Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 11/9/23: Krystal And Saagar REACT To Wildest Republican Debate Moments, Biden Endorses Gaza Occupation, Combat Footage Emerges, Republicans Cope Over Lost Elections, Tucker Shocked By Right Wing Censorship

Episode Date: November 9, 2023

Krystal and Saagar discuss the 3rd GOP Debate's Winners and Losers, Biden endorses Gaza occupation, Insane Combat footage from Gaza, Republicans cope over lost elections, and Tucker is shocked by the right wing hypocrisy over free speech with Palestine. To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.supercast.com/ Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that. Let's get to the show. Good morning, everybody. Happy Thursday. We have a great show for everyone today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed we do. We watched the third Republican debate so that you don't have to. We pulled all the highlights, if you want to call them that. We'll break it all down for you, what it means, if it means anything at all. Also, there are some

polls coming out of how various viewers felt about the debate and who they thought, quote unquote, won. So we'll get into all of that. We also, of course, have our eye continuing to watch closely the situation unfolding in Gaza. We've got some new comments, both from Tony Blinken, laying out some U.S., you might call them red lines, but our view, the Biden administration's view of what the post-war situation should look like. Some new comments from John Kirby that are also very revealing and sort of shifting the goalposts in terms of initially Biden said no Israeli occupation of Gaza. Well, they're changing their tune a little bit there. So we'll talk about that. We also have some incredible clips of Republican cope post Tuesday night's election results, which were by and large very good for Democrats and very bad for Republicans. We'll give you those and also

tell you a little bit of what Sagar and I think of all of that. Also, Hillary Clinton popped up to make her case for Joe Biden, why she still thinks that he is the best candidate in spite of very low polling. And we have an interesting clip we wanted to break down for you between Glenn Greenwald and Tucker Carlson centering around free speech with regard to the, you know, Israel's war on Gaza. So we will get into all of that. And also a little teaser for later today, we've got Vivek Ramaswamy joining us after the main show. So we'll be posting that as soon as we've got that ready for you as well. Yes, that's right. Thank you so much to our premium subscribers. You enable it.

We will have Vivek. You guys will get it as soon as we can. We'll post it separately both as a video and as a podcast. So stay tuned for that. It'll be fun. We'll get his initial reaction to the big scum moment that everybody is talking about. But let me not get too ahead of ourselves. Let's go ahead and start with this quote unquote highlights of the debate. So we picked some of the best moments or at least some of the more illustrative moments because I know many of you didn't want to stay up past your bedtime and watch it. I don't blame you. I certainly don't

feel better or wiser for having done so. I feel much worse actually for having done so. One credit to the moderators is this, is that they asked some of the more important questions at the top. And actually the very first one was to Governor Ron DeSantis of, why should I support you and not Trump? What is your pitch to Trump voters? Here's what he had to say. Now, if you look where we are now, it's a lot different than we were in 2016. And Donald Trump's a lot different guy than he was in 2016. He owes it to you to be on this stage and explain why he should get another chance. He should explain why he didn't have Mexico pay for the border wall. He should explain why he racked up so much debt. He should explain why he didn't drain the swamp.

And he said Republicans were gonna get tired of winning. Well, we saw last night, I'm sick of Republicans losing. In Florida, I showed how it's done. One year ago here, we want a historic victory, including a massive landslide right here in Miami-Dade County. That's how we have to do it. So Crystal, I'm calling this the effective and the electable case. I think it is the best case. I also don't think there's any evidence that people care. Unfortunately, honestly, unfortunately for him, I wish politics worked this way. You have a guy who flipped a purple state to a red state. You have a guy who actually quote unquote did what he said he would do. That's part of the pitch is that the other guy didn't do. So you're supposed to put our records, but this is actual politics. And most

people are not voting on that, in fact, at all. If anything, they're rejecting you simply because the other guy, who you're critiquing, I think, correctly in so many different ways, is just saying, like, what is he calling him? Ron DeSanctimonious. And that's enough. So that's what loyalty, that's what cult of personality, and so much of this looks like. And that's part of why, in much of our analysis, we're like, can you really win a debate where everybody is losing by 50 points? Yeah, hard to say. Kyle and I were having this debate last night, too, because he was very like, I think DeSantis had the best night. And I was like, yeah, sure. I guess. I mean, sure. If you want to say that.

But what does that really mean in the grand scheme of things? But, you know, on this Trump point in particular, I agree with you. I think it's the best possible case that he can make. I don't know that it's so much that Republican voters don't care about electability. I think some of them definitely do. But, you know, they're looking at the same polls we're looking at of Trump beating Biden in five out of six swing states, even according to The New York Times. And they're saying, hey, we're not that worried. Looks pretty good for our guy right now. So there's that. There's the fact that, you know, the attacks that have been made against Trump from this entire group of contenders have been few and far between. They've been a little lackluster.

And when they have packed more punch, like recently you had Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie both trying to make the case to a Republican audience that like, listen, things may look okay for Trump now, but you look at the polls, if he's actually not just indicted, but found guilty and things look a lot different and they didn't want to hear that at all. So the case that would actually make sense in terms of why Trump is a problem from an electability perspective, no one in the Republican Party, very few people in the Republican Party actually want to hear that case made. Now maybe if you'd laid the groundwork for it

from the beginning and you've been prosecuting the case relentlessly or your attack dogs have been prosecuting the case relentlessly, maybe then they might start to get a little nervous about what this all might look like, but you can't this late in the game come in and try to make that case and expect it to land on anything but deaf ears. So I think that's the problem. The other thing,

Sagar, that made this debate so weird to me, this was really one of the only mentions of Trump. I mean, he came up a few times, but he's the elephant hanging over all of this. And the fact that there were, you know, there were no questions about him. The candidates weren't really bringing him up. It added to the sort of surreal nature of this, of like, what are we even really doing? What is this debate even really about? This sort of like existential question hanging over this third Republican debate, which I have to imagine once we get the ratings are going to be very low. Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's no question about that. And it's one of those where I understand where they're coming from, because

this is the impulse that I would want to have. I'd be like, man, we're going to get them on the issues. We're going to get them on the contract. And you can do that. But it's also basically negligent to not acknowledge and spend a ton of time on the contender, the former president of the United States leading in every poll. And now your whole case against him is like you said, electability. He's beaten Biden five out of six polls. Why should anybody vote for you? Whenever both, I like the guy, he makes me laugh. He delivered on what I wanted, which is driving liberals crazy and he might win. So, you know, this is an irrelevant sideshow. To that point though, there was one big moment and actually to the extent that there was substance at all, kind of came during some of the contrasts on Israel, on Ukraine, and

on TikTok. And so there was one particular moment where Vivek Ramaswamy, who will be joining us later today on the show, called out Nikki Haley, calling her Dick Cheney with three-inch heels. Although there is some speculation that he may have included Ron DeSantis in that moment as well. Here's what he had to say. You have the likes of Nikki Haley who stepped down from her time at the UN. Bankrupt or in debt was her family. Then she becomes a military contractor.

She joins the board of Boeing and otherwise and is now a multimillionaire. So I think that that's wrong when Republicans do it or Democrats do it. That's the choice we face. Do you want a leader from a different generation who's going to put this country first? Or do you want Dick Cheney in three-inch heels? In which case, we've got two of them on stage tonight. We've got two of them on stage tonight. I don't think it's fair to call Ron Dick Cheney in three-inch heels.

The heels is fine. It's just he can't be called Dick Cheney. Cheney is a pejorative we should reserve only for the biggest scum. Note what I'm saying there. The thing is, is that what that eventually led to the Dick Cheney and Three Inch Hells comment, which I thought was hilarious, is when Haley was given the chance to respond, she immediately calls for war with Iran and then is bolstered by her South Carolina colleague to also call for war with Iran. I am not exaggerating. We have the clips of the two in their response. Here's what they had to say.

I'd first like to say they're five inch heels and I don't wear them unless you can run in them. We got two of you on stage. The second thing that I will say is I wear heels. They're not for a fashion statement. They're for ammunition. What we need to be doing for Iraq and Syria is, first of all, the idea that our men and women could be targeted. We need to understand this is Iran giving the green light, telling them what to do. And we shouldn't be doing the tit for tat like what Joe Biden has done. We need to go and take out their infrastructure that they are using to make those strikes with so they can never do it again.

Iran responds to strength. You punch them one and you punch them hard and they will back off. But what we don't need is Biden falling all over himself to get back in the Iran deal. You have to strike in Iran. If you want to make a difference, you cannot just continue to have strikes in Syria on warehouses. You actually have to cut off the head of the snake. And the head of the snake is Iran and not simply their proxies. In order for us to have a powerful response from America, we have to be in a position of strength.

