"Lying Us Into Wars Is TERRORISM!" MAGA Feuds Over Trump-Iran | Feat. Bill O'Reilly

This just looks like a catastrophe. And the best we can hope for at this point is that it only ends up killing like 10,000 people and it only ends up costing tens of billions of dollars.

You're saying the United States is a terrorist organization.

You've already lost the debate.

When our politicians lie us into wars that slaughter millions of innocent people, I consider that terrorism. I'll run circles around you on this, dude. Check the scoreboard. Most unpopular war in American history going in. Check the scoreboard.

13 dead Americans, millions of innocent people being displaced.

You have the luxury of sitting in your little studio with your hooded sweater like you're 17 years old.

I have a wife and children. Who depends on you, Adam?

Your mom? Okay, I also have a wife and children. Who depends on you, Adam? Your mom? Who is... Okay, I also have a significant other.

Adam, I'm not quite sure what is the point you're making.

You expect me to follow that Morgan? Come on. My uncle Emil fought in World War I. My parents both fought in World War II. My brother and I are both Vietnam veterans. A Trump in the last hundred years has never done military service. Well, Barron, you can change that.

Do something your father didn't have the courage to do.

Well, we're turning now to the so-called Mago War, the debate over the extent to which a very real war on Iran has divided Trump's base and put a millstone on his successor's neck. The top podcasts in the US currently include Tucker Carlson, Theo Vonn, Sean Ryan, Candice Owens, and of course, Joe Rogan. They're all influential people with big platforms who supported Trump's re-election,

but have all spoken out against the Iran war. Vehemently pro-war broadcasters like Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro are nowhere to be seen at the top of these charts, even as they take pot shots at the dissenting podcasters and at YouTube shows like Megyn Kelly's and mine. All of this has fueled some hasty revisionism on a new media ecosystem hailed as mighty and powerful by Trump after winning what many mainstream commentators called the podcast election.

Alas, none of that is true. The narrative that MAGA is split over Iran, beloved by the liberal media and the anti-Israel far left and right, is complete fiction. Far from a betrayal, poll after poll after poll has found massive, overwhelming support for the president's strikes on Iran among Republican voters.

There are numbers that just jump off the screen at you, and this is one of those. Because just take a look here. MAGA, GOP, view of Trump. Approve 100%, 100%. If you are a member of MAGA and the GOP,

you approve of Donald, John, Trump. Zero percent say that they disapprove. You don't have to be a mathematical genius

to know you can't go higher than 100%. Right now there's a big fight going on between Megyn Kelly and Ben Shapiro about Candace Owens and as it plays out it's very important to remember that the most common reaction to it from Americans is I don't know who any of these people are and I don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

Well clearly millions of people do know what the fuck you're talking about. Well clearly millions of people do know who the fuck you're talking about. Clearly CNN knows all about it as they now invite podcasters and influencers on all the time. They now seem to want to look like podcasters and influencers themselves. The problem is the assumption that media audiences are stupid and just do as they're told, which is no truer now than when legacy media was at its peak. What they can do is change the narrative and call it hypocrisy where they see it. They do this effectively and repeatedly. Trump's MAGA core has always been right behind him.

That's not in dispute. They're famously the people who still back him if he shot someone in Fifth Avenue, as he said. But they're nowhere near enough for him or any Republican to win the next presidency. Trump won by building a remarkable anti-establishment coalition of pissed-off liberals and young men wearied of woke, of libertarians sick of wars in the Middle East, of black men and Hispanics who felt they'd been taken for granted, of swing voters who were sick of the status quo and liked the sound of America first. These are the people that MAGA is deserting.

And if the apparently irrelevant podcasters still have numbers that President Bussello and armed for, well, they are the reason why. In a moment, we'll be addressing the apparent MAGA riff with Dave Smith and Adam Sosnick. But first I want to begin by discussing

President Trump's influences and options with the former US Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta. Mr. Panetta, welcome back to Uncensored.

Good to be with you, Pierce.

What the hell is going on? Make some sense of it, please.

Well, it's obvious that the president was in a very difficult situation. The regime change, which was, I think, the initial objective, was not working and intelligence indicated that the regime is even more entrenched. I think the president wanted to declare victory and bring the war to an end.

We certainly have achieved a lot of our military objectives there, but the problem was that with the Straits of Hormuz closed, frankly, Iran had a great deal of leverage, and there wasn't much chance of getting a ceasefire without the straits being opened. So the president faced a choice. Do you open the Straits of Hormuz militarily?

Do you try to negotiate? Do you try to get our allies to be able to open it? He was struggling to try to find an answer. And evidently, there began to be some negotiations here. And now he's held up on strikes. And the hope is that they can find a way

to open up the Straits of Hormuz. The Iranians are probably the best people that could do that because they know where the mines are and they know how to clear the straits in a much more rapid way than anybody else.

When you were running the CIA, you must have, I guess, looked at the potential to affect regime change in Iran or do something about Iran, given the way its tentacles were spreading through the Middle East and in nefarious ways.

But nothing got done. We've now heard that the Israelis had gone to President Obama and to President Biden and said, we're going to attack Iran. Are you with us? The answer came back no. And both times, they then didn't do it. Do you think that Trump in the end succumbed

to pressure from Israel to get involved here?

Well, you know, I think President Trump was concerned about Iran, concerned about the threat from Iran. And I do believe that when Israel came to the president with the idea that they had intelligence on where the supreme leader was located, and that they could ultimately destroy their key leadership, and that would ultimately allow the protesters to take to the streets

and would bring down the regime. I think that was, frankly, something that Israel, and then I think President Trump, probably thought could happen. I think it was a little naive because the intelligence indicated that the regime was much more entrenched than that.

But nevertheless, they thought that could produce a very quick result and that the war could end quickly. I think that was a miscalculation on the part of both Israel and the United States.

But any calculation about attacking Iran in a way that the United States and Israel ended up doing, it must have automatically factored in something going on with the Straits of Hormuz because that would be the most obvious, it seems to me, way that Iran might retaliate would be economically because they can't compete that effectively militarily.

And I would have thought it would be reasonably obvious that they may also attack some of their Gulf state neighbors in the way that they have done, some of their Gulf state neighbors in the way that they have done, oil refineries and so on. If their own refineries came under attack, none of this seems to me to be exactly rocket science. And yet the administrations of both countries

appear to have been taken a bit by surprise, or have they?

No, I think one of the concerns is that there wasn't a lot of time kind of considering the consequences of what could happen when you attack Iran. I mean, we had looked at the potential of some kind of conflict with Iran, and it was very clear to all of us that one of the

first things that Iran would do is close the Straits of Hormuz. It's an obvious result. It's easy to close, and it can impact on oil prices and creates a tremendous amount of pressure on whoever's attacking Iran. So what concerns me is I think they really didn't focus on that as a very real consequence. They seemed ill-prepared to deal with it rather than having a plan of how you would maintain the straits to be open. And as a result of that, I think Iran developed even more leverage in terms of trying to make the United States understand that the regime was very much in charge of the Straits of

Hormuz and that as long as that was happening, prices of oil would increase dramatically. It would impact on prices not only here in this country, but throughout the world. And that at some point, it could have a major impact on the economies of the world. And I think the president understood, ultimately, that the only alternative he had was to find a way to

get the straits open. Now they're hopefully in discussions and if they can if they can open the straits I think there is a chance that perhaps this war

could be brought to an end. I mean Iran still possesses the same enriched uranium it had before this war started. It's clear that Netanyahu has said so publicly that air power alone cannot win this war in the way that they originally intended, which would include getting their hands on the enriched uranium. Is there any other way to get that enriched uranium, assuming the Iranians don't just hand it over as part of a deal, which I think is

extremely unlikely. Is there any way to get it other than to use ground troops? And how bigger risk would that be for Donald Trump to commit US ground forces?

Well, there's no question that that would be a very tough military operation. This stuff is buried deep in the ground. Nobody has any easy access to it. They would have to be able to repel down and probably face a tremendous amount of opposition there, since it's such a clear objective for the United States. So in the end, the best way to deal with that issue is to get energy authorities to again go back into Iran to be able to inspect and be able to make sure that that enriched fuel does not wind up in a nuclear weapon.

That's probably the best way to ultimately deal

with the nuclear threat.

