. How and how Israel can vote for a Democrat is if you're Jewish in New York City or anyplace else in this country. And how you can vote for a Democrat is in believable because he chose Iran, a very hostile Iran. Remember when he filled up a 757 with cash, billions of dollars of cash, and he sent it over to them. Then they gave them tens of billions of dollars. He chose Iran over Israel. And really the Arab world, if you look, because you know the other Saudi Arabia, Qatar, uae. I mean, you take a look, I mean, I can add Kuwait and I can add Bahrain and you can add others. He chose such an unlikely candidate. Nobody could believe it, frankly. If you're going to choose between Iraq and Iran, he should have chosen. He should have befriended Iraq, he went in the exact opposite direction of all thinking and he made a terrible mistake. But that was a road to a nuclear weapon. And when I terminated that, everyone said, oh, he terminated it. It was one of the best things we ever did because he had a road to a nuclear weapon. And it was a very short term deal. Countries don't do 10 year deals. Countries do hundreds of years. You don't do a 10 year deal for a country. You need. This isn't. You're a landlord and you're renting a store on a certain street and you give somebody a five year or ten year lease. This is a country, it was a short term deal, it was ready to expire. I terminated it before it expired, took a lot of heat and it was one of the best things I ever did. Because he would have had a nuclear weapon then, he would have had another nuclear weapon had those beautiful B2 bombers not gone in eight months ago and obliterated. That said, and by the way, the word is obliteration. CNN said, well, maybe it wasn't complete. It was so complete that they still haven't been able to get it. It was obliteration. But if we didn't hit them, that was a courageous decision too because we had all those planes flying in at night with very little cover, unbelievable stealth planes. And they were able to do their job. If we didn't do that, Iran would have had a nuclear weapon at a high level either one of those two instances. And if they did, in my opinion, I told this to Bibi Netanyahu yesterday, Israel would have been extinguished. Large portions of the Middle east would have been extinguished, whether it's Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE or others. And you saw that with thousands of missiles raining down upon them, they didn't think they were going to be hit. They thought they'd be watching us fight. And all of a sudden UAE got hit by 1500 missiles. He would have taken them out also, and they were powerful. If I didn't come along and terminate the Obama deal, which was terrible, the Iran nuclear deal was a road to a nuclear weapon, a big one, unlimited, legally. I terminated it without even much thought. It was so easy. I terminated that and then the B2 bombers. And I did one other thing. I had killed Qassam Soleimani, who was an evil genius. And the reason I did it, I heard he was going to knock out 5 of our military bases. And had he lived, I believe we would be fighting perhaps a different Iran right now. Because, because he's never, he's never Been replaced, you know, and I also, I did one other, but that this one was not picked up. Osama bin Laden. If you read my book, I said you got to take them out one year before the World Trade center came down. So I wish you'd read the book. But you as a president, to be a good president, I believe you have to have good instincts. And a lot of this is instinct. Yeah, please. Thank you so much. Mr. President, last week, last week you suggested that Europe should take the lead
- [113:18]
Benny Johnson
on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
- [113:20]
Donald Trump
Has circumstances changed now that you're issuing a direct 48 hour, I mean 48 hour ultimatum. And secondly, would a new, new cease fire include Israel or would it just be between Iran? Talk about ceasefire. But I can tell you that we have a active, willing participant on the other side. They would like to be able to make a deal. I can't say any more than that. Excuse me, please.
- [113:49]
Reporter
You've listened.
- [113:51]
Donald Trump
Who you with? Who you with? My name is Diakod.
- [113:53]
Reporter
I'm with the largest Kurdish media out there through the media network. It's based in Iran. Go ahead, Mr. President.
- [113:59]
Donald Trump
You said before that you don't want
- [114:01]
Reporter
the Kurdish forces to enter Iran and be harmed. Do you still want them to stay
- [114:05]
Donald Trump
away or what role do you expect
- [114:07]
Reporter
them to play now?
- [114:09]
Donald Trump
I'd rather have them stay away. I'd rather have them stay away because I think they bring with them some problems and some difficulty and I don't think they bring death, I mean, you know, to themselves. But I'd rather have them stay away. Go ahead. Thank you Mr. President, for the question. Deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure by way the Geneva Conventions and international law. Who you with?
