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Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

2/28/26: K&S React: TRUMP LAUNCHES REGIME CHANGE IRAN WAR

28 Feb 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 17.846 Unknown

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. On the Adventures of Curiosity Cove podcast, when peanut butter disappears from school, Ella, Scout, and Layla launch a full detective mission. Their search leads them back in time to meet a brilliant inventor whose curiosity changed the world.

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18.026 - 39.454 Unknown

In this Black History Month adventure, asking questions, thinking creatively, can lead to amazing discoveries. Listen to Adventures of Curiosity Cove every Monday from the Black Effect Podcast Network. on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have?

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When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

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68.849 - 82.489 Unknown

Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move.

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105.078 - 124.748 Saagar Enjeti

Hello, everybody. Unfortunately, we're having to join you this Saturday morning. Donald Trump has launched a major regime change war with Iran. This appears to be the full Monte crystal. We have the video that the president released at some 2 a.m. Eastern time where he declared this war. Let's take a listen to some of the justification.

126.03 - 158.334 Donald Trump

A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.

Chapter 2: What prompted the US to launch a regime change war in Iran?

559.359 - 579.108 Saagar Enjeti

military there will be some rolling types of strikes, one to two days of strikes, reassessment for battle damage, one to two days of strikes. Obviously, the enemy also gets a vote and they are having their vote right now. Do we want to go and put the list of countries that Iran has bombed already after the The initial strikes that happened on Tehran early 2 a.m. our time.

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579.128 - 605.665 Saagar Enjeti

So middle of the day for all of them. The list, I believe. Yeah, here we have it. We have a number in Bahrain. We have a number in Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Jordan. Their videos coming out are amazing. Unbelievable already to anybody who has visited or lived in the region. The most striking is exactly the one that you can see there on the screen. That was where the Fifth Fleet actually is.

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606.045 - 616.545 Saagar Enjeti

Crystal, can we put the U.S. soldier reacting? I mean, you know, these are not scenes that you really ever would want to see. The next one that we're about to show you is an American, presumably an American soldier.

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Chapter 3: What justifications did President Trump provide for the military action?

616.525 - 634.037 Saagar Enjeti

Service member, some American who is stationed in Bahrain. And you can actually hear him react live as a Iranian suicide Shahid drone makes direct contact with a radar installation in Manama. Can we make that video? Yeah, we can see.

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635.039 - 663.036 Unknown

Oh, shit. Oh, fuck. Oh, shit. Oh. Oh shit. Oh fuck. Oh my god. Oh. Dude, fuck me. A fucking missile actually got through. Oh, there's more. I gotta get the fuck out of here.

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663.37 - 683.198 Saagar Enjeti

So you could see that was from an Iranian suicide drone. He mistook that as a missile. There's other videos actually showing the direct impact. These are scenes that anybody familiar with the battlefield in Ukraine will see. So they have an asymmetric capability already. Many of their missiles have been intercepted in the Gulf. We don't have any confirmed American casualties right now.

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683.258 - 694.051 Saagar Enjeti

But to zoom out a little bit more, I can confirm the Iranians delivered a message from on letter specifically to Jared Kushner and to Steve Witkoff saying that they will not pursue a nuclear weapon.

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694.091 - 717.255 Saagar Enjeti

The Omani foreign minister was actually on television yesterday confirming exactly what you said, that they offered to give up their entire enriched uranium stockpile, provide IAEA inspectors into the country, and basically to end this entire charade. But if you've been watching our program, I do think it's important that you all know The goalposts have all moved on behalf of the Israelis.

717.315 - 739.041 Saagar Enjeti

Originally, it was supposed to be about the nuclear weapon. I also I finally have some more context for Trump saying that the Iranians won't say the magic words about how they won't pursue a nuclear weapon. He believes that any enrichment whatsoever, even for like medical isotopes, is itself a declaration of a nuclear weapon. So just so you all understand where that term came from.

