All right, Congressman, that bipartisan pushback there, four Republicans, two Democrats, does that give you any hope that the deal with Putin is gonna be stopped?

Look, it's outrageous that the President is offering a lifeline.

He's literally making a deal with the devil, and largely this is because he's flailing wildly 21 days before a midterm election because h- it's his own policies, his reckless war in the Middle East that have caused the prices of diesel and fertilizer and, and many other goods to spike.

And so he's flailing wildly trying to make a deal with Putin when he really ought to be making a deal with Ukraine.

Um, if, if you think about it, uh, the spigots are really controlled by the Ukrainians.

The Ukrainians are destroying Russian oil facilities and refineries.

If he wants to make a deal with the Ukrainians to allow that diesel to flow, then he ought to be providing air defense capabilities so the Ukrainians can protect their critical infrastructure, so they can make it through the winter.

W- w- why is the President saying that, Congressman?

What do you make of Tillis's reversal on Hegseth now?

Look, I think it's a little too late, too little too late for that matter.

The last 20 or so months of management at the Department of Defense have been nothing short of devastating to readiness to the culture of the military, to accountability.

It is just, this is the least competent, least capable, least knowledgeable Secretary of Defense that we've ever had.

I've called for his resignation numerous times.

He needs to go.

And there is no prospect for improvement in the environment with him still there.

And if Democrats win control of the House, do you think your party should move to impeach the secretary?

Here's Rep Vindman.

Yeah, so I'll start by saying, you know, when my family fled the Soviet Union, We didn't even speak Ukrainian, we spoke Russian.

That was the language of the regime.

And so I didn't have any real family left there.

What I learned about Ukraine, I learned about from like ethnic neighborhoods in the US and from studies and then my frequent travels after I retired from the military.

I recognize Ukraine as probably the most important geopolitical event going on today.

Yes, there's a war in the Middle East, and that's actually taken up a tremendous amount of bandwidth and time.

This led us directly into our discussion on the widening regional conflict with Iran and the urgent need for congressional oversight of that misguided war.

Without knowing all the details, how can you be sure that it would put us in a worse position? Or is it the fact that you think that we've gotten to this point unnecessarily, only to get even the most nominal games, gains?

Absolutely.

This was not a necessary war.

The president got us into a war without a plan, and we know from, you know, based on the leaks that we've seen from the Iranian side and from the, uh, the US side, including statements from JD Vance, who talked about some sort of $300 billion, uh, reconstruction plan, that this sound...

This has all the, the outlines of a, a terrible deal.

Uh, what we have is the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before this conflict started.

Uh, the outlines of this deal do not seem to address the drone program or the ballistic missile program.

Now, Vance insists the US has the leverage, though, but does that concern you that this requires some level of trust with Iran?

Innocent people have died, whether they are US m- members of the US military or civilians on the ground all across the region who had nothing to do with this war.

Absolutely.

Look, um, the statement that the, the secretary made, uh, during that press conference was shameful.

It was dishonorable.

It was disgusting.

And, uh, I gave him an opportunity to take it back, and, uh, he, he doubled down.

I mean, for him, he's got an audience of one.

To call this a quagmire is an insult to the troops who are fighting this war." But it's an insult to the troops to send them into wars without any, without any valid justification.

What do you want to happen next?

Yeah, absolutely.

I, I want, uh, Polymarket to preserve the records.

I think there needs to be a full congressional investigation.

I, I think these markets right now are insufficiently regulated.

You can bet on things that are, are frankly unacceptable, uh, on, on things related to US national security, and these are perverse incentives.

I mean, the, this, the fact that this soldier, uh, was able to bet on something, uh, that he should've been focused on the mission, he should've been focused on protecting his buddies, and he should've been focused on, uh, US national security.

What do you think about that?

In this administration, I'm just gonna ask, what's your understanding of where we are i- in Iran, and what is Trump trying to do, trying to get out of these talks with, it, it, these talks in Pakistan?

Well, Jonathan, thank you for having me tonight.

Look, the answer is simple.

We're in a bad position, and Donald Trump is trying to get himself out of a pickle.

He started this war of choice about 45 days ago without a real plan.

He thought that a bombing campaign would be sufficient to bring the Iranians to their knees, for the Iranian population to rise up.

It was based on hope, and all that has failed.

So then what do you think that means for the Strait of Hormuz? What happens? Ca- can that geni- genie be put back in the bottle?

