now John Ratcliffe former Director of
National Intelligence uh John ratliffe
good to see you thank you for being here
you know what goes through my mind as I
think about John kry having discussions
with Javad zarif you know smoothing
things over so that this deal could be
put back together um is is allegedly
what was being discussed there um this
is a bit of a slap in the face isn't
it yeah I think a starting point Martha
is you know I I want to give the Biden
Administration credit when they get it
right with respect to Iran and I did
that last week I think that the response
that they took against Iranian backed
militias in Syria was was appropriate
was a direct proportionate response but
you got to give them credit so that you
can have credibility when they when they
get it wrong and you know this whole
Iranian nuclear discussion um is wrong
um first of all all of our Arab allies
are against it Israel's against it but
most importantly as the person uh that
has seen more intelligence on Iran in
the past year than anyone I can tell you
that our intelligence is against it Iran
is poorer weaker and less influential
than they've been in two decades and
it's a result of the Trump policy of
withdrawing from the jcpoa and in
implementing sanctions that has really
crippled uh the Iranian um economy and
as a result what you have is a less
influential Iran and and we have
relative peace in the Middle East these
uh peace agreements that have come in
the past year are because Iran is less
influential so I think the events of
today is if I hope that what the Biden
Administration does is take the gift
that the Iranians are giving them uh
walk away say look we tried to
reinstitute this they said no and and
and leave it at that because uh to do
otherwise I think would be to just
pursue a political narrative to try and
um go down this road of saying uh you
know uh we were right and and Trump was
wrong when in fact the the intelligence
is very clear that it's the other way
around they should just not uh uh snatch
defeat from the jaws of Victory which is
what would happen if they pursued this
Iranian nuclear deal it's a great point
I mean it might be a bit of a a you know
push back but it does give them an
opportunity to say h let's take another
look at this maybe we don't want to go
back into this deal just yet and it
could buy them some very valuable time
um with regard to the Border you live in
Texas here's the DHS secretary newly
minted Alejandro mayorcas um here's what
he says about what's going on
there do you believe that right now
there's a crisis at the border I think
that the uh um the answer is no uh I
think there is a challenge at the border
that we are managing and we have our
resources dedicated to to managing it do
you see a crisis at the border well
whether you call it a crisis or not the
circumstances have changed well here's
what I think everyone has to concede is
that six weeks ago when Donald Trump was
still president there wasn't a crisis or
an issue at all uh at the border what's
changed is immediately upon Joe Biden
becoming president was he advertised a
different policy and and as a result um
we now have an issue um that has hasn't
existed for 2 years look I I know he uh
President Biden has a conversation with
amlo today Andre Manuel Lopez oor and
you know hopefully they'll address this
situation but that that everyone
remembers two years ago Martha that we
had a crisis um at the border at our
border that ended when President Trump
required that amlo um enforce his
Southern border and folks coming up from
the northern triangle El Salvador
Honduras and Guatemala and as a result
that crisis went away and it's only come
back because the again I hope this is
not a situation where the Biden
Administration just quick to want to say
Trump's immigration policies were cruel
we're going to do something different
when very clearly we can see that the
effect of that is it's creating a crisis
at the southern border of my state okay
and real quick answer is John Durham
going to bring forth
indictments I don't know uh you know
he'll have to issue a report and when he
does I'll have a lot to say about that
Martha because um a lot of what's in his
report is going to be based on
intelligence that that I shared with him
what I can tell you is this last summer
John Durham uh Bill bar and myself all
looked at that intelligence we all
agreed that the FBI had a problem that
they didn't have a proper predicate uh
to open Crossfire hurricane so the
result of that and what's in his report
we'll see but I'll comment on it uh at
whatever time his report comes out all
right we'll have you back we'll look
forward to seeing you again sir thank
you very much thanks John