Transcript of Tuesday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben — 3/3/26 New

The MeidasTouch Podcast
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00:00:00

Okay, Nikola. Quizfrage: Homeoffice bei Stade oder Fahrtkosten. Was bringt uns mehr? Moment, ich check das kurz. Oha, Homeoffice gewinnt. Bringt uns 150 Euro mehr im Jahr. Ja, richtig. Aber wieso weißt du so was? Weil, wieso Steuer die Erstattung live anzeigt. Das ist einfach die Steuer-App für alle Fälle. Ja, und Fragen beantwortet sie auch. 247 und ohne Beamtendeutsch. Das ist einfach die App, die uns versteht. Steuern erledigt? Safe. Mit wisoSteuer. Jetzt kostenlos ausprobieren. Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Meiselas, and this is your Breaking News. It looks like there was a direct hit on the US consulate in Dubai by Iranian drones. We can see the footage right here of the US consulate in Dubai, currently on fire right now. You're seeing it right there. We'll show you what the direct impact looked like as well. We're getting some of that footage as well. It should also be noted that we are learning here is right here, just so everybody could see what it looked like when this Iranian drone attacked that US consulate in Dubai, a direct hit right there. And that consulate is, it seems to be severely damaged, if not almost completely destroyed.

00:01:18

You're seeing it right there on fire. Also, moments ago, we learned that an Iranian one-way attack drone has struck the CIA station in Saudi Arabia. It's being described by the Washington Post and others as a significant symbolic victory by the Islamic Republic that they were able to directly hit this CIA station there. An internal State Department alert says that part of the embassy's roof collapse and smoked filled sections of the building. The full extent of the damage remains unclear. No injuries among CIA personnel have been reported there. We're learning also about a potential plan for the United States to support Kurdish volunteers and ground troops as part of a ground invasion of Iran. We are learning from ITV that weapons have been smuggled into Western Iran since last year to arm thousands of Kurdish volunteers. They are expected to begin ground operations within days. Itv news is stating. We've been told by Kurdish sources that American and Israeli forces have been asked to provide air cover when any such ground operation begins. Our sources do not know if that request has been approved. We also should just remember the United States betrayed the Kurds very recently in Syria and basically allowed Al Jalani, the former Al Qaeda leader who now runs Syria, to basically seize control of the autonomous areas in Syria.

00:03:05

And so I find it interesting that we are now begging the Kurds for help after betraying the Kurds. And I'm not fully sure, or in fact, I would say, I don't believe at all the Trump regime is even thinking through any of this geopolitical, any of the geopolitical aspects of what's really taking place right here. We know as well that there was a call for all American citizens in the Middle East to evacuate. This was put out by the State Department's UN Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, Maura Namdar, posted on X, the formerly Twitter, this message, Security updates for Americans in the Middle East. And the post says, depart now via commercial means due to serious safety risks, and it lists basically every country in the Middle East. I think it's going to be difficult to leave via commercial means when the airports are under attack. I mean, the military airports, the commercial airports, the Strait of Harmus. It's all under attack by Iran in retaliation for the United States and Israel striking Iran. It's just all of Donald Trump's destruction and devastation over the past 12 to 14 years becomes extra pronounced in this ill-faded war against Iran that I've referred to as Operation Epstein Fury or the Jeffrey Epstein War.

00:04:51

I mean, they gutted the State Department. They put in all of these Trump lackeys. We don't really even have ambassadors in the Middle East region. We don't have the resources to even do an evacuation right now. We've attacked all of our former allies. Donald Trump has attacked Zelenskyy in Ukraine and made it much more difficult for Zelenskyy to fight the war. And Zelenskyy was basically fighting against Shahid drones from Iran that were being provided to Russia. So Zelenskyy actually has the knowledge of how you fight back against these ballistic missiles and Shahid drones. The Trump regime attacks Zalinsky. While all of this is taking place as well, you have the United States having a serious munitions crisis, although Donald Trump claims that's not the case, but he lies about everything. We know from top admirals and generals and leaks from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs that America's munitions systems and the munitions systems we've given to our allies in the region, like the FAD system or the Patriot system, The air defense systems are running low. A significant amount of them have been expended. It takes like six in a month at most. Currently, the United States can produce about six to seven interceptors.

00:06:19

And at that same time, Iran can produce several hundred of its drones and missiles. So I just want you to think about that. Takes us a month, 6-7 max interceptors. They can do about 500 or so, at least like missiles and drones, perhaps even more in that time period. And they've stockpiled a lot of it. Cheaper to make, hard to defend against unless you use these billion dollar weapon systems. And so already we're hearing that the US is going to have to take away certain missile systems from Asia and bring them into the Middle East. The US is betraying Taiwan, not making good on the 12 to $13 billion in military aid and weapons promise there because Xi Jinping told Donald Trump, I won't meet with you in April. If you provide any military support to Taiwan, I mean, if Xi Jinping wanted to invade Taiwan, the US would be incapable of defending Taiwan. And also, I don't think Trump has shown any desire or interest to even help out You've got Kim Jong Un in North Korea just saying every day, We're a nuclear power. Accept it. We're going to be increasing our nuclear arsenal.

00:07:39

That's not even really getting reported. You have Pakistan and Afghanistan in a war right now as well, where Pakistan is calling Afghanistan a colony of India. And so you have this world at war, whether you call that a world war or not. But the entire world now has been has been put into this war footing. And now the plan is we've armed the Kurds who we've betrayed and frequently betrayed. That's just objective facts for all of the courage that they've shown against fighting ISIS and fighting Al Qaeda. We always call on the Kurds and betray them. So I'm just wondering what they're even thinking right now or what the plan is there. And also how bloody and devastating is that going to be where you have the Kurds invading Iran in a ground invasion, and you have the Iranians and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps fighting the Kurds. I mean, you could have hundreds of thousands and potentially millions of deaths that could take place in Iran if this is what's happening. And then obviously spreading to the broader region at the same time Israel struck in the area of Qam a building where the 90 top clerks were electing the new Ayatollah.

