# The Iowa Republican exchange > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The Iowa Republican exchange," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-iowa-republican-exchange/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The argument John Kiriakou says he had at a conservative event with the head of the Iowa Republican Party, an abortion absolutist who answered Kiriakou's challenge on Gaza by calling him pro-Hamas, and how Kiriakou ended it.* - **Where:** A conservative event Kiriakou attended because he was invited - **Who:** The head of the Iowa Republican Party - **His position, per Kiriakou:** All abortion illegal from conception; miscarriages to be investigated - **Kiriakou's challenge:** Pro-life "from the point of conception to the point of birth" and indifferent thereafter - **The reply:** "You sound like you're pro-Hamas" - **Kiriakou's response:** "You're a fucking idiot, and there's nothing I can do with that" - **Afterwards:** He blocked the man's phone number **The Iowa Republican exchange** is an argument John Kiriakou says he had at a conservative event, recounted on the DeProgram programme in August 2025 as an illustration of a conversation that cannot be conducted in good faith.[1] ## The setting Kiriakou is offhand about why he was there. *"I went to an event the other day. It was a conservative event and I don't even know why I went, just because I was invited."*[1] The other party he identifies by office and by position: *"there was this idiot there. He was the head of the Iowa Republican Party. And he's one of these abortion absolutists that, not only should all abortions be illegal from the moment of conception, but if a woman miscarries, she should be investigated."*[1][2] ## The challenge The subject was Gaza, though Kiriakou says he cannot recall what the man had said about it. His own reply moved from the war to the man's stated ethic: *"I said, you know, it's up to all of us to support human rights. I said, 'This is the thing I don't understand about you so-called pro-life absolutists. You guys are pro-life from the point of conception to the point of birth. And then you don't give a shit what anybody does or has happened to them once they're born.'"*[2] ## The reply and the end of it The answer, in Kiriakou's telling, did not engage the point: *"And he says to me, 'You sound like you're pro-Hamas.'"*[2] Kiriakou treats that as proof of his own thesis rather than a provocation to argue further. *"And I said, 'You see, that's what I mean.' I said, 'You're a fucking idiot, and there's nothing I can do with that.' And that's how I left it."*[2][3] A small administrative postscript followed: *"I blocked his phone number. He had given me his phone number earlier in the day and I blocked it."*[3] ## Why he tells it The story sits inside a longer complaint about arguments conducted for effect rather than persuasion. Kiriakou and the host had been discussing organised online campaigns whose purpose, as the host put it, is not discussion but browbeating, and against which the ordinary method of accumulating facts has no purchase.[4] ## See also - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [Famine in Gaza](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gaza-famine) - [October 7 attack](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/october-7-attack) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 29:07. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=1747s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 29:37. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=1777s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 30:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=1808s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 31:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=1903s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-iowa-republican-exchange/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt