“You’re CHEATING!” FIFA Trump Scandal, Taylor Swift Wedding & America 250 | With Megyn Kelly

23:44Piers Morgan:There's an irony here, of course, because Valoran Balogun is actually a classic example of a birthright citizen of the United States. He had Nigerian parents. His mother was heavily pregnant. They were stopping over, I think, in New York, and it was deemed she wasn't fit to fly because she was so heavily pregnant. So he was born in New York, and then they immediately left very soon afterwards. So, you know, by Trump's own definition, this hero who he saved for the nation, if he'd had his way with the Supreme Court last week, it'd have sent him packing. It'd have removed his citizenship. Yeah, that's absolutely true.

24:24And I don't want to single out Donald Trump, although I would love to have the opportunity to single out Donald Trump. When you look around the world and all these countries, particularly European countries, many of the countries that have the most intense and draconian migration policies or anti-immigrant policies often benefit from the talents of the people who go on the other side of those policies. I mean, look at France, just as just as one example. and we see it all the time. There's a running joke among African, Afro-descendant football players, right? They say, you know, they let you play in France and they'll say, oh yeah, you know, do they call you French?

25:00And again, if we win, we're French. If we lose, we're African. So there's always this interesting tension about who they are. But I don't want to miss what Clay just said because Clay said something really interesting and I think he's right that America is such a litigious society that it's not, and politicized society, that it's not uncommon for lawyers and politicians to involve themselves in matters of sport. But there's a difference between involving yourself in matters of sport at the level of policy and involving yourself in matters of sport at the level of calling balls and strikes, effectively saying that was a bad call.

25:30We need to rectify it. It was an absolutely bad call. But here's the other piece of it. Lots of bad calls are made. And if Donald Trump's the only person who jumps in and intervenes, then that still creates an unlevel playing field for when a bad call is made against Sweden or Morocco or Ghana or Hesley or Croatia. Ben Ferguson, I can see you smirking away

25:52Piers Morgan:as if none of this is really serious. This is serious. Okay, let's just talk sports. I played in college, and when you go and you choose who you're going to play for, you know what you look at? You look at the coach, and you look at the team around the coach, and you look at the athletic department, and when you pick a school, you say, who is going to be my biggest advocate? The best players in the world when they retire, who is it they're always talking about? They're talking about their advocates. They're talking about their coaches. They're talking about their parents. They're talking about their strength and training.

26:21They're talking about their teammates. What's something got to do with this? The president of the United States of America is on Team USA. And he called and he did exactly what a real leader does. And if you don't like it, then maybe you need to elect another leader in your country if you have a crybaby and you're like, my president didn't call. Let me be clear. Man up, Piers. Man up. I'm sorry you've got a weak leader in the UK. Let me be clear. I'm really sorry. Let me be clear. You've got bad leadership and you don't have a real leader that will make a damn phone call to advocate for your team, man.

26:50Like, I can't be stupid.

26:51Piers Morgan:Let me just tell you. I'm a great advocate for my team. Well, then you should man up. And you should be like, hell yeah, that's leadership. That's what I'd want my country to do. Before you vent your spleen in another more ridiculous manner, I was up till 5am last night watching my team, England, put on the best performance I've seen them do in my lifetime. And if you got screwed in a back hall, we're going to win the World Cup. I hope you go to Twitter and you fire it off. What worries me is when we do win the World Cup, within days of the 250th anniversary of our independence, then Trump will simply call Gianni Fantino and just demand that he get removed.

27:25Piers Morgan:Let me get my American violin for you guys out here. You're a crybaby. You're now heading towards a genuinely corrupt, fascist country when it comes to sports. Have you even considered... Man up, okay? Take some of that testosterone and realize that your leaders wouldn't do what Donald Trump did and you guys need a better leader. Well, the problem, Dave Smith. Let me bring Dave Smith in. Dave, you probably didn't think you'd be coming on to talk all about football. However, there is a political dimension to this, which is the principle of the President of the United States, who are hosting the World Cup for the entire world, literally boasting today, proudly, of directly intervening to put pressure on the head of FIFA to reverse an on-field decision and to put America's best player back in the team tonight.

