Hosts Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan discuss reports that the Trump administration may be considering a nuclear strike on Iran, a claim the speakers link to pressure from Benjamin Netanyahu and the approaching midterm elections. The conversation then moves through New York Times polls in Michigan, Maine and Texas, Trump's recent rally remarks in Iowa, Republican campaign messaging and debates over SNAP benefits.
Throughout, the hosts share sharp opinions about Trump, Vladimir Putin and Netanyahu, which listeners should treat as commentary rather than established fact.
In this episode Angie Sullivan, Jennifer Welch, Josh Welch
This transcript of the IHIP News episode on Trump and a possible nuclear strike on Iran was made with HappyScribe's transcription service.
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The world is in complete disarray because of three old criminals—Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Benjamin Netanyahu—that they only know how to either start wars or keep committing crimes so they can stay in power. And I'm going to read to you something from Tucker Carlson, and it's important that I want to note that first and foremost, I think Tucker's a nut. But I also have to admit that Tucker is locked into this administration. I mean, he is, he makes phone calls with people in the administration, he was the one who was criticizing Trump's Venezuela, and then two days later he's up there clapping like a trained seal for Trump in the White House.
But I've been hearing this all over the internet, but this is somebody who actually talks to people within the administration, and Tucker tweets the following: "Pop this up." Under pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Trump administration may be within days of launching a nuclear strike on Iran. The target would be the Pickax Mountain in central Iran, where Israeli intelligence claims the Iranian government has restarted its nuclear enrichment program. No conventional weapon in the American arsenal can penetrate 300 feet of solid granite to destroy the tunnels where enrichment is supposedly taking place.
The only military option is a nuclear strike. Netanyahu has been pushing hard for one. Bibi calls Trump about it every single day. I think, you guys, when we take this in totality, with Trump has been toying with wanting to launch a nuke for quite some time. You look at his feed, you look at the things that he says. Bibi, we all know, is dying to cling onto power. It wouldn't surprise me one bit. We're at Monday. Tuesday we have the election. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday—could we be at war?
Josh?
Well, I think that's a viable option, especially to distract the American public from presumably the victories Democrats are going to have. So what's he going to do? He's going to—I certainly hope he doesn't send a nuclear weapon to destroy parts of Iran. I think we all universally feel that way with the civilian casualties that would ensue from that and just the fallout. But we've covered him on the campaign trail the last two or three weeks. I mean, we know this man is not mentally fit to be our leader.
He's not capable of making these kinds of decisions, and he doesn't have any competent leadership around him. So, and we talked about this Friday, that's the frightening, scary part, is that there's no adults in the room. And so if he—this would be right out of his playbook to do something like this to distract from the results of the election and at the same time try to cheat and steal the election by using strikes as a detraction. So it's right out of the Trump playbook for him to do something like that.
In other words, put the Americans' attention on a nuclear strike on Iran while he's trying to steal back the election. Hope not.
And Angie, I think that when you look at these three men, the biggest troublemakers on the globe right now—Putin, Trump, and Netanyahu—they're all war criminals, in my opinion. All three of them are war criminals. All three of them are willing to do whatever it takes: nuke people, start wars, lie, rob, steal, kill their opponents to stay in power. Don't you think?
Absolutely. They have no more. They're all—I mean, in my opinion, they're just complete socio-psychopaths. I mean, they have no empathy. But it takes me back, when I was reading this, it took me back to the meeting in the Oval Office with Zelensky and Trump admiring the fact that he hadn't had elections because he's been at war. You see, Netanyahu has now lost control of the government in Israel, and he's going to have to band together with another one if he wants to keep power. You've got Trump. We're expecting a blue tsunami.
Same thing. If he loses power, what's the best thing to do? According to Trump and his admiration for Zelensky not having elections, that's what it is. I can already see the press headlines. Trump says, "We cannot, you know, seat the new government because we are at war, we're in nuclear war." And I will just say this: there's nobody that I would rather have the nuclear codes less than an unstable lunatic like Donald Trump. I don't feel safe with him babysitting my dogs, much less having the nuclear codes.