I just want to end, Leon Panetta, by talking about Robert Mueller for a moment, because you ran the CIA when he ran the FBI. You became, I think, pretty close as a double act, working often for the same purpose. When he died, President Trump posted

on his Truth Social platform, Robert Mueller just died good. I'm glad he's dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people. Now, this is somebody who, aside from his work at the FBI, was a Vietnam veteran. He saved the life of a wounded colleague under enemy fire. The

following year he was shot through the thigh. He received a bronze star, a purple heart and two Navy commendation medals. For the President of the United States to describe somebody with that record serving his country as good, I'm glad he's dead. What did you think about that?

I thought it was disgraceful what the President said. I know Bob Mueller, I knew him very well. We worked together when I was CIA director and he was FBI director, and we worked closely together. Bob Mueller was a patriot, and by every definition of the word. He was committed not only to serving this country

as a Marine and serving bravely, but serving this country as FBI director. He was well-respected by everyone who dealt with him. He was somebody totally committed to our system of justice. He was respected by people in the FBI and in the judicial system. Bob Mueller is going to go down in history as a real stalwart in protection of the laws of our country.

That's not going to happen with this president, a real stalwart in protection of the laws of our country. That's not gonna happen with this president who basically avoids the rule of law every time he gets a chance.

You know, I've always had a problem with the way Donald Trump talks about people when they die. You know, I just think the basic good manners just dictates, especially from the office of the president. I remember when Colin Powell died,

when John McCain died, recently with Rob Reiner died, that sometimes he just blurts out what he may be thinking when the best thing may be to just say nothing at all. Do you feel that?

Look, I've worked with a lot of presidents Do you feel that? I work with a lot of presidents in the time that I've been around Washington. And every president I knew, whether I agreed or disagreed with their politics, had a basic human decency and a respect for other individuals, and just had good manners, good manners, to respect other people, whether they agreed or disagreed

with them.

This is the first president who has none of those values, basically says whatever he thinks. And basically, as a result of that, I think people understand that this is not somebody who really respects the decency of other human beings. And that's just the way he is. It's unfortunate because frankly, presidents, every president I knew,

knew that basic decency was a critical element of that individual's character. And that's missing from this president.

Yeah, and you know, the problem is, I see a lot of people who were sort of defending it on social media from the MAGA crowd. And my response to them would be, I remember how furious you all rightly were when people gloated when Charlie Kirk was murdered, for example. And I agreed. It was disgusting.

Some of the things I was seeing from the more woke liberal left in response to Charlie Kirk's murder. But you can't be enraged by that and then laugh when the President of the United States says this about Robert Mueller. I'm afraid that is just rank hypocrisy. And either way, the bottom line is, like you say, when people die, just basic

dignity and grace should kick in, I believe. Leon Panetta, thank you very much indeed for joining me. I appreciate it. Good to be with you, Piers. Joining me to debate this and more, Dave Smith, host of Part of the Problem, a libertarian who backed Trump in 2024, and Adam Suznick, who's the Valuetainment host and PBD podcast regular, a former liberal who backed Trump in 2024. Well, welcome to both of you.

Dave Smith, we'll come to the tsunami that greeted your last appearance on Uncensored, led by Ben Shapiro a little later. But first of all, this sort of quaint notion now being peddled by people in the mainstream media that the podcast world is irrelevant,

no one's ever heard of any of the podcasters or we YouTubers or anything, and we should all just be ignored. I don't think that's true.

Oh, I mean, it's just, it's patently absurd on its face. I mean, again, I'm not trying to like overstate the influence that any one podcast or show has. But I mean, lots of people listen to shows, they don't necessarily agree completely with the host of that show. But again, you know, to say, look, I mean, Pierce, if you look at the polls, what the

polls tell us is that this is the most unpopular war in American history going into the war. And CNN is gonna read you these North Korea numbers. Actually in fact, I think it was better than Kim Jong-un did in his last election, 100% of MAGA. But what does that really mean? I mean, the truth is, Pierce, you kind of nailed it here in your opening, right? Even when Joe Biden was clearly senile and was forced to pull out of his re-election

campaign, the majority of Biden supporters still supported him. And there was still gonna be like 40 something percent of the electorate would have voted for Joe Biden. Now, that wasn't enough though, and that's why they forced him out, because you need a coalition to carry you here. So this comes down to like how you're defining MAGA. If you wanted to say Joe Rogan and Theo Vaughn

and Andrew Schultz and all these guys, they're not MAGA. Well, okay, but they were relevant enough for Donald Trump to go on all of their shows in the campaign. And the point is that the coalition that got Donald Trump elected in 24, that got him for the first time ever to win the popular vote, that coalition has been destroyed.

And the final thing I'll say is this, Pierce, I made this prediction on my show the other day. But right now you kind of have these two broadly speaking camps, say, Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, maybe people like me, who are saying the coalition has been destroyed. And then on the other side, you have people like you played Bacha, Ben Shapiro, who are saying no, no, no, the coalition is fine.

What we've learned is that Tucker Carlson doesn't matter. Give it a couple months, Pierce, and I promise you, everyone on that side will say the coalition has been destroyed and it's Tucker's fault. This is going to tank Donald Trump's presidency. We're already past the point of that. The Democrats are gonna win the House and the Senate. It's gonna be impeachments and subpoenas

and investigations for the next two years. And I don't think anyone from this administration can win the presidential in 28 at this pace.

Right, well, Adam, you're part of a very successful podcast. Patrick McDavid's been a regular on the show as have other members of your great team. And I would say this from a personal, you can only judge it personally, I guess,

but I've been on some of the biggest TV shows, mainstream TV shows you can think of, right? America's Got Talent for six years, Britain's Got Talent. I replaced Larry King at CNN. They aired my show three times a day in America and around the world and so on and so on.

And what's been fascinating to me in the last couple of years is I get more people come up to me in the street, wherever I am, whether it's New York, LA, London, Sydney, the Middle East, whatever, more people come up and they're a bit younger

than came up when I did any of those shows. And they're all coming up about my YouTube show and they're all watching it avidly and they're watching other shows like yours, like Dave's, Tucker,

because they talked to me about all this. I had two guys last week from Denmark, 19 I think they were, stopped me in the street in West London. Passionate viewers of Uncensored. It was really fascinating to talk to them. So I just think this idea that people who operate

away from mainstream media now, like you, like me, like Dave, like others, that we're kind of irrelevant and no one knows who we are is completely contradicted by reality. I just see it in the streets. So I don't know whether it's self-preservation going on

that the mainstream media doesn't want to accept. There's been a shift in power, but what do you think?

So we're talking about the mainstream media. So how much trust do you have in the mainstream media? But let me answer that. So number one, Pierre, it's great to be with you. Dave, good to see you. It's been a little while.

Thank you for dressing up, Dave. The question that you're asking is, are young people watching social media and they're watching YouTube? Obviously, duh. My mom still watches the news at 8 p.m.

and if she misses it, that's it. She doesn't see it. She hasn't figured out how to get on social media. She still tries to ask me how to find her, how to find me on YouTube and on Instagram. But yes, the 35 and under crowd is on social media. And I'll tell you an anecdote.

I'm registered independent. I never would have voted for Trump. And then I had common sense and realized, you vote for Trump, who might be a brutish and an a-hole, or you vote for a weak, feckless, I wouldn't even call it leader, like Kamala, and obviously the choice is pretty easy.

But I would debate with my liberal friends, one that was very, very, very tight with the Clinton people, part of the Hillary campaign. And he noticed, as I was starting to become more, let's just say less Trump hating. This is in 2023, 2024, run up to the election. And then he goes, dude, I don't even know what happened to you.

You're like full on MAGA now. I go, no, I just have common sense. I see what's going on in the radical left. And it just, it's so un-American to me. And he goes, yeah, you're just in your little YouTube world. I'm in the real world with the real politicians and the real polls.

I got the real stuff going on. I go, hey, buddy, his name is John. I go, John, this is the real world now, guy. Yeah, we'll see. So obviously, we see what happens in the election. This is not the type of person that likes to apologize,

right? Comes up to me and goes, Adam, I was dead wrong. You're right. This is the new YouTube world. Congratulations on all your success, Pierce, and welcome to the YouTube world. It is what it is.

