Ray McGovern : Trump’s War, Putin’s Advantage

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1:01The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA's heating up, March Bandis is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I could follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment. Undeclared wars are commonplace. Gradually, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression with no complaints from the American people. Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected. What if sometimes, to love your country, you had to alter or abolish the government?

2:02What if Jefferson was right? What if that government is best which governs least? What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong? What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave? What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now? Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, March 16, 2000 and 26th, the day before Saint Patrick's Day. Ray McGovern joins us now. Ray, always a pleasure. Thank you, my dear friend. Thanks for accommodating my schedule. Before we get to the Kremlin's view of what's going on in Iran, you raised some very interesting issues with me earlier today when we communicated privately.

3:05What is Haaret's reporting today about Prime Minister Netanyahu? Well, first, Judge, thanks for putting me in a cleanup position there, number four today. There's not much to clean up after Aleister, Larry, and Jeffrey, since Jeffrey hit that home run just now. But I'll just try to get on base. I would never much of a hit. I'll just try to get on base and hope that Trita Parsley can bring me home later today. Haaret's. Whoa, there you go. 99 problems. But the Iran war ain't won. Well, that's a little bit hyperbole there. Iran, of course, is won. But the big thing there, you can see, Prime Minister's most concerned about losing the coming election in October, is polls are down. His coalition is losing steam and worst of all.

4:05My God, worst of all. Even though President Trump appealed to President Hatsok, to pardon this poor fellow, pardon him, because he's not getting pretty, it's a cutscene here. He's lied so many times on the road that looks like he would end up in jail. If you don't pardon him, well, for once, the Israeli judiciary stood up to ain't, and that's going to happen. And so, all I'm saying here is that, in my view, Netanyahu is the wild card. And he has not only the existential problem of Israel, but of one fellow named Benjamin Netanyahu, wife and children, he's going to end up in jail, okay? If things don't improve, so what will he attempt to do? My guess is that he'll attempt a false flag attack. And he's like, all kinds of ways to do that. Mosad is all over this country, or this beloved country of ours.

5:07And I warned about this a couple of days ago in a tweet that got over 200,000 looks, but then I saw that Laidijani, Laidijani from the National Security Advisor in Iran, what do you say? He said, oh, I've heard that some remaining members of what they call the Epstein's network have devised a conspiracy to create an incident like 9-11 and blame Iran for it. Ali Laidijani, head of the National Security Council, said, he wrote it on X, okay? Quote, Iran fundamentally opposes such terrorist schemes and has no war with the American people. That's important. Iran does not have a war with the American people. He has a war with the Epstein class. The people who are being supporting Trump in this disaster that's happening before.

6:08I so well described by your three previous guests this morning. So my point is that this is existential not only for Israel, but for Netanyahu. Do I put it past the fellow who does genocide? Does forced starvation to perpetrate the kind of attack like 9-11, or maybe something a little smaller in these United States of ours? I do not put it past another matter of fact. I think the odds are better than even that he would do so, given the way things are going. He has no other course and he is the kind of person that would do that in my view. Trump told NBC on Saturday that the Iranians reached out to him through an intermediary he declined the name and made an offer for a cease fire, which he said wasn't the offer he was hoping for.

7:10The Iranian Foreign Minister has said, not only did we not reach out to him, we don't want a cease fire and we would not negotiate with him. Which of them is not being truthful? Well, Arachi of course is being truthful. He talked to Margaret Brennan to let him continue his sentences. They said, look, it's over. We've been so so maestrops, so deceived. We're not going to have any settlement much in this, even any negotiations here with these people. We're going to let this thing go because we're in it for a long term and we can outlast anything. We've been this through this before. You know, let's hold this thing. Don't talk about negotiations with us now. Maybe later, but certainly not now. That's about as definitive. And in the background, of course, of this, it's worth repeating. On the 26th of February, this year, Geneva.

8:12That is, Whitcough and a Kushner. And in Arachi, okay, the fellow has talked with them all group-winning. And they came to a almost full agreement and we have the testimony of the person who mediated those talks, the foreign minister, Hormon. And he was so elated, what do you do? He got in the next, no, not the next plane. He got his own little personal plane flew to Washington, right? And he told the vice president who this goes for, guys, the Iranians have made all kinds of concessions on nurture. And, as a matter of fact, they even allowed for U.S. inspectors to supplement the, hey, you're so poor, we're poor. And then, I think he sensed that the JD Vance was hearing this, but he's not going to tell the president. So, what does he do? Margaret Brennan, good, so CBS. So he goes on CBS and says, he lays it all out. And within the next several hours, what happens?

