Fox News’ Bret Baier ran through a list of major concerns around President Donald Trump’s 14-point deal with Iran, warning there has been more than 40 years of Iran negotiating “in a way that is not in good faith.”

Baier joined Patrick Bet-David on The PBD Podcast on Friday, where he discussed his decades in media, interviewing past presidents, moderating debates, and more. Baier also gave an overall view of the 14-point deal between the United States and Iran.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) is a 60-day ceasefire deal meant to open up wider negotiations. There has been bipartisan pushback, even from some stern supporters of the president, over what the current deal offers Iran, which includes sanctions being lifted, a $300 billion reconstruction investment fund, and more. Vice President JD Vance was meant to fly to Switzerland on Friday to formally sign the deal, but the trip was postponed amid Israeli strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. A ceasefire in Lebanon has since been agreed to by Israel.

Baeir said he found it “pretty telling” that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has not publicly commented on the deal, while Vance has been “everywhere” defending it.

“I’ve noticed his silence over the last few days, and I think it’s pretty telling that he hasn’t weighed in publicly. And JD’s been out on every single show, the VP has been everywhere defending this deal,” the anchor told Bet-David.

Baier warned though, that concern comes from the fact that there have been decades of unsuccessful negotiations with Iran over nuclear weapons and sponsoring terrorism. Baier argued, however, that Vance and others behind the deal should be given the “benefit of the doubt” and a chance to work through the 60 days of negotiations.

He said:

More power to [Vance]. He is, you know, defending it and from the administration’s point of view, you know, to the point where you have to give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe the 60 day negotiation works and it goes like they think, but there’s so much history, as you know, the past 47 years of the Iranians negotiating in a way that is not in good faith and is always cheating and the biggest criticism is the money. The administration says they’re not going to get a red cent; however, they’ve lifted the oil restrictions and now oil is flowing. That’s money that goes right to the regime. We’ll see, you got to give them the time for the negotiation, but the criticism from both sides of the aisle is that this is going to be more of the same and the gulf Arab states are really scared that it suddenly empowers this regime that has been heinous.

“What do you say to the people who say that Iran got the better end of the deal here?” Bet-David asked.

Baier explained Iran is not where “we thought they were going to be at the end of this action,” but their Navy and Air Force have also taken significant damage. Baier noted a number of things not included in the current deal, including significant guardrails on Iran’s missile program and protections for civil rights in the country.

“There’s nothing in this deal that prevents them from killing 40,000 Iranians if they go out in the streets and protest,” Baier said, referencing reports of Iranian forces’ lethal crackdown on protesters in January amid widespread protests against the regime.

The exact death toll is not known, but reports have put the number in the thousands.

Baier said:

One thing, listen, their Navy was destroyed, the Air Force was destroyed, they were set back, but they still have a ton of missiles. They still have, at least how they talk about things, they are talking like they have all the cards, they don’t, but they are talking like they do and the regime is still intact.

There’s nothing in this deal that prevents them from killing 40,000 Iranians if they go out in the streets and protest. There’s nothing in this deal that limits the expansion of their missile program to the point where they go longer and it’s more of a threat to us, or Europe. We’ll see what this nuclear negotiation over 60 days looks like. I don’t think that they’re better off, but they’re definitely not in the place that we thought they were going to be at the end of this action.

Watch above via The PBD Podcast.

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