Simon, there's a few things to get into.

Thank you for joining us. Let's um let's

start first with this breaking news that

we've seen from President Trump, if

that's all right. Um on Truth Social,

just to tell listeners, the blockade

will remain in full force and effect

until an agreement is reached,

certified, and signed. Both sides must

take their time and get it right. Simon,

your interpretation of that. Good

afternoon.

>> Good afternoon to you, Henry. Look, he's

been on the receiving end of incoming

from furious Republicans for the last 12

hours uh since his previous Truth Social

posting in which he revealed uh that

he'd had this big conversation on

Saturday afternoon uh with uh leaders

across the Middle East uh that uh there

was a a possible ceasefire extension in

the offing uh that the straight of

Hormuz news was going to be reopened as

part of this. Then details started

tumbling out from uh Middle Eastern

governments, Iranian sources, and those

details deeply worried and indeed

infuriated

some very senior Republican lawmakers,

including Senator Ted Cruz of Texas,

Senator Lindsey Graham of South

Carolina, a very influential foreign

policy voice in the president's ear, who

took to social media to say, in the case

of Lindsey Graham, based on what he was

hearing about what the president may be

on the verge of agreeing to, he couldn't

really understand why the war had been

started in the first place because both

Senator Cruz and Senator Graham and many

others uh argued that this was

tantamount to basically an American

surrender to the Iranian regime that

will be left in place. That in and of

itself is anathema, particularly to

Senator Lindsey Graham, but also without

securing any guarantees that at the end

of the day, the Iranians were not going

to be able to rebuild their nuclear

program. All of that was going to be

kicked down the road for 60 days while

you kind of sort of resolved the

straight of Hormuz issue. Although there

were huge questions about the nature of

that, while also giving the Iranians a

promise that if they negotiated and

signed and sealed a fullscale peace deal

within the next 60 days, they would

enjoy a waiver on American sanctions

against uh the sale of oil and would

secure billions of dollars in unfrozen

uh in in assets, Iranian assets that are

currently frozen here that those would

be unfrozen. And let me tell you why

that strikes a real nerve for

Republicans. President Trump for months

has publicly humiliated Barack Obama for

unfreezing $400 million, not billion,

$400 million and literally flying the

cash to Iran back in January of 2016.

Now suddenly Republicans are being asked

to swallow the idea that Donald Trump

might unfreeze billions with a bee of

frozen Iranian assets. Exactly the kind

of war chest that they worry the regime

could then use to rebuild its ability to

be a military threat not only to the

United States but particularly to uh its

allies, America's allies and partners in

the region. uh including of course the

possibility that some of that money

would flow to Hezbollah in Lebanon to

rebuild that Iranian proxy. So

Republicans are incandescent

about this deal that President Trump uh

appears to be considering. They think

that this is the Iran nuclear deal all

over again and potentially even weaker

than that. And so now you see Donald

Trump taking to Truth Social to say

basically, I've heard what you're

saying. Of course, we're going to give

this all the time that it needs. I think

it raises huge questions about whether

that 60-day extended ceasefire is going

to be able to go ahead. It's also, by

the way, not just Republican lawmakers,

you know, prominent figures here. Bob

Kagan, neoconservative, who founded uh

the project for the new American

century. He's immediately authored a

piece for the Atlantic here saying that

Donald Trump's endgame in Iran is

surrender. So he's got a real problem on

the conservative side of the aisle here

with what yesterday he was touting uh as

a brilliant outcome uh that was going to

allow the straight of horses to be

reopened.

>> Well, and he's had Marco Rubio sent out

just hours ago talking about the the

sort of the extolling the virtues of

this as well. So, you're right. It's

very confusing. And I see on I mean the

the truth social post is so long, Simon,

that it' be end up I'll be taking some

of James Hansen's show if I read it all

out. But he does talk about the um the

Obama administration, as you say, um the

rank amateurs, he calls them. He says um

that this transaction with Iran is the

exact opposite um of of that.

Well, well, it's only the opposite in

the sense that Barack Obama only sent

millions of dollars uh to Iran. Donald

Trump appears to be considering

unfreezing billions of dollars for Iran.

Also, just worth bearing in mind, Henry,

that this comes, this is not

contextfree, this push back by the

Republicans. Remember that last week,

Republicans in the Senate finally found

a teeny bit of spine to revolt against

Donald Trump's proposed weaponization

compensation fund that they learned with

fury. Uh is poised potentially to hand

cash payments over to some of Donald

Trump's insurrectionists who claim that

they were uh being pursued by a

weaponized Department of Justice under

the Biden administration. So,

Republicans, uh, you know, the the blood

of Republicans is up with this White

House. And the biggest problem, of

course, now for Trump's defenders is

that this critique of what he's doing on

Iran, this allegation that he's engaged

in an act of humiliating surrender by

the United States is not coming from the

Democrats. It's coming from loyal

traditional supporters of Donald Trump

up on Capitol Hill. Simon, while I've

got you, can we talk as well about what

happened overnight at the White House?

>> Yeah, so we now know a lot more about

this uh shooting that took place uh

right outside the White House at a uh

checkpoint where uh a gunman confronted

members of the Secret Service, opened

fire, and was then uh shot at by the

Secret Service who killed him. This

gunman was known to the security teams

at the White House. His name was Neri

Best. According to media reports here,

he was 21 years of age. He had made

multiple efforts in the past uh to try

and at least glean information from the

Secret Service about how someone might

be able to gain entry to the White

House. He was arrested last July uh for

walking into a restricted area on White

House grounds after reportedly ignoring

signs and commands to stop. The

authorities say here that he was

obsessed with trying to gain access to

the White House at one point in one of

his encounters with the Secret Service.

He said that he believed that he was

Jesus Christ uh and that he had been

commanded essentially to try and gain

entry to the building. Uh he was

involuntarily held back in June of last

year for blocking a vehicle entry uh on

the east side of the White House. That

was when he said he was Jesus Christ and

wanted to get arrested. Uh, a judge had

issued a stay away order following that

arrest that was that had barred him

around from from from going anywhere

near basically the White House. And lo

and behold, he showed up at the White

House last night with a gun. So this

appears to be an incident of someone who

was suffering from uh you know

tremendous mental challenges uh

determined to try and gain entrance to

the building and discovering that one

man with a with a gun is no match for

the very heavily armed secret service

that already surround the building like

a ring of seal. Of course, President

Trump is arguing this is one reason why

he needs to build what we've all got to

stop calling his bald ballroom and all

need to start talking about as his

fortress. You know, this heavily

fortified, impenetrable sixstory deep

bunker that is being constructed at the

White House. So, he immediately on

social media last night said, "Well,

this proves why we need to do that." You

could also argue it actually proved that

the existing security arrangements are

sufficient, that this gunman was

neutralized. uh killed by the Secret

Service, though unfortunately a

bystander uh was wounded after getting

caught in the crossfire.