00:09:12

I guess Israel and the United States believe if you keep killing people, that that's going to stop the succession of the next Ayatollah. That's proven to be ineffective. There is a new Ayatollah right now. It's the son of the old Ayatollah. So a younger, more extreme version of the Ayatollah is now the Ayatollah. Majtaba Hussaini Khameini, an Iranian politician, cleric, the eldest son of Ayatollah Kamini. He's been elected as the next Supreme Leader of Iran under pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, according to Iran International. Go back a few days. That's exactly who we told you. Just go back to our coverage. I mean, that's literally the guy I said three days ago. We study the region, I mean, at the Midas Touch Network. So that's the guy they're going to elect. He's a younger version of the Ayatola. Remember, the Ayatollah was what? Like 84, 85 years old and getting very unpopular with the population. Especially among the poor population. Even traditional Shia support of the Ayatollah was starting to fade, given the economic conditions and the poverty that the communities were being placed in Iran. So not even just from the pro-democracy communities that have to hide in Iran, but even from some of the Shia communities that supported the Ayatollah.

00:10:40

And one of the issues about Trump and Netanyahu killing the Ayatollah in the way they did is they've allowed that to now be used as a martyrdom within the Shia community, where the Ayatollah was already old. He didn't have that many more years left. And now it's become a rallying call for people who were even against the regime in Iran. And Trump and Netanyahu think by beaming their image and their name, image, and likeness and videos of themselves in Iran, telling the people, Rise up. Like videos of Donald Trump are being... Trump and Netanyahu hacked into Iranian TV, and they're showing videos of Donald Trump and Netanyahu. Okay, as unpopular as the Ayatollah may have been with some groups, I can assure you that Netanyahu who and Donald Trump are far less liked than the Ayatollah in many areas of Iran. Let's just be very clear about that. It also makes it difficult to rally support by other Middle East countries who are even under attack from Iran when you have becoming very clear that the reason the US invaded Iran is because Israel told it to. Now the Trump regime is trying to deny that, that the United States invaded Iran because of Israel.

00:12:07

But the gaslighting and the cover-ups just make it worse. We all heard what Marco Rubio said yesterday, the Secretary of State. There was no confusion in his words. He was very clear. In fact, he reiterated it multiple times yesterday where he said, The imminent threat, let me tell you what the imminent threat was. We believe that Israel was going to attack Iran first. If Israel did that, then Iran would strike the United States. Our imminent threat was we had to be on the offense to be defensive because Israel was going to strike Iran, so we had to hit first before Israel struck Iran. Everybody watched that. We were like, Did you just admit it publicly what people thought? Did you just admit that the reason the United States is now in a war where multiple of our service members have been killed and even more seriously wounded, and that number is expected to rise because Israel was going to attack Iran, and the United States of America wasn't able to tell Israel, Hey, don't do that right now. We're in a media negotiation with the Omanhi Foreign Minister that we selected. And the Omanhi Foreign Minister has been on TV talking about how there was a deal in principle reached last Friday between the United States and Iran.

00:13:45

And so if you pull back for a moment also, that to me is the most obvious piece of information. If you know that the Trump regime is lying, which we all do, but you have people in your life who are gaslighting you and say, No, no, no, that's not how it is. Iran didn't want to negotiate on Friday, so that's why we had to do it. And you have friends who are like, parodying now the Trump talking points. To me, I just say, Well, let me just give you the disputed facts. The mediator who was picked by Trump to mediate this went on TV and said, actually, there was good faith by both parties on Friday, and there was believed to be a deal in principle with some technical details that needed to be sorted on Monday from the International Atomic Energy Administration or Agency. And other than that, we had a deal. The guy went on TV and said it. And then while all of the people involved claimed there was a deal, that's when the US and Israel struck that evening when there were supposed to be resumed discussions yesterday on Monday. Now what our regime in the United States is trying to do is, I guess they realized, holy crap, Rubio, you were supposed to keep this a secret.

00:15:12

You weren't supposed to say the quiet part out loud that we invaded Iran because Israel was going to invade Iran first. You weren't supposed to say that, Rubio. That was supposed to be our secret. You have Caroline Levit, Donald Trump's chief propagandist, saying, no, Marco Rubio didn't claim that Israel dragged Trump into war with Iran. You have Hegset saying, Yeah, that's not what happened at all. The rapid response, White House account is showing a Trump response from this bizarre press conference he held earlier today. Did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran? Donald Trump, no. Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think Iran was going to attack first, and I didn't want that to happen. So if anything, I might have But your own mediator, your person said that you're lying. He went on TV, on CBS on Friday and said that that's not true and that there was a deal in principle. We know that Donald Trump Lies about deals all of the time. It's such a terrible thing that we in the United States have to believe that the President of the United States is a liar about everything, and we can't trust anything.

00:16:28

Sure, in the past, we knew that politicians lie. We know they spin, we know they exaggerate, we know they cover up. At this point, every word that comes out of this Trump regime, it's literally it's meaningless. I mean, when you even look at the answers that Donald Trump gives to questions, I think, Jeremy, we have one of the answers that Donald Trump gave to a question about why... Let me just read you. Here's This is the full answer, all 835 words, why we didn't have the resources. I'm just going to read it for you. Not all of it, but just look at it. As this one reporter says, Here's the full answer, all 835 words. Double dare you to read it all without needing medication. The question was, why weren't we prepared to do evacuations in the Middle East and Israel if you were going to do that? Why were you not prepared for evacuations? Answer, well, because it all happened very quickly, we thought, and I thought maybe more than so than most. I could ask Marco, but I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked.

00:17:39

They were getting ready to attack Israel. They were getting ready to attack others. You're seeing that right now. A lot of those missiles that are hitting in those are stationary. Those were aimed there for a long period of time at these other countries. I think I was right about that. We attacked first, and if we didn't, it couldn't have been, Look, we're really decimating them. They're being decimated. If we didn't, if we didn't, and by the way, we have massive amounts of ammunition. We have high-end. We have high end. A lot of it was given away stupidly by Biden, very stupidly for free. I'm all for Ukraine, but they gave away a lot, as you know. When I gave away ammunition, everybody pays for it. The European Union is paying for it. Then they can do what they want with it, but they are giving it, let's say, to Ukraine. It's okay, but we gave away a lot of high end. But we have plenty. We have unlimited middle and upper ammunition. It goes on and on. What the hell? What are you even talking about? I just remember when the media would say, President Biden stutterered.