As president of the United States, my foreign policy is simple. You cannot negotiate with evil. You have to be in a position of strength. As President of the United States, my foreign policy is simple. You cannot negotiate with evil. You have to destroy it. So as you can see there, Crystal, she said, first of all, I don't understand this heels thing. You're going to have to explain that one to me. I can't. First of all, why is it a point of pride to be able to run in heels? Is that like a thing? Second of all, the ammunition, I've been thinking about it. I went to sleep thinking about it. I probably had a dream it was one of those things in my ambient memory

being like what does this mean and so much they tweeted it out nobody can decipher it so I you're the heels expert

you gotta explain it to me I think she should challenge Ronda Santas to a race in their five inch heels the whole thing to me was perplexing the not to guarantee

but she also like she had time to come up with a response I know it's not like it was perplexing the the not to go too deep with this but she also like she had time to come up with i know yeah it's not like it was like immediately in the moment and then i don't know why it's a point of pride that they're five inch instead of three inch number one number two i don't know why the running thing i don't know and then on the their ammunition they're not a fashion scene when they're ammunition i guess she's she was trying to go for like, they're a weapon. They're dead. I don't know. I don't know.

It was bizarre. But on the war part, we're substantive bees here. The number of wars that were advocated for last night was deeply disturbing. And I'm not the only one. Ann Coulter, who is making an appearance later in the show as well,

who I don't normally favorably cite, but listen, when she's right, she's right. She said, so far, three of the five Republicans want to start wars against China, Russia, Syria, and Iran. These people are lunatics. And I could not possibly agree more with that. And that's before we even get to the war that they, you know, also some of them want to start with Mexico as well. So yeah, this has been the drumbeat since the beginning of the Hamas massacre in Israel and then the Israeli response. There has been this real war drum beating of we actively want to

start hostilities with Iran. And that has been the critique of the Biden administration is basically like they're not going after Iran hard enough. They're not doing enough effectively to start World War III. And I think, I mean, it's just completely insane. And I'm sure it lands with some segment of the Republican base. But even if you're pulling the Republican base on like, hey, how do you feel about a broader war in the Middle East and our sons and daughters being sent over to fought and die? They're like, hell no. So it's just amazing to me, Sagar. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but, you know, there was an idea that the neocons had kind of been checked after the failures in Iraq and the failures in Afghanistan and Trump coming on the scene and winning on this, like, you know, pretending like he was always opposed to the Iraq war thing and really rebuking the Bushes over the direction of the war on terror. They never went away. They never changed their views.

They are still just as itching for war in all kinds of corners of the planet as they have always been. And it has never been more apparent than it is right now in this moment. No, I mean, they're bloodthirsty psychopaths. Like, let's be super real about it. This is, they have never seen a war they didn't want to get us into. It's a religious doctrine to them. And I really realize that because I'm like, look, these people are politicians. At the end of the day, they're supposed to care about getting elected. But I mean, can you read a poll?

The vast majority of Republicans at this point are against Ukraine aid. Vivek Ramaswamy, the only guy on the entire stage who's against aid to Ukraine. And the way Chris Christie and them talk about it, they've got like, they're getting choked up over Ukraine and Kiev. And I'm like, wow, you really, it's look, I know it's a trope and it's often trotted out, like caring more about for like other countries borders than our own. In this case, it's actually real. They really do. Like it's a religious doctrine in terms of the fate of Ukraine. It's like, they think that Donetsk and Luhansk, they're like, this might as well be the border of Oklahoma or something like that. It's incredible to me. And you know that they believe it because there's no, nothing

politically advantageous to do so in terms of the polls. Now, in terms of the donor money and where all that stuff comes from, that's a whole other story. They care a lot more about that oftentimes than they do what the people actually want. And that's what it really showed to me is, you know, I couldn't help but come through and look, clip it if you want. Thankful for Trump. I was like, you know what? Listen, the man has a lot of problems, but if that's the alternative to whatever the hell this mess is with this going on, like these people, it is shocking to me. I mean, somebody even put it out and they're like, that was a great Republican debate performance from 2004. And I was like, yeah, that's true. I mean, it's basically the exact same line. Dick Cheney in Three and Chills is not really unfair. Those are all positions that he advocates for today and advocated for at the time. And how have we not learned from his own personal failure

here? I don't see Trump as being much different, even rhetorically at this point, with regards to, you know, hawkishness on Iran. And Ukraine now is like at a stalemate, and even the Biden administration is trying to come to some sort of deal. I don't really see him as being significant. He was against that. Didn't start a war with Iran. Sure, he bombed Soleimani. He almost started a war with Iran. Okay, but he didn't. But he was, I mean, he pulled us out of the Iran nuclear. He was very hawkish towards Iran. I don't think you can deny that whatsoever. I am not going to deny it.

I think rhetorically he was mixed. He had all the people who were under him were awful. Escalated the drone war. Hey, listen, he tried to get out of Syria. The people who were there wouldn't let him. Now, is it on him that he was too dumb to get lied to by General Mattis? Yeah, I agree with you. He didn't get us out of Afghanistan.

He wanted to get us out of Afghanistan. I will take at least somebody who's incompetent and has a restraint or has at least like some instinct of restraint than somebody who is both probably incompetent but also completely unrestrained in their rhetoric. And I'm talking, of course, within the Republican Party. That's only the realm of which we can have the discussion. At the very least, I would say this, it's definitely better than whatever was this mess going on with Nikki Haley. With regard to the specific flashpoint right now, which is this potential broader war in the Middle East, I see zero evidence that Trump would be better than any of the people that were on the stage who were all like jockeying to be the most bloodthirsty and the most pro-Israel out of all of them. And, you know, Trump gave

Netanyahu everything he wanted while he was in office. So again, I don't really see that he would be any different on foreign policy. And I think he would be, Ryan said on Twitter, I think this is probably right. Like the difference between Democrats and Republicans on Israel right now is basically like Democrats will like hand ring about the genocide and Republicans will just be like, yay, let's go for it. So it's not like it's that much of a difference. But yeah, I don't see I don't see Trump as being superior to any of the folks on stage, really, when it comes to foreign policy. If it's Israel, me. Well, I really don't think this is fair first because he was against the Ukraine consensus really from day one. Now,

that said, like, look, no, I'm not going to defend. No, he was saying that we should have. First, he said that we should send Chinese planes in order to start a war with Russia. Correct. Correct. But then second, eventually did come, I think a month or two out, he came out against in terms of sending weapons to Ukraine. So listen, I'm going to say I think he's an inconsistent. I don't think he particularly cares. I think he was a bad president and I don't think he was a good commander in chief because he didn't actually know what was going on underneath. Instinctually was against this. So for me, like on this stage, that's enough.

His whole thing was after. So he and he still continues to this day to both critique Biden as not being like hawkish enough on Ukraine, but then also like not supporting the military aid. He's just going wherever he thinks the right the politics supporting the military aid. He's just going wherever he thinks the right, the politics of the moment are. That's fine. Listen, for now, especially where the politics are right now, I'm fine with that. But anyway, we'll save this debate. I'm sure we'll have it a lot whenever we have two different nominees. Let's go to the next part here in terms of the debate around campus anti-Semitism, how to respond, and censorship.

So there was an interesting, and I actually want to get into this a little bit with Vivek whenever he joins the show, Vivek calling out Ron DeSantis for banning the Students for Palestine organization on the University of Florida campuses, and then eventually leading to a big ideological schism over whether you should have free speech and free expression or shutting down these student groups. Here is what DeSantis had to say when he was challenged. Joe Biden should have the Department of Justice on these college campuses and holding the universities accountable for civil rights violations. When you have, you should not have money going to these places. I already acted in Florida. We had a group students for justice of Palestine. They said

they are common cause with Hamas. They said, we're not just in solidarity. This is what we are. We deactivated them. We're not going to use tax dollars to fund jihad. No way. And what is Biden doing? Not only is he not helping the Jewish students who are being persecuted, he is launching an initiative to combat so-called Islamophobia. No, it's the anti-Semitism that's spiraling out of control. So I was very intrigued by this exchange in terms of calling out for the DOJ. And actually, DeSantis used language that's made my blood curl. He said, these students don't feel safe on campus. And I was like, brother, we have now spent a decade, successfully in my opinion, you can tell me, fighting against the language of safetyism and convincing the majority of the

