Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 1/12/26: Trump Threatens Jerome Powell, JD Vance Attacks Ryan, Tim Dillon Sounds Off On ICE, Iran War

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

Krystal and Ryan discuss Trump threatening Jerome Powell, JD Vance attacks Ryan over ICE shooting, Tim Dillon calls out Trump on ICE, Trump briefed on Iran strikes.   To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.comMerch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. A decade ago, I was on the trail of one of the country's most elusive serial killers, but it wasn't until 2023 when he was finally caught. The answers were there, hidden in plain sight. So why did it take so long to catch him? I'm Josh Zeman, and this is Monster, hunting the Long Island serial killer,

the investigation into the most notorious killer in New York, since the son of Sam, available now. Listen for free on the IHeart Radio, Apple Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanko Wally. And I'm Hurricane de Bolu. It's a new year. And on the podcast, Health Stuff,

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Listen on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Dr. Jesse Mills, host of the Mailroom podcast. Each January, men promise to get stronger, work harder, and fix what's broken? But what if the real work isn't physical at all? I sat down with psychologist Dr. Steve Poulter to unpack shame, anxiety, and the emotional pain men were never taught how to name. Part of the way through the Valley of Despair is realizing this has happened, and you have to make a choice whether you're going to stay in it or move forward.

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breakingpoints.com. Good morning, everybody. Happy Monday. Welcome to Breaking Points. A little bit of an unusual pairing today. I don't actually remember if we've ever done this in studio together. I think we have over the years. Okay.

I know we've done the show together, but maybe, like, remotely. But anyway, this is exciting. The real heads will have to look through the record books and try to figure it out. remember better than I will. We all love the premise of the show, hearing from both sides, but sometimes you just kind of get sick of that. Sometimes you don't really want to hear from the other side. No, there is a very specific reason why is Ryan and me today. We actually have Senator Chris Van Hollen on, which is going to change the format of the show a little bit. Ryan secured that booking. I've been really wanting

to talk to Senator Van Hollen, so Sagar graciously said, hey, you guys just handled the show so that we can do all of that. So we're going to make sure to save a good bit of time to speak with the senator who has been at the forefront of any number of significant issues. He's been pushing back on Schumer. He's obviously led the charge in terms of a lot of foreign policy. You've been very courageous with regard to Gaza with regard to Kilmar, Bregor Garcia. So want to talk to him about a whole range of issues. Also, Ryan has a weird, because of course he does, a weird personal connection with Chris Van Hollen. You want to save that for the interview or you want to get a save it, yeah. Okay, so other things are going to try to get through all of this in the show. We may go through

these things a little bit more quickly than we normally do because we are trying to get to that interview with Senator Van Hollen. But we have a big fight that's broken out now between the Fed chair, Jerome Powell and Donald Trump, the DOJS, investigating Powell now for some sort of criminal malfeasance with regards to the Fed headquarters renovation. And Powell is firing back. So we've got our eyes on the markets. That is a massive, massive development. We'll break that down for you. We've got big developments with regard to ICE, including very own, again, Ryan Graham, fighting with the vice president in the United States. So, well, more accurately, him fighting with you.

Yeah, that's true. He picked the fight. He started with it. Well, I called him psychotic. Okay, that's true. That is true. But in any case, so we'll dig into that. But there are a lot more details to come out there as well and also surging, you know, ice brutality across the entire country.

We've got Tim Dillon wing and with his thoughts on the killing of Renee Good. We've got potential war with Iran and Trump making some new comments there. And then we have that aforementioned interview with Senator Chris Van Hollen. So a lot to get into. enjoy the show, please support us at breaking points.com. And also, if you cannot sign up for a premium subscription, totally get it. It would help us a lot if you guys subscribe to the channel. So if you're watching the clips and you haven't subscribed to the channel, please subscribe to the channel. It helps us in the algorithm. We really appreciate it. So. Yeah. And supposedly

YouTube is starting to care again about subscriptions. Oh, really? For a long time, YouTube, it was just a fake button that just like made creators feel good. That, oh, I have X number of subscriptions, but they didn't care what you subscribed to. They were going to feed you what they thought would make you mad. Their algorithm would decide. You had no real say about what you subscribed to or not. Supposedly, they're going back on that now. Your algorithm, their choice, you might say. What they're saying now is, okay, actually, you know, we're going to actually start taking into account what you have affirmatively told us you're interested in. So if you tell them you're interested in this show, they'll think about. They'll consider maybe serving you a few more

clips for the show. It is also good for our egos, so that we appreciate that too. That's true. All right, Ryan, you want to break down this Fed Chair situation? So last night, Jerome Powell put out a, let's just roll A1 here. This is Jerome Powell saying that on Friday, he was basically served with papers that Trump is trying to prosecute him. On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June. That testimony concerned in part a multi-year project to renovate historic Federal Reserve office buildings. I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy.

No one, certainly not the Chair of the Federal Reserve, is above the law. But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration's threats and ongoing pressure. This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress's oversight role. The Fed, through testimony and other public disclosures, made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.

This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation. I have served at the Federal Reserve under four administrations, Republicans and Democrats alike. In every case, I have carried out my duties without political fear or favor, focused solely on our mandate of price stability and maximum employment. Public service sometimes requires standing firm in the face of threats. I will continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do with integrity and a commitment to serving the American people.

And the financial fallout of this, the economic fallout, I'll read just straight from the Wall Street Journal. Stock futures fell, the dollar weakened, and gold prices jumped to a record after Fed Chair Powell said. President Trump was seeking to press the central bank and cutting interest rates. The market moves. Gold bugs really vindicated under this administration. If you bought

gold, yes, every day. You're feeling better and better. The market moves points you reinvigorated concerns about Fed independence, and it says that tech stocks are leading the crash in futures because tech stocks rely most heavily on

interest rates and easy money. And so because they don't think think, clearly a market doesn't think that, oh, well, he's prosecuting Powell. He's going to get exactly what he wants. Because if they thought that, then he'd be like, oh, okay, let's buy, bye, bye, but instead, they're kind of shaken by this. This, and we were talking about this earlier, you were pointing out that this was, this is kind of Trump airing out his grievance from last summer, where Powell kind of embarrassed him in front of the cameras when, you know, Trump likes to dress

down his subordinates and loves to then, you know, just be praised by them or they sit there silently and take it. Powell didn't do that. So let's roll, I think it's the third element here, A3. This is the summer of 2025. And Tim has been with me for a long time and you're in charge of the committee. Indeed. One of the reasons I wanted to see it was the overruns of the expenses, wanted to figure out why.

So we're taking a look and it looks like it's about three. 3.1 billion, one up a little bit, or a lot. So the 2.7 is now 3.1. I'm not aware of that. Yeah, it just came out. Yeah, I haven't heard that from anybody. It just came. I don't know.

I noticed that at about 3.1 as well. 3.1, 3.2. This came from us? Yes. I don't know who does that. You're including the Martin renovation. You just added it. You just added in the third building is what that is.

That's a third building. It's a building that's being built. No, it was built five years ago. We finished Martin five years ago. It's part of the overall work. So we're going to take a look. We're going to see what's happening, and it's got a long way.

Do you expect any more additional cost of loans? Don't expect them. We're ready for them. But we have a little bit of a reserve that we may use, but no, we don't. I expect to be finished in 2007. We're well along, as you can see. Nice to take these off every once in a while.