Okay, well, we're sort of in broad agreement there. Let's get to broad disagreement, I suspect, which is the way this war is playing out. I mean, Dave, I've really struggled to work out the upside for Donald Trump from the start of this, doing this so close to the midterms, doing exactly what he said he wouldn't do, which is he was going to stop attacking Middle Eastern countries.

It was all going to be America first, a premium on sorting out American problems in America. And then suddenly he launches a war on one of the biggest countries in the Middle East, certainly one of the best armed. And all hell has broken loose, not least to the global economy,

which is inevitably going to have, and already is having, a very detrimental effect on living standards for average Americans. If I'm an American that voted for Trump, I'm like, I don't get this. You know, I might in a poll say I get it,

but I don't think I really get it.

Yeah, and then you also have to consider their peers, right? Like there's a sizable percentage of people who support Donald Trump, who approve of the job broadly that he's been doing, who maybe, look, we're three weeks or whatever into this, go, all right, I'll kind of give him a chance, we'll see. But if this doesn't turn into any type of win, and if it turns into a clear disaster,

which it already seems to be, that's only gonna hurt him more and more and more. You know, I think, look, Piers, despite the fact that it is not in my incentives in some way as like a political commentator, like I hope this whole thing just works out great. And then I know that all the people who don't like me will say, ha ha, you were warning that this would be a disaster. I hope that I would much rather take that deal and live in that.

But Pierce, the other element there is that, right, we had the 12-day war in the summer. And I've certainly heard, I heard at the time, some on debates that we did on your show and others, and I've heard nothing but since then on social media that, ha, oh, you guys were so stupid. You were warning about exactly what we're seeing right now, which is what all of us were warning about who are critics of the 12-day war. But Iran didn't do that. And they were like, look, we got away with it. One and done. No Americans dead.

And that's it. We don't have to do anything else. They spent the following six months bragging about how the nuclear threat had been totally obliterated. Now we find ourselves, Pierce, back in this same situation. And as I mentioned last time on your show, the big picture here is that clearly the calculation changed for Iran.

They no longer feel that it's in their incentive for self-preservation to not strike back and kill Americans or not do maximal damage. And now, clearly, with a younger, more radical Ayatollah, who has not promised to not build nuclear weapons, they've made the calculation that actually they can't not give us a bloody nose, that they have to really make this cost us. Otherwise, we'll be back in another few months doing it again.

And of course, at the beginning of this war, Donald Trump said this was a full regime change war and called for the people to rise up and overthrow their government. And the people did rise up, Piers, in support of their martyr Ayatollah and in support of this regime. I know you saw some of those aerial shots. There must have been hundreds of thousands of people out in the streets in Tehran, in

the most liberal part of the country, supporting the regime. So I'm sorry, at this point, this just looks like a catastrophe. And the best we can hope for at this point is that it only ends up killing like 10,000 people. And it only ends up costing tens of billions of dollars rather than the 200 that Secretary Hegseth has asked for. And this all relies on two major factors. Think about this, Pierce.

It's not just that Donald Trump has to call it quit and declare victory or whatever. But then we got two other entities that are majorly involved in this war. Iran and Israel. Now we know at this point Iran is saying they're vowing not to stop. They talk a lot of bluster, who knows, maybe they will. But Israel, Pierce, we all know they want the regime change here. In the 12-day war and in this war already, they've hit targets after Trump has clearly asked them not to. Who's to say they don't continue doing that? And it begs a real question of how we get out of this quagmire. Three weeks in, we're already there.

Right.

So Adam, you've had a little spat with Dave on social media. When he called it an illegal war of aggression on X, you said, come on, guy, read the room. Dave responded, let's not pretend you read, Adam. To which you replied, I'm able to read scoreboards. You are losing big

time. Do you still feel that? Do you still feel that? Because I would argue that the scoreboards militarily absolutely would show that the United States and Israeli combined forces have inflicted enormous damage on Iran's military capability.

I think that's inarguable. However, what I don't think has been properly factored in by the Americans and Israelis is the ability of Iran to wage an economic war in parallel to a military war. And that by controlling the Straits of Hormuz and by attacking as they have done

their neighboring Gulf states, both oil refineries and tourist hotspots and so on, they've managed to freak everybody out. And they freak the global markets. And this is incredibly damaging to Donald Trump, because every day that Straits of Hormuz is shut, then you will see the impact for the next few weeks and months

coming through the US economy and the global economy, but the US economy. When fertilizer, when the impact of that being stopped comes through in a couple of months time, it takes a while to cut through to the actual people of America, but it will.

And when it does, it's gonna be very damaging. Do you not think that the longer this goes on, the more of a miscalculation has been made here?

Look, I'm not the Trump is the all-B MAGA guy. I'm the guy that was like, yeah, I'm not so sure about this Trump guy. You know what? Oh, I got the fake news. Oh, Russia, Russia, Russia. Oh, it turns out, yeah, you know, he's way better than the other side.

So I had to use logic and a measured approach to get me to the point where I'm like, he's the guy. So I'll ask you another question. Let's say Trump wasn't here. What's Kamala doing?

I know, I know, don't get me wrong. So everything in politics is binary. I think Kamala Harris would have been a terrible president. I thought Joe Biden was a terrible president. And I do, I've always said with Trump, I think I find myself agreeing with some of the things he does and disagreeing with others, which I think is the right way to deal with Trump. I think if you just judge him on what comes out of his mouth. Well, that's just like with anything, Piers. agree with everybody and disagree with that. Right, right. And look, when I came on the PBD podcast, I loved it because we disagree about stuff.

And you guys come on, we disagree, we agree. We never fall out over it, nor should anybody, right? But on this specific call about Iran, I did say on day one, I think this is a massive gamble. And I don't understand the timing. And I think the capacity for this to go badly wrong

is very high. The longer it has gone on, because Trump originally was like, this is over in days, then it's over in a couple of weeks, then everything started changing. Then the regime change he said was gonna happen

with people rising up, none of that has happened. There are lots of reasons for it. I think the reason we saw so many pro-regime people hit the streets was they were not gonna get killed doing it. We saw in January when people protested against the regime, a lot got killed.

And obviously there are bombs flying around all over the cities of Iran, which will also put people off, I guess. So there are also reasons, I guess, why people are protesting or not protesting in certain ways. But to me, the justification for this war has changed so many times, it's made me think

I don't think Donald Trump has any clear idea of what victory looks like. Do you? I mean, if the regime remains intact and they keep their enriched uranium, for example, and they maintain control of the Straits of Hormuz. Is that victory?

Well, look, this was not an easy decision. You think, you know, these guys have been in power 47 years. Everybody in our microwave hustle society wants is done in the next four to seven weeks. It's going to take some time. And we've already I was talking to a good Navy SEAL buddy, my Navy SEAL. He said, dude, we've already, I was talking to a good Navy SEAL, buddy of mine, Navy SEAL, he said, dude, we've taken out 80% of their military capacity. Not bad in less than a month.

So let the guy cook a little bit. So you also talk about Dave, that oh yeah, they had people out there pro-regime. Yeah, nobody's denying that 10 to maybe 20% max of the country is pro-regime. But what about the 80% of the country? That's like if Dave had a comedy show there was a hundred people that

magically showed up to Dave's comedy show. Oh my god he has so many fans. Dude there's a hundred thousand people outside that didn't go to the show. I'm not being like brutish or sarcastic but just you're taking a small sample size and extrapolating that for the entire country. We all know who this regime is.

Well actually just to be clear, well hang on Adam, just to be technically correct on that argument you're making, if a hundred people turned up to watch Dave's show, then technically over eight billion chose not to.

Correct and that's pretty uniform at this point.

This is really making me feel bad about my numbers on the road.

It doesn't necessarily mean that 8 billion people. It doesn't mean there are 8 billion people who don't like Dave Smith.

I used to own a couple. No, it's fine. I mean, I actually do like Dave Smith. Let me tell you a Dave Smith story. I actually have respect for Dave Smith. But I realized who Dave Smith is. And I would say this to his face or on camera. Dave Smith is a radical libertarian. Don't take my word for it.

You've said this multiple times. Have you not, Dave Smith?

Said what? That I'm a radical libertarian?

Yes, absolutely.