Mm

... or Thanos than an American president.

I never thought I would hear an Amer- an American president say that.

I think the president has forgotten that America, uh, can never be great if America's not good.

And so those comments were completely outrageous, and I think rightly started to draw condemnation from Republicans.

Why did the president do this? He did this because, uh, he didn't have a plan going into this conflict, and so he saw this as an escalation.

I don't believe that the Iranians thought that he would follow through, and if you look at the 10-point plan, um, it is, uh, nearly a capitulation.

Mm-hmm

I didn't agree to two million dollars for every ship.

Absolutely.

The Arab neighbors in the region, the UAE, Qatar, all these other Kuwaitis, the Iraqis, are they going to agree to payment of terms? I mean, we're speculating at this point.

I think we need to stay laser focused on what we have in front of us.

And what we have in front of us is a president that engaged in this conflict with Iran without a plan.

He's shooting from the hip and He announces a ceasefire.

Apparently the Iranians, if certain conditions are met, may abide by it.

As someone who formerly worked in the NSC, probably had a lot of situation room experiences and scenarios, is that how the process is supposed to work? Are there normally, traditionally, historically sort of backstops here to prevent something like this happening, where a lot of the—the majority of the intelligence that's actually being presented shows that when something isn't a good idea, that a president actually follows that advice?

T- they've lost their lives, and their families don't yet have a clear answer as to why.

Why and how long and what we're looking to achieve.

As I watched the caskets go by with the president literally just feet in front of me, I kept wondering to myself, "When will this end? What is the purpose of this, uh, mission?" We're expending a, a billion dollars a day.

We lost 13 soldiers, over 200 wounded, and each one of these casualties has a mother, brother, father, son.

We think it's oil and gas, and it is mostly oil and gas that goes through the Strait of Hormuz, but a lot of fertilizer, chemicals and fertilizer go through there as well.

Absolutely.

And I sit on, uh, the agriculture committee in addition to armed services, and so I know that, um, after the war in Ukraine started, the input costs, the fertilizer costs increased for farmers.

And now on top of that, the president started a new conflict, uh, spiking, uh, fertilizer costs by another 50%.

Ex- explain that to, to those of us who are civilians.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, it's, it's actually in black and white, uh, in international law.

So under the Geneva Convention, under the, uh, International Criminal Court, uh, the Rome Statute, uh, the very order, uh, no quarter will be given, that's a violation.

It's, it's, uh, plain and simple, and I've trained hundreds, uh, conservatively, probably thousands of soldiers on the law of war.

Uh, and, uh, everybody, even privates, know that that's illegal.

And now this is a pattern from, uh, Pete Hegseth.

You need to look at a simple map and understand, boy, that's a dangerous thing to do.

Did the administration show you any kind of evidence of an imminent threat in any briefings that you've gotten?

No, absolutely not.

It, it was, um...

Actually, we were lied to by the administration.

Um, eight months ago, uh, the strikes are in, in Iran were supposed to have destroyed, obliterated, was the terminology, Iranian nuclear capabilities.

And now, uh, the president and his administration, senior administration officials are, are talking about a breakout capacity within a couple of weeks.

Uh, there was no imminent...

Should Congress approve given the concerns you have just laid out?

The world's only ever called once under Article 5 of NATO, and it's when- it's after the a- the, the attacks of 9/11 when America called and NATO answered.

Absolutely.

Look, that, that's the only time Article 5 was ever, um, um, actually implemented, and our allies, including the Dutch, who a- are, um, it, the, they're the sovereign, uh, in charge of Greenland, came, and over 26 members of the Dutch Armed Forces, uh, died protecting us.

So it's well past time that we, um, we try to turn the corner and, and clearly indicate that we support NATO, and, um, a lot of that's gonna come from Congress.

It's, uh, it's well past time that Congress actually, um, sides with, uh, NATO and our allies, and, um, I think we have a real opportunity in coming months to do that, and certainly, if not, uh, in coming months, then after the election, and which is why I'm, uh, running for re-election in Virginia's 1st Congressional District, and I invite your viewers to join me in my mission.

Text Join to 82923.

The Supreme Court on Friday paved the way for, uh, state Democrats to move forward with a, with a plan that would enable them to add four Democratic seats, uh, in Virginia.

Yeah, so absolutely.