Okay, so the Fed did a renovation project. Trump thinks it's too expensive. Probably is. All renovation projects are. And now, in order to make that case, he shows Powell this letter. Powell figures out immediately, you just threw in another building. You just added in this other building that was completed years ago. I'm not a developer, but if you add in a

another building that does increase the cost. That's true. That you put on a piece of paper. That's my understanding of how this works as well. Well, and so there's both a, so I mean, obviously government agencies go over budget all the time, renovations go over budget all the time. What makes this a even theoretical crime? They're investigating whether he lied to Congress about the possible cost overruns.

And so, you know, there's the political aspect of this, the retribution campaign. Obviously, Powell is not the first for Trump to try to go after. has not been that successful yet, which I think is something that we should all be heartened by. They've tried to gin up these like mortgage fraud claims against Letitia James and others. Those have not really gone anywhere. A bunch of these things have gotten thrown on a court. Now they're going after Letitia James again. This time they're investigating something to do with her hairdresser.

I mean, very obviously, this is not about going after like, oh, we've got to find the worst criminals and the worst malfeasance and go after. Those people, they're pardoning. they're looking to go after Trump's political enemies. It is incredibly overt. It is the sort of thing that in any other time, in any other administration, would be a massive front page scandal for weeks, if not months, if not years. I still remember the whole thing about the IRS allegedly targeting Tea Party groups and not being independent and all of that. What was it? A conversation between Clinton and who was it at the time?

Who was Attorney General? I mean, these things were like massive scandals. And now it's just out in the open, Trump sees the DOJ as his personal weapon, a political retribution. He's mad at Powell because he didn't, wasn't sufficiently slavish in that exchange, and most critically because he hasn't done what Trump wants him to do with regard to interest rates. So there's that piece. And then, of course, there's the financial piece. So the Fed is supposed to be independent from the executive.

Now, I think there is an argument to be made over whether that is the correct structure or not. However, if, in my opinion, Trump is pushing. me more in the other direction. I was more open to it before. Now I'm like, do I want Donald Trump to be setting the monetary policy and the interest rates? No, I do not. No, I do not want that situation. And, you know, I don't think that Wall Street is excited about that possibility either, which is why you see this market crash. The other thing, Ryan, is like, Powell's term is up in May. You only have to wait this. Like, it's a few more months. Right. What are you doing? Why now? But so, and I think that's where you're flagging of this, you know, this moment that they exchanged and just him sort of like hating Powell personally where that really comes into the mix as well because he's going to be able to have his person, his like toady loyalist who's going to be vetted for, you know, his willingness to do whatever Trump wants him to do in a matter of months, very likely.

This, if anything, throws a wrench into his ability to get that person to put A2 up on the screen. Tom Tillis, who is a Republican, but he's retiring. Republican representing North Carolina says, if there's any remaining doubt, whether advisors within the Trump administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Fed, there should be now none. It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question, then this is the critical part. I will oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed, including the upcoming Fed,

vacancy, until this legal matter is fully resolved. So you now have at least one Republican saying, I am not going along with anyone until this whole thing is put to bed. And why this matters is that he's on the Senate banking committee where the Fed appointees would have to go. So is Chris Van Hollen. We could ask him about the dynamics there when he's here later. But that means that if he votes no, because Republicans have a two-seat majority there, that's a deadlocked vote. So then to get him onto the floor, you'd have to, you know, basically have a floor fight to like pull him out of committee and go against the committee, which then puts people like Susan Collins,

who's running for, you know, in a competitive seat in Maine, in a tough spot because it's now like, are you going to, you know, go against the Republican on the banking community so that you can fuel this corrupt prosecution of the Fedger? Like, so it puts somebody like a Collins in a very difficult situation, or even Ricketts in Nebraska who's facing Osborne.

And, and too, by the way, you know, also many of these senators, are very tied into Wall Street that is not happy about these moves. So they're at odds between Trump's desires and the desires of their money. Yes, that's, right, there is, this is one of those places where the Wall Street wing of the Republican Party is like, bro, what are you doing? And yeah, I'm with you in this sense that I've always believed that there should be more democratic control around the Fed.

This is not, this is not democratic control, though. No, this is Trump's. of a monarch. Right. And you could imagine, like, the Fed has all of these different windows that, where they lend overnight to, like, if Trump was, you know, Trump does understand lending and interest rates, because that's how he, like, has made his career, like, just basically playing games with cash flow and interest rates and bankruptcy laws. He could go in there and be like, okay, this bank, let's lend to them at point 25. These guys at point 24. How do you get down

at 0.20? Well, Trump organization, you know, has a little Bitcoin sale going on, you know, pump some money in there. So, like, it is, it is an argument for certainly not allowing just like the unchecked control by one guy. Cartblanche. Over trillions of dollars. From Trump. A decade ago, I was on the trail of one of the country's most elusive serial killers. But it wasn't until 2023 when he was finally caught.

The answers were there hidden in plain sight. So why did it take so long to catch him? I'm Josh Zeman, and this is Monster, hunting the Long Island serial killer, the investigation into the most notorious killer in New York, since the son of Sam, available now. Listen for free on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanko Wali. And I'm Hurricane de Bolu. It's a new year, and on the podcast's health stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health. Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that or am I just depressed? We talk to experts who share real experiences and insight. You just really need to find where it is that you can have an impact in your own life

and to start doing that. We break down the topics you want to know more about. Sleep, stress, mental health, and how the world around us affects our overall health. We talk about all the ways to keep your body and mind, inside and out, healthy. We human beings, all we want is connection. We just want to connect with each other. Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the I-Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, this is Dr. Jesse Mills, director of the men's clinic at UCLA Health and host of the Mailroom podcast.

Each January guys everywhere make the same resolutions. Get stronger, work harder, fix, what's broken? But what if the real work isn't physical at all? To kick off the new year, I sat down with Dr. Steve Poulter, a psychologist with over 30 years' experience, helping men unpack shame, anxiety, and emotional pain they were never taught the name. In a powerful two-part conversation, we discuss why men aren't emotionally bulletproof, why shame hides in plain sight, and how real strength comes from listening, to yourself and to others. Guys who are toxic, they're immature, or they've got stuff.

something they just haven't resolved. Once that gets resolved, then there comes empathy as in compassion. If you want this to be the year, you stop powering through pain and start understanding what's underneath, listen to the mailroom on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. Wanted to get to the very latest with regard to the killing of Renee Good and the fallout from that, the way the administration is handling it. And one of the ways they're handling it is apparently getting in Twitter fights with Ryan Grimm. Let's put B1 up on the screen here. This is the vice president.

Now, imagine you are vice president of the United States. And no offense, Ryan. I agree. I don't think that this would be how I'm spending my time personally. So anyway, Ryan said something I think is objectively correct. He said that the vice president was genuinely psychotic. Innocent, he shot an unarmed woman twice through a side window and then called her an effing bitch, let her bleed out and fled the scene.

So this is in reaction to J.D. Vance, you know, completely venerating the ICE agent who called him innocent. Called him innocent, who killed Renee Good. And J.D. Vance replies, these people, meaning you, are incapable of not lying about this. Side window, question mark. You can see the photos of the car with bullet holes. The shots came from the front of the car because that's where the officer was standing. when he was hit by the car, he is allowed to discharge his weapon in self-defense. Ryan, your response.