Republican Party that nobody is owed a right to quote unquote emotional safety whenever it comes to issues. Now, physical safety is a different story, and I think everybody can agree with that. But in terms of the safe spaces, I mean, how much have we spent correctly, again, correctly, mocking the idea of emotional safetyism about safe spaces, about safe zones, about free speech and hate speech and how, oh, there's supposed to be a difference. There's not a difference, just to be very clear about that in terms of what it looks like in First Amendment law. And then on a dime, he completely flips around

and changes. So if anything, that just shows me what DeSantis is really all about, especially given how can you talk such a big game about campuses and all that? He just brought Ben Sasse, I believe, as the chancellor of the University of Florida system, again, with the, we're going to be all about free speech and all that. And listen, cool, you know, but as long as these organizations aren't hurting anybody, well, it's a free country. Like, I don't understand why we can't just allow it to be, look, the dumb asses sign onto a letter. All right. I mean, okay, look, their names are public. You know, if you want to go out against them, I wouldn't recommend it, but if you want to, you can, but if these people want to continue to do so, what there's nothing particularly wrong with that. You can say it's abhorrent or morally objectionable or whatever, but he's outright wanting to ban these places

on campus. So clearly they've learned nothing. And I think he's viewed, I think he has been exposed completely as full of it on this issue, which Vivek correctly, I think called him out. Vivek was the only person on the stage who had a divergent view on this issue. Everybody else, I mean, basically the whole Republican Party, with very few exceptions, has gone all in. They sound like the woke college kids who were like roundly mocked for their language about microaggressions and safetyism

and the need for safe spaces, et cetera. And then, you know, the minute it serves their political cause of the moment, they're all in on the exact same language. And I'm not surprised because it has always been the case that even when they were at their peak of, like, talking about this cancel culture and PC culture and all of this stuff and, you know, people being snowflakes, et cetera, they never would call out when people were getting canceled for a divergent view on Israel-Palestine. They were always silent on this stuff. So I always knew it was very one-sided and that it was more about controlling speech and having their speech be uncensored than it was a truly principled take in favor of free speech on campus or anywhere else. And so, again, I'm not surprised, but it's also just, it is really something to see how quickly they flip on a dime and how much they just immediately adopt all the language of like

the silliest parts of left liberalism in service of their own political goals. So yeah, it was, it's wild to see it all laid out there. And I just don't, it really is hard for me to wrap my head around how they don't see the blatant hypocrisy in it and don't at least try to message around it or use some different language or draw some different boundaries, some way of distinguishing themselves. But no, I mean, once again, absolutely nothing has been learned. Oh yeah. I mean, I think the reason why you get away with it is very simple, is that the right-wing industrial complex is not built to be consistent. Iical, I bet it does not even pass his mind because it's within the donor bubble and it's within the Daily Wire ecosystem. You've got like Ben Shapiro like probably cheering this on from the sidelines.

So if that's the ecosystem that you're swimming in, like why do you need to be consistent? Like you pay no price for being inconsistent, right? And that's part of the problem with the race to the bottom around all of this. And I guess that's a lot of reason why we try and do what we do here. It's a good way of actually staying in check. So anyways, guys, that's the highlights, the lowlights, or whatever, if you will.

As we said, we've got that clip with Vivek Ramaswamy. We're gonna be talking to him after the show wraps, and we'll be posting that ASAP. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you

Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding

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What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her.

And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter.

She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get to the next part here, the winners and the losers. Can there be such a thing as a winner? It's a nice meta question. Well, we asked, or not we didn't ask, the Daily Mail had a snap poll. Let's go and put this up there on the screen, please. They asked 544 viewers immediately after the debate wrapped,

who do you think won the debate? And interestingly enough, the viewing audience overwhelmingly going with Ron DeSantis. And I could see it, Crystal. Yeah. He didn't have a bad moment. He didn't get drawn into the mud, quote unquote, you know, in terms of the whole Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy thing. They had 29% secondary say Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy thing, they had 29% secondary say Nikki Haley.

That actually tracks for me because the thing is, is that if you are one of these people who is never Trump, that's gonna be, what, 20, maybe 20%, 30% or whatever at max within the Republican Party, then I think Nikki is a great candidate for you. Like if you are someone who is against Trump for rhetorical reasons and on policy grounds, she's as good as it gets, right?

Whenever it comes to a return to like 2004, to the Bush era, that's as she basically embodies that in a candidate. It totally makes sense to me that she is coalescing as the anti-Trump candidate specifically with DeSantis like in this very odd middle. Part of the reason why I think his candidacy doesn't truly have a lot of strength to it, because there's not as much of a coherent case. So the top one or the top two slot, it makes sense to me. I mean, yeah, I don't know. Well, let me just react to that. First of all, the poll they did was only

DeSantis and Nikki Haley. They just wanted to see like who was the top contender of those two, because they've kind of separated themselves a little bit from the rest of the pack. So it's like, all right, who's the top Trump alternative? And I feel like Nikki's performance was—I'm putting substance aside. We're just talking about theatrics and optics here and whatever. It was very uneven. Yeah. I mean, even, like, her comeback about the heels, you're like, wait, what?

What does that even mean? And it was all a little bit like that. There's another moment. She clearly, I mean, she detests Vivek Ramaswamy. I think she has taken it like the Amy versus Pete level animosity. I do believe she has taken it to a whole other level. And so there's other moment where they're going back and forth about TikTok. And Vivek was trying to call her a hypocrite because her daughter's on TikTok.

Which is, we can talk about that. I think it's a good point. I do think it's a reasonable point, actually. I think it's a reasonable point. about TikTok and Vivek was trying to call her a hypocrite because her daughter's on TikTok and she which is we can talk about that I think it's a good point I think it's a reasonable point anyway but on the other hand I can understand

as a mother why you're reacting to your daughter being brought into this debate but she said this thing keep my daughter's name out of your voice yeah so I think

she was trying to go for that viral keep my out of your mouth yeah and so that's kind of like typifies her whole thing was a little uneven a little messy not really sticking the landing and then it also felt kind of tired because a lot of the same talking points that had worked for her

previously especially on abortion she was rolling them all out again um so she didn't come across particularly well in this debate and i mean to the extent that it matters at all, there was a chance she's had a lot of donor interest, a lot of media interest before her. There was a chance she could really eclipse DeSantis as the top Trump alternative. And I think this debate makes it harder for her to be able to do that. I think Ron hangs on by his fingertips to his number two slot that he typically has in most of the polls. And so, you know, from that perspective, I guess it maybe matters. But yeah, Ron DeSantis lives to fight another day as the top Trump alternative. Nikki Haley probably stays more or less static and the race just basically stays where it is,

which is great for Trump. Yeah, absolutely. It's great for Trump. When we were talking about speaking time and all of that, this is one of those, it's a good metric sometimes. Let's go and put this up there on the screen in terms of who spoke the most. So Tim Scott clocked in at 18 minutes and 55 seconds. I was telling you before, it only makes sense to me

because he takes so goddamn long to finish a sentence. And because the moderators you were saying actually have a soft spot for him and we're allowing him to talk over. Now, Haley Ramaswamy, that tracks completely. You got 1750 and 17 minutes and 27 seconds. Those two, because they were battling it out and they were both trying to lob attacks, not only at each other, but at DeSantis, it makes sense. DeSantis coming in at 1636, again, I don't think he came through scathed. I don't think he came through unscathed. I don't know.

It's just the entire thing, again, it just seems like a little bit farcical whenever you have Trump, who was doing a rally in Hialeah in Florida, which was dominating in terms of actual enthusiasm with Republicans. Chris Christie, the fifth man on the stage, got 16 minutes and 15 seconds. I don't think anybody had a particularly breakthrough moment. I don't think anybody had a particularly great moment or any of that. Let's go to the next one, please, here on the screen. Here you could see the actual subjects that were discussed. There was abortion, economy, Ukraine, fentanyl in China. This doesn't make 100% sense because they didn't combine Israel with the anti-Semitism conversation. There was a decent amount. But I thought this one was a useful one.

Who was attacked the most? And it was Nikki Haley, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy. Almost really, almost as a tie in terms of the attacks with Haley slightly edging them out. Nobody had the, what, just wanted to waste the time of attacking Tim Scott and Chris Christie.

I do gotta say, and I'm curious what you think. I think Christie is the biggest disappointment of this whole cycle. I totally agree. He's had three moments to redo his 2016 magic. What happened to this guy? You know what I mean? He had like some vigor back in the day. I was thinking about this last night too.