- [114:35]
John Ratcliffe
I'm with the New York Times.
- [114:36]
Donald Trump
Zol from the New York Times. Are you failing? Failing? Are you consum. Circulation way down, down at the New York Times.
- [114:41]
Benny Johnson
Are you concerned that your threat to
- [114:43]
Brandon Herrera
bomb power plants and bridges amount.
- [114:45]
Donald Trump
No, no, no, no. I hope I don't have to do it. But again, I just said 47 years they've been negotiating with these people. They're great negotiators and because they're not going to have a nuclear weapon. And if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective, which possibly that will happen because we had numerous presidents that were weak, ineffective and afraid of Iran. We're never going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And if you think it's okay for people that are sick of mind, that are tough, smart and sick, really sick, ideological, you know, from, from a policy standpoint, from A stamp, any which way. You want to say mentally, these are disturbed people. If you think I'm going to allow them and powerful and rich to have a nuclear weapon, you can tell your friends at the New York Times, not going to happen means violence.
- [115:48]
Reporter
Quiet, quiet, quiet.
- [115:50]
Donald Trump
You no longer have credibility. The New York Times. Because the New York Times said, oh, Trump won't win the election. And I wanted a landslide. I won every swing state. New York Times said, oh, Trump won't win the election. New York Times has no credibility. The credibility they have is it used to be all the news that's fit to print a great. The Old Gray lady, it was great. But they're running on past fumes. And you can't keep doing that. You have to be able to give the correct news. And people like you, who I know are fake, you're fake. Go ahead, please. Your messaging on the war has moved from the war is coming to an end to war going to be bombing Iran to the Stone Ages. And we've heard a range of those kind of messages.
- [116:32]
Reporter
So are you.
- [116:32]
Donald Trump
So which is it? Are you winding this down? Are you? I can't tell you. I don't know. I can't. It depends what they do. This is a critical period. They have a period of, well, till tomorrow at 8 o'. Clock. I gave them an extension. They asked for an extension of seven days, right. I said, Steve, give them 10 days. 10 days is up, actually, today. So I gave them 11. I guess indirectly, I thought it was inappropriate. The day after Easter. I want to be a nice person. They have till tomorrow. Now we'll see what happens. I can tell you they're negotiating, we think in good faith. We're going to find out. We're getting the help of some incredible countries that want this to be ended because it affects them also. A lot of people are affected by this, but we're giving them, we're giving them till tomorrow, 8 o' clock Eastern Time. And after that, they're going to have no bridges, they're going to have no power plants. Stone Ages. Yeah. CNN fake.
- [117:43]
Brandon Herrera
Are you willing to make a deal
- [117:45]
Donald Trump
that does not include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, or is that now a top priority? I would say it's a very big priority. Because, see, that's, that's one thing that's a little different than, other than we can bomb the hell out of them, we can knock them out for a loop, but to close the strait, all you need is one terrorist that somehow has a truck loaded with. Because you can carry them in trucks, large trucks, a water mine, drop them in the water. And now you tell people that own ships that cost a billion dollars to don't worry about the mine. You can do that even just by saying we put mines in the water so it's not like the rest. We can knock out their military. We already have. We've knocked out their navy, we've knocked out their air force completely. Knocked out 158 ships in three days. We've knocked out even their mind droppers. They don't have any mind droppers anymore, but they put them on other boats and they could drop them. I'm not even sure they have any minds there, by the way. I'm not sure. I'm personally. They say there might be eight. I don't know. I don't know. I think there might be none because they're very good bullshit artists. That's why for 47 years they've been bullshitting other presidents and they haven't done the job and people are living in hell. You live in that country, they're living in hell. No, I think that 47 years of this stuff is long enough. They're at the weakest point they've ever been. They have no navy, they have no air force, they have no anti aircraft weaponry, they have no radar, they have no communication. In fact, the biggest problem we have in our negotiation is that they can't communicate. I said to Steve, what are they saying, sir? They can't communicate. They have no method of communication. So we're doing, we're communicating like they used to communicate 2,000 years ago with children, bringing a note back and forth. They have no communication. But all I want to see is I want to have a safe world. And you're not going to have a safe world. Israel will be gone, the Middle east will be gone, and then they're coming for Europe. And I have to tell you, I'm very disappointed in NATO. Very. I think that NATO, I think it's a mark on Nader that will never disappear. Never disappear in my mind. You know, they're coming to see me on Wednesday. They're going to say, oh, we'll do this, we'll do that. Now they all of a sudden want to send things, you know, but they said it loud and clear at the beginning when I spoke to uk, of all I would have said they would have been there first because they've been, they're the oldest. And I say, yeah, I'd love to have a little help. Said, no, sir, we'd rather wait till you win. I said, I don't need help. After we win, they have two old broken aircraft carriers, barely work. I said, I guess we can use them. Who the hell knows? I called the general. He didn't even want. He said, we don't really need them. We got the SS Abraham Lincoln, sir. We don't need them. You know, we have, in terms of technology. We had one day, 101 missiles going at 2,700 miles an hour aimed at the Abraham Lincoln. 