28:11Piers Morgan:I just think on every level, that is an appalling attack on the integrity of sport. Your thoughts? I mean, Pierce, this might be a record. I've done your show so many times. I don't know if there's ever been a topic I don't have an opinion on, but I think we may have found it. Look, I do enjoy, I was entertained by Ben's unique brand of Republican boomer com slop, but I don't know. Listen, man, you're right, Pierce. I default agree with you. It seems like that's kind of corrupt for him to put his thumb on the needle. I'm just saying, Brooke, this is the president who literally just threatened to end a civilization and said Allah Akbar at the end of it.

28:54We're way past the point of him bragging about doing crazy corrupt things and evil and putting his thumb on the scale. The level of, you know, the great Megyn Kelly did point out that FIFA has a history of corruption there. But they're doing a deal with D.C. Let's talk about the corruption of D.C. Let's talk about the wealth extracted from the people from the military industrial complex and the banking industrial complex and big pharma. This whole cartelized racket economy. Or we can watch a soccer game and be partisan and happy. Dude, that's fine. Watch soccer. It's awesome. I don't even care about soccer until it's the World Cup and then I want to beat everyone's ass.

29:27That's all that matters. Ben, I don't care about soccer because I'm American. I could give you the whole history of the Knicks. I agree. Go watch a game. You and I agree on this. Dave, you and I agree. We agree. Soccer sucks. It's a game that no one wins the majority of the time. It's a terrible game. But during the World Cup, it finally makes you win.

29:44Piers Morgan:If I may intervene, A, it's called football. Only you lot call it soccer. Soccer, if America meets you, you've got to call it soccer. It's called football. And it is the most watched and most played sport in the world by miles. More than all of your four big sports put together. It's still so boring. More than all four of yours put together. Nobody else in the world has to wear helmets and paddies to play football other than you lot. Pierce, can I just connect this to the 250th anniversary of America? We literally took a game. We found a new sport, and we called it a name of a sport that already existed and was the biggest sport in the world and had been played since the time of Jesus.

30:25And then we just took, and you know what, Pierce? Nothing more American than that. That's the most American shit ever, dude. I'm sorry. David and I are going to be best friends by the end of the show.

30:34Piers Morgan:We'll move on. If Balogun scores tonight and knocks out Belgium, this is going to be the biggest gamble. Can I ask you a question, though? Yes. I have to ask you a question about soccer in general. My best friend, my college roommate's from England. So I watched England, watched the game. I celebrated for him, FaceTimed the whole thing. But when you wake up outside of the World Cup in these knockout rounds where someone actually has to win, do you wake up in the morning like, man, I can't wait to spend my hard-earned British pound on a game that more than likely is going to end in a tie? Like, is that not just the most depressing thing ever?

31:06Piers Morgan:The thing is, Ben, I'll give you a better example, cricket. OK, so the biggest battle in cricket in the world is England v. Australia. It's called the Ashes. Yeah. Happens every two years. The Ashes is over five matches. Each match lasts up to five days. Each day has eight hours of cricket. And after 200 hours of competition, the score sometimes can end up 0-0. Which is so stupid. And you know why we did that? You know why we did that? Precisely so that Americans with your limited sporting brains would never, ever, you'd never want to play it. Why would you want to play it? I've never had a conversation.

31:43Piers Morgan:Let me just see. The final score is 150 to 120. I went to this amazing game. You're not interested. It's like your home dog. Everything has to be masculine. They ask you a question. Who won? And never in my life have I ever been like, dude, I went to this amazing game and no one won. Like, no one won. Like, that's the dumbest thing in sports. Sports is there to win or lose. I want to win. Let me just point this out. I want a winner. Let me just point this out. Yes, Clay. Are you prepared for a world where the United States is better at your beloved football or soccer, as we call it here? I will give you.

32:15Yes. All this Balogun. Hold on. All this Balogun kerfuffle to me represents is the rest of the world is starting to shake in their boots because they're recognizing the big bad USA is starting to pay enough attention to soccer that we could be the best in the world.

32:31Piers Morgan:I think it is actually wonderful to see the issue of birthright citizenship show such a shining example of success as it does with Balogun, who is the purest personification of the very thing that President Trump, who's saving him for the nation, wants to get out of the country. Right, let's just turn to something more serious. Clay, let's talk about Israel for a moment because a really disturbing development, of many disturbing developments, I think, involving this Israeli government. They are now currently defying or indicating they're going to defy a Supreme Court ruling in Israel about broadcast media, and it's done to keep control over the media.