So all of this, for me, connects in that regard, in terms of accountability.

Absolutely.

And so going back to that stream of consciousness that we heard from the president, saying that we are at war, that's actually not the case.

Congress declares war.

We have not declared war.

And so that earlier point about what these operations are, whether this is murder, and US military killing drug traffickers, or this is war crimes.

We're somewhere in this criminal investigation phase.

If you have the opportunity to ask questions of Admiral Halsey, of Admiral Bradley, what is it that you want to know? What do you think is actually going to clarify the question of what happened here?

Um, w- what do you make of this?

Well, I mean, I guess I think to, um, like a- a mafia-type scenario.

Everybody's looking to profit.

I think Mr. Witkof may be looking to profit, um, th- the president may- may be looking to profit.

And I will tell you, the response, uh, from, uh, my- my own caucus, we just, uh, sent a letter to the president, uh, demanding that he, uh, retract his ridiculous, uh, 28-point peace plan, appeasement plan.

I mean, it- it's an appeasement plan that would make, uh, Prime Minister Chamberlain from World War II in Munich, uh, infamy, uh, blush.

Um, and it's unacceptable.

What would you like to see happen with this phone call?

Explain to us what has happened between you and the Trump administration today over this demand for the call transcript.

Well, thanks for having me, Jonathan.

So, a few days ago on the floor, I called for the release of the transcript, and as I described it, there were a couple of phone calls that I reviewed during my time on the White House National Security Council staff that were particularly disturbing with foreign leaders that the president had.

One of them was the Ukraine call, and as we know, the, the actions in that call resulted in the president's impeachment.

And the second one was the call with MBS, Mohammed bin Salman-...

the leader of Saudi Arabia that had ordered the kill/capture of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post reporter, a resident of Virginia.

When I heard that call, I was shocked by the call.

W- what did you make of Trump's comments today about what he said in those posts calling for the execution of six Democrats who urged service members to disobey illegal orders?

Mm-hmm.

...

Virginia.

And, um, the president, uh, called, um, Mohammed bin Salman, and obviously, uh, my, um, my interpretation of that call, there were two calls that were particularly concerning, uh, from the first Trump administration.

And one of them was the Ukraine call, and as, uh, we all know, that resulted in the President Tr- in President Trump's impeachment.

And, and this one, in my opinion, was, uh, as shocking as that.

Is the plan here a pressure campaign to kind of force them to try- kind of force them to release it?

Look, the president invited MBS to the White House, gave him a, a, a w- very warm reception.

But, um, what was it that was said between Trump and MBS that, that concerned you? I know you can't get into granular detail, you don't have the transcript in front of you and so on, but what can you say?

Well look, um, I was an active duty Army officer assigned to the heart of the Trump White House during the first administration National Security Council staff.

I was a deputy legal advisor and, um, uh, I, I can't get into the details of the call.

Uh, the president, wh- what I'm asking for is the president actually release the transcript of the call, just like he did for the not so perfect Ukraine call, um, so the American people can see what was said so there can be some accountability and closure for, uh, Mr. Khashoggi's, uh, wife and, and children that are left fatherless.

And the long and short is that, um, the president has since actually made his own public statements.

So there, the Woodward book that came out, I believe it was in 2020, where he said he saved MBS' ass.

You think about that in the context of the very much intertwined relationship that the president has with Saudi Arabia and MBS and how he and his family have personally profited, that are at the very least conflicts of interest, perhaps, perhaps even more nefarious as, um, as outright corruption.

Uh, what's your sense of that state of play right now, whether we're ac- we're actually gonna see that?

I am irate that there are not more members of Congress, more Republican members of Congress who are not standing up for the American people in this moment, who are not asserting their duty as a co-equal branch of government.

Well, look, you know, it's not much reassurance, but inside the classified room, there were Republicans that were vocal and that had a problem with what, in my mind and many others, amount to illegal strikes.

I mean, we have a situation where there is evidence sufficient to kill these people.

And they're drug traffickers by all accounts, although that's not completely proven.

Scores of strikes, scores of people killed.

dozen strikes and Republicans complain about it behind closed doors, but they're too afraid to come out and complain about it to the public.

And it's it's undermines our authority as a Congress, the constitutional authority to declare war oversight.

Do you support what Dems in the statehouse are doing?