Yes, okay, perfect. So when you're something, when you a radical, what's another word I believe in it

Well, what I believe in is true Americanism.

Extremist Okay, this is why you're all relative terms. This is why you call Sure. This is why you call the US military the greatest terrorist organization on earth, right? Because you're a true American because you're a true patriot. Is that why Dave? Because something tells me you have what is known

as clickbait of the mouth. And you're using these instances, these wars to garner attention for you. You're calling, you have the American flag behind you, yet you have the hypocrisy of saying the United States military,

United States is the greatest terror organization

the world has ever seen. I mean, I don't understand what's going on here. This is why you're radical. I didn't say I didn't say. I'll tell you what, I never said to be fair to Dave. Let's replay what he actually said on this show, which caused all the fury led by Ben Shapiro. We'll play what he said. And I'll play what Shapiro said about about it and then we'll come back today for a response.

The IDF is the worst terrorist organization in the region. Let's get real. The United States of America is arguably the worst terrorist organization in the world. If you want to look over the last 25 years, how many innocent civilians we've slaughtered.

It doesn't matter it turns out how many times you appear on Joe Rogan's show or how many times you hide behind your title of comedian who holds the Guinness Book of World Records for fewest jokes told, or how many times you spew puerile analogies that demonstrate nothing but unbelievable willful ignorance of the nature of war.

I'm sorry, but you hate the country if you say America is the worst terrorist organization in the world. You just do. Now, I know that Dave Smith is super duper excited that his name was mentioned here and he's sitting there shouting at his TV screen in his basement, debate me bro, to which I answer, nah, I don't debate with trolls who claim that America is the biggest terrorist state in the world because that is idiotic. So Dave, as you

know, that all blew up. A lot of debate raged about it. Just let me clarify what you meant. Do you regret phrasing it the way you did? Just give us a bit more meat on the bone.

No, I don't regret phrasing it the way I did. And I'll be very clear about what I'm saying. I will point out that it's quite something for Ben Shapiro, just since you played him, I got to respond to him first that he goes Oh, I just won't debate with this guy because this is so beyond the pale Ben Shapiro made his name debating 19 year old communist Maoists who were confused about their gender so somehow Pierce

We're gonna have to believe here that I'm so much less serious than the children who Ben Shapiro made a career debating I loved your response to him where you pointed out some of the goofy segments that he does on his show I mean personally I really stay away from that stuff and um, you know for Adam I think to say it's clickbait or that I just want to get out in front of the camera I think we're all equally in front of a camera right now and it's kind of weird to accuse someone else

I very much believe the things I'm saying. Now to Adam's point... Dave, don't run from the comment. Don't run from your comment. I'm trying to get to it. Address the comment, not Ben Shapiro, would you? Good, let's go, wrap it up. No, I'm gonna make the points I want to make. You called the United States military... You're just slowing... You called the United States military the greatest terror organization in the world. Adam, Adam.

Defend. Go. Just let me answer. No problem. I'm gonna go back to the order I was gonna go in. Go for it.

To Adam's point, when Adam says I'm a radical libertarian and I say that this is true Americanism, I mean, look, my favorite founding father is Thomas Paine. I love him so much because he never held a government position and didn't own slaves which I thought was pretty cool But Benjamin Franklin said he was the most consequentialist and the one person most responsible for the United States of America Existing his famous pamphlet that he wrote was called common sense. And I think on the first or second line of it. He says Government is at best a necessary evil So at best he's like this is clearly on the anarchist to night watchman state spectrum was what true Americanism was when it started. Now for me to say what I made the point, I've

made this point a million times on your show, Pierce. I was saying when people come on and say Iran is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism, well just like give me an objective definition of what terrorism means and then let's apply that standard universally. And if you're going to sit here and say, look, America has given billions, tens of billions of dollars to the IDF in the last few years. We've also, by the way, given a lot of weapons and money here. Your first guest on this show there, the head of the Obama deep state, was using Al Qaeda,

Bin Ladenite head choppers on the ground in Libya and in Syria. And yes, Adam, I would also consider it when our politicians lie us into wars that slaughter millions of innocent people, and in many cases target those innocent people, I consider that terrorism as well. There's the answer, Adam. And if you want to keep doing this, buddy, you could tell me to check the scoreboard. I'll run circles around you on this, dude.

Check the scoreboard. Most unpopular war in American history going in. Check the scoreboard. 13 dead Americans and 150 plus other wounded. Thousands of innocents, including little schoolgirls in Iran, killed. Dead innocent Israelis.

Hundreds of dead innocent people in Lebanon. Millions of innocent people being displaced, all at the cost of tens of billions of dollars and destroying Trump's coalition. Check your scoreboard, Adam. How's it looking for you?

Okay, Dave. Okay, it's not working well for you, Dave. Because you're still saying that United States, you're saying that you're saying the United States is a terrorist organization. You've already lost the debate.

You live in America, tough guy. You have the luxury of sitting in your little country I'm saying with your hooded sweater the regime like you're 17 years old the regime you mean all American presidents I'm 17 years old in the last 50 years Adam I'm 17 years old I have a wife and children who depends on you Adam your mom

Okay, I also have a significant other. So you want to go personal?

You have a significant other.

Dave, we can go as personal as you want.

No, I'm trying not to.

We can go as personal as you want.

You're so easily respond to one thing, Adam. I don't care, Dave. Adam, some substance.

I don't care.

I know, because you don't know anything about anything. You're Pat's guy. I know, I did.

I like you, dude.

I like you, I like your show. Here's what I'm gonna tell you.

I respect Pat.

Dave, okay, Zay Zippin, here we go. I'll talk now for a second. I'm defending the military right now. You're basically saying that the United States of America, the IDF are the equivalent of ISIS and Al-Qaeda. By the way, I also used to respect you until, until you went on a little podcast called Coleman Hughes.

What happened on that podcast, Dave? This is the problem. I'll tell you a quick story.

Why don't you do it right now, Adam? Why don't you do it?

I'll do it right now, Adam? Why don't you do it? I'll do it right now, Dave. I'll do it right now. Go for it. Because here's what Dave is. Here's Dave Smith. By the way, 1% of Americans vote for libertarians every year. So you're trying to basically say

that you know more than the average American. 1% of Americans vote for your people, Dave. Why don't you stand for something? You stand for nothing. Okay, can I respond? Again, this is the level of substance. No, no. Here we go. I'm going to tell you a story, Dave. And then you can respond. Because this is where I lost respect for you as a debater. Because I was like, Oh, this guy, Dave, he

actually knows some stuff. He's doing his thing. And then you showed up on Coleman Hughes podcast. Pierce, do you know who Coleman Hughes is? I do, he's been on the show.

I've been on the show with him.

Perfect, perfect.

That's this guy right here, just in case. If the camera doesn't see.

But what is the point you're making?

I watched his podcast. The point is this, Dave gets out there and he tries to bully people and say that he's so smart, he reads a lot, a lot of books. Good for you, Dave. But what happens when you read it to somebody, run into somebody who's way smarter and bullies the bully? I remember growing up in this town in Miami. So it was this kid that used to pick on all the kids

that we were to school with. And one day some new kid showed up and he goes, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, let want to fight everybody? You want to take everybody's lunch? Let's go. And the new kid beat the crap out of the bully. And here's what happened with Dave.

He's out there just doing his little podcast thing, debating, like you said, Ben Shapiro and 19 year olds. And then all of a sudden, this whole conversation here you go, Dave, remember this memo from Wesley Clark that you used to cite everything? This is adorable.

Yeah, that is adorable.

Okay, when do I get to respond?

Because your whole foundation is based on some memo. Well, I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure what.

Adam, I'm not quite sure what is the point you're making?

The point is this, Dave has zero credibility at this point. Dave has zero credibility. Well you don't really get to decide that. And he ran into somebody that completely bullied what audience? The four people that show up to your comedy show at the ha ha. Yeah, okay

Dave you respond. Okay can I respond now because I listened while you said nothing there. I

mean the question I'd ask you Dave is the way that you're... Let me respond to some of that. I just want to ask you just on a general level.

How are you going to respond to what Coleman Hills did to you? There was like a body bag after that.

Let him respond.

Well, you ain't doing nothing, bro. You're sitting here talking about what another man did.

You've already been in a body bag, Dave.

