Debate: Why are Trump and Hegseth claiming the Iran war is popular?

[0:00] this is a war of aggression what is international law who's enforcing international law who is the [0:03] aggressor here us we are the aggressor can you name a single political concession we've gotten [0:09] from them anything at all are you talking any political concession so you can't name one so [0:13] here so here's what we're doing no political concessions when you get up at pasture but [0:17] them you get hyper here's the deal we we are you can call piracy and like if words don't [0:22] have any meaning but like we have sanctions against these vessels and not going one political [0:26] concession name one political concession good evening i'm abby phillip in new york tonight [0:32] a new question just how popular is this war with iran president trump says that the war with iran [0:39] could take days at first if he wanted to but then he said it would be weeks and now he says [0:45] that now that it's carried into its third month despite higher gas prices at home and plummeting [0:50] polls at home as well pete hegseth is saying that america is right behind the president when i talk [0:57] to americans and especially when i talk to the troops they are grateful for a president who has [1:02] the courage to take on this threat after 47 years of what iran has done targeting and killing americans [1:07] what i'm concerned about is we are not safer and i would just like to know why you have not sought [1:13] the support of the american people and three out of five americans are against this war today [1:20] i believe we do have the support of the american people and we have briefed regularly what this mission [1:25] looks like and why it's critically important that we undertake it you don't care when the american [1:30] people and their american people are quite smart they understand and see through spin they know that [1:36] a regime that says death to america that seeks nuclear weapons and the ability to deliver did they [1:41] lie about the range of their missiles yeah pete hegseth wasn't acting macho he was playing a macho person [1:47] on tv he is not actually macho we are dealing with a war that is failing on a daily basis as donald trump [1:53] has taken his machismo because he was performing it was a performance he's the expert i mean donald trump [2:02] is very impressive he's taken his two largest campaign promises no new wars and lower prices [2:07] ending inflation and he's messed both of them up he started a new war that spiked inflation and now this [2:13] war is actively failing an interesting statistic is that americans have spent collectively 23 billion [2:19] extra dollars on the gas pump and that's money that could have gone towards daycare towards child [2:24] care we'll sit here and you'll laugh at americans spending money but the reality is we are failing [2:29] this war the purpose of a war is to extract political concessions from the enemy can you name [2:35] a single political concession we've gotten from them anything at all are you talking any political [2:39] concession so you can't name one so here so here's what we're doing no political concessions when [2:44] you get up past your bedtime you get hyper here's the deal we all right we let's not have a clear [2:49] issue here shaking we have a clear issue here no nuclear weapons for the largest state sponsor of [2:57] terrorism in the world period full stop the president believes and he may be right i spoke to a a retired [3:04] rear admiral today mark montgomery who's at the foundation for defensive democracies they think the [3:09] blockade is actually more effective than the military campaign and a little patience on the [3:14] blockade here where we cripple the iranian economy where we kill their currency which is happening as [3:21] we speak where we put pressure on china because they need to get their oil flowing again a little [3:25] bit of patience right here not bombs but patience on a naval blockade could get the outcome you want [3:31] which is no nuclear weapons for the largest state sponsor of terror you've been saying this for eight [3:37] weeks and we are now past the four to six week deadline where is the enriched uranium right now [3:42] it's under rubble where is it right now in the united states or iran iran still has the [3:46] uranium they still have the scientists scattered across their country and they have all the [3:49] blueprints in the cloud you can sit there and act confused but you can't name a single political [3:53] concession it's not already run it's not over yet okay but also on that fact the why are we talking [3:59] about the strategy of this this isn't a legal war this is terrorism we are turning our military [4:05] into pirates we are seizing civilian vessels additionally sanctioned iranian vessels that [4:11] have gone through a dog process we are you can call piracy in like if words don't have any meaning [4:18] but like we have sanctions against these vessels and the eus sanctions can seize vessels in some [4:23] cases the u.n has sanctioned but one of the most egregious aspects of this is the white christian [4:28] nationalist twist that pete hegseth has added onto this talk saying that this conflict that we started [4:34] that we have sacrificed our own service members for is ordained by god is bombing a school full [4:40] of school girls ordained by god is our prices going up and us not being able to afford an ambulance [4:45] we call an uber instead is that ordained by god in 1983 i was in beirut when the marine corps barracks [4:52] was blown up by a suicide bomber sponsored by the iranians it's not nice 230 marines died that's [5:00] awful that's terrible but that is not they also took out a couple of dozen at the u.s uh u.s embassy [5:06] or although we've heard of an entire school of children you can't you can't make two of them you [5:10] can't make them uh you know suddenly uh a victim okay the