Operation Epic Fury Unloads: How Did Kansas City React?! Plus, Is ICE Actually Going to Build In KC?! | 3-2-26

Operation Epic Fury. The President of the United States, of course, making the announcements over the weekends as the United States and Israel has attacked Iran. They have taken out the leadership that for the better part of nearly 50 years has been not just a thorn in the side of this country, but has terrorized, has taken money from this country, has killed Americans all across the world. And let's not forget, as American intelligence later learned, was a primary funder in funding Al-Qaeda and protecting members of Al-Qaeda following the September 11, 2001 attacks. And nearly 25 years later, we have taken out their leadership, which for 50 years now has been not just a terror in the Middle East, but around the entire world. and President Trump, between all these presidents trying to figure out what to do about it, how do we make sure we kind of appease these folks while also making sure we're protecting Americans? What's the best way to go about this? We don't want too much instability. President Trump says, you know what we're going to do? We're going to kill these guys. We're going to put these guys six feet under. That's what we're going to do. and that's exactly what the president of the United States did over the weekend now can I sit here and tell you that this thing is going to go perfectly over the next few weeks which is what the president alluded to over the weekend I can't I can't do that I can't I can't do it what I can do is say this and I think that many of you will agree on this statement when it comes to foreign policy in particular the president's track record going back to his first term in office is really darn good you look at almost everything that the president has handled outside of our borders from our border to the middle east to europe to china to north korea the president has had the pulse of how to handle these bad actors and these terrorists on the world stage his track record is as good as any president in modern American history on that specific issue and I don't think it's all that close so when they elected to of course go ahead with this strike over the weekend they're not doing it thinking boy because I heard some of this yesterday on some of the Sunday shows oh man even worse guys are going to take over and oh it's just going to be worse than it ever was well it can't be worse than it ever was first off if we're taking out their missiles if we're taking out their leadership if we're sitting here and also realizing that this thing does not end today tomorrow or next week that there's a process to all this while also realizing there is absolutely no appetite for a forever war on the right or the left no one on the right or the left wants an Iraq 2.0. The president cannot risk something like that happening. But what he also has to do, and what's not done enough in this country, is looking towards the next generation. And in a speech the president gave last night, I thought this was probably an overlooked part of his speech, when for the first time it actually felt like politicians politicians were looking out for the next generation. For decades, we've had politicians that just get them elected in the next election cycle. They kick the can down the road. They do what's politically expedient. They go out there and they, you know, drive up $38 trillion in debt because, well, having the tough conversations, that might be politically risky. The president made it clear in a speech that he dropped last night that, you know what, it's not just about our present. This was not just a move for today. This was a move that we elected to make for the future of America. We're undertaking this massive operation, not merely to ensure security for our own time and place, but for our children and their children, just as our ancestors have done for us many, many years ago. This is the duty and the burden of a free people. These actions are right and they are necessary to ensure that Americans will never have to face a radical, bloodthirsty terrorist regime armed with nuclear weapons and lots of threats. That was President Trump in a video dropped 14 hours ago. So I'm not sitting here this morning. I mean, I'm doing cartwheels because leadership in Iran is gone. Just like Iranians all across the world were doing over the last 48 hours. They're dancing. They're celebrating. They're doing the YMCA in Los Angeles, for crying out loud, if you didn't see that. They're on cloud nine. So I'm happy for them. I'm happy for the world. I'm happy for us. Sky News in Australia has a great clip, too, about that. They're showing somebody saying, there'll be chaos and pandemonium, right? And then they cut to the clip of people dancing in the streets. And then the commentator, yeah, well, chaos and pandemonium, no burqas, no headdresses. Yeah, if you're an Islamist, then you're living the good life right now. You are happy if you are an Iranian. There's no doubt about it. All right. That's the fact. So I am thrilled today because the Ayatollah is dead. The leadership has been taken out. Will there be bumps along the road? The president was not sugarcoating it last night when he said, listen, we've got a situation that will result in the death of American troops. We have lost three already. We can't overlook that. We can't sugarcoat that. There are millions of people around the world who are going to be at risk over the next several weeks, if not months. All those things are true. But you have taken out one of the worst actors and the worst regimes in modern world history