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Tucker DESTROYS Know-Nothing Ted Cruz Over Iran! - The Jimmy Dore Show | Wave AI Podcast Notes

Tucker DESTROYS Know-Nothing Ted Cruz Over Iran!

Fri Jun 20 2025

During a recent interview host Tucker Carlson questioned Ted Cruz about U.S. policy toward Iran, pressing him on his lack of basic knowledge about the country while accusing him of advocating reckless military intervention. Cruz awkwardly admits he...

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Jimmy Dore Show

Episode Title: Tucker DESTROYS Know-Nothing Ted Cruz Over Iran!

Host: Jimmy Dore
Guests: Keaton Weiss, Russell Dobular
Release Date: June 20, 2025

Introduction

In this high-energy episode of The Jimmy Dore Show, host Jimmy Dore, along with guests Keaton Weiss and Russell Dobular, dissect a recent interview between Senator Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson. The focus centers on Cruz's stance regarding Iran, with Dore and his guests critically analyzing Cruz's knowledge and rhetoric surrounding U.S. foreign policy.

Main Discussion

Ted Cruz's Interview with Tucker Carlson

The episode begins with Jimmy Dore introducing the focal point: Ted Cruz's contentious interview on Tucker Carlson's show, where Cruz discusses Iran's role in alleged assassination attempts and his advocacy for military action against the country.

Jimmy Dore (00:52): "If you really believe Iran tried to assassinate the president, then we of course as a country would take it upon ourselves to attack Iran."

Dore criticizes Cruz for his perceived lack of knowledge about Iran, particularly its population.

Jimmy Dore (03:09): "Why did you wait almost a year to do anything about it? It's just amazing how as when Israel strikes, all of a sudden the panic meter gets turned up to 10."

Assessing Cruz's Knowledge on Iran

Dore points out Cruz's admitted ignorance of Iran's population during the interview, questioning the senator's credibility.

Zoe Saldana (03:06): "You don't know the population of the country you seek to topple?"
Jimmy Dore (03:38): "He doesn't know anything about Iran. He's acting like he knows it was somewhere in that range, but he had no idea."

Guests echo the sentiment, emphasizing the dangers of advocating for military action without comprehensive understanding.

Keaton Weiss (05:06): "You don't know anything about Iran. You're the one who claims they're not trying to murder Donald Trump."

Media and Political Rhetoric

The conversation shifts to the role of media in shaping public perception and the apparent double standards in coverage of U.S. military actions.

Jimmy Dore (06:21): "When Israel strikes, suddenly this is an existential problem requiring immediate action, like potentially World War III."
Keaton Weiss (36:14): "Iran has been preparing for an American invasion for a long time. They've built missiles, drones, and underground bases."

Public Opinion and Policy Implications

Dore and his guests explore the disconnect between Cruz's hawkish stance and the broader American public's opposition to war, highlighting recent polling data.

Jimmy Dore (25:47): "Polling shows 60% of Americans oppose U.S. intervention in Iran, 16% favor it."
T Mobile Representative (26:38): "MAGA is the anti-war faction of the United States political spectrum... There's nobody really to propagandize with this stuff other than people in nursing homes watching CNN."

Potential Consequences of Military Action

The discussion delves into the possible repercussions of a U.S.-Iran conflict, including economic impacts and regional destabilization.

Keaton Weiss (39:21): "If the Americans get into a fight with Iran, they will be devastated. The U.S. is overstretched and declining fast."
Jimmy Dore (31:17): "A war with Iran will devastate the American economy. Oil prices will skyrocket, affecting every aspect of daily life."

Call to Action

Towards the episode's conclusion, Dore emphasizes the urgency of political activism to prevent war, advocating for legislative measures and grassroots movements.

Jimmy Dore (24:21): "We need to put all our energy into political change here. The U.S. government is not an alien entity; we have the power to influence it."
Keaton Weiss (29:19): "If Trump proceeds with the Iran policy, we should abandon support for his other initiatives, using maximum leverage to prevent the war."

Notable Quotes

Jimmy Dore (03:09): "Why did you wait almost a year to do anything about it?"
Zoe Saldana (05:06): "You don't know anything about Iran."
Jimmy Dore (25:47): "Polling shows 60% of Americans oppose U.S. intervention in Iran."
Keaton Weiss (36:14): "Iran has been preparing for an American invasion for a long time."
Jimmy Dore (31:17): "A war with Iran will devastate the American economy."
Keaton Weiss (39:21): "If the Americans get into a fight with Iran, they will be devastated."

Conclusion

In this episode, Jimmy Dore and his guests provide a scathing critique of Senator Ted Cruz's foreign policy positions regarding Iran. They highlight the senator's lack of essential knowledge, the risky rhetoric that could lead to disastrous consequences, and the broader disconnect between political elites and public opinion. The discussion underscores the importance of informed activism and legislative action to prevent unnecessary military engagements that could have far-reaching negative impacts.

Disclaimer: The transcript provided contains repetitive and nonsensical segments related to T Mobile and Zoe Saldana, which appear to be placeholders or errors. This summary focuses solely on the substantive discussion between Jimmy Dore, Ted Cruz, and the guests, excluding these non-content sections.

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Transcript

Zoe Saldana (0:00)

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T Mobile Representative (0:23)

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Zoe Saldana (0:24)

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Jimmy Dore (0:27)

Let me check this pocket.

T Mobile Representative (0:28)

Oh, mints.

Zoe Saldana (0:29)

Really, I'm fine. Oh, I have raisins. I'm a mom. Wait, wait one sec.

Jimmy Dore (0:34)

I've got cupcakes in the car.

Zoe Saldana (0:35)

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Ted Cruz (0:47)

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Jimmy Dore (0:49)

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Zoe Saldana (0:52)

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Jimmy Dore (0:54)

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Zoe Saldana (0:57)

Due if you pay off earlier.

Ted Cruz (0:58)

Cancel. This summer, Instacart is bringing back your favorites from 1999 with prices from 1999. That means 90s prices on juice pouches that ought to be respected, 90s prices on boxed Mac and cheese, and 90s prices on ham, cheese and cracker lunches. Enjoy all those throwbacks and more at throwback prices only through Instacart. $4.72. Maximum discount per $10 of eligible items. Limit three offers per order expiration September 5th while supplies last discount based on CPI comparison. If they really believed Iran tried to assassinate the president, then we of course as a country would take it upon ourselves to attack Iran. We just say that and then just let that hang in the air for months on end. Which, you know, there was talk about that speculation about that, whatever you want to call it before November of last year, people were blaming on her own. So why'd you wait almost a year to do anything about it? It's just amazing how as when Israel strikes, all of a sudden the panic meter gets turned up to 10 and all of a sudden this is an existential problem. Establishment media sucks all gas lighting. So good luck.

Ted Cruz (21:15)

Yeah, I've heard of it. Yeah. Sounds good. A lot of people seem to like it. Ted Cruz, recipient of 1.9 million APAC dollars. That is a whole lot of explanation. Lizard man. Yes. Craig Mokabir says the US Provided the Israeli regime with the green light for its surprise attack on Iran. The distraction of feigned peace talks to facilitate the attack, US Tax dollars to finance the operation, the intelligence for targeting the weapons and ammunition for killing the diplomatic cover to protect it from Security Council action. US forces to intercept the Iranian response, the promise of direct US military backing if Israel requires it and now appears poised to join the Israeli regime in offensive operations. Once again, the US is co perpetrator in Israel's crimes. And corrupt US politicians and media corporations have dusted off the old WMD's ruse to push the US into war for the Israeli regime after Israeli impunity. The biggest threat to international peace and security and is American ignorance. Amen. Amen. And Ted Cruz fed all of that right there. He gave you the they want to kill us all. So what are you crazy? For defying Donald Trump's what, oddly enough, neocon foreign policy strategy at this moment. And not only that, but as Craig says earlier in this tweet as he references, he spilled the beans that yeah, we are involved. Well, we. Well, what do you mean we? Well, I mean Israel. But I thought Israel and the United States are different entities. Yeah, well, I mean we're backing Israel. So it's just so obvious who instigated this. And you know, as much as knock on wood, polling seems to indicate at this moment that the overwhelming majority of Americans are against this or unsure, so the latest polling shows 60% of Americans oppose U.S. intervention in Iran, 16% favorites. And the rest are unsure. And what we need to do right now is we need to make sure that all of the rest of those people who are unsure get their mind right and say no. Because the propaganda blitz in these coming days and weeks is going to be just absolutely relentless for anyone who lived through the post 911 Iraq March to War. You know what I'm talking about. For those who are too young or too unengaged to know what I'm talking about, go learn what I'm talking about. You know, go on YouTube, search for, you know, whatever, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, whoever the CNN guys were back then, I don't even know because that's what kind of impression CNN makes on people. Go back and look at some of that media coverage just to educate yourself as to like the lengths that these people will go to just convince the public that yeah, ignorance is blitz. Freedom is slavery, War is peace. Up is, is down, left is right. It's pretty extraordinary what they will do. And crazy as it may sound to some of you, it does work on people. It does work on people, which is why the task is so urgent that we a remind people of what a mistake that was, what the disastrous consequences of that were, and warn people that, yes, because Iran, you know, whether Ted Cruz knows it or not, is a country with almost four times the population of pre war Iraq in 2002. So the consequences of this will be much, much worse. And it's imperative that we stop this from happening. We just have to stop this from happening. Some Democrats, as well as Thomas Massie in the House have created a war powers bill that would require a congressional vote. You need to call your senator and your congressperson and urge them to vote yes on that. It's all hands on deck. Because if you've been politically awake for the last 20 years, this right now is what you've been fearing. This was the big disaster event that we just couldn't have happen. And now it's looking pretty likely it's going to happen in pretty short time. And so it's all hands on deck to try and stop this.