It's interesting to go through there and count the number of just falsehoods in it. In his claim that you're lying, the number of lies, yes. Like, holes is a lie. There's only one hole. Bullets is a lie. Standing in front of the car is a lie. And that he's allowed to discharge his weapon and self-defense. is generally true, but not in the circumstances that he put himself in. It was self-created risk.

Hit by the car does not appear to be true either. Oh, and hit by the car. I lost count of all the incorrect assertions in that thing. If we can put up the photo next to show, like, if you really don't believe me, you put up B23 here. So this is an image of this is one of the frames. This is before he has fired his first shot. MJ kindly circled, in turn MJ kindly circled the legs there.

So for people who are confused, because it's hard because the fact that the other guy's silhouette is like blocking the other dude. This would be open and shut across the spectrum if that other guy wasn't there and you could see him. So now, now here, this is, that's the smoke from the first shot that hits the, that does hit the front windshield. But notice where his legs were. And look where that shot is. Yeah. Okay, that is the front furthest corner of the windshield, which is not actually what you would hit if you were standing in front of the car. Right, right. And so the fact that you can see his legs means that he was not in front of the car. If he was in front of the car, you wouldn't be able to see his legs.

Now, what, what J.D. Vance, what started this was J.D. Vance had said, quote, what the press has done in lying about this innocent law enforcement officer is disgusting. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. And he said that in response to the video that came from the officer's phone, which we noticed early on, we're like, wait a, is that a phone in his hand? Like, is he actually, is he actually filming? Turns out he was filming. It was leaked to Alpha News, which is a publication that has ties, has close contacts with, like, police unions in Minnesota. And so, and then the fact that there was a coordinated. immediate response on the right to say this is this vindicates him suggests that they really believe that like they put this they put this footage and so let's let's let's we can roll this roll this footage this is

the footage that jd vance was was responding to so here he is he's he gets out of his car here you can see the dog in the car now he's he's circling around um and then he comes around the side and I think this image right here is what the right was seizing on. They're like, look, she's a liberal. Look at her face. You can tell she's a liberal. We told you she was a liberal. She deserved it. So now what he has here, he's gotten her license. So he has no reason to, like, keep her in the scene, keep her at the scene or anything else. He now switches hands. He moves his phone from his right hand to his left hand. So his, now you see her turn to the right. You see that? You saw her. Now he shoots her. And then he calls her an F&B.

So you saw her turning the wheel to the right. That means he saw her turning the wheel to the right. His feeder on the side of the car. He then shoots her once through the front windshield, twice through the side window. J.D. Vance sees that and just completely lies about what's in it. They seem to, I think you're correct, that the real thing that they find to be vindicating here is that these are

liberal lesbian women. Right. And so for... For a rabid online movement like the new right online edge lords, the fact that they look like they're liberal

and their lesbians means they deserved it. Right. And that is the real I think that is the primary point of the video. And you've got, you know, the one woman, her wife, Renee's wife, who's there, sassing the officer, basically fat-shaming him. And did they bleep out her saying that she was a veteran

or something? I don't know. And I think that's worth mentioning, too, is like, we have no way of knowing if this was edited in any way also to make this as favorable as possible for him. But then the other thing that they seized on is, you know, at the end, when he fires the shots, the phone kind of goes and they act like, that's definitive that he gets hit, even though the video does not show that at all. And in fact, we have much clearer videos. We showed one on the show on Friday. And New York Times did an analysis, Wall Street Journal did an analysis that found, no, he actually wasn't even grazed by the car. He was to the side of the car. He was not hit by the car. But because the phone kind of like goes crazy in that moment, they, oh, he got hit. I saw some, oh, he got hit and he got hit hard. This proves that

conclusively. It's like it literally doesn't. And it makes you feel like you're going crazy when you watch these videos. And it is so clear what is going on here. Like she was trying to leave. Now, you may say she shouldn't have done that. There's also, it's also very clear she was receiving contradictory orders at that point. So it was impossible for her to comply. So in any case, you could say she didn't do the right thing by trying to leave the scene. Does that justify her getting shot in the face three times? You know, we've seen now multiple videos of protesters who positioned themselves in front of ice vehicles,

including you brought this up on the show, or actually Emily brought it up, and then you were challenging her on at Kat Abogazela, who's a congressional candidate in Chicago, where, you know, they're trying to prosecute her because she was part of a group that was trying to stand in front of an ice vehicle and they're getting pushed by that ice vehicle. Okay, so by this logic was her life in danger?

Was she justified to, you know, if she had a weapon, pull out, and shoot the ice agent driving the car in the face? Of course not. Like, anyone would look at that and say that's absolutely insane. Not to mention, it wouldn't, If, like, it wouldn't even solve the problem because the car would then keep going.

Right. Now you have what I saw, one law enforcement, you know, I think retired law enforcement, agents said this, then you have an unguided missile. Then that creates other safety. Imagine there's children playing this. Imagine there's other people around and you have now this car careening with a dead person at the wheel. So, you know, the whole thing and the approach to it, the immediate tagging of her as a domestic

terrorist and the not just the defense of, but the veneration of this officer and the comments from J.D. Vance that ICE agents have, like him, have absolute immunity. You know, we are already seeing them sort of taking and running with that. I mean, the number of videos I've seen of them just randomly assaulting people. We had another shooting in Portland. We still don't know the details of that. Two people were shot there. The government story is already not adding up with regards to the details that have come out there. So, you know, the willingness to just completely deny reality is something that is very hard for me to grapple with.

It is. It's very tough. And Christy Noem has really led the way in that with her initial press conference where she, you know, basically said, you know, she implied that he was dragged by the car. Like... She said, just before we play this clip,

she said one of the vehicles, the ice vehicles, became stuck and ensnared in the snow. No sign of that in any of the video. as we've seen. Law enforcement were attempting to push out this vehicle. Have you seen any of that? No, we've seen nobody of that. When a mob of agitators that were harassing them all day, again, we know she had just dropped her kid off at preschool or at school, began blocking them in, shouting at them, and impeding law enforcement operations. ICE officers and agents approached the vehicle of the individual in question who was blocking the officers. We saw her wave them by,

by the way, roadway they could have gone by. And with her vehicle, and she'd been stalking competing their work all throughout the day. Ice agents repeatedly ordered her to get out of the car and to stop obstructing law enforcement. She refused to obey their commands. She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over. That's what she had said. And let's go ahead and play. So Jake Tapper.

And just real quick before you go to that, because there's this debate about whether or not she was, quote, unquote, stalking them, which doesn't change anything about whether or not it's justified in shooting her. Right. The shooting was at 9.35 a.m. And we know for sure they dropped the kid off at school. I don't know exactly when school started. Anybody who was watching this either has kids in school or has gone to school themselves, it's not that much before 935.

Like there's no, like even if it, even as one of these early starting schools at like 750 or something like that, that at most would give them 90 minutes to be following them around. But that doesn't remotely appear to be the case. Yes. It looks like a couple of minutes. This was activism of opportunity. They're like coming home from dropping the kid off and they see ice in the neighborhood. They live blocks away.