that for nearly 50 years has been killing innocent people in their own country and around the world and including Americans. And the president made it clear last night that, yes, we're safer today. But for future generations, this was also about them. This was about protecting the freedoms that we have in America. Now, what do we know as of this morning what's happening on the ground right now? Well, this happens, and this is some breaking news. Three U.S. fighter jets were mistakenly shot down over Kuwait. So this was from U.S. Central Command. The six crews safely were ejected from the F-15s and are in stable condition, according to Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East. in a statement they said during active combat that includes attacks from iranian aircraft ballistic missiles and drones the u.s air force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by kuwaiti air defenses we're grateful for the efforts of the kuwaiti defense forces and their support in this ongoing operation kuwait's ministry of defense said earlier that several american warplanes were downed with the cause of the incident being investigated so uh that's some breaking news here this morning on that front and we're going to be monitoring it here on kcmo we also know that pete hegseth the defense secretary is going to be giving an update in about one hour from now seven o'clock central time pete hegseth will give an update on this from washington dc so we'll carry some of that here on kcmo talk radio mark alford is going to be joining us at 7 35 this morning now on top of that you do have another Missouri tie to all this you have those B-2 bombers that successfully pulled off Operation Midnight Hammer last summer in Iran also play a role in Operation Epic Fury the U.S. using self-stealth B-2 spirit bombers to take out underground ballistic missile storage areas during Operation Epic Fury over the weekend the bombers flew from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and successfully dropped penetrator bombs on their targets, according to officials. The bombing marks the second time in a year that the rarely used aircraft has carried out a mission in Iran. The B-2 is a long-range strategic bomber that can reach anywhere in the world using aerial refueling. B-2s were used last June during Operation Midnight Hammer. So once again, Whiteman coming through, the B-2 bombers coming through here in Missouri. Let's go, baby. Rarely used except for flying over Arrowhead. They're damn good at that. And now they're really getting to work. All right? That's what it's all about. So thank you. Say a prayer for the men and women down at Whiteman Air Force Base and all the servicemen and women who are going to be pulling off some of these strategic, targeted attacks in the days and likely weeks to come. 913-408-7957 is how you join us on kcmo talk radio after another wild news weekend we're monitoring it all morning here on kcmo talk radio 95 7 fm streaming on the kcmo talk radio app we'll get to you 913-408-7957 and how is local media reacting to all of this well in some ways it's as you would expect that more next did you see the iranians dancing in los angeles to trump's ymca they're waving the iranian flag and they're dancing to the ymca meantime you got the uh you know the woke karens out there being like no you don't know what's in your best interest this isn't actually good for you no they are celebrating all around the world now for us do i have questions concerns yeah i mean most of us are going to be old enough to remember what a debacle Iraq and Afghanistan turned out to be. No doubt about it. Okay? So I'm not sitting here like thinking that this is going to go perfectly. There are serious risks that the administration is taking right now. But over the last 48 hours, it is indisputable that when it comes to the world being a safer place and America being at less threat today, that's absolutely true. And it's not even up for debate. It's indisputable. So over the weekend, of course, local media is reacting to this as well. And, you know, they're doing reports on local TV and at the Kansas City Star and elsewhere. And I thought that this was interesting from Fox 4. So Fox 4 does a package where they talk to a Kansas City who happens to be Iranian. And she's like, this is great. And then they say, well, let's cut to a manual cleaver. And you can only guess how that went. With the United States and Israel pushing out an attack against Iran, it's sending mixed emotions among people right here in the Kansas City metro. And it all comes after the Iranian government killed thousands of its own people. Hundreds of Iranians, including their supreme leader, were killed Saturday morning after the United States and Israel bombed the Middle Eastern country. With the Ayatollah dead, Iranian-American activist Merceda Tavakoli says going forward, She feels more positive for the people of Iran. I would be naive to say that there isn't a sense of anxiousness as well, but especially with the news of Ali Khamenei, who was the supreme leader of Iran, being killed as well. I think people are feeling even more optimistic. But Representative Emmanuel Cleaver, while acknowledging the Iranian regime is bad, says he's frustrated that Congress was not informed of the attack ahead of time. Congress, which is Article 1 in the Constitution of the United States, has the sole right to declare war And most of us probably about 400 or more of us out of 435 didn know that this was going to happen All right. That was Emanuel Cleaver talking to Fox News. You must have moved more. And giving us some great insight, as