Trump: Iran War 'Very Complete,' Considering Strait of Hormuz Takeover | NTD Evening News (Mar. 9)

And that was President Trump speaking in answering questions from the media at the press conference at Doral, Florida, after the GOP's annual policy retreat. Welcome to NGD Evening News. Our top story tonight, the United States military has identified the seventh soldier killed in Operation Epic Fury. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime continues launching strikes on other countries across the Middle East, Jason Perry reports, plus the president's latest comments on the war. President Trump hosting House Republicans in Florida for their annual policy retreat. One of the biggest questions, will the GOP push a second reconciliation bill? Chris Bobb reports. New York City's mayor and police commissioners say an attack near Gracie Mansion Saturday is being treated as an act of terrorism. Two individuals in custody are facing federal charges. Arlene Richards with the details. And TSA employees have almost gone a month without pay. And long security checkpoint lines are starting to be seen at many major airports. Jason Blair has the latest. This is NTD Evening News, live from our global headquarters in New York City. Here's Tiffany Meyer. Good evening and thank you for joining us tonight. The U.S. Central Command says over 5,000 Iranian targets have been struck in the first 10 days of Operation Epic Fury, with 50 Iranian vessels destroyed. This as the Department of War identifies the seventh soldier killed during the operation. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime continues to launch strikes against other countries in the Middle East. NTD's Jason Perry has the update. The U.S. military released video on Monday showing a series of strikes on Iran. Iran's state-run media said an airstrike landed near a demonstration where thousands of people were rallying in support of the country's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. The Iranian regime named him to be the country's next leader after his father, Ali Khamenei, was killed at the start of the war. Meanwhile, a seventh U.S. service member who was injured at the beginning of the war has died. Army Sergeant Benjamin Pennington of Kentucky was injured on March 1st during an attack on an air base in Saudi Arabia and passed away on Sunday. Vice President J.D. Vance said this while addressing a group of firefighters on Monday. And I just want to say that if you are the praying type, and I certainly am, I hope you'll spare a prayer for the six souls that we lost, for the seventh soul who will be coming home tonight, and for all of their families. Meanwhile, Iran has continued launching attacks at neighboring countries in the Middle East. Qatar releasing this video on Monday saying it shows Qatari forces intercepting Iranian missiles and attack drones. And in Bahrain, Iranian attack drones reportedly hit an oil refinery. And also a residential neighborhood on Monday as residents were seen responding to the aftermath. Also, the Israeli ambulance service says at least one person was killed and two others injured in an Iranian missile attack on Israel. Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Danny Dannen, saying this about the war in Iran. It will take some more time. You know, it's not going to be years. It's not going to be months. It's going to take a few more weeks. But we are heading in the right direction. And I think the moment that the people of Iran will rise up and take their future in their own hands is coming pretty soon. At the same time, Israeli forces have increased strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon. This comes after Israel said that several projectiles were launched from Lebanon toward Israel. Jason Perry in TV News. President Trump tonight calling the U.S. military campaign against Iran a short-term excursion. He emphasizes that Operation Epic Fury is to eliminate evil and that it will end pretty quickly. We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some evil. And I think you'll see it's going to be a short-term excursion. How good is our military, right? Amazing. How good. Short term. Short term. The president's remarks to the House Republican Conference in Florida come amid concerns over energy disruptions in the Middle East. Stocks rose and oil prices fell today after the president saying the Iran war is very complete. Still, he vows the U.S. will not relent until the Iranian regime is, quote, totally defeated. We've already won in many ways, but we haven't won enough. We go forward more determined than ever to achieve ultimate victory that will end this long-running danger once and for all. 47 years. It should have been done a long time ago. World would have been a different place had some president had the courage to go and do it. They has destroyed Iran's Navy, Air Force and Army, wiping out 80 percent of its missile launchers and crippling its drone and missile capabilities. Trump adding that Iran's terrorist leaders are either gone or counting the minutes until they're gone. He also highlights the imminent threat Iran was posing before the U.S. and Israel launched a preemptive attack. Within a week, if they were going to attack us 100 percent, they were ready. They had all these missiles, far more than anyone thought, and they were going to attack us. But they were going to attack all of the Middle East and Israel. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they would have used it on Israel. And this was going to be a major attack. Beyond the battlefield, the president highlights what he calls major progress on the economy, drug prices and border security. He's also urging Republicans to pass the SAVE Act to tighten voter ID rules ahead of the midterms. The White House is calling Operation Epic Fury a resounding success. And Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is touting the effectiveness of the U.S. military in its strikes on Iran. As the war enters its second week, how are those who study war calculating its success? And how does it compare to past U.S. military operations? Tune in to NTD's Capitol Report with Steve Lance at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Retired Army Colonel Dr. Thomas Lynch, Distinguished Research Fellow at the National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies, will join us for analysis. And as House Republicans begin their annual policy retreat in Florida, one of their biggest questions, will the GOP push a second reconciliation bill? NTD's Chris Bobb has the details. To develop this policy framework that would address affordability in healthcare to housing to electricity and gas prices. House Republicans are convening in Doral, Florida this week for their annual policy retreat. With a razor thin margin and looming midterm elections, party leaders are weighing their next move, a potential second reconciliation bill aimed at affordability and codifying President Trump's agenda. The idea, nicknamed Reconciliation 2.0, was first outlined by conservatives earlier this year as a way to target rising costs for American families. Right here is the framework for what we're calling the Make American Dream Affordable Again, Reconciliation 2.0 plan. An earlier framework released by the Republican Study Committee proposes a range of policies, including reforms to healthcare programs and energy regulations. There are also incentives for first-time home buyers. If you talk to anyone under the age of 40, they will tell you it is virtually impossible. You can't get in to even tour a home before it's snapped up by someone else, probably a little bit older, or a corporation that's buying in cash. Today, we are including the NEST Act. First-time home buyers would be allowed to save for their down payment tax-free. Republican leaders say putting these items in a reconciliation bill could allow them to pass legislation in the Senate with a simple majority, bypassing the 60-vote threshold required for most bills. As you know, that's the only way to get around the necessary threshold of 60 votes in the Senate, so we're working right now very methodically, carefully, to determine what of our priorities we can squeeze into a second reconciliation bill. The GOP retreat continues through Wednesday. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Chris Bobb, NTD News. New York City Mayor Zohra Mamdani and his police commissioner, Jessica Tish, today said they are treating a Saturday incident involving explosive devices as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism. NTD's Arlene Richards has more. New York City will never tolerate violence. An attack outside the New York City mayor's residence is being treated as an act of terrorism. I can confirm this morning that this is being investigated as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism. The alleged act of terrorism happened Saturday during an anti-Islam protest. There is video of these two individuals throwing two devices towards the protest. The police department has determined that these were improvised explosive devices made to injure, maim, or worse. Amir Bilat and Ibrahim Qayyumi, the two suspects in custody, allegedly traveled from Pennsylvania to the protest in New York. The devices that were tossed into the crowd were packed with nuts, bolts, and screws and contained a chemical substance inside a taped canister fitted with a fuse. Preliminary test results determined that these were not hoax devices nor smoke bombs. The FBI has joined the New York Police Department in testing the devices as well as in conducting a terrorism investigation. Police Commissioner Jessica Tish said the suspects will be prosecuted in federal court in Manhattan. The complaint will set forth criminal charges and the factual allegations supporting those charges. In a second press conference on Monday afternoon, Tish released more information on federal charges against the suspects. The defendants are charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS, using a weapon of mass destruction, transporting explosive materials, interstate transportation, and receipt of explosive materials, and unlawful possession of destructive devices. Bilat and Qayyumi are both under age 21. They have no prior criminal records. On their first appearance in federal court Monday, their attorneys requested protective custody for their clients. Tish said they each admitted they were inspired by ISIS. As Qayyumi was being placed into an NYPD vehicle following his arrest, a person in the crowd asked why he had done this. As shown on NYPD body-worn camera footage referenced in the complaint, Qayyumi responded with ISIS. She said Bilat also made unsolicited statements that were captured on body cam footage. She said this isn't a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet. We take action. We take action. She said he also told