← Boots on the Ground: TV Clips
Jernigan on Self-Defense Strikes as Patience Runs Thin
Mike Jernigan, retired Marine Corps colonel. Fox News, America Reports, May 26, 2026.
Fox News · posted 2026-05-26 · 4:01
Added to this site: September 27, 2026 · Transcribed: September 27, 2026
Original: video.foxnews.com/v/6396673470112 · IPFS QmfB4sSNU33Bo3mnGh61d7ZqjdAwDZ8ByDJh2WvWiQsA3o
Also posted as: foxnews.com/video/6396673470112
What this video shows
Retired Marine Corps Colonel Mike Jernigan, introduced here as a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, returns to Fox's America Reports during the spring ceasefire. The news is that U.S. forces struck two boats of the IRGC (Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) caught laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, and the missile batteries that fired at U.S. ships. Jernigan says laying mines in an international waterway "is an act of war" and the strikes were justified.
He says Iran is using the talks to "run out the clock on the world's patience," comparing it to the Korean War ceasefire that turned into a permanent armistice. He also calls Senator Lindsey Graham's idea of folding Iran's neighbors into the Abraham Accords, the normalization deals between Israel and Arab states, "effective." Asked where the talks are going, he predicts:
"I think the Iranians are gonna get caught trying to not follow the deal, and I think that we're gonna resume economic sanctions and kinetic action."
Unlike his March 31 appearance (Col. Jernigan: Ground Troops to Secure Iran's Uranium), in this clip Jernigan does not talk about American ground troops. What it shows is the ground being prepared: the ceasefire painted as Iranian bad faith, and a return to "kinetic action," meaning military force, presented as the likely next step.
Where this fits: this clip is one of the TV clips calling for American boots on the ground in Iran. For the full story, what the public was told next to what was happening, see American Soldiers on the Ground in Iran — Videos.
Transcript
Machine transcription (apple-speechanalyzer · Source duration: 00:04:02 · Transcript covers: 00:04:02 ✓ full) made with Large File Bridge on September 27, 2026. It can mishear names and words, so check exact wording against the video before quoting it.
US forces launching self defense strikes against Iran. For more on that, we are joined by retired colonel Mike Jernigan, he is a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Colonel, great to see you. Hey, great to see you, Bill.
Good afternoon. So the U.S. says they caught two Iranian revolutionary guard core boats going into the Strait of Hormuz in trying to lay these mines yesterday in the middle of these ongoing negotiations when they're trying to get this across the finish line.
They took those boats out. What does it say to you that Iran is doing that when it sounds like they're pretty close to a deal? Yeah, Bill, you know, it sounds to me like, um, either they don't have control of their forces, which could also be true, or they're, you know, using things during the ceasefire to make things to their advantage. You know, laying mines in an international waterway is an act of war, and, at the same time, they're claiming that this is our area of influence.
And so, the U.S. was right to stop the ships laying in the mind. Simultaneously, missiles were fired at U.
S. ships. And so those missile batteries were also taken out. That's what it means by self defense actions.
The ships were laying mines, and missiles were shooting, and so the U.S. shot those. Republican Congressman Derek Van Orden is a former U.
S. Navy SEAL. He says the U.S.
is really starting to run out of patience with these negotiations. Take a listen. Our patients is wearing very thin, and then it's time for them to actually come to the table in good faith, which they have not done yet, and there is not an endless amount of time that they have to try to maintain what they control with the straits are moves and try to get nuclear weapons. The time is running out.
Colonel, what do you make of his point there? There's been a feel that Iran is just kind of stringing the U.S. along, trying to elongate this as much as they can.
What do you think? I completely agree. Everything in the Iranian negotiations is all the stuff that they want. They want financial relief.
They want the U.S. out of the Straits of Hormuse. They want to be left alone to continue to do their proxies.
And nothing that they don't want to get up is discussed. Specifically, their ability to make nuclear weapon material and have a nuclear weapon in the future. So they're saying all the stuff we want at the front, we need to talk about first, and none of the stuff that we don't want to give up, we don't want to talk about. And so what I think is happening is they're trying to delay to get to a situation.
Your astute viewers will remember, in 1951, the North Koreans and the South Koreans had a ceasefire. In 1953, that turned into an armistice that continues today. So I think that the Iranians are just trying to run out the clock on the world's patience, and I don't think that the president and the United States have a lot more patience to give. Well, President Trump is now tossing around the idea of, if there is a peace deal here, having some of those regional partners join the Abraham Accords as part of that peace deal.
Senator Lindsey Graham loves what he's hearing. He says in part, quote, President Trump's most recent proposal requiring expansion of the Abraham Accords as part of a negotiated settlement to the Iran conflict is simply brilliant, and would result in the most significant change in the Middle East in thousands of years. I expect our Arab allies to embrace this, as well as our friends in Israel, focusing on this task, as failure is not an option, which would be a correct analysis. Colonel, in your opinion, is this quote, simply brilliant?
I do think it's effective. I do think that getting others to join the Abraham Accords. which are largely economic, right? We're sending airplanes from each other's airline companies to our countries.
And I think it's a good way of saying, Hey, Israel and the Arabs, we can have our disagreements, but we can interact in a world order peacefully, like the United Arab Emirates has already done with the Abraham Accords. Got about 30 seconds left here. What's your feel on where we are right now with this talk of a deal? I mean, it changes day to day.
We're close, we're not close, we're almost there. We're there. In your opinion, where do you think we are? Uh, doubtful.
I think the Iranians are gonna get caught trying to not follow the deal, and I think that we're gonna resume economic sanctions and kinetic action. All right, we will see. Colonel Mike Zurnigan. Thank you for your time today.
Great to see you. Great Steve. Sandra?
Last Updated: 2026-09-27