always, there from Kansas City. Making Kansas City proud, the great Emanuel Cleaver on KCMO. I found it interesting, all the upset about declaring war. are we at war when the people are dancing in the street well that's what i wonder too yeah and is this just a targeted strike just like operation midnight hammer that may go longer but are we looking at war in the sense that we are putting boots on the ground and we're putting troops you know in iran is that what we're doing the president's made it clear that that's not part of the agenda now if we get there then yes i do think that there's going to have to be some congressional conversation involved in all this. I don't deny that for a second. Okay, like, yeah, Trump does not have carte blanche to do whatever he wants overseas. But here's the flip side of this. Okay, when you are putting men and women of the American military in harm's way, and that's what happened over the weekend, we lost three American troops in these attacks over the weekend. with the hatred that is out there right now for this president and this administration do you really think that if Manuel Cleaver and Sharice Davids and all their friends and not even them like I don't think they would do this to be honest I don't think that Sharice Davids would leak something like this I don't as much as I think Manuel Cleaver has lost it I don't think that to Emanuel Cleaver's heart to leak this stuff to national media. Do I think there are people in Congress on the other side of the aisle from the president of the United States who would absolutely leak these plans to anybody and everybody that they could before they took place? Putting our American men and women service members in serious danger. I do. I think that there are at least a few of them that would absolutely do that mark kelly yeah you could go down the list to probably at least half a dozen if not more video yeah yeah they would absolutely do that and that's sad to say it's sad to admit that people would put their hatred for the president above the safety of the american men and women in the military but i think there's a handful of people out there who would do it i do and that doesn't make me happy or proud to say in fact it's sad to have to admit that but i think that's the world and the country we're currently in so the president and his team elect to go ahead and obviously do this attack do this operation epic fury take out the iranian leadership and now we're sitting here on day three and already the washington post has a story Congress will debate an Iran conflict that is well underway. CBS News reporting lawmakers stress new urgency around war powers votes after Iran strikes. So what they're going to be doing is probably yelling about this in the halls of Congress as it's actively playing out in real time. That's that's how this is going to work. And it's all going to be a dog and pony show. That's largely what's going to happen. So you had that coming out of our local media as well. you had this from Sharice Davids, which I didn't think was a bad statement, but she just can't give the guy any credit. She just can't do it. You know, it's like if the Chiefs lose a game to the Broncos or the Raiders or the Chargers, we just can't say the other team played a better game. We just can't get ourselves to do it sometimes. And that's exactly what I'm reading between the lines on here with this Sharice Davids statement. She writes over the weekend, for decades the Iranian regime has killed its own citizens robbed them of their freedom funded regional terrorism and contributed to global instability I believe in the Iranian people's right to self-determination and I'm committed to Iran never developing nuclear weapon capabilities all right sounds like you would support this then right that's the opening couple of sentences from Sharice Davids Sharice Davids goes on to note that said costly endless wars without congressional authorization are not the answer. We cannot repeat the mistakes of our past, and I'm extremely concerned about what this attack could drag us into. I'm especially thinking of our service members and hoping for their safety. How about praying for their safety? There's a thought. The president has not granted congressional approval for these acts of war. At the least, this administration must immediately answer to Congress on its objectives, legal justification, and plans to prevent the unnecessary death of American service members. They just can't give them a win. It's a, yeah, these guys were terrible. These guys were evil. We're glad they're gone. But that's what this is. And that's what I'm reading between the lines on here from Sharice Davids. And I wish they could say, we're glad these guys are gone. Thank you to the administration. but we have some questions and if they said that i would say that's fair that's fair to say but if you can't come out and give some credit where it's due at the top and then say but here are my concerns with this administration as much as i appreciate them taking out the supreme leader and all his henchmen i would have so much more respect if you said that and then said yeah but here are my concerns but they can't get themselves to do that they just can't and that's beyond frustrating because this is bigger than red versus blue left versus right it's about not just freedoms here in america but freedoms around the world coming up next what do we know about the south kansas city warehouse that could be a nice detention facility next do you remember gosh guess it would have been about uh two three weeks ago now when it was announced that the brothers