Adam Schiff on Trump's Iran War Failure
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Find Out Podcast. You've got the full crew here. You've got Tim, Rich, Zach, Luke. And we have a very, very special guest today that doesn't need an introduction, but I'm going to do it anyways. We have California Senator Adam Schiff with us. Senator, thank you for joining us today. It's great to be with you. So, Senator, as I was just saying before we went live, there's lots of crazy stuff that we need to get your thoughts on. But we want to start with this Iran deal that I guess the president just signed. They said electronically. I don't know if they sent a docu sign to Iran or how that works.
But that means an auto pen.
Yeah, right. So, Senator, without I mean, we've talked about this, but we'd just love to get your unvarnished thoughts. What is in this deal? And did we get anything at all out of this?
We really got nothing out of this. It is an extraordinary capitulation. And watching the administration officials try to defend this, it would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic. But basically, Iran gets the potential of charging fees after 60 days, something that we've never allowed to happen, but is not ruled out by this agreement. Iran gets a pretty immediate response. Permission slip to export its oil to use banks and other financial institutions, something it couldn't do before because they were under sanctions. So they get all that oil revenue come in. There is also potentially an immediate lifting of the freeze on Iranian assets that could allow them access to $24 billion. You remember Trump just attacking Obama because in the JCPOA, it gave Iran access to $1.7 billion.
Well, this is $24 billion, and it's just a down payment because the doozy of them all is a $300 billion reconstruction fund, about half of which has already apparently been committed, that would go to rebuilding Iran. $300 billion done. They're allowed to keep missiles. So the whole rationale of the war that you kept hearing from Marco Rubio, that we had to do this because of their missiles, because their missiles protect a nuclear program. And now the president goes beyond that to say, we don't really care that much about their nukes or their nuclear dust. So total giveaway. Iran's given nothing. The one supposed giveaway. give back from Iran was also really interesting because it said that Iran reaffirms that it won't develop a bomb.
Well, the use of the word reaffirms was really telling because it's a patent indication that they're not promising anything new. Right. It's reaffirming what they've said before to the degree that we can never rely on them. So we got nothing. Iran got everything. And it is really quite breathtaking.
The good news is that Trump says that we will not be spending money on that $300 billion. And we know that he is always good for his word when he says taxpayers are not going to be on the hook, just like with his ballroom, just like with the wall between us and Mexico. There's no way that we will be on the hook for any of that $300 billion, right?
Absolutely not. And I'm sure that if he promises to paint an Iranian reflecting pool blue, it will be blue.
It's funny you mentioned that, Senator. We were talking about that earlier, but I actually worked at the Interior Department during the Obama administration. So we oversaw the National Mall when he was seeing it, then painting it blue, which just means that heat absorbs more, which produces more algae. It's just another thing that Trump has done where he is trying to claim that he's made something better, but all he has done is spent millions of dollars and getting nothing in return. And I think on this Iran deal, going back to this, I've seen some estimates saying that when you factor in the 300 billion and the 24 billion and the amount of money that we spent conducting the war, we're close to half a trillion dollars.
Is that correct? Which I would argue we just flushed down the drain while also losing 13 service members along the way.
That's absolutely right. And you remember, I think they initially wanted to bring before Congress a $200 billion increase in spending for the Pentagon for the war.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:15–4:41
2
What does Senator Adam Schiff say is in Trump’s Iran memorandum of understanding?
4:41–4:55
3
Why does Schiff call the Iran deal an ‘extraordinary capitulation’ and who benefits financially?
4:55–7:09
4
How could the $300 billion reconstruction fund and released assets affect U.S. taxpayers and dissidents?
7:09–21:38
5
What immediate political and economic consequences—like gas prices and leverage—does Schiff predict?
21:38–32:04
6
How are Senate Republicans reacting privately and publicly to the Iran agreement?
32:04–50:13