Trump Threatens IRAN STRIKES, Israeli Media ADMITS Arming Protesters

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Donald Trump
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Donald Trump
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Barack Ravid, Donald Trump, Human Rights in Iran, National Endowment for Democracy

Notable quotes from "Trump Threatens IRAN STRIKES, Israeli Media ADMITS Arming Protesters"

• Something to stay tuned for. we have Elizabeth Warren after she's recently had a call with Donald Trump.

  about Donald Trump · at 3:10

• Most trusted deputies meeting with him and then this getting leaked to Barack Ravid who's sourcing this looks like he's sourcing this to the Trump administration that's it's he's sourcing it to a senior US official so it looks like they.

  about Barack Ravid · at 12:38

• Human rights like news agency. they are heav he heavily funded by the National Endowment for Democracy which is a CIA linked kind of US backed thing.

  about National Endowment for Democracy · at 13:23

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Donald Trump — Person · 3 mentions · first at 3:15
• Barack Ravid — Person · 2 mentions · first at 12:42

Companies & orgs

• Human Rights in Iran — Company · 1 mention · first at 13:20
  On this right after the 12-day war is this organization human rights I think it's called human rights in Iran and then they've created the human rights like news agency. they…
• National Endowment for Democracy — Company · 1 mention · first at 13:28

Full transcript with timestamps

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1:11 Let's go. Just hit that button. Hit that button because uh we're going to have more big guests coming down the pipeline. Just today's show alone, we have Senator Elizabeth Warren

1:21 and we have Representative Thomas Massie. So, huge show today. We're going to try to be as concise as we possibly can. It's not uh either of our strength, but we will do our we'll do our very best.

1:34 Yeah. And the world is not cooperating because it's not giving us a simple show to get through. Uh we're going to talk about uh the the kind of fading protests in Iran and the the what seems to be the fading threat from Trump to bomb Iran, although uh the Israeli uh drive to push him to do that is just as strong as it was before. So, we'll we I think we should know in the next day or two whether or not we're going to get uh you know, war number two on Iran from uh Trump. Uh we have a lot of different updates um from Minnesota and from uh ICE

2:09 around the country. Uh we're also we we talked about the fact that we because there's always something kind of that breaking that gets in the way. We haven't really done enough in covering uh the conflict in Sudan. also the uh the Horn of Africa and and the the real tensions that are bubbling up uh in in the Middle East that are related to uh the Horn of Africa particularly you've got the se uh the UAE and Saudi Arabia breaking um into like a hot war over the last you know few days like it's kind of a seismic regional event. So we're going to try to at least once a week um put a put a segment together on Sudan to keep people up to date because there are millions of lives at risk. There are millions of people who are alive as we speak whose lives could be saved if there's enough attention on this um and who will be slaughtered um if if that's allowed to happen.

3:06 Yeah. So for the near future uh we'll be for sure doing that on Wednesday. Something to stay tuned for. Uh we we have Elizabeth Warren after she's recently had a call with Donald Trump. We have Thomas Massie as he is at the middle with of course a front of the show Ro

3:23 not talking to Trump uh not talking to Trump at all but well talking to Trump through social media uh but frequent frequent breaking points

3:30 amazing that Trump is more likely to call Elizabeth Warren at this moment than Thomas Massie. Yeah. Uh so we will be talking

3:37 are uh right exactly looking to do a bannon. Epstein news. The Clintons are looking to do a bannon. Uh meaning they are not replying to a subpoena. They put out a big

3:48 Well, they replied well not not complying would be the correct the correct word would be yes. Not not complying with a congressional subpoena. So big news on that front. We will obviously get Congressman Massiey's take on that. But we are going to break down the new developments as well. Ryan, let's start with Iran where as we were putting the show together yesterday, there was genuinely a question as to whether we would wake up or stay up all night watching a kinetic conflict with the US and Iran break out. It seems like the potential for that to happen at any moment very much is looming over the news cycle right now.

4:27 Let's let's watch his interaction with uh CBS News Tony Dupill. Uh, and we could kind of pick apart how we read this language and body language. Let's play Tony.

4:39 Americans woke up this morning and they saw that you said help is on the way. Yeah.