platform ventures which owns the building in south kansas city that was considering selling to dhs to turn into an ice detention center remember when that announcement came down and they said hey by the way we are not going to sell to dhs and you had people all across kansas city doing victory laps and i said well i'm not convinced this is done i'm not convinced this is over it's something we should still keep an eye on there could be a future deal struck there could be some way around this beyond a traditional you know let's sell the DHS at such and such price there could be an eminent domain play here by the federal government I mentioned all these things the day after this company came out and said we're not selling the DHS and i was just like pump the brakes let's see what happens here well now over the weekend you had an article that was written by the former kansas city star reporter melinda henneberger on her substack page kansas city stack writing here is platform ventures working with the government on another path to an ice warehouse in kansas city and she goes on to talk to mayor lucas in this piece extensively about how she's hearing specific chatter amongst Kansas City developers that there may still be a plan in place and that instead of selling the property to the government the federal government could end up condemning the property then she writes here the government would simply compensate platform ventures for its condemned property I threw this out there three weeks ago on the show as a possible end result and outcome for this South Kansas City detention facility. Because then, you know, the feds could try to deal with this and the city could try to fight back against it. But once you get eminent domain involved from the federal government, there's not a city ordinance that's really going to get in the way here. The city can act like it will, but there really isn't a city ordinance that's going to get in the way. So now this conversation is picking up in certain media circles around Kansas City. And Melinda Hennenberger interviews Mayor Lucas in this piece that she writes here, saying that the mayor takes this possibility very seriously. He told her over the weekend, he told her yesterday, that this potential gives me some of the gravest concern I've had yet. he goes on to say here this would be the most efficient way for platform ventures to get around all the city ordinances which is basically have the government condemn the land condemn the property lucas goes on to tell kansas city stack you get your money the seller and we the government get a vastly more efficient opportunity to build a structure redesign it for a prison encampment he says here they can seize the private property particularly on a friendly action like this and proceed from there the mayor said as quote both a shrewd business and political strategy platform ventures may have waited until the giant ice detention facilities that so many communities don't want were no longer the top story in the country this was the issue of three weeks ago a month ago now they've killed the ayatollah okay i don't think the timing of operation epic fury was something that the individuals at platform ventures really planned into their potential decision here if this is the way this thing goes and i don't i don't know right now i'm just telling you that i was speculating this three weeks ago and now you have some kansas city media members elsewhere actually speculating this themselves as to this potentially being the way this all plays out between DHS and the organization group company Platform Ventures that owns the warehouse in South Kansas City so now the mayor says here that when he met with the Anderson brothers of Platform Ventures on February 4th in a behind-the-scenes effort to convince them not to go forward with the sale they told him they could not get out of the agreement the mayor goes on to say i won't say it was a rosy conversation but it seemed like they thought they were stuck with the deal so a week later when they announced they were not stuck with the deal after all lucas was surprised and unconvinced that they'd had a change of heart let me put you in these guys shoes for a second here All right. You own this warehouse. Your Kansas City is through and through. You grow up here. You build your business here, your residents here, your taxpayers here. And you spend the last month getting absolutely dragged by your own politicians, by your own mayor. you then have your phone number your pictures all leaked on social media you're getting harassing messages and and and threats and you've got law enforcement having to watch your homes and all these different things happening what are you doing right now what are you thinking about right now do you think these guys are going to go back to the mayor here this week depending on how all this plays out and be like you know what yeah let's let's let's sing kumbaya let's go at this together let's make sure we got each other's back slap each other on the back and let's fight the feds together mayor q in kansas city when you've got city council members like jonathan duncan literally saying that these guys these brothers should be basically look down upon whenever they show up in public around Kansas City That what was said on social media by some of these people I mean the mayor in this article with Melinda Hennenberger he still calling these things concentration camps And you think that these guys are going to work with you I mean, come on, you got to be smarter than this. But no one's being smart right now. No one's using any common sense right