investigators that he hoped to carry out an attack even bigger than the Boston Marathon bombing, which occurred 13 years ago. That bombing killed three individuals. NYPD officers put their own lives at risk on Saturday to stop one bomb from detonating. They later found two more. The police commissioner, a U.S. attorney, and an assistant FBI director all praised the officers for their heroic actions and for keeping New Yorkers safe. Tish said these agencies are working together with NYPD in an ongoing investigation. Arlene Richards, NTD News. Some passengers have been waiting as long as three hours to get through security at some airports. New Orleans Airport and several others are saying it's due to TSA staffing shortages. A partial government shutdown has been in effect for nearly a month now, and the White House says thousands of government workers, including TSA employees, aren't getting paid. NTD correspondent Jason Blair reports. Long security checkpoint lines have been spotted at many major airports around the country. This includes Houston, New Orleans, and Atlanta. One line can be seen stretching outside of the terminal and one into an airport parking garage. New Orleans International Airport posted a notice on Monday announcing delays due to the partial government shutdown, saying passengers are advised to arrive at least three hours before their scheduled departure to allow plenty of time to undergo security screening. Wait times could be up to two hours, and the delays could continue through the rest of the week. And Atlanta Airport also posted that it's experiencing, quote, extended wait times at TSA security checkpoints. A partial government shutdown has been ongoing. Many employees at the Department of Homeland Security have been working without pay, and this includes TSA employees. Last month, a TSA administrator told Congress that absences are common during shutdowns. Which means folks calling out because they could not afford to show up to work. And what we have to do in those instances is to start kind of consolidating and collapsing some of our operations, which means that not all of our lanes are open, and that does lead to longer wait times. In order to get the DHS running at full capacity again, both the House and Senate need to reach a funding agreement. The White House announcing on Monday that over 100,000 workers are going without pay during the partial government shutdown. The statement says, now as TSA workers work without paychecks for the third time in nearly six months, crippling staffing shortages and hours-long security lines are gripping airports as millions of families head out for spring break. In other travel-related news, Kansas City International Airport was shut down and evacuated for about two hours on Sunday due to a, quote, security incident. The airport says that law enforcement were able to determine that the threat was not credible. FBI Director Kash Patel saying, FBI and our law enforcement partners quickly responded to the scene and secured the area. The terminal has been swept, cleared, and normal operations resumed. However, the airport parking garage was shut down for an after authorities found a suspicious vehicle during the security sweep. The airport saying, during the sweep of the garage, a vehicle on the top floor was identified by K-9 units as suspicious. As protocol, KCPD bomb and arson were called in to investigate, and the garage was kept closed for an additional three hours. Kansas City Airport says that the police bomb and arson units determined that there was no threat. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Jason Blair, NTD News. President Trump welcoming Latin American leaders to Florida over the weekend and announcing a new coalition against drug cartels. The initiative is set to give Trump a chance to project strength closer to home and to pull Latin America closer to Washington. Here's that story. President Donald Trump hosted Latin American leaders in Florida on Saturday to announce the formation of a military coalition against drug cartels. The heart of our agreement is a commitment to using lethal military force to destroy the sinister cartels and terrorist networks once and for all. We'll get rid of them. At least a dozen leaders from Central America, South America, and the Caribbean joined what was called the Shield of America Summit convened by Trump, who signed a proclamation launching the coalition. In the last year as Secretary of Homeland Security, we have focused on securing our border. We have transformed our country from one that was being invaded by enemies, millions of them that were coming in unvetted, that we didn't know who was there and who wished to harm us. We've secured that border. We've focused on removing public safety threats. It's a top priority for us. And while there are clearly a focus on the security of the hemisphere, as you can see from the representation in our cabinet, from trade to commerce to energy to treasury, and there is also a focus very strongly on the opportunities we have to work together economically. But you can't have economic progress without security. Trump has cited drug cartels as a primary reason for ramping up his administration's involvement in Latin America, pressuring Venezuela over the past several months and seizing its president, Nicolas Maduro, in January. The Trump administration has also deepened direct involvement in the region by tightening enforcement of