#196: Iran, Military Housing & Unifying Congress - Representative Mike Levin (CA-49)

The conditions service members live in directly affect Military readiness and national security. It’s the responsibility of Congress to authorize military funding to ensure the warfighter has what they need in combat and at home. Every decision impacts the strength of the force and their families. In this episode, Fran Racioppi https://www.linkedin.com/in/francisracioppijr/ sat down with Representative Mike Levin https://levin.house.gov/, who serves California’s 49th District and sits on the House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs to discuss the policies and decisions shaping today’s military bases. From investments in infrastructure at Camp Pendleton to broader oversight of Veterans Affairs, Congressman Levin outlines why improving living conditions, facilities, and support systems is essential to maintaining a ready and capable force. Our conversation explores the responsibility of leadership to develop a culture where reporting substandard conditions is encouraged. We also discuss the broader role of Congress in overseeing military operations, and the importance of transparency, strategy, and accountability when American forces are deployed. Congressman Levin shares his perspective on the war with Iran, his views on the need for checks and balances, and the growing divide that has made bipartisan governance more difficult. He emphasizes that strong institutions require leaders willing to put mission over politics and to ensure that the constitutional framework guiding military action is upheld. This is a conversation about leadership, accountability, and the systems that support those who serve. It is about ensuring readiness not just on the battlefield, but across the entire force. Highlights: 0:00 Introduction1:53 Welcome to the Jedburgh Podcast3:19 California’s 49th District6:34 Improving Military Housing14:25 Status of the Iran War19:37 Is Iran A Direct Threat To The US?22:08 Iran’s State Sponsorship of Terrorism25:20 Negotiating with Iran28:41 Bridging the Gap Quotes: “It is imperative that we treat our veterans and military families with absolute respect.”“We’ve got real issues with barracks.”“We’re not looking for the Ritz Carlton. We’re just looking for a decent place.”“The average member of the military needs a decent place where they can live.”“The challenge is the lack of clarity about what they’re being asked to do.” “They didn’t brief us on what the plan was going to be.”“It’s a war that is unauthorized. It is a war without a clear exit plan.”“What damage have we done to our allies around the world? A lot.”“We know less today than we did before the war began.”“The question is whether or not the military has actually made it a worse problem or has it actually ameliorated the problem.”“The Iranians have been a horrible regime.”“I don’t think the President has enough people around him telling him what he needs to hear, not what he wants to hear.”“Use of military force should be last resort always.”“I am personally never going to see the other side as my enemy. I see them as my political opponent.”“Running the United States is not an easy challenge.” The Jedburgh Podcast is brought to you by OneBrief https://www.onebrief.com/; enabling military leaders to make innovative, informed and deliberate decisions faster than ever before. Superhuman command wins wars. Follow the Jedburgh Podcast https://www.instagram.com/jedburghpodcast/ and the Green Beret Foundation https://www.instagram.com/greenberetfoundation/ on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform https://pod.link/1558608802, read on our website https://greenberetfoundation.org/the-jedburgh-podcast/, and watch the full video version on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@jedburghpodcast as we show why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge. The opinions presented on the The Jedburgh Podcast and the Jedburgh Media Channel are the opinions of guests and host Fran Racioppi. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Green Beret Foundation and the Green Beret Foundation assumes no liability for their accuracy, nor does Green Beret Foundation endorse any political candidate or any political party.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Fran Racioppi?

  The conditions service members live in directly affect military readiness and national security. It's the responsibility of Congress to authorize military funding to ensure the warfighter has what they need in combat and at home. Every decision impacts the strength of the force and their families. To discuss the policies and decisions shaping today's military bases, I sat down with Representative Mike Levin, who serves California's 49th District and sits on the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. Congressman Levin outlines why improving living conditions, facilities, and support systems is essential to maintaining a ready and capable force. We also discussed the broader role of Congress in overseeing military operations, and the

• 0:47Fran Racioppi?

  importance of transparency, strategy, and accountability when American forces are deployed. Congressman Levin shares his perspective on the war with Iran, his views on the need for checks and balances, and the growing divide that has made bipartisan governance more difficult. He emphasizes that strong institutions require leaders willing to put mission over politics, and to ensure that the constitutional framework guiding military action is upheld. This is a conversation about leadership, accountability, and the systems that support those who serve. It's about ensuring readiness not just on the battlefield, but at home and for our families. The Jedberg Podcast is brought to you by OneBrief, enabling military leaders to make

• 1:29Fran Racioppi?

  innovative, informed, and deliberate decisions faster than ever before. Superhuman Command wins wars. Follow the Jedberg Podcast and the Greenbrier Foundation on social media, listen on your favorite podcast platform, read on our website, and watch the full video version on YouTube as we show you why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge. The opinions presented on the Jedberg Podcast and the Jedberg Media Channel are the opinions of my guests and myself. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Green Beret Foundation and the Green Beret Foundation assumes no liability for their accuracy, nor does Green Beret Foundation endorse any political candidate or any political party. Congressman Levin, welcome to the Jedberg Podcast.

• 2:12Speaker 01

  Thank you. Great to be with you.

• 2:13Fran Racioppi?

  It's been a while. We've been planning it for, I think, about a year or so, but exciting time to come back into the halls of Congress. Always an honor to come down to DC and walk through here and just, you know, see everybody who has the massive responsibility to keep our country going in all facets. And I think right now, you know, we can have a lot of different discussions about the top line issues and, you know, we see it in the news, we hear the rhetoric on both sides of the aisle, but at the end of the day, Congress has a job to do and that job is to represent the American people and work in the best interest of the American people. That's also where we have the divide because everybody has their own opinions of what's in the best interest, but you represent a really impressive

• 2:58Fran Racioppi?

  portion of not only the country, but certainly of the state of California. So the 49th District, we're talking about the San Diego North County and then the southern area, southern portion of Orange County. You have Camp Pendleton, 70,000 people, over 42,000 service members plus their families, grew up in LA. I lived in LA for a couple of years. My brother, my dad live in LA, very familiar with that whole area. But serving veterans has been a big part of your focus as you now have served for, I think, three terms, three, four terms.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  Four, yeah. Running for my fifth.

• 3:34Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah.

• 3:34Speaker 01

  Time's flying.

• 3:36Fran Racioppi?

  But you have a big military constituency.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  Yes, sir.

• 3:38Fran Racioppi?

  So when you look at, what does it mean to serve that district, the 49th District of California and the veteran population there, why is that so important to you?

• 3:47Speaker 01

  Well, we're here in my office in the Rayburn Office Building and off-camera where my desk is, is a portrait of my grandpa. And that's a portrait that my mom painted of him in his bomber jacket as a tail gunner for a B-24 in World War II. And I was really blessed that I got to know him really well. He lived until I was in my late twenties. And he taught me a lot about what it means to serve the country. He did not get to see me elected to Congress, but his impact is with me every day. Of my four grandparents, I got very close to him. And I think that if he were here, he would remind me every day that when you decide

• 4:32Speaker 01

  whether or not you're going to send a young man or a young woman in harm's way, that you can't just leave it there. You have to consider, what is our country going to do to serve that person well when they get home? For whatever that mission may be, whatever their service may be, is imperative that we treat our veterans and our military families with the absolute respect and that we don't try to shortchange them, that we don't try to undermine them, that the benefits, that the healthcare, that all of it is on point. All of it is consistent with who we are as Americans. And it's one thing for us to say, I support our troops, I support our Marines, I support our military.

• 5:15Speaker 01

  Another thing entirely to actually live up to that, not just during service, but after service as well. And my experience has been, having served on the Veterans Affairs Committee for six years, having chaired the Subcommittee Responsible for Veteran Homelessness and Housing and the GI Bill and Transition, that most military service members are looking for other ways to serve when they leave. Whether it's a nonprofit, whether it's working in government, whether it's in a business, could be with a BSO or a service organization, could be a media outlet, they're looking for other ways to serve. And we better do everything we possibly can to help them in that desire to continue to serve.

• 6:01Fran Racioppi?

  You've been very active, as you mentioned, with the VA, having served on the committees, the subcommittees. Now you serve on the House Appropriations Committee and also for Military Construction and the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee, which you're really looking at the budget that's going to the VA.

• 6:17Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 6:18Fran Racioppi?

  And Military Construction is another high chance. Actually, last year I sat down with Senator Bozeman from Arkansas.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 6:26Fran Racioppi?

  Who sits on the Senate Military Construction Committee as well. And we talk at quality of life. You live, as we mentioned, in a beautiful area of the country, but quality of life for our service members is really, really, is critically important because we cannot expect them to go do their job at a high level if they're not provided the right housing, their family's not taken care of. When you look at the quality of life in your district and the initiatives that have been forward to improve that, what are you doing to serve the Camp Pendleton community? And then, you know, I'll give a shout out to our Navy SEAL brothers, even as a Green Beret, we gotta do that. But there's a lot of them in that area.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  Well, I will tell you, first of all, that it's an incredible honor to get to represent Camp Pendleton, and we've got real issues with barracks, not just on Camp Pendleton, but all across the Marine Corps, really all across the military. You've got, you know, places that are either uninhabitable or certainly not acceptable. And I see it as all readiness. So, you know, we use the term quality of life. I just think it's readiness. Because if you don't have a clean and safe place to stay, to sleep, you know, to train, to eat, if you're not getting good quality food, all of it is, you know, part of making Marines at Camp Pendleton, part of making sure our warfighters are prepared for whatever may come their way. Part of it is they have to have a decent place to live. And, you

• 7:51Speaker 01

  know, what I have tried to do is work with our Marine Corps leadership on the Barracks 2030 Initiative. It's going to require $11 billion over the next, say, decade, decade and a half. If they do everything exactly the way they want, it'll be done around 2037. So if you just take Camp Pendleton, for example, they're around 125 So different physical buildings and about half of them need to either be gutted completely or knocked down and start over. Then the other half, you can rehabilitate, you can improve, you know, and they do, the Marines do a great job of now trying to put, you know, HVAC systems in, but it's like, it's very much like Band-Aids where we really need to rethink, okay, what do we want for

• 8:36Speaker 01

  our housing to look like in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years? Now, what the Navy has done, and it might work better for them than for the Marine Corps, is they partnered with private developers. And given the transitory nature of our Marines, it may not work as easily to go into, and also the need to adhere to chain of command, it might not work as well for the Marine Corps. But Pacific Beacon, for example, in San Diego is this new housing project that I visited, and it's as nice as any civilian apartment complex. And the Marine that works for me was looking at it like, I don't know about these Navy guys, what they're doing here in this thing. But there are opportunities for that sort of thing in certain parts of the military, it works better. For the Marines, I just think we need clean, safe, habitable.

• 9:19Speaker 01

  We're not looking for the Ritz Carlton, we're just looking for a decent place. And I've been really proud, we've gotten around 300 million since I started in 2019 for Camp Pendleton specifically, for a variety of different projects. I'm always proud when it's not just, you know, the, you know, traditional project that you would expect where it's a weapons system, or it's a more traditional military application. That's great, that's needed, but when we can do a child development center, or when we can do barracks, or when we can do a new mess, or whatever it may be, that gives me great satisfaction, be able to actually go back and see those investments, because I know that we're helping, you know, in ways that are really important. And sometimes we overlook the schools on base, so it's really important we do ImpactAid,

• 10:04Speaker 01

  you know, and those child development centers now, another one is going to be built on Camp Pendleton, I think they're fantastic, they're, in many ways, they're as good or better than what the civilian community has access to. Same with the schools, being able to invest in those schools. So, you know, there are some of us that we continue to be really focused on that. I'm hopeful that this year, the bill, the relevant appropriations bill to handle military construction and veterans affairs, that we can get to a bipartisan bill. And it is very disappointing when we haven't been able to do that in the past, because it should be bipartisan.

• 10:39Speaker 01

  Total, well, 11 billion for Barrick's 2030. The overall MilCon VA bill, we'll have to see exactly where we land. But as an overall percentage of our federal government, it's not that big. Of course, when you have bigger military construction projects, they fit in the MilCon. When it's smaller, they fit in the Defense Bill. So it's that $2 million cap where a lot of it falls in the Defense Bill. But for the big projects, particularly new construction, that's where the MilCon bill comes in. And we're talking, you know, several billion dollars worth of new construction that'll be needed every year for, not just for the West Coast. You know, we have MCI West out, out in our area that has five installations and, you know, but the rest of the country, there are big gaps and big problems.

• 11:24Speaker 01

  And I don't care if it's Navy, Army, I don't care. We have to fix this for the average member of the military, that they have a decent place where they can live.

• 11:33Fran Racioppi?

  Well, we're going to be sitting down here in a couple of weeks from now with the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps.

• 11:38Speaker 01

  Great guy.

• 11:39Fran Racioppi?

  Sergeant Major Ruiz.

• 11:40Speaker 01

  He's, he's a great guy.

• 11:41Fran Racioppi?

  I had a chance to meet him, meet him once briefly. So we just got that on the calendar. I had, previously I was able to sit down with Troy Black, who was his predecessor.

• 11:50Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 11:50Fran Racioppi?

  And then went on to be the CAC on the Joint Staff. But how does it get to that point? When we look across the military, I mean, because I served over almost 13 years in the military. And you saw everything from brand new, state of the art.

• 12:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:05Fran Racioppi?

  You know, everything you could ever ask for to, you know, places that you wouldn't want to walk into.

• 12:10Speaker 01

  I say it's two things. One is it's decades of underinvestment, buildings that are not being maintained or rehabilitated, that outlive their life by decades. And then the other is sort of a culture that needs to shift. And Sergeant Major Ruiz is really on top of this where historically, you know, if you're a junior enlisted Marine and you're not living in the greatest place, you might feel like if you complain about it, you're going to get in trouble. And we need to turn that on its head and say, if you don't complain about it, and you have something, if you have mold, if you have lights that don't work, if you have plumbing that doesn't work, whatever it may be, and you don't complain about it, and they come in and inspect. And you didn't complain about it, then you get in trouble. And it's that culture shift that's turning it on its head where that young Marine knows,

• 12:54Speaker 01

  okay, I gotta have a, you know, this is a reflection of, of having a clean and safe place is a reflection of my overall need to, you know, report and to be transparent and to be diligent and disciplined. That's part of that. And so I know that, you know, the Marines want to see that happen, but making it happen is, I think, you know, that's really the key. And it's just, it's a shift in mentality that, you know, how that place is, it's not just that your bed's made, but it, that it has to be in decent habitable shape. And if it's not, you need to speak out.

• 13:28Fran Racioppi?

  When faced with a challenge, Green Berets adapt, overcome, and keep moving forward. Now's your chance to stand with them. Join the 1952 Society with a monthly gift of just $19.52 to provide critical medical devices for wounded, ill, and injured Green Berets. Your support fuels their recovery, helping them return to duty or continue serving their communities. A Green Beret's mission never stops. Neither should our support. Join the 1952 Society today and stand with those who stand for us. You termed it readiness.

• 14:01Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 14:02Fran Racioppi?

  Let's talk about Iran.

• 14:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:04Fran Racioppi?

  Top line news, first thing we're seeing every day, which we should be seeing it, you know, first and foremost every day. There's a few ways we can go about kind of discussing this, but if we tie it to readiness, I think in a lot of ways, we've witnessed the next generation of warfare over the last month plus, as we've been engaged in this conflict. You and your district are front and center when it comes to military readiness. And if you go south one district into San Diego, we have the Pacific, you know, fleet sits, majority of it sits over there and we have out of San Diego.

• 14:45Fran Racioppi?

  And we have seen the US Navy now front and center in this fight, which is being a global war on terror combat veteran that was an Army and Marine. Ground centric fight in a lot of ways, you know, the Navy was a supporting asset. And now this them and the Air Force have really carried this thing forward. We have made significant investment over the last 20, 30 years in the capabilities of both of those components. What do you see when you look at the readiness levels of the Navy and the Air Force in this Iran fight?

• 15:22Speaker 01

  So I think you have to separate a couple of things. One is the operational excellence of our service members. I think they're ready for whatever they're asked to do. The challenge is the lack of clarity about what they're being asked to do. And it goes back to February 28th, when Epic Fury began. And I've seen it, you know, time and again, whether we're talking about the blockade, whether we're talking about where are the 2,200 Marines from Camp Pendleton, from the 11th Mute? Where are they going to go? For what purpose are they being sent? So, you know, you could tell me you experienced it, you lived it, that, you know, when you were deployed.

• 16:04Speaker 01

  My hope is that you, your family, your fellow service members and your member of Congress, whoever that may have been, had a better understanding of why you were being sent, what the mission was, what success looked like and what the plan was to get you back home would be my hope. When the operation began, I was asleep, you know, it was the middle of the night. I understand that the need for surprise. But it was just three or four days before Epic Fury that the President gave a State of the Union address. I think he spoke for an hour 47 minutes. I sat through all of it and I think three or four minutes was dedicated to Iran.

• 16:47Speaker 01

  And if you go back, I went back and I looked at the three or four minutes. There was no indication that we were going to be engaged in military hostilities in three or four days' time. The prior brief that we'd received about Iran indicated that Whitkoff and Kushner were getting closer to some sort of deal.

• 17:04Speaker 01

  And then, of course, you know, middle of the night from Mar-a-Lago, the president does a social media video. I was woken up one or two o'clock in the morning to see that, really surprised. And then when we got, we got one brief, classified brief, and I can't tell you what they briefed us on, but I can tell you what they didn't brief us on, which is what the hell the plan was going to be. We never were told, and we still haven't been told. And I don't know if there really is a comprehensive, well-thought-out strategy, and what's the exit look like. No vote by Congress, no pre-existing AUMF that I think applies, because if you look at the 01 AUMF, you try to apply it to this, the Iranians

• 17:45Speaker 01

  were not Al Qaeda, the Iranians were not directly related to 9/11, to the extent necessary for the 01 AUMF to apply. So if there's no pre-existing AUMF, the War Powers Act requires that the president notify the Congress within 48 hours, and that you have a vote, and we never had the vote. Some people have misinterpreted the 60-day part of the War Powers Act. I don't think they've read the War Powers Act. They have said, "Well, the president can do what he wants for six, up to 60 days." It's not what it says. It says, "If we are attacked, if the United States is attacked, the president can respond to an emergency for up to 60 days without express authorization of Congress." That hasn't happened here.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  We bombed them. They didn't bomb us. And so, in my view, it's a war that is unauthorized. It is a war without a clear exit plan. And like, if it were my son or daughter that was being sent over there right now, I would be very, very concerned about the lack of clarity. And members of Congress don't know what's happening, where the blockade is leading, what the 50,000 service members over there, you know, more being sent now, even today there was a report in the Washington Post that several thousand more are being sent. Is it to ramp up pressure? You know, and the two sides are very far apart. I'm encouraged

• 19:07Speaker 01

  that they are, that there was a ceasefire announced, that they are having talks, maybe now another round of talks. If you look at what the Iranians are offering, in some ways it's better than the JCPOA, but in some ways it's worse. It's worse than what Trump, in some ways, worse than what Trump gave up when he negated the JCPOA.

• 19:29Speaker 01

  What Vance was advocating for, six red lines, 20 years, all that, great. But how are we actually going to get that done? There's nothing in the recent history of the Iranians to tell me that we're going to get that done. So where do we land? How does this end? What damage have we done to our alliances around the world? A lot, a lot. And it's one of those things where when the president acts unilaterally, doesn't get the buy-in from our allies and then gets mad at them when they don't come rushing to our aid for Strait of Hormuz, to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. It jeopardizes everything that my grandpa fought for 80 years ago, which is that, you know, we use the term rules-based international order, but yeah, it has worked pretty well

• 20:14Speaker 01

  since World War II. And giving it up, for what? So American can go it alone, so we can cede our global leadership to China and to other countries that don't like us very much? I think it's a massive, massive mistake.

• 20:30Fran Racioppi?

  Would you agree, though, that Iran is a direct threat to the United States?

• 20:35Speaker 01

  Well, it depends on your definition of direct. Under the War Powers Act, it's very clear it has to be imminent. Was there an imminent threat to the United States? I don't have a clear answer because we were not provided any information, classified or unclassified, indicating that it was a direct and imminent threat to the United States. What's the state of the Iranian nuclear program? We know less today than we did before the war began. Less about the quantity, the location of uranium and rich uranium. We know that we've diminished their ballistic missile capacity, but we don't know about the nuclear program.

• 21:15Speaker 01

  And what we are hearing is that you might have ground troops go into parts of Iran with enriched uranium. So my short answer is no. And I hear all the arguments, but I haven't heard anything concrete behind closed doors in a classified setting that leads me to believe that the Iranian regime, other than the rhetorical threat... To America was an actual, real-time imminent threat to America. And I hope that evidence comes to light, but I don't expect it. I don't expect it. Is the world better off without a nuclear armed Iran? Of course. That was why the JCPOA was originally negotiated and had plenty of shortcomings.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  Not saying it was perfect at all, but we actually find ourselves in a position today where maybe we're soft than we were before.

• 22:07Fran Racioppi?

  What about their state sponsorship of terrorism? Now, I mean, I deployed three times to Iraq. I have greater than 30 months. Most of that time was in southern Iraq, two deployments in special forces to southern Iraq, directly combating the IRGC and the Iranian threat. The blood of many of my friends, who, some who are with us, many who are not, are at the hands of the Iranians.

• 22:27Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 22:27Fran Racioppi?

  We have engaged with combat with the Houthis rebels in Yemen. We've seen the situation in Israel on October 7th.

• 22:35Speaker 01

  Horrible.

• 22:36Fran Racioppi?

  Um, we have seen the situation in Lebanon with Hezbollah. And we know, we know that they have an ability, and thankfully, we haven't seen it yet here in the States, but we know that they have a desire and ability to hit us in the homeland.

• 22:51Speaker 01

  Right.

• 22:51Fran Racioppi?

  At a time and place, honestly, of their choosing.

• 22:53Speaker 01

  Right.

• 22:54Fran Racioppi?

  So how do you view that threat?

• 22:57Speaker 01

  I see it as a serious threat and an awful regime. The question is whether or not the military action has made it a worse problem, or has it actually ameliorated the problem? So replacing Khamenei with his son, you replace an 85, 86-year-old extremist with a 56-year-old extremist. The IRGC still sits around the corner, 200, 300,000, all around the country. They are firmly entrenched. There's nothing that has been indicated to back up the president's assertion that the regime has changed. There might be new...

• 23:37Speaker 01

  Physical human beings, but they're still carrying out the same extremist ideology. To the extent there's a threat to the American homeland, this war may be exacerbating that threat, not making it better. So, everything you say is right. Iranians have, for 47 years, as long as I've been alive, they've been a horrible regime. They've done untold damage to so many people, including so many people that you served with. The strategic objective of denuclearizing, eliminating their ballistic missile capability, trying to provide some sort of path forward for a more peaceful Middle East, trying to help our allies in the region so that they're not always looking over their shoulder in

• 24:19Speaker 01

  fear, all of those are righteous and appropriate objectives. The question is whether or not Epic Fury and the events since will actually lead to those objectives. And also whether or not the whole strategy was well thought through with regard to the Strait of Hormuz. If you go back to last summer, public reporting is that a lot of people at State, who were experts on the oil and gas trading, were fired. They were let go as part of the Doge, part of the, you know, the whole overhaul of State throughout the federal government. And it'd be really nice to have those experts there right now. It appears, nobody, either nobody articulated, or nobody made the case forcefully enough

• 25:00Speaker 01

  to the President that doing this was going to lead to a dramatic spike in oil prices and pain at the gas pump for the average person. The President has said, I think, without, I personally don't believe this, that, "Well, we thought it would be worse." Well, I don't buy that for a second, because the President ran on lowering energy prices. He said he was going to cut gas prices, even three days before in the State of the Union, he was, again, telling a false, that it was $1.95 or $1.99 a gallon. It wasn't, but clearly, I think if they had known that gas prices were going to go through the roof right before midterm election, maybe they would have slowed their roll. But they didn't, because I don't think he was getting good advice.

• 25:42Speaker 01

  I don't think the President has enough people around him telling him what he needs to hear, not what he wants to hear, but what he needs to hear, which is that this stuff is really complicated, and if you take the toothpaste out of the tube, which is what they did, you better be prepared for the consequences, and I don't know if they are. And we don't know, because we have not been briefed.

• 26:02Fran Racioppi?

  Well, I want to ask you about that. Can we negotiate with Iranians?

• 26:07Speaker 01

  Well, Obama administration did. And whether you agree or disagree with the conclusion of how the JCPOA went down, again, there were a lot of shortcomings to it. You know, it demonstrated that there is a, an ability to enter into those diplomatic negotiations, and we ought to try. We ought to try. Use of military force should be the absolute last resort, always. Like, my thing is, I always want the best-prepared, most highly-trained warfighters anywhere in the world. I want the best of the best. I never want them to have to use any of those weapons that we appropriate money for every year. I never want them to have to, you know, put themselves in harm's way. When you know as many military spouses as I do, when you know as many military families as we've gotten to know in our community over many years, the last thing you want

• 26:52Speaker 01

  to see is for them to be put in harm's way, which is why the founders were really smart. And they said, under Article I, Section 8, it is not the role or the responsibility of the president to send service members into harm's way. It is the role of the Congress to deliberate, to debate, to evaluate the merits. None of that happened here, right? None of that happened in this particular instance. Whatever one thinks of George W. Bush, George W. Bush went to the UN, Colin Powell, George W. Bush went to the Congress, whatever you think of, you know, any of the post-9/11 conflicts, or for that matter, before, people bring up Bill Clinton and Kosovo. Every major military operation in our lifetimes, the President of the United States went to

• 27:37Speaker 01

  the Congress, went to the international community, and tried to seek buy-in and presented a case, presented a cost-benefit estimate of, why are we doing this? And that is why this is an unprecedented situation in the modern history of our country. And, you know, where this leads is really scary. And they relied on, in part...

• 28:03Speaker 01

  The exceptions to the War Powers Act that I think the Obama administration inappropriately relied on in Libya, which was, well, it's only, it's kinetic, but it's not boots on the ground. Look, if it's a major military operation, Congress needs a say. Period, full stop, end of story.

• 28:25Fran Racioppi?

  I got one more question on that, and then I can ask you, well, something else real quick, and then I know you got a busy day ahead of you as Congress has come back in. It's so divisive right now, and you, you have been, one of the reasons we're sitting here with you is because you have been very centric in a lot of your work bipartisan. And to me, that's very important. It's very important to sit down and hear the opinions of folks where you can actually have a discussion about the issues, understand that, hey, maybe you're going to agree to disagree, but at the end of the day, you're going to find a resolution. You've worked very hard in your terms in Congress to work with the other side of the aisle, bring Republicans on to co-sponsor a lot of the initiatives that you put forward, most of those supporting our veterans.

• 29:07Speaker 01

  All of them.

• 29:08Fran Racioppi?

  True. And they're on the wall. They're on the wall.

• 29:10Speaker 01

  Well, if you look up there, there's a lot of those bills that are signed by Trump. And in the first term, I think we got 16 bills signed when Trump was president in the first couple of years that I was here. And it's so much tougher now.

• 29:23Fran Racioppi?

  How do we bridge the gap? Because from the outside, I mean, I'm not in Congress, I'm not involved in the government. I have a fortunate opportunity to sit down with yourself and many of your peers and our military and government leaders. But as an American, as a veteran, who has gone to combat for this nation and now watch my friends doing the same, we want to see our government work for us.

• 29:48Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 29:48Fran Racioppi?

  How, in your opinion, do we bridge this divide, bring Congress together, bring the three branches of our government, because it's not just Congress. How do we bring everybody together and truly serve the American people? Because we can argue all day long of what that actually means, but government shutdowns, you know, complete disarray doesn't serve the American people.

• 30:11Speaker 01

  So I'll take a crack at this, and it's a complicated answer, but I'll give you the best perspective I have based on doing this now for eight years. I am personally never going to see the other side as my enemy. I see them as my political opponent, but never as my enemy. And the people that I've run against have all been people that I've been friendly with. We disagree on a lot of things, but at the end of the day, as Reagan and Tip O'Neill used to, you know, go and get a beer, we need to get back to that. But it starts, you gotta have somebody like Ronald Reagan and you gotta have somebody like Tip O'Neill who are willing to recognize, hey, the other day we're all Americans. And for all their awful disagreements over the years, George W. Bush, Nancy Pelosi,

• 30:56Speaker 01

  they were able to at least be human beings to one another. I never saw President Bush denigrate the entire Democratic Party that way. I never saw Joe Biden denigrate the Republican Party that way. I never saw Barack Obama denigrate the Republican Party that way. Never saw Bill Clinton do it. Never saw, for that matter, back then, I never saw Newt Gingrich treat Bill Clinton that way. So, and they had plenty of fights. So it starts from the top. And anybody that's unwilling to admit that or see that, I would just encourage them to just change the channel for a little while, take a deep breath, exhale, and just think objectively about what we see day in and day out from this president.