4:43 What do you mean by that? Well, there's a lot of help on the way and in different forms including economic help from our standpoint and not going to help Iran very much. And you know, we put Iran out of business with their nuclear capacity. And now, depending on what's actually happening, nobody's been able to give us accurate numbers about how many people they've killed.

5:04 Well, that looks like it could be a pretty substantial number. And that's going to be a lot of problems for them.

5:09 A lot of problems. On that point, you did say the US would get involved if Iran started killing protesters. They have

5:16 by the many thousands according to reports. Well, we'll see what that is. I've heard two numbers, but we'll see what that is. Well, now we're hearing that they're going to start hanging protesters tomorrow. So, it comes back to the question, have they crossed your red line or has the line moved?

5:29 I haven't heard about the hanging. If they hang them, you're going to see some things that uh I don't know what your uh where you come from and what your thought process is, but you'll perhaps be very happy.

5:42 What do you mean by that? Uh we will take very strong action. If they do such a thing, we will take very strong action.

5:48 And this strong action you're talking about, what's the endgame? The endgame is to win. I like winning.

5:53 How do you define that in Iran? Well, uh, let's define it in Venezuela. Let's define it with Al Baghdaddy. He was wiped out. Let's define it with Solomoni. And let's define it in Iran where he wiped out their Iran nuclear threat in a period of about 15 minutes once the B2s got there. And that was a complete obliteration as it turns out, which is what I said initially. Then some questioned it and they said, you know, Trump was right. You know, we've been right about everything. Uh we don't want to see what's happening in Iran happen. And you know, if they want to have protests, that's one thing. When they start killing thousands of people, and now you're telling me about hanging, we'll see how that works out for them.

6:33 It's not going to work out good. So, a couple things there. Uh Trump clearly thinks that Tony Dookupill wants him to attack Iran and will be very happy if he does attack Iran. If he thinks that, he probably also knows that Tony would be upset at the original answer. So, what kind of help are you going to be providing? He he says, "Oh, economic help."

6:57 And for Lindsey Graham and and those who are calling for war on behalf of the protest like, "Whoa, whoa, economic help. I thought you I thought we were going to do a regime change war here. Economic help."

7:10 And then he then he's like, "But it's not going to help them. It's going to help us." which is like

7:14 and Trump is reportedly being pulled in different directions by his own adviserss and so that's where the point in that interview actually where Trump question doable's numbers so doable as the newsman is giving the numbers to Donald Trump and Trump is saying well I've heard two numbers and we know that from reporting if you believe it but the reporting is that Rubio world and Vance World are pushing for some type of indirect right like you would know like you would know this better than Brian, but some type of like American version of Havana syndrome type activity in Iran rather than kinetic.

7:52 Do do a little hack hack them a little bit. Uh yeah, and he also pushed back against some other reporters. You want to roll A2?

7:58 Let's do it. So put Yeah. Here he is again quibbling with the casualty figures.

8:03 11 killed in Iran. Uh nobody's been able to give me an accurate number. I have heard numbers from everything's a lot. One is a lot, but I've heard numbers much lower and I've heard numbers much higher. We'll be knowing. We're probably going to find out over the next 24.

8:20 I think it's a lot. It's it's too many. Whatever you So, the context here is that there was there was a Iranian government source who gave some news outlets a a number around 2,000.

8:32 Mhm. that appeared to include also security services deaths because at least hundreds seems like hundreds of police officers and others were were killed as well. Um that number is far from verified. But then you had CBS News come out and say they'd heard 20,000,

8:51 right? And if you peeled back the sourcing on their 20,000, they probably did hear 20,000.

8:56 They definitely heard 20,000. The sourcing was like like somebody called them from Iran and said that that was the number they'd been hearing. It's like, all right, that's interesting, but you can't that's not that's not a number you put in print and circulate,

9:07 right? Um, that's a person we heard from in Iran who said that was the rumor. Like that's not that that maybe it is. We don't know. Like the internet's been shut down for days, but like that you can't report it like that. And Trump is like uh I think rightly skeptical there. Well, you know what you could report is that somebody in Iran is trying to push a number that seems suspiciously high. If you were going to report that number at all, there's one way to report it, and it might be, wow, this source is connected to this government or that government. Now, of course, I'm just speculating here, but that is, you know, one of the one of the ways that you could actually report it is uh with that,

9:43 it's not crazy to think uh that there would be a high number of casualties. Imagine if here in the United States uh 100 plus police officers were killed in protests. How many Americans do you think would be killed in response to that?