101 missiles. Out of 101 missiles, 101 missiles were shot down. Unbelievable technology. Ten years ago, five years ago, I don't know if that would have been possible, but 10 years ago, that wouldn't have been. That wouldn't have been possible. 101 missiles heading to a ship that's not that far off the coast. And out of the 101 missiles, we shot down all 101. We have weaponry. The Patriots are unbelievable. We have weaponry. That's unbelievable. Yeah, Go ahead, please. Thank you.
- [121:31]
John Ratcliffe
Mr. President, you said earlier today during
- [121:34]
Reporter
the egg roll that you would like
- [121:35]
Donald Trump
to take Iran's oil, but Americans want US forces home. Correct.
- [121:40]
Benny Johnson
What's that trade off?
- [121:41]
Donald Trump
If I had my choice. If I had my choice, yeah. Because I'm a businessman first with Venezuela, as you know, the war was over in about 45 minutes. And we have great people running Venezuela, very good people. I mean, the relationship is good. And we are a partner with Venezuela. And we've taken hundreds of millions of barrels. Hundreds of millions. Over 100 million barrels already is in Houston. Refined and out. And paid for that war many, many times over. Many times, you know, the old days, to the victim, okay. You know that to the. To the winner belong the spoils. Go the spoils. And I've said, why don't we use it? To the victor go the spoils. And we don't have that. We haven't had that in this country probably in 100 years. Because even the Second World War, you look at the Second World War, we didn't have it with the Second World. We helped rebuild all those countries. We rebuilt Germany. How about Germany telling us. Germany telling us that. Well, it's not their war. We had nothing to do with getting. They wanted me to go and tell them everything I was doing. We didn't know anything about it. Well, if I would have told them, they would have leaked it and we wouldn't have been nearly as successful. Possibly. Right. But to the victor belong the spoils. So we haven't heard, we haven't heard that in, I think, maybe hundreds of years now with Venezuela. And we, just so you understand, the people of Venezuela, they say if I ran for president of Venezuela, I'm polling higher than anybody has ever polled in Venezuela. So after I'm finished with this, I can go to Venezuela. I will quickly learn Spanish. It won't take too long. I'm good at language and I will go to Venezuela. I got to run for president. But we're very happy with the president elect that we have right now. The, the, the people that are running it. If you remember Bush with Iraq, they fired the generals, they fired the police, they fired the people that worked in their equivalent of the White House. They fired everybody. And you know what? They had, they had a mess. And you know what happened? ISIS formed those generals and those soldiers got together, the police got together. They all got together. They formed isis. Not going to happen with us. So Venezuela has been an incredible, it's been an incredible situation. We went in, we were very successful. Military power like nobody's ever seen. The general, Venezuelan general said, I was on that side. I said, I've never seen ferocity like that. I've been doing this for 40 years. He said, I've never seen it. They, they hit us from 17 different. It was, they were all set. They saw that big, beautiful aircraft carrier, the Ford, in that case, and planes were pouring off it at 1:00 clock in the morning. So typically when you see that late at night, you know you could be in trouble, right? And we were all ready. They had their equipment, it was Russian and they had Chinese equipment. It was all set. They were going to give us a fight. He said, and then they came, and they came at speeds like we've never seen. And they came at 17 different angles. The general and his people, that was a lot of angles. They hit him from every angle. He said, we knew it was over in three minutes. We were waiting for them. Their equipment didn't work, and there's a reason it didn't work. Someday we'll explain that to people. They pressed the button. Nothing happened. They pressed it again and again. Nothing happened. And he said, we knew this whole thing was over in three minutes. We've never seen any. He used the word ferocity, the ferocity of these planes from 17 different angles, and it was over. They went inside and remember, that was on a military base with thousands of soldiers. And those soldiers looked and they said, get the hell out of here. Thousands. We didn't have thousands. We had like 200 people. So we have a great military. And I'll tell you what, somehow this rescue captured the world's attention. More so than normally, you're talking about two people, but this rescue captured the world's attention, but we did it in Venezuela. That