9:16We start the attack, or we literally start the attack, and then we get sucked in as Rubio himself admits. So the Israelis told us that we're going to attack Iran, and we were afraid that the Iranians might reciprocate and attack us. And so we had to go, I mean, hello, there's no mutual defense treaty with Israel. Israel is not our ally in any theoretical sense. Why did Rubio think, oh, my God, we had to go right into this fray because Israel attacked Iran? Oh, my God. There it is, laid out in as clearer terms as you can get. Here is one of the statements made to Margaret Brennan yesterday by the Iranian Foreign Minister on these very topics. Ray, cut number one, Chris. President Trump said this weekend he is not ready to make a deal with Iran because the terms aren't good enough yet.

10:18Has Iran asked for a ceasefire? No, we never asked for a ceasefire. And we have never asked even for negotiation. We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes. And this is what we have done so far, and we continue to do that until President Trump comes to the point that this is an illegal war with no victory. And, you know, there are, you know, people being killed only because President Trump wants to have fun. This is what he has said. Have fun? Yes, this is what he said, that they are sinking, you know, ships and targeting different places because it is fun. Well, less than anybody think that the foreign minister is making that up.

11:19Here is Donald Trump talking about it's more fun to sink the ship. Cut number two, Chris. The Navy has gone. It's all lying at the bottom of the ocean. 46 ships. Can you believe it? In fact, I got a little upset with our people. I said, what quality of ship? Excellent, sir. Top of the line. I said, why did we just capture the ship? We're going to use it. Why did we sink them? They said it's more fun to sink them. I said, that's it. More fun. Now under the age of President of the United States, mocking something like that and calling it fun. Now, is it conceivable that Margaret Brennan did not know that Trump said that about more fun? And if it's conceivable and it seemed to be that she didn't know, let's say about our major media, even informing each other for God's sake, as to what Trump says, what Trump is the loose handle here.

12:21He and Netanyahu don't pay any attention to the more grudges, thinks that he says, it appears not. She has her own little talking points, her own little questions. And in that clip, she didn't interrupt them very much. But what was she on it? Arachi is a consummate diplomat. He knows about these things. And if you look at it in a personal point of view, he was the guy that made these concessions in Geneva. The mediator, again, the Omani farm minister was so related, and there was good positive feedback from both sides initially. And he came right back as I say, told JD Vance, apparently, didn't make much effect in pushing on Vance. That's all Margaret Brennan. Now, Margaret Brennan should know all that stuff. She should ask a little more pointed questions like, what happened there? You weren't Geneva on the 26th. And then they started bombing on the 28th.

13:22You came and talked to people. And you talked to me on the 27th. What's going on here? You're going to have that because they're all afraid. They're making megabucks, and they don't want to lose their place in line with the mainstream media, so-called. Our dear friend and colleague, Larry Johnson, reports that one of the reasons that the Israelis and the Americans were so optimistic about toppling the regime merely by assassinating the Iatola and other top leaders was that Masad had co-opted the commanding general of the Revolutionary Guard, who was giving Masad all the information they needed, and who was going to be their man to take over the government after the Iatola had been killed. He has since been discovered and has been executed. Does that make sense to you? Those reports seem to be valid, although you don't hear anything

14:24from the Iranian government about this for obvious reasons. I mean, as soon as this guy was discovered, I imagine he was terminated with extreme prejudice as the CIA operations people used to call it. Yeah, this was Soleimani's deputy, for God's sake. He took over. So this is a big cheese, and you know, count them as clever if the Brits or the Israelis or the US CIA subborn this guy, but apparently he was at all these meetings and they said, oh, I got to go now because then 10 minutes later, his interlocutor, where there's Nashrala, or many of these other key leaders in that part of the world, were demolished by missiles of one sort or another. Wow. What do you think? Why do you think the Americans and the Israelis would put all their eggs in one basket, so to speak,

15:27of this one guy? I mean, how could they have so grossly miscalculated the resilience of the Iranian people and the asymmetrical nature of the Iranian offensive military attacks? The judge presidents here, what they want to hear, they get people to bounce off ideas with who they know will agree with them, talking about this gang of four, right? Trump, Rubio, JD Vance, and Hexeth. And those are people that are the gang of four. Now, Hexeth, as you told the president what's really going on, I think the heads that has said to Trump. Look, I'm afraid it's not going to go real well. So wouldn't they ask you about whether I'm on board?

16:29Would you just say something like, oh, maybe full of suffocating? You know what I'm talking about? I'm completely on board because we have to think about two, three years from now. I think that's why Trump felt obligated to say, well, JD Vance is philosophically a little different, but I don't know. So in other words, dance knows better than this. All of them are outtowing to a kind of insane emperor whom they won't tell has no clothes on. And this comes to a very bad end, as the Chinese used to say, because the straight is still closed. The Israelis say it will remain closed. Now, that was not some punk Iranian. This is the no supreme leader. This straight is going to remain closed. And talk about putting Marines in that area to keep it open or chips or asking the Chinese of all people, come and put your battleships here.