9:59 Mhm. Be more than 100. Mhm. That's for sure. Um yeah, you put up the next element um to to your point here uh about how close the war is. Israel's channel 12 was reporting the assessments within the defense establishment indicate a US attack on Iran is closer than ever. Security sources say that in light of recent developments, the question is no longer whether the United States will act militarily, but only when. In response, Israel has been placed on a particularly high security alert in recent hours following President Trump's dramatic statements. All of that is true that that is Israel's impression. Uh it does seem like Trump is easing off a little bit um and that this may be some wish casting on the part of uh is the Israeli sources. Uh we don't we don't know. Um and we'll we'll see over the next few days. Witoff inflaming the situation a little bit. Uh put up A4 here. Um meeting with Razip Levy uh

10:52 secretly. Uh this is the kind of guy who wants to be reinstalled as king. Mhm. Um but who has mismanaged this strategically and um up and down up up and down left and right. Uh he was asked about the high number of deaths among protesters on CNN. Did you see his response to that,

11:13 Paulie? Yeah. He said, he said, "This is war. People die in war." Like, he might as well have been an Iranian regime source at that point,

11:20 right? It's like, well, if this is war, you have just you have just completely stripped yourself of all of the leverage that you had, which is that this is not okay. It's not war. that these these are peaceful protests by civil society that are trying to

11:40 like pressure the government, right? It's not it's war. He's the son of course of the yeah toppled Shaw,

11:45 right? And that's where uh people have Yeah. I mean that's a really significant question and Wickoff obviously this is part of the situation in Venezuela and you know part of the problem with regime change operations is that you need a new leader and you need a new leader that let's just charitably take the US explanation for now uh someone who would have democratic traction that would have democratic clout credibility viability and even in a transitional process and so Wickoff obviously meeting with Pivy who I mean the the odds that Palvy is able to lead Iran into a new era or even a return to an era of democracy, Ryan, seem uh short, but it may be all they have. and the fact that you have Wickoff who is one of Trump's obviously this goes without saying top top deputies most trusted deputies meeting with him and then this getting leaked uh to Barack Ravid who's sourcing this looks like he's sourcing this to the Trump

12:47 administration um that's it's he's sourcing it to a senior US official so it looks like they intentionally leaked it quite interesting

12:54 yeah um and uh as as people are noticing it's it it's also incredibly difficult to figure out what's going on inside Iran because all of the sources

13:05 pretty much across the board are biased in one direction or another. The one that is used by the media the most, you can put up um A6 here and I had reported on this right after the 12-day war is this this organization um human rights um I think it's called human rights in Iran and then uh they've created the human rights like news agency. uh they are heav he heavily funded by the National Endowment for Democracy which is a CIA linked kind of US backed thing.

13:34 Now the AP and others have found their which just got a fat check in the new omnibus minibus proposal that Thomas Massiey's fighting. We'll ask him later in the show.

13:42 Now their their numbers were not way out of line from what other sources were during the 12-day war and the AP relies on them. Um

13:50 they're and they're they're way under what CBS News is out there claiming. M um but even they people are like we we want a reliable source but what's your methodology what's your funding and and it's all you know quite uh it's all quite opaque and so it's difficult to for people to have any confidence and so Trump may end up hanging a decision not to attack on that say you know what we don't we don't know

14:16 right unless they start like swinging hundreds of people from ropes in the streets

14:21 then and and that gets out Right. Uh so well actually on that point, let's put the next element up on the screen here. Uh this should be Yeah, we can see A7. This is just looking at Barack Ravid. And uh there's this really funny video, Ryan. I don't know if you remember it, of Zalinsky singling out Barack Ravid and saying, "You seem to be listening to all of my phone calls." It's from like a year or two ago. Um, this is a a post mentioning Barack Ravid, the former IDF intelligence officer who writes for Axios, had this to say about Iran International a few years ago. Quote, "And the MSAD is using this media outlet quite regularly for its information war."

