Friday on the RealClearPolitics radio show — weeknights at 6:00 p.m. on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel 124 and then on Apple, Spotify, and here on our website — Andrew Walworth, Tom Bevan, and Carl Cannon discuss Israel’s long-awaited air strikes on Iran’s nuclear program and the Iranian response, protests planned to counter President Trump’s military parade tomorrow, and Sen. Alex Padilla’s confrontation with DHS Sec. Kristi Noem. We also feature interviews with Rep. Jim Himes and former State Department official Peter Berkowitz for more about the Iran-Israel confrontation, and James Varney talks about his new article in RealClearInvestigations about asylum hearings. *** First up, after years of tension, Israel bombed Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile sites in a pre-emptive strike last night. Will the situation continue to escalate? “It was much bigger than anyone expected — the sophistication, level of coordination, the intelligence used to plan it,” Tom Bevan said. “This is a game-changer for this region. This is something that has been talked about for a long time, but now is actually happening.” “They don’t have bombers, they have jet fighters that can’t carry these huge bunker-busting bombs the U.S. has,” Cannon added. “This is going to require a sustained effort, and hundreds of sorties.” *** And then, starting at minute 7, they also look ahead to President Trump’s military parade in D.C. marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army, and 1,800 No Kings protests scheduled across the country in opposition to it. “The organizers say they are rejecting authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics, and the militarization of our democracy,” Walworth reported. “They’re protesting all the things, all things Trump.” “The military parade drives people in Washington crazy. The streets where I’m broadcasting from are all blocked off,” Cannon said. “People are fleeing by the thousands, every car has nine Democrats in it. They compare it to North Korea, but actually Trump got the idea in France.” “Let’s hope this is peaceful and we don’t get shenanigans all across the country,” Bevan said. “These protests will make the Democrats feel strong and good about themselves, but they won’t change the fundamental dynamics of the political state of this country.” *** In the next segment, at timestamp 13:20, Democrats are rallying behind California Sen. Alex Padilla, who was thrown out of a press conference by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles yesterday. Did Noem’s security detail get a little too rough, or did Padilla get exactly what he wanted? “This idea from Sen. Warren that he was ‘doing his job’ and this was ‘Congressional oversight’ is BS,” Bevan said. “He was there to make a scene, he wanted to make a scene, he did make a scene.” “But this overreaction plays perfectly into their hands. I assume they aren’t really shocked and upset, but happy because in their view the Trump administration has shown its true colors,” Cannon said. “It’s the Reichstag fire! It’s the end times for democracy!” “They didn’t know he was a senator; he’s a big guy coming into the room, being disruptive, and the security guys reacted,” Walworth said. “But that is what they did in that moment, based on their training. Why does that tell us anything at all about the Trump administration, Kristi Noem, or our immigration policy?” *** Plus, at timestamp 21:20, the weekly “You Can Not Be Serious!” segment, with some of the silliest stories of the week. *** And then, at minute 25, RCP’s Phil Wegmann interviews Rep. Jim Himes, a member of the Intelligence Committee, about the escalation of the Iran-Israel conflict. “The initial Israeli strikes were superbly precise and accompanied by a massive failure of intelligence on the part of the Iranians,” Himes said. “Stunningly precise, difficult, probably years of planning on the part of the Israelis in terms of the strike.” “I have to acknowledge that when you look at the Israeli strikes on Hezbollah, on Hamas, they dramatically outperformed the expectations of people who are bitterly pessimistic about the ability to get the ‘bad guys’ in the Middle East,” he said. “There’s very little question that Netanyahu’s goal here is regime change-and not forced regime change, but regime change brought about by the Iranian people,” Himes said. “The Israelis could have gone after an awful lot of oil infrastructure, which they have not done… They presumably could have gotten the Supreme Leader, but did not do that.” *** After that, at timestamp 42:30, Tom Bevan talks to RCP contributor and former State Department official Peter Berkowitz about Israeli-American relations in the wake of Israel’s pre-emptive military strike on Iran, and what it means for the future of the Middle East. “This is an unprecedented attack that displayed planning over many years,” he said. “Remember, Israel first identified Iran as its primary strategic threat in the 1990s.” “They launched about 200 fighter aircraft, 330 munitions or so have been dropped on 100 targets throughout Iran,” he said. “Those who study these matters contemplated that Israel had two options for a strike on Iran. One, go for the nuclear facilities. Or two, go for the military. Israel surprised everybody by going for both, but also attacking some of their surface-to-surface missile sites.” *** In the final segment, at minute 52, Andrew Walworth talks with RealClearInvestigations reporter James Varney about his new article documenting what happened over several days in a New Orleans immigration court: “The Rule of Law: A Visit to Immigration Court” *** Don’t miss a single episode of the RealClearPolitics weeknight radio show – subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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