Governor Cooper Discusses Iran War and NC Senate Race

0:00Ben Meiselas:Whether you're into unsolved mysteries, solved mysteries, or creating your own mysteries, Amazon Music's got millions of podcast episodes waiting. Just download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite podcasts ad-free, included with Prime. Donald Trump is panicking as Vladimir Putin just put him on blast and made a public ultimatum trying to call Donald Trump and Trump's regime out. Putin said that, yes, he is giving intelligence to Iran, but he said that he would stop giving intelligence to Iran to help Iran target American soldiers, kill Americans and harm American interests.

0:42Ben Meiselas:So long as the United States cuts off support to Ukraine, Politico reports. Now, it's being reported that the U.S. at a military level is rejecting this proposal, although Donald Trump has not commented. But this has left many across the world incredibly nervous that this is a deal that Donald Trump is contemplating. Moscow proposed a quid pro quo. And, you know, Donald Trump loves quid pro quos to the U.S., although Donald Trump never makes good on his side of the quid pro quo to the unless it's Vladimir Putin, under which the Kremlin would stop sharing intelligence information with Iran, such as the precise coordinates of U.S.

1:22Ben Meiselas:military assets in the Middle East if Washington ceased supplying with supplying Ukraine with intelligence about Russia. Two people familiar with the U.S.-Russian negotiations said that such a proposal was made by Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev to Donald Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his other envoy, Jared Kushner, during their meeting at the end of last week. It's being reported that the existence of this proposal has sparked major concern among European diplomats who worry Moscow is trying to drive a wedge between Europe and the United States at a critical moment for transatlantic relations, to which Donald Trump posted this morning the following.

2:04Ben Meiselas:Again, while this war is raging out of control in the Middle East, Trump attacked NATO, right? So Putin makes this offer to Trump. Trump's response is to say the following. Without the U.S., NATO is a paper tiger. They didn't want to join the fight to stop a nuclear-powered Iran. Now the fight is militarily won with very little danger for them. They complain about the high oil prices they are forced to pay, but don't want to help open the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuver that is the single reason for the high oil prices. So easy for them to do with so little risk. Cowards. And we will remember Donald J.

2:44Ben Meiselas:Trump calling NATO and our European allies coward. And right now, the markets are reacting horribly to Donald Trump's abhorrent and unlawful war against Iran. Investors are now betting that the overall U.S. inflation in the next 12 months will surge above 5%. We're now talking about likely interest rate hikes versus lowering interest rates. as a result of this disastrous war and the inflation that it's going to cause. I don't think it will be surprising if the price per barrel of oil hits$200. Saudi Arabia is predicting it will be at least$180 per barrel. And Donald Trump continues to panic. As I reported earlier today, Donald Trump is sending more troops for a possible ground, to use Donald Trump's words, excursion.

3:38Ben Meiselas:But other people would call it an invasion of Iran. specifically the Karg Island, which is in the northern Persian Gulf, right by the Strait of Hormuz. Donald Trump considering doing a blockade against the Strait of Hormuz. And this as all NATO allies and essentially every country that Donald Trump has reached out to, while Donald Trump has begged like a dog for help after Donald Trump went this war alone with him and Netanyahu without telling anybody that they were going to invade Iran. Now Donald Trump is out there calling NATO cowards. By the way, do you remember just a few days ago, as Carl Quintanilla writes, when Whitcoff told Quintanilla on CNBC that Vladimir Putin was not sharing any intel with Iran and that we had to, quote, take him at his word?

4:28Ben Meiselas:Take me at my word, everybody. They're not doing it. The issue is this regime is led by total liars. Just a reminder, here is what Whitcoff said last week, right at the same time that Russia told Whitcoff, we are providing Iran with intelligence. By the way, why do you think Iran has been effective in being able to shoot these American Reaper drones and able to shoot these assets and these energy facilities? They're being helped by Russia. They're probably being helped by China as well. Here's what Whitcoff says. Play this clip. I can tell you that yesterday on the call with the president, the Russians said that they have not been sharing.

5:08That's that's what they said. So, you know, we can we can take them at their word. But they did say that.