was amazing. And now we have a very bad man in prison and going to trial. I mean, he. He released. Aside from the drugs, which he was terrible, Maduro released hundreds of thousands of people from jails into our country. Drug dealers, murderers. The worst people in the world were released into our country because we had a stupid president who probably didn't know. And we had a border czar who never went to the border and never once called our great border patrol agents, right? Not once. Kamala, she never called the Border Patrol. She never said, how are we doing? I used to call the Border Patrol guys every day. You can ask them. Paul, ask any one of them. Brandon, ask him all the time. How are we doing? How are we doing? And we now, I'm proud to say, have a totally sealed border. Nine months. Nobody is coming through our border, and nobody even tries because they know they're not going to get through. So we don't have caravans anymore. So maybe one or two more will be done.
- [127:00]
Reporter
Mr. President, are you allowed to or are you willing to end this conflict
- [127:03]
Donald Trump
with Iran charging tolls for passengers through the street? US Charging tolls?
- [127:09]
Benny Johnson
Iran.
- [127:11]
Donald Trump
What about US charging tolls?
- [127:12]
Reporter
Is that something you're considering?
- [127:14]
Donald Trump
I'd rather do that than let them have them run. Why shouldn't we? We're the winner. We won, okay? They are militarily defeated. The only thing they have is the psychology of, oh, we're going to drop a couple of mines in the water. All right. No, we. I mean, we have a concept where we'll charge tolls. Okay. I thought you meant your question. Your question would. Your question would have been more accurate if you said, thank you very much. Just to clarify, in order for Iran to successfully meet your deadline tomorrow, do they have to make a deal, open the straight, or both? We have to have a deal that's acceptable to me, and part of that deal is going to be, we want free traffic of oil and everything else. President, thank you very much. You said, glory be to God in this conflict. Do you believe that God supports the United States actions? I do. Because God is good. Because. Because God is good and God wants to see people taking care of. God doesn't like what's happening. I don't like what's happening. Everyone says, I enjoy. I don't enjoy this. I don't enjoy it. These two guys don't enjoy it. You know, people say, oh, boy, they're so tough. They don't want, they don't like. I don't like seeing people killed. I've ended eight wars. Nobody's ever done it. The person who won the Nobel Prize came to me and said, you deserve the Nobel Prize. She announced that. When they announced, they said, goes to Maria. She's a great person, really a good person. She said, no, no, no, this is ridiculous. They gave me the Nobel Prize. President Trump aimed at eight wars. I could go over every one of them, including India and Pakistan, where the prime minister of Pakistan said President Trump saved from 30 to 50 million lives. That makes me much happier than what we're doing right now. That makes me much happier. We have one more to end. By the way,
- [129:15]
Reporter
You called the yesterday
- [129:17]
Donald Trump
in your truth social. You called the Iranians crazy bastards. True. What is your response to critics who say that I don't care about credit? What is your response to critics who
- [129:26]
Reporter
say that it is your mental health
- [129:28]
Donald Trump
that should perhaps be examined as this war continues? I haven't heard that. But if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people like me because our country was being ripped off on trade, on everything, for many years until I came along. So if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people. Dasha, go ahead. That very little is off limits in Iran as far as targeting, including power plants, bridges. You've mentioned those. Very little is off limits. Are there certain kinds of civilian targets, though? I'm thinking. I don't want to tell you that. I don't want to tell you that we have a plan because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o' clock tomorrow night. Where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again. I mean, complete demolition by 12 o', clock, and it'll happen over a period of four hours. If we wanted to, we don't want that to happen. We may even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation. And you know what? If that's the case, the last thing we want to do is start with power plants, which are among the most expensive thing. And bridges. You saw the bridge. The bridge went. We were very close to a deal. And then I got a call from Mr. Witkoff, Mr. Kushner and JD saying, I think they're breaking the deal. I said, tell them that's okay, don't worry about it. But tell them to look out their window and watch. And within 45 minutes, I gave the order to knock out the biggest bridge. I gave the order, knock out the biggest bridge in I believe the Middle east, but the biggest bridge in Iran. And within 10 minutes after I gave that order, that bridge was over. So do I want to do that? No. Do I want to destroy their infrastructure? No. It will take them 100 years to rebuild right now. If we left today, it would take them 20 years to rebuild their country and it would never be as good as it was. And the only way they're going to be able to rebuild their country is to utilize the genius of the United states of America.
- [131:45]
Benny Johnson
Mr. President, on this though, you voiced
- [131:48]
Donald Trump
your displeasure with NATO in the past. Is there a danger to the US not being the de facto of the leader of the alliance and then other
- [131:56]
Benny Johnson
powers within the alliance then getting the
- [131:58]
Donald Trump
decision making when it comes to wars and nuclear weapons? It's not a danger. NATO's. Look, we went to NATO. I didn't ask very strongly. I just said, hey, if you want to help, great. No, no, no, we will not help. I said, that's all right. You don't want to help. Because I've always said NATO's a paper tiger. See, NATO's a paper tiger. Putin's not afraid of NATO. Putin's afraid of us. Very afraid of us. And he's explained it to me a lot of times. I got to know him very well. I know him very well. NATO is a paper tiger. NATO is us. And when we needed them, we didn't need them, by the way. We didn't need them, obviously, because they haven't helped at all. Just the opposite. They've actually gone out of their way not to help. They didn't even want to give us landing strips. Think of it. And it's not just NATO. You know who else didn't help us? South Korea didn't help us. You know who else didn't help us? Australia didn't help us. You know who else didn't help us? Japan. We've got 50,000 soldiers in Japan to protect them from North Korea. We have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect us from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well, as you know. Do you notice he said very nice things about me? He used to call Joe Biden a mentally retarded person. Okay, so don't tell me about your stuff. Joe Biden, he said he's a mentally retarded person. He was so nasty to Joe Biden. It was terrible. But to me, he likes Trump. And do you notice how nice things are with North Korea? It's very nice, but we have 45,000 people, soldiers in harm's way, and right next to Kim Jong Un with a lot of nuclear weapons. 45, which should have never happened. If a certain president. I'm not going to mention this president because I happen to like him, believe it or not. But if a certain president did his job, Kim Jong Un would not have nuclear weapons right now. But they were all afraid to do their job properly. But just to conclude and just to finish, Japan didn't help us. Australia didn't help us. South Korea didn't help us. And then you get to NATO. NATO didn't help us. There were some countries that did now, countries that have been good. Now, you could also say they're got to be a little bit more involved because they're in the territory. But Saudi Arabia has been excellent. Qatar has been excellent. UAE has been excellent. Bahrain, Kuwait. I mean, Kuwait did shoot down three of our planes. The only planes really that we lost with friendly fire. They call it. I call it unfriendly fire. They unfortunately didn't know how to use our. Our great Patriots. The pilots said, what kind of a missile is coming at us? Patriot. Boom. They got out because they know a Patriot never misses. So they had beautiful Patriots. There were planes heading in their direction. Unfortunately, they decided to shoot those planes. They were our planes. So NATO is a paper tiger now. He's coming to see me on Wednesday. As you know, he's a wonderful guy. Secretary General is great. And Mark Ruta, he's a great person, but he's got. And, you know, it all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us. And I said, bye. Bye. Okay, thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
- [135:27]
Benny Johnson
Okay, Joe Biden was. And Donald Trump is going to prosecute the leaker who leaked the location of the pilot, didn't know any of this wild and rowdy press conference that went on for over an hour. What an unbelievable moment. Seditious conspiracy potentially being charged. Somebody did obviously leak who the pilot was and that a pilot had been lost and put all of this in jeopardy. This is very, very interesting. All of that is new, ladies and gentlemen. A ton of. A ton of processing of this. Still beaming with pride. Klein. You gotta tell me. I got my. You gotta tell me I got my. Sorry. As I told you, I'm terribly sick right now. So I have my paper towel there. All right, anyway, ladies and gentlemen, let's not blow up your cell phone service provider, Patriot Mobile. Or maybe let's blow up your cell phone service provider. Patriot