New Hope And Old Fears For Iranian Americans

0:00In 2024, a truck crashed into Canaw in Moresque, where I work. 146 of our dogs needed homes fast. We asked for help on Facebook. Our stories spread through WhatsApp messages and Instagram reposts. Immediately, people stepped up. And just six hours later, every dog was fostered. I'll never forget how our community showed up for us. Learn how over 3.5 billion people connect to what matters with meta at meta.com slash community. That's pure automotive joy. I'm Peter, the owner of Muscle Car Junior. It started as a hobby. Then I started posting about it. Before I knew it, I built a business for storing muscle cars on Facebook marketplace. And the community of car lovers on Instagram. Today, new customers send me what's app messages from all over. Not bad for a hobby. Learn how meta helps over 35 million American businesses like Peter's grow at meta.com slash community.

1:00I'm Mark Teesan. I'm Dana Perino. I'm Rebecca and this is the Fox News rundown. Thursday, March 5th, 2026. I'm Jessica Brosenthal. Iranian Americans who flood the regime decades ago are this week remembering life under the first diatola. They have high hopes for the country's future and feel immense gratitude to the United States. It was impossible not to celebrate, not because there was a person who was killed, but because there was an evil entity who represented the worst kind of evil that has existed on this earth. He was so much more than a dictator for us. He was the emblem, the absolute symbol of everything nefarious. I'm Dana Anthony. For the second time, a parent has been convicted in a deadly school shooting blamed on their son. When a child is in crisis and they're spiraling, giving them access to a weapon is the opposite

2:01of supervision. And that's what happens in these cases. Access turns anger into catastrophes. And I'm Joe Kanchit. I've got the final word on the Fox News rundown. The latest Fox News poll shows American support for strikes on Iran is split 50-50. And while six in 10 agree Iran does pose a national security threat, a majority 51% believe the president's handling of Iran makes us less safe. The question for many is, what exactly is next? South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on the Senate floor. The biggest thing going for us are the Iranian people. We finally have boots on the ground then. Asking Democrats what they have to say to the thousands of protesters in Iran. The people have risen up and you're turned your back on them. But Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy argued, you can't support a people's revolution from the air. I'm telling you that it looks like the plan is to leave the Iranian people hanging out to dry.

3:02People who fled Iran and now live in the US may be thrilled to hear Ayatollah Hamanay was killed. But they're grappling with those same questions as they remember why their families left decades ago. My earliest memory is of hearing noises, chance people marching in the streets and seeing smoke from people burning tires in the streets. And that was how the revolution started really coming about. Dr. Haman Hamanay is a board certified doctor and Iranian-American. These people, crowds in the streets, burning tires, chanting those chance eventually turned into violence and those burning tires turned into burning buildings. And that's what really caused the whole revolution to spiral out of control and bring the new regime in place and house the old one and the rest of history. So I was there at that point and my family is very fortunate and our entire community is very fortunate because almost all of us got out and most of us ended up in the US. Yeah Haman, what did your parents tell you about the decision to leave since then?

4:03Like what did they remember? What are the stories they have since told you as you've aged? Did you've gotten older that they felt like they could share with you about maybe the fear or the trepidation or what it was like for the older generations of Iranians who had to make the call to get out? Yeah, obviously I was three so I was too young to participate in anything to really understand what was happening at the time. But what I do remember is my parents were in extreme fear. You know, we had to live, we had to sleep underneath our mattress in order to prevent the broken glass that something blown up next to our building from landing on us in the middle of the night. And so we, you know, that's the kind of life we had was one guided by fear. And I think it was a decision that was made systematically that everyone in the community basically got together in synagogues that each other's homes and said that we have to get out of here. We see the writing on the wall. This is a regime taking over that will either kill us or make it impossible for us to live our lives in any way that is worth living.