I was like, where did that right hand come from? Where did it go, man? Did he get old? Like, what is it? Yeah, because I thought he'd be something on the debate stage, you know, of all of them. I have always respected his political talent. And the other thing that's weird to me is not only did he have some of those moments in 2016, but he also has had some of those moments in this campaign, not on the debate stage. You know, he'll like go on Newsmax and fight with Eric Bolling,

or he just had that, I was talking about earlier, speaking to a Republican group and like jousting with the audience about Trump's electability and telling them, listen, you may not want to hear it, but this is reality. And it's, again, I don't think it would like elevate him in terms of his polling, but it's at least an interesting moment. He's just so flat in these debates and I don't really understand it. I don't know where his feistiness, you know, back in New Jersey, he came to prominence. Republicans fell in love with him because he'd do these town halls and like fight with union teachers and stuff. And that was his whole thing. So I don't know what happened there. It was interesting to me on that graphic we had about who was taking the most

attacks. Vivek was definitely like number one or close to number one in all three debates. He was the one who was most consistently the center of attention throughout all of these debates. And, you know, the first time we really felt like, oh, this is going to be good for him because he's in there. He's mixing it up. He's unafraid. He'sraid, he's really fearless and forceful and grabbing everybody's attention. But he didn't wear well with voters. I actually, I mean, it's kind of awkward to ask him about, but I actually do want to kind of ask him about this when we have him on today. So now when I see him again, the center of attention,

and this like really nasty back and forth between him and Nikki Haley, where she called him scum and the moderators didn't even give him a chance to respond to that. I don't know, maybe they didn't hear it because it was a little bit offhand. But that was the other thing I noticed in the speaking time is the moderators really seem to favor Tim Scott and Nikki Haley. And they were always looking for a way to like, Nikki, do you want to respond to what was said about you? But then when she literally calls Vivek scum, which is, that's another level of nasty. That's like Trump level of nastiness, you know? And then they, there's no like, hey, Vivek, you want to say anything to that? So anyway, my big takeaway is you've got all of these second rate politicians, sorry, tearing each other to shreds in a debate

that is diminishing for all of them, it can only benefit Trump. It can only benefit. Like there is only one person who could, no matter really what happened in that debate, there was only one person who could win it. So at this point, it's hard to say anything other than it was a loss for everybody on that stage.

You know, they all, I don't even think any of them are jockeying really for vice president at this point. I don't even know if any of them are really jockeying for an administration position at this point. I don't even know what the point of these things are really, given that Trump was absent. He wasn't mentioned. They're not really taking that many shots at him. And so it just seems kind of pointless waste of time. Yeah, unfortunately, I think you're probably right, although it should be different. Trump did have a rally, as I mentioned in Hialeah. Am I saying

that correctly? Probably not. The Floridians can get mad at me. I don't know. Sounds good to me. Hialeah, Hialeah, whatever the hell it is, whatever you guys call it down there. He had a rally. Sarah Sanders was there, the current governor of Arkansas, his former press secretary. She endorsed him fully on the stage. Here's what happened. Biden and the left have failed over and over again, and they know it and you know it, and it is time for a change. That is why tonight I am so proud to endorse my former boss, my friend, and everybody's favorite president, Donald J. Trump. Sarah Sanders back at the podium where I remember her just to endorse Trump,

although she's got some other podium issues. You and I were talking a little bit about that. Yeah, there's a whole podium scandal unfolding in Arkansas. If it ever elevates to the national level, maybe we'll talk about it. The details aren't genuinely kind of funny. The issue, I think, here is DeSantis, he had this big endorsement come in into this debate, which we didn't even really mention. He got the freaking Iowa governor to endorse him. I mean, once upon a time, that was it. You're done.

You're going to win the Iowa caucuses. I mean, that's awesome. In the Trump era, it barely rates, especially with Israel-Palestine. And the reason why this was significant is Sanders, even though she worked for him, behind the scenes, Trump has been on her for a long time. He's like, you need to endorse me. You need to endorse me. She wasn't doing it. She was holding out because maybe she was going to endorse DeSantis.

I mean, they're part of the RGA, the Republican Governors Association. They've probably gotten to know each other, all that stuff. And, you know, she's a younger person, too. And even though she worked for him, maybe she wanted to see where the party goes. The fact that she's willing to endorse him on the stage in Florida, DeSantis' home state, I mean, that's the biggest middle finger you got, right? Like, in terms of saying who I'm with and what I'm doing. So they did it for a reason, just to roll it out. They did it in the same state, same home state for these two men.

And guess who had a ton of people there chanting his name? At one point, even in the debate stage, they were chanting Trump. That's how potent this man is. Wow. Yeah, that's how he is. That is wild. Yeah, I mean, it is interesting. You might think, if you're just watching on the surface level, like, oh, of course, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Like, she worked for him. Of course she's going to endorse him. But there's a reason why she held out this long. As you said, through the RGA. Also, I mean, Asa Hutchinson, who she has to know well, you know, for the state of Arkansas, was running as well. And so maybe out of a little bit of respect for him, she held back. So it's it is one of those you take note because you can just see everyone now is accepting. All right. This is inevitable. I better make my peace with it.

I better like get in good with this political machine because this man might be president of the United States again. So let me go ahead and jump on board while this is still, while that's still possible to do, which is part of why it was surprising actually that Kim Reynolds, the governor of Iowa, decided to endorse DeSantis now because it's so clear he's going to lose. It's like, maybe this, maybe it would have helped him or at least give him a positive news cycle early on. Now the writing is so on the wall, there's no drama around this whatsoever. I think it's an abortion thing, actually. I think she probably took it very personally. As I understand it, she's quite religious. There's a lot of religious right people. So it's very ideological for her. Yeah. So basically Trump attacked her and DeSantis, right, for signing the similar bill,

the six-week bill. What did he call it? Cruel or something like that. Yeah. And so I think, you know, just reading the tea leaves based upon people I've spoken to and stuff, that a lot of it is ideological in terms of where her base of support comes from. I think, you know, just reading the tea leaves based upon people I've spoken to and stuff, that a lot of it is ideological in terms of where her base of support comes from. I mean, Iowa's not a MAGA state in terms of its traditional Republican coalition. People there like Trump, but they've been Republicans there for a long time. They, you know, they voted for Michelle, or no, so for Rick Santorum. Yeah.

And at one point, Bachman was leading. Was doing well there. So that type of candidate and all that. Huckabee. Exactly. Also did well there. Yeah, so I think that's right. Yeah. I just, you know, there is, I guess, the biggest surprise of both the Democratic and the Republican primaries is there really is no surprise. There's very little drama. Things can change. You never know. Anything can happen. One

of these dudes, look, they're both old. You never know if their health is going to hold on or whatever. Right. Who knows? But at this point, it looks like most of the drama is going to come in the general election. And that's something we've been talking a lot about is the fact that RFK continues to poll, you know, that New York Times poll. Ryan and Emily covered it yesterday that we noted. We started pulling out the crosstabs and going, wait a second, they did pull RFK. And he is beating them among young voters in all of these swing states. He's clocking, what was it, 24% overall in these swing states. I mean, that is a massive percentage. So there is going to be a lot of drama and intrigue going into the general election. I just don't know if we're going to have any real drama or

suspense around who the major party nominees are. No, I think you're right. And you've actually, you were the first person to flag it around RFK. And I think it's a huge story. This is only a personal anecdote, but I posted, you know, whatever, the tweet on Instagram, and I was like, oh, this is just interesting. It's one of the most viral things I've posted in a long time. And look, it's a small sample size, but I was just like, oh. But it's not the only one that's showing that. Exactly. It's just like, oh, interesting. In terms of the support, like all the people sharing it, being RFK, and I had all these RFK people who were sharing it on there. It got thousands and thousands of shares. Again, I have a good sense sometimes of like what the media is not covering and then what is like a real organic phenomenon.

And I'm telling you, I think that man's support is very real. And without fail, almost none of it has to do with vaccines or any of this other stuff. It's I hate, hate Joe Biden, Donald Trump. I am doing this purely as a support to say, screw you, to the both party system, to the GOP and the democratic establishment. And he's a Kennedy. It's like every single time and without fail. And I think that, and then also if you combine some of this hardcore support around the vaccine issue and all that, I mean, these are some of those organized people on the planet. So you put that together, like real organized, diehard folks with this sentiment, which is probably the most widespread one in the country, 70%, 80%, 90% of people can say they're not satisfied with the current system.

And I think you're really signing yourself up for a big story. So we'll continue to watch it. And we're guessing about who his base is. And that a lot of it has to do with just discussing with these two candidates and his name is Kennedy, right? And doesn't go a lot deeper than that. Although there is certainly a group of people for whom they know everything about him and they are, you know, affirmatively on board with everything he stands for. But I think the level of his support mostly comes from that just like, he's a Kennedy, I like the name and screw these two guys. But I think the level of his support mostly comes from that just like,

he's a Kennedy, I like the name and screw these two guys. But we don't really know that. And so I really want to talk to some of his supporters and hear from them directly about what it is that they see in him and also see how solid that support is. Because that's the other big question with the third party candidate. Typically, the polls really fall off for them as you get closer to election day and people kind of realize like, all right, it's really going to be one of these two dudes. So let me just suck it up and pick them or stay home or whatever. A lot of his support comes from people who don't vote a lot. So are they as committed to him, you know, sufficiently committed to him to actually show up? There's a lot of questions about what's going on, none of which has been explored in the press at this point. So that's something we're definitely going to continue to dig into as things progress.

