Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 3/10/25: Syrian Gov Massacres, GOP Civil War On Iran Deal, Columbia Protester Disappeared By ICE, Tim Walz Spills Tea On Kamala

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

Krystal and Saagar discuss Syrian gov massacres, Republican civil war on Iran negotiations, Columbia Palestine protest leader disappeared by ICE, Tim Walz spills tea on Kamala failures.   To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com   Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, Sagar and Crystal here. Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right

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of independent news media, and we hope to see you at BreakingPoints.com. All right, let's get over to Syria. There's been some extraordinary developments in Syria, sadly very predictable. So we have had the explosion of a lot of ethnic violence inside of Syria, largely perpetrated and supported, unfortunately, by the new so-called moderate, but in reality, like radical Islamic government that has taken power there. We have some video that we can show you. Just as Crystal said, this is not for the faint of heart, but I

mean, you've got people here who are dodging a gunfire and there's been a lot of just like public executions and things that have been going publicly, that are being posted on Telegram and on social media. I mean, the rounding up of people. I mean, these are scenes really reminiscent out of ISIS and their takeover of Syria and so much of the leftover equipment. All of this right now really is just like you've got over a thousand people that were killed since Thursday, Crystal. And a lot of it is people who are, again, are like now in charge of the government. And the reports out of this and all this are very confused because the West doesn't really know how to deal with it. Because the person who is largely responsible for much of this is the so-called moderate rebel who was supported by the United States, of who we removed their terrorist designation. Let's put this up there on the screen. Formerly known as HTS, you know, Abu

Muhammad Jaljalani, has instructed his militants to stop recording their acts of violence in an effort to control the narrative and minimize the damage to his public image as reports of massacres and ethnic cleansing in Syria's coastal regions continue to surface. The leadership fears that documented evidence could further expose their brutality and weaken their support base. And like I said, a lot of this violence has been perpetrated, unfortunately, against many of the Syrian minorities there, Alawite Christians, Druves, and others who live in the area and were some of the strongest supporters of the Assad regime. The reason why I think that this whole story is very important is it does just show us about how, you know, good guy, bad guy ideology in our support or, you know, weapons that we pour into the Middle East

very often make the situation much worse. You know, to look back at the Syrian civil war, it was a genuine, you know, political uprising from 2014 onwards. But at that point onwards, it became this, you know, basically geopolitical playground for the United States, for Israel, for Iran, for Qatar, for Saudi Arabia.

They floored more weapons into the country than had ever been seen there before. And, you know, literally millions of people were either displaced and or killed. One of the worst refugee crises in modern history. And the truth is, it's like everyone was celebrating the downfall of the Assad regime. It's like, well, now this is what has come next. More massacre, more death. And there's no picking good guys, bad guys, or any of that. If we'd stayed out of this thing in the first place, we probably all would have been better off. But the, you know, the, the, God, you know, to even think back to

that time, 2014, 2015, as you, I'm sure you remember too, the level of just like hystericism here in Washington over the Syrian civil war in pushing for more action, more bloodshed, more war, you know, intervention on behalf of the United States, trying to push Obama to bomb Syria to enforce a red line. Remember, Hillary Clinton ran on a damn no-fly zone over Syria, which would have required shooting down Russian jets over the country and potentially drawing the United States into a conflict. I just think this is the 10-year kind of culmination of all of the failures of modern bipartisan foreign policy.

And the end result here is a literal radical Islamist government in power who are now slaughtering ethnic minorities. It's just unbelievable. It's horrible to watch for the people of Syria, the destruction of a great people and a great country. But I think even worse than that is the complicit, you know, nature of the United States, of the EU, and the whitewashing of this guy's image, who's now being invited to Brussels, and he's wearing a suit, and he's got the support here of all these other governments. And the country itself has basically been obliterated. Israel's like annexed half of it now, you know, for some reason that we're not really allowed to talk about over here. Meanwhile, you know, these ethnic Christians and others are getting slaughtered. And, you know, there's no real, there's no coherent narrative here in Washington because everybody is so complicit in backing the so-called moderate rebels of the time.

Yeah. I just think it's horrible and it's very sad. When HGS was able to, you know, finally and very shockingly kind of from our perspective. Yeah, well, we weren't following it. Right. Sort of came out of nowhere, was able to finally, you know, completely push the Assad government out of power. They engaged in this very purposeful propaganda campaign to try to convince the West that like, no, no, no. All that radical Islam.