739.021 - 758.304 Saagar Enjeti

I also do think it's important now to see that diplomacy under this administration can never be trusted. I mean, we all knew that it was kind of a joke. Of course, the Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff negotiations, the JCPOA came across the finish line after two and a half years of the most sophisticated experts in the U.S. government on nuclear issues.

758.445 - 779.101 Saagar Enjeti

It was just two real estate guys, one of whom is the son-in-law of the president. They didn't even really know what they were doing. It was all pretextual. Right. Exactly. It was all pretextual for a planned operation that is now here. I also think it's very important to underscore that what the administration has done by doing the full Monty of regime change. There is no off ramp from here.

779.361 - 796.724 Saagar Enjeti

The Iranians are fighting for their survival. There has been no offer. They are saying freedom. overthrow. We have reports already this morning that Ayatollah Khomeini was actually targeted by the United States and Israel in a targeted assassination. We don't yet know what the result of that is, whether he is alive or dead.

Chapter 4: How does the historical context influence the current conflict with Iran?

1021.808 - 1050.178 Krystal Ball

It's happened. It's done. The trap is now closed because Trump has said the end goal is for this government to fall. So what is that going to mean going forward? How are we going to achieve that? Because it is highly unlikely that you're going to be able to achieve it simply with airstrikes where we can, you know, fly over, drop some bombs and get out and, you on the ground.

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1050.558 - 1068.558 Krystal Ball

That is the sort of thing that would require an actual ground invasion. Because think about it. This government, yes, they've been weakened by our economic sanctions, economic warfare. Yes, they've been weakened by the 12-day war. Yes, they're weakened by the fact that there is a significant amount of the population that is very unhappy with them.

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1069.059 - 1088.418 Krystal Ball

But they have also survived for damn near 50 years with the U.S. wanting them gone and wanting them dead the entire time. So do not think that this is just going to be some quick and easy thing where we can drop a few bombs and they're going to say, oh, you're right, we're going to go and, you know, glorious freedom will ultimately reign.

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1088.758 - 1109.26 Krystal Ball

Let me put, you know, this statement from the Iranians up here just to get a sense of, you know, what they're saying. This is Sardar Jabari, advisor to the commander in chief of the IRGC. He says Trump should understand this clearly. What we launched today were our last stock missiles. What comes next are systems and weapons he has never seen before. Now, this may be bluster. We don't know.

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1109.6 - 1133.509 Krystal Ball

But clearly already, and this was something we talked about and we anticipated, they are hitting back much harder than we have ever seen before. With the range of targets that they are striking, with the threats to close down the Strait of Hormuz, which would have huge Huge, huge economic reverberations. You already have a number of shipping companies suspending any sort of travel in the region.

1133.529 - 1156.68 Krystal Ball

Of course, air travel is shut down in the region as well. So we are already at full scale regional war with and very hard to see. What the off ramp is, what that would look like, because, again, you know, this president is not going to walk away with his tail between his legs and say, oops, you know, we didn't accomplish the goal, but, you know, we'll live to fight another day.

1156.745 - 1178.222 Saagar Enjeti

Even if we wanted to, how can we do so when we have the Israelis who are on our right shoulder, who are always willing to up the ante? They will never allow us out of this. That's why they tried to target the Iranian Ayatollah on day one. This is now a war of absolute declaration on the regime. They will now have to fight to the death if they ever want. want to live to see another day.

1178.443 - 1195.982 Saagar Enjeti

And many of the top leadership, it appears, has already been wiped out. Again, as we noted at the beginning, I believe that many plan for this. I think that the IRGC and others were fully aware that this was going to happen and that they are now going to collapse, as we all found out in Iraq.

1195.962 - 1216.013 Saagar Enjeti

Taking out the very top echelon, the Ba'athists, the people who run the country, can often result in a much more strategically bad situation. It unleashes chaos. Lower level IRGC folks, anybody with a monopoly on the use of force, access to weapons, you are now in charge of your own fiefdom, of your own survival.