33:20Piers Morgan:And if they do that, I just have one question. As somebody who I know in your case who supports Israel, and I support Israel and their right to exist and so on, all that stuff, put that to one side. This Israeli government is now doing things I think are reprehensible. I just wonder, how does a country claim and continue to claim to be the only democracy in the Middle East if the prime minister and the government actually defy their own laws in this way? I will not claim to be an expert on how free speech principles are applied in Israel. I am in the United States an expert on that. My legal history, I've written a lot about it, everything else.

34:03As a general province and perspective on everything, I'm a huge believer in the marketplace of ideas. And I believe the more of us who share our opinions, your show is a great example of this, even though you're completely wrong about Balogun. I respect the fact that as a long-suffering English soccer fan, you can have a strong take on it. I want for all of the perspectives in the world to be shared freely. I don't want to cancel people for their opinions, even if sometimes they are controversial. And I want us to come as a collective group to the best possible result with all of the different arguments being held.

34:41But so that's the principle that I would put in place in general. If Israel is restricting inside of their own country that ability to have a robust and uninhibited debate about what the future of the country's political perspective should be, then I would be opposed to that. But again, I'm not an expert in this particular Supreme Court decision or how the interplay... Well, OK, let me bring in Dave Smith, because Dave Smith, this is a prima facie moment, I think, in time, which even Naftali Bennett,

35:11Piers Morgan:who is jostling to be the next prime minister, having been it before, says he's completely outrageous and a real threat to Israeli democracy, which it is. I mean, if a country just ignores what its Supreme Court has laid down as a rule, if Trump did this, people would say he's ending democracy. Yeah. And of course, it was Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to curtail the power of the Supreme Court that had led to major protests in Israel in 2003, leading up to October 7th. And This was a major event in Israeli history. It's been completely overshadowed because much more major events came after it. Now, Netanyahu, from what I understand, has not exactly taken a stance on this yet.

35:52And I think it'll be interesting where he comes down. But, you know, Pierce, again, when you talk about Israeli democracy, I just think there's so many people here who are looking at the situation going, look, Israel has ruled over 7 million people for 60 years without giving them citizenship or voting rights. So what do we even mean? We're talking about Israeli democracy. Listen, you can make a strong argument that democracy is an illusion everywhere. Every society ends up being an oligarchy of some sort or another. But this is just such a blatant contradiction that the word essentially means nothing.

36:28There's not even been an attempt to give these people citizenships or voting rights or any natural rights. And so, you know, the bottom, yeah, look, the bottom line here is that the world, the Israelis have been very upset about some of the moves that the Israeli government has been doing with the Supreme Court for the last few years. The world is not upset about that. The world is upset about the destruction in Gaza. The world is upset about the destruction in Lebanon. The world is upset about the destruction in Iran. And the world is upset that Israel managed to pull America into the dumbest war in American history.

37:02And then we went and lost the thing against the advice of every rational critic who's been arguing against this war for 20 plus years, the whole time the D.C. establishment has been trying to launch it. And it went exactly like we all told you it was going to go. And so I don't know. That's those are the things that I care about.

37:21Piers Morgan:All right. Ben Ferguson, look, you know, it's been very interesting to watch the erosion of support for Israel in America in particular, where nearly two thirds of the country now have a negative view of Israel. And I think it's entirely down to the actions of Netanyahu and his government, driven and fueled and manipulated by some of the most psychotic right wing headbangers I think any government has ever had in Ben Gavir, Smodrich, these guys. They keep just seem to be competing to say and do the more and more outrageous things. And I think that the combined effect of that is making Israel increasingly unpopular.

38:02Piers Morgan:And for people like me that like Israel and know a lot of Israelis and care about the country, I find this is an incredibly sad thing to watch. How does this... I think there's a couple of things here. One, some of the anti-Semitism that we're seeing in this country is because there are outside forces that are pushing it very hard. We can debate that later, but it's very well documented. I don't just speak there for a moment. I think there are genuine anti-Semites out there who hate Jewish people. And a lot of money and a lot of time on social media. But let's move past that for a second. There are certain principles that I will always defend.

38:36One of those, and you can look at Ukraine, for example. Suspending elections for years on end, I'm against that, right? I don't care who's in charge. I understand there's an intense war for a time period where you can't have an election for safety. But the idea that Zelensky has done what he's done and not had these elections is absurd. Well, there is an intense war. What are you talking about?

38:55Piers Morgan:There is literally an intense war. He's had to declare martial law because millions and millions of voters have had to leave the country. Millions more are fighting. Let me go back. Let me go back to what I'm saying. Zelensky can hold on to power indefinitely as long as he's in a war that's intense and you're justified in not having an election. But he's literally in an intense war because Russia keeps bombarding his country. But but but hold on. Let me hear my point out here. I'm going to say that I advocate for people to have an election. There are ways that they can do an election. There are ways they can do mail and ballots or ways that you can have the people have a say the same way I'm saying that.

39:32I'll go back to Israel. I love Israel. I stand with Israel. I do think there can be flaws. And you can say that one of the examples is if you're limiting free speech, I will always be an advocate for free speech. And I think as a friend, we need to remind them that free speech is incredibly important and freedom of the press is incredibly important. You can have that conversation without it be just trying to hit a scoreboard against Netanyahu. Right. I think you're going to see a major change.

39:58Piers Morgan:Well, if he wants to promote free speech, why doesn't he let the media into Gaza? I go back to I go back to the point I just made. I'm in favor of free speech. He's not a cap for that with your. He's not in favor of free speech. That's why I'm advocating for it right now. The same way that I'm advocating for there to be elections when there's a guy that's holding on to power like Zelensky is another example. There's certain principles I will always be in favor of. Free and fair elections, I'm in favor of. Free speech, freedom of press, it's what I do. I'm in favor of that. So can I advocate for that?

40:25Yes. I also think that when it's used against you in an anti-Semitic way, that's what bothers many people. Is there like anybody that says that we're a failure and the war's a failure, that's absurd.

40:35Piers Morgan:Martin Amon Hill. Yeah, as someone who's been covering Israel-Palestine for two decades and as a professor of Middle Eastern studies, I'm fascinated by the discourse. I mean, I love Ben Ben's dear friend, and I forgot he was an athlete until I watched, he turned himself into a pretzel to say everything from Zelensky to anti-Semitism, everything but Israel's doing it wrong. I think the way we're framing this is a bit curious. Anyways, to say that Israel is this democratic place that has a kind of departure momentarily because of Netanyahu, I think is to misrepresent Israel as a state itself, which is not a state of all of its citizens, which itself is an apartheid state definitionally and definitionally anti-democratic.

41:16So what we're seeing from Netanyahu, Netanyahu is the Israeli state project on steroids. Netanyahu is not an exception to Israel. He's just the worst iteration that we've seen of it. And we do ourselves a disservice by pretending that Netanyahu is some alien that came down from another planet. And none of that is anti-Semitic. There's lots of anti-Semitism in the world and there's lots of anti-Semitism in the public discourse. But the criticism of Netanyahu defying the Supreme Court, as has been previously stated, is not a new one. And it's not even one made from the outside. In September of right before October 7th of 2023, we saw the exact same thing as has been stated.

41:49We saw marches by the Israeli left, by Israeli liberals, people who are Zionists, people who defend Israel's right to rule over Palestinians. They still are like, you know what? But Netanyahu is a dick. And so there's a very organized, structured resistance to Netanyahu's disrespect of the Supreme Court, disrespect of free speech. But again, the disrespect of free speech in Israel does not begin and end with Netanyahu. You can't fly a Palestinian flag in Jerusalem right now or five years ago or 15 years ago. And I don't care who the prime minister was. You couldn't do it. Palestinians have never had the right to march a free speech, march with free speech.

42:25If we talk about refuseniks, if we talk about Jewish leftists, many of them have also been silenced in Israel. So none of this is new. So let's not pretend that it is. And the reason why the world is paying attention right now is not because Netanyahu crossed some third rail. It's because we're paying more attention now. We have social media. We have more people speaking out. People saw the ugly deaths. People got to lay their eyes on the genocide. I've been working in media again, finally, for a very long time. And when we saw the bodies after Operation Cast Lead, when we saw the bodies after Operation Protective Edge, we were able to stand up as a community and say, you know what?

43:03What the Democrats have been telling us is wrong. What the Republicans have been telling us is wrong. There's a problem here. And honestly, I wish more people were as outraged about Trump intervening in Israeli diplomacy as they are with him intervening in a soccer game. Mark, October 7th, have you been to the kibbutzes and sat with the families? Yes. Okay, you've been in the kibbutzs and sat with the families and heard what happened to them and how their children were burned alive. You've been there. I've answered your question, yes. I've been to Israel 30 times. Did you go to where the concert was and meet with the people who watched their friends be gunned down right before their eyes and die in their arms or trying to save their life?