17:30And I mean, the Iranians have dominance over those cliffs and they stretch for, you know, 1,000 kilometers, 100, whatever it is, they have built in fortified anti-ship sites that can wreak havoc as some of them already have. So, you know, he's in a bad place, Trump. And what he's got to do is pretend that he's still in control, but he isn't. And what's my main fear? My main fear is that, well, it's not only my main fear, there was a general. A general who is on that major talk show in Moscow on last night. I forget his name for a second, but he's one of the people that Larry Johnson interviewed when Larry was there. He's a very perspicacious interlocutor and panel member. And he said, when pushed to say this, he said, well, I don't think the US is going to use nuclear weapons. But I think Nithanyahu just might do that.

18:34My God. So, what's this possible solution here? Well, there are still ties. Trump does still call Putin up and say, would you give me a hand here? And he contends that Putin wants to be helpful. Putin can be helpful, so can the Chinese. Now, is Xi Jinping going to let Trump come to Beijing under these circumstances? I doubt it. I mean, I just can't do it. So, this guys can exert their influence through their ambassadors, through their UN people, and with Putin and Trump through a direct line. I think that's the way this thing can evolve. And I think the Russians, given the stakes for them, will play an honest broker role and make it as easy as Trump, as it can be for Trump, which is going to be really hard to do, to back off here and pretend that he had some sort of resolution

19:36and that he achieved some sort of success. You know, sort of documented more than just by claims, four times now that the Iranian armed forces have been obliterated, destroyed, or whatever it's ejective he uses. Yeah. The White House leaked this morning that the president may need to be in Washington in order to manage the war. And therefore, probably cannot go to Beijing. I think the truthful analysis is President Xi doesn't want to be seen with them in this environment. I would guess that's the case. Yeah, I just couldn't understand where they didn't cancel their invitation right off the bat. Chinese have been very, very circumspect as is their want. But they're not going to, they're going to send any, armed ships there to open up the street of our moves.

20:40That is closed. And that's the big reality here. The world is suffering. All kinds of pressures are coming onto Trump and Netanyahu to stop this thing. Can it be stopped? Only if real strong, wild mediators are enlisted, and your money farmers should no longer qualify of Beijing does. And so does Xi. There's some hope there. I just hope they make it very clear to Trump. It's got to settle. It's got to settle before too many weeks are over. What is the price of gas in North Carolina? I mean, I paid $4 a gallon yesterday in Northwest New Jersey for something same amount of gas that cost me $3.25 a week ago. The reason I'm smirking judges is that we have an electric card. Oh. I don't give a rotspotuity.

21:40How much you guys? Sorry about that. All right. Well, the next time you're driving around with your electric car, let me know what the gas stations are offering gasoline for. We were supposed to have power, power, outage, outage here in Raleigh this morning. And I think, well, what happens to my electric cars? Is it how hard? Luckily, I fully, I fully, uh, torch it that two days ago. Yeah. Well, thank you, Ray. It's a pleasure, my dear man. As always, thank you for that latest stuff from hot arrests on Prime Minister Netanyahu, of which I had been on a work. Just to get back to that, I guess the courts have ruled in accordance with Israeli law that a pardon cannot be issued unless there's been a conviction. You can't preempt a part as you can in America. You can't preempt the prosecution. Yeah, I'm not sure the ins and outs, but it was news to me that it is definitive. And that, uh, cats,

22:40you know, it was, no, not cats, but, uh, hers, the president, her son, but bound by the court's decision. My god, I guess we have to accentuate the positive. The Israelis still place some, some value in, in their own laws. And, you know, that came as a real revelation to me, and I must have been a good punch, a punch in the belly to, to Netanyahu, because as I followed this thing, he lied several times, and he has no incentive at all to lose the election in October, and it looks very much like he's going to October. Oh, what happened in October a couple of years ago? You know, they're going to blame him for everything. He's going to be out of there, and he's probably going to have to take a plane to the Bahamas or someplace like that. So, to escape jail, maybe his children and wife already in a condominium there.

23:41Yeah. Thank you, Ray. All the best, my friend. We'll see you Friday with Larry Johnson for the intelligence community roundtable. Thank you, Judge. Thank you. Have a good week. Coming up this afternoon at 130, one of the country's foremost authorities on Iran from the Quincy Institute, Trida Parcy. I'm very much looking forward to interviewing him, and we'll see you then. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.