And so they're like, let's get out and like let's protest this. So this is not like some like anti-fah trained situation where they're like been stalking them all day long. Again, 935 a.m is when this is happening. So yes. Anyway, so Christine Nome again on Jake Tapper's show. Why did you not wait for an investigation before making your. comments. Everything that I've said has been proven to be factual in the truth. This administration wants to operate in transparency. I have the responsibility as the Secretary of Homeland Security to know this information as soon as possible, had just been in Minneapolis the day before,

had already had conversations with officers on the ground and supervisors and knew the facts, and decided that the department and the people of this country deserve to know the truth at the situation of what had unfolded in Minneapolis. With all due respect, Secretary, the first thing you said was, quote, what happened was our ICE officers were out in an enforcement action. They got stuck in the snow because of the adverse weather that is in Minneapolis. They were attempting to push out their vehicle and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle. That's not what happened.

We all saw what happened. It absolutely is what happened. Those officers had been out on enforcement action. A vehicle had been stuck. They had come to help get that vehicle out. That's when this individual started blocking traffic. for minutes and minutes before. You said that the woman attacked them and surrounded them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle. Blocked the road for a long time and was yelling at them and impeding a federal law enforcement investigation.

She should have responded. I'm not so sure I agree with your police work there. It's so weird having a Fargo character as part of this whole thing. Like what happened to the whole Northwest Nice thing or the like? Not with the puppy killer. It's like, yeah, this is what happened. Yeah. Like, that is what happened. Like, we can see the video. We saw it happen. You know, I mean, and that's a point is like they, I think it is the message they want to go out to all of America and especially to ICE and CPP and all of these, you know, federal agents and their kidded out gear who have been searched into various cities is that we will make shit up on your behalf.

We will completely lie. You can do whatever you want and we will defend it. in a, like, humiliating and embarrassing way, in a way that is completely disconnected from reality. It doesn't matter if there's a video. It doesn't matter if people can see with their own eyes that something completely different happened. We will go to the map for you,

and we will lie on your behalf publicly and repeatedly. And I think, you know, so it's not an accident that this is the way they approach it. The other thing here is Tapper asked, you know, made a comparison between people who actually beat up police officers on January 6th and were pardoned by this president versus this woman. And I think many people, myself included, pointed out like, okay, so you know, you guys were very upset about Ashley Babbitt.

I think there's some actually justification to be upset about Ashley Pabbitt. Would it have been justified for many other protesters, rioters on January 6th? You have been killed by the cops there who were actually getting beaten and violently threatened. And let's go and take a listen to Tapper make that comparison with her. Those are law enforcement officers being physically attacked. By this standard, would any of those officers being justified in shooting and killing the people causing them physical harm? Every single situation is going to rely on the situation those officers are on. But they know that when people are putting hands on them, when they are using weapons against them, when they are physically harming them, that they have the,

the authority to arrest those individuals. The president pardoned every single one of those people. And make sure that they're getting justice for their actions going forward. President Trump pardoned every single one of those people. And every single one of these investigations comes in the full context of the situation on the ground. And that's one thing that President Trump has been so focused on is making sure that when we're out there, we don't pick and choose which situations are in which laws are enforced and which ones aren't.

Every single one of them is being enforced under the Trump administration. and the clarity of the law stands. And if people don't like it, these members of Congress and elected officials should go change the law and make sure they have that debate and policy. I just showed you video of people attacking law enforcement officers, undisputed proof, undisputed evidence.

And I just said President Trump pardoned all of them. And you said that President Trump is enforcing all the laws equally. It's just not true. There's a different standard for law enforcement officials being attacked. if they're being attacked by Trump supporters. We just saw them. This individual and these instances and these investigations all have to be taken and done and done correctly in context of every situation that is happening on the ground. I mean, the whole thing is just in-group versus out-group. And it's deeply un-American.

And the idea is supposed to be, not that we've ever lived up to it, but there's one standard of justice for all, right? They don't accept that. They genuinely don't. And that's where you, you know, clude in on the video that they, were so excited to share, what they wanted you to get is this is the out group. So they deserved it. Right. Whereas January 6th rioters, some of whom were actually assaulting police. Well, that's the end group. So it's totally different. And, you know, that's what Trump's pardon schemes. That's what that's about as well. Like, oh, well, they're on my team now. So, you know, even though you may have been

a former president who actually was involved in narco-trafficking, a quote-unquote narco-terrorist, since that's the term of art now, it doesn't matter. Because you. You're on our team. So you can do... He was a Bitcoin, bro. Yeah, you can do... You're close with Peter Thiel and whatever. So you can do whatever you want.

And, you know, and there is... He has said himself, like he claims the powers of the monarch that the only limits to his power are... His own morality is the quote. So they don't accept the idea that there should be one standard of justice. They want to rip that apart. They want to change that in the minds of the American public. And I think you have to say,

with regard to their own base, they have accomplished that. Now, look, everybody is guilty on some level of hypocrisy, right? There's a lot of tribal thinking and partisan brain. There's no doubt about that, that is something that happens across the board. This is really something different in terms of the weaponization, the use of the federal government to try to codify and to actualize a reality where all that matters is whether you're on the in-group or in the out-group. You know, I don't think it'll work.

I think people are disgusted by it. I'd actually be curious for your take on, you know, how you think this is going, like for J.D. Vance and his presidential ambitions. But they've convinced themselves that this is a strong place politically to stand. I don't think, you know, it couldn't be further from the truth. A decade ago, I was on the trail of one of the country's most elusive serial killers. But it wasn't until 2023 when he was finally caught. The answers were there.

in plain sight. So why did it take so long to catch him? I'm Josh Zeman, and this is Monster, hunting the Long Island serial killer, the investigation into the most notorious killer in New York, since the son of Sam, available now. Listen for free on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanko Wally. And I'm Hurricane de Bolo. It's a new year, and on the podcast's health stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health. Which means It's being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that, or am I just depressed?

We talk to experts who share real experiences and insight. You just really need to find where it is that you can have an impact in your own life and just start doing that. We break down the topics you want to know more about. Sleep, stress, mental health, and how the world around us affects our own. overall health. We talk about all the ways to keep your body in mind, inside and out, healthy. We human beings, all we want is connection. We just want to connect with each other. Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey there, this is Dr. Jesse Mills, director of the men's clinic at UCLA Health and host of the mailroom podcast. Each January guys everywhere make the same resolutions, get stronger, work harder, fix, what's broken. But what if the real work isn't physical at all? To kick off the new year, I sat down with Dr. Steve Polter, a psychologist with over 30 years experience, helping men unpack shame, anxiety, and emotional pain they were never taught to name. In a powerful two-part conversation, we discuss why men aren't emotionally bulletproof, why shame hides in plain sight, and how real strength comes from listening to yourself and to others. guys who are toxic, they're immature, or they've got something they just haven't resolved.

Once that gets resolved, then there comes empathy and some compassion. If you want this to be the year, you stop powering through pain and start understanding what's underneath. Listen to the mailroom on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. Abolished ICE, which used to be, you know, sort of a fringe sentiment, is creeping up on a majority position. Yeah. And the overwhelming majority of Americans say that they use way too much force and they're out of control because they can see these videos and say this is insane, right? I mean, as much criticism as I've had for local police, like, you would never see them behaving in this completely, like just routinely in every situation, totally insane and illegal manner. Yeah, I think it is J.D. Vance tying himself unnecessarily even.

Like, he didn't have to jump in here to the least popular. elements of this version of Trumpism or MAGAism like that. So I think it's extremely damaging to him. I think clearly AOC, who I don't think will be his opponent this time, but maybe 2032 more likely. You've seen her kind of say like the difference between me and J.D. Vance is I don't think the American people should be shot in the face. Like, it's like, how did you wind up positioning yourself in defense of this guy, calling him innocent, saying he should be thanked for what he did when the entire country saw what he did. Yeah.