Keaton Weiss (39:21)

You know, they, they knocked down an apartment, killing everyone inside. 65 people to kill one or two people. Over 20 kids were slaughtered. And you know, they were. The Western media was saying how sophisticated this was. Well, everyone in the neighborhood knows who these people are. They're on tv. I mean, I'm, sometimes I'm, I'm not, I'm not a, I don't, I try not to be on Persian television, but I've been on a few times, but because I have more than enough to do at university and then, you know, online for, for an English audience or audiences. But people in our neighborhood, they know where I live. So, you know, it's no discovery by Mossad or Israeli intelligence. So if they bomb the apartment building that I live in, kill everyone inside, is that some master stroke? So, you know, Western media, they are a part of this. They are a part of genocide. They have been helping the genocide in Lebanon, the genocidal attacks, they've been helping with the genocide in Gaza and they justify this illegal onslaught against Iran. But the point is that fighting Israel is more difficult than fighting in the Persian Gulf because you have to have long range missiles, you have to have long range drones. They, you know, but here all you have to do is fire short range missiles and short range drones and they get there far quicker. So the other side of the Persian Gulf of Iran is easily accessible. They can destroy everything. If they can fire 100 missiles, let's say tonight or 200 missiles tonight or 300 missiles tonight at Israel, at the Israeli regime, they can fire 3,000 across the Persian Gulf. But what's the difference? All those oil and gas installations and tankers are there. They don't need to shut the Strait of Hormuz. There won't be any oil to get out of the Strait of Hormones. There won't be any ships or, or what do you call them, tankers to take the oil. Yeah. So if the Americans get into a fight with Iran, yes, they can do damage, but they will be devastated. And the Americans can't invade Iran because this is not 1990 or 2003. The United States is not the United States back then. It's gone. It's been doing forever wars. It's worn down, it's declining fast. It's. People don't want war and powers have risen. Iran, Russia, China, brics and so on. So Iran today is much more powerful than it was before, doesn't want war. This was unprovoked by the Americans and Israelis. But Iran is stronger today, Russia is stronger today. And the Americans are overstretched. Not only does the United States have huge problems at home, a divided nation, most are opposed to the war. And you see on the right, people like Tucker Carlson and, and, and others. What's her name?

Jimmy Dore (48:29)

No, actually, entirely positive. Good. I'll give you a few examples. When I flew, this is before I even stepped foot in Gaza actually, but I flew on British Airways to, to Cairo, so, but I flew through London, obviously, and I, I got on the air, I was on call at, at my trauma hospital and then I got on the airplane the next morning, so I was just dead tired, so I just fell asleep and I woke up in London and the stewardess was like, are you okay? He just slept for like 912 hours straight because I was flying from San Francisco. And the. So I said, no, sorry, I'm, I'm a doctor. I was just on call last night. I was just really tired, but thanks for waking me up. And she said, oh, no, no problem. And then she said she was Irish, but just judging by her accent, but she said, you know, at least you can enjoy a vacation in London now. And I kind of thought to myself, oh, should I tell her? Should I not tell her? So I just, I chuckled and I said, oh, actually I'm, I'm a doctor, I'm going to the Gaza Strip. And she literally immediately broke down crying. She hugged me, she gave me a kiss on the cheek and she said, please, please help those children. Please help those children. It's. And I was surprised. I mean, that's not, you know, you don't. And she was like a 65 year old lady. She wasn't, you know, but the, but it was just, I was, I was surprised by that because it's not, you don't get that from watching the BBC, you know, you're not getting that from watching the BBC. The BBC is better than most American media, but it's still pretty awful. But the, another Thing I'll tell you is that when I went to. So I was at the DNC for about three hours, and they shunted the. There was a thing called the uncommitted movement. Do you remember? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Total disaster. But the. But they. They asked some doctors to come out and. And speak because they. They had actually gotten a lot of delegates from uncommitted. Like people writing in uncommitted. So. So they gotten some delegates. So they actually had some, I guess, sway or something. And so they. They held a little press conference and Ta. Nehisi Coates and Alex Co. Or not Alex Coburn died. Patrick Cockburn and. And Democracy now covered it. You know, it was like, literally as far away from the main stage as you could possibly get. But it was there and people showed up. And afterwards. And I think it was. It was broadcast by. I think Forbes put it on their YouTube channel, something. Afterwards. I was walking around Chicago interviewing with some guy from some channel, and people, random people, were like, are you one of the doctors? That was just because I was literally wearing these scrubs because they asked us to come in scrubs. So there. He's like, are you the doctor that went to Gaza? I was like, yeah. And they were like, oh, my God. God bless you. Thank you so much for what you're doing. It's just so awful. We got to stop this, you know, And. And. And, yeah, so, no, that's it. The only negative. I mean, like, you get Twitter. Nasty Grams.