And he could very, even if he doesn't get 20% of the vote, if he gets 10%, that still could be the deciding factor. Yes, absolutely. Depending on who he takes from and how this all shakes out. So anyway, something to continue to watch. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast hell and gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder.

I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her. And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and

private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We have our eye on what is unfolding in Gaza with Israel's war on Gaza, as we brought you previously. So the one thing that Biden has said kind of consistently from the beginning is it would be a, quote, big mistake if Israel was to reoccupy Gaza after this war.

We brought you earlier in the week that Netanyahu went on one of the Sunday shows here in America and said, we will occupy Gaza. We will likely occupy Gaza indefinitely until we figure out the security situation. That seems to have caused a shift in the way that the administration is framing their recommendations here and their expectations for Gaza. So this is, I'm going to play you a response from John Kirby, who's the NSC spokesperson. And also then on the other side of that, we have Netanyahu's original comments, just for reference. Let's take a listen. The Secretary of State in his comments today also referred to a transition period after this conflict. Could you expand

on that and explain what does a transition period look like to this administration? I think he was referring to this idea that, and it came up yesterday, where Prime Minister Netanyahu talked about an indefinite period where they would be on the ground. I think he was referring to the idea, the fact that in the immediate aftermath of conflict, it's certainly plausible that for at least some period of time, Israeli defense forces are still going to be in Gaza to manage the immediate aftermath and the security situation. But that nothing's changed about our view that that shouldn't be the long-term solution, that it shouldn't be about an IDF reoccupation of Gaza as a long-term governance solution. Who should govern Gaza

when this is over? Those who don't want to continue the way of Hamas, it certainly is not. I think Israel will, for an indefinite period, will have the overall security responsibility because we've seen what happens when we don't have it. When we don't have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn't imagine. So you can see the shift there, Sagar. Originally, it was this would be a big mistake. Reoccupation would be a big mistake. To now John Kirby going, well, I mean, for some period of time, maybe, yeah, we actually are okay with it. Getting flashbacks to the Coalitional Provisional Authority. And we were only supposed to be there

for a year or so. Rumsfeld said we were going to get out. L. Paul Bremer is going to roll in. He worked for Kissinger. What could go wrong, right? He was one of the best, the best and the brightest. Oh, it only took 20 years or so, and we're still dealing with the problems that were there. So, yeah, it's all happening.

It's all happening again. And even if you listen to the words very carefully of Anthony Blinken around what he says here, they are leaving themselves a lot of room for what occupation is. They can't have occupation, but then they said they might have some occupation. And he had some comments here that were at the G7. Let's take a listen to that. The only way to ensure that this crisis never happens again is to begin setting the conditions for durable peace and security and to frame our diplomatic efforts now with that in mind. The United States believes key elements should include no forcible displacement of Palestinians

from Gaza – not now, not after the war. No use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism or other violent attacks. No reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends. No attempt to blockade or besiege Gaza. No reduction in the territory of Gaza. We must also ensure no terrorist threats can emanate from the West Bank. We must also work on the affirmative elements to get to a sustained peace. These must include the Palestinian people's voices and aspirations at the center of post-crisis governance in Gaza. It must include Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.

And it must include a sustained mechanism for reconstruction in Gaza and a pathway to Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in states of their own with equal measures. So the U.S. government previously saying, you know, no red lines in terms of what Israel can do, that's really the messaging that matters here. Now he's trying to say, oh, we don't want any forcible displacement. Not now, not after the war. You can look at the videos yourself. Forcible displacement of probably more than a million people has already happened.

So too late for that one. No use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism. Of course, everyone supports that. No reoccupation of Gaza. Okay, well, maybe respond to what Mr. Netanyahu just said. No attempt to blockade or besiege Gaza. Also, I don't know where you've been, buddy, about what reality in Gaza has looked like for quite a long time. So in any case, to me, this shows just, again, Sagar, the level of weakness from the U.S. as long as there is no willingness to use the leverage that we have at our disposal

in terms of the huge amount of aid that we have provided to Israel and are continuing to provide to Israel and the $14 billion that we're planning to send. These all constitute effectively empty words, and the Netanyahu government has already shown they're going to do whatever it is that they want. The real problem I'm beginning to see is, to compare this, you know, there's gonna be a lot of Iraq analogy, sorry, the most recent Middle Eastern occupation around this Ahmed Chalabi type gambit. They're like, we're going to put the Palestinian Authority in charge. The Palestinian Authority has barely any legitimacy left in the West Bank, let alone in Gaza. I mean, people have now lived apart for 17 years. Also, these people

are old as hell. They're viewed as corrupt and in the pocket of the West because they have no legitimacy. Now, look, maybe they could have something if they were put in some sort of quasi government and they could affirmatively deliver on a two-state solution. But I mean, come on, who actually believes that that is going to happen? So then who's going to have actual governing authority? And look at what's happening right now in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority is viewed as impotent and weak because they can't keep their own people safe from Israeli settlers. So can the Netanyahu government with a straight face claim there'll be no settlers at all inside of Gaza? At the same time, I mean, what about Israeli

soldiers? Think about the incendiary nature of that one, two years, three years out of providing the security situation on the streets and them trying to claim that they are legitimate. That is why the Iraqis turned against the people that we put in charge in the first place, because they were viewed as a tool of the West and not able to stand up to us and not looking out for their best interests or their security. So I mean, I just see this is a nightmare situation. And part of the problem too is if we install the PA with international authority and all of this, and the population turns against them, the exact same thing that happened in Iraq is going to happen. We're going to see a full-blown sectarian war like we did in 2005, the war between Fatah and

Hamas. We're going to see it times 50 at this point because Iran and all the other proxies are going to back up Hamas to try and regain control of the government. The Israelis are going to get caught in the middle of it if they're doing the security situation. And worse, they want us to come in and occupy Gaza. Don't forget that little plan. American peacekeepers and French keepers. Our guys getting blown up in the middle of all this. So I say hell no to this whole plan.

This is part of the problem. You know, this is regime change. Like, let's just all be honest about it. This is straight up regime change. And I hate the regime in Gaza too. Don't get me wrong. But if you're going to go in, you're going to roll them. You better have a good plan for day two. And I don't see one right now. Let's say, and you all know I think this is magical thinking, let's say you're able to eradicate Hamas, whatever that even actually means. What kind of a political group do you think is going to organically rise to power in Gaza, given the blockade, given the fact that something like a

third of northern Gaza has already been destroyed, given the radicalization, the increased radicalization that is going on with the brutality of the Israeli response? What sort of political project do you think is going to have appeal and legitimacy in such a situation, given what these people have suffered through? So that's number one. Number two, on the Palestinian Authority, I mean, it's not just that they're seen as in the pocket of the West. That's real. That perception is real because they cooperate with the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank. And, you know, it's commonly accepted within the West Bank that actually when you see the Palestinian Authority, their police officers pull back, you better run and hide because that means they're basically making way for the IDF to come through in some sort of a

raid. That's the level of cooperation and collaboration that is ongoing there. And you have, you know, I mean, you've had over, I think, 150 people in the West Bank killed since October 7th. And that is indicative of the way that the PA doesn't do anything to keep them safe. So they feel completely on their own. So yeah, the PA has no legitimacy in the West Bank. It has no legitimacy in Gaza. And the idea that you're going to somehow, the US and Israel are going to bestow them with legitimacy to the Palestinian people, like give me a break. It makes no sense, which is exactly why, you know, I think it's so likely that Israel is going to continue to try to pursue what has been laid out in that, you know,

Israeli government memo of what we really want is to push them all, all of the Palestinians out of Gaza into Egypt and, and make that the only possibility that will really work and force it on Egypt and force it on the U S and it may seem like a long shot now, and maybe it doesn't ultimately happen, but we already know from from reporting that's what they're actually pushing behind the scenes. And you can, you know, like, that's part of the Netanyahu's Likud party and his right-wing coalitional partners. That has been part of their longtime goals. So it's no surprise that that's what they would be pushing for. But it also, when you have the impossibility and impracticality of every other possible situation and a Gaza that, you know,

the parking lot meme is coming to fruition, they're going to say, well, what else can we do? What else is possible? I don't know. I listen in terms of at least pushing them out. That means war. The Egyptians already told us that. And so we should listen to them. They take this stuff very serious. And the people inside Gaza are going to take it seriously too. If it becomes a fight, right now it's a fight with Hamas. If it becomes a fight for being able to stay, well, I think a lot of those people are going to take up arms. Again, it's the exact same thing. Playbook in Iraq, it's not difficult to see it. It literally happened in all of our living memory. In fact, Netanyahu encouraged us to go into Iraq. He said we would be greeted, you know, with open arms. And he got to see firsthand how all that worked out. Anyway, maybe you should listen.