00:18:39

President Biden's old. We're now talking about life and death, war and peace, and Donald Trump is just deteriorating before our eyes. He's got this wild rash on his neck. He's got the discolouration on his hands while his doctors just lie about it. And he's not making any sense. He's like, I don't feel... I'm not scared to put boots on the ground. Other presidents are scared. I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to tell you what's going on. It's just a bunch of absolute nonsense. Let me show you earlier today what Marco Rubio said when a reporter asked, very basic question, right? You told us, Marco, that Israel was going to strike Iran, and that's why we need to get involved. That's an undisputed fact that Marco Rubio said that in his answer yesterday. Look what happens when Rubio was asked before, You told us Israel was going to strike Iran, and that's why we needed to get involved. And then Rubio's like, That's false. I never said that. Here, play this clip. Yesterday, you said, Yesterday, you talked about Israel.

00:19:53

Mr. Secretary. Mr. Secretary. Please, guys, I can't hear Amalish. Yes. Yesterday, you told us that Israel was going to strike Iran, and that's why we needed to get involved.

00:20:02

Today, the President said that Iran was going to get- Yeah, your statement is false.

00:20:06

That's not what... I was asked very specifically. Were you there yesterday? Yes, I asked a question. Okay. Were you the one that... Because somebody asked me a question. I said, Did we go in because of Israel? I said, You asked me that, you the follow-up, and I said, No, I told you this had to happen anyway. The President made a decision, and the decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ballistic missile program, that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ability to conduct these attacks. That decision had been made. The President made a decision to systematically destroy this terroristic capability that they had, and we carried that out. I was very clear in that answer. This was a question of timing of why this had to happen as a joint operation, not the question of the intent. Once the President made a decision that negotiations were not going to work, that they were playing us on the negotiations, and that this was a threat that was untenable, the decision was made to strike them. That's what I said yesterday, and you guys need to play it.

00:20:55

If you're going to play these statements, you need to play the whole statement, not flip it to reach the narrative that you want to do, all right? This is your statement.

00:21:02

What do you mean, reach the narrative that you want to? We heard what you said yesterday. We know what you said yesterday. Then Manu Raju from CNN just quotes it back to him one more time and watch what Rubio says. Let's play it. I want to just clarify what you said. I want to clarify what you said because you said- You said clarify. You said I would give that- No, but you're going to read the whole thing. But your quote is about, We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that would persist Precipitate an attack.

00:21:30

Yeah, I understand. But listen, all right, let me understand. But I had a very specific question from that gentleman, right? The President said that- Hold on a second. I asked the- Air Force Israeli. Okay, but let me answer because this is my press conference. You asked I was asked a very specific question. You guys can misrepresent it, but I was asked a very specific question yesterday. The bottom line is this. The President determined we were not going to get hit first. It's that simple, guys. We are not going to put Americans troops in harm's way. If you tell the President of the United States that if we don't go first, We're going to have more people killed and more people injured. The President's going to go first. That's what he did. That's what the President will always do. He will always put the safety and security of a men and women in uniform and of all Americans before anything else. He's always going to do that. That's what he did here. In addition to that, I would argue that this threat from Iran, they are hiding behind these missiles and hiding behind these drones. They wanted to reach a point where you couldn't touch them, and then they could do whatever the hell they wanted with their nuclear program.

00:22:25

There was no way in the world that this terroristic regime was going to get nuclear weapons It's not under Donald Trump's watch. That's for sure. The US attack.

00:22:32

It has nothing to do with Israel.

00:22:33

It has not been going to do with Israel.

00:22:36

Well, now the US consulate in Dubai is on fire. A CIA headquarters in Saudi Arabia is on fire. Both were attacked by drones. We're showing you the footage right here of what it looked like when the console in Dubai was struck. To take a look at that right there. You can see the smoke in the background right there, a direct hit on the US console there. We have our State Department. Here's another view of what it looks like in Dubai. In Saudi Arabia, a consulate there also struck CIA headquarters struck. American interests throughout the region being hit. At least six American service members killed. We expect that number to go up. Iran is now saying that it struck, that what we'll have to see here, it's claiming that it struck down an F-15 moments ago. Iran's Taznim claims a US F-15 Eagle jet was shot down by the air defense system of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army. Iran has now, we have the Al-Adid Air Base in Doha Qatar on fire burning down right now. While all of this is taking place, you have The Islamic Republic, picked their new Ayatollah, the son, more extreme than his dad, the son who was just selected as the Ayatollah, Mojtaba Hussaini Khamani.

00:24:14

He was the guy who was responsible also for cracking down and massacring the protesters. So he's the guy who's in charge right now. He's the guy who's in charge right now in Iran. That's what's going on. And while that's all taking place, you have the United States Secretary of State, our State Department, urging Americans via an ex-social media post as though what Americans are all supposed to be on Elon Musk's social media platform. Secretary Rubio urges Americans, depart now from the countries below. Leave now by commercial means. Leave now by... You didn't have an evacuation plan? No evacuation plan at all, really? You didn't think that that was an important one? Or when it comes to the... How about the embassy in Jerusalem? The embassy in Jerusalem for all of the billions of dollars we give Israel, and frankly, the billions of dollars We put into an embassy in Jerusalem that was intentionally done to inflame the tensions there with Palestinians as well. The US embassy is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans. This is a real message from the US Embassy in Jerusalem, basically saying, Sorry, nothing we can do.