43:44I didn't go to where the concert was. Have you been to the kids? Have you been to the kids? And I'm grabbing this because this is important to see. I met with every family of every kid. None of this has to do with what we're talking about. Hold on. I met with every family of every child that was killed in that soccer field, and this is what they gave me. The idea that you act like that day didn't happen and that somehow Israel's the aggressor. What did I say? When these were the children. Hold on. I didn't say. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. You're misrepresenting. You're misrepresenting.

44:14You see this? You misrepresented what I said. You act like that didn't happen. You can show all the children you want. I can show you. I can show you. I can show you 10 ,000 of Palestinians. Don't all shout, please.

44:26Piers Morgan:Let me ask Ben Ferguson. That's not what I said. There's learning making things up. Hang on, Mark. Ben Ferguson, let me ask you. Have you met with any of the Gazan families of the 20 ,000 children who've been killed? Yes, I have. I actually have. I met with them in D.C. not once but twice. Where? Because I'm not afraid to meet with people and to hear what they're saying. But I go back to the point that the reason why I have this in my desk, when you're playing soccer and you just get killed and your kids get killed because of terrorists that are being supported by hezbollah hamas and the palestinian state and then you act as if somehow israel invite this on themselves and you say that they're committing genocide that is just a lie mark it's a lie okay let me respond i literally said nothing about october 7th i literally said nothing about anything on to anybody like it didn't happen that's my point you literally made my point mark you act like it didn't happen you act like israel just goes in and bombs the gaza strip for no reason it happened because of this and many other kids that were killed i don't think i listen i don't think anyone no no i'd like to respond please please i'd like to respond to that because that's unfair everyone's talking too much i don't think look uh bent no one is claiming that israel had no right to defend itself and had no justification in attacking hamas of course they did.

45:42Piers Morgan:It's about the scale of what they did in response to what happened that has begun to horrify the rest of the world. It's the scale of the aggressive expansions in the West Bank. It's the scale of the massively over-the-top assault on southern Lebanon. It's the persuasion of the United States to join Israel in this crazy war in Iran, which has turned out to be a complete fiasco. It's all of that stuff that is concerning people. Not Israel's original rights. But that's not your point. That's not my position. There's a cause and effect. You feel like you're a country that is on a stopwatch. And I think Netanyahu, clearly, there's a cause and effect.

46:22You go October the 7th. You feel like you're surrounded. You feel like people are coming after you 24-7. You feel like you're having and taking it from all sides. And you feel like you're on a stopwatch. And you have to go after the terrorists as fast as you can before you lose the opportunity. If the terrorists don't like and people don't like what happened, go back to October 7 and look at what's happened since then. There's a cause and effect. Let me give the final word. Please let me respond.

46:45Piers Morgan:Hang on. Let me give the final word to Clay as we're sitting patiently. Clay, just quickly on... I've been waiting patiently to... I've really been just representing someone who's supporting terrorism. Even when other people have been talking. No, I've been interrupted for 10 minutes. It's fine. There was mutual interrupting going on. What he's representing is my position. All right. What he's been representing is my position is not my position. I heard your position very clearly. Clay Travis... You didn't hear my position. You inserted your position as my position, which is not my position. OK, I've lost track of whose positions what.

47:13Piers Morgan:But let me bring Clay just in to answer this question. Because you didn't let me say it. What is your position? My position is that the history of Israel-Palestine does not begin and end with October 7th. It is not about who did it first on October 7th. It is that Israel has illegally occupied Palestine since day one. Israel does not have a right to defend itself in areas that it is illegally occupying. That is what I'm saying. I'm also saying. Position stated. Position stated. Fair enough. Thank you. Clay Travis, very quickly, Iran, I think, has been what I feared it would be from the start. It's been a disaster.

47:50Piers Morgan:And I think Donald Trump has correctly assessed it as that and has been doing everything to get out of this as fast as he can humanly do so with the minimum amount of damage. I mean, do you accept that? I think the President Trump has made a good decision to get out of the look, the big picture. The question is, if you're going to truly remove the leadership of Iran, you have to put boots on the ground. I think President Trump has decided that boots on the ground does not make sense because of the disaster that occurred with George W. Bush in Iraq and with our failures in Afghanistan. stand. And so if you are not willing to put boots on the ground, I think the best thing you can do as we get ready for the midterms is do what he has done, which is bring the price of oil and gas back close to$3 a gallon.