Chapter 5: What are the implications of declaring a regime change war?

1321.862 - 1337.8 Krystal Ball

Vance because I think this may turn out to be a rather infamous statement that he made yesterday. I think we have to avoid overlearning the lessons of the past. Just because one president screwed up a military conflict doesn't mean we can never engage in military conflict again. That's when I knew we were done.

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1338.421 - 1359.883 Krystal Ball

Yeah. And this is, you know, this is Mr. Position himself like he was Mr. Anti-war. And now he's saying, oh, the Iraq war, that was just a blip. We shouldn't have we shouldn't overlearn the mistakes from that. And to your point about Tulsi Gabbard, you know, she had previously what she would say is going to war with Iran will make Iraq look like a cakewalk. That was her previous positioning.

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1360.444 - 1370.805 Krystal Ball

And now here we are going to launching a major war with Iran and not even some pretext of like it's limited strikes. No, we are going for the whole thing.

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1371.266 - 1392.456 Saagar Enjeti

Yeah. What do you I mean, what is there to even say about people like this? It's the most profound lie to the American people. Man, I can't even think of a similar example. And look, maybe we'll help them pay for it a little bit later. But in the interim, as we all know, we are at their mercy. And what we are now watching is a full-blown regime change.

1392.536 - 1396.401 Saagar Enjeti

John Bolton, Mark Levin, many others who are doing backflips.

1397.342 - 1398.083 Krystal Ball

Lindsey Graham.

1398.103 - 1425.836 Saagar Enjeti

What dream? Lindsey Graham. I mean, my God. I mean, it is really noteworthy insofar as the war has gone now. Is that all not only was diplomacy a ruse, but even the limited strike package was not was a ruse because it presumed negotiation. This is fully the Israeli wet dream of what's happened. And just to prove it to you, can we put that CNN article up there about?

1426.337 - 1451.402 Saagar Enjeti

I couldn't even believe that this is real. I checked. It's real. This is a real article that ran on CNN dot com from Jerusalem. And they are talking about the significance of this day, launching this attack from the book of Deuteronomy and Amalek. So, like, this is the reality. This is remember men.

Chapter 6: Who are the key players influencing the US-Iran conflict?

1649.039 - 1668.972 Saagar Enjeti

I mean, I really think, again, you know, despite all of the talk about peace and diplomacy to launch the war in this fashion, we have no off ramp. It's over. I mean, unless there's a literal about face by Donald Trump, which I think is very unlikely. The other problem, as we saw, is that it's very easy to start a war. It's much harder to end a war.

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1668.952 - 1681.514 Saagar Enjeti

And that's when you're in control of your own government. Now you have a foreign rogue state which will bomb any country which is in the immediate vicinity and can kick things off into higher gear whenever they want to.

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1682.937 - 1704.25 Krystal Ball

And our ambassador to that country. saying that we're down with the greater Israel project, if Israel wants to just fully fulfill their biblical prophecy and take over whatever portions of their neighboring states that they want to. I mean, that apparently is U.S. official policy at this point, given that it was stated by the U.S.

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1704.29 - 1727.106 Krystal Ball

ambassador that it appears to reflect facts on the ground in terms of Israeli behavior and was never walked back by any element of our regime. And I just want to throw the Epstein angle of this into the mix, because you have to look at this and in some senses go, it doesn't really add up there. The military didn't want this war. The political people knew that this could be a big problem.

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1727.126 - 1744.113 Krystal Ball

I mean, you just look at the polling and you know that it is catastrophic. Now, will Republicans who are Trump supporters, will they come around and suddenly flip and they'll support? Sure. But independents, any sort of swing voter, they are dramatically opposed to this, especially when from the jump you're saying, hey, Americans are probably going to die here. Sorry.