I'm here to clean up the scraps. Okay, let me just ask Dave this, which is, as you know, the comment you made about America being a terrorist state and so on, that went pretty viral. Do you understand why a lot of people got very angry about the perceived equivalence between America and terror organizations like ISIS, like Al Qaeda and so on?

Yeah, no, well, listen, I mean mean there's no question that the head chopping... I don't think he does, but go ahead. Hey, Adam, Adam, I mean just let me talk now. I know, I understand all you can do here is interrupt and hold up props or something, but let me make a few good points.

I'm just, you said that America is a terrorist organization. You've already lost the debate.

Go ahead. You don't really get to decide in the middle of the debate whether I have it's who moves people more than the other one Is really I guess the metric? I understand this will just be your tactic for the rest of it because you're out and you're just out of your depth But here, okay. Yes, actually, I didn't vote for the Libertarian nominee

Go ahead

Trump came Donald Trump came to the Libertarian Party Convention and tried to convince a lot of us to support him, and I'm one of the people who did. And now I'm one of the people who's criticizing this policy. Now in terms of, obviously, Pierce, it's a provocative statement. I know that when I make it.

And I'm not claiming that the American military men are the equivalent of ISIS or Al Qaeda. Obviously they're much more barbaric. These headchoppers, the one who Leon Panetta and Barack Obama all sold weapons to and partnered with, and the one who Donald Trump recognizes the president of Syria.

I'm not saying that one isn't more barbaric than the other. I'm simply making the point, Pierce, that if you define terrorism as targeting civilians in order to affect a political

change, then by that objective definition the US military and the IDF are more guilty of it than anyone else over the last 25 years. Their argument is always

that the US military and the IDF do not deliberately target civilians. Yes, but this. I'm just saying for the benefit of fairness. I get that, but that's not true. This is their argument, whereas the difference being that genuine terror groups like ISIS, like Al-Qaeda, they deliberately and brazenly target civilians for political purposes.

Pierce, Pierce, when you have roaming blackouts for nine days in Cuba because we've embargoed the energy that can go there, I'm sorry, that is targeting the civilian population. When Hamas slow rolls the remains of dead Israeli prisoners, excuse me, whatever, I don't know, I get in trouble for using the wrong word. The dead Israelis that they were holding captive, even after all the live ones are out, and the response from the Israeli government is we're going to cut the aid to the civilian

population in half. That is targeting civilians. And when you drop bombs all over cities and you know that innocent civilians are gonna be killed, that's targeting civilians. Now as far as some of the other stuff here, look, in terms of the debate with Coleman, I encourage people to go watch that.

It's only people who already disagreed with me going in who say I got body bagged there. The rest of the people tend to say, it was a kind of a good, respectful back and forth, and both people had some moments. But for Adam to say I only debated children up until Coleman, I debated Dennis Prager, I debated Douglas Murray, I debated Josh Hammer at an Oxford-style debate at Princeton University and absolutely smoked him on the Oxford-style voting. I debated him again at Charlie Kirk's event.

I've been coming on this show, how many debates have me and you done, Pierce? I've been willing to debate whoever wants to debate this subject for over two years now. And so to say that I'm just being Ben Shapiro and going around to college campuses and debating 19-year-old dudes in wigs claiming to be women, it's just not true, man. I debated Chris Cuomo right in front of you, Adam, the biggest host at

CNN. So I just think this is ridiculous. Coleman made some, listen, I'm not gonna say a negative thing about Coleman. He didn't attack me. He went at the issues and I really appreciate and respect that. I've actually been trying to host him on my podcast. I hope he'll do it.

OK, Adam, your response.

Yeah. And listen, I do respect the fact that Dave does show up. I mean, that's like, OK, cool. You showed up. Respect to that. I will give Dave credit, but Dave, and this is why I'm gonna keep going back to this,

to pretend that it was an even match, an even debate. He put you in a body bag and you're out here still, still doubling down on all your positions when he went methodically and surgically.

Boom, boom, boom. This is the saddest thing. I've never been in a debate where someone just fell back to someone else's debate. Boom, boom, boom. What name one of the booms.

Make the point for yourself. Me and you are supposed to be debating here.

The memo from Wesley Clark. The memo from Wesley Clark, your whole foundation for your Israel. So listen up, little guy. So your whole foundation for Israel dragging America into war was that this memo from Wesley Clark showed up and that's the reason that America

got suckered into the Iraq war because Israel convinced him to do it. And he went in surgically and methodically and very calmly was like, Dave, you don't know what you're talking about. Your entire foundation crumbled.

And you're dipping, you're doing your little thing.

Can I respond?

Or you're drinking your nicotine.

Can I respond to this?

So, but the point is this, your Hollins opens this three hour debate with Coleman Hughes. It wasn't close, Dave.

And that's fine, you wanna sort of be a revisionist.

That's your opinion.

No, I'm not being revisionist. It's your point. No, Dave, that was any person with logic.

Because you didn't have a response. Adam, Adam, Adam. Your only response was, go read the book. Adam, it is an unusual position to spend time. It's not ridiculous. Adam, it's an unusual position that I've had you guys on.

Because that was the aha moment for me.

I've had you guys on to debate so far. I said this guy is actually a lightweight. He's actually a lightweight. Adam, my point to you. This is that moment for you for a lot of people, Adam. So congratulations.

My point to you, Adam, is simply be it's an unusual debating strategy to spend 10 minutes of this debate talking about another debate that most viewers may not see.

It's pretty ridiculous. I mean, there's other debates that we can bring up. The fact, Dave, when's the last time you were in the road

Okay, so this is what you're falling back to now, yeah, right no, you know, you're not asking I

Don't know the answer. No, do you I have not been to the Middle East go do your best Douglas Murray acting job So Adam brother, I was prepared to come in on friendly terms. So why you are humiliating yourself

You're gonna be dude. I'm really not.

You're humiliating yourself right now.

You've been humiliating yourself for the past two years, basically saying that America is a terrorist organization, that the IDF is a terrorist organization, and you're whitewashing actual terrorism. What are your thoughts on Islamic terrorism coming into the West?

What are your thoughts on the war in the West?

What do you think of a huge? What do you think? Questions go ahead. It's a huge. It's a huge question. It's a huge It's a huge risk, especially right now after we just murdered an ayatollah in his whole family. What's a terrorism back terrorism is a Border nice try is a huge problem and having not secure borders is a nightmare of a policy.

I'm not talking about blowback terrorism. Do you see what's going on in the West? Do you see what's going on where Piers Morgan lives in London? Do you see what's going on all over the world?

I've been an advocate of strict immigration controls for many years.

By the way, by the way.

You're just making stuff up because you have nothing, dude.

Bro, you have nothing here, man.

You just said that America is a terrorist organisation.

If you brought my country into it.

He's anti-American and here I am as a proud American saying that he doesn't know what

he's talking about. You said that they couldn't talk about the Middle East because he hasn't been there much. When was the last time you were in England?

I spent many much time in England. My ex wife was well, she wasn't a sheep shagger.

When was the last time?

The last time? The last time I was in the in Europe in England in the Middle East, where would you like me to go?

Oh, England, England.

The last time I was England was about eight years ago.

Right. So this idea Adam many people hang on many people are the conservative right in America seem to be under the illusion that my country has been taken over by radical Muslims. Let me tell you, I have lived here on and off for the last eight years, unlike you, and respectfully, we have not been taken over

by radical Muslims. It just hasn't happened the way it's been sold by people like Tommy Robinson to Americans, and you're all lapping it up.

How would you define it then, Pierce?

I think we have a Muslim population which is predominantly peaceful and inclusive and settled well. And we have some radical members of radical Muslims as we have radical members of other religions in this country. And we have to be very wary about it.

What other members of radical religions? What other members of radical religions?

Hang on, hang on. Go ahead. And we have had severe immigration control issues run by successive conservative and labor governments who frankly lost control of our border, both to illegal immigration, but also allowed way too many people in legally. And these are proper legitimate things to be discussed,

but framing it as some people like to do, as my country's been overrun and overtaken by radical Muslims, it's just a lie. It's just not true. So yes, there are things to be concerned about. And yes, I want to see everyone who comes here assimilate,

and everyone who lives here assimilate into our culture. Of course I do. But this idea that we've been overrun and overtaken is nonsense.