now. Everything is so emotional. But if the mayor really thought that these guys were going to potentially work with him if this deal in South Kansas City is not done on this warehouse. He's doing a terrible job of trying to lay the foundation to get on their good side. Terrible job. And he's smarter than this, which tells me he's getting caught up in the political nonsense of the moment. He's not thinking clearly. Nobody would put the concentration camp stuff in a piece with Melinda Hennenberger, of all people, who makes some people in Kansas City media who are left to center look like they're Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump reincarnated. I mean, you got to be kidding me. They had a baby. These people in Kansas City media would come across like that versus, you know, what you're seeing right now from folks on the other side. So it just doesn't make any sense. Politically, it doesn't make any sense. It's a terrible miscalculation by the mayor to have this big, broad conversation with Henningberger and then potentially try to go back to these guys to stop the feds from some kind of condemnation terrible move now for those of you wondering what's going on with the lady who lit the warehouse on fire it's not done i told you the feds are on it you've got the u.s western district of missouri handling the case it's not being forgotten about the stuff just takes a while it moves slowly and i know it's like easy to sit there and say well when i watch law and order it moves a lot faster trust me i'm guilty of that as well okay i love a good episode of law and order but this thing is taking a while to set up and it's not being forgotten about it hasn't been you know dropped by anybody it's not uh being forgotten about it's just taking a little time to make sure all the pieces are correctly lined up i know we say it's not tv but i will give credit to melissa johnson jackson county prosecutors something might happen over the weekend monday or tuesday somebody's charged so she's moving and she was even stepped forward on this particular case and said hey the feds want it so we'll let them have it yes but there's nothing nefarious going on in this deal right melissa johnson's not getting in the way of anything um she's not trying to stop the u.s western district of missouri she's not getting in the way she's not really wanting any part of this which is good that's kind of how you want it right right let this be handled by the western district of missouri which is how it's being handled right now but you know i was talking to people last week about this who kind of have a feeling on how this is going to go charges will come i don't know when but it's in progress we'll leave it at that in the meantime we are waiting on a pentagon briefing on the strikes in iran that's going to be happening at the top of the hour seven o'clock central time we will carry some of that when it does get started with war secretary pete hegseth some of you were riving me on the text line when i called him secretary of defense i forgot he's now the war secretary thank you very much for that i appreciate the heads up to breaking news monday morning i can't be calling him the the secretary of defense and calling it the gulf of mexico i gotta get my facts straight remind you that okay gulf of america and war secretary i'm still kind of getting used to that but uh we'll get there and I couldn't do it without you. Pete Hegseth just wrapped up at the podium, Secretary of War addressing the world after Operation Epic Fury over the weekend. And, you know, Pete Hegseth made it very clear as someone who served during Iraq, this is not Iraq 2.0. Now, I don't think anybody, no matter who is in charge right now, would get up there and claim that they want Iraq 2.0. Does that mean it can't turn into it? No, it doesn't mean that. if you spiral out of control in that region you want the iranians to basically lift themselves up and take over their own country well it's going to be very difficult to do that without some kind of help does that mean boots on the ground i hope not and what was interesting to me is um some polling was done over the weekend and the polling was done by you gov.com they polled you know a few thousand u.s adults on whether or not you approve or disapprove of operation epic fury and killing the ayatollah the approval was 40 the disapproval was 31 not sure it came in at 28 okay so that's that's fine whatever pretty good republicans plus 59 to the green approving this democrats minus 32 disapproving that's just politics independents were basically even at minus one But the most intriguing part to me was when you broke it down by age. Every age group except one approved of the attack over the weekend. Before you sit there and say, well, it's obviously the youngest people who disapproved of this. Not true. 18 to 29-year-olds approved of this attack by 10 points, plus 10. the oldest age bracket 65 plus they approved of the attacks plus 20. So the youngest people agree and the oldest people agree in this poll with the approval of the attack over the weekend Operation Epic Fury 45 to 64 year olds they were in the green plus five the only age group that was negative on the attacks 30 to 44 year olds now why might that be that age bracket is the bracket that is most likely to know people who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan that's the only conclusion i could come to looking at the polling and it makes sense as someone who's like right in the middle literally in the middle of that age bracket i'm thinking to myself well you either grew up with iraq and afghanistan you knew people who