5:14Ben Meiselas:Now, here's what Senator Joni Ernst had to say this morning about the possibility of a ground invasion of American troops in Iran. Play this clip. Senator, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Pentagon is sending three warships and thousands of additional Marines to the Middle East. Now, the president says he doesn't want boots on the ground in Iran. So what are these Marines doing there? Well, they provide a lot of leverage, Stuart. And I just love the president when he keeps the reporters on their toes. We shouldn't be telling people what we are going to do and when we are going to do it.

5:51Ben Meiselas:But believe me, President Donald J. Trump has the best interests of the United States at heart, but he also loves our men and women in uniform. He will not engage them unnecessarily. I know that to be true. So this is why it's so important that we do have partner nations stepping up, whether it's to assist in the Strait of Hormuz or whether it's to help stabilize in the Middle East. But President Trump is very good about this. He's going to lose use what leverage he has. And we all will be so much better for it. Stuart, I'm going to change the subject. Now I want to bring in North Carolina's former governor, Governor Roy Cooper.

6:30Ben Meiselas:Governor Cooper, great to see, obviously, a big Senate race in North Carolina. Everyone's saying it's the must watch Senate race. You versus the former chair of the RNC, Michael Watley. I want to chat about that race, but I want to get your reaction, of course, to what's going on with this disastrous war in Iran, unauthorized. I mean, obviously our troops are first rate. They're going to do everything that our troops are going to do. The issue becomes, is there even a plan, any coordination with allies? And of course, now how this is impacting the people here at home. So I wanted to get your reaction to everything, Governor.

7:08Yeah, I am grateful for our troops who have stepped up courageously and have eliminated some of the leaders and damaged weapons of an evil and oppressive regime. And we mourn the loss of service members who've given their lives. But right now, we don't know which of the many reasons that have been given are true as to why we got into this war. And we certainly don't have an exit strategy. And now I see that$200 billion is being requested from Congress to fund this foreign war in the Middle East. That'll pay for a lot of affordable health care. We already know that families are struggling with costs.

7:56So many families having too much month at the end of the money, struggling with rent and utilities and health care and child care. And now comes gas prices, which have increased almost a dollar a gallon just in the last three weeks. That's frustrating from the American people. We deserve answers here and we're not getting them.

8:22Ben Meiselas:Not only are we not getting answers, we're just seeing zero leadership at all. and people like Michael Watley, who you're running against in that Senate seat, and all of these kind of MAGA Republican senators are just pretending this is normal. When Donald Trump says, you know what we're going to do? We're going to remove the sanctions against Russia. While, as I showed in the intro before we did this interview, while Putin is out there saying, if you remove certain sanctions against me, I'll stop providing intelligence to Iran in order to attack American troops. And then Donald Trump's out there pretending that that isn't even happening at all.

9:06Ben Meiselas:We were floating the idea of removing sanctions against Iranian oil. It just seems like they're winging it, like someone who shows up for a high school project without preparing for it, except this is life and death, war and peace stuff. And he's out there, Trump and all these MAGA Republicans, just setting aside your political party. It looks like amateur hour of amateur hour right now. So my opponent, Michael Watley, in this race will be nothing but a rubber stamp for Donald Trump. He says what Donald Trump says. He does what Donald Trump wants him to do. So if Donald Trump is in this foreign war, even though he said that he wasn't going to enter such wars, then Michael Watley is going to be for it.

9:52He's also in North Carolina trying to convince the people here that prices are down and that we have defeated inflation and that our economy is great. And the people of North Carolina know that's not true. Michael Watley has been a partisan Republican Party leader for years. He has spent a lot of time in Washington. He is the consummate Washington, D.C. insider, having worked on the hill for Republicans, became a big oil lobbyist, made a lot of money doing that. He was the chair of the North Carolina Republican Party and recruited right-wing candidates like Mark Robinson, who ran against Governor Stein last night, the self-described, I mean, last year, the self-described black Nazi Mark Robinson said he was.

10:47this is the kind of candidate he is. And in fact, he is also an election denier. He still insists that Donald Trump won the 2020 election. We do not need that kind of person representing North Carolina. And folks, this is going to be a close race. Even with what's happening right now in this country, it's hard to believe. But North Carolina hasn't elected a Democratic U.S. senator since 2008. And that year, North Carolina voted for Barack Obama. Polling shows this race close. I'm going to need your help because this is the number one flip from red to blue U.S. Senate seat in the country. The way we deal with this administration is put the checks and balances back in that the framers of the Constitution intended.

