Transcript of The Democrats’ Platner Problem & The Tech CEO Who Smuggled for Iran | 6.9.26 New

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It's hard to think of any Israeli prime minister, uh, that would take a missile barrage from the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism and do nothing, uh, in response.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, June 9th, and this is Morning Wire.

Are Democrats willing to overlook a Nazi tattoo and now allegations of sexual misconduct to win a key Senate race?

Anti-Zionism has become the most important plank in the progressive platform. It is now the cause du jour on the left.

And the FBI uncovers a pipeline moving American tech into the hands of the Iranian regime. We talked to a reporter who was on the ground for the predawn raid.

This guy was living in a $35 million Italianate estate. It was quite a dramatic scene.

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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With Iran and Israel exchanging missile strikes, President Trump is calling on both sides to stand down.

Joining us now is Ben and Ben Talebloo, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He specializes in Iranian security, sanctions, and nuclear policy, and has spent years analyzing the regime's strategy both at home and abroad. Benham, thanks for coming on.

Great to be with you. Thanks for having me.

So tell us, where do things stand currently between Israel, Iran, and the Trump administration?

Well, it's something of a hot potato dance. The Trump administration has kind of entered the Middle East restraining both adversary and ally, calling for a return to ceasefire. The Islamic Republic, meanwhile, has been looking to use escalation. Seen against America's partners in the Persian Gulf, or more recently Israel, in a way to restrain the Trump administration. And the challenge here is how best the Trump administration can, one, stand with its partners like Israel, two, deter the regime from continuing to engage in these attacks while allegedly there is a ceasefire, and three, be able to actually get what it wants, which is some sort of a larger diplomatic settlement that first and foremost opens up the Strait of Hormuz. And the real X factor here to know if Iran was successful in flipping this script on the Trump administration, is if the thing that brought the regime to use force, the Israeli response of fire against Hezbollah, continues in the same way or not. So after the 24 hours and more of missile exchanges in the Middle East, don't look for diplomacy as the telltale sign that things have been successful. Look for a more freer hand or a more restrained hand to know if things are looking up or down in the region.

By Israel.

What kind of messaging have we heard from the White House?

Well, the White House is still, you know, walking this fine line, this tightrope, talking about a ceasefire, de-escalation, and deconfliction. And the challenge here really is this is an administration that has pioneered maximum pressure. This is an administration that has really created a very successful maritime blockade against the Islamic Republic's ports. And so while the Trump administration has been talking about keeping the blockade, the rest of their rhetoric and even some of their actions point to potential risk aversion more than risk tolerance, which may end up underwriting the next Iranian cycle of escalation, be it against America's Persian Gulf partners or Israel.

Now, what about the economic situation on the ground in Iran? Obviously, they want to hold on to their nuclear arsenal, but with the blockade in place, they've really been strangled. I understand there's about a 77% inflation rate. That's obviously crippling. How is that affecting their willingness or ability to negotiate?

Well, this is a regime that unfortunately has a drastically different social contract with its own people than us or other members of the international community or global economy in good standing. So while these facts do matter, you know, they're not the facts that in the very short term are governing the national security decision-making of the Islamic Republic. So the art of the deal for this president, and really any president, is to be able to put this regime to the choice, to make those facts matter. The problem is in the short term, the Iranians are distributing that pain, taking it, and operating still as if they have a bunker mentality. It's more about missiles than money in the very short term for them. In the medium term, long term, it's all about money, and that's why they're playing to the edge with what's left of their missile arsenal to get the Trump administration to blink, to get them to give cash upfront. So far that has not happened, but the Iranian art of the deal is to wave a missile and hope that there's a deal that has sanctions relief and access to frozen funds on the backend.

But when it comes to the nuclear side, the second part, that is much in my view, is even harder to achieve. The regime doesn't have a nuclear arsenal, thank goodness, but it does have significant fissile material, including highly enriched uranium, that I think so long as it remains buried in Iran and the US communicates clearly that it will strike anybody that moves towards those previously declared nuclear sites, things should be okay. But this is a regime that's proven its intent on rebuilding, repairing, and rearming anyway. So that is a band-aid, it's not a long-term solution. And I think the long-term solution relies either on extracting that uranium or having a policy that is much bigger than counter-proliferation, but having a policy that is counter-regime in its entirety.

Hmm.

All right.

Well, Benham, thank you so much for coming on.

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Democrats continue to largely circle the wagons around Senate candidate Graham Plattner, whose controversies have prompted outsized attention on today's primaries in Maine, along with revelations about his Nazi tattoo and his alarming online behavior, unsettling stories from Plattner's past girlfriends have forced members of his party to defend him while also claiming to believe all women.

We should focus on acknowledging it was misogynistic, acknowledging it was wrong. I believe her.

I think Graham acted shamefully, and that's what makes him different, is that he's taken accountability for that period of his life.

One lone Democrat who's pushed back on Plattner's candidacy is Senator John Fetterman, who says Democrats need to be honest about his behavior and views. One of those women in her journal 10 years ago described him as an incredibly abusive man that ruined her life. I mean, he's not really technically a Democrat, you know, in his own words, he said, I'm a communist socialist. In response, Plattner accused Fetterman of being bought and paid for by Israel. Here to discuss is Batya Ungar-Sargon, host of NewsNation's Batya and author of the new book The Jews and the Left. Batya, great to see you again. It's been a while.