00:25:37

The US Embassy is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel. That's like me saying while doing the podcast that I'm not in a position at this time to do a podcast. That's literally what I do. I do a podcast. I'm doing it right now. What the hell is the purpose of the embassy, if not to be there to specifically evacuate or directly assist Americans? You don't think that's your role? And by the way, who is the assistant secretary Secretary of State who's sending these messages out? Well, I want you to meet Maura Namder right there who's posting this on the social media site X. You can see her right now. She is a beauty salon, a mega beauty salon a MAGA Beauty Salon owner. She also has a law degree, and she is someone who decided... She was someone who Donald Trump picked right now to run this. Remember when I did the report on her? She was like a mega beauty salon person. These are the people who Donald Trump has picked. Do we have the photo when she was doing the beauty salon? I think it was like she would promote the beauty salon, and then she's got the Mar-a-Lago makeover, and she's ultra MAGA, and She's now the one running the State Department, I guess, and saying, We can't help you.

00:27:05

That's why all of these moves from Doge to Donald Trump attacking her out. If you're going to go to war, you're supposed to have a plan. Don't you think the American people deserve to know what the hell is going on? In any event, I showed you right there what Marco Rubio said today. But I believe... Let me just show you what happened yesterday. First, Let me show you what Maga Mike had to say yesterday. When Maga Mike was asked, Well, you're the speaker of the house. What's your view about why there was something imminent that the US had to attack Iran and start this war that's engulfed the entire region where now the world is in a war. You call it whatever you want to call it, the world is at war right now. Almost every country has been dragged into this by the Trump regime. Here's what Mag and Mike said. Let's play this clip. They had to evaluate the threats to the US, to our troops, to our installations, to our assets in the region and beyond. They determined, because of the exquisite intelligence that we had that if Israel fired upon Iran and took action against Iran to take out the missiles, then they would have immediately retaliated against US personnel and assets.

00:28:30

We have troops in harm's way, and we have many Americans in the region, and that was of a great concern. Okay. Maga Mike, stop gaslighting us. Stop lying to us. We just heard what Maga Mike said, that you believed the imminent threat to the United States was that Israel was going to strike Iran, and then Iran would strike the US. That's what the United States has been reduced to? That's what we've been reduced to right now? That if Netanyahu is going to invade Iran, America says it has no choice. Again, I don't care what political party you're from. If you're okay with that, that's one of the most pathetic things I've heard. And by the way, just so there's no doubt about it, let's hear what Rubio said yesterday, and he said it twice. I'll show you the first clip where Rubio said it. I won't paraphrase. Let's just watch what Rubio said. Let's play.

00:29:39

There absolutely was an imminent threat. And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked and we believe they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us. We were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded, because the Department of War says that if we did that, if we waited for them to hit us first after they were attacked by someone else, Israel attacked them, they If we had to hit us first, and we waited for them to hit us, we would suffer more casualties and more deaths. We went proactively in a defensive way to prevent them from inflecting higher damage. Have we not done so? There would have been hearings on Capitol Hill about how we knew that this was going to happen, and we didn't act preemptively to prevent more casualties and more loss of life.

00:30:22

We went proactively in a defensive way because Israel was going to strike first. It's your words. You said that. You said it out. You can try to walk it back, but you said it. Everything with this regime, if that's how you feel, then own it. Make that case to the American people. It's absolute trash. I think it's the definition of treason and traitorousness when you basically make your own foreign policy second to the foreign policy of any other country. But make that case. If you think the case is regime change, make the case. Explain to people why having the Ayatollah's more extreme sun running things, why that's a great move. Make the case. That's what our country is built on. You make the case to us. Convince me. Convince the American people. Let us know why you think that this is an issue Why you think this is imminent? Then that's why we elect people to Congress. Make the freaking case. What's the case? Then by the way, he repeats it. Do we have the other clip where Rubio says it? He brings it up on his own. He goes, I've been asked, why now?

00:31:48

He brings it up. It's not like a trick question. He brings it up. Watch what he says. Let's play it.

00:31:54

It is the assessment that was made that if we stood and waited for that attack to come first before But if we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties. And so the President made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher those killed. And then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and did not.

00:32:23

Now, I'll show you. On the right wing, Megan Kelly Clearly a Trump sycophant. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who Donald Trump refers to as Marjorie Trader now. Let me show you the conversation that they had yesterday on Megan Kelly's podcast. Both of them were big Trumpers. Here's what they had to say. Here, play this clip. Look, there are massive divisions over what we've done here, and people are going to change their minds over the coming days and weeks one way or the other. But my own feeling is no one should have to die for a foreign country. I don't think those four service members died for the United States. I think they died for Iran or for Israel. I understand how this helps Iran perfectly well. I get it. I mean, I hope. Long term, we'll see. But they seem rather jubilant. Eighty % of the country does not support the Ayatollah. He was a terrible, terrible man. No one's crying that he's dead. No normal person. But our government's job is not to look out for Iran or for Israel. It's to look out for us. This feels very much, to me, like it is clearly Israel's war.

00:33:39

Mark Levin wanted it. It's his war. Ben Shapiro, Lindsay Graham, Miriam Wilson. That's obvious. They're the ones who've been pushing us into this. I mean, you hear it right there. I'll just show you, just so you see that this is what is going on on right wing media in general. Dave Smith, who I voted for Trump. Here's what he had to say. Here, play this clip. One of the problems here is that Donald Trump has now created an incentive structure. And I got to say, this is just simply this was the Israeli's plan. And they're just much smarter than Donald Trump. And so they were able to con him into this. Donald Trump, one of the major problems with Donald Trump is that he's weak and he's stupid. These are real issues. He doesn't know anything. He goes into this shit blind, convinced that he's a genius who knows more than everyone else. I hate playing clips of the next guy, but I want you to see what's happening on the far right, on the far far right. On the far, far right, that's why I'll only show a small clip of it, you literally have nick Fuente saying, vote Democrats.

00:34:52

Don't vote Republicans. Do not vote Republicans. Watch. Here, let's play it. What does this administration do other than cover up the Epstein files, embezel money through government contracts, and bring us to war for Israel? This administration needs to be shut down immediately. Do not vote in the midterms. And if you do, vote for Democrats. Fuck this. Or how about Caroline Sunshine, Donald Trump's biggest supporter on Fox, who always appeared to be auditioning for Caroline Leved's role? Here's what she said last night on Fox. Let's play it. But again, If I can just read this quote from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff today at his press conference.

