Fox News host Mark Levin discussed the necessity of eliminating Iran’s capacity for having nuclear weapons with Arkansas GOP senator Tom Cotton, the Iraqi war veteran who is the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and sits on the Armed Services Committee. Cotton has long been a staunch opponent of Iran having a nuclear weapon; he led the charge against the Obama nuclear deal with Iran that permitted the terrorist regime to continue the pursuit of building nuclear weapons.
“I’m not asking you to violate any secrets, obviously, or anything of that sort,” Levin began. “Is Iran really close to having a nuclear weapon and is that something we should take seriously? Or, as some people say, ‘It’s very manageable. Don’t be a warmonger. Don’t interfere. Don’t be a neo-con. Just let the good little terrorists do whatever they’re gonna do and we’ll be just fine.’”
“Mark, Iran is very close to having a nuclear weapon, and it’s something that we should fear and that we shouldn’t tolerate.” Cotton replied. “Donald Trump’s been very clear about this; for as long as he’s been in politics, going back 10 years. In fact, the first conversation I ever had with Donald Trump, he was coming to Arkansas to speak at a Republican party dinner. I happened to be going to Vienna that weekend to meet with the International Atomic Energy Agency. And he called me and he said that the one thing we can’t do is let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And he’s been clear about that publicly over and over again because Iran is not a normal nation. It’s a fanatical theocratic dictatorship. And if they get nuclear weapons, they’re likely to use them.”
Answering Levin’s question about how close Iran was to having a nuclear weapon, Cotton continued, “How close are they? They have enough enriched uranium now that they could probably produce enough weapons-grade in just a matter of days, maybe a few weeks. And then it’s only a matter of marrying up that nuclear weapon to the missiles they already have that can reach our friends in Israel and throughout the Middle East.”
“But it’s worse than that, Mark,” Cotton declared. “They have a space launch program which is really just flimsy cover for a ballistic missile program, and they’re probably just a few years away from having missiles that could hit us here in the United States, that could hit Florida or Arkansas or Washington D.C. So it is a grave threat, not just to our friends in the Middle East but to the United States itself. And that’s why President Trump has been completely clear that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
“And Mark, I think it’s important to remember how we got to this point as well,” he recalled. “We got here because of the terrible Obama deal with Iran that allowed them to enrich uranium, that allowed them to keep all their centrifuges, that allowed them to continue research into ballistic missiles. President Trump has been clear that Iran has no reason to enrich uranium. They therefore have no reason to keep their centrifuges, and they certainly have no reason to be developing intercontinental missiles that could hit the United States. If Iran is willing to make a deal on those terms, and as President Trump said last week, we can have peace and they can live happily without death.”
Trump had recently said, “Iran has a chance to have a great country and to live happily without death.”
“But if they insist on keeping all that enriched uranium and all those centrifuges and their missile program, as he has said, we’re going to have to take a different path,” Cotton said.
“In other words, they need to dismantle this, and it needs to be provable in a way in the past it hasn’t been provable, cause they cheat and they lie and they steal,” Levin stated. “I mean, after all, they are terrorists and just because they signed a piece of paper, ‘Oh, yeah, we’ll sign whatever you give us. Oh, that all you have? Sure, sure, sure,’ it means absolutely nothing.”
“I have complete faith in Donald Trump on this; he’s the right man at the right time,” Levin asserted. “I have complete faith in Benjamin Netanyahu; he’s the right man at the right time. And I think there’s a lot of static out there by a cabal of individuals who seem to think that nuclear weapons in the hands of an enemy — not just any enemy, but one that doesn’t believe in mutually assured destruction, it just believes in destruction — is manageable or it’s okay. And I’m not willing to bet our country, society, my children and grandchildren, on that. Are you?”
“No,” Coton said firmly. “Absolutely not, Mark. And I agree with you: I have confidence in President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu; they understand the stakes here; they understand that the only acceptable deal is one in which Iran dismantles its nuclear program, turns over its enriched uranium, turns over its centrifuges, stops ballistic missile research.”
Cotton pointed out that the U.S. had intervened before to stop a rogue state from having nuclear weaponry, recalling, “Libya did the exact same thing in 2003. It was scared straight; it threw open the doors, let us come in and take away all of its nuclear programs as well as biological and chemical weapons programs as well. And we took Libya off the list of state sponsors of terrorism; we lifted sanctions on them. They became a de facto ally, even though Muammar Khadafi still had a lot of American blood on his hands in the past.”
“There’s a clear model of what a good, enforceable, verifiable deal would look like here,” he continued. “It does not involve any enrichment of uranium, or Iran possessing centrifuges or continuing its production of ballistic missiles. That’s the kind of deal that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu have both been clear about for many years.”
“You know, Senator, if Iran doesn’t intend to build nuclear weapons to harm us or anybody else, then what’s the problem?” Levin asked. “Why won’t they dismantle it? But if they won’t dismantle it, then they’ve revealed what they’re really up to.”
“They claim they want a nuclear energy program; there are plenty of countries around the world that have nuclear energy and don’t enrich uranium, that don’t have centrifuges, that acquire it (nuclear energy) from countries that do,” Cotton noted. “There’s no reason for Iran, as you say, to have this vast nuclear infrastructure. That’s why they’re only a few months away from getting the bomb. It’s what Barack Obama let them get.”
