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'Not America first, its America alone' - Retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. on Trumps Iran war · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: Tired Brigadier general with the US Army, Stephen Anderson former
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  Speaker 1: Congressman Jane Harmon of California. She served as a ranking
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  Speaker 1: member of the House Intelligence Committee and most recently served
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  Speaker 1: as chair of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to you both. You know, I just want to
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  Speaker 2: pick up on that part, General, that I talked about
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  Speaker 2: Trump negotiating against himself, because everybody else is not at
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  Speaker 2: the table. Tell me who's at the table. The Iranians
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  Speaker 2: aren't there. Jd Vance is somewhere between Washington and Isma Alamabad,
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  Speaker 2: but we don't know his He's got his two real
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  Speaker 2: estate guys on the ground, and we know why they're
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  Speaker 2: there because there's a Trump hotel near you coming soon, right,
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  Speaker 2: So who's negotiating here? What? The President is obviously in
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  Speaker 2: a position where he is, in my view, weakened by
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  Speaker 2: his own erratic behavior.
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  Speaker 3: Well, Michael, you hit the nail on the head. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: who's negotiating. The problem is that, of course, we eventually
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  Speaker 3: got rid of so many of the season diplomats in
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  Speaker 3: the State Department, in the Department of Defense, all the
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  Speaker 3: dog cuts and everything. We don't have anybody sitting at
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  Speaker 3: the table who really knows what they're doing. You've got
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  Speaker 3: two real estate tycoons and JD.
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  Speaker 4: Van's I mean, that is not a.
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  Speaker 3: Recipe for success in any way, and there's absolutely no
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  Speaker 3: way that these talks are going to really achieve the
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  Speaker 3: kind of objectives I think we do. I think the
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  Speaker 3: only thing we can hope for is an extension of
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  Speaker 3: the ceasefire and opening of the Strait of Homus by
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  Speaker 3: both sides, both the Iranians and the United States, and
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  Speaker 3: then some kind of a diplomatic effort that's going to
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  Speaker 3: take many, many months. I mean, remember the last deal
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  Speaker 3: took twenty months to develop, ten years of work prior
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  Speaker 3: to setting conditions to make that happen. So you've got
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  Speaker 3: a I mean, these sides are a mile apart. There's
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  Speaker 3: lots of issues to work. The best we can hope
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  Speaker 3: for ceasefire in opening up the straight.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the mile apart that they are. Can
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  Speaker 1: we pull up the US red lines and Iron's demands.
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  Speaker 1: These are the US demands ranium enrichment, dismantle nuclear sites,
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  Speaker 1: except a broader peace framework called funding to Hamas Husbla
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  Speaker 1: and Hufi's open straight of her Moos, No tolls. And
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  Speaker 1: then these are Iran's demands right to enricheranium and US
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  Speaker 1: Israeli a tacks, ceasefire, and Lebanon compensation for war damages,
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  Speaker 1: lift sanctions, control of straight hormose one. Amazing how much
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  Speaker 1: of this just puts us back in the position of
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  Speaker 1: where we were when Witkoff and Kushner were negotiating this
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  Speaker 1: the first time around, except now we have to talk
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  Speaker 1: about reopening the strait of her Moose.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, getting back to the status quo ante is going
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  Speaker 4: to take a lot of work. But there's another missing
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  Speaker 4: party at the table. Thought I mentioned it. I used
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  Speaker 4: to work there. It's called the United States Congress, which
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  Speaker 4: under the Constitution, is supposed to declare war. And we
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  Speaker 4: may end up sometime somewhere soon with boots on the ground,
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  Speaker 4: at least according to the President's rhetoric. I don't think so,
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  Speaker 4: but he hasn't taken that off the table, so I
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  Speaker 4: think in addition to Taco, there's Coco. Congress always chickens out,
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  Speaker 4: and that's where we are with that. You know, back
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  Speaker 4: to this what could happen? There is some good news
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  Speaker 4: I'm saying it. You know, maybe just maybe Lebanon and
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  Speaker 4: Israel will come to some kind of agreement and maybe,
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  Speaker 4: just maybe Hisbelah will be out of the Lebanese government,
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  Speaker 4: which would be a win for Lebanon and a win
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  Speaker 4: for Israel and a win for Trump and a win
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  Speaker 4: for the world. That would be good. I don't know
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  Speaker 4: that that happens, but it is at least out there.
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  Speaker 4: I don't see a lot of other good news. And
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  Speaker 4: not having at the table, in addition to experienced negotiators
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  Speaker 4: some capable intelligence function is really scary because we don't
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  Speaker 4: know what the Uranians are doing. Rumors are they have
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  Speaker 4: new uranium sites. Who says that could be disinformation? We
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  Speaker 4: really don't know, and I don't think, with all respect
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  Speaker 4: to everybody here, including me, I don't think we need
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  Speaker 4: to know. I think people in classified settings need to
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  Speaker 4: know before they set policy.
