Who Sold America On The Iran War? (With Hooman Majd & Ryan Grim)

Lever Time

The Lever

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.8 • 560 Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On February 28, the United States and Israel began bombing Iran — with no congressional declaration, public debate, or clear endgame. For those who grew up watching the Ayatollah cast as America’s original supervillain on the nightly news, it wasn’t exactly a surprise. Donald Trump pitched the idea 46 years ago. We’ve been expecting this for decades. But why? On today’s episode of Lever Time, Iranian-born journalist Hooman Majd and Drop Site News founder Ryan Grim help us grapple with some big questions: Why has the United States long been unable — or unwilling — to make peace with Iran? Who bankrolled the push for this new war, and what do they hope to gain? And now that bombs are falling, does Congress have the power to stop it?Click here to read more of The Lever’s reporting about Iran. Click here for a full transcript of the episode. Get ad-free episodes, bonus content and extended interviews by becoming a member at levernews.com/join. To leave a tip for The Lever, click here. It helps us do this kind of independent journalism. Tired of the doom scroll? Click here to subscribe to Lever Daily, a free once-a-day email that delivers the most important and underreported news in less than five minutes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:19.8	From the Lever's reader-supported newsroom, it's Lever Time.
1:22.9	I'm David Sarota.
1:24.1	The Ayatollahomini appears tonight to have come to full power in Iran as he said he would
1:28.4	in another of those bloody convulsions that have recently swept the country. If you were an American
1:33.1	kid growing up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it's a good bet that there were few world
1:39.5	political figures who seemed more terrifying than the Ayatollah of Iran. At any moment of the day, your favorite
1:46.6	television show could be interrupted by breaking news about some guy who was portrayed as a new
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