I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts binge episodes one two and three on may 21st and episodes four five and six on june 4th ad free at lava for good plus on apple podcasts i'm clayton english i'm greg glad and this is

season two of the war on drugs podcast we are back, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her.

And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister.

There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So as we've been discussing, you know, the Israeli ground offensive is proceeding apace. What we can tell is that they're, you know, really working their way into Gaza City and sort of encircling that city.

Obviously, first of all, a lot of journalists have been killed in Gaza who live there. So very hard to get reports out from the ground. They've had these communications blackouts. Foreign journalists are only allowed in with the express permission of the IDF. And security review their footage. Security review. But yeah, before anything gets posted, the Israeli military gets to take a look and decide what is allowed in and what is allowed out. However, there was a report that came out that seemed pretty solid from Channel 4 News, just to give you a sense of what it even looks like in Gaza now. Like inside the city. Yeah, inside Gaza City. And it is pretty stunning to behold. Let's take a look at a little bit of that.

The war-ravaged outskirts of embattled Gaza City. An apocalyptic landscape now firmly under the control of Israeli soldiers. We're here with members of Infantry Division 828. The most intense fighting of this bloody conflict is beginning now in the heart of this city. Under the watch of Israeli soldiers, desperate Gazan civilians, whole families, some holding white flags, are fleeing their homes for the south. One man drags an elderly woman along in a chair. Soldiers call out in Hebrew in case some of the 240 Israeli hostages are being smuggled out too. Footage filmed on the Salahuddin road by Palestinian journalists gives you a true sense of scale.

There are young, there are old, clutching whatever's left of their lives. Across Gaza, one and a half million people, three quarters of the population, have been displaced from their homes. This is the hell they're running from. Fleeing south is no guarantee of safety. This, a hospital in Khan Yunis, where many have fled to. So three quarters of the population already displaced. And you can see there, I mean, the city is a rubble. Like, so much of it has already been destroyed. Of course these people think they're

never going to be able to go home. For many of them, there is no more home there to go back to. It's rubble. It's destroyed. So, I mean, that's just a little glimpse of the horror that is unfolding for more than two million people who are there on the ground. Yeah. So he actually clarified also. He actually said, while we are clear, our report was not censored or subject even to editorial approval. We would never agree to that. Only the pictures from the military visits were subject to the point where it's becoming very clear that we are entering the next phase of the campaign. Because as you guys could see there, prior to this, it's just bombing and tanks. We're rolling, we're isolating, we're getting, making sure, we're cutting off, we're trying to get as many civilians out. Now, these guys were out on the ground. You saw how they're outside. They're all doing security. They're forming a perimeter around that rubble. They're trying to see if there's a stronghold in there. And there's a bunch of tunnels

that are underneath. Now we're getting into the hand-to-hand combat. And now we need to start looking at the casualty numbers very closely because this is when IDF casualties, if they ever were, are going to start spiking. Now, we're about to play you a video. We're going to play some of this. And let's be very clear. This was straight up released by Hamas. This is not an endorsement or any of that. Because we lack journalistic footage, this is the footage they are putting out of their fighters engaged in hand-to-hand combat or in small arms fire, RPGs, and all these other things, trying to take out Israeli tanks just to give people a sense of what the actual battle looks like. We just saw it from the Israeli side. We're playing it here. You can see here, you've got Israeli tanks that are in the middle of the city. This is all being zoomed in. ISIS

used to edit and their stuff all like this. Part of the reason is that they try to cut only the, you know, the most exciting parts, quote unquote, where was heroic looking. Yeah, heroic looking. And they also edited, it's funny, just watching this, getting total flashbacks to ISIS. ISIS also used to cut it this way in order to entice younger guys to come and join them and try to make it look as much as Call of Duty as possible. And that's basically what they're doing here. But you can see they're zooming in,

they're highlighting tanks, they're showing them, you know, trying to take them out. Nobody knows whether how many have been taken out or not. You could see they're inflicting some damage, but like who knows, you know, how much. These are pretty well-armored and well-supplied in terms of the Israeli military. The only point being that we're now at that turning point where we're going to start to see a lot more casualties, both on the Hamas side and on the Israeli side, where when you've got to come in, you've got to clear rubble. When you're rolling tanks down the street and you're coming into, you know, you've got 2P huge things of rubble here and you've got all these positions where somebody can take a shot

at you. And then maybe you've got guys outside of the tank or behind you and all that. This is World War II. We saw this type of combat, Stalingrad, you know, Mosul, so many of these different places. And this is where I think things can start to get really gnarly, especially when you consider that you've got this massive 300-mile tunnel network, which is underneath that. So the Israelis still have not released a lot of the data. And I think one of the reasons they're keeping such a tight control is I think some of the battles that are happening on the ground there,

which we're not able to see, are vicious, brutal stuff is happening there between these fighters and between the Israelis. Yeah. I mean, it's easy for a modern military like Israel to go in and carpet bomb. It's easy to roll in with tanks. And even when tanks are fired on, like, they are so well armored that it's very difficult to, you know, it's very difficult to take out one of these tanks, especially given the types of weapons that Hamas has access to. So, you know, all of those things, you're unlikely to take significant casualties. It's when you actually have to get out and do this sort of like direct hand-to-hand combat that things really change. There was one piece that, you know, really caught my attention with regards to the hostages that Hamas is still holding here. Put this up on the screen from the New York Times.

It shows you that there is a real tension between the Israeli ground offensive and the goal of bringing these hostages back safe and sound. So apparently, according to this reporting, Israel and Hamas actually almost had a deal to free roughly 50 hostages. This was focused on the civilian hostages. A number of the hostages are also Israeli military. Indirect talks mediated by Qatar snagged after Israel's ground invasion of Gaza on October 27th. They have resumed, but hopes for a quick release have faded. So effectively,

they, according to this report, were very close to securing this deal for the release of 50 hostages. But when they started in earnest the ground offensive on October 7th, then it was like, all right, well, the deal's off. You have a statement here from Israel's defense minister in response to this report. Yoav Galant says there will be no pause without the return of hostages and missing persons. The only way of saving the hostages is if Israel continues its ground operation. You know, that's what they want to say to try to erase what is a very clear tension between the goal of getting these hostages back safe and sound and the goal of just like destruction of Gaza City. There's another piece here, though, Sagar, that really jumped down at me, which it's incredible to me that this isn't more of a subject of reporting,

but somewhere buried like the eighth paragraph of this report, they say so far the negotiations have only focused on releasing civilian hostages, according to these officials, as I was just saying. The Israeli soldiers held in Gaza may eventually be part of a separate track of negotiations, possibly to be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian women and minors who are held without charge in Israeli prisons. And it's astonishing to me that, first of all, I don't know how they're not called hostages when they're women and minors who are held without charge in Israeli prisons, and how this isn't a subject of more conversation that this is going on on the Israeli side. So they're saying potentially some future deal may trade the

Israeli soldiers for these women and children who are being held by the hundreds without charges in Israeli prisons. Yeah, we don't even know much about them. There's some speculation they might have been guest workers, people who were coming across. Of course, the Israelis are claiming that they were involved in October 7th, so who knows? But yes, you are right. And part of the reason why that they're separating off those IDF soldiers is that Israeli society, and I think even the rules of war and others, are very distinguishing between people who are straight-up civilians and people in uniform. I'm not justifying them taking hostage, but POW is a very different status. Internationally protected, Red Cross, all of that. I don't know if Hamas is abiding by all of those.

By the way, I hope that they are. They probably are not. But even in terms of negotiation at the Israeli government, they're looking at it differently. Let's go to the next part here, just because this is also important. And I thought the Financial Times has been doing really good work here. We can put up their piece exactly about the military briefing and the battle for Gaza City, highlighting some of the things that I was talking about. Exactly, as you can see in their map for those who are watching, you can see where the damaged areas are the most, and you can also see where the damaged areas are viewed so that there is a total circle around Gaza City.

The problem for Gaza City and for where a lot of those tunnels are is that they have not actually inflicted all that much damage outside of the outskirts. So inside the city where the majority not only of the population was, but also where the tunnel network, the main infrastructure and all that, it appears they might have held off, Crystal, because there's hostages there. They might have held off for, who knows, a variety of reasons. But that's where a lot of the battle is about to be going into. And they quote some military experts here in the story, and they say the IDF is getting dragged into urban fighting in a packed, dense city below that you have these tunnel systems that proffer every advantage

to defense. They are going to encounter layers upon layers of complexity. It is very tough, and they have not even started. They point to the fact that this really is a reversion now to straight-up guerrilla warfare urban tactics, quote unquote. Back to Guerrilla 101. You've got hostages. You've got these 240 people. RPGs are one of the weapons that they're going to have to contend the most with.