served in iraq and afghanistan they went there at 18 19 20 years old so that age group right there is the one that's going to be the most skeptical now that also happens to be and this is why pete hegseth is clearly focused on this that happens to be pete hegseth i mean he's technically 45 but you get the point like he's in that age range where these young men and women were serving in iraq and afghanistan in what turned out to be frankly an absolute utter failure and an enormous waste of money in the process as Well, they know it the best because them and their peers served during that time. So that's why I thought it was important for Hegseth to come out and make it clear. First off, we didn't start the war. We're finishing the war because this has been going on since 1979, since this regime controlled Iran. And finishing it is something that other presidents simply didn't want to do. Going back to Reagan in some respects. obviously i mean carter was a disaster when it came to this regime but you know reagan had his missteps as well clinton largely just kind of was out of sight out of mind as it relates to iran and then george w bush let's be honest gave the iranians a great gift by attacking the two wrong countries around them using all the resources all the money towards them and really strengthening around in the process and then forget obama who was giving the guy billions of dollars you know uh in cash so 45 to 50 years later finally wrapping it up is a good thing but the question is what does the fallout look like and no one knows last hour the secretary of war pete hegseth held a press conference as we entered day three of operation epic fury we did find out as well early this morning that a fourth member of our military died in the operation over the weekend that of course continues today into a third day but Pete Hegseth said to me one of the most important things that he needed to say and that the administration needs to make very clear After the attacks began on Iran overnight Friday into Saturday morning, here was the Secretary of War last hour. To the media outlets and political left screaming endless wars. Stop. This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both. Our generation knows better and so does this president. He called the last 20 years of nation building wars dumb. And he's right. This is the opposite. This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission. Destroy the missile threat, destroy the Navy, no nukes. Israel has clear missions as well, for which we are grateful. Capable partners, as we've said since the beginning, capable partners are good partners. Unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force. That was Pete Hegseth last hour as we aired that here on KCMO. So that that's something that needs to be reiterated. And the next thing would be, OK, what is the off ramp to all this? It's great that you took out this leadership that for 50 years has been killing its own people, was in many ways funders of the 9-11 attacks, funders of Al-Qaeda, then protected Al-Qaeda for years following September 11th. And that's just kind of tip of the iceberg stuff with everything that this regime has been involved with for 45 to 50 years. So great, they're gone. Then what does the mission look like in the days and weeks to come? and how do we make sure that this is not some nation building process i mean i hear the president say over the weekend hey you know what now's the time for the iranian people to kind of take back their country and yeah i'm sure that a lot of them want to do that how realistic is it i don't know is that information out there i'm sure they have some ideas to how it can get done but i'd be curious to know what exactly that looks like so we do not find ourselves in a situation where it's like well we didn't want to do this but uh we realize we kind of have to do a little bit of this like nation building stuff i don't think that rubio i don't think that hegseth trump vance any of these guys really want to go down this road especially jd vance who i realize as the vp you don't have as much juice as you think you do especially when you work for donald trump but This is like everything J.D. Vance spoke out against, frankly, during his time in the U.S. Senate and prior to that as well. But he also served, right? Pete Hegseth, same deal. These guys are part of that generation that saw the worst of the worst of American foreign policy on display in the early 2000s with Iraq and Afghanistan. And the president, as Pete Hegseth noted there, called those forever wars dumb. when they quote Trump it's like the most simplistic terms he called it dumb he said he's an idiot like you know it's fine whatever it's funny um but it's true because as the days and weeks go on people are going to say okay well what does this mean for me and already I'm hearing from some of you on the text line that apparently gas prices are up 60 percent or 60 cents in parts of Kansas City someone in the Northland was texting that earlier I heard from other people around Kansas City saying those gas prices jumped 60 cents overnight. That a ripoff if that actually happening Went up a dime in my area Okay that not a big a which i thought was a lot yeah yeah well if that going on that obvious price gouging however with the market set to open up here in a few minutes it will be interesting to see um what happens with the markets today the futures were not dramatically off the dow is off one percent s&p off one percent nasdaq's off one and a half percent oil has skyrocketed up eight percent as the markets open up here in just a few minutes so that'll