11:40And helping us, you can go to RoyCooper.com and help us and learn a little bit about our campaign, learn about our Make Stuff Cost Less tour, which I'm very excited about. But I know the frustration level is high out there. We just got to channel that frustration to win elections right now. And this is one we have to win.

12:00Ben Meiselas:Look, if we were going to do this interview without this war taking place, we would have talked about how difficult the economic situation is for most Americans other than Donald Trump's Epstein class, you know, billionaire, you know, billionaire crew. We would talk about how the Trump regime has ripped away health care from so many people in North Carolina and across the country, how people are struggling to make rent if they're able to make it at all, how they are psychologically tortured, living paycheck to paycheck, how inflation was rising, how Donald Trump's tariffs against the world were an absolute disaster, and how after losing with the Supreme Court, he invoked another law unlawfully to make even worse tariffs after the Supreme Court said no.

12:50Ben Meiselas:So that's what this would have. Now you add on top of it, the war. And I know we're talking a lot about, you know, the Strait of Hormuz, the oil being shut down there, but we should also be talking about fertilizers, helium, how that's impacting our farmers. Our farmers are saying they need at least another 12 to$20 billion bailout again because of the fertilizer costs after Trump screwed them with his trade war against the world. So everything now that we would talk about feels like it's compounded. And again, your opponent, Watley and others, are acting like this is like great. I think Hegs had said we should be saying thank you.

13:30Ben Meiselas:Thank you. Yeah. Not only are people frustrated that this administration is not focusing on what it said it would, which from day one was to lower costs from people, and instead is focusing on a foreign war that we still don't know the reason why they got into it. But they're making, they're compounding the problems that people are facing because things cost too much. These tariffs, we know the damage that they've done. But now with the war, we don't even really know how bad the economic repercussions are going to be. We already see it at the gas pump. You're going to see it very soon because every business that has to transport something from one place to the next is going to have to pay a lot more.

14:25And it eventually is going to come down to the small businesses and the consumers. So we know that this is going to hurt people in the pocketbook when they're already struggling. And then putting our brave soldiers, their lives on the line here. Look, some good things have happened, but we don't have, it doesn't seem that we have a plan. And I think it's critically important that in Congress, we have senators and members of Congress who will stand up, take constitutional authority back, make true checks and balances in place. You know, the constitutional authority on trade and tariffs. Congress needs to grab that declaration of war.

15:14Congress needs to grab that budgetary issues. Congress needs to grab that to make the system work like it's supposed to work. so we can actually help those everyday people who are so frustrated right now because Stephanie, who's a teacher I just talked to last week, can't make her ends meet at the grocery store. Meredith's worried about her child, Vivian, who has cerebral palsy and is covered by Medicaid. This one big, beautiful bill threatens that. Tim, who's a veteran, is having problems with the VA, with the cuts that they have made there. John's a small business guy. He's seen his utility bills go up both in his place of business and his home.

15:58It's so tough for people. This war is making it worse. And we need to elect people to the U.S. Congress, to the U.S. Senate, who are going to understand this and are going to work to take this authority back and really focus on helping those people.

16:16Ben Meiselas:Governor Cooper, one more time, where can people learn more about the campaign and where can they reach out to you? You can go to RoyCooper.com. Remember, guys, this is going to be a tough race. There are going to be hundreds of millions of dollars that are going to come in here to North Carolina, a lot from outside groups directed by Donald Trump to try to defeat me. Trump has put my name a lot in his tweets lately. and we've got to make sure that we are ready to fight back because there's, we can't have a path to taking back the Senate majority without taking back North Carolina. We're ready to do it, but I'm going to need your help and people go to RoyCooper.com and help us out.

17:00Ben Meiselas:Thank you very much, Governor Roy Cooper running for that open Senate seat in North Carolina, running against the MAGA Republican extremist, Michael Watley. Thanks, Governor Cooper. Appreciate you. Thank you, Ben. Grateful. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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