It's something that Hamas has an untold amount that they've been able to supply themselves and stockpile over the years. And really what they say is, this is the preview, infantry will be required to leave their armored vehicles, maintain roadblocks, trying to protect themselves from Hamas. The Financial Times has reported last week, dozens of buildings have already been destroyed

by airstrikes. Hamas has been denied using some of their staging areas and all of that by the Israelis, at least so far. But enough of the infrastructure remains that it's going to be a hellish fight. They also point, Crystal, exactly to what you were talking about with those tanks and where they have some particular vulnerability to RPGs and where the Hamas fighters will be aiming towards. So if you want like a real, just straight up like military tactical briefing, I do recommend reading this. It does point out some of the IDF advantages. They've got drones, they've got air power, obviously, they have

artillery, but a lot of that starts to go away whenever you get real close, you get close enough to your enemy that you can actually see them. And that's unfortunately where I think we're headed right now. They have a little bit of the military strategy here that Israel plans to employ to try to limit their casualties. They say their aim bit of the military strategy here that Israel plans to employ to try to limit their casualties. They say their aim will not be to fight street by street as U.S.-led forces did in Fallujah during the second Iraq war. Instead, its plan is to clear up pockets of territory, use them as bases for urban raids. Results will be a series of small battles and skirmishes for different sections of the territory. They go on and say the aim for each raid is to

gather fresh intelligence on Hamas and its military infrastructure. Israeli forces will then withdraw and call in airstrikes. Then those will lead to more raids in an iterative process. I also thought this was interesting, eyebrow raising. The Israeli military has shifted the focus away from targeting the high-ranking Hamas planners behind October 7th to include mid-level field lieutenants leading the fight against Israeli troops. They say this would significantly undermine Hamas's capabilities to carry out counterattacks. So I thought that was kind of interesting. Yeah, anyway, yeah, I agree. We are going to continue to see some of this evolve. And I think some of the tactical analysis and all that going in is a preview of how some of the worst

has still yet to come. Especially, you know, the Israelis really need to start girding themselves for this death toll, it's gonna start to go up. There's just no way around it if you're gonna go ahead and fight this way. Yeah, and to bring it back around to the hostage piece, like these hostages are,

many of them likely held in Gaza City and very much at risk. Yeah. So there's also, you know, much of the Israeli population. Yeah, they've got to fight with that consideration too. Yeah, and I'm just talking about the polls that we've seen coming out of Israel. There's very little concern for Palestinian civilian life coming out of the Israeli public at this point. There is a lot of concern for the hostages and bringing them back safe and sound.

So, you know, if you have a lot of hostages who are also, you know, quote unquote, collateral damage in this fighting, and you already see that they, you know, they sort of blew up a hostage deal that they had in hand to move forward with this ground offensive, that can also be very difficult politically for Netanyahu within his own populace. Yes, that's right. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute season one, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is.

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder.

I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her. And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is my husband, I had to call case. They've never found her. And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case,

bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder

Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's move on to a little bit of the reaction to Tuesday's election night results. Just as a brief recap, I mean, basically Democrats kind of romped everywhere. They were able to hold on to the state Senate in Virginia and also win the House of Delegates in Virginia. You know, the pro-choice position on that abortion ballot initiative in Ohio succeeded. The legalizing weed in Ohio also succeeded by a large margin, my friend. Enjoy the smell. In Kentucky, Andy Beshear, who is Democratic governor, he is an incumbent by many metrics, the most popular Democratic governor in the entire country, defeated by a pretty sizable margin. Daniel Cameron, who was a Mitch sizable margin, Daniel Cameron,

who was a Mitch McConnell acolyte and the current attorney general. So that was a big win. And there were some others around the country, Pennsylvania state Supreme Court seat as well. But in general, just over big picture, big night for Democrats, in spite of, of course, people feeling bad about the economy and really not being super psyched about Joe Biden. So that is the context in which Republicans had to come in and try to make sense of these results, come up with some reason why this happened and explain away what was once again a bad and very disappointing night for them. Let's start with, we've got Rick Santorum here on Newsmax giving his assessment of the problems with this election night result. Let's take a listen to that.

You put very sexy things like abortion and marijuana on the ballot and a lot of young people come out and vote. It was a secret sauce for disaster in Ohio. I don't know what they were thinking, but that's why I thank goodness that most of the states in this country don't allow you to put everything on the ballot because pure democracies are not the way to run a country. But Democrats are trying to scare women into thinking Republicans don't want abortion legal under any circumstances. So we've also got Hannity there, Democrats trying to scare people into thinking Republicans are against abortion under any circumstances. Well, it's really in the Republican Party platform, so it's not without any justification. And of course, Democrats are going to do what they can because this issue has proven to be very potent.

But I really enjoyed Rick Santorum there. First of all, his framing of abortion as being a very sexy thing on the ballot was entertaining to me. But the big piece there was him being very upset about voters having a direct say, which goes counter to the Republican narrative over many years in favor of overturning Roe versus Wade. The line was always, let's return it to the states. Let's let voters decide what they think the rules should be. And now that voters in every single ballot initiative that has had to do with abortion, voters have chosen the pro-choice side. Now that that has happened, suddenly they're not so keen on voters deciding anymore. It's so foolish.

Yeah, I mean, by the way, I actually agree with a lot of the states. I've been like, yeah, that's great. Okay, let people decide if they want to. And it was always obvious, has been from day one, that's a dramatically unpopular position in all but maybe six states in the entire country. The rest of it really relies on state legislature control. And I think over time, the vast majority of red states will the current political process, referendums and others in order to enshrine, like in the case of Ohio, a literal constitutional right to be able to have an abortion. And I mean, my personal favorite, I think, on all of this is all of the pro-life activists just grappling with the fact that this is so dramatically unpopular and bad for Republicans

that they have to come up with scapegoats. This is my personal favorite example. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. Matt Walsh. He says, before you tell me the pro-life message is a political loser, answer me this. How many Republican candidates fought back hard and effectively on the issue, actively went after the left, ran ads attacking their opponent for supporting the dismemberment of fully developed infants, and actually countered the left's pro ads attacking their opponent for supporting the dismemberment of fully developed infants, and actually countered the left's pro-abortion narrative

with a strong and affirmative pro-life narrative. It seems to me the pro-life message is being blamed in races where the pro-life message was never even articulated. I am calling this real pro-life has never been tried, as we would accurately make fun

of some of the annoying communists that you meet when you're like 19 years old. And yeah, that's what this is. It's like, no, dude, it turns out that when the vast majority, and this is a big structural problem, the majority of the GOP commentariat and professional class is dramatically more Catholic and evangelical in a capital R, like religious sense than the average Republican voter. Now, listen, a lot of Republican voters are religious. Don't get me wrong. A lot of them do go to church, but a full one third of the people who voted for Trump are straight up pro-choice. And actually the Trump coalition itself is built on the backs of secular, non-college educated whites who are not religious,

who explicitly don't give a shit about gay marriage and on abortion. They're like, yeah, it's icky. Uh, but you know, if you force me to choose, I'm going to go ahead and choose the pro choice side. So it's not that, you know, even this, uh, 15 week thing, I keep saying everyone, these people remind me of defund the police activists. It's like, well, if you parse the polling, the majority of people support 15-week. And I'm like, hey man, you lose on the 15-week convo because the fact that you're even talking about abortion and you're on the side of some people who genuinely do want to ban it, you're done. That's a coalitional problem at a very basic level. The other side just wants to return to the status quo. That's it. Now, yeah, you might be right. In California or blue states

or whatever, they've got different abortion laws. But like in Virginia, we're not talking about California. We're talking about Virginia. In Virginia, you've got a blue state already, a Biden plus eight or whatever. Everybody trying to parse all of this, oh, maybe a 15-week ban or any of that. And you're always pointing this out, and I think you're right. The 15-week ban has become less popular since the whole Roe versus Wade was struck down. Because people just, when you're trying to change the consensus, people don't want that. And if anything, really what I think the pro-life people are going to find out is we're going to end up with more legal abortion enshrined in law post-Roe than we

probably did pre-Roe. So, I mean, congratulations, I guess. It's certainly returning to the democratic process. This is certainly the first time the pro-choice side has really been on offense and consistently winning in quite a long time. I mean, most of the story of my political adulthood has been more and more abortion rights being rolled back state after state after state. And now this is the first time things are really going in the opposite direction to the point on 15 weeks and Virginia and Matt Walsh being like, oh, you need to lean into it harder. That was Glenn Youngkin's plan. He tried. He tried. Like his PAC was pushing it. They were pushing their candidates to lean into this 15 week abortion message, thinking like, okay, this is – we've done the polling. We've done the focus grouping.