48:37And by the way, you're not going to be able to topple the regime without boots on the ground. Oh, who'd have thought? Ben was saying something that I think is significant. He was talking about Ukraine. One of the things that doesn't get enough attention that I think is one of the strong points of American history. We had elections, Pierce. In 1864, in the middle of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was reelected. And in 1944, in the middle of World War II, FDR was reelected. I think one of the strengths of a democratic government is that you can actually have an election during the course of an awful war.

49:13And I do think that deserves to be discussed. I've got to jump away because I've got my show starting here. We've got to leave it there anyway. Go USA. Go forward to winning the World Cup. Great to see you.

49:22Piers Morgan:Yeah, go USA. Let's hope Balogun scores three goals and drives you to the next stage. And then you'll be so cranky. And you can all hold your heads up high with pride that a man who is the personification of birthright citizenship has saved the United States for another day. What's that guy's name? Wouldn't that be truly ironic, wouldn't it? What's your prime minister's name now? Does anyone even know? Well, he's leaving. His name's Keir Starmer. He's leaving. Well, don't get a quitter. Get a real leader this time. That's right. You don't have to know. When Harry Kane gets a red card in the next game against Norway, we'll get the Prime Minister to call up FIFA.

49:55Piers Morgan:Hey, call Trump. We'll help you out. You guys need our help. We'll help you out like we always have. We're good allies like that. And we're so grateful. We're good allies. Because eventually you did help us out in World War II. We help you out. You're welcome. It took you a few years, but eventually you came to the party. Thank you all very much indeed. Happy 250 to all of you. I can't say that with any real meaning. because for me it was a complete disaster. It's not too 50 for black people. But I'll pretend I'm happy for you, as I will at Paladin Schools tonight. Thank you very much, guys. See you.

50:24Thank you.

50:25Piers Morgan:Well, I'm pleased to say I'm joined now by another friend of mine, the music legend and KISS founder and frontman Gene Simmons. Gene, welcome back to Uncensored. How are you? Well, I'm sure glad I'm not part of that panel. Why? Well, everybody's got a point of view, but everybody had their opinions about America in World War II, the damage done. We did all sorts of things that in time of war a country can validate, and it's horrible the innocent lives lost. I mean, America firebombed dressed in, who knows, 100 ,000 people, wiped out men, women, and children, and we dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan, and God knows how many innocent people died.

51:14I don't want to shrug it off it's war

51:17Piers Morgan:but wasn't that the point though Gene wasn't the whole point I mean it was obviously the British who did most of the carpet bombing in Dresden and with that and the use of the two atomic bombs the whole point of what happened after World War II the construction of a Geneva Convention and so on was to try and stop the world doing this kind of thing again yeah that doesn't work unless and if and when both sides agree and I'm not a political pundit. I'm sitting here in the peanut gallery basically saying it's tough to talk about foreign policy or what to do or what's right and what's wrong with a country that you can get in a car and drive across the border right to the Mediterranean in two or three hours.

52:04It's a very, very small place. And so from their perspective, they're surrounded by people And one of the newer, well, it's a very, very old, very proud culture coming from Cyrus the Great, the great Cyrus the Great. I'm a student of history. And I think I knew this was going to get political. The last thing you want is for a certain country to go nuclear, end of story. And then how you do that is open for debate. But I'm pretty clear the man that you and I both know is not going to let that happen. No matter whether they're boots on the ground or not, or whether the Israelis are going to finish the job or the Americans, this country will not go nuclear no matter what it takes because you cannot take the chance.

53:01I mean, this little country in 1982, through their Mossad, found out that Mr. Saddam Hussein was going to go nuclear, that he had nuclear reactors. 1982, they warned him on a Friday, as a student of history, I know the details, that he must take down his nuclear facilities. Or, dawn of Monday, they're going to go cross borders, break international law, not discuss it with the UN or anybody else. for their own survival, they're going to go and take out those nuclear reactors. Saddam Hussein ignored it. Israel broke international airspace, broke all kinds of laws, went in there, just bombed everything.

53:45Innocent people died, I know that. And they took out and they sent Saddam Hussein back to the Stone Age. In other words, rifles and guns and so on and so. And when the Israelis were asked why they did that, they said, we don't want war but if there's going to be war we prefer a non-nuclear war so this country that everybody's uh as they say pussyfooting around uh has threatened to go nuclear for a long time i personally don't trust a religious government uh that's insane that wants to go nuclear and this little country deciding on their own are deciding well that's never going to happen and The US may or may not join in on that.