So, yeah, I think it's actually extraordinarily dangerous for him politically. Like, I think he, and I think he, I think he recognizes that. He's a bit impulsive. He posts too much. But now, and now he's out there. And I think that's why he's saying just completely false things, because he wants to establish at least among the Republican base. a set of facts, which are that, I'm putting facts in quote here. And the facts he wants to

establish are this guy was hit by the car. And that he, and then, you know, the bullets came through the front windshield. Like he needs, he wants those quote unquote facts to be established. And then he wants to show you that grainy sped up video that they've been circulating. Yeah. Which if you, if that's all you saw, you'd be like, oh, it does kind of look like he gets bumped. Right. In that footage. Right.

Then if you watch it in the regular speed and you watch it in context with the other video, you're like, oh, he didn't get hit. Well, I don't think he really cares about what facts he establishes. I think he wants the, like, white nationalist Groyper part of the base to forgive him for having an Indian wife. And this is his attempt. Which is not going to work. It's not going to happen. This is his attempt to convince them that he's one of them. He's one of them. That he will go full fascist, that he's all in on the race war. that he will lie on behalf of the regime. Like, he wants to convince them that he is one of the good ones and he is not actually a race traitor. And, you know, I don't think that is ever going to work out for him,

but he doesn't seem to have figured that out. This next piece, I think, is important. Tom Homan, who it's worth remembering, like, actually got the job, got his initial job in government under Obama, was where he was really elevated. His initial reaction after this happened was kind of like the normal reaction you might have. expect where he was like, we should have an investigation.

Right. Not going to say anything about this until the investigation plays out. And Tom Holman is a disgusting psychopathic cretan, okay? But even he was like, we should have an investigation, and then we'll see. He has since shifted his tone as he's picked up on what this administration, this regime, expects him to do. He got asked about this question of, do you think she's a domestic terrorist? Let's go ahead and take a listen to this because I think this is an important piece. Is anyone who protests ICE a domestic terrorist in the eyes of the administration? I can't say that.

You know, it's a case-by-case basis. But, you know, if you look up the definition of terrorism, is there violence? Is there a threat of violence based on an ideology that wants to change the way the government does what we do? Look on the definition of terrorism. But was Secretary Nome correct to label her a domestic terrorist, Mr. Homan? Look, we don't know what – I don't know if Secretary Nome knows – and what I know. I can tell you is what they did is illegal. And if you look up as a definition of terrorism, it certainly could fall within that definition. If you look at definition of terrorism,

but you don't have evidence. Pardon? You don't have evidence that she's a domestic terrorist. I don't know what secretary has that I don't. I'm not going to judge what the secretary says, but if you look up the definition of terrorism, it certainly can fall within that. So Ryan, he says if you look up the definition, and true enough, if you look up the definition as offered by this government, he's probably right. And he says something else that's like, she has an ideology that wants to change how we do what we do. Isn't, I mean, aren't we allowed to have an opinion about how the government, but in their opinion, they think no. And this is where Ken Klippenstein's reporting about NSPM 7 comes in. They genuinely want to define any protesters,

like anyone who does disagree with how they do what they do, they think that's illegitimate. they think we won the election, we get to do whatever the fuck we want, and you don't get to really say anything. And if you do step out in line in any way, yeah, we think you should be put in this category of domestic terror. So I think in their minds, and according to the definition, which, you know, the definition of terrorism is sort of like always fake and made up and extremely political. By their definition, they genuinely see her that way.

Well, Dave, some elements of the administration have called the Democratic Party, like domestic terrorist. That's right. Yeah, that's exactly right. They don't think that opposition is legitimate. Even the incredibly weak, barely existent opposition offered by the Democratic Party, they find that to be too much. And what they have managed to do is create actual opposition. If you've been watching this show, you've noticed over the kind of first year of the Trump administration. And Trump himself even commented on this. He said, wow, I thought there'd be more opposition to me. But the opposition has basically just rolled over. And that was that was, that was, that was, more or less the case other than like Chris Van Hollen going down to El Salvador and a few like

cases here and there the party was just flat on its back and so were a lot of activist groups now because of them constantly poking this bear people are actually starting to rise up and put up b7 here so it's not just that people are now coming out in the streets of Minneapolis and confronting ice wherever they find themselves you know they try to go to the bathroom target and they just and they just get yelled at the entire way in and the entire entire way out they have lost all legitimacy within the cities where they're trying to operate and now and now states democratic states are trying to figure out different ways that they can set themselves up in an adversarial posture to to ice and they're seeing that the

polling is against ice and with opposition to ice so um The Trump administration came in with the administration flat on its back and with public opinion on their side when it came to kind of reversing Biden's immigration policies. And because of Stephen Miller's need for these kinds of images, they have now kind of flipped the entire political table against them. Yeah. Well, and I think that point about legitimacy is very important because if you talk to law enforcement officers, I mean, you will not be able to operate effective. You have to have some consent from the local community. And that's actually what sanctuary city policies are about. Because the idea is if there's no trust with local law enforcement, you know, in immigrant communities where you have a lot of mixed status families, where I have a significant number

of undocumented immigrants, you're going to have more rampant crime because people are not going to talk to the local cops about what's going on. They're not going to assist in investigations. And so that is part of the rationale. And there's a lot, you know, there's studies that that bear this out. it's a public safety rationale behind sanctuary city policies. But yeah, I mean, if you go into Minneapolis and everyone there hates your guts and are chasing around with whistles to alert everyone to you're in the neighborhood and this is what's going on, you're going to have a lot harder time actually operating. I mean, Obama earned his moniker to Porter and Chief did it in a much, I mean, I don't support it.

I think he did also things that were cruel, although not anything approaching this level. of just like mass thugs, jackbooted thugs in the street, insanity with the largest law enforcement budget of anywhere of any time. But he was very efficient in what he was. He was actually much more effective in particular at getting the quote unquote worst the worst, which is what they're supposed to be going after because they actually put investigatory resources towards focusing and prosecutorial resources towards focusing on criminals first and foremost and prioritizing them. So, you know, the goal here is not actually to sweep up the most number of immigrants possible. The goal is this show of force and not just to scare immigrants to scare anyone who would oppose this

government. That's what this is actually about. It's, you know, immigration is obviously part of it. And those are the people who are most in the sites of these mass dogs in the streets and of this administration in general. But, you know, when they're, when they're recording videos, all the surveillance, there's new reporting out about mass surveillance systems also in the context of this immigration sweep. That is not just targeted at immigrants. It's certainly not just targeted undocumented immigrants. This is about, this is about all of us. This is about the way, the very quite radical and revolutionary, very negative sense, in my opinion, way that they want this country to be in this country to operate. So when you put together the largest law enforcement agency by

budget in history with now Trump asking for a $1.5 trillion defense budget. I mean, you get the sense of they really want to concentrate tax payer resources in a police surveillance and military state. That is the direction that they're pushing things in. And immigration is the pretext for the buildup of that capacity. Right. And the other way that the federal government could have gone about this is to say that this may have been a crime and we're going to investigate it. The officer's going on leave. They have instead, you know, squarely positioned themselves on the other side. You can put up B-8, the Daily Mail reporting that a bunch of masked ICE agents were photographed removing a whole bunch of stuff. Yeah, and I don't know if we know if they're ICE or FBI.