5:03So let's get out as quickly as we can. And this is why I think it was a group migration. Almost everyone left around that same time. There was some who had reasons to stay or couldn't get out as easily. But those who wanted to leave, by and large made it out at a decent time. Many decided to stay or forced to stay and got out at different times later on. And they have stories that are just so compelling because you actually hear what it was like from them as children and young adults to live in this hell, especially as Jews or even as regular ordinary Iranians having to live under this level of oppression that is Americans we could never understand or appreciate. And so I have a bit of survivor's guilt in that I'm one of the ones who made it out. And there's so many who've lived under this extreme oppression that I never got to see. And if I can do one thing to give back, it is to make sure that all these people who have lived a life of tyranny for their entire lives or most of their lives have the opportunity to see what I've seen

6:03and experience what I've experienced. Who man, when you found out that the eye toll was killed, what was your first reaction? It was impossible not to celebrate, not because there was a person who was killed, but because there was an evil entity who represented the worst kind of evil that has existed on this earth since the 1940s, right? And we know who else was before that. And it's impossible not to celebrate the death of that, of that kind of evil. That said, you know that it's not erased off the earth because that was one man and some of his loyal assistants, but there are many more left. And so I think it's really a matter of rooting all of that out and putting in leadership that actually respects the people and gives them the freedom that they deserve and they long for. And what are you hoping for in terms of what's next? I know there are fears about replacing one eye tola with another. It sounds like an uphill climb. Well, it is an uphill climb. That said, I think we're past the point of no return at this point, right?

7:05This regime only stayed in power because people believed in them or cared about them. They hate them. They stayed in power through force and fear. And now that they're tools of force and their tools of fear are being dramatically taken away from them. They don't have any of their government buildings. A lot of their equipment and weaponry is gone. Their leadership, communication, command, gone. How are they going to do that to the people anymore, right? And this is just getting started. It's been just a few days since Saturday. Imagine how much more of the regime's oppression apparatus will be dismantled. Their political prisons, their centers of power, many of the people themselves, it's going to reach a point at some point where they cannot reconstitute their power and they're either going to be dead. They're going to be run out of town or both. And at some point, by the way, when that balance of power tips, the people are going to start taking action. They're going to go back into the streets as they already are to some degree,

8:06that they're going to be emboldened to fight. And the regime has nothing with which to fight back and start killing them by the tens of thousands as they did just a few weeks back. Los Angeles-based journalist and Iranian-American activist Tabi Rafael has interviewed many Iranians in the US, as well as the exiled former crown prince, Reza Polavi. She was seven when her family left Iran in the early 80s. He was so much more than a dictator for us. He was the emblem, the absolute symbol of everything and the nefarious. I mean, if my trauma had a face, it would be his. Along with, of course, his predecessor, Homeini. So I started screaming and then I wanted to just sob tears of joy because of all of this. It really was one of the most memorable moments of my life. But it was also, and this is so important, immediately tempered by reality. As much as I yelled with absolute ecstatic disbelief, it's complicated.

9:07My joy was and continues to be tempered with a lot of grief and anxiety. This is war. Tabi, what are your hopes and fears about what's next, about the possibility of an Iran without an Ayatollah or a theocratic regime? Is it possible, or is this, I mean, the President Trump said this week, the worst-case scenario is that in a few years, do you end up with somebody just as bad or worse? Right. So I completely understand that average Americans concern that you might be replacing one very historic evil in the form of the mollas with another. And we can wait to see what that is. But I really have to say here, as someone who was born in Tehran, the peace capital of the world, after the revolution, you are not talking about an Arab country. Iranians are, I believe, and I can find the facts

10:08for you to back this up, among the most educated, secular people in the entire Middle East. This isn't, you know, Saddam being captured or Qaddafi or in other Arab countries by, you know, armed militias and thugs going around. So I actually am not concerned in the long term about Iran falling again into violent or radical hands, particularly because I had the honor of having sat down with the exiled Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi on two occasions. And I have tremendous hope and excitement for a leader like him. Again, his vision aligns with that of most Iranians. And that's the best that you can hope for. Again, as an Iranian, I have an outlook on these things

11:09which is much more realistic because you see, I was born into the theocracy. The mindset of the mollas for the last 50 years are so trickled down to every level of Iranian society when I was a child there. And that included a school children at the time. I know they're slogans. I know their ideologies because I had to stand there as a little girl in the late 1980s when I later found out my American peers were like dancing to Madonna and Michael Jackson and watching Hulk Hogan on TV. We didn't have any of that. I was standing there in my mandatory hijab, even though I was a little Jewish girl. And my mandatory Islamic head covering, standing on that Tehran playground every day while an administrator held up a megaphone. And I had to scream along with all the other and little girls on the playground. Mag-bar, Amriqa, Mag-bar, Israel. Death to America, death to Israel, death to these Zionists, you know, math problems,

12:09asking us, you know, if you shoot at the Americans or the Zionists, how many are left? I mean, talk to Iranian Americans on the ground here. The ones that aren't either pro-regime or pro-regime because they're paid by the regime. And they will tell you these similar stories. They understand these ideologies because we understand the ideologies. We also understand the threats. And I think that's one thing that Americans should keep in mind. We have some new fox pulling about Americans' thoughts on what's going on in Iran. And there's quite a few results, but I'll just share these with you. The support for these strikes on Iran is split, 50-50. A majority, barely, 51% feel these strikes have made us less safe. In the short term, they may be making us less safe. But here's the thing. The Americans really need to stop thinking that Iranians can somehow magically overturn this regime peacefully. For 47 years, they have been mowed down in the streets,

13:14pulled out of their homes and dragged towards jails or hung from cranes that were maybe, in some cases, the last option. But in other cases, it is not. In other cases, strength through those arms is the only way when your civilian population on the ground is on-armed and has been mowed down for years. And if I, as an Iranian, am telling you that I welcome, with a measured sense of bitter sweetness for those caught in the crossfires that I welcome, what is happening right now? Please believe me. Please believe us. Tavira File, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate your insights. Thank you for giving me a voice, because I know that if I had stayed in Iran, this would never have been an opportunity for me. It's a privilege. It's Wilton Country.

14:20Watch it live at Noon Eastern Monday through Thursday at FoxNews.com, or on the Fox News YouTube channel. And don't miss the show. Listen and follow the podcast five days a week at FoxNewsPodcasts.com, or wherever you download your favorite podcasts. This is Joe Consci with your Fox News commentary coming up. Another parent will go to prison for a crime allegedly carried out by their child. Count one, murder in a second degree. We did jury find the defendant guilty. And on Tuesday, in Georgia, that jury also convicted Colin Gray of cruelty to children, as well as involuntary manslaughter, the charge that James and Jennifer crumbly were found guilty of when they were the first parents sent to prison in 2024 for not doing enough to prevent their son Ethan from going on a deadly high school shooting spree in Michigan five years ago. This case in Georgia dates back to September 4th, 2024. Colin Gray's son Colt is accused of opening fire

15:21at Appalachia High School, killing two students and two teachers, injuring nine others. He was 14 at the time and is still awaiting a murder trial charged as an adult. His dad testified at his own trial that his son's mother called him right after the shooting. She said, I know this is cold. And I said, well, something along the lines that there's no way you need to calm down. And she said he talked about it all the time. And I said, what? But District Attorney Brad Smith says Colin Gray had the know, his son, who had mental health issues, was obsessed with school shooters and bought the gun that his son Colt is accused of using as a gift. It wasn't like one parent made missed one warning. This was multiple warnings, overalls linked the period at time. And like we said, you just had to do one thing, take that rifle away. Colin Gray could spend the rest of his life behind bars. He's 55, facing decades in prison at sentencing.

16:22The mother, Marcy Gray, has not been charged. Mass violence is often the tragic intersection between grievance, identity crisis, and access to weapons. Dr. Daniel Bober is an adult and child forensic psychiatrist board certified practicing in Florida. I talk to people all the time about securing their weapons, but this is something that is very different. When a child is in crisis and they're spiraling, giving them access to a weapon is the opposite of supervision. And that's what happens in these cases. Access turns anger into catastrophe. So this was largely avoidable. It was very foreseeable. It's a tragedy all around, including for the father. But this is something that should have never happened, and it was largely preventable. Colin Gray says he had bought the rifle for his son as a Christmas gift. And one thing that he had talked about was he wanted to get him off his phone on the internet away from the video games. His son had had panic attacks.