be something to watch but you know a one percent dip in the Dow doesn't tell me that Wall Street's freaking out right now you could look at it and say it's down 500 points it's it's about the percentage it's not about the points anymore it's down one percent with the markets opening up here in six minutes now doesn't mean we're not in for a rocky stretch here potentially this week but there's not freak out on Wall Street and no one likes to freak out more than Wall Street. So that's telling to me that they're not overreacting right now in this moment. But I like what I heard last hour from Pete Hegseth. There's no doubt about that. He made it very clear that what we're not trying to do is duplicate the failed policies of, you know, 20 years ago. That's not something we want to be doing. But when you look at some of the propaganda coming out, you may have seen this over the weekend. And I can't believe that this is being carried by major news outlets but abc news reported here iranian officials claim school hit during u.s israel army strikes took out dozens of children that was coming from iran that was coming from their state-run media that there was a strike on a girl's school and you know dozens of kids lost their lives 165 people total and it's like well can we pump the brakes on not reporting Iranian state media news here John it was the first thing I found Saturday I went over to YouTube to look for the clips and highlights I said I don't want MS now and I don't want CNN so oh here's one oh we hit a girls school killed 40 yeah I'm like Iran girls school yeah what would that be like well I'd be curious is there a girls school that's a great question it's a great question but abc news reporting it and it gets see people just read the headlines too right no one actually reads the stories so i saw this going viral on x over the weekend and the headline from abc was iranian girls school gets struck and dozens of you know young girls lose their lives and then when you actually dig into the story it's like okay yes this is the reporting from the iranian state media so there's a reason they may want to put that narrative out there into the ecosystem and i would think that abc news would not blindly report iranian state media news and i was wondering if they'd be at school on a weekend well yeah that's a good point as well it's a good point as well now i've got these texts uh i got a text from a buddy up north this person says gas is 299 at a quick trip up in pleasant valley it was 249 two days ago Wow. $2.99. Yeah. When did this happen? Overnight? Overnight. 50 Cent Jump. I just got a text here from a friend. Yeah, I had $2.49 yesterday, but obviously nothing was open this morning. Glad I filled up on Thursday. I knew Operation Epic Fury was coming. Okay, let's go to Dennis in Bonner Springs. Hey, Dennis. Hey, good morning, Pete. I saw a lady from the National Petroleum Association Saturday on, I believe it was Fox now. She said for every dollar a barrel of crude goes up, your gasoline should go up about 2.2 to 2.5 cents, depending on the octane. The whole thing is these people, and the quick trip is one of the worst people of the whole deal. These people are taking advantage. And unfortunately, the people we've voted in over the years, they've got to increase their price. I believe I was told 30 percent from day to day without getting a gas delivery before it's called fraud ripping us off. And just and I'll end with this one again. The people we've elected haven't protected us. Now we have a president and an administration trying to protect us and doing a damn good job, in my opinion. All right. Thanks, Dennis. I appreciate it. Everyone, multiple texters saying that the gas at QuickTrips all jumped between 8 and 12 last night by 50 cents. So looking at the oil futures, they're up like five bucks. So if Dennis's math is right, then theoretically gas would be up 10 cents right now. But once again, all the gas that's currently at these gas stations, that was all bought at an old price point. They're not paying the price that came out this morning, right? So that's just price gouging is all that is. So I want to play a clip from just over a decade ago. This was shared by Kansas U.S. Senator Roger Marshall yesterday on his social media page. It's from now Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who's also got like 17 other jobs, talking about the Obama administration handing over pallets of cash, billions of dollars of cash on pallets to the Iranian regime. and how this was going to come back to bite us. It was terrible foreign policy, and it was something that he wanted to be on the record over 10 years ago in stating how bad of an idea this was. Here was Marco Rubio a couple of minutes from him over a decade ago, and now fast forward to what happened over the weekend, and it all makes sense. President, I'll be brief. I know the senator from Tennessee would like to close on this matter. I think everything that needs to be said about the details of this deal have already been said. I do want to be recorded for history's purposes, before I know what was going to happen in regards to this, if it goes through. Iran will immediately use the money that it's receiving in sanctions relief to begin to build up its conventional capabilities. It will establish the most dominant military power in the region outside of the United States, and it will raise the price of us operating in the region. They're going to build anti-access capabilities, rockets capable of destroying our aircraft carriers and ships, continue to build these swift boats that are able to come on us, these fast boats