00:35:34

He said, This is not a single overnight operation. The military objectives we've been tasked with will take some time to achieve, and in some cases, will be difficult and gritty work. We expect to take additional losses.

00:35:44

We will work to minimize US losses, but this is a major combat operation. I voted for President Trump, and I worked for President Trump because I didn't want to hear statements like that from my government, again, regarding American involvement in the Middle East, and I just think that's important to be clear about. Yeah. So we've got a lot more to discuss. For those just joining, we right now have a US consulate in Dubai that has been attacked by Iranian drones, and that's on fire. We have the CIA building in Saudi Arabia. That's been hit by Iranian drones over the past hour or so. We can report on that. You have Iran saying, and we need to verify it, of course, that they hit an F-15, although unclear, Iran also lies. One of the hard part is the Trump regime lies, the Iranian regime lies, the Netanyahu regime lies. So sorting through the truth is always an issue here. It's why I always like to make sure I flag for you what the hell is actually being said versus what the reality is before I tell you, here's something that's happened. You have the State Department putting out evacuation orders.

00:36:54

Everybody leave in the Middle East. Everybody get out. Find a commercial flight while commercial airports are under attack in all of these locations. You now have the Trump regime saying what Rubio said yesterday about the United States struck Iran because Israel was going to strike Iran first and Iran might retaliate against the US. That didn't happen, according to the Trump regime. That's the propaganda that they want to tell us. We have the Strait of Harmus, where 20% of oil liquefied natural gas goes through. It's being severely impaired right now. We'll just say that. You have Trump's plan of potentially putting the Kurds in a ground invasion in Iran right now and arming the Kurds and doing a ground invasion, even though the US betrayed the Kurds last month in Syria. I wonder what the Kurd community is thinking about that or what's really going to happen after Donald Trump sides with Al Jelani, the former Al Qaeda leader in Syria, and throws the Kurds in the autonomous region under the bus and basically gives their autonomous region to the former Al Qaeda leader who Trump invited to the oval office and sprayed perfume on and sniffed his neck.

00:38:19

You have Israel striking within Iran and Tehran, and Israel hit, for example, a building in Qam, where There was the election of the new Ayatollah. I guess the thought was if you killed everybody in the building, they couldn't elect an Ayatollah. I don't know. They ended up electing an Ayatollah anyway. Mujdatba Khomene, the son of Ayatollah Khomene, a more extreme version of the Ayatollah. This guy's not working with Donald Trump. Oh, and then we learned before, and this is what I'll talk about shortly, Reuters is reporting that the Trump regime drafted an indictment against It's Delce Rodriguez, who Donald Trump propped up in Venezuela, who Trump said he liked. And it's believed that they did this to strong arm Delcey Rodriguez to give more oil money to Donald Trump so that Trump could put that oil money in his Qatari bank account. And we know Qatar is under attack as well. You see how these things are all linked. But then, by the way, I would actually agree with an indictment of Delce Rodriguez. She's a thug. She's part of the Maduro regime. She's just an extension of Maduro. There's been no change in Venezuela other than Donald Trump taking oil money for himself, not the United States, and putting in a Qatari bank account, basically where Trump keeps this money that he sells oil for himself.

00:39:49

Donald Trump's sycophants in Congress, like Maga Mike, are apparently okay with that. But by the way, I would be okay. She should be indicted. She is a criminal. That's accurate. There There should be democracy there. Wasn't that supposed to be the plan? Is it that what all the individuals of Venezuela said that was the plan and that they wanted and Machado and all of that? What's going on there? But then our Justice Department, which has those big, gigantic Donald Trump posters on it right now, Trump's former criminal defense attorney, who's also covering up the child sex trafficking ring with Donald Trump, Todd Blanch. Let's not forget that this is Operation Epstein furie or the Jeffrey Epstein war. So while they're covering up the Epstein files, Todd Blanch goes, No, Reuters is wrong, completely false. Not sure how such fake news makes its way to publication. I don't know. I mean, should we trust the Trump regime? Or should we trust Reuters? Should we trust what Rubio says today about what he said yesterday? Or should we listen to his words yesterday? The words of Maga Mike yesterday. And all the Maga sycophants were parroting this message.

00:41:06

We invaded Iran because Israel was going to do it first. That's what they said. And by the way, if that's what you think should happen, which let me be very clear, I don't. I think that is dangerous. I told you, I think it's treasonous if the United States puts its interests below other… It doesn't look after our own interests. You can give me all the mantras, America first… America has our own national security interests. Also, you have to follow the law and get authorisation of wars. That didn't happen. But make your case. If your case is regime change, make the case to the American people. If your case is Israel is going to be threatened, make that case. See how the American people feel about that. If your plan is to install the son of the Ayatola, who's more extreme, make Make the case. Explain why when Americans can't pay for things right now, can't afford things as we're living paycheck, as Americans are living paycheck to paycheck right now, psychologically tortured by this regime, as oil prices and your gas prices are now going to go up because of this, as food prices and everything's going up right now because of Donald Trump's mismanagement and the tariffs, as people can't afford homes and people are having their health care ripped away.

00:42:27

Make the case. Explain to us. Explain us why with all of this happening, another endless war is something that you want to explain it. That's what our system is. If you don't like our system here in the United States, then just admit it. Just admit that you like Kim Jong Un and Russia, and you like those systems better. That you prefer your own little Kim Jong Un here in the United States. A weak, pathetic, blowhard, a felon, a sexual abuser, he's found civilly liable for sexual abuse, a regime that covers up child sex trafficking. If you like that, just say you like it. I'll at least be like, Okay, weird, strange, dangerous, but at least you're telling me, but don't act like you don't say the things and you don't believe the things. We see it. All right, my producers are saying, Quick ad break, Ben. You've spoken for 42 minutes in a row. We had a big though. That's why everybody, make sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel. You may think you're subscribed, but you may not be actually subscribed. So double check that you're actually subscribed. Turn your notifications on. Tell a few friends or people you know about this network as well.