“It’s funny; they sell their oil to Communist China. I guess they’re not exactly running out of energy. But they’re liars, they’re thieves, and they’re terrorists. That’s what the regime is. That’s the bottom line,” Levin concluded.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 21, 2025
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[[{“value”:”
Fox News host Mark Levin discussed the necessity of eliminating Iran’s capacity for having nuclear weapons with Arkansas GOP senator Tom Cotton, the Iraqi war veteran who is the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and sits on the Armed Services Committee. Cotton has long been a staunch opponent of Iran having a nuclear weapon; he led the charge against the Obama nuclear deal with Iran that permitted the terrorist regime to continue the pursuit of building nuclear weapons.
“I’m not asking you to violate any secrets, obviously, or anything of that sort,” Levin began. “Is Iran really close to having a nuclear weapon and is that something we should take seriously? Or, as some people say, ‘It’s very manageable. Don’t be a warmonger. Don’t interfere. Don’t be a neo-con. Just let the good little terrorists do whatever they’re gonna do and we’ll be just fine.’”
“Mark, Iran is very close to having a nuclear weapon, and it’s something that we should fear and that we shouldn’t tolerate.” Cotton replied. “Donald Trump’s been very clear about this; for as long as he’s been in politics, going back 10 years. In fact, the first conversation I ever had with Donald Trump, he was coming to Arkansas to speak at a Republican party dinner. I happened to be going to Vienna that weekend to meet with the International Atomic Energy Agency. And he called me and he said that the one thing we can’t do is let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And he’s been clear about that publicly over and over again because Iran is not a normal nation. It’s a fanatical theocratic dictatorship. And if they get nuclear weapons, they’re likely to use them.”
Answering Levin’s question about how close Iran was to having a nuclear weapon, Cotton continued, “How close are they? They have enough enriched uranium now that they could probably produce enough weapons-grade in just a matter of days, maybe a few weeks. And then it’s only a matter of marrying up that nuclear weapon to the missiles they already have that can reach our friends in Israel and throughout the Middle East.”
“But it’s worse than that, Mark,” Cotton declared. “They have a space launch program which is really just flimsy cover for a ballistic missile program, and they’re probably just a few years away from having missiles that could hit us here in the United States, that could hit Florida or Arkansas or Washington D.C. So it is a grave threat, not just to our friends in the Middle East but to the United States itself. And that’s why President Trump has been completely clear that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
“And Mark, I think it’s important to remember how we got to this point as well,” he recalled. “We got here because of the terrible Obama deal with Iran that allowed them to enrich uranium, that allowed them to keep all their centrifuges, that allowed them to continue research into ballistic missiles. President Trump has been clear that Iran has no reason to enrich uranium. They therefore have no reason to keep their centrifuges, and they certainly have no reason to be developing intercontinental missiles that could hit the United States. If Iran is willing to make a deal on those terms, and as President Trump said last week, we can have peace and they can live happily without death.”
Trump had recently said, “Iran has a chance to have a great country and to live happily without death.”
“But if they insist on keeping all that enriched uranium and all those centrifuges and their missile program, as he has said, we’re going to have to take a different path,” Cotton said.
“In other words, they need to dismantle this, and it needs to be provable in a way in the past it hasn’t been provable, cause they cheat and they lie and they steal,” Levin stated. “I mean, after all, they are terrorists and just because they signed a piece of paper, ‘Oh, yeah, we’ll sign whatever you give us. Oh, that all you have? Sure, sure, sure,’ it means absolutely nothing.”
“I have complete faith in Donald Trump on this; he’s the right man at the right time,” Levin asserted. “I have complete faith in Benjamin Netanyahu; he’s the right man at the right time. And I think there’s a lot of static out there by a cabal of individuals who seem to think that nuclear weapons in the hands of an enemy — not just any enemy, but one that doesn’t believe in mutually assured destruction, it just believes in destruction — is manageable or it’s okay. And I’m not willing to bet our country, society, my children and grandchildren, on that. Are you?”
“No,” Coton said firmly. “Absolutely not, Mark. And I agree with you: I have confidence in President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu; they understand the stakes here; they understand that the only acceptable deal is one in which Iran dismantles its nuclear program, turns over its enriched uranium, turns over its centrifuges, stops ballistic missile research.”
Cotton pointed out that the U.S. had intervened before to stop a rogue state from having nuclear weaponry, recalling, “Libya did the exact same thing in 2003. It was scared straight; it threw open the doors, let us come in and take away all of its nuclear programs as well as biological and chemical weapons programs as well. And we took Libya off the list of state sponsors of terrorism; we lifted sanctions on them. They became a de facto ally, even though Muammar Khadafi still had a lot of American blood on his hands in the past.”
“There’s a clear model of what a good, enforceable, verifiable deal would look like here,” he continued. “It does not involve any enrichment of uranium, or Iran possessing centrifuges or continuing its production of ballistic missiles. That’s the kind of deal that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu have both been clear about for many years.”
“You know, Senator, if Iran doesn’t intend to build nuclear weapons to harm us or anybody else, then what’s the problem?” Levin asked. “Why won’t they dismantle it? But if they won’t dismantle it, then they’ve revealed what they’re really up to.”
“They claim they want a nuclear energy program; there are plenty of countries around the world that have nuclear energy and don’t enrich uranium, that don’t have centrifuges, that acquire it (nuclear energy) from countries that do,” Cotton noted. “There’s no reason for Iran, as you say, to have this vast nuclear infrastructure. That’s why they’re only a few months away from getting the bomb. It’s what Barack Obama let them get.”
“It’s funny; they sell their oil to Communist China. I guess they’re not exactly running out of energy. But they’re liars, they’re thieves, and they’re terrorists. That’s what the regime is. That’s the bottom line,” Levin concluded.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 21, 2025
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