Iran’s Regional Influence and the Stakes for National Security

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, what is going on in the world? Well, let’s go to Oklahoma. We have Senator James Lankford with us. And, well, Senator, you’re on the Intelligence Committee. What are you learning about all the things that are going on? I mean, we had General Keene on the other day, and he says the hoodies are really dangerous. doing a job on us.

0:24 Speaker 2 They are actually doing. The Houthis are funded by Iran, supported by Iran, coordinated by Iran. Iranian military intelligence actually helps guide them to where they’re going to attack at any given point. So the Iranians are funding the Houthis in Yemen. They’re funding Hezbollah in Lebanon. They’re funding Hamas in Gaza. They’re funding the Shia militants that are in Iraq.

0:46 The focus of all this is just destabilizing the entire area on it. But the Houthis have been Very aggressive going after shipping, going after the Saudis. I was just in that region just last week. In fact, I took off from the airport nearby when not long after that, the Saudi airport was actually hit. Not their military airport,

1:08 their commercial airport. I think a lot of Americans miss this. The Houthis are attacking their commercial, their normal airport there, hit a terminal, killed a bunch of people there at that spot. That’s how irrational this group is. It is a group of terrorists that are there that have split up Yemen but are also just spewing the violence in

1:24 the area.

1:24 Speaker 1 When I talk to General Keene, he says there’s a bigger amount of Houthis than we thought there were. There’s 250,000 Houthis. And I understand instead of China or Russia feeding Iran, which is more difficult— They’re feeding the Houthis.

1:41 Speaker 2 Yeah, and it makes it incredibly difficult because they’ve been very, very aggressive. This goes back to like al-Qaeda or for ISIS or some of these different terror groups on it. For whatever this philosophy is, and I certainly don’t share it and don’t understand it, whoever hates Jews the most, whoever is the most aggressive to be able to attack

1:59 other people in the region, that group of idealistic terrorists goes to them, and they become kind of the shiny penny that everyone wants to be able to run and join if you’re in that radical group. and the Houthis are on the rise at this point, that the radicals are actually trying to be able to actually join in

2:14 and say that’s the group that’s the most radical of all of them.

2:17 Speaker 1 I know that President Trump said to them that Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates should handle that. They should. But they’re not.

2:25 Speaker 2 They’re not. So the Saudis and the Houthis have actually been at war back and forth for more than 15 years, just on again, off again. The Emirates are the same way. have been back and forth with the Houthis. Now the Houthis are more aggressively attacking the Saudis, and the Saudis’ very capable military will actually go after them. They will

2:44 go after them, but they’ve not been able to stop them.

2:46 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, anything else you want to tell the American people?

2:49 Speaker 2 Well, I would tell people to continue to be able to pray for the nation. There’s a lot going on, obviously, with the elections that are coming up. Everybody seems to be focused in on what’s going to happen. I would remind folks, no one really knows what’s going to happen with the polls. Don’t let somebody tell you what’s going

3:03 to happen in any state, including their own state, go and vote and show up and actually be a part of this. Some of the polls, as you know, John, some of these polls are done specifically to discourage people from voting. They’ll say the numbers are so big, don’t even show up and vote anymore because this person is

3:20 going to win. It’s all designed to be able to try to keep people from voting some of these polls on it. No poll matters except for when actually the American people show up and vote.

3:30 Speaker 1 Senator Lankford, thank you so much for coming on this Sunday morning, and God bless you, God bless America, and let’s pray for America.

3:37 Speaker 2 Yeah, let’s do it.