00:43:45

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00:43:58

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00:46:50

Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Micellus. This is your Breaking News in the first half of this episode. We were covering all of the developments in this war initiated by Donald Trump against Iran that's spiraling out of control in the region. There was actually just a briefing that was held as well on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers attended with the Defense Department, State Department. I'm going to get you some of those clips as they're coming in. But the result is that a lot of lawmakers are saying that they are far more fearful than ever that we, the United States, may be putting boots on the ground soon. And it appears that there may be US ground forces that will be needed. We talked about in the first half of this episode, the United States arming the CIA's plan to arm the Kurds who we betrayed last month in Syria by getting rid of their autonomous region and transferring it to the leader of Al Qaeda, Al Jalani, who now runs Syria, who visits the United States. And in the White House, Donald Trump sprays perfume on him and sniffs him. We I showed you those clips.

00:48:01

But now we're begging the Kurds for help because there's no one in the region who wants to help. I guess the plan is to arm the Kurds and have a ground war against Iran I mean, as I'm saying these words, we know where this is going to go. I was reflecting on this the other day, and I forget who I was talking to about it. I said, I used to wonder with all of the complexities that take place in history and geopolitical affairs. I mean, you think about the nuances of what we cover on a day to day basis, how in a history class, you could reduce these monumental historic events down to a multiple choice answer, right? A, B, C, D, or true or false, when there's so much complexity. And regardless of all of this complexity, It's obvious, though, where you have someone behaving in a way like Donald Trump is right now and Netanyahu is right now. The outcome is so obvious. It doesn't take brilliance in prognosticating what's going to happen with a Kurdish force in Iran, with the massive size of Iran, with 90 million people, what that's going to look like.

00:49:34

It's going to look like what we saw in Iraq on steroids, a nuclear version of what happened in Iraq or Afghanistan. It will make that look tiny in comparison. Do we all realize what's happening here? Why are Are we trying to be so naive to the realities of the region? And the reality of the region is relatively simple, whether you like it or not. For me, I don't like that this is the reality, but it's the reality, which is the Ayatollah, terrible, tyrant, authoritarian, terroristic regime. I also want to be clear. I think that the Trump regime is authoritarian in nature, and I want to be clear, too. I think the Netanyahu is a regime that is tyrannical in nature and that has caused it. We are dealing with regimes against the EU and regimes on regime where the information and getting to the truth is very difficult. And ultimately, these regimes are preventing people who want to get along with each other, I think, who want to live in peace with each other, who want to share this world in a positive and productive way. These regimes and authoritarians globally, there's a lot more authoritarians out there as well, have made it a very difficult place to live in this world, especially in in in 2026.

00:51:19

But the Ayatollah was a... It's an undisputed fact that he was a spiritual leader for 300 million Shiaites in the region, a lot in Iran, but in the region as well. And while the Ayatollah was losing some popularity because people were suffering economically as well in the region, the attack on Iran, the way it was carried out by Trump and Netanyahu allowed the extreme factions to use his death as a martyrdom. That's just an objective fact of how they're using it to now inspire the population to become entrenched against Trump. It did not conjure sympathy of the people. When Trump had an opportunity to conjure sympathy of the people, when the people of Iran were protesting, and Trump said, I got your back. I'm here for you. If a single Iranian protester gets killed, we're coming in and we're helping you. We didn't even have We didn't even have our military resources in the region. When Trump told people, Go out right now, do it. And they did in 30,000, maybe 40,000 Iranians got massacred by the Ayatollah, by the regime. So now you want them to come out again after you told them to do it before.

00:52:50

And also after you're saying that you don't want any democratic leader in Iran, that you are okay With what you did in Venezuela as the template, although thinking about Venezuela and Iran, it's like thinking about two completely... The fact that he tries to even make that comparison is fatal. That's sick, deranged thinking to say Venezuela and Iran. But if what you're trying to say is somebody else from the Islamic Republic is going to be the leader, then how are you going to encourage people to protest against them when they know that you don't have their back? You've just stated you don't have their back. So what do you think the outcome is going to be? As I mentioned moments ago, there was a briefing by the Department of Defense and the State Department. I'm going to show you what it looked like when Senator Blumenthal, a Democrat, came out. And then I'll show you what it looked like with Senator Mark Wayne-Mullen, Republican, MAGA, from Oklahoma. First, let me show you the clip of with all. Let's play it. I just want to say I am more fearful than ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground and that troops from the United States may be necessary to accomplish objectives that the administration seems to have.

00:54:24

But I also am no more clear on what the priorities are going to be of the administration going forward, whether it is destroying the nuclear capacity of Iran or simply the missiles or regime change or stopping terrorist activities. I think the administration owes it to the American people to have briefings, not just for members of Congress, but for the American public. Nothing here should have been classified. It should be available to the American people. Do they describe-So the Trump regime is making all of that information classified or declaring it classified. So we don't know. So the most the senators can share, otherwise, Trump's DOJ We'll try to arrest them. And as you know, they will try to arrest them. We've seen it before. That's all they can share. And he's like, Why is this information? The American people need to hear this. We do need to hear this. I don't care, again, what political party you're from. This is supposed to be some secret? What's the mission? What's the objective? What are we doing in the region? While you have a consulate CIA building in Saudi Arabia on fire right now, while you have the consulate in Dubai on fire, while you have the LUD airport base on fire, while you have other areas in Dubai on fire, in Bahrain on fire, while you Have the US Embassy or the US Consulate in Karachi and Pakistan on fire.

00:56:07

You all realize that the United States Marines who were guarding the Karachi Embassy had to open fire and they killed like a dozen Pakistani people. Our Marines killed people to shut down that protest in front of the US Embassy here in Arbeel, US Air Force Base on fire. It's an arms facility in Iraq, the US Embassy in Iraq under attack because of the Ayatollah's position in the community being A spiritual leader of 300 million Shiaids. As I mentioned, there's a lot of Shiaids in all these other countries. And again, they view it now the way Trump handled this for a guy who is likely going to die anyway soon. I mean, the guy was super and not healthy. You've now turned the guy into a martyr. You turned the guy into a martyr. The people who were starting to support him less are now rallying. And you think what? Arming the Kurds? What are they going to do? They're going to go block to block in Tehran? That's the game plan. You realize when they do that, then there's going to... What do you think then happens in Syria to the Kurds? Is Isn't it obvious what will happen?