This is a five-alarm fire, in my opinion.
Yeah, and I think that Pete Hegseth has made moves in the Pentagon that would dismantle any sort of oversight or guardrail that could prevent this from happening. Furthermore, if you look into the psychology of Trump, when Obama was president, Trump's Twitter feed before he was in politics was constantly, "Barack Hussein Obama is going to attack Iran so that he can stay in power." This is in his psyche. Trump always telegraphs what he's going to do, which, again, Tucker Carlson is a man who said that he was in bed at night and he was attacked by three demons.
And he said this on camera. So somebody who says that, I think, is not mentally all there or is just diabolically manipulative towards his uber-evangelical fan base. But nonetheless, he is kind of locked in with the administration and they're all crazy. I mean, Mike Johnson claims, you know, God wakes him up and tells him he's Moses. Tucker claims he was attacked by demons. So this is just—this is kind of like these are what the MAGA men are like. This episode is brought to you by the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
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Moving into tomorrow, there is a final batch of New York Times polls before the midterms, and they look really, really bad for MAGA, really, really good for Democrats. Pop this up. So we have Michigan. Michigan is showing Abdul El-Sayed at plus 11. Out of all of the races—and Kylie, keep this up for a while—out of all of the races, especially in light of what Haley Stevens just did and APAC meddling, meddling in our elections and telling our citizens that they need to be quiet or trying to censor our critiques of Israel, I want Abdul El-Sayed to win the most just because of what it will mean as a defeat of this corporate PAC money.
Second, I want to see—I mean, God, I mean, Kim Paxson, of course, Talarigo. Talarigo is up plus 7. But Susan Collins in Maine, I want to spend a little bit of time talking about Susan. Susan Collins is responsible for so much damage to women. And to the voters in Maine, if you haven't voted yet, I was talking to somebody on Friday who's been on the ground canvassing, and she relayed to me that there were a lot of Democrats that said, "I'm voting Democrat up and down the ticket with the exception of Susan Collins," because I think that she, you know, she's been there for so long.
And Susan has this kind of grip on the Maine electorate. And I just want to say to the voters of Maine, your state government protects you from what Susan Collins does federally to women in red states. Your state government so far protects you from Susan Collins' worst impulses. But if you live in Oklahoma, if you live in Texas, if you live in Georgia, if you live in the Bible Belt, Susan Collins has blood all over her hands because she voted for an accused sexual assaulter, Brett Kavanaugh.
And Brett Kavanaugh was the vote that tipped Roe v. Wade. And women are dead all over the country because of Susan Collins. It is my opinion that Susan Collins is a domestic terrorist. She is a bought-and-paid-for prostitute of the highest order. And I want to see Susan Collins' political career over. Anybody who hasn't voted in Maine, please go vote for Troy Jackson. Josh?
I think part of the success here, part of these good numbers, is in response to the Americans' dislike of the Trump administration and their policies. And it's reached, I think, a different level. So Trump's message across the country, you know, him getting up at these speeches and giving these talks for candidates and all the craziness, all the bullshit stuff that we have to cover every single day, this Jeffrey Epstein cover-up, I mean, that's—and then on top of that, you pile all of these stories about tens of millions, of billions of dollars that they're grifting and at the same time having these fraud star rallies.
I mean, everybody's just like, "What the fuck?" You know, this is just craziness. And it's really—it's reached a new level. Like, I can't track—we try to track these stories on a day-to-day basis. I get them all intertwined. Like, it's the Alaska thing that somebody's getting 50 billion, but then you've got Kushner and something with Netanyahu that had an account for a billion. I mean, it's just—you can't even Don Jr. with 300,000 here. And it's just, you know, the pay to play crypto stuff. It's—and people are just tired of that shit. I mean, to another level, not just mad, but tired of it.
And so that's my take.
And Palms, yesterday Trump campaigned in Iowa, which shows—Kylie, put that back up. Let's see what Iowa is real quick. Is Iowa on here? It shows Turek plus one, a Democrat in Iowa plus one. So Palms, I thought you would really love this. Trump campaigned in Iowa yesterday, and this is what he had to say about the Republican on the ballot. Play the clip.