I think the theory is that this is actually FBI removing a bunch of stuff from Jonathan Ross's house. He appears to have fled with his family. And so, you know, is, you know, is. this evidence is it just his belongings that he wasn't able to grab and they're, you know, helping him out. But the FBI has now blocked state and local officials from being involved in the investigation at all. And, you know, I don't think that they care that it is blatantly appears to be a cover up after the everybody from the president down to, you know, the vice everybody involved has already said, no, he's innocent. Like, there's no one, even if they hadn't done that, I don't think anyone would have confidence that Cash Patel's FBI is going to do like a

straightforward bang-up, unbiased job in any of this. But, you know, it's clear what conclusion they have already made. They have no interest in actually gathering the facts. There are enough facts available, I think, to all of us already to see that this was, you know, this was not justified in any way. I mean, he put himself in front of that car, which in and of itself, that officer is called Officer created jeopardy. Like, you're trained not to do that. And yet, not just with him. strips you of your defense. And it strips you of your defense. That's exactly right. Not just with him, but this seems to be a pattern in practice with ICE and with CBP going back years. There's a 2014 article that's circulating now about how they do this, how they put themselves intentionally in danger

in order to justify using deadly force. Yeah. And so the, we put up B9 here. This is, you know, the tensions are continuing to escalate. Here you have a guy pointing, you know, first he points his, like, riot control weapon at the person, and then pulls a gun out and puts it right in the, pulls it right in the person's face, just utterly provocative in a way that, you know, seems designed to kind of increase tensions. Yes. A decade ago, I was on the trail of one of the country's most of the country's most of the way.

most elusive serial killers, but it wasn't until 2023 when he was finally caught. The answers were there hidden in plain sight. So why did it take so long to catch him? I'm Josh Zeman, and this is Monster, hunting the Long Island serial killer, the investigation into the most notorious killer in New York since the son of Sam, available now. Listen for free on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanko Wally. And I'm Hurricane de Bolo. It's a New Year, and on the podcast's Health Stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health. Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that, or am I just depressed?

We talk to experts who share real experiences and insight. You just really need to find where it is that you can have an impact in your own life and just start doing that. We break down the topics you want to know more. about. Sleep, stress, mental health, and how the world around us affects our overall health. We talk about all the ways to keep your body in mind, inside and out, healthy. We human beings, all we want is connection. We just want to connect with each other.

Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, this is Dr. Jesse Mills, director of the men's clinic at UCLA. Health and host of the Mailroom podcast. Each January guys everywhere make the same resolutions. Get stronger, work harder, fix, what's broken? But what if the real work isn't physical at all? To kick off the new year, I sat down with Dr. Steve Polter, a psychologist with over 30 years' experience, helping men unpack shame, anxiety, and emotional pain they were never taught to name. In a powerful two-part conversation, we discuss why men aren't emotionally bulletproof,

why shame hides in plain sight, and how real strength comes from listening. to yourself and to others. Guys who are toxic, they're immature, or they've got something they just haven't resolved. Once that gets resolved, then there comes empathy as in compassion. If you want this to be the year, you stop powering through pain

and start understanding what's underneath, listen to the mailroom on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. Let's go ahead and turn to some interesting comments from Tim Dillon. and, you know, I find what he says noteworthy, because obviously he was a supporter of this administration. He is an immigration restrictionist.

I listen to this whole thing, by the way. It is, he does his classic, like, sort of both-sidesy stuff. But the clips that have gone viral are where he's not backing up the administration in this really at all. Let's go ahead and take a listen to Tim Dillon talking about how he does not think that this officer feared for his life in that moment. Now, I don't believe from the angle I'm watching, that the federal officer feared for his life. At the speed she's going when she's turning the wheel,

I don't believe that the federal officer feared for his life. He could have shot the tires. They could have done other things. This idea that everyone just, they have to just shoot them in the head. So he says, I do not believe this officer feared for his life. He goes on to really go after the ICE agent.

for their lack of training. Now, with this guy, that's no excuse, because I think he'd been involved. I saw like 19 years he's been, you know, ICBP, whatever, involved in some way. And again, we'll talk about it on the other side, but in any case, he also goes after the ICE agents for their lack of training and professionalism,

let's say, let's take a listen to that. I don't believe the cop was justified in shooting her three times in the face. By the way, I've always believed this. And this is something that I've caught heat for, but I've literally believed it since I'm a kid. I don't believe you should ever shoot someone in the face more than once. No, seriously, I think, I just think it's ridiculous. So that they did that and they, you know, the guy, these are, these are not well-trained law enforcement people in ICE right now.

We're taking people that did backyard wrestling. I mean, we are the people that are in ice right now are, I mean, this is your cousin who, like, was in backyard wrestling. Like, this is tough. This is not the cream of the crop. You know the guys that kidnapped Maduro, like Delta Force Navy SEALs? This is not them. This is not the Delta Force Navy SEAL people. This is people that, like, had, this is people in their third.

grade report card, the teacher wrote that has violent tendencies. I saw one of the Chapo guys said that this was like a war of the unemployable versus the employed. And I thought that kind of nailed it too. But, you know, this guy doesn't have that excuse. And in a sense, I think it's a little bit of a, and I would Sagar and I in our very lengthy debate, talk to some about the training as well, which is obviously an issue when you turned loose a bunch of like thugs who have watched this sort of stuff and been like, that's what I want to do. and you give them 47 in honor of our great president days of training. And there's reports coming out saying that many of them can like barely read and write.

And you just turn them loose and have the vice president say, you have absolute immunity. Like that is a problem. That is definitely a problem. But I also think in a sense the training, like the fact that this man has been on the job for years, for like many years, I think in a sense the training is also the problem because clearly, again, the way he operates. here, it's not just him. It's not just him that's recording with the iPhone, right? There's pressure both for surveillance reasons and also for content creation reasons to be recording all these interactions and hope that you get on the next viral hype reel, right?

The moving around the front of the vehicle, now by the time the shots are fired, he's to the side of the vehicle, but walking in front of a vehicle with the engine on is directly contradictory to what any local law enforcement. I mean, they have years and years and years, decades, of training, like, data of how it goes and how you're supposed to approach in a situation where you've got a vehicle where the engine is on. And that is contrary to any of those training books. Yet, what you see is many, this is done, the same maneuver is used in many, many instances where they try to block in the vehicle with their body and put themselves into that jeopardy so that they can then justify more aggressive and, in this case, deadly,

So I don't think the problem was that he didn't know what he was doing. I think he knew exactly what he was doing. Because you can see in that video, you know, when he switches the camera phone from his right to his left so that he's got his, you know, his trigger finger ready to go. This is someone who actually was very in control and knew exactly what he was doing in that moment. Right. And he finishes it with F&B. And then they block medical care. Like so and it's a case where you're where. and lawyers who've looked at this said, like, that also is going to be a huge problem if it ever got in front of a jury. Because if this was, you know, purely self-defense, then how do you justify? Forget the second and third shots, not trying to help her with medical care. I mean, that's, and that, again, shows you, like, again, the in-group, out-group distinction. Because they, none of those guys thought this woman deserved to live. Right.

Clearly, none of them. I mean, not just the man who killed her, but none of them thought she was worthy of life because none of them tried to save her life, and they blocked the doctor who was there who wanted to intervene and help. You know, they pointed a gun in him and said, absolutely not.

