For the moment, there is an official, two-week ceasefire in hostilities between the U.S. and Iran. But U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez is anxious to get past that pause and push for regime change in the longtime American adversary.
Giménez, the South Florida Republican from Florida’s 28th Congressional District, call for America to “finish the job” against the Islamic Republic by invoking the American President who won the Cold War.
“I never will trust this Iranian regime. And so, unlike Ronald Reagan, who said, ‘Trust but verify,’ I say, ‘Don’t trust and verify,’” Giménez said on “Varney and Co.“
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is framing the pause in hostilities as a positive. Leavitt said the U.S. decimated the Iranian military, erased its ability to support aligned terror groups, liquidated many of its leaders, and left those who survive “paralyzed by fear” after the “historically swift and successful military triumph.”
“Prior to the start of this successful operation, Iran was aggressively expanding its short-range ballistic missile arsenal,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House Wednesday.
“Through these weapons and its Navy, Iran was attempting to build a military buildup around their country that would pose an imminent and existential threat to the United States military assets in the Middle East, our allies in the region, and ultimately, the free world. Iran was pursuing this dangerous and aggressive strategy for one reason, to hold the entire world hostage to its terrorist ambitions.”
Giménez sees the job as undone, however.
“For me, finishing the job means getting rid of the regime. Now, they claim that this is a regime change, but a lot of the same people that are in the old regime are still in this new regime. So I have doubts about that,” Giménez countered.
“I also said that at least that we need to get all of the nuclear material out of Iran and make sure that they have no capacity to create a nuclear bomb and be a nuclear-armed Iran. I’m not crazy about Iran controlling the Strait of Hormuz. So those are some of the things that I have concerns about. But let’s see what happens with negotiations.”