14:58 It is. Yeah. It's an anti-regime. Yeah. Yes. And here you have a former IDF intel officer noting that.

15:05 Yeah. I mean, it's true. It's true. If anyone would know. Yeah. Iran International is extremely suspect. You're like, you're not necessarily going to find

15:12 credible source. Credible. Now, it's from 2022. Speaking of suspect sources, but delivering interesting information,

15:18 uh you put up this next element. This is uh yeah uh so we it's the it reads, "We reported tonight on channel 14." This is Israel's channel 14. Uh foreign actors are among the protesters in Iran with live firearms, which is the reason for the hundreds of regime personnel killed. Everyone is free to guess who is behind it. uh and so clearly implying here that uh the Israelis have armed the protesters. Now what the it's what the Iranian foreign minister did recently was call in uh European and re and also regional ambassadors uh to watch videos that they had been collecting from the protests of armed protesters, what call them whatever you want, insurgents at that point,

16:11 um firing methodically at at security personnel. um and and operating with what looked like some level of training.

16:21 Mhm. Like not not just like, you know, boom boom boom like running like running through like like showing some tactical sophistication. And so and they they a few of those clips have have been circulated, but they they presented a much um a much broader compilation of those to these to diplomats from around the world to say look you this is this is not just us doing a massacre,

16:49 right? Um there the the bullets are flying in both directions. Now it does appear like Iran's uh crackdown has been quite severe. Mhm.

16:58 And absolutely um you know we'll we'll learn more about that. Uh but their their argument is this we are not we are not battling protesters in the streets simply complaining about you know inflation or the collapse of the currency.

17:13 Mh. We're these are people who are armed by foreign governments to overthrow the government

17:18 and you have to take that into consideration. Yeah. I mean we're obviously in the middle of the fog of war which is a very dangerous position to be in. We've seen it time after time um in the last you know 100 years since you have the ability to get information from around the globe at any given moment especially now it feels like uh the the theory would be there's more transparency than ever and we remember this uh during the early days of the Arab Spring go back to 2009 when Twitter was bringing us you know on the ground and helping the pro-democracy forces but actually all of that quote transparency can muddy the waters so much more because it's being spun very cleverly by as propaganda as anybody in the middle of a war would do or of a conflict would do. That's their opportunity to try and sway the West in one direction or the other. So, that's obviously what's happening. Uh it's just

18:06 a a question of getting a with rational minds and cooler heads the actual facts.

18:11 Yeah. And as our viewers may have noticed, I'm curious for your thoughts on this. Um, whenever there are protests in Iran, the American media and the Western media, you know, really hypes them up like very energetic, very energetically.

18:25 You would have noticed that we did not do that here. Now, there's a couple reasons for that. One,

18:29 they broke out right after we went down for like two weeks. We're we're we're not yet a 367 day a week, 24/7, 365 day, you know, news program.

18:39 Anchormen, too. We Yes. These these anchor people needed a little bit of a break.

18:42 Yes. Um, so part of it was just coincidental, but part of it also then when we came back was we've seen this before.

18:51 This may have been the bloodiest crackdown we've seen in a long time, but we've seen this before. And there isn't a there isn't a serious kind of opposition that is organized with a plan to take power and and run Iran. Like that that doesn't exist. And the the Sha does not the Sha's son does not seem like remotely serious. He claimed that he had 50,000 uh regime defectors ready to go. That that clearly was a complete lie.

19:22 Uh because they have basically the that movement has basically said that they will like execute

19:29 you know anybody that was complicit with the regime. So like that's probably going to make it more difficult for you to get defectors right over your side. And al it's also like defectors over to what? like you need like if you were a regime defector at this moment let's say you're a top IRGC commander or something

19:45 what do you defect to right like who's like what's the organization who's the leader that you call so there's no organization with any ideology or leader and the shot doesn't really count

19:55 so who do you call and say like I'm with you let's do this together and also it's do what together

20:02 like what is the what is the what besides the fact that the protesters don't like the regime regime.

20:08 And so all of these things suggest to like just a a casual observer even like that this they're not going to overthrow the government.