We're going to let her bleed out. That's what the choice was made. And I believe it was on CNN. I saw an interview with a police commander who had said, he's like, for instance, I once had two officers who were shot at by a man, like who shot directly at them, he missed them, they returned fire, they hit the guy, they immediately ran and got their medical gear and rushed to the guy to, that they had just shot,

who had shot at them, and immediately start delivering attempts to save his life and call in an ambulance. Because at that point, you transition from, he's no longer a threat, you transition back into this protect and serve. Yeah. Like this is your, this is your job, so what you're trained to do. To just be like sauntering around and like joking around and then hop into a vehicle and flee gives away the game. And did you see the, uh, the ice officer busted going into the porta potty? Yeah. Yeah, I can play. This is, um, I mean, this is just everything all in once, L at one because you've got him slipping, comically slipping on the ice, like in a Loon-a-Tunes kind of way. lot of video of that in Minnesota right now. So he falls down. Okay, not the, they're not sending their

best. And then goes into the porta potty with this detainee while, you know, this other agent sits in the car and watches. Ilhan Omar, who, you know, this is in Minneapolis. This is her district. She posted like, can someone please tell me what's going on with this? Because I find this deeply disturbing. And, you know, there was another, I believe, ICE agent who was convicted of sexually abusing one of the detainees. Like, these things that we're seeing, like, this is only just what we can see. Imagine what's happening behind closed doors where the cameras aren't allowed in. And by the way, on that note, they're now trying to block, there's a law that is supposed to require congressional, any members of Congress from being able to go and inspect ICE

facilities at any time. Don't have to give notice. Chris, you know, I'm just put out some memo saying, no, now you have to give a week's notice. Don't see how that is compliant with the law. It would probably be a court case over that. But in any case, Ilhan and others showed up at one of these ICE facilities, they wouldn't let them in. So, you know, in direct violation of a law that, you know, Congress passed in response to concerns about exactly these sorts of things. Yeah, Omar said this is deeply alarming. If anyone has more information, please share. Brooklyn Center is in my district, and I would love any info. provide. Yeah, and when it's bad news when you're like,

oh, have you seen the video of the ICE officers, you know, slipping on the ice and then, like, and you're like, which one? Because then the other one, you slip on the ice and the guy and his gun discharges. Yeah. Like there's no world in which you're following proper gun safety and you fall in your gun discharges.

Like, that's just not a thing. Yeah. He almost took out his buddy there. Yeah. That was alongside. There was another instance where they, Again, involved a vehicle, and they were trying to shoot the person in the vehicle and ends up like the bullet ricochets and he shoots his partner. So, yeah, I mean, just comically, comically in-ups.

And this is the ones being caught on video. Like, there's somebody just happened to be filming that porta-potty. Right. Like what, like, so we're just getting the very, very tip of the iceberg. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. All right, Ryan, you want to tell us what's going on in Iran? So moving on to Iran, President Trump on Air Force One was asked about whether or not Iran has, cross a red line yet. It's interesting we're just talking about a protester being killed in

Minneapolis. Trump seems to have more concern for protesters being killed in Iran than he does here in the United States, setting that hypocrisy aside. Let's listen to Trump's back and forth to the press about whether or not he's about to start bombing Iran, I guess, in the interest of peace or something. Let's roll this. They called yesterday. Iran called to negotiate. Yesterday. Yesterday. The leaders of Iran called, they want to negotiate. I think they're tired of being beat up by the United States. Iran wants to negotiate, yes. We may meet with them. I mean, a meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what's happening. before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called they want to negotiate.

And so we know that the foreign minister from Oman recently went to Tehran. There's some reports that he delivered some type of a message from the United States. Iran is responding, saying they want to get back into the Iran nuclear deal. But obviously, if you go to war against us, that will make those negotiations a little bit more difficult. We can put up D1, according to the New York Times, outlets, Trump has been briefed on new options for striking Iran. He has laid out what he has said is a red line, although it's not entirely clear what that red line is. It is if protesters are killed under certain circumstances, but not other circumstances. Because some of these protests have veered into not just like riots, but like armed attacks on security forces.

Ron has said, I think, more than 100 members of the security. services have been killed. You've seen some, and you're seeing videos of that circulate. Police officer killed and set on fire. A nurse was killed. A firefighter was killed. There are reports of the beheadings of like government security services. Meanwhile, you have at least 500 protesters killed at this point and arguably probably thousands at this point. Like it's, And Iran has cut the Internet, so it's very difficult to get legitimate information out of there. Lindsey Graham was at an event last night and told people there he had to cut it short because he was very excited that we might go to war that night. Let's roll D2.

But the reason I had to cut the speech off a little bit, and it was really very kind of you to do what you were doing, I don't know what, but this might be the night. It's just a matter of time now. just a matter of time. Why is it just a matter of time? And you know what I'm talking about, don't you? This tyrannical regime needs to end. We need to end this for the good people of Iran and for our own selves and the people of Israel.

We need to take this guy down. He needs to leave standing up or laying down. I don't care. He needs to go. and if we can pull this off, it'd be the biggest change in the Mideast in a thousand years. Hamas has been gone.

It's not even clear to me why Lindsay Graham would need to cut it short. Like, is he calling the shots here? Is he like picking targets? Like, what is his involvement with this potential bombing? Or is he just need to be in private to enjoy it?

He needs to be alone to fully savor the moment. Like, the fact that he's still so influential with Trump really, undercuts the idea that Trump is not just a... There are many things about this that have undercut the idea that Trump is Mr. Pease. I mean, to be honest with you, I think he is worse than the neocons. He's actually worse than the neocons because he has bombed, what, seven countries so far? And, you know, any of the, like, at least the neocons felt a need to, like, build up some sort of

a case, have some sort of legitimacy with the American people, the full-on barbarism and the complete law of the jungle might make right. Like, this is actually worse now. And I'm someone who, and I think you were too probably, and the first Trump administration I was like, Bush is still worse. Like, Bush is still worse than what, you know, what Trump has been. I can no longer make that case. Like, the resistance lips were right.

Their most deranged takes on everything except Russiagate were 100% proven correct. I am sorry for ever criticizing you, you guys. And you know what? All the like discussion of his moral temperament and like his character, which I also used to sort of like roll my eyes. And no, you were correct. Like that actually did. That ended up mattering a lot in terms of the conduct of his presidency. So yeah, completely vindicated.

You know, that first clip we played about where Trump is like, you know, maybe we'll talk about a deal. I would love to believe that's the case. But we've now had multiple instances where the possibility of diplomacy has been used as a pretext. text and a cover for a bombing campaign. So you can never, like, this could be yet another Trojan horn. Oh, we're going to extend the arm. Oh, now we know where all of you are so we can murder you. You know, like, you just can't rule any of that out ever. Not to mention in that same clip, he says, well, we might have to take action before we can get to the negotiation table. And there's also the thing where he's like, like, okay, yeah, we're doing a lot of war, but we're

really only going to do it in our hemisphere. That's what America first means. Just doing the war. So, okay, you thought we were going to be, you know, a more peaceful administration? We're not, but it's just here, promise. And then like three days later, like, oh, and also we're going to bomb Iran. Right. Which is, I mean, you can pick up a globe. If you don't believe me, it's not in our backyard. Yeah.

Yeah, right now, the Swedes are thinking of getting nukes to protect themselves from, like, they're in a coalition of Nordic countries of like, maybe we should get news. You should. Everybody should. I mean, that is the logic that we have created around the world. The only people we don't fuck with are the ones who have nuclear weapons. So, you know, I guess that's the way that people are increasingly looking at it and who could possibly blame them for viewing things through that lens. You know, in terms of what actually happens here, I genuinely don't know because Trump doesn't, I think he doesn't want to get into some long protractive.

He likes the theater of war. He likes being able to do his mission accomplished moment after the, you know, SEAL team or the whoever goes in and does their, oh my God, we kidnapped Maduro and it was so spectacular and amazing and aren't we the best. And obviously right now he actually posted that he's the acting president of Venezuela. I don't know if you saw that. So he likes that, but he had enough caution around, you know, putting this Machado in and like completely doing the regime change thing. Like, that's probably going to require more for me than I really want to give. And he seems to have that same sense in Iran. He's like, yeah, this Reza Pilevi, this failed son for the Shah.

He doesn't have the Jews. He doesn't have the support. And he's right. I mean, he's absolutely right. But the Israelis definitely want to, they want a regime change. But, you know, treat to parsley is correct in saying what they really want is regime destabilization. Like, they don't care if Iran's the failed state.

They're happy for Iran to be. Yeah, they wanted to be a Libya or a Syria or whatever. Like, that's what their goal is. is. Now, is Trump, is he on board with that goal? We don't know. But it certainly seems like he is being increasingly persuaded by the ego kick that he got out of the Venezuela operation, plus these protests, which I think are helping to convince him that this would be easier than perhaps he thought in the past. So, you know, I don't think there's anything that we could possibly put off the table, especially when, again, mirroring the dynamic.

with Venezuela, where you have the Miami-occupied government with Marco Rubio and others who are, you know, South Floridians who are very excited about these possibilities, you have a similar dynamic, obviously, with Mary Madelson and people in the administration and people in the administration who are very, very committed to what Israel wants with regard to Iran, and they're just going to keep pushing and pushing and pushing, and cycling through arguments with him until they find one which works, which is exactly what happened previously with Iran, and which is exactly what happened with Venezuela, they kept making different cases to him until they found one that they could use to convince him to effectuate the ends that they wanted. And I don't even know what this one is.

Like, what's the argument? Like, why? Like, he was, they, he did a 12-day war. They wanted more than 12 days, although they were getting pounded, you know, pretty badly, but they still would have, you know, gone a little further. But what is, like, what even is the argument? Like, I haven't, as a Ben or the public, I haven't even, like, received, like, why are we going to bomb them this time? Right, because initially he had said in his meeting with Netanyahu, if they went back to building nuclear weapons. Right. Which they're not. But he, they, yeah, they, I mean, we haven't received even any fake reports about that. Well, that's probably coming soon. Stay tuned for that. But in any case, that sort of been pushed to the side. Now it's supposedly about, like, the rights and dignity of the protesters. I mean, does anyone really believe that Trump cares about, like, the, you know, aspirational. human rights of the Iranian protesters, when obviously doesn't give a shit about that with American protesters. But now, since he put this red line down, now it's just about ego. It's like they're,

they're embarrassing you. You know, you said, you made this line in the sand. You can't be like Obama where he had his red line and then they walked all over him. Like, you said this thing. You've got to stand strong. I think, I mean, that's as far as I can tell, because I don't really see any sort of any other affirmative case being made for why this is in our interest at all. And isn't a bombing campaign more likely to just end the protests? Like that's the other thing. I don't connect how coming in with you bomb a bunch of military installations or something, and that's going to somehow further the protest.

I don't know. I guess anything's possible. Meanwhile, Iran has said put up D3 here that if the U.S. strikes Iran, that they consider U.S. targets throughout the Middle East, including bases in Iraq, which are quite vulnerable to Iranian attacks, as well as any Israeli targets, that those are legitimate targets, and that's how they will respond. And then covering these protests is extraordinarily difficult. There's probably no arena where there's more disinformation and fake videos thrown out there.

Trita Parsi has talked about this. It's like it's there's some, some is trickling out. There are a few Starlink. Starlink was mostly successfully taken down, actually, which is fascinating development and is freaking out, you know, Musk investors. It seems like Russian Iran figured found a kill switch for it. Some Starlink are still operative and have been able to get some videos of massacres out. Some Iranians have left and gone to say Dubai or elsewhere and have brought.

videos with them. One of those, we can put up D5 here, actually, and then we'll go back to go back to D4. D5, this is, this is footage being played. We blurred this out, but these are, basically there's 250 files here. Somebody smuggled this out, likely was smuggled out, and it's basically evidence of at least 250 people getting killed, and then each file kind of goes through somebody else where and families are being asked to come to come identify and receive their their loved ones and we could like I said we could be talking about many thousands of of debt at this point meanwhile in Los Angeles yeah we put up this this post here a U-Haul truck drove through a group of programs

protesters who are supporting the protests against the Iranian regime. The imagery on the U-Haul is suggestive of the possibility that it is an M-E-K-aligned action. M-E-K is this bizarre kind of anti-regime cult that is also hostile to the Shah, and that has weird connections to the U.S. security establishment and was based in Iraq and backed by the CIA at various times. Like, it's like, it's a very, just look up the MECA. It's a very odd organization that has no base of support inside Iran and would do something insane like this, like commit a terror.

Like terror attacks previously, right? Yes, yeah. They were doing their whole like, we've turned over a new leaf thing. If you did, like, I don't know if this member got the memo if it was, if this was an MECA link attack, but this is the kind of thing that MECA would be associated. with. Yeah. And these were, you know, the, I think the protests, the flavor was like pro-monarchist, you know, more in back. The pro-Shah, yeah. The Shaw's son and, you know, in support of him, et cetera. So in any case, yeah, you have very difficult situation to know what's going on in the

ground. I saw Dr. Parsi also tweeting, and it might have even been in that tweet that, um, anecdotally what he's hearing is that the, some of the lesson that was taken from the previous protests, which were largely peaceful, was that they failed because they were peaceful. But there wasn't a violent cost associated with it. And that's part of why you're seeing this more violent approach from the protesters this time. But again, it's very hard to know what exactly is going on, how widespread they are. There's no doubt that the Iranian regime is deeply unpopular. I don't think there's any question about that.

And part of that is certainly the repression. protests were initially sparked by the currency collapse triggered by, you know, largely by our sanctions and our aggressive approach towards them. We've trashed their economy, you know, youth unemployment is just sky high. It's an incredibly, you know, dim situation for people economically on the ground. And so it's no surprise that the country would be a powder keg. And it's also no surprise that you would have actors in the U.S. and Israel who want to take advantage of those legitimate grievances to pursue their own ideological ends. Yeah. And Israel brags about how well, organized Mossade is inside Iran.

And that... Well, they've showed that off, what a massive network of allies and assets they have in there. And there was no immediate, and we'll get to Van Hollen in a moment, there was no immediate kind of triggering event that sparked these protests. It really appears like it was an organized, like, orchestrated, planned out thing. Rather than, you know, let's say somebody, you know, a protester or, you know, police kill somebody. Or, you know.

It may be an ice agent shooting someone in the face three times for as one example as a precipitating event. There was none of that. It was just like all of a sudden there's protests. Yeah. And you have Israel. And Israel was in the weeks leading up to this saying, we're going to war against them again. And so they've basically, you know, taking a lot of credit for this. A decade ago, I was on the trail of one of the country's most elusive serial killers.

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