00:57:31

Okay, so the Kurds do that. Then what's going to happen? Remember last year, into early this year in Syria, you had the factions loyal to Al Jelani who were massacring the Kurds and others in Syria, Northern Syria, in that area. What do you think is going to happen? So the Kurds come into Iran, representing now the interests of Trump and Netanyahu. The Kurds are going to be vulnerable in Syria, the Shia in Iraq, and who represent the majority there. Remember the dynamic there that Saddam was a Suni but controlled a largely Shia population, and then all of the sectarian issues afterwards of trying to put that back together in Iraq. Remember that was the... So the Shia population, the Shia population in Iraq rises up, right? And there's Kurdish communities in Iraq. So now what you end up triggering is what we saw happened in Iraq for a very long period of time. That starts to happen once again, the sectarian issues in Iraq, then the sectarian issues in Bahrain, the sectarian issues spread to the entire region. You draw in Saudi Arabia. Will they get drawn into the war now? And if Saudi Arabia is viewed as being, helping out Netanyahu and helping out Trump in such an overt way, what happens with the population there?

00:59:13

And how do people respond to MBS doing that? What happens in these other regions if it appears that you're out there helping Netanyahu versus defending your own sovereignty? And I saw some analysis where people were like, this is backfiring for Iran because now Qatar and the UAE are getting involved against Iran, and Iran probably didn't see this coming. Of course, Iran saw this coming. Iran realized if it's going to strike inside, even if it's US military interests, if Iran is going to strike inside any country, if they're going to strike inside the UAE in Abu Dhabi or Dubai, if they're going to strike inside Saudi Arabia, of course, they calculated, let's not be naive, that there would be retaliation. But the plan from Iran is obvious. Create a massive, because they see their survival on the line. They control all these Shia militias in the area also, in all these regions. In addition to the Shahid drones and the ballistics, they control all the Shia militias around. So turn the entire Middle East into a massive sectarian war, massive sectarian violence there. Do that and make it as painful as possible economically in lost lives for the United States as possible.

01:00:49

Draw in a massive world war into the Middle East. That's the plan. Rather than de-escalate, we're going to keep furthering this, and it's going right into the plan that's so freaking obvious of what Iran actually wants. Take a step back and look at it the way I'm describing this situation. Would it now be the time to try to figure out, Okay, this is getting out of control. Let's go to the United Nations and let's try to get the UN. Or let's go back to the mediator in Oman, or let's try to figure this out, or come up with some statement to try to save face at this point and just try to tone that. No, Trump Once decision making tree, and I've said this years on this network, I said the problem with his decision making tree, if you even want to call it that, is there is a reason why he's bankrupted so many things despite having all of the resources as of being born basically with hundreds of millions of dollars or billions of dollars from his daddy, which is he keeps on making... He makes a mistake or an error or an intentional situation bad, and then he compounds it and compounds it and makes it worse and worse and worse and worse until it's a catastrophe.

01:02:23

Then rather than tapping out or trying to admit fault or fire or change the dynamic or do whatever, he doesn't. Then he goes bankrupt eventually. When people stand up to him in any aspect of life, if you truly stand up to him, he loses. Look at his litigations. When you back down, frankly, the way we saw a lot of countries and companies back down to Donald Trump. When you back down, he takes, he takes more, he takes more, he takes more. When you stand up, he loses, he loses bigger, he loses as big as he can. I mean, look at Abrego Garcia. Just think about this. Abrego Garcia was able to take on, it isn't even have credit, to take on the Trump regime and win and keep on winning despite all the resources. You think if Abrego Garcia can beat the Trump regime, you think that in Ayatollah, do you think that Iran and the Islamic Republic doesn't know the guy is weak You think they're not able to figure it out. By the way, hat tip to Abrego and Abrego's legal team. But you get the point. I mean, look, E. Jean Carroll, because she didn't quit.

01:03:43

She beat Donald Trump. And because the facts were on her side, but he threw everything against E. Jean Carroll. She won, and she won, and she won, and she won, despite him throwing the fit and doing everything, she won. If E. Jean Carroll and Abrego Edo Garcia can beat this guy, don't you think that other interests know how to play him? The problem is Netanyahu knows how to play him, knows his weaknesses, knows how to put pressure on him, knows how to manipulate him. I'm not trying to take away responsibility from Donald. He's a weak, pathetic individual, but people know how to play him. You don't think that the Islamic Republic has a psychological profile and Putin has a psychological biological profile. And heck, look at Xi Jinping. Xi Jinping got Donald Trump not to give billions of mandated military aid to Taiwan over this past week when Taiwan arguably needs it more than ever because Donald Trump is so thirsty for a state visit to Beijing. So Donald Trump can see all the Chinese soldiers standing at attention and walking in mass. So Trump feels tough. Literally, the state visit is what Trump wants for a photo in this dystopian reality show that he lives in while we're all non-consensual extras whose lives are being ruined by this sick and disturbed and physically and cognitively deteriorating individual.

01:05:20

That's just the reality. We're not doing aid to Taiwan. We're taking away thawed missiles from South Korea. We're Trump's attacking Zelenskyy again today when Zelenskyy actually has the blueprint of how you stop these Shahi drones and ballistic missiles. It is an idiocracy compounded by maliciousness as well. Did I show the clip? I don't know if I showed the clip yet of Mark Wayne Mullen. If not, let me show you the clip of Mark Wayne Mullen. I forget if I played it. Let's play it.

01:05:55

Are there measures being taken not to eliminate other possible alternatives to leadership? This is war, and we're taking out the threat.

01:06:04

If you're part of the threat, then you're a target. What we call not all the arrows, but going after the archers.

01:06:11

You'll concede this as war.

01:06:13

We haven't declared war. They declared war on us, but we haven't- Secretary Hexel.