I knew Ashley for a long time, and she was a little bit heavier. And she put herself—she knew what she was doing. She knew the weight that was on her, really, literally the weight. And she knew the importance of what she was doing. And she went out the old-fashioned way too, not with, you know, "Give me a shot." The old-fashioned way. And she put herself into great—she put herself—don't bother—they're paid protesters, don't worry. They go away quick.
All right, pause it right there. See this guy, this heavyset guy over Trump's shoulder who has a T-shirt on that says, "I love ICE raids." And then also, I just want to point out for those of you that are watching, Trump is—I mean, for those of you that are listening, Trump is morbidly obese while he says this. Palms, go on.
Here's the thing. I look at Donald Trump and he—there is no one on planet Earth that can defend his attacks against women, reporters, opponents, all of that. That's true. What in this cycle strikes me out the most is he's, you know, put act like Trump's on the ballots. I'm going to all these rallies. All he does, he talks about Kim Paxton being ugly. He's talking about how Ashley Henson used to be fat. He's talking about asses. It's unbelievable that the President of the United States, who we just were talking about launching a nuclear war, is so worried about other people's appearances, and he's not talking about, you know, "I've reduced your taxes.
I'm no worse." I heard him say the other day, "Well, at a rally, it was over the weekend, I would have ended the Vietnam War in one day." Shut the fuck up. We are so tired of—it's just the same talking points over and over. The latest twist is the ass checking and just the overt talking about looks from somebody that doesn't have a mirror at their house is what I'm thinking.
And it shows you how he just—it's for a smart diabolical leader like Putin or Netanyahu, which are a lot smarter than Trump will ever be. He starts talking like that. It's like chum in the water. And these sharks go, and they know how to manipulate him. They know how to dogwalk him into nuking Iran or into lowering sanctions on Russia. He is a national security threat. And so while it's interesting and we can giggle about him doing all of this, he is sending a message to our adversaries.
And at this point, I am just going to say it is my opinion that the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government are not in the best interest of the United States of America. I view them as an adversary in the same way that I view Vladimir Putin as an adversary. I do not think either one of these countries are our allies. I think that they see opportunities of exploitation with our weak president. But then you have candidates.
Put it back up. Talarigo was what, Kylie, the poll? Talarigo here, you guys, on this election eve to have Texas is plus seven. But listen, Josh, we have to remember, and I was born in Texas, so Texas electorate, I'm not throwing shade at you because I know more than anybody what it's like to be a blue dot in a red state. But those rural areas have elected Ted fucking Cruz time and time and time again. So I'm hopeful that MAGA stays at home and Talarigo is able to win because I think it'd just be transformative for the Democratic Party.
But Talarigo is going after Paxton for protecting pedophiles. Let's play this clip.
Paxton, your opponent, has taken to calling you telefreako.
Well, I think if Tim Paxton is worried about freaks, he should stop giving Epstein-style sweetheart deals to pedophiles. You know, this is the guy who just released Adam Hoffman from jail and admitted child rapist after one of Kim Paxton's wealthy lawyer friends got involved in the case. Kim Paxton even kept him off the sex offender registry. Adam Hoffman was supposed to serve 25 years to life, but instead he served less than a month.
Okay. I've heard enough. Josh, I think this is a prime example of how the billionaire's money is affirmative action for morally bankrupt, broken human beings like Kim Paxton. Because Talarigo there is excellent. He was excellent in answering all of that. I do not think Paxton would have—would even be within seven points without Elon Musk's hundreds of millions of dollars. I think it would be—he would be 30 points down.
Yeah, think about that. So the poll shows Talarigo ahead seven, eight points. Let's not forget that Kim Paxton has won reelection as the state attorney general in Texas year after year after year. Like, this guy's got nine lives. He was under federal indictment in 2015 or '16 and somehow weaseled his way through that. So when you're right, we're dealing with a different type of constituent in rural parts of Texas like we deal with in Oklahoma, to where people don't get that complicated about the issues.