Thank you so much for having me.

So a major primary today in Maine, and the Democrats have really found themselves in this predicament with Plattner that's highlighted by this public feud with Fetterman. Let's start with Plattner's Israel attack from the weekend, which has really turned some heads. Why is Plattner choosing to make his response about Israel and Zionism?

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people feel that the Democrats are backing Plattner despite the fact that he has a Nazi tattoo and offensive views about Zionists. But the truth is, the progressives are backing him because anti-Zionism has become the most important plank in the progressive platform. And you're right, he did this twice. So about a week and a half ago, there was a big exposé that revealed that he had been cheating on his wife and sexting with anywhere from 6 to 12 women. They'd only been married for 3 years, by the way. Now, when this was revealed, the day —of this exposé, he came out and his campaign tweeted, Susan Collins is bought and paid for by Benjamin Netanyahu. A third of her money comes from AIPAC. Ilhan Omar had to apologize for saying this in 2019 when she said it's all about the Benjamins. AIPAC is buying American elections. Fast forward 6 years, 7 years, and it's literally being put out as a campaign ad for a progressive candidate. You had a woman in a video. It's going viral. It's insane. She was asked at a grand Platner rally this weekend, doesn't his Nazi tattoo offend you?

She says, no, it doesn't. I don't think he knew what it was. And then the interviewer says, well, what if he had a tattoo of the Israeli flag? And she said, well, I would never vote for him then.

Honestly, yeah, that would be Israeli.

Yeah, because I don't support genocide. Now, as for the Believe All Women theme that Georgia mentioned, that's also taken center stage in recent days. A lot of Democrats are now being pressed on this with these new allegations against Graham. About his really troubling background. What are we to make of Democrats' messaging on "believe all women" now related to him?

You know, the same side that called all of us Nazis for 10 years now backing a guy with an actual Nazi tattoo, the same side that chased men out of public life for things much less bad than what Graham Plattner is accused of doing, the "believe all women" side, the Justice Kavanaugh vigilantes, you know, the MeToo firing squad, as I call them, The same people are now out here saying, well, he didn't hit her, he didn't punch her, he just grabbed her arm and shoved it behind her back hard enough to leave bruises and locked her in her room. We can forgive all of that.

Well, all eyes on Maine today for all of these reasons. Batya, thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you so much for having me. God bless and protect you.

Last week, federal agents raided a $35 million estate in Orange County owned by an Iranian-American businessman. He's accused of selling computer hardware to the Iranian government to be used by their military, along with other financial crimes to hide his income.

Joining us now is Ben Chapman, reporter for the California Post. He was on the scene as federal agents carried out that pre-dawn raid. He's been reporting on the allegations. Ben, thanks so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

So when most people think of, you know, sanctions violations, they picture paperwork and bank transfers, but your reporting describes— this pre-dawn FBI raid on a $35 million mansion, allegations involving tons of technology. How large and sophisticated was the operation according to federal investigators?

According to federal investigators, it was a massive operation that went on for years. Uh, basically what we have is a businessman, uh, 63 years old, a dual Iranian and United States citizen named Jamshid Ghomi of Newport Beach, California, had a company that was based in Tehran. And what he was doing, according to prosecutors, was sending sensitive technology from the United States to his business in Iran. And then at that point, the Technology was distributed by the local company and sold to hundreds of different organizations in Iran, including the government, which used the technology in both military operations and in its nuclear programs.

So how was he able to accomplish this and avoid U.S. sanctions?

According to prosecutors and investigators, Mr. Ghomi used fake shipping protocols to get this hardware out of the United States. So what he was doing was legally purchasing this stuff domestically, and it was primarily networking equipment, is my understanding. And then he would create false shipping systems where he pretend that the final destination of the technology was in the UAE, I believe, or countries in Europe. And in fact, the technology was then shipped from those destinations onto its final destination in Iran. That's the part that was illegal, was the fact that he was sending this stuff to Iran because it was sensitive technology.

Do we know, you know, what mistake or what breakthrough allowed investigators to unravel this whole scheme?

The raid was actually conducted by criminal investigators with the IRS. There were definitely tax abnormalities with this guy's business. So this guy was the CEO and founder of a tech company. He lived in a $35 million mansion. And he was reporting $20,000 in annual income to the IRS. So it's, it's my guess that this may have been what tipped them off, you know, kind of hard to miss.

You'd think these criminal masterminds would figure out that you like pay your taxes, man, or make at least make it look close or something. We mentioned at the top you were on the scene for the raid. Anything stand out to you about the operation?

Sure. It was quite an unusual raid in the sense that it took place in a upscale and exclusive gated community above the Pacific Ocean, um, populated by gigantic mansions. It was quite a dramatic scene as this caravan of federal agents, you know, blew into this gated community and then surrounded his estate at the end of this exclusive cul-de-sac. And then, um, called over a loudspeaker with guns drawn for him to come out of the house. And they called for some time before he emerged. The agents actually went inside and ended up apprehending him in, inside of the estate before they brought him outside and put him in an SUV, whereupon he was taken to custody.

Well, a dramatic scene that you were there to witness firsthand. Thank you so much for reporting for us.

Thanks for having me.

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