54:31Piers Morgan:The problem, Gene, with this is that, well, in relation to the Iraq analogy, for example, Saddam Hussein remained in power. There's quite a lot of parallels here with the Iranian regime. He remained in power for many, many years after that. He built up a pretty ferocious arsenal of weaponry to the extent that the Americans told the world he's got weapons of mass destruction and is going to use them, and that was in the early 2000s, nearly 20 years later. So, you know, the problem I have with the Iran war is not that they are a despicable regime. They are. And not that they've been the tentacles, their tentacles are spread to supporting Hamas, the Houthis, the Bola and so on, because they have.

55:08Piers Morgan:The question becomes, how do you deal with them in the same way you've got to deal with rogue nations like North Korea and so on? And I just think this war has been a complete disaster because at the end of it, we now have the Iranian regime still in power, the IRGC still running the show, The Ayatollah's son, who's more radical than he was, is now in charge. And they've developed this new thing of the Strait of Hormuz being used as a battering ram to hold the world's energy supply over a barrel. And none of this is a win. All of it is a loss. So, you know, I don't disagree with the principle of what you're saying, which is if you've got a rogue nation threatening people with nukes, fine.

55:49Piers Morgan:But you've got to win because if you leave them more emboldened at the end of it, it's a disaster. These are all wonderful talking points by much smarter people than I will ever be. And your panel was very good. And you've always been the master of just eloquence. You've got that British stuff going in your favor. You're a powerful and attractive man in your own right. But at the end of the day, the headline is this country will never go nuclear. I don't care how you get there. There are going to be a lot of transgressions of human rights, democracy. Of course, war is hell. America, shamefully put, its Japanese citizens in concentration camps.

56:33Wait, you can't call them concentration camps. They were fed. Nobody was tortured. But yes, they were separated. Racism, all kinds of things happened in war. Just horrible stuff. The important thing is the headline will stand. The line in the sand has been drawn. No more talking. I actually see UN sending people to take a look at the Israelis have the most advanced intelligence service on the planet. Mr. Putin said so in a recent interview. Who are the best? Well, we like our Russian system. The CIA is very good, but Mossad is the best. He said as much. But the bottom line is, the line in the sand for this little country is, nobody wants to go to war, but this country will never go nuclear.

57:24And they will do whatever they need to do. And along the way, we'll have panels talk about it and how you do this and settlements. And I can agree and disagree with all kinds of things. But the headline is, that country will never go nuclear.

57:38Piers Morgan:The problem I have is that last time I checked, Iran still has all its enriched uranium. and has no intention of giving it up. So quite why this has been a success in dismantling their nuclear program is completely beyond me. Anyway, I want to end on a... Oh, don't worry. Don't worry. There was a very respectable intelligence service in Iran that was designed to find all the Mossad agents within Iran. This is fact, and you can look it up. And they were not very successful because the head of the Iranian, let's get the Mossad agents, I think, was actually a Mossad agent. Right. No, no, no, Mossad are brilliant.

58:20Piers Morgan:Although I think there will be massive questions when the proper inquiry happens about why the world... I don't think they care. Let me tell you my point. Why the world's number one intelligence agency had no idea that 3 ,000 terrorists were going to swarm over the border of Israel and commit that heinous attack on October 7th, that remains to me a complete mystery. You can put pages, you can put explosives into 3 ,000 pages, but you don't know that 3 ,000 terrorists are planning the worst attack on your country ever. Anyway, that's for another day. And America didn't see 9-11 coming and the Pearl Harbor coming.

58:53This is all true. Let me ask you, Gene, just quickly,

58:56Piers Morgan:about the 250th anniversary of independence, of American independence. What is the state of America right now from your perspective? You know, you've seen it come and go through the decades, good, bad, ugly, terrible things, great things. Where is America right now? You know, our friend Donald Trump, we were on the first series of Celebrity Apprentice. That's how we got to know him properly. You know, what do you feel about where America is under Trump? Despite the political polarization and, you know, free speech allows the least qualified or the most qualified to have an opinion. It all rises.