that are able to swarm our naval assets. And they'll make it harder and harder for U.S. troops to be in the region. They'll also work with other terrorist groups in the region to target American servicemen and women. And they may or may not deny that they're involved, but they will target us and raise the price of our presence in the Middle East until they hope to completely pull us out of that region. They'll also continue to build long-range missiles, missiles capable of reaching the United States. Those are not affected by this deal. and they'll continue to build them as they've been doing. And then at some point in the near future, when the time is right, they will build a nuclear weapon. And they will do so because at that point they will know that they have become immune, that we will no longer be able to strike their nuclear program because the price of doing so will be too high. This is not just a work of imagination. It exists in the world today. It's called North Korea, where a lunatic possesses dozens of nuclear weapons and a long-range rocket that can already reach the United States. and we cannot do anything about it. An attack on North Korea today would result in an attack on Tokyo or Seoul or Guam or Hawaii or California. And so the world must now live with a lunatic in possession of nuclear weapons. And this is the goal Iran has as well, to reach a point where they become immune to any sort of credible military threat because the price of a military strike would be too high. And then they become an established nuclear weapons power. and never in the history of the world has such a regime ever possessed weapons so capable of destruction. Iran is led by a supreme leader who is a radical Shia cleric with an apocalyptic vision of the future. He is not a traditional geopolitical actor who makes decisions on the basis of borders or simply history or because of ambitions. He has a religious apocalyptic vision of the future. One that calls for triggering a conflict between the non-Muslim world and the Muslim world. One that he feels especially obligated to trigger. And he's going to possess nuclear weapons. This is the world that we are on the verge of leaving our children to inherit. And perhaps we ourselves will have to share in it. And so I want to be recorded for history's purposes, if nothing else, to say that those of us who opposed this deal understood where it would lead. and we are making a terrible mistake. And I fear that a passage of this deal will make it even harder for us to prevent it. And I hope that there is still time to change our minds, but here's the good news. Iran may have a supreme leader, but America does not. In this nation, we have a republic. And soon we will have new leaders, perhaps in this chamber, but also in the executive branch. And I pray that on their first day in office, they will reverse this deal and reimpose the sanctions and back them up with a credible threat of military force, or history will condemn us for not doing what needed to be done at this critical moment in the world's history. I yield the floor. That was Marco Rubio 11 years ago. That was right before we delivered $1.7 billion in cash to Iran in the final year of the Obama administration. That, yes, was delivered on pallets in foreign currency. and Marco Rubio was like we are not going about this the right way with these guys and 10 years later you look at it and he was right and now as the president of the United States said over the weekend this was not us starting the war this was us ending a nearly 50 year war where these guys who have run this Iranian regime have by and large gone out there and killed Americans on and off for the last 50 years and caused terror around the entire world. That's what this really was about. And the bigger picture also here is this. You know, the president's worldview was that for the last 50 years at least, the U.S. was basically paid to, was paying to protect everybody, right? That's what we've been doing. We've been paying to protect everybody. We've accepted largely bad trade deals to maintain what people will claim is stability. And all while apologizing for being in charge. Think about that, right? That's kind of what we've done. We've had to apologize for our American greatness while also paying to protect everybody around the world. And doing it because if we don't do it, we'll be even less stable than we currently are. And Trump's blown that whole thing up. he's nuked the entire narrative and he's done it in the span of about 13 months and as Rubio's made clear also over the last couple of days or so the goal here is to transform the global world order to America's advantage instead of us having to basically react and kind of put ourselves behind the eight ball the actions in Venezuela and Iran undercut who Russia and China who look totally powerless as their allies are knocked off. This is not about checkers. We're looking at the game of 3D chess. And by the way, Marco Rubio is the guy leading the way. I mean, Marco's putting himself in a fantastic spot for 2028 if you want to look at the politics of all this right now, if they can effectively get in and out with this Operation Epic Fury. Now, if the whole thing goes sideways, then you know what? They're all screwed. Politically, they're going to be in a lot of trouble and the world's going to be in a much worse place. But their track record's pretty darn good on this stuff. And you're not seeing any real active response from China or Russia. And they obviously had deep ties to Venezuela, got Maduro out, and now Iran. They've been very silent as well in the wake of that.