1744.894 - 1765.247 Krystal Ball

So the political piece, the military piece, our allies in the region, they did not want this war. Our broader allies in Europe and Canada, they were not pushing for this. This was just Israel and the Israeli, you know, pro-Israel donors in the U.S. and then Donald Trump. who decided that this is the direction that we should go in.

1765.667 - 1781.477 Krystal Ball

And so you have to factor into this, okay, they are not so stupid in this government that they can't see what we do, that this is potentially disastrous, that there's no off-ramp, that we could get dragged in, that it's this massive regional conflagration at a time when Trump is already incredibly politically weak.

1781.457 - 1798.978 Krystal Ball

And then so you have to couple that with, OK, well, maybe it really is something that Israel knows about him in the Epstein files. You know, we have this ongoing mass cover up. Clearly, there are things in there he does not want to come out as evidenced by the fact that they are hiding the files, that they are giving Ghislaine Maxwell this cushy treatment.

1799.359 - 1822.411 Krystal Ball

And now I think you have to add another piece of evidence that he has decided to do the thing That is the one line he has always Trump has always been very belligerent, right? Very hawkish. He's not afraid to use the military. But the one thing he seemed to be genuinely concerned about is getting embroiled in a long term forever war, especially in the Middle East. And now here he is.

Chapter 7: What are the potential consequences of the military strikes on Iran?

2042.579 - 2062.807 Krystal Ball

You mentioned Mark Warner. He put out like a really extremely lame statement that I can put up on the screen to give you a sense of, you know, these are some of the things that we're hearing like from him and from Schumer ahead of time, which was hand wringing and concern trolling over the process here. So he says in part by the president's own words, American heroes may be lost.

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2062.827 - 2076.808 Krystal Ball

That alone should demand at the highest level of scrutiny. scrutiny, deliberation, and accountability. So not don't do it, just we need some more scrutiny. Yet the president moved forward without seeking congressional authorization. The Constitution is clear. The decision to take this nation to war rests with Congress.

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2077.209 - 2095.236 Krystal Ball

Launching large-scale military operations, particularly in the absence of an imminent threat to the U.S., raises serious legal and constitutional concerns. Congress must be fully briefed, and the administration must come forward with a clear legal justification, a defined end state, and a plan that avoids dragging the U.S. into yet Another costly and unnecessary war.

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2095.597 - 2113.826 Krystal Ball

So, you know, extremely lame statement there. I will say there are others who have come out and have been much more forceful, including people you wouldn't necessarily expect. This is Tim Kaine. He said, you know, he's a major proponent of clawing back war powers from the executive branch. Has U.S. has President Trump learned nothing? From decades of U.S.

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2113.866 - 2124.622 Krystal Ball

meddling in Iran and forever wars in the Middle East, is he too mentally incapacitated to realize we had a diplomatic agreement with Iran that was keeping its nuclear program in check until he ripped it up during the first term?

2124.903 - 2142.893 Krystal Ball

For months, I've raised hell about the fact the American people want lower prices, not more war, especially wars that aren't authorized by Congress as required by the Constitution and don't have a clear objective. These strikes are a colossal mistake. And I pray they do not cost our sons and daughters in uniform and at embassies throughout the region their lives.

2143.214 - 2160.407 Krystal Ball

The Senate should immediately return to session, vote on my war powers resolution to block the use of U.S. forces in hostilities against Iran. Every single senator needs to go on the record about this dangerous, unnecessary, and idiotic action. So, you know, you're going to have a real divide in the Democrats. No one is going to.

2160.547 - 2177.674 Krystal Ball

Well, except for John Fetterman has already come out and said he thinks this is great and wonderful and whatever. So you've got that. But outside of him, you're going to have two camps. You're going to have the camps like Roe and like Tim Kaine here who are clearly opposed. And then you're going to have the process hand wringers like Mark Warner. And so take careful note of who is who.

2178.155 - 2181.921 Krystal Ball

And then also take careful note of how everybody, Democrat or Republican, is

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