can't stand the fact that we are being ruled by the dumbest people in the country right now. Pete Hegseth is clearly one of the dumbest people in the country. Iran doesn't control the Strait of Hormuz, we control the Strait of Hormuz. Sure, buddy, sure, go ahead and [00:00:16] tell yourself that you freaking piece of crap. I don't know what to do about this, Cenk. This is going on and on and on. All of us are suffering from it. And the people who get to make the decisions about where we go from here. is the idiot you just heard from. You said [00:00:31] just a few moments ago, Mr. Secretary, we control the strait. But it's clear that reopening the Strait of Hormuz for commercial traffic eludes us in no small part because Iran retains a robust stockpile of cheap lethal Shahed drones. And they are getting help from our adversaries [00:00:51] in rebuilding them. What is your plan for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Mr. Secretary? I would just note that the majority of your question was highly disingenuous and loaded with suggestions that I very much don't agree with. He's moron. Cenk, back over to you. What's your two cents? [00:01:12] Yeah, I mean, he's deeply embarrassing. And even the Republicans clowned him. And Lindsey Graham's frustrated. Hey, how come my dumbass war isn't working well enough? It must be your fault. No, it's Israel's fault and your fault, Lindsey Graham. But go ahead. Let's get this [00:01:29] drunk Fox News host, weekend host, to tell us how the war is going when he's the least equipped person in the country to be our Secretary of Defense. Well, the only thing accurate about it, is renaming it to the Department of War. Yeah, Trump's giant liar, anti-war mind ass. [00:01:48] All he wanted was war for Israel. That's why he renamed the Department of Defense the Department of War. Go ahead. So today, as you just heard, uh war, Pete Hegseth was unable to explain how the United States would force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which is unsurprising, [00:02:08] right? I mean, of course, he immediately goes to criticizing tone or the so-called disingenuous framing of the question, totally ridiculous. Now, uh there's more where that came from, by the way. So let's watch Hegseth attempt to explain why the US could possibly have any [00:02:25] leverage over Iran right now. Take a look. The idea that they control anything, you can terrorize something. You can hold it at issue with piracy as I've talked about at the Pentagon podium time and time again. That doesn't mean you control it. We control what goes in and out [00:02:40] and we control whether or not we have to restart conflict. The president does as well. I concern Mr. Secretary is that you've achieved a series of tactical successes, but are on the verge of a strategic loss. because we are now negotiating. Just to get so foolish, here we are in a committee in the United States Senate, 74 days in and you're talking about strategic loss. We have [00:03:00] the ability to defeat a 47 year threat of a pursuit of a nuclear weapon. We have more leverage than we've ever had. We've had incredible battlefield successes and you're talking about a strategic loss. Mr. Secretary. is how you undercut efforts that could otherwise enter otherwise. am not [00:03:18] your enemy, sir. I am not your adversary. I share your goal of preventing Iran from ever having a usable nuclear weapon. want Iran to have nukes. I want Pakistan to give Iran nukes right now. That's what I want. I want this to end. No one is worried about Iran's nukes, [00:03:35] no one. Coons isn't worried about it. Hegseth isn't worried about it. Israel isn't worried about it. No one in the United States is worried about nukes. It is a freaking cover story to scare Americans into agreeing to enter a war that has been devastating for our country [00:03:51] and the global economy. God, I can't stand the fact that we are being ruled the dumbest people in the country right now. Pete Hegseth is clearly one of the dumbest people in the country. Iran doesn't control the Strait of Hormuz, we control the Strait of Hormuz. Sure, [00:04:08] buddy, sure, go ahead and tell yourself that you freaking piece of crap. I don't know what to do about this, Cenk. This is going on and on and on. All of us are suffering from it. And the people who get to make the decisions about where we go from here is the idiot you [00:04:23] just heard from. Yeah. There's actually two idiots you just heard from. Chris Coons, the reason why he said to Hegseth, he panicked there. He's like, okay, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I know you're doing the war for Israel. And so I'm so sorry, I'm not your enemy, I'm not [00:04:38] your enemy. Yeah, yeah, I know. Chris Coons is one of the seven snakes in the Senate who joined the Republicans to make sure that Israel got more 1,000 pound bombs so they could murder more children and grandmothers and civilians. armed bulldozers to destroy innocent civilians [00:04:59] homes and to murder them if they're anywhere nearby. That's why I told you it's not just Trump, it's the establishment, the Uniparty. They love and support their donors and right now the number one donor class in the country is Israel. So Chris Coons also wants the war. [00:05:18] Now back to Hegson, we're controlling the strait, that's what this moron is saying. This pathetic excuse for a human being is saying, we don't control the straight. Why do you think oil is at $100 an hour, $100 a barrel? And it's gonna go much, much higher if we keep going [00:05:38] in. Why aren't we already done? He's like, we're only 74 days in. You told us it was gonna take two to four weeks. I remember when you said that. Now he's like, it's only been 74 days. Now, as you'll see later in the program, both the Israelis and the Americans are saying, it could take three months, it could take three years. You'll have to shut up and take it because [00:05:55] Bow to Israel is what Hegseth is saying and Kuz is like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I will bow, I will bow, I'm not your enemy. I love Israel too. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is pathetic. The strain of hormones is not ours. We do not control it. Pete Hegseth [00:06:11] is 100 % lying. Prison, I wanna see this. He should be in prison, okay? All of these people, okay, who have- engaged in this illegal war to the detriment of the American people should be in prison. They should be prosecuted for their war crimes. They should spend time in [00:06:29] prison anyway. So there's even more. So later in this hearing, Senator Chris Murphy challenged the Trump administration's insistence that Iran will eventually capitulate to our economic [00:06:44] pressure. Take a look. You just confirmed for the committee that there is not a military mechanism or means to reopen the strait. There most certainly are military means by which we could open the strait, uh targets on land and also with what we do with our naval capabilities, [00:07:05] not to mention our naval blockade. Why haven't you done, if that's true and that's not what has been testified to us in private briefings, why haven't you done that already? Ultimately, preferred long term approach would be a deal where they open it up. Your own intelligence [00:07:20] estimates, as has been reported, suggest that in fact, the Iranians are in a position to hold out for potentially years. This is a high risk strategy to hope that this economic pressure will eventually cause them to voluntarily reopen the street when there's plenty of evidence. [00:07:38] from military history to show that countries that are being attacked or invaded or occupied are actually willing to butt up with a whole lot of economic misery in order to preserve national pride. Well aware, we understand all of those historical case studies and it's not [00:07:54] just economic pressure. There's military pressure, diplomatic pressure. We certainly have a lot more military pressure we can bring to bear if the president were to choose to do so. You are a drunk moron, okay? Fox News anchor. That's what you are, Hegsith. Okay, there isn't a [00:08:14] military option. And by the way, I'm not a military expert, okay? I'm not just pulling this out of my ass. I actually care about what the options are. So I research like crazy and based on what colonels are saying, okay? Daniel Davis, we're gonna have him on the show tomorrow and [00:08:32] I'm gonna ask him about this, about the military option that allegedly exists. It doesn't exist. our soldiers would be slaughtered. There isn't a military option. And by the way, Colonel Douglas MacGregor says that. Colonel Daniel Davis says that. If there were a military option, [00:08:49] you don't think we would have deployed it by now? And the whole notion of economic pressure working to get Iran to capitulate to our demands? We've been applying economic pressure against Iran for decades, and it hasn't worked. This is a dumb war and we need to find a way to [00:09:09] get out of it now before more damage is done to, by the way, the global economy, yes, but also to us Americans. Why are we suffering to fight a war on behalf of a foreign country? Insane, Cenk, absolutely insane. Yeah, one last thing that's really important. em We actually [00:09:28] already tried to open up the StradioHorror moves militarily. em We tried to ram through the blockade that happened just about a week ago. That was remember Project Freedom and lasted for about 36 hours maximum. um And what happened was we got hit, our warships got hit by Iran, [00:09:46] and then we had to tuck tail and turn around. And so it's not like we didn't try to open up straight a hoard moves, we couldn't do it. And then we ended it immediately because it was a spectacular failure. So I'm just look, I get it that our politicians lie like approximately [00:10:03] 98 % of the time. I loathe the way mainstream media plays along with that theater, as if the politicians aren't lying when they're universal liars. And Bush and Cheney lied us into that Iraq war in just what I thought was a historic way. But now we're at a different level. We've [00:10:22] totally Israelified our government. And that means there isn't a single thing they're saying that's true. Every sentence is a lie. And outrageous Baghdad, type of lies, right? I can't stand [00:10:38] the disrespect. Sorry, Ana, one last thing. When Baghdad, Bob said that Saddam Hussein and Iraq were winning the war right in the beginning when we first attacked, and you see the American tanks rolling behind him. That's how ridiculous we look now saying the Strait of Hormuz is [00:10:53] open and we're winning this war. It's just infuriating, Cenk. So many people were already suffering prior to this war. economically speaking. These people disrespect us on a daily basis and [00:11:09] I can't stomach it anymore. So meanwhile, the cost of the Iran war, unsurprisingly, keeps climbing. Now Israel's not paying for it. This is a war for them. They're benefiting from it, but they're not paying for it. We're paying for it. We've sacrificed our troops for it. [00:11:26] We've sacrificed military weaponry for it. So we're bearing the burden of these costs and I want you to know that I want you to absorb it and really feel it. And next time Netanyahu claims that people hate on Israel because they hate the Jews or they're anti-Semitic, just [00:11:44] remember what the real reason is. The fact that we are suffering on behalf of their needs, which is an expansionist project to steal land from their neighbors and not have to deal with the challenge from Iran or its proxy so. Let's get into the cost because here's Jules Hurst. [00:12:03] She's the National Financial Officer for the Pentagon. She's gonna weigh in on how much this is costing us. Mr. Hurst on April 29th, as you indicated to the ranking member, you said that the Iran war had cost $25 billion in total. You reaffirmed that today. you have [00:12:22] any other updated costs or projections since that? testimony that you've given. Outside reporting estimates have indicated that the war costs could be a billion dollars a day. Do you have anything to share? Yeah, thanks for the question, sir. So at the time of testimony [00:12:40] in front of the ask, it was $25 billion. But the joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate. So now we think it's closer to 29. Yeah, okay, Jules, don't insult our intelligence, okay? We thought it was gonna be 25 billion, but [00:12:57] it turns out, oopsie, it's gonna be 29 billion. No, it's gonna be a lot more than that. So it turns out that Dr. Justin Wolfers, a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, argues the following. My math suggests that the Iran war will cost hundreds [00:13:17] of billions of dollars and very possibly trillions. Well, past experiences in fighting wars on behalf of Israel certainly uh shows that to be true. We've spent $8 trillion as a country fighting Israel's wars in the Middle East. Congratulations, America, what a special ally. So let me break [00:13:39] down that math a little bit, Cenk, so people understand how he came to that conclusion. Because for one, this war could create a prolonged spike in oil prices. So futures prices for oil at the end of 2026, 2027 and 2028 are all still sitting well above where they were before [00:13:57] the start of the war. Indeed, the November 2026 futures price of West Texas intermediate hit a new high this week at $86.12 a barrel. Then you have the war creating economic uncertainty. [00:14:12] So businesses are less likely to make long term investments. and hire more workers in periods of uncertainty. So Americans are suffering as a result of that as well. According to two economists over at the Federal Reserve, their estimates suggest a cost of about 200 billion [00:14:28] with a million fewer Americans working in a year. Couple that with the AI revolution and Americans are in for a world of hurt. Three, the Federal Reserve seem likely to cut interest rates, not no more, not no more. So now they're probably thinking about raising interest rates. [00:14:46] reasonable guesstimate informed by the Fed's own models is that raising rates will cost the economy about $200 billion. Finally, uh while the stock market is still very high, Wolfers believes that it would be even higher were it not for the Iran war. He says my estimate [00:15:04] is that stocks are about 5 % lower than they otherwise would be, suggesting that the war has wiped out about $3 trillion off the value. these companies. I've got a little more information for you Cenk, but why don't you jump in? So Young Turks is the oldest show in internet [00:15:23] history. So we were on the air during the Iraq war. And I remember covering the neo cons estimates for how much the Iraq war would cost. And they said 1.2 billion. It costs well over 2 trillion. Well over 2 trillion. So they're 100 % lying to you. The reason they lied to [00:15:45] you in the beginning is because they want to sucker you into a much larger war. If all of Israel's allies in America, which is almost everyone in power, came and told you, we're going to cost you $2 trillion and gas is going to skyrocket and inflation is going to skyrocket. uh And we want you to be our suckers and pay for all this. Well, you wouldn't say yes, you'd [00:16:05] say no. So that's why they have to lie to you and pretend that it's only going to be 25 billion. Well, by the way, what do mean only 25 or only 29 billion? So I have a great idea, if it's only 29 billion, then why doesn't Israel pay it? Wait, why do we have to pay for Israel's [00:16:21] war? Why is there no conversation around, Israel, you wanted this war. 80 % of Americans didn't want this war. You keep begging us for our military. You keep telling us that our you have to die for you. You're not going to put in any ground troops, you're going to make [00:16:39] Americans die for you. Then why don't you at a bare bare minimum, why don't you pay for the war? And in Washington, that's considered outrageous and totally anti-Semitic. If you don't give us all your money, give me your wallet, give me everything you have. If you [00:16:57] don't agree to this robbery, then you're an anti-Semite and you're a terrible person and they're going to try to get you fired, right? That's how the Gestapo in this country works on behalf of Israel. So no, it's not going to be 29 billion, it's going to be 10 or 100 [00:17:14] X that. And they're going to make all of you pay for it. Every single nickel Israel is going to put in any money. And then at the end, know what they're going to do? Five, ten years, maybe two years from now, they're to go, Turkey's got weapons of mass destruction. Jake Tapper, [00:17:32] tell him again. Hey, all of Wolf Blitzer, all of cable news, just like we lied to them in Iraq, the most obvious, stupid, pathetic lie that you shoved down their throats on behalf of Israel. Great job, all of CNN and all of Fox News and all of you on cable. And then [00:17:48] you did it again in Iran and then you'll do it again in Turkey. And then we'll invade Singapore because Israel's got no one left to invade. And after we've lost every single dollar in America, they'll come by and spit on us and go, you ATCemites, we have no more use for you. Now we're going to India and robbing them blind so they could pay for 28 more wars for [00:18:06] Israel. They're never going to be satisfied. The Israelis are never ever ever ever going to be satisfied until they get annihilated in a war. I don't mean destroyed completely. I mean hurt bad in a war. Otherwise these fascists are never going to stop. Germany didn't stop until they were clobbered in World War II. No one ever stops when they're fascists like [00:18:26] the Israelis. So us giving them money to enable their fascism, People are going to look back in history and go, my God, the people who ran the country, but even worse, the people who were in mainstream media were the biggest, immoral monsters. They're the go-bulls for Israel's [00:18:44] fascism today. uh