real question is what have we got i think [5:17] i actually think the school children are victims i think the civilians that are that are dead yeah i do [5:22] but hold on i do think look just to be clear i mean obviously marines being killed is terrible [5:28] school children being killed is terrible but there's a big difference between iran willfully [5:33] bombing you know u.s military targets and the united states bombing a school and then not [5:41] acknowledging it which is its own separate problem but the school children are civilians they're [5:45] civilians point blank they should never be targeted we are according to some people already at the 60 [5:51] day mark um of this war and technically they're supposed to come to congress on it um pete [5:57] texas was questioned about this today listen to this the war powers resolution specifies that a [6:04] war initiated by a president without congressional approval must be concluded within 60 days uh [6:10] ultimately i would i would defer to the white house and white house council on that however we [6:14] are in a ceasefire right now which our understanding means uh the 60 day clock pauses or stops in a [6:20] ceasefire so you're not in that's it's our understanding just so you know okay well i i do not believe the [6:26] statute would support that i mean that was essentially how the obama administration interpreted [6:32] the statute republicans disagreed with it at the time 100 i think it would be clear yeah good act [6:37] of constitutional hygiene and and it's not you need to conclude within 60 days you need to conclude or [6:42] have authorization by from congress within 60 days exactly so they could come to congress and get [6:46] authorization why not or they could challenge the statute which as somebody who has either sponsored [6:51] legislation to repeal or reform every extant authorization for the use of military force and to reform war [6:56] powers more broadly i also have to confess the war powers act of of 1974 the constitutional underpinnings [7:04] of that are shaky it may not hold up maybe so but it's but it's the law of the land and it hasn't been [7:11] it has not been congress has the power of the purse and this is the reality is that if congress continues [7:16] to authorize the department of war if they continue to pass the national defense um appropriations act [7:21] they continue to do that that they're not going to shoot down the defense act on the basis of a war that [7:26] donald trump but also but also but also the national defense act the national defense act comes up once [7:33] a year it's i think it's probably this year it's usually toward the end of the end of the year they [7:38] also are requesting a supplemental right they're requesting a supplemental but they haven't actually [7:43] done that fully yet and i do think it raises the question do they just get to pause this thing [7:48] whenever they feel like it even though there is an active blockade and a blockade involves you the u.s [7:54] military threatening with force that if any active war yeah it is considered an act of war so how does [7:59] that not count i i think that that interpretation however is subject to reasonable uh acceptance [8:06] interpretation if if indeed there is a ceasefire don't you want to encourage the ceasefire don't [8:11] you want to encourage this yeah but there's also a naval blockade which is by definition [8:15] not a ceasefire but also we're talking legalities when it comes to to war powers and all this this is [8:19] bird law right it is not governed by reason you know you can't get no no it's always something [8:25] what do you mean fans here come on can i just take it back wait wait wait what do you mean by bird [8:28] law just i mean it's when we try to apply like normal rhetoric normal logic normal like dictionary [8:34] definitions as we do in a democracy like we're not iran we don't get to just like ignore the law [8:39] international legal repercussions right if we're talking about that what international legal [8:43] repercussions this is a war of aggression what is international law who's enforcing [8:45] international law who is the aggression here us we are the aggressor against war yes okay [8:52] because did all of us history exist before the last eight weeks to you or just it started on february [8:58] 28th listen we all know i mean honestly they have been at war with us for 47 years we all know that [9:03] scott jennings is more than happy to defend a war with a country that starts with the letters ira that [9:07] we are currently failing that is going to put us trillions and trillions of dollars more in debt i was [9:11] only a few years old while you were in the administration defending prior endless wars [9:15] now this war is failing eight weeks is endless to you okay you said it was going to be four to six [9:19] weeks you have the attention span of a net is that what i debated you on tv four to six weeks ago and [9:23] you said we were weeks away from it now you're making condescending remarks because you can't [9:26] defend the fact that this war is not going your way wait one more time not going not going one [9:31] political concession name one political concession honestly i'm not i'm not gonna have this guy's [9:36] everybody everybody hang tight okay no everybody calm down okay you're we're having a debate you can [9:43] respond to the points that he's making can you name a political concession that we've got a flashback [9:47] to the war the skinheads had in my studio i would be mad about that we i would be modified to defend [9:54] you can respond we have a very simple we have a very simple goal to keep terrorists and a terrorist [9:59] regime from having a nuclear weapon that can threaten the united states our interests in the region [10:05] our allies in europe anybody else you can't answer the question thank you i would get mad too [10:10] all right we're going to leave it there guys