Well, now we all take a look and see what happens here coming up later this morning when a blockade is scheduled to begin courtesy of the United States on the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. and Iran failed to reach an agreement over the weekend. Brian Mast is joining us courtesy of our friend Mark Alford. He set this up yesterday and he is the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Florida Congressman on KCMO in Kansas City. Congressman, thanks for joining us on KCMO Talk Radio as we sit here on Monday morning, of course, without any agreement over the weekend. What should Kansas Indians and Americans by and large be thinking about right now as this war continues to drag on? Yeah, I'll paint a picture of a couple of things. So you started out by saying, yes, what went on? We're Vice President Vance in Pakistan speaking directly to the Iranians. First time that's happened since 1979. Those talks failed. Now, it was a success that in fact we were actually speaking to one another directly. That's a change that hasn't happened literally in decades. It is a success that the United States of America has been conducting freedom of operation movements through the Straits of Hormuz. Which have been successful to this point. And it's also a success that we're not being reactive, but we're being very proactive in saying, you know what, Iran is not going to determine who goes in and out of their ports. America is going to determine that and they're not going to be able to charge any sort of fee or toll or anything else to anybody. That is not going to be allowed in any way whatsoever. And that is something that proactively we are now controlling. Those are all successes. The ceasefire will continue hopefully to hold for another week. That is also a success. But we need to get to the point of how do we have Iran at the table to negotiate to the point that we have determined has to be the final outcome. No nukes, no terror proxies, no missiles and drones that are firing at the U.S. as they have for decades or our allies in the region. And that's what's of course still the largest part of what's on the table. Okay, so with what happened over the weekend when you looked at it going into it versus what came out of it, were your expectations met or were you saying to yourself, boy, I wish we would have ultimately gotten that deal. And if so, how does it impact things now going forward? Hope is not a strategy. Certainly there was hope. You hope that Iran would be sensical about something, but history tells you they will not. And so any interview that I did prior to those talks beginning, I said, what do you expect? You expect Iran to lie number one. Why? Because that is what they do every single time they sit down with the United States of America or with anybody in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, take your pick. They'll all acknowledge they just are constantly being lied to their face. So that was expectation number one. Number two, they are going to push back on anything that we demand, whether it's no nukes or terror proxies, they'll say absolutely not. They want to regain, remain having that control over Hezbollah and Hamas and the Houthis and others. Anything that they say they want, they are going to continue to push for like they want this permanent toll over the Straits of Hormuz, all of those things being non-starred. So really, I would say it almost exactly met the expectations that I had, but it's still positive that we did sit down face to face in a way that hasn't happened since 1979. You got to sit across the table and look your enemy in the eye. So now with the Straits of Hormuz set to be controlled by the United States, I guess as soon as an hour or so from now, what does that mean from the standpoint of our men and women in the military? You're obviously a veteran yourself. You have a purple heart. Many people are going to know your story. But the men and women in the military, what kind of risk do you think this puts them in versus the risk they've been in already over the last five, six weeks? I wouldn't say it's an elevation or a de-escalation of the threat assessment for any service member in or near the Straits of Hormuz. Why? Because we continue to conduct operations in coordination with a number of allies there to knock any piece of ordinance that's flying through the sky, whether it's a ballistic missile, a drone, or somebody firing something off their shoulder. Anything else, continue to conduct those operations for the purpose of freedom of navigation. Continue to conduct the operations at the point that the ceasefire would potentially come to an end if that took place in a week of destroying every single piece of Iranian military hardware that can or has reached out to touch an American in the past. That was the mission set that was laid out to accomplish. That's not taking place this week because of that ceasefire. But if that ceasefire came to an end, those would resume. So I wouldn't sit here and tell you that I think the threat assessment changes at all. If anything, you can just say it's changed because of the ceasefire that's been in place for the last week that has held. That has lowered the threat assessment. But obviously everybody that is in uniform on a vessel anywhere over there still, of course, on the highest level of alert because Iran could change their mind at any point and start firing something. Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a Florida congressman joining us here on KCMO talk radio in Kansas City. Now with the reports, the president, of course, saying last night that he wants to see more of these oil tankers using oil here from America. What is the realistic expectation on that front and the impact here in the United States where we have seen obviously gas prices on the uptick in recent weeks? The reality is you see that playing out in real time. If you're tracking vessels traversing across the Atlantic or take your pick of various waterways, you are seeing those shipping companies reroute to the North Atlantic to across the Atlantic to get North American oil. That is something that you can see in real time. Just like any supply chain, you can see things moving across it. That is something that you can see still bottlenecks, of course, in the Straits of Hormuz still bottlenecks in the Red Sea because of all the threats going on. But there is a transition for shippers literally taking place as we speak. It's nothing mythical. It's something that you can just obviously see. That's a great thing for American energy producers to have that be realized. But of course, everybody is still subject to global energy prices, which is something you still deal with. You're not just dealing with what is the cost of extracting oil, refining oil in North America. You deal with the global costs and those global costs remain the same. So now as you look at what is next here, Brian Mast is joining us on KCMO, Talk Radio, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman on 957 FM. What is that thing that as Americans start their week today on a Monday morning, they should be watching when it comes to the ceasefire, the conflict, and what maybe this looks like in the days to come? You know, kind of just cover what we've covered already. One, America and Iran have spoken, and I think there will be another opportunity for us to sit down and speak. That's a positive. Number two, freedom of navigation movements, our exercises are being conducted through the Straits of Hormuz. That is a positive thing. Why? Because as we do freedom of navigation with U.S. military vessels, you look to see the same thing take place with commercial vessels and fleets. You see oil and those oil transporters coming to North America. That is a positive thing. You see the ceasefire holding. That is a positive thing. This and a hundred other things that CENTCOM is working on to make sure that they accomplish what they set out to do 40 days ago, which is make it so that Iran can never again reach out and touch the United States of America in the ways that they've done in the past, whether it's firing at our bases in Syria and Iraq, killing three Americans at a place called Tower 22 in Jordan about a year and a half ago. Everything that they've done with the Houthis in, you know, a terror proxy group out of Yemen where they've been firing and firing at epicenters of Americans in the region. You name it, bring all of those actions to an end. All of this is being conducted in a 40 day window that we're at so far, largely in a silo of Americans alone doing this, even though it benefits a host of other allies from Europe to Asia. And you make the comparison to say, you know, we're doing what Europe couldn't do in four years. We're accomplishing this in really a 40 day window. And a lot of people don't recognize the perspective of that, you know, because you see Europeans complaining about this, not doing anything at all, largely. Well, they're looking to see what's played out for them with Ukraine for, you know, four years. They don't understand doing combat operations in a limited way to bring the result that you want over the course of, you know, hopefully 40, 60 days, something like that. They just don't have the same concept. In the final minute, you know, you mentioned our allies. How I know that pulling out of NATO or resetting that alliance and relationship needs Congress, the president can't do it under executive order or executive power. But is there an appetite for that right now in Congress based on how the last 40 days have gone with our allies? Again, it's not to say there's no partnership, but there are some very serious strains. You look at, you know, what's going on with Starmer, you look at what's going on with Spain, with other places specifically, not being willing to assist in any way or allow us to utilize the bases of operations that we have had to protect them for years over years against Soviet aggression. Those are very, very serious violations of our relationship. Now, in a couple of seconds, just to say, I believe that these things can be reset. It's important just like we have tough conversations with our kids. Sometimes we have to have tough conversations with our allies. And that's the point that we're having right now. Tough conversations so that we realize real security instead of just the illusion of security. Brian Mast, he is the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Florida Congressman on KCMO in Kansas City. Congressman, thank you so much for being here on KCMO. We appreciate the time. We'd love to talk to you again soon. Appreciate the questions. All the best. You bet. Brian Mast on 95, 7 FM. He's got a great story and a great history. He's been a member of Congress now for nine years, I guess it's been at this point. Veteran of operation and during freedom lost both his legs while serving as a U.S. Army explosive ordinance disposal technician in Afghanistan back in 2010. And he received the bronze star and purple heart for his actions. This isn't your average podcast. This pot is about to be crazy. I don't even know what's going to happen. This is full send. It's just like a boy scrap. Join the party. We threw like a spontaneous party out of nowhere. It was crazy. And we pulled off a crazy prank. Prinks, parties and viral culture at its wildest. Just seeing like the guys that you brought in and like seeing their different personalities and stuff. It's been entertaining, dude. This could be the greatest content build of all time, bro. The full send podcast. Dude, let's get ready to rumble. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Let's do it. Full send golf. You guys know how much I really, really love golf. I think every week would be dope to post on the golf channel. I want to get a lot of guests on here. Selim's going to take a leap. I'm down to be in it. It's not really work to play golf. Join the party on the golf course. I was like, let's go to the range. So what are we putting on it? We said 10K, right? 10K. We probably bet more than all the other golf channels, right? 10K, 9-ohls. Those guys bet for like cookies. I feel like I'm going to shank it. This guy's been trading like a Navy SEAL when it comes to golf. I'm very, very excited. You excited? Yeah. Full send golf. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.
