American F-15 Officer Heroically Rescued in Iran. w/ Dan Lamothe.

Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff

Righteous Media | Bleav

Politics, News, National Security, News Commentary, Daily News, Veteran

4.6 • 907 Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The clock is ticking toward Donald Trump’s Tuesday night deadline for Iran, and the rhetoric has shifted from tactical pressure to a potential transformation of the war. In this high-stakes episode, host Paul Rieckhoff sits down with "returning champion" and Washington Post military affairs reporter Dan Lamothe to break down a wild weekend of national security news. They dive into the "miraculous" Easter rescue of a downed F-15E Weapons Systems Officer—a mission of "mind-boggling" heroism that was quickly overshadowed by Trump’s threats to target Iranian civilian infrastructure and his refusal to rule out actions that some would consider war crimes.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The result was a good one, but it was also an apex of what failed leadership can look like.
0:07.1	Trump continues to be all gas, no breaks, not informing Congress, not talking to the American people,
0:12.5	not explaining a rationale, not rallying support.
0:16.0	And this is not working America.
0:17.9	It's getting worse.
0:19.3	And I think they all have to go.
0:20.7	I'm going to keep saying
0:21.5	this, but it will continue to get worse until they're out.
0:54.8	Welcome to Independent Americans. Welcome to Episode 486. I'm your host, Paul Reikoff. It is Monday, April 7th, and I'm coming to you from New York City, USA. I hope you had a great Easter if you celebrated.
0:56.7	I hope you enjoyed the March Madness.
1:01.8	And the weather here in New York City is really nice, really nice.
1:02.7	Getting warmer.
1:04.0	Spring is coming.
1:05.6	And so is more madness.
1:07.6	And it is Manosphere Monday. So we're going to dig into giving you an alternative to some of the toxic,
1:12.8	nasty, radioactive type of male leadership you see in other parts of podcasting and media.
1:18.9	And we are going to try to help you stay ahead of the curve. And building on that Manosphere Monday,
1:25.6	today's artist of the day is Tool, Tool, one of the greatest
1:31.1	bands of all time, one of my favorites, but particularly important right now, because there was
1:37.1	something posted over the weekend that's relevant to all of what's happening around national
1:41.5	security, and there's an unlikely connection between Tool and one of the generals that Pete Hegset just fired.
1:47.9	So check this out.
	...

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