17:24He had intense anger at times, behavioral issues. And the thought was that maybe they could be closer. He could have some better relationship with his son. Have you seen this kind of thing before? I actually have. The weapon is a symbol for power and control. And for some parents, it is a substitute for emotional closeness. It's a way for, in their mind, the child to feel better about themselves, to feel safer, to feel powerful, to feel protected. And very often these kids will identify with prior shooters, as was the case here. Because these are people who are marginalized. They're on the fringes. They don't feel like they fit into the fold. And so they idolize these shooters because they feel like these are people that understand me. It is a script for converting private distress into public impact. It is a way for them to finally to feel empowered. And many of them, as we know, are bullied. And so this is how they strike back with anger and with fury.

18:27It's hard to believe, but in Colt Gray's bedroom, he had pictures of Nicholas Cruz, who was the gunman in the 2018 Parkland, Florida massacre at the high school. There were 17 were killed. He had news clippings on his wall. And so I guess he idolizes Cruz. If other reasons, as you talk about, you being in Florida, you talked to people involved in that shooting, right? In your practice. I did. I worked with victims and first responders. It was obviously a horrible tragedy that changed the community forever. But if you think about the society that we live in, it's a society that glorifies notoriety. And in a society that glorifies notoriety, you have to be very careful about how you discuss tragedy. And I think sometimes the media, sometimes social media, has a way of turning these people into celebrities, which helps the people, unfortunately, come after them and inspires them in a lot of ways.

19:27So how can Colt Gray, he has, gives this son the gun, and you went into the reasons why. But you go into your son's bedroom and you see that and the clippings and all that on the wall. I mean, you gotta do something, right? I mean, I'm exactly, I mean, how do you tolerate that? I mean, I'm not, it's not easy being a parent, dealing with a child like this, I'm sure it's horrible. But how do you not do something more? Yeah, the warning signs were all there. I mean, and this is a very extreme case. You know, you can't really blame the parents in a lot of these cases because, you know, with social media, with smartphones, kids can have secret lives and chat rooms and sometimes they fly below the radar. But there were so many warning signs here that this was the last person that should have ever had access to a firearm. And that's why I believe this father is responsible for this tragedy. I'm not saying that he committed it, but he essentially did almost everything but pulled the trigger by allowing him access to a weapon

20:29when we know that he was so troubled and idolized these prior shooters. You know, it's interesting that Collin Gray's estranged wife, Colt's mother, Marcie Gray, she had referenced the conviction in Michigan of the Crumbly's, James and Jennifer, the parents of Ethan in the 2021 Oxford High School shooting that left four people dead. They were convicted of involuntary manslaughter for not doing enough to prevent their son from going on the attack. And she reacted to their conviction and said, look, we have to get these guns locked up, but they didn't do it. Well, you know, something the majority or at least 50% of people aren't doing it. They're not securing these weapons. I talk about the fact that I support the Second Amendment. I believe people should have the right to bear arms, but they have to secure these weapons and they are not doing it. And it makes it easier for tragedies like this to occur. The family life, the parents, they're separated, but they fought. They had moved several times. Colt Gray apparently switched schools a lot. He missed the eighth grade entirely. The shooting happened at the beginning of ninth grade.