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  Speaker 5: Because you brought up the covers of it all the
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  Speaker 5: other eventual Congress what congress eventual hurdle that President Trum's
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  Speaker 5: going to have to deal with when the time comes,
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  Speaker 5: if there is some longer term deal that's negotiated, is
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  Speaker 5: also congressional approval of that deal. A law that was
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  Speaker 5: passed by Marco Rubio, head of the JCPOA, so that
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  Speaker 5: Congress had some authorization over the terms of that deal.
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  Speaker 5: Do you see any sort of deal that's negotiated actually
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  Speaker 5: getting through.
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  Speaker 4: Actually no, not yet. The JCPOA was an agreement, not
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  Speaker 4: a treaty, because I don't think a treaty would have
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  Speaker 4: gone through. What Rubio did is he got a law passed,
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  Speaker 4: and he was the senior player in this law that
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  Speaker 4: said Congress could not with that the President could not
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  Speaker 4: withdraw from NATO without Congressional approval. NATO is a treaty,
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  Speaker 4: so you need it anyway. But just to underscore the point,
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  Speaker 4: Rubio was a valued member of Congress. I think he's
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  Speaker 4: doing a reasonably good job in this role, although it's tricky.
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  Speaker 4: But yeah, I don't see con approved. If Congress isn't
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  Speaker 4: even willing to get in the game here and exercise
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  Speaker 4: its authority under the War Powers Act, I can't imagine
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  Speaker 4: it ratifying a deal that would come out of this.
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  Speaker 4: Maybe putting some guardrails around this would be good, you think.
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  Speaker 4: But but right now, if if the President follows through
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  Speaker 4: on sending thousands of our soldiers, brave soldiers, into harm's
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  Speaker 4: way and and lots of them get killed, how do
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  Speaker 4: you explain, as a member of Congress that a bunch
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  Speaker 4: of your constituents just came home in body bags in
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  Speaker 4: a war that you did not did not weigh in
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  Speaker 4: on in terms of your vote.
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  Speaker 2: You know, general want to piggyback on the Congress Froman's point,
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  Speaker 2: because it does when you're you're looking at the various
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  Speaker 2: players you have the Congress. I love cocko, by the way,
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  Speaker 2: cockor doodle do love that? So got cock over my
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  Speaker 2: loyal let's go there. It really just kind of rolls off.
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  Speaker 2: I love it, you know. So you have these big
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  Speaker 2: players that either don't know how to play or refuse
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  Speaker 2: to play, okay, and then you have, you know, folks
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  Speaker 2: like yourself and the congressman who knows what should be
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  Speaker 2: happening right now, who should be at the table. Very
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  Speaker 2: much to your point, people insecured locations having confidential conversations
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  Speaker 2: about how you're going to move pieces of the test board.
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  Speaker 2: I thought it was very interesting. The former Vice President
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  Speaker 2: of the United States weight in on this as well
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  Speaker 2: in sort of a broader sort of visual of where
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  Speaker 2: we are. Kamala Harris noting at an event hosted by
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  Speaker 2: the Democratic Women's Caucus talked about America's role in the world,
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  Speaker 2: and let's take a quick.
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  Speaker 6: Listen, this president is the first president of the United
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  Speaker 6: States of either party since World War Two to abandon
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  Speaker 6: America's responsibility to one responsibility we assumed imperfect though we are,
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  Speaker 6: to nurture and protect our alliances, our friendships, and to
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  Speaker 6: thumb his nose at them. And two to not even
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  Speaker 6: pretend and in fact dismiss the importance of upholding international
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  Speaker 6: rules and norms.
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  Speaker 2: Those two pieces, I think really go to the heart
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  Speaker 2: of why this is going to be a difficult conversation
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  Speaker 2: for this administration to hold because Donald Trump can't do
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  Speaker 2: either of those two things, and as long as he's
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  Speaker 2: incapable or unstable to do that, everyone around him at
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  Speaker 2: the table, even in confidential settings, will have a hard
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  Speaker 2: time deciding whether or not what they've just agreed upon
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  Speaker 2: is something they can actually execute on.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, the national security apparatus has been completely broken down.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, essentially, what we have we wait for the
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  Speaker 3: president to post a tweet and that's our national.
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  Speaker 2: Wrong.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, but Kamala Harris is right on, spot on target.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it's not America first, it's America alone. That's
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  Speaker 3: what we have right now. We don't have any allies.
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  Speaker 3: We don't have Japan, Korea, Australia, we don't have NATO,
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  Speaker 3: we don't have the GCC. In fact, they're mad at
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  Speaker 3: us because they put We put all these bases there
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  Speaker 3: to help protect them, and now they're getting taking fire
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  Speaker 3: from the Iranians because of the bases that are there.
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  Speaker 3: So we have completely disbanded the National security apparatus. We
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  Speaker 3: need to do something to restore diplomacy in common sense
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  Speaker 3: to our entire political discourse, and it's just not happening
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  Speaker 3: right now.