20:16 And so the more you hype it up here in the West, the more you encourage those demonstrations, if they fail and thousands of people are killed, you have blood on your hands like you you pushed those people into the into the fire and they died. Lindsey Graham out there telling people, "Help is on the way. Please get out on the streets.

20:38 Well, Trump is doing it. Trump's saying, "Take take your institutions. Help is on the way." And then you're like, "Oh, what kind of help?" Oh, economic help.

20:43 Economic war. You're getting you're asking people to get to put their lives on the line with no plan to actually win.

20:52 So, as uh this is, we can put this back up on the screen. This is A5. As Barack Rivid reported, quote, "Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in closed door meetings in recent days that at this stage, the administration is looking at non-kinetic responses to help the protesters." According to a source with direct

21:07 go seize the streets, hold the hold the town centers and we will have a non-kinetic response right in some days.

21:13 Trump had implied that there would be some type of strikes and he has obviously openly flirted with that idea. And to Ryan's point, the goal from the Lindsey Grahams of the world is to create a self-fulfilling pro prophecy and to kind of will something into action. And it's obviously entirely possible that ends up with people being crushed and no US strikes in response. If that's what people are are betting on, it's possible that's not what's happened because even Rubio uh is according to this report from Barack Rubid, which again I would imagine was placed by Rubio World is counseling against direct intervention. Vance World is reportedly doing that as well.

21:53 Speaking of propaganda, let's finish with A8. Apac already in the ad game here. Apac already running ads about Iran where you can see Roana up on the screen. This is the

22:07 catching from the tech oligarchs from Apac while the Iranian people risk their lives for a better future. Ro Kana has his head in the sand. That is an ad on X

22:19 about Ro Kana from Apac already in action. Boy, do they want to take down Ro. They sure do. They're not not big fans of row. Um and then yeah, final point. Even if they do end up in the next few days launching air strikes on Iran,

22:36 there's no path. There's no theory of change. There's no p there's no there's no there's no idea of how those air strikes

22:42 are going to dislodge the regime and replace it with another regime. I don't blame Israel for that. Israel doesn't actually want another regime in power. What they want is a fractured Iran that is a bunch of little statelets that are at war with each other and they can fund proxies like they do in Syria and Lebanon, Yemen or wherever else,

23:01 Libya. Um, but the US pretends to want a stable world. And so we we have no theory of how like air strikes are going to lead to the sha taking power again, right? And how that would actually even be a good thing, what it would look like.

23:18 Yeah. Yeah. Right. the next steps and it's like you see in in Venezuela how ill-considered I mean it's I suppose different than 2019 like they tried to have more of a offramp plan post regime change than they did in 2019 but you see right now even with all the considerations that were already made in Venezuela what that looks like

23:38 Iran uh different ballgame as well right and Alashia had real charisma people say like he had ri he had riz

23:46 uh Rizza and he was still overthrown for a reason like people hated him and hated the authoritarianism.

23:53 Well, they didn't love the encroachment on their sovereignty by his relationship with the West. And that's again something we've been talking about in Latin America. It's at issue when you have someone who's uh whether forced or doing this willingly and eagerly making all of these deals selling you know Iranian uh or Venezuelan assets and you know minerals, oil, whatever it is to the US in a way that feels to people like it's exploitive. That's a powder keg. It's a powder keg

24:23 and they don't have a plan to deal with that. Hey, if you like that video, hit the like button or leave a comment below. It really helps get the show to more people. And if you'd like to get the full show ad free and in your inbox every morning, you can sign up at breakingpoints.com.

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Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Trump Threatens IRAN STRIKES, Israeli Media ADMITS Arming Protesters"?

In order: 0:00 Donald Trump; 5:00 Donald Trump; 10:00 Barack Ravid, Donald Trump, Human Rights in Iran, National Endowment for Democracy.

What is mentioned in this Breaking Points episode?

4 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Donald Trump, Barack Ravid, Human Rights in Iran, National Endowment for Democracy. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Trump Threatens IRAN STRIKES, Israeli Media ADMITS Arming Protesters"?

The episode runs 25 min; the transcript is about 4,749 words in 97 timestamped sections.

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