21:30He only had been there a couple of days. So I'm not excusing anything, but he's got a lot of things that are adding up making his situation worse, it seems. A lot of family dysfunction. It was a sick family system and certainly that contributed to his psychological makeup and the actions that he took, unfortunately. He had told his relatives he was hearing voices. His grandmother testified that he'd asked her would she still love him if he did something terrible? What should some grandmother or a parent do when they hear that? What, it's not easy being a parent when you hear things like that. I mean, what do you do? What should you do? I think you have to listen. You have to be present. You have to ask open-ended questions. The last thing you want to do is shut it down or engage in shame, humiliation and judgment. You have to say things like, why do you feel that way? What are you thinking of doing? How can I help support you? These are all the right things to say, but the last thing you want to do

22:31is turn your back on it. And I say this to parents all the time. When you are at the end of your rope, when you can't stand to be around your kid, that is when they need you the most. So when you talk to parents who deal with children with emotional issues, what things stand out? What should parents look for his warning signs that maybe possibly something bad could happen? So you look for things like changes in their weight, changes in their appetite, changes in the way they dress, self-neglect, not fulfilling activities of daily living, withdrawal, isolation, retreating into their room, closing the door on their phones or on their computers. You have to be present. You have to be aware of what's going on. That's being apparent. That is supervision. And you have to realize that this is a very different generation. This is not a 30 or 40 years ago when if your kid didn't come home after 11 o'clock, you were on the phone with the police now, they could be home,

23:31but they could still retreat into a world of their own where they can get themselves into trouble. So you have to parent in a very different way and be present like never before. You talked about their secret lives that they can have on their phones. I mean, that's still the hardest thing for parents. How do you know everything your kid's doing on their phone? And should you? And then when they go to school and they see their friends, they get into more problems. So it is a very difficult world to negotiate for a parent. Being a parent right now is one of the hardest jobs there is. What is your recommendation for a parent when they get started with a phone for their child? So I think they should not have these phones for as long as possible. I think in Australia now they just passed a law that they can't have the up until age 16 without parental supervision. So I think to laying these phones as long as possible, I am not going to tell you that it's completely negative. I mean, I think these phones are good for social connection, but I can tell you I think it's a net negative

24:35that these phones are causing so many problems. These kids are going on to social media, especially young girls with eating disorders and depression and anxiety. The more time they spend on these phones, actually three hours or more doubles the risk of mental illness. So I think limiting these phones as much as possible and holding off on giving them phones, I think is the best policy. And now with two convictions of parents involved in school shootings with their children, with guns. You think we're going to get more of these kinds of prosecutions? Are we paving the way here for a lot more of this? I do, I think it's really setting a precedent and I would like to say that maybe parents will think twice, but then again, look at some of these parents who are being charged and convicted. These are probably people that needed help themselves. These are people that needed support. And so I think it's also incumbent upon communities, teachers, clergy, police officers to try to mobilize and help these families

25:36before a tragedy like this happens. Dr. Daniel Bober, adult and child forensic psychiatrist, board certified based in Florida. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much. Every weekday, it's your go-to source for staying informed and entertained. The Fox News Primetime Highlights Podcast, The Ingram Angle, Chessi Waters Primetime, Hannity and Gutfeld. Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcasts.com. Subscribe to this podcast at FoxNewsPodcasts.com. It's time for your Fox News commentary. Joe Contra. What's on your mind? Our Democrats rooting against the US in this war with Iran. Hi, everyone. This is a textbook case of high risk meets high reward for President Trump and the Republican Party, at least most of it. If this war is over in a matter of weeks with limited US casualties,

26:36the Democrats will look as foolish as they did when they oppose Trump's extraction of Nicholas Maduro out of Venezuela, the look as tone deaf as when they supported men playing against women in sports or defunding or at least decreasing funding for the police. They'll appear as patently out of touch when they simply wouldn't stand when asked during the State of the Union last week if they valued American citizens over those who are in the country illegally, per their constitutional oath. The reflex by the blue team is to oppose Trump on everything, even issues when they are defying solid majorities of the American people as polling suggests here with the Iran War. Here's the bottom line, if Trump is successful here and this war does not drag on, then Democrats will have very, very little to run on in November while Donald Trump brings peace and prosperity to the United States. That's America first.

27:37I'm Joe Conchin. You've been listening to the Fox News rundown, and now stay up to date by subscribing to this podcast at FoxNewsPodcasts.com. Listen to Add Free on Fox News Podcasts Plus on Apple Podcasts, and Prime Members can listen to the show Add Free on Amazon Music. And for up to the minute news, go to FoxNews.com.