the decades-long U.S. embargo on Cuba. On Saturday, Trump said Cuba wants to make a deal with the U.S. and is negotiating with him and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. As we achieve a historic transformation in Venezuela, we're also looking forward to the change that will soon be coming to Cuba. Cuba's at the end of the line. Coming up, how did the political spectrum in the U.S. shift toward the left over the past decades? The author of The Political Vice, John Tillman, joins us to explore his new book, Our Conversation, next. Welcome back. I'm Tiffany Meyer. For decades, the political spectrum in the U.S. has been shifting toward the left. But how did it happen? A new book now explores this leftward drift with a battle plan for conservatives. Joining us now is John Tillman, author of The Political Vice, how the radical left controls America and the path to regaining our liberty. John, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you. Now, with the midterms coming up, there's a lot of focus on candidates. But in your book, you talk about how it's not enough just to elect the right people. There are other factors and pressures at play, something you actually called The Political Vice in your book. Talk to us about that. Who is controlling this? The radical left, unfortunately, is controlling the levers of The Political Vice. And if you think of it like a U, there's the left side, which has media pressure, the right side, which has people pressure, and the bottom of it is elite influencer pressure. And they all apply pressure to those in the middle, which are political decision makers. And politics is a pressurized system, Tiffany. And if you can apply pressure, you can get the results you want. This explains why so many conservatives, once they get in office, begin to move left, because the radical left has control of the commanding heights of media, elite influencers in all of our institutions, from K through 12 education, higher education, healthcare, corporate communications, obviously, the deep state and all the rest of it. And I wrote the book because I want people on the right, and even the Democrats, traditional Democrats, who've been abandoned by their party to understand what is happening to the political system, and what we need to do to fight back and regain control of the commanding heights by grasping those levers for liberty. And speaking of those levers, you talk about three different kinds of the political vice, the traditional, the progressive, as you just talked about, and the liberty political vice. How are they different? How do they change the outcome? Up till about the progressive era in the late 1800s, early 1900s, the traditional political vice really operated, even as far as the founding, the traditional political vice operated, where politicians were trying to begin very early on learning how to use the media. Of course, you did have elite influencers during the founding, names that we all know, Madison, Jefferson, Adams, and all the rest, and, of course, George Washington. And then you had the engagement of the American people at that early stage. But what started to happen in the late 1800s, early 1900s, and has been going on for 100 years, is the progressive movement, often aligned with socialism and communism, has been taking control of those levers. So you see, from the 60s on, the elite institutions in academia, the Ivies and all the elite universities around the country, are really controlled by radical leftists. We saw that with the protests where the university campuses were aligned with Hamas after October 7th, rather than aligned with the victims of October 7th, which, of course, were the Jews in Israel. These are just many examples of how these institutions have been co-opted. Now, there's been a lot of good progress from liberty-oriented folks. And the whole idea of the liberty vice is that we want to have the people, the American people—and, of course, we have that famous phrase, everybody knows we, the people—we want the people back at the bottom of the vice, because that is the most leveraged position. You can apply direct pressure to politicians, and you can also apply pressure and influence the way media covers stories, and the way in which influencers are chosen. Part of the point of the book is that we need to choose different influencers. And we saw that, Tiffany, during the pandemic, when governors like—despite her challenges today, Kristi Noem, of course, Governor DeSantis, Governor Reynolds in Iowa, and many others who did really well in releasing the American people to go back and live their lives very early on, while Democrat governors kept lockdowns, like in my former home state of Illinois, for over two years. And so, the way this works is, your viewers and people that care about America have to look beyond just voting. We have to look at the institutions, challenge the media, pick better media, demonetize the liberal media that really distorts the truth. That's one of the great battles we've seen with the X platform now, and frankly, your platform as well, is we're getting other views out there, and we need to keep expanding the number of the American people that hear these other views and find out there's different points of view than what the legacy media wants to say. And, John, in your book, you talk about how the left has successfully wielded victimhood and grievances, but that the right should tap into the