Did Iran Attempt to Take Down Air Force One?

Middle East Forum Chief Strategist Jim Hanson spoke with Stuart Varney on FOX Business about a report that President Trump switched planes leaving the NATO Summit in Turkey. This was purportedly due to a threat of an Iranian attack against Air Force One. They also discussed Iran’s request for reparations which President Trump soundly rejected.

Transcript:

FOX: Jim, if this report is true, should we retaliate directly at whomsoever gave the order to get out there and kill our president? I’m thinking Revolutionary Guards. They must have given the order for this. Should we go get them?

HANSON: It may be time to send another missile flying in through somebody’s bedroom window to make the point that I should not target President Trump, but I’ll be honest, Stuart. I’m more angry that this leaked to the Washington Post again. This is something that affects the security of the president, his actual personal security, and the security of our commander in chief and chief executive. That’s not something we should be discussing, and whoever leaked it should be giving that information to the Washington Post.

If they want to get all mad that they didn’t hear right away what was going on, I don’t have a single tear for them because the bottom line is the the press there could not be trusted not to put that information out. So they’re in a situation where if they want to be trusted, maybe they should stop leaking and publishing things that endanger the leadership of this country.

FOX: Jim, President Trump says that if anyone should pay reparations for the war, it should be Iran. Watch this.

TRUMP: They ask for reparations, you might say, or they ask for money for the damage that we’ve done, I said that’s a good idea. Well, we’re going to ask for money for the damage they’ve done over a 50-year period. All of the people that were so badly hurt, so badly wounded or killed, many 1000s of people, and maybe damages for the 52,000 protesters over the last four months that were killed in Iran, so if there’s damages to be paid, I think Iran should pay those damages.

FOX: Jim, it seems like that’s a non-starter. There’s no way President Trump’s going to pay the Iranians, is there?

HANSON: No, not a chance. But it’s good to see him pointing out the hypocrisy of the most dangerous and damaging and deadly country in that region, who actually is the one who has caused that death and destruction? I think he’s had enough of all of their garbage, and he no longer takes them seriously as a negotiating partner, and that’s going to be problematic for them because he said he’s going to go low key with this war.

That just means it may not be as big a military action, but the real pain is going to be economic and diplomatic. He may shut off their banking. There are a lot of ways that they can really shut down the economy of Iran without affecting all of the oil. You know, keep the Strait of Hormuz open so that doesn’t become a big problem. Shut down every other way they interact economically with the world,

FOX: But he’s waging economic war on Iran. He’s trying to strangle them and their economy. But he has not yet, to my, to our knowledge, he’s not yet attacked all power plants and bridges and water water facilities. That would really bring him down. But he hasn’t done it yet.

HANSON: Yeah, there’s a there’s an element there of do you want to do that level of damage to the regime while simultaneously doing that level of damage to the people of Iran who are already suffering, and I think there’s a there’s a fine line to be walked.

So I know there have been talks going on about options to purely kinetic activity, and I think now we’re going to see the full, other than kinetic force of the United States pushed against the regime, aiming perhaps at a collapse of it and a chance for the Iranian people then, you know, to rise up and form their own government.

FOX: Got it, Jim Hanson. Thanks for joining us. We’ll see you again real soon. Thank you, Jim.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai