James Fitzpatrick, Dir. of the Center to Advance Security in America

**Nigel** (0:00)
Hammer and Nigel.

**James Fitzpatrick** (0:02)
Do you believe these characters?

**Nigel** (0:03)
They're weird of us.
My name is Nigel. Jason Hammer right over there with a very special guest on the hotline.

**Jason Hammer** (0:10)
Let's get an American badass on the phone. Can we do that?

**Nigel** (0:13)
Okay, Kid Rock.

**Jason Hammer** (0:14)
Army veteran, attorney, Director of the Center to Advance Security in America, James Fitzpatrick. It's better than Kid Rock. James, how are you?

**James Fitzpatrick** (0:24)
Hey, gentlemen, great to be with you. Thanks for having me. I don't know about better than Kid Rock though.

**Jason Hammer** (0:30)
Listen, we got a lot of stuff going on here, and I want to pick your brain about a couple of different things. Let's start with the Iran situation here.
We've been kind of joking, calling it the world's crappiest ceasefire, because every time we wake up in the morning, it seems like the United States is responding to something else that Iran has done. Iran is blaming the Israelis. It's like a big triangle here. There's chatter that the talks are breaking down, but the president's denying that. What do we make of all this?

**James Fitzpatrick** (1:04)
Yeah, look, I think the talks are ongoing. I think that the best synopsis has come from Secretary Rubio on this. He provided a little bit more detail where he said, you know, he kind of gave an outline as to what is exactly going on. And that's what the Iranians need to commit to specifics here. And that is on disposing of their highly-enriched uranium that is very deep in some mountain, you know, somewhere in the middle part of the country.
And they need to commit to disposing it. And, you know, the specifics of how they dispose it can be negotiated. But that's on the table and they need to commit to that. Second is they need to agree to some form of long-term limitations or just a broad cancellation of their enrichment program. And, you know, until, unless and until they do that, it seems like we may be a bit at a standstill.
But I'm still optimistic, right? President Trump is a peace president. He wants to pursue peace as much as he can. I think he's coming out of position of leverage with the Iranians losing hundreds of million dollars every day as it relates to this blockade. So I'm still, I'm still cautiously optimistic that we're going to get something done.

**Nigel** (2:14)
James, do you have any idea who the United States, Donald Trump, Hegseth, Rubio, who they're actually negotiating with over there? Do you have any theories? And maybe you can expand on that a little bit.

**James Fitzpatrick** (2:26)
That's a great point. I don't have any theories, but it's more just from what I've read closely on it. And again, from what some stuff that Secretary Rubio has said publicly about it, they sort of negotiate with messengers to the remaining regime. So that's partially why it takes so long. And I guess some of this is actually done through old school couriers, where the messengers, they sit down and they're talking with the liaisons, and then they have to quite literally go back and physically bring the documents or have conversations with the remaining members of the regime, and then come back and continue the conversation. So that's, I think, partially why it takes so long, and maybe some of that gets lost in translation.
So, you know, it's a bit of a, you know, these guys are a little bit, you know, outdated in the way they communicate.

**Nigel** (3:20)
It's hard to communicate with these people, is basically what you're saying, and that's part of the reason why this is taking so long.

**James Fitzpatrick** (3:27)
That's exactly right.

**Jason Hammer** (3:29)
James, take me through what's going on in the mind right now of our men and women who may be getting ready to deal with Iran again, because at first, you know, the action was fast and furious. There's bombing, you kill the Ayatollah, you kill a bunch of their leadership, and then there's a ceasefire. And since then, there have been a couple of moments where you think you're getting back into combat, but you're not. You think there's a peace deal, but there's not.
Does this weigh on the mind or the psyche of the men and women in uniform at all?

**James Fitzpatrick** (4:05)
Look, from my experience in the army, from what I can tell you, you know, men and women in our military are the most prepared people in the entire world for things like this. They're trained, they're hardened, they know not to pay attention to the daily political news of the day. That's going to come and go, that's going to change. They just are focused on the mission of their unit and on their commander, and they're prepared. They hope for the best, but they prepare for the worst, right? And I can tell you that they're not going to be refreshing, you know, news sites waiting on to see what happens on a deal.