Mobile is the only Christian conservative wireless provider in the world. They're available on all three major networks. They back us up when we are out and in the field and they make sure that we can bring you coverage like we had today, where we are able to just go live for many hours and make sure that we are talking through the most important details of the day. Most important news of the day. Go to patriot mobile.com/betty or call 972patriot for the promo code Betty for a free month of service. Patriot mobile.com/benny, call 972patriot to make the switch. Today we have a. We have a ton of work to get to. This is, of course, has been a late day for us wanting to cover this all live and bring you all of this very interesting and dynamic intelligence. You heard, of course, from the CIA Director, the Department of War, and from the Joint Chiefs and President Trump. They're taking questions for over an hour, rocking and rolling. He feels in good spirits. And libs, again, we're making jokes that Donald Trump was in Walter Reed over this past weekend. So, no, make sure that you are. Make sure that you are locking into people that are telling you the truth about the news and not those who wish to lie to you in a constant basis in order to get, I guess, I guess get clicks. I don't know. All of, all of Saturday, there was a rumor that President Trump was in Walter Reed while he was in fact spending every waking moment saving an American life. And we are proud to congratulate, obviously the American military on that. Spent the whole show doing it. Ladies and gentlemen, will spend the rest of the day praying for some relief for whatever sick bug or virus that we got from, from having too many, too many vaccinated children in my household. Our verse of the day we will pray through is Romans 12. Do not confront the pattern of this world, but be transformed. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, the renewing of my congested head. That would be wonderful. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. He has a good and perfect will. God has amazing ways to show you that you are on the path to his will, that you are on the path to what he commands of you. When doors are opening or closing, when things are going well or when they're going poorly. Make sure that you are locked in with your Lord and Savior. And especially after this Easter holiday, make sure that you are living out the tributes to Christ. Read through the Gospels. Just read through those four books. The Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And ladies and gentlemen, you will renew your mind and it will help you address and approach life in a much more purposeful and meaningful way. And hopefully healthy way. Unlike me today, it's your boy, Benny. Thank you for watching. See you.
- [139:41]
Donald Trump
This is one. We need close air support. 90 degrees at 500 meters.
- [139:45]
Benny Johnson
Danger close. How copy?
- [139:47]
Donald Trump
Bravo 468 is Entran. Bravo 4, this is Dragon 26. I believe if you take a look now you'll find your tangles have been cleared out. Stand up strong battle through the night the Benny shows here Bringing liberty to life from the speeches to debates Benny Sharp like a blade coming through the lies Watch the truth cascade with the warrior's heart this man never fades you know it's prime time when Benny invades From saving the nation to stories untold the Benny shows a storm see the truth unfold Stay in the loop let freedom take hold Sorting all the libs Soul never soul it's the Benny show where the truth gon be Faith and freedom on your TV screen Stand up strong battle through the night the penny shows here Bringing liberty to light, Liberty to light Bringing liberty to light, Liberty to light Bringing liberty to life from the speeches to the bates Benny sharp like a blade coming through the lies Watch the truth cascade with the warrior's heart this man never fades, you know his promise Time a Benny invades from saving the nation to stories untold the Benny shows a storm see the truth unfold Stay in the loop let freedom take hold Salt and all the libs Soul never soul it's the Benny show where the truth gonna be Faith and freedom on your TV screen Stand up strong battle through the night the Ben shows here Bringing liberty to light. Bringing liberty to light. Bring a lipid eater light Bring a lip.