Like that's in the past. We're going to be moderate. We're going to celebrate our ethnic diversity. And there were quite a lot of Western media outlets that bought that because they wanted to buy it. And yeah, it's a nice narrative. And, you know, at the time we said, we're like, yeah, we are very doubtful, but we'll see. And so you're right that this was, you know, it's sad and utterly predictable. And, you know, this is, it really has served Israel's interest, even though that might seem surprising given that this is like a radical Islamist group and you might say, okay, that's gotta be bad for it and they must not like that. But, you know, they've

benefited by being able to push into Syria. You know, they are annexing significant parts of Syria up to effectively Damascus, helping to realize their, you know, fanatical vision of greater Israel, which any, you know, psycho Israeli settler can tell you about. So they're doing that because they can and no one will stop them. And HGS has publicly said basically, like, we're not going to do anything to push back against Israel. They also have publicly expressed a desire to distance Syria from Iran, another thing that makes Israel very happy here. And so, you know, they have really seized on this opportunity to claim more territory, more power, and to, you know, further hobble their enemies in the region. So that's been part of the fallout and part of why there was a desire among the Western press to kind of like whitewash who

these guys were and what was very likely to happen in the wake of them ultimately taking power. Yeah. And like we said, I mean, we've got probably, I mean, nobody knows the true number. What we do know is that a lot of these things seem to be very conveniently supported by the government that's in power. And I think it just drives me crazy because it just shows you how trying to, again, like paint people as bad guys in the Middle East and then picking the alternative, it never really seems to end up all that great for us. And, you know, none of this is moral per se, but this is the reality of whenever you want to try and intervene in other countries. Like the truth is, is Iraq was probably

better off under Saddam Hussein. Terrible to say. It killed a lot of his own people and it was horrible. But look at the subsequent fallout and what's happened to the country, not alone what we have wasted in trying to make it into some great democratic project. Same now in Syria. I mean, what happened with Libya, right? It's a disaster. It's basically fallen apart. It's become an active war zone and a hub for piracy, for terrorism, and for migrants. It's like, if you look at all of these projects that have all been supported, in this case by NATO, the United States, and the Western powers, as well as many of the Islamic nations, then you look at our intervention in Iraq, and you see what happened there. Afghanistan, it's like, where has this all worked out? But we just are addicted to it. It's like we

are completely addicted. I will say, part of this is also actually a big proxy fight right now here in Washington over the influence of the neocons, and specifically how this relates to Israel and Iran. So let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. This is from Tucker Carlson. He was tweeting a video here of many of the Alawite Christians and others being killed in Syria. And he's saying, as predictable as it is, it's still infuriating to see. For decades, Bashar al-Assad protected the minority religious communities in Syria, including the country's large Christian population. No one in the U.S. was allowed to notice this, and anyone who did was denounced by neocons as a dangerous extremist. Barry Weiss declared Tulsi Gabbard monstrous and an Assad toady for noticing, but it was true.

Assad protected the Christians the weaker Assad was, the more Christians died. During the war, the years that neocons in the West backed the war against Assad, the percentage of Christians has gone from 10% to 2%. Now that Assad has been driven from power, many of the remaining are being slaughtered and their holy places desecrated. Barry Weiss and John Bolton haven't said a word about it, but no one who's paying attention can be surprised. Neocon projects in the Middle East invariably destroy these ancient Christian communities from Iraq to Gaza and in many places in between. Can this be an accident? You wonder. And the reason why I thought it was important was the Gaza little shout out there at the end, because you'll recall, Crystal, in the early days of that war, when you had that ancient Christian church that was bombed in the middle of Gaza, that's when even some of the religious supporters in America had to wake up and be like,

hold on a second, like, what are we doing here? And look, I object a little bit to the framing as like the Christians are the only people that matter in all this, but this is a message that at the very least, I think could get through to a lot of the people who are in the Republican base, who still have this fanatical view of like good and evil and are very susceptible to being pushed in a neoconservative direction. Like there's no evidence here, you know, that Israeli-led Gaza is like all that great, apparently, for the so-called Christian community in Gaza, right? They'll tell you that. Ask the Christians in Gaza.

Same with the people in Syria. Or the occupied West Bank, for that matter, which, you know, Israel de facto controls. That's such a good point. Nobody ever talks about it. But, you know, some of those people who are the most