01:06:17

We haven't declared it.

01:06:18

Just now you said this is war. They called it war. What I was saying... Okay, well, that was a misspoke. But I was saying that they declared war on us. But war is ugly. It always has been ugly. But we're taking out a regime that's been trying to attack us for quite some time. But you're not conceding this as war. We have declared war. If we haven't declared war, then I don't see that. The President hasn't asked us to declare war yet. But they have declared war on us. We're just simply fighting the threat that's been at our door for 47 years.. I've already answered your question. You know what's that ask could be coming? An ask from- It's interesting. While I've been telling you, when you stand up to Trump, how you win versus if you try to negotiate with the guy he takes and he takes, you never can actually do a deal with the guy because his whole life is fraud. He's bad faith. Just the breaking news that just dropped Wall Street Journal with the exclusive, that the Justice Department plans to abandon its defense of Trump's executive orders that targeted several high profile law firms.

01:07:26

Remember the law firms that stood up and didn't bend the knee when Trump issued these executive orders? They all won. The law firms that capitulated and bent the knee and now are working within the Trump regime and their legacies will forever be tarnished. Again, just think about that Think about that dynamic that plays out over and over and over again. I'll just show you this quickly as well, because I just want to show you how utterly deranged this individual is. Donald Trump held a press conference earlier today, and what Trump was bragging about and boasting about at this press conference was that he's never had more compliments on anything than what's happening right now in the Middle East. He goes, I've never had more compliments. Listen to what he says here. Let's play it. I'll tell you what, I have never had more compliments on something I did. People felt it's something that had to be done. So if we have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop I believe, lower than even before. Like a miracle, COVID is all going to go away, right?

01:08:35

Like a miracle. It's all... Remember, I truly... The level of brain rot that exist through social media, the proliferation of information, the trillions of dollars in propaganda that spewed. Do we all not remember that this was the guy who assured this country back in 2020 that COVID was not going to hit our shores and that he guaranteed us just a few cases, and like a miracle, it's all going to go away. You have nothing to worry about. Things are great. And then he graded himself in A. This is what he's just... He just does it again. He does it again, and then he'll find some scapegoat or something to blame it on. And he'll say, It's this fault. It's the... It's Biden's fault, or it's Obama's fault, or it's this person's fault. Although right now, it does feel that we are at a moment where even Trump's base is like, What the hell are you doing? Look, he had an opportunity with this Iran negotiation to actually take a win the same way when he threatened these tariffs against the world. He could have actually taken a win despite how deranged it was by not actually following through with the thing that's going to harm the country.

01:10:05

Not the way I think that leaders should approach things, but if you were able to coerce the rest of the world to negotiate real deals and then say, Hey, I had to do this as a tool, it could have actually been viewed as like, Oh, wow, that was actually smart. Wow. Or you got a deal with Iran where they stopped their enrichment and it's stronger than Obama's deal. You've got the foreign minister of Oman blessing it and say... He could have actually taken a win. There's so many of these things where he could... But he's pathological, and there's no strategy. The goal is actually a lot. The goal is death and destruction. The cruelty is actually the point. There isn't thinking about, Okay, well, how am I going to use this to leverage this to help the American people? He only thinks about it in terms of, How am I going to help myself? And one of the very concerning issues, and I'll leave everybody with this, as you talk about Saudi Arabia, where the United States CIA headquarters is burning, or you talk about Dubai, where you have the LOD Air Force Base burning, or you have a consulate in Qatar, where you have the LOD Air Force Base in Qatar, or you have in Dubai, where you have an American consulate that was hit in Dubai.

01:11:33

Trump has all these business interests there. He's got a lot of personal money and investments there now. And so he's clearly not thinking in the interest of the United States. How much of his decision making is based on his own money and his own investments and his own personal affairs. So that's something to be considered. So I'll leave you all with this. If the Midas Touch Network, we take our responsibility in reporting on this war deeply seriously. We've tried to be as meticulous as we can in our reporting. I'm sure like any reporting, there will be times where we don't get it right, and when we don't, we'll make sure we acknowledge that. But we are doing our best in situations where the information is not always the best that's out there. But we're going to continue to work hard every single day to get you the information. That's why I keep checking back on the breaking news updates. I try to pack as much information in those breaking news updates to keep you fully informed. And it's not fluff I'm not giving you my opinions or having people yell at each other and split screens.

01:12:51

I try to structure those videos as fact, fact, fact, fact, fact I just learned a lot. I understand what's happening. I try to cut through the propaganda. I try to just give it to you real about what's happening. This isn't anything more than here are the facts. That's how I try to conceive of these videos as we make them together. Shout out to our hardworking team at the Midas Touch Network. They're all doing a really good job. There's so many people behind the scenes, whether it's Jeremy or Ben P or Joe or Sydney, or of course, you all know Salty, and so many other editors behind the scenes who you don't get to see as well. We've expanded our team, thanks to you. We're grateful for that. We have a Washington DC bureau now. We had, I think, some of the best on the ground reporting that there was in Minnesota. We're expanding internationally, so you see all of that happening as well. So shout out to our whole team. Shout out to our reporting team. And also, give a shout out to all of the open source aggregators. Whether I agree with them, disagree with them on some of the political stuff really isn't relevant.

01:14:11

Some of them do a great job searching through Telegram and finding all the local videos about what's happening. And there are some that are just really good at gathering all the local videos. And that's one of the sources that I use to do it. And so a site like this, OSINT, Defense are they, regardless of politically where they were before this or not, I don't really care. They're gathering and aggregating good data. There's a bunch of other ones that are like this. And I'm just where they're providing accurate information, it's helpful. It's a helpful resource. So I always want to give credit where credit is due. I think that's my responsibility as a journalist as well. Big up status coup. All right. Got a lot to cover. Thanks, everybody, for watching. Appreciate you. Big audience. Subscribe here on this YouTube channel. Set your notifications on. Go check out Midas Plus. Thanks, everybody. We'll chat soon. Shout out Midas Mighty.

01:15:10

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MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on breaking news from the day.

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