They tend to think, "Okay, I'm a Republican. I go to church. I'm going to vote for this guy." But that's where I draw back from what I said earlier. This is different with what Trump has done to this country, even folks in rural America, the blatant corruption, the protection of a pedophilia ring, his self-dealing and net worth going up so much, and just his lack of caring. Like when he's asked these questions about the economy and stuff like that, there's such a blatant disconnection. And it's so glaringly obvious that he's making so much money and/or his cabinet members and family, and that people are reaching a different level of being pissed off.
This is different. And then you throw this dumbass candidate, Kim Paxton, in the mix against one of the best candidates the Democrats have had in years, and it's like the perfect storm for just a downright Republican ass whipping. Now, I don't want to sound too confident because we all have to assume they're going to cheat and try to cheat. So you show up in vast numbers, you record anything that you see that's illegal, improper, you stand up for what's right and wrong, and you do it unapologetically day after day.
All right, Palms, I want to get to just a couple more things. The closing argument for Republicans seems to be we are—the president seems to be promoting bisexuality, which I support. I just want to say I support all of the bisexual listeners. But obviously, all the candidates do not, and the electorate does not. And they support racism. And that leaves brown-skinned Vivek Ramaswamy with some problems, with some headwinds, considering he is trying to get elected by a party that is completely racist, in my opinion.
And so the Ramaswamy supporters have taken this into their own hands and popped this up. As you can see there, I saw this pop up. They've lightened Vivek's skin and turned his eyes blue.
What?
Yep.
It doesn't surprise me.
They've whitewashed him. And then you've got Brooke Rollins, who posted this, and she is the agriculture secretary. And she posts a Halloween costume of a snap fraudster, which is a black man with a lot of chains around his neck, flipping off the camera, but that's kind of blooped out, and then money in his hands. And she writes, this big Christian, this big MAGA Christian writes, "Some costumes come with a price tag. This one comes with a prison sentence.
To anyone stealing from American taxpayers, the tricks are over. The treats are running out. Happy Halloween." If only she would apply this to the white-collar criminals stealing from America. But I do want to just dispel this racism that the Republican Party has been doing for a long time, really, really a lot with Reagan, and it has just accelerated. Trump, and now the mask is off, and they're just less polite about it. But here is who's really on snap. Pop this up.
As you can see at home, this is from her own department. White, non-Hispanics use snap the most, then black people, then Hispanic, then Asian, and then race unknown. So white people are at around 40%. Black people are a little bit below 30% there. So this is just the racism that is their get-out-the-vote measure. And I wish I could say it wouldn't be successful. But living in the Bible Belt, I can tell you, the bigger the Christian, the bigger the racist, the majority of the times.
Yeah, this has been going on. I remember it in my home growing up since childhood, this demonizing the poor and, oh, by the way, there, you know, a racial component to it, be it black, Hispanic, whatever it is. And in my mind, like, there is no rural Oklahomian that can say, "Hey, my gas is more affordable. My groceries are more affordable. I can pick up my medicine now. My wages are higher." They can't say that, but they can say they still hate who we hate.
They still—they are outwardly cruel to the people that I can't be cruel to at work, but I want to be. And that's where I see them still hanging together with Trump because objectively, their lives are not better. The only thing they have in common is cruelty and hate, and that binds them, and that binds this administration with all of these people, in my opinion.
And it's a story as old as time.
It is.
Don't look at the billionaires that are ripping you off. Look at the people on snap benefits. Like, they're just—it's high times for all the snap recipients. But this is what autocrats do. This is—they scapegoat a group of people to detract from the real thieves, which are Elon Musk. He's the immigrant who came into this country who wants to dismantle democracy, in my opinion, who is a big recipient of corporate welfare.
But nobody wants to look at that. They would rather look at the black person that she tweeted there. And it's just a story as old as time. All right, that's all we have. Like, subscribe. We'll be back later with more news.
Trump is reportedly considering the nuclear option in Iran.
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