• 31:35Fran Racioppi?

  Gotta watch both Fox and CNN.

• 31:37Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 31:38Fran Racioppi?

  That's what I do.

• 31:39Speaker 01

  Right.

• 31:40Fran Racioppi?

  You gotta switch it up. Congressman, I thank you for inviting us into the office.

• 31:43Speaker 01

  You got me fired up, man. You got me fired up.

• 31:45Fran Racioppi?

  I mean, as you said, and I think you correctly said it in terms of the Iran conflict, this is not an easy challenge.

• 31:52Speaker 01

  Right.

• 31:52Fran Racioppi?

  Running the United States is not an easy challenge, regardless of where you sit, whether you're in Congress, whether you're the president in the executive branch, whether you're in the judicial branch. This country's gonna be turned 250 years old here in a couple of months. And, you know, we've come a long way. We have a long way to go, but at the end of the day, this is a complicated challenge. And in the military, we called it the second and third order effects. No decision that you make, regardless of where you sit, is going to be in a microcosm, in a vacuum. And what we have to do, and what we encourage our leaders to do, is think very clearly through those second and third order effects to understand. The weight and the impact of their decisions. And it doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on. It doesn't matter what your opinions are.

• 32:35Fran Racioppi?

  But as a citizen, that's what I believe we need from our elected leaders. And we have to do it together.

• 32:40Speaker 01

  Amen. Well, I want to thank you for your sacrifices for our nation, for your desire to continue serving. As so many of our veterans want to continue to find ways to serve. Your ability to continue to educate and inform people is really important. And I care about this institution, the House of Representatives and the Congress of the United States, very deeply. And I think that we are at a inflection point right now where if Congress continues to give up its constitutionally prescribed role, that we will not get it back. And, you know, we did not fight in two world wars in the revolution

• 33:22Speaker 01

  so that we would have a system that was authoritarianism, that was, you know, anything other than the product of that 250 years, which is a constitutional democracy, a republic which checks and balances with a functioning judiciary, independent of the legislative branch, independent of the executive, and a legislative branch that can stand on its own two feet. And that certainly includes the most important role that I ever have as a Congress member, which is that determination when and how we send service members in harm's way. Making sure they have the resources and the training to do whatever we need them to do,

• 34:02Speaker 01

  best in the world, but also being judicious and responsible and thoughtful about how and when. And my concern right now is that standard has not been met, that Congress has not stood up as the Constitution requires, that the administration doesn't really care what Congress thinks. And I'm asking, I'll close by saying that every person running for president or thinking about it in 2028, I ask them what is a tough question. Will they be willing to give up some power back to the Congress to restore some basic checks and balances? Because I think that's ultimately what we're going to need.

• 34:45Fran Racioppi?

  Well, I look forward to coming back and discussing it more with you and the continued work you do for your constituents and all of our veterans.

• 34:51Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 34:52Fran Racioppi?

  I'll sit down with Sergeant Major Ruiz. We'll talk about camp.

• 34:55Speaker 01

  Say hi for me. He's a great man.

• 34:57Fran Racioppi?

  I'll say hi to you and look forward to following up with you after that.

• 35:00Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 35:01Fran Racioppi?

  Thank you.

• 35:04Fran Racioppi?

  American Jedbergs went on to form the Foundation of the United States Special Forces and the Special Activities Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Thanks for listening to the Jedburgh Podcast, an official program of the Green Beret Foundation. I'm your creator and host, Fran Richo. Join us next week for a new episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check us out on YouTube for full episodes, highlights, and other long and short form content. If you like what you heard, give us a like and leave a review. Follow the Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X for threads. Send your comments and inquiries to [email protected]. As former members of Special Operations Forces, the Jedburgh Media Channel and the Green Beret Foundation remain committed to supporting all generations of U.S. Army Special Forces and their families.

• 35:48Fran Racioppi?

  Thanks for joining us on this episode. How you prepare today determines success tomorrow.