American miracle and hope. Expand on that for us. Well, I think one of the saddest things about what's happened to the radical left and the Democratic Party is they win elections by slicing us up into groups, and I call it group identity politics. Many people have talked about this, but the underlying electoral strategy is really appalling and abhorrent from a moral point of view. What they really want to do is appeal to a part of the human nature, which is that we all encounter calamities in our life. We don't get the job we want. We don't get the marriage we want with the woman or man we wanted to marry. Our child doesn't get into the best school. And so we have problems, and these calamities are tough. And the American miracle has always been we dust ourselves off, we get up, and we go at it, and we try harder, and we work better, and we learn. But what the left is doing now is telling people that you're a victim of rapacious capitalism. You're a victim of the obsession with the founding of the country with individual sovereignty controlling the government. And only we, the radical left controlling the government, can put our foot on the scale and create an equal or, in the worst case, equity outcome for you as a victim. And so they have African Americans, Hispanics, Latinos, LBGTQ, you're tall or short, fat or skinny, an immigrant. You all are victims, and it's a grievance culture. But they do knit together a coalition of voters based on that grievance. Our side of the coin is that we appeal to people's hopes and aspirations. The natural human condition on the other side of the coin is that we're builders, we're collaborators. We like to voluntarily work with other people to build our communities, our churches, our civic institutions. And we're working together to try to build a better tomorrow than we have today. And it's much more aspiring and hopeful. We need to do a better job of saying that when you pursue liberty, the outcomes are a more fulfilling and satisfying life rather than the grievance culture, which leads to decline and despair. And with each election, Americans have a choice to, quote your book, American greatness is not a birthright. Every generation must earn it. We earn it by understanding where we are and where we want to go and by developing the right strategy to achieve that destiny. How can Americans figure out for themselves what that American greatness looks like? American greatness is when the government recognizes that its role is to protect our rights that are inherent in our founding principles. The Bill of Rights, of course, is the best example of that. And remember that the Bill of Rights was adopted to make sure it was crystal clear that these were inalienable rights. If you're a person of faith, they come from God. If you're not, they're natural rights. And that's the primary purpose of government, is to protect our rights, our rights of free speech, assembly, our freedom to practice our religion as we want and so forth. And other than that, our national security and kind of regulate things between the states. But what's happened is the left wants the government to be the be-all and end-all to solving every societal problem. We have to point out that when government tries to solve problems, it fails the very people it's trying to help. Perhaps the best example of this is homelessness in California and other blue states. Homelessness, they pour tons of money, billions of dollars into it, and homelessness skyrockets, harming the very people, the homeless, that they're trying to help. What we're trying to do is empower people by devolving power back to individuals to make decisions unfettered and unrestricted by the government within reason. And of course, it's not that we want regulations to go completely away, but we don't want them to have a chokehold on us. And so when people are interacting with potential candidates or their elected officials, they should ask them, what is your philosophy? And what you're looking for, do they talk about it in a way where they want to empower government with ever more things for the government to do? Or do they want to empower people by devolving power? The best recent example of this going on is Governor DeSantis in Florida. Explosive growth, huge immigration because people feel free and unfettered to pursue their version of the American dream, whether they're black, brown or white, rich or poor, new immigrant or descended from the Mayflower. And that's a good example for the rest of the country. John Tillman, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Australia says it has granted asylum to five members of Iran's national women's soccer team. The team had been playing in the Asia Cup tournament in Australia since before the Iran war started last month. They were eliminated from contention on Sunday, but concerns over their safety arose after team members remained silent during the playing of Iran's national anthem before a game last week, an act some have viewed as resistance. The team has yet to clarify. President Trump had called on Australian officials to grant them asylum earlier today, citing issues over their safety. Australian officials say the same asylum opportunity is available to the remaining members of the Iranian team. And that's all for today's news. For around the clock coverage, visit us at ntd.com slash live or download our NTD app. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Good night.