Jimmy Dore (56:34)

That that could change at any given moment. But honestly, right now, what I would recommend that people do is put, if you're gonna, if you're gonna use money for something, use it to try and change the political situation of the United States States. Because literally nothing is, just remember, nothing of any significance is going in or out of Gaza. Nothing. So if you do manage to send money to somebody in Gaza, all that means is you privilege them over their neighbor because they can pay for the stuff that these, these gangs that the Israelis are, are supporting, have stolen. And, but that's it, you know, because again, nothing is coming in, nothing is right. Nothing to meet the scale of the need that that's there. So honestly, I, I, I just, and, and I know it's frustrating because it feels like, you know, go, gosh, if I write my senator, what the, you know, does that do anything? No, by itself, probably not. But getting together with your Neighbors. Like, I, I, I mean, I mean this seriously. I don't mean this to be flippant at all. I think spending money on a potluck to attract your neighbors to your house to discuss these things is better spent money than, than trying to send money to, to an NGO to, to work in Gaza. Because the problem is here, once we stop committing the problem, once we stop being part of the problem, the problem will go away instantly because we're the only ones that have the capability to impose the problem in the first place. So as soon as we stop doing that, then, yeah, then we should all donate money to Gaza because we owe them incredible reparations. But the, and that includes me. I don't, I don't exempt myself from this at all. But the, and the US Government obviously is never going to pay reparations, but we can. But the, but yeah, so put, put your energy into political change here. You know, we, we have the ability to influence our government. Not much to be perfectly fair, but it is there. And it doesn't, it's not only calling and emailing and texting and posting on social media. You know, you can get out in the street, you can make decisions at your workplace, you can make decisions in your community spaces, at your church, at your synagogue, at your mosque. There's a lot of things that people can do if they actually put their mind to it. The US Government is not some alien entity that we have no control over. We do, we just don't. They, they want us to think we don't, but we do. And getting together with people and seeing what people are able. And just remember there's a Jewish Voice for Peace chapter in like every town in the United States. They're everywhere. Somehow there, there are plenty of people who are already working on these things. Just go get involved, you know, Go get involved. But then before that, you asked.

Jimmy Dore (59:04)

Yeah, I mean, are they recoverable? The only way to know is to try. But you know, this kind of thing has never been done before. Like, if you think about it, that what has been done to Gaza is kind of like the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, if they were carried out continuously and repeatedly. And then the cons, the population was put into the, one of the most dense concentration camps that ever has ever existed. Existed, because now I'm not even talking about the entire length of Gaza. I'm just talking about the narrow strip of the Mossi that was on that map that you just showed, where that isn't red which is something like 15 of Gaza's land mass now. And Gaza was already one of the most crowded places in the world before this started. So the. So, yeah, exactly. Which actually that. The, the. Everything underneath that box outlined in red is also red. The. So that it's just. It's crazed. Like it's completely and totally crazed. And, and just to be clear, everything in the red zone has been demolished. Everything. Every building, with a few exceptions. You know, the. Actually, one of the major exceptions is the, the compound of the gangs that, that the Israelis are supporting who can steal aid and then sell it back to people for 100 times its cost, which they can't afford, obviously. But, but is Gaza recoverable? I want to say so. I. The. The Palestinians have a remarkable capacity for resilience, but obviously everything has a limit. Can these children go back to having a somewhat normal life? I don't know. I, I do know there are millions and millions of people across the world that are willing to try and help them do that, but not under bombardment. And, and certainly. And this is the, this is a really important thing. Not under bombardment and not. And this is why Hamas is refusing to surrender. Not if we just go back to the closure of Gaza that existed on October 6th of 2023. People have to remember Gaza has been a closed military zone since about 2007. That's insanity. There's a whole society there that. That's not. Nobody would accept that. You know, if, if that was done to any American neighborhood, there would be people, you know, people would be slinging their rifles over and marching out to kill whoever it is that happens to be on the other side of that fence. That's completely understandable. You know, the, you know, the Jews did it when they were in the Warsaw Ghetto. They used the most pitiful armaments that they could find. They dug trenches, they dug bunkers. They did anything they could to resist the slow, methodical starving and destruction of their society. And that's exactly what the Palestinians have done here. And it's not pretty. You know, war is not pretty. Violence is not pretty at all. October 7th was a shocking atrocity. But that doesn't change the facts of the matter. The. So, yeah, is the society recoverable? I hope so. And I would like to find out, I guess, is the way to put it.