Yeah.

Pierce, can I just make one quick statement?

So you think it's all blown out of proportion that everything that everybody is saying about Sharia law being imposed in London and Birmingham.

It hasn't been imposed here.

You're saying that it's overblown?

It hasn't been imposed here.

Is this Sharia?

Okay, anyway.

You're saying that it's overblown?

There are a number of unofficial Sharia courts operating. They have no legal basis or standing in the UK whatsoever. There is no Sharia law being operated legally in this country. End.

It doesn't happen. Thank you, Piers. Thank you for enlightening me. So you're saying it's all overblown, that is

Why don't you come over? Come over with the whole PBD team and let me take you on a guided tour of the UK. Trust me, you'll be fine.

I'm sure you're going to all the nicest places, definitely none of the most dangerous places, Piers. I'm sure you're not going to Birmingham or Brick Lane or anything like that.

I love Brick Lane, best curries in England. I love Birmingham, fantastic place.

Incredible Bangladeshi curry. I'll take you there. My central thesis here is that Dave thinks that the United States military and the IDF are the equivalent of the Ayatollah and the Hezbollahs and Hamas, Dave.

All right, you made that point.

Dave, final point.

Is that what you're saying?

I know. Final point to Dave. Listen, I mean, just, I think we all kind of agree that like open borders and lack of immigration restrictions are not very sound policy and that those ought to not be in place.

But I do just want to say to the, brushed up against that libertarians believe in though don't don't libertarian and i think i think that is that it's a different anyway let me just finish one point and since you have nothing to say just let me finish the point anyway no but libertarianism and i certainly don't have been in a body bag for about a year now great great great great ok been in a body bag anyway

let's see what the reaction to this one is let's see what the reaction to this debate is, okay? We'll take a look at that when it comes out. Anyway, but the idea that my argument-

We can gladly do that. You're defending terrorism and you think that the United States is a terrorist organization. Let's see what rational, maggot people think.

Go ahead, Dave.

Let's see. Okay, anyway, the idea that, you know, you're making the point that the General Wesley Clark thing has been torn apart and that that was my entire case for Israel trying to push America into these wars is absolutely ridiculous there's much more to it than that and that and that point hasn't been torn apart. Pierce is anyone going to seriously argue that Israel trying to push us into this war with Iran isn't a factor as Benjamin Netanyahu the longest-serving

Prime Minister in Israeli history brags about how this is the culmination of his entire life's work.

Not just that.

He's been advocating this for my entire life.

Well, Marco Rubio, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, said it very clearly that America preemptively got involved in the strikes because Israel were going to attack Iran. And so America thought there would be revenge attacks against American interests and got

in first. And Netanyahu has been coming here every other week to try to lobby Trump into this war.

Guys, I've got to say that Trump is that big of a buffoon that he just gets dragged into wars.

Please come back again another time.

I've loved having you on. Dave, always good to see you. I sadly got to leave you there, but I appreciate it both very much.

Thank you. I sadly got to leave you there, but I appreciate it both very much. Thank you.

Enjoy that body bag, Adam.

Enjoy that body bag. Look out for the comment section.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Allah Akbar, buddy.

My thanks to David. I'm joined now by Bill O'Reilly, the host of No Spin News and author of Confronting Evil.

Bill, welcome back to Uncensored. You expect me to follow that, Morgan? Come on. Really? You know, I am. This isn't a shot at anybody, but this is just for your audiences. Look, there's so much propaganda and misinformation that flows from people who are trying to get

attention or make money on social media that it's almost impossible for regular folks who live their lives and have families and trying to do the right thing to know the truth. So I'm glad you have me on, because this is the educational portion of the Piers Morgan program,

where we back up everything we say. We don't get into these insane conspiracies or talk off the cuff. We know what we're talking about. So thanks for having me back.

Bill, always great to have you, you know that. The Iran war, what is your overview about where we are? And do you think that Donald Trump miscalculated how Iran would respond, in particular, in relation to the economic war they've been waging with the Strait of Hormuz and the way

they've attacked the Gulf, neighboring Gulf states with their oil refineries and with tourist spots and so on?

Okay, I'm gonna do a stair step here. In every single war that's ever been fought in the history of mankind, there have been miscalculations. Every one. Because the fog of war cliche is true. Once you start to unleash violence on a mass level, you can't predict what will happen.

And mistakes are always made by the victors and the people who lose. So that's history. Now, I did an interview with Lindsey Graham on my podcast called We'll Do It Live. That can be seen everywhere. BillOReilly.com is where we live, and it's probably the best informational interview ever done on the subject of the Iranian action.

Because Graham, although he is a hawk, is privy to A, intel information on a daily basis, and B, has Trump's ear. Speaks to him all the time. Graham laid out why the administration did what it did. Now, you can disagree with it. You can think it's foolish.

But the facts are that there was a reason to do this, and the reason still has been undefined. So the messaging of the reason wasn't really put out there so the world could consume it. Graham did that in my one-hour conversation to him, very precisely. So if you really wanted to know why America attacked Iran and Israel as our ally, you

listen to that. All right. And it's unimpeachable. Nobody has said, oh, he's not telling the truth. Oh, this isn't true. It is true.

Now, as far as calculating cause and effect, yeah, I mean, it struck me that the Trump administration should have anticipated a problem in the Strait of Hormuz and might have bombed that area to make it more difficult for the Iranians to attack the tankers. But I'm second-guessing now American and Israeli intel and the Pentagon, and I'm not really qualified to second guess it. But as an American, that's a legitimate question.

The one factor that hasn't been reported or discussed is China. China gets 80% of Iran's oil. Did you know that, Pierce? Yeah. 80%. China's lifeline is Putin and Iran for 1.5 billion people to have energy.

Trump has to take that into account. That is an enormous factor here. You have not heard China say much about Iran. They certainly haven't stuck up for the mullahs. They have not. So I suspect in addition to the negotiations that are taking place between the United States

and Iran, and nobody knows who's in charge in Iran, other negotiations very secretly are being done between Washington and Beijing. That would have to happen because it's so volatile. China is not going to allow itself to be starved of energy.

OK, but explain to me how any of this is consistent with Donald Trump, the presidential candidate in 2024, saying that he would not take America into any more senseless Middle Eastern wars because they were way too expensive, both on economy and human life, that he would focus on America first, sorting out the problems in America. He'd make it secure at the border, which he's done to his credit,

and that he would bring the cost of living down and he would reduce inflation and get rid of it. How does any of what he's done with Iran tick any of those boxes? Because from where I'm sitting, it looks like he's done the complete opposite

to what he campaigned

on.

Well, you're asking a very legitimate question, but things change. So the threat level in Iran changed. And the information, and Graham spelled this out again in the podcast I did with him, was that yes, the United States destroyed about 75 percent of the Iranian nuclear capacity last June, but they were weeks away from enriching uranium now so that they could make a nuclear weapon, a low-level one if they wanted, and hand

it off. Trump got that intel. Then he got intel from Assad, from Israel, that all the mullahs are going to be in one place at one time. This is after six weeks of negotiation, where the Iranians basically said to the Americans, hey, blank you, gave us the middle finger.

We're going to do what we want. We don't care what you say. Now, I talked to Donald Trump myself, one-on-one, private conversation on the phone, one week before the U.S. military action was launched. And that entire conversation was about making a deal.

Trump did not want to do this. He didn't want to use military action. And we discussed various ways that a deal might happen. My emphasis was on Beijing, get them in a position where we'll help them in a way that they need, China, in return for they pressure the Mullahs to give up their nuclear construction. That was my idea.

But then, the final meeting in Geneva with Witkoff and the Iranian representatives, Iran said, look, there's no sense in talking any further. We're not going to stop. Now when you say that to President Trump, what do you think is going to happen? He's not remembering what his campaign slogan was. He's saying, these guys are serious, they're gonna build a nuke,

and I believe they'll use it. And I'm not taking the chance, and I gotta, when the call came in, all of them are gonna be in the same place, we're gonna go knock them out. I would have done the same thing.

How about you?

Well, I think is that again, there's an inconsistency, I would argue, the same thing. How about you? Well I think again there's an inconsistency I would argue between the rhetoric that followed the 12-day war last summer where everyone was assured we've neutralized the nuclear threat from Iran and within nine, ten months apparently it's all been rejuvenated. I find that... No, no, no.

I find that...

Well I just think... Nobody ever shared of that bill, some part of that argument doesn't ring true. Either it wasn't true when they first said it, or it wasn't true in February.

They can't both be true. If you can show me a quote where they said all of Iranians nuclear weapon capacity has been destroyed, I will see the point. I can't find that quote. Not all, but they made it clear. They made it clear. Let me hypothesize.

They made it clear that they badly, badly harmed

Iran's ability to do it. That's true. But there were other labs working on the same thing that were not destroyed. Let me offer you a different hypothesis, which I think is a bit of a joke. But there were other labs working on the same thing

that were not destroyed.

And let me offer you a different hypothesis, which I'm not saying necessarily I subscribe to this, but just hear me out, which is that the 12-day war, a bit like the strike on Venezuela to get rid of Maduro, the 12-day war was incredibly precise, incredibly successful,

almost zero damage to any American personnel or interests. Fantastic successful and notable for the very muted response from the Iranians. And I think you then move to what happened in Venezuela. Again, very precise military strike, no loss of life to American service people. The capture of the Venezuelan president, taken to custody in New York, a brilliant success

again. I think Trump was riding high off the back of that. And I think the Israelis were pushing hard. Yes, we've got the Ayatollah here with all his people. If we decapitate the regime, it'll be exactly like Venezuela. You'll neutralize this problem.

And I think Trump decided to go for it. And I think as he looks at it now, he realized that this is a very, very different situation to Venezuela. I think they've miscalculated just how skillfully, and I use that purely as a description of, I think, how their strategy has been, how skillfully the Iranians have controlled the Strait of Hormuz and how they have attacked their Gulf neighbors to get them in line as well and make tourists fearful

and make expats want to leave, how they've attacked refineries there in response to their own refineries being attacked, and it's been incredibly destabilizing to the Gulf states. I think you put it all together, and I think Donald Trump has, I've known him a long time, haven't you? I think he's reached a point with this where it's gone way bigger than he calculated, way longer than he thought it would go, and that he has underestimated Iran's ability to not fight back militarily, but

to fight back economically, and that that is going to be politically toxic for him, and he now needs an off-ramp. And the question then becomes, what is the off-ramp which looks like victory? And I think it's a tricky one. I really do. To claim a victory, if the Iranian regime remains in place, and if you see no uprising from

the Iranian people, and if America does not get a commitment to either hand over the enriched uranium or goes in and gets it, which would be boots on the ground, which would be disastrous, I don't see any easy off ramp here.

Do you?

Well, no, but you're spouting a theory. Yeah, it may be right, but it doesn't jive with what my information flow is, because as I said, Trump didn't want this military action. It wasn't his arrogance that, oh, I kicked Venezuela's butt, so now I can do the same thing to Iran. I mean, he would have told me if you wanted it. That's what we would have discussed, how to go about it militarily. That's not what we discussed. It was how to get a deal.

So going forward, here's how I see it. Iran's going to have to make a deal, because Trump's not going to stop. And if he has to lose the midterms, he'll lose the midterms. Remember, he doesn't have to run again. OK? He's not stopping.

He's not going to say, oh, we lost, ever. That's number one. So the deal is going to look like Iran will allow weapons inspectors in, probably from the U.N., to examine what's going on with the nukes. They'll stop enriching,

and they will destroy their ballistic-missile capacity, which is already almost destroyed, so we're only talking about a few missiles, not many. In return, there'll be more favorable economic treatment for Iran on a rebuild basis. Trump knows he's not going to get regime change. So that's, you know, he can sabre rattle on it, but that's not going to happen unless

the Persian people rise up. And you know, with these people gunning you down in the street, you know, you're a student of history, a little bit pierced. In 1945, when the Russians were coming in from the east and the allies coming in from the west to Berlin, the German people didn't rise up against Hitler. Nobody rose up against Hitler in Germany because the SS would shoot you down in the street. It's the same thing going on in Iran.

So likely, and I think within a space of a couple of weeks, this thing will cease and some kind of an arrangement will be made so that the Mullins can tell their people they didn't lose and Trump can tell his people they won. We won. America won. That's what's likely to happen.

Bill O'Reilly, I will invite you back in two weeks time and we shall see.

If I'm not deported, I may be in Portugal.

You know what? You'll be even nearer to me, Bill. Get on a plane to London. Yeah.

Great to have you.

We're coming to England at the end of May. And I'm gonna, and you're gonna do an interview with me. I'm telling you you're gonna do, or I'm coming to your house. Done. And you're going to do an interview with me, I'm telling you you're going to do or I'm coming to your house about this Muslim intrusion on London.

Let's talk about it.

OK, so you're in, right?

I'm happy to talk about that.

All right. Excellent. We'll set it on up. Thanks for having me on.

I'd love to see you on the set of Uncensored while you're here.

It'd be great.

OK. set of uncensored while you're here. It'll be great. Okay. Bill, great to have you. Thanks very much. Well, Jesse Ventura is a former US Navy SEAL, a former professional wrestler, a former actor, a former governor of Minnesota. We've had many memorable interviews over the years. I'm pleased to say he joins me again now.

Jesse, how are you? I'm doing good, Piers. It's been a long time for you and I. I tried to retire but well I tried to retire but unfortunately they sent the Gestapo to my high school and they hit it with chemical weapons which are a war crime and that brought me back out of retirement to stand up against the war criminal in the White

House. Wow. Well that sounds suitably dramatic.

Well, that's the way it happened. I mean, I was retired, I hadn't watched the news since the last election. My son said, you're way better, dad, you're not tense anymore, keep it up. And then lo and behold, these ICE characters,

I call them the Gestapo, and I think I can can do that and let me get something straight right now peers So people know where I'm coming from My uncle Emil fought in World War one My parents both fought in World War two my father had six brand bronze battle stars in Europe My mother was a nurse in North Africa Which predated Normandy fighting

Rommel the Desert Fox, the greatest German general. Both my parents were World War II veterans. My brother and I are both Vietnam veterans and member of the Navy UDT SEAL. We both did two tours to Southeast Asia. So everyone in my family is a war veteran. I wanted to get that out right now, so it'll help with the things that I'm going to say to you in the moments to come.

So, ice agents came to your school, you said?

What's that?

You said the ice agents came to your school?

Yeah, the ice agents came to the school where I went to high school, chasing some guy down, just like the Gestapo. And I heard people were offended calling them that. Really? I can tell you right now, if my parents would have been alive and they would have seen what happened in Minneapolis, they would have called it the Gestapo II. So they come to my school. They use tear gas and pepper spray at the school. Now here's a question I have, peers.

My uncle Emil fought in World War I, and he was gassed. He came home, but his life was ruined. He could never do anything. What did they do? They outlawed it. Gas using chemical weapons became a war crime.

Why is it that you can't use them on your enemy, but you're allowed to use them on your own people? That has always been, where is the media on this? You know, using chemical weapons against our own people, which is in essence a war crime.

Well I think I wouldn't describe the gas used by ICE agents as chemical weapons. I mean that infers weapons of mass destruction.

It's tear gas. They're spraying people from six inches away right in their face. I can't use that in war. I wasn't allowed to carry tear gas or any type of chemical weapon in war. It's banned from war. It's considered a war crime.

You can't use it against your enemy, but you can use it against your own people. Doesn't something ring wrong there for you, Piers?

Well, a lot rang wrong about what was going on in Minnesota. And I'm very glad that it has been resolved at least for now. And I think it hasn't been resolved. Well no, not completely, but nothing's been resolved.

No, I understand. We have two dead people here. Two people were killed by the Gestapo here.

Yeah, I understand. And those investigations are ongoing, but at least the ICE activity that was going on and the way it was being conducted has been removed from Minnesota, which is a good thing. And I thought what happened was appalling. And I said so at the time. Let me ask you about Iran and your view of this war.

Well, here's how I feel about it. There's a simple thing as a leader, and you know this having been in the military, Trump wouldn't know it because he's a draft-dodging coward. But anyway, it's this. A war is justified if you're willing to send your kids. Because how can you send somebody else's kids to a war if you won't send your own. So I'm calling right now for Barron Trump, Donald Trump's son. You know, after all, he's had three wives, he's had kids by each wife, and nobody's ever

served in the military. To my knowledge, a Trump in the last hundred years has never done military service. Well, Barron, you can change that. Enlist in the United States military right now. Do something your father didn't have the courage to do. Do something your father didn't have the patriotism to do.