This is the place where we might be able to find a consensus, so let's just lean into it and actually talk about abortion, not be afraid of it, et cetera, et cetera. But the thing is when you've got a party that, again, their national platform says we want to get rid of abortion, And you have these Republican legislators who are like, oh, I want restrictions, but that's it. No further than, I promise, pinky promise, no further than 15 weeks. Like voters, of course, are not really going to believe you. And so I think, you know, the Virginia one, I don't want to overread it as being 100% about abortion because I don't think that it is. I think it's also just somewhat of a reversion to the mean of where Virginia is. Virginia is dominated by the Northern Virginia suburbs. They've become increasingly, you know, liberal and more blue over time. There were key battles fought in places like Loudoun County, which are kind of exurban, which Glenn Youngkin had done well in when we were talking

about COVID school closures and things like that, that suburban moms were, I think, justifiably very upset about. But it's a different landscape now. So in any case, I think they tried the Matt Walsh approach, actually, in Virginia, and you can see what the results are. Listen, Ohio is an even better example. It was straight up, up or down. People campaigned hard against it. You know, actually, J.D. Vance put out a very thoughtful threat, I thought, from the pro-life perspective, where he's like, we straight up lost, and here's what it's going to look like. Now, personally, listen, he's a friend thoughtful threat, I thought, from the pro-life perspective where he's like, we straight up lost and here's what it's going to look like. Now, personally, listen, he's a friend of mine. I don't agree with him really on the issue at all.

I think he's a political loser straight up. But, you know, he's a religious guy, so good luck to you in terms of trying to win on the issue. Let's put the next one up there. We've got a couple of examples of cope that we still have to continue to show you. Daniel Cameron lost. This is from Trump. Even though he endorsed Daniel Cameron, he came out and he disavowed him and he blamed it all on Mitch McConnell. Even though, Crystal, in Daniel Cameron's last ad, he literally ran as a pro-Trump guy. He was

like, I'm endorsed by Trump. I'm all about Trump, Trump, Trump. The very last 30-second spot he had was all about how Trump loved him. And now Trump immediately comes out and stabs him in the back. Yeah. The moment that he lost. He's like, no, no, it's not my fault. It's Mitch's fault. And he's celebrating that the Republican governor of Mississippi was able to hang on by the skin of his teeth. It shows you what a bad night it was for Republicans.

Just as a reminder, just days before Election Day, Trump had posted on Truth Social, wow, Daniel Cameron of Kentucky has made a huge surge. Now that they see my strong endorsement and the fact that he's not really a McConnell guy, he puts in quotes, they only try to label him that because he comes from the great state of Kentucky. Anyway, go, Daniel. Great future for you and your state. You will bring it to new levels of success and I will help you. So that was like literally I think three days before election day and then immediately it's like Kentucky is religious and conservative as that state is, ran a campaign on abortion rights in Kentucky, tells you something about this issue. But the other thing that really jumped out from his results, which he outperformed even his first run for governor, which was against a very unpopular Republican incumbent, Matt Bevin. And so he was able to outperform. If you look at the numbers, the places where he did the best and outperformed the most had been really hard hit by natural disasters.

There was a lot of flooding in eastern Kentucky. And then there were tornadoes and storms in western Kentucky. And Andy Beshear, who has a very famous last name in the state as well, which helps in Kentucky. And, you know, it's a small state and people feel connected to the Beshear name, et cetera. But he really made a point of showing up in these areas that were hard hit by natural disasters. And it seems that that was really rewarded by voters. So there's also a real argument to be made here just in favor of being on the ground, paying attention to what your constituents

are actually going through, staying focused on what you might call bread and butter or life and death issues that are immediate and locality specific. And that's how he was able to overcome, you know, an overwhelming Republican tilt in the state at this point. So I think that piece is interesting as well.

Absolutely. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast hell and gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend.

I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her and it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter.

She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's move on to the free speech part. We wanted to be able to include some of this in our show. There was an interesting moment between Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald on Tucker's new show on X, or Twitter, formerly known as Twitter, about the censorship that is currently going on against the pro-Palestinian movement here in the United States. Here's what they both had to say. What's so terrifying to me, though, is that the right, the American political right, which really was through this kind of weird transformation that's happened over the past dozen years, has become the lone defenders of the First Amendment.

They've abandoned that in the last month, like instantly. So I think you could say, you know, I strongly support Israel. I strongly dislike Hamas. I'm rooting. Maybe I think we should commit troops to the region. I mean, whatever. You can have any view you want. However, American citizens have a right to express their opinion, period. And that supersedes any other event in any other country. It's like that's a core right. And I don't hear many conservatives saying that. And so you sort of wonder, like, if they're not defending it, who will? I mean, there are people who have built their careers, Tucker, over the last five, six years, standing up and saying, we can't have cancel culture.

We can't have censorship. College students aren't entitled to feelings of safety. We don't censor in order to protect people from views they find threatening, mocking the notion that minority groups are vulnerable and we have to censor in order to protect them. Turn on a dime and now become the leading voice of saying because American Jews feel unsafe, that's valid in a way that say claims from black people or LGBTs or Latinos aren't valid. And because of that, we need to censor. Show me the lie. Yeah, he's right. I'm glad to hear Tucker on that. It's a tragedy that not getting mainlined to the Fox News boomers and they're getting Jesse Waters instead. I can't even

imagine what the hell is going on over there. But it does show you a massive split in the conservative movement right now. And I think Glenn's point is so important. It's what I was talking about in our A Block. When you adopt the language of safetyism, you immediately fail. And it's because it goes into the framework of you deserve complete emotional certitude and not to be able to be challenged. As Tucker said, if you're an American citizen, you can say anything that you want and should be protected by the law. We should go out of our way, even the abhors. This is what the beauty of the ACLU case is that even the speech we find the worst, the most objectionable out,

you know, outside the bounds of polite conversation, many standard deviations away, straight up Nazis. We still protect it because the precedent itself is so important. And unfortunately, actually, really what we've done is we are emboldening these campus apparatchiks because now they can be like, well, you wanted us to, you called us in to protect against the Hamas people. So next time there's some George Floyd BS, we're going to do whatever we want whenever it comes to censoring somebody or driving them off campus or posting their photo. Be like, this is a person who didn't sign on. They didn't put up the black square. You know, how far away are we from that?

It already happened. And, you know, I mean, college kids, that's one piece. They're freaking idiots. But the piece that is more disturbing is where the nexus of censorship and state power come into play. Absolutely. And so when you have, you know, Ron DeSantis out there, like the DOJ needs to investigate and actively going after these student groups. And also this really gross conflation of, I do not deny that there are people that are out there that are saying atrocious, directly anti-Semitic things. I think it's disgusting.

I think it needs to stop. Directly advocating or celebrating Hamas and the atrocities on October 7th. Disgusting, right? But there's also this conflation of anyone that has a critique of U.S. government policy or Israeli government policy as being an anti-Semite or being in collaboration or celebration of Hamas. And that's wrong and it's disgusting.

And it's something the Biden administration is engaged in as well. I mean, they called calls for a ceasefire, a position held by two-thirds of Americans. They called that position repugnant. They likened people who are attending pro-Palestinian protests, all of them, not just like the fringe extremists, to the neo-Nazis that marched in Charlottesville. It's insane. And this is happening all over the, I mean, Republicans have gone all in. You just have to listen to the debate last night, aside from Vivek, to hear that sort of language. Although he also, although he also goes pretty far in terms of condemning everybody who has any sort of a dissident view on this as well. He just doesn't

want them to be censored or arrested or whatever. But to go back to what is going to continue to be a consistent theme, have we learned nothing after the war on terror? Have we learned nothing after our failed response in 9-11? Have we learned nothing about how dangerous it was to give the state so much power of surveillance, so much power of censorship and say and justify it all in the name of national security? all the tools that they could possibly need. And do you think it's just going to be used against the people you don't happen to like? No, never stays in that one lane. The tools they acquired in the war on terror have been used against many different ideological groups. They have been consistently expanded over time and we're just handing them even more power to weaponize those very same tools. I think you are absolutely correct. That's a great place to end it. We really appreciate all of you. We're just on a time crunch because we got Vivek Ramaswamy. We'll be posting that

later, as we said, earliest for our premium subscribers. It's going to be posted as a separate interview and a separate podcast, so you can check your feed in a little bit. We're excited. We're about to go do it. So we'll see you later. Over the years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned no town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've heard from hundreds of people across the country with an unsolved murder in their community. I was calling about the murder of my husband. The murderer is still out there. Each week, I investigate a new case. If there is a case we should hear about, call 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. network delivers the facts, the voices, and the perspectives that matter 24-7 because our stories

deserve to be heard. Listen to the BIN News This Hour podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I've seen a lot of stuff over 30 years, you know, some very despicable crime and things that are kind of tough to wrap your head around. And this ranks right up there in the pantheon of Rhode Island fraudsters. I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying. Listen to Deep Cover, The Truth About Sarah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.