59:35One man, one vote, as they used to say. so the drunk on the corner gets to vote and Elon Musk gets to vote. And so you can make your own assessments whether that's real or not. So the smallest dogs bark loudest. But I will tell you from, because I get to see both. I get to see the Wall Street, you know, the big hitters and regular folks. When I travel, I fly commercial. I have a solo band. We go do shows all over the place. and I meet regular people. Yes, I have bodyguards and all that, but they treat people regularly. I am more enthused about this very bizarre country, the United States of America, than I have ever been.

1:00:21My mother, as you may have known, was in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany at 14 years of age. No matter how bad you think the world is, this is nothing. everybody's got growing pains uh i i love the brits you know it's just every time i go there it's wonderful certain parts anyway and it bears noting the most popular male name for a child in england is now muhammad make of it what you will the world is changing but that's only because

1:00:55Piers Morgan:that's only because a lot of muslim families call their kids muhammad that's just a cultural thing I have no it's no it's not it's a religious thing but I'm not here not here you can decide in your country the Muslim community far more of them percentage-wise call their sons Muhammad than any other community cool you know six I think it's six in ten six in ten so there's no other community where six in ten are called the same name so it's just a Fantastic. Why does that matter? No, it doesn't matter for anybody on the outside. It's nobody's business, including my own. You asked me about America.

1:01:35And so my point was going to be that living here and having been all over the world and my history with my family and so on, I am more enthused about this country than I've ever been. I've lived through the Vietnam War. and whether that's right and wrong and panels discuss it and so on. On one side, it was to stop communism from spreading. And then the other side says, no, it's about oil and stuff like that. But communism stopped spreading. So at the end of the day, my reason for I was asked by the White House to come in and narrate honoring the veterans of World War II. By the way, that's also the Brits.

1:02:18You guys were there. So my heart, my admiration goes out to the Spitfire fighters who single-handedly stopped the German air machine. Germany couldn't beat these little guys from farms on these little rickety-tick Spitfires that were technologically advanced, but didn't look like much. They single-handedly stopped the Germans from being able to go. And this little island couldn't be conquered by the great German war machine. But I want to say that, for me, the promise of America is still this idea that the greatest document starts off with we the people. It's an astonishing idea. By the way, all borrowed from the Magna Carta, a wonderful document.

1:03:07And it bears noting coming over here from the former colony. And I apologize to King George for ever having left the kingdom. We should have been smarter. You're going to start a war about tea. Americans don't like tea. It should have been about coffee. The tea party. The coffee. You take our coffee away. We got a problem. Then there's war. The tea party. Get out of here. But I want to say that the important thing is that it's tough to get a point of view from almost anybody because look aliens land another planet land in harlem which i've been to and as you know i used to go out with diana ross i love the black community but just in terms of perspective so the aliens land in harlem and they take out their you know their record keeping stuff because they want to report back on their planet what they saw and factually what they saw everybody was African American.

1:04:05They go back to their planet and they saw, here are the facts. We saw everybody was African American. Therefore, the earth is African American. Well, partly true, but predominantly not. So perspective is based on the information you get. The short answer to your question, even though I love the sound of my own voice, is I am in love with America now more than I've ever been. Remember, I lived through the Vietnam era where people were being beaten up on the street if they had long hair, long hair, and all that stuff. And racism was still rampant. Diana was telling me how they headlined, the Supremes headlined a tour with the Dave Clark Five opening up and the bus goes to the southern states.

1:04:56And there were bullet holes. and they think, look, democracy is messy. You've got to fight for it, and I'm such a big fan. And there are a lot of things that the man in power does that I believe is absolutely right, and there are certain things I disagree with. Democracy is messy. And so my advice to anybody in a free society is, agree or disagree, but the next time there's an election, Vote your conscience.

1:05:28Piers Morgan:Yeah. I don't agree with the English system where you get a new PM because the party's in charge, where the people can say, well, wait a minute, where's my vote? I agree. I've made this point repeatedly. We've had seven prime ministers in 10 years. It's driving me nuts. If you want to be prime minister of my country, have an election and win a vote and a mandate from the electorate. Gene, I've got to leave it there. I can talk to you for hours. Next time, let's have a longer chat. Next time you've got the time, let's have a proper, proper chat. about life because I love talking to you. And by the way, good luck to the Brits because the Americans are coming for that World Cup.

1:06:03Well, you will be

1:06:05Piers Morgan:if you keep bending the rules and cheating. Gene, I've got to leave it there. Take care, my friend.

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