I want to see a Trump in the military. Everybody in my family is served, so I think I can say that with all due confidence. Come on, Trumps. Don't just reap the benefits of this free world. Somebody put on the uniform and that's you, Barron. And I heard the excuse that Barron might be too tall. Uh-uh. David Robinson served on active duty. He was seven feet tall before he ever went to the San

Antonio Spurs basketball team. David Robinson went to the United States Navy Military Academy. He's one of my officers, not directly, but he would have been.

Okay, look, it's one argument that Trump should serve. That's a perfectly reasonable argument to make. A lot of people feel that way. But it doesn't change what's going on in Iran. What is your view of this war? Do you think it's a legitimate war?

Many people think that the Iranian regime has been the instrument of terror through the Middle East for 48 years.

Of course they have been. Of course they have been, Piers. But wait a minute. He then, Trump then calls you guys NATO cowards. Wait a minute. NATO is set up to protect.

That means that if a NATO country is attacked, they will all join together to repel it. It doesn't go in reverse. It doesn't mean if one of the NATO countries starts a war that all the others have to join in. That ain't part of the deal. The deal is protection, not aggression.

And we started this war, and then he's calling you guys a bunch of cowards because you won't come in and help him. Well, why didn't he talk to you beforehand? And second of all, that isn't what the mission is. The mission is to protect the countries if they're attacked,

not to go on the offense and do the attacking.

Okay, but do you think America was justified in joining Israel in the attack on Iran?

No, no. Why not? Absolutely not. Because we started the war. I'm not for starting any war. We fired the first shot, plain and simple.

You wanna put it in Rambo terms? We drew first blood.

Many would argue of those who support the war that Iran had drawn a lot of blood through this regime for a very long time. They had supported and propped up. Well, hang on, Jesse. They had armed groups like Hamas

and the Houthis and Hezbollah for decades. They had wreaked utter havoc, drawing enormous amounts of blood. And that actually the reason America and Israel had to deal with them now was that they were imminently gonna get a nuclear weapon

and they will use it. What do you say to that?

Well, here's what I say. Let's get the real history in. You know, I listen to people like Congressman Lawler in New York, they all love to go back to 1979, the day the Ayatollahs took over. They conveniently don't go back to when I was alive.

I'm a little older than them. Let's go back to 1953, shall we, when Iran had a Democratic-elected president. The United States didn't like him. We pulled a coup d'état. And what did we do? We stuck the authoritarian dictator, the Shah, in power.

That's when the I hate America started, was way back in the 50s when we interfered in their democratic elections. But how convenient we are that we forget that. Then in 1979, what took place? The Ayatollahs took over, who were probably worse than the Shah. But let's remember, the hatred of America was started by America.

It was not started by the Iranians. We interfered in their government way back in the 50s and overturned their Democratic-elected president, and then the dictatorship started with the Shah and now went to the Ayatollahs and here we are today. But I'd like for Congressman Lawler to at least try to go back in history from before he was born to see what could have occurred and that the United States was the person

that caused the hatred between the two countries.

Jesse, I know you're very scathing of Trump now. There was a time when you were on more friendly terms. Here's a clip from you both at WrestleMania 20.

You know what? I think that we may need a wrestler in the White House in 2008.

When you look at that, Jesse, I mean I mean that was 12 13 years ago, I think Trump has also been made a WWE Hall of Famer, which I know has angered you. Yep How do you feel now looking back at that clip? I

Feel that simply I was doing my job I was doing what I was asked to do at the WWE. Trump being a Hall of Famer is a tragedy. This guy has never been in the ring. I got a good friend, Ken Pitera, Olympian, first man to overhead press 500 pounds, 25 years in the wrestling business. Kenny Pitera is not in the Hall of Fame.

Donald Trump does not belong in the Wrestling Hall of Fame. He never earned it. You know what I had to do to get in the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame? At one point in my career, I wrestled 63 consecutive nights in a row. That's how you get in the Hall of Fame. When I was referring to putting a wrestler

in the White House, I was talking about me, not him.

Really? That was a bit ambiguous.

Absolutely. I was the former governor of Minnesota. I'm the only real former wrestler. I don't include him. He's only in the Hall of Fame because he stopped an investigation against Vince McMahon

sexual stuff

Do you intend to run again?

For governor and therefore maybe president. I don't I don't know I don't necessarily intend to run again But I'm working on something that could send me straight to Washington and go face to face with this guy.

Really? Well, you would run for president.

Plans may be in the works.

I mean, he can't run for president again. So what would that involve?

Well, you'll have to find out. Wait and see.

I'm not going to spill it here.

You're not going to crash the-

I'll put it to you this way. Wait, wait, wait. Piers, I'll put it to you this way. We withstood the onslaught of the Gestapo in Minnesota. Well, I was taught in war to do this. You ensure that your backyard is secure. That's the first thing you do.

Well, Minnesota is now secure. We've repelled the onslaught from Trump. Now it's time for us to go on the offense. So maybe it's time to send the Navy SEAL to Washington. Maybe it's time for a showdown between the Vietnam veteran and the draft dodger.

Do you actually mean a physical confrontation? No, but if he wants it, he's in the Hall of Fame let's both get in the ring. I mean there is a UFC. After all he's in the Hall of Fame. He's in the Hall of Fame isn't he? Right I mean there is a UFC. He's never ever had a match. Right there is a UFC whole event going on imminently at the White House, maybe they could extend it and have you against Trump.

Do you think he'd have the guts to do that? Are you kidding me? Well, when he got shot, Jesse, to be fair to Trump, when he got shot, he got back up and said fight, fight, fight. Oh, yeah, right, gonna tell you. When he got shot, he got back up. He said, fight, fight, fight. Oh, yeah, right, right, right. You ever hear of a blade job? Anyway.

A blade? What, you think he was fake?

Anyway, I don't know.

Where's his scar today?

Somebody died, literally, sitting behind him.

I don't know. You know, come on, Piers. You're gonna tell me this guy's a big hero now? I thought that day he was, yeah. That's what you're gonna tell me?

That day he was.

Really?

Yeah.

Really?

Yeah, he was. Yeah, well, then he accomplished what he wanted out of you guys.

No, I think you can be heroic on one day and you can be less heroic on others but if you ask me was he heroic when he got shot yeah and I think those who try to pretend he

wasn't actually shot or anything it's ridiculous. You're right you know what I feel bad about was that if he'd have joined us in Vietnam we might have won huh? No. He could have put us

why did he run and hide? I don't think... He could have joined us and led us to victory.

I don't think anything would have changed the fortunes of the United States in that war.

Yeah, probably not, considered he called us all suckers, didn't he?

What would you say to Trump if you had a chance to speak to him?

I'd prefer not to speak with him.

I don't have really – what would I say to him?

I don't know.

You know, to me, he has no courage. He never has. I'll tell you what he is, Pierce. Everybody knows these people. You're with a group of guys and there's always one guy who will start the fight and then hold your coat.

That's Donald Trump. He'll start the fight, but he'll hold your coat.

And then the next day he'll tell everybody how tough he was.

Jesse Ventura, it's great to see you've lost none of your fighting spirit in the many years since our last interview. Thank you very much for coming on.

Piers, I'll never lose my fighting spirit. You take care, man. And if you dare to have me on again, we'll see.

You will always be welcome. Always be welcome, Jesse. Don't you worry about that. The mere fact that so many people have come to our scensored, it was made for you. By the way, say hi to Mick and Keith for me. I will, I will. I'll text them right now. OK, very good. Thanks a lot, Jesse.

Take care.

You too, Piers. Bye bye.

Piers Morgan Uncensored is proudly independent. The only boss around here is me. If you enjoy our show, we ask for only one simple thing. Hit subscribe on YouTube and follow Piers Morgan Uncensored on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. And in return, we will continue our mission to inform, irritate and entertain. And we'll do it all for free. Independent, uncensored media has never been and entertain. And we'll do it all for free. Independent, uncensored media has never been

more critical and we couldn't do it without you.