Iran would be a ‘parking lot’ if they attacked Israel: Leslie Marshall

Throughout the region saying the same thing. Let’s bring in our panel Washington Post columnist Mark Thiessen, Leslie Marshall Democratic strategist, and Matthew Continetti fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Mark, the don’t. It doesn’t seem like it’s working. It is not. And look, Donald Trump was absolutely correct what he said in that press conference today with Mike Johnson. They the Iranians were broke when he came to office because of the crippling sanctions he had put on the regime. He he also warned them that if you kill it, he drew a red line and said if you kill a single American, we will either you or your proxies. We will not strike the proxy, we will strike you. And when they cross that red line he killed Qassem Soleimani and that set restored deterrence in the region and it lasted until Joe Biden came in and allowed them to kill Americans with impunity. They killed Americans on October 7th. They were Americans killed there. They had their proxy. Hamas is holding Americans hostage. And then they kept firing hundreds of missiles, missile attacks on U.S. troops and eventually killed an American. So this is, this is, this is weakness. And you and I both served in the Pentagon under Don when we’re in Rumsfeld was there and he said weakness is provocative. That’s a that is a very important lesson to remember. And we’re seeing the problem, how provocative it is right now. I was covering it. You were working for Rumsfeld. And you’re right. This is the former CIA director, former Secretary of State Leslie, and also a person who was warned and was under the threat of attack from Iranian terrorist Mike Pompeo about this. What we’re talking about in the next 24 or 48 hours is just a continuation of a failed policy to actually protect Israel. It won’t surprise me if it’s a strike that has some level of ambiguity so that the Iranians won’t unite the whole world against them. So think maybe could be a cyber strike, could be a strike through a proxy. On the other hand, they may just decide to come over the top and launch missiles directly from Iran into an Israeli asset somewhere in the world. It’s not often, Leslie, that we talk so openly about an attack that’s going to happen. Everybody across the board is saying that it is. Israel’s preparing for it. The question is what happens afterwards? Well, a number of things here to unpack. First to me, you don’t show your cards. OK. So to me, don’t, don’t. We don’t need to tell you what we’re going to do. Let you use your imagination too. I understand what Mark said regarding October 7th, but we are talking about retaliation. So says Iran for Israel allegedly attacking their guys, right. And so some people would say, what was Israel and how and how and how many and how many? How many mistakes can we have? First of all, Iran does not have the capability to fight Israel, certainly not the United States. They don’t have it. Not only do they not have the the money, the weaponry, but who does as Hezbollah. And Hezbollah is right there on the Lebanon border with Israel. And that is a huge concern. But I am confident not just in our president, I am confident in our our Pentagon. I’m confident in our military, our forces throughout the world and our allies to keep their word to Israel as we always have, and to protect them. Iran would be a parking lot if they truly attacked Israel. I mean what in minutes when you look at how many nuclear weapons Israel has depending on what report you believe this would be a suicide mission by Iran to. I think their bark is bigger than their bite here. I certainly hope I’m right on that. Well you know The thing is Matthew and and responding to Leslie we’ve heard that don’t all the way for for months now about proxy attacks it was don’t about the hootie’s which to this day continue attacks on US bases in the Middle East and and even ships we’re adding more to the region in response to these threats. But I get the ambiguity Leslie but Matthew the don’t it’s still going Brett the administration policy has been all over the map. I mean, the clips that we showed at the beginning of the segment had administration officials declaring solidarity with Israel Africa October 7th, whereas just a week ago President Biden was now calling on Israel for a unilateral ceasefire and to stop the offensive in Gaza and not go into the last Hamas redoubt of Rafa. From weeks the administration rhetoric has been more focused on Israeli malfeasance than what Hamas has been doing or what Iran has been doing. And now suddenly they turn around and wonder why Iran feels emboldened to retaliate for this strike against one of their terrorist commanders that was hiding out in Syria. The administration has lost the plot on the Middle East. They have to recognize that the real threat here is Iran, and we have a common threat between Israel and the United States, which is Iran. And it’s time we stop treating the Iranians like there’s some kind of off the board piece that doesn’t matter. It’s maximum pressure, sanctions and hit their proxies hard. And even as Trump did, and as the Israelis did, go after Iranian assets directly, OK, I want to play a sound bite from Kamala Harris, vice president. She was in Arizona on a now familiar topic. Overturning row was just the opening act, just the opening act of a larger strategy to take women’s rights and freedoms. Part of a full on attack state by state on reproductive freedom. Donald Trump is the architect of this healthcare crisis. All right, The vice president on the attack there in Arizona, our latest poll says voters trust President Biden more on election integrity and the issue of abortion. But then you look at the economy and immigration, and it’s completely different to the former president. Mark your your assessment of this? And obviously we’re going to see a lot of it before Election Day. Well, if you look at that poll, the number one and #2 issue for the for the voters are the ones they don’t trust on Joe Biden. On the the the the ones that they care less about or are less less driving the voters are the ones that they that Democrats have strength on. I mean, look, Kamala Harris. Joe Biden is the most unpopular president in the history of presidential polling. Kamala Harris is less popular than him. She she literally they they they would probably they would probably think about getting rid of Joe Biden if they didn’t know that Kamala Harris they’d have to ditch Kamala Harris as well and they’re not the party of identity politics is not going to ditch the first black American black woman vice president and and keep her from the White House. So. So you know she’s going to go out there she’s going to talk about abortion because it’s literally other other than Donald Trump. The only issue they have to campaign on because he is underwater by double digits on every single other issue that voters say they care about. All right. The vice president’s on on the move campaigning. We’re going to take a little trip down the road to a place we call Canada Casino. And it’s the vice presidential version, not with Kamala Harris but on the other side. Who will former President Trump pick. You have $100 in chips. Start with you, Leslie. Who you going with? I’m. I’m going $20 on Tim Scott $40 on Elise Stefanik and $40 on Kristi Noem because and and because Donald Trump said he wants a woman. I put more money on than women. Right. I’m going to put $80.00 Brett on Marco Rubio and 20. I’m sorry. The rest of my money I’m going to put in honor of Charles Cranheimer devote to wine women and saw thank you that’s good to be back on the table. Thank you for your bets, Mark, $40 on Rubio, $20 on Tim Scott, 20 on Stefanik, 10 on Sarah Sanders, and 10 on Doug Burgum as the as the dark horses spreading the money around. All right, panel thanks. Up next the Friday lightning round.