“The president's threat to annihilate Iran is nonsensical. You know, he's been trying that for six months now. … The Iranians have for six months sustained the very worst that we and the Israelis can throw at them. … Look, the Iranians now, in some sense, control what happens on Election Day. … If the Iranian regime wants to make sure that Mike Lawler loses in New York-17, or that Ashley Hinson is not a senator in the Midwest, they will call their friends the Houthis and say, fire five missiles at five ships … oil goes up to $120 a barrel. Diesel, already at record highs, goes to $8 a gallon. … So do you think they're giving up that position before the election? Of course they're not.
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JH
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“Yeah, of course it's a step forward. … Scott Bessent had set this up weeks before the actual visit of President Xi occurred. … We all know that nothing terribly meaningful came out of this conversation. And look, Xi himself is waiting for 37 days when he will now face a president of the United States who has been rebuked by his own people. … But like I said, let's not be too harsh. Anytime we're talking to the Chinese and stopping misunderstandings and making incremental progress on things like AI or not starting another trade war, you know, it's a valuable couple of days.
“We were not briefed. There has been a lot of threat reporting ever since the killing of Soleimani. But nothing specific to this moment.