Can you make sense of this for me? What's going on here? Why the, the change in Donald Trump's tone from, "You don't have the cards," to, "You can win all your territory back," um, and this analysis that it's not really a change in policy, it's just a change in the way Donald Trump talks?

Well, first of all, great to be back with you, Ali.

Look, I got back just a couple of days ago from the first bipartisan delegation, uh, visit to Ukraine from the House, uh, official delegation visit, and, um, it's my first trip in two years, and so I learned a lot, um, from that trip.

And the d- determination of the Ukrainian people, their resilience is, is still, uh, remarkable and the urgency for the United States and for the West to stand by, uh, Ukraine against Russian aggression is, uh, never more timely right now.

And I think what we're seeing is finally, and we, we spoke about this last time, the painfully slow learning process of this president, he's finally starting to learn, he's finally listening to, uh, the intelligence he's receiving rather than, uh, relying on his gut, and, you know, he's flip-flopped a number of times.

Uh, we'll see where this ultimately lands, but I, I like the direction that he's going in now, at least the, what he, what he's verbalizing.

Uh, where are they now? Where are the Ukrainian people vis-a-vis what America says and what America does in their support?

Well, first of all, they're immensely grateful for what we have done to support them, and they still see us as an indispensable partner, and the message was clear.

This is a major part of their air defenses.

Absolutely, Ali, and great to be on with you again.

Uh, look, apparently the president is the last to know, not the first to know, and, um, the buck clearly does not stop with him.

Um, you know, Secretary Hegseth obviously halted weapons shipments last week, which is why I drafted a letter co-signed by 54 other members of the House of Representatives, including Republicans, to immediately restart that.

That looks like it's taking place now, but the halt shouldn't have ever taken place in the first place, and the commander in chief sounds like he was completely out of the loop on the transfer of a billion-dollar weapon system, but, uh, eh, with, uh, each missile being a million-dollar interceptor.

Yet another piece of information the rest of us non-professionals knew about Vladimir Putin for a long time.

Well, you know, the, the, like, level of, of ignorance across this entire administration is really staggering.

Uh, everybody that has spent any time in, uh, foreign policy, uh, geopolitics-I mean, Russia is not a, a, a, uh, a good actor.

When you say that you've had calls following up on this, are these calls from the US Attorney's office in, in Washington? Who's calling you and, and what are they, what are they demanding, or what are they asking of you?

Well, one of the minions in that office called several times and was very insistent that this is a, a top priority for DOJ.

Uh, we said, "Okay, hold your horses, buddy.

We'll respond to you in, in due course." I was frankly busy with, uh, the, the activities of a representative and, uh, sitting in hearings and things like that.

And we, we did respond, um, because ultimately I take this seriously not in that it, it has anything, uh, substantive in it, but it's, it's actually a, an attempt to weaponize government, and that I have a, a major problem with.

And as a member of Congress and, uh, very much in line with what my colleague, uh, Jamie Raskin did, uh, we have an oversight role.

And so we cannot allow, uh, this administration to intimidate and try, try to silence critics, to silence FBI agents and, and law enforcement.

Do you think that Congress has a specific role, has a, has a, has a list of things that can be done to try to push back and curtail the way they see the government as their, their weapon against their enemies?

What was your reaction? I know you've been very close to the situation in Ukraine for some time now, and so it's got to be just jaw-dropping, crazy, bonkers stuff to watch this unfold.

It's actually shameful.

It was sickening to watch, frankly, that both of them go at it, trying to lecture the president of Ukraine, a country that's now in its fourth year of war, about the cost uh, this war is the toll it's taking.

I mean, he knows it better than, than they do.

I mean, it's, it's, it's absurd if you think about it.

Um, and it was so bad.

I actually, uh, got a message from a, um, a German prosecutor that I worked, uh, on, um, investigating war crimes in Ukraine, um, about an hour ago, not long after the, um, after the press conference and they're just astounded.

It just it just looked like something out of The Godfather or something that was playing out right in front of our eyes.

What is the impact of that type of message and disinformation that they're spreading?

Well, you got to remember that the sole reason all of these people are in his cabinet, it's not because they're competent, capable, they have experience, they've ever managed anything.

It's loyalty.

It's blind loyalty.

They would never be selected as manager of a McDonald's as opposed to a secretary of defense.

So I think it's laughable.

And so what they're doing is they know that they're Their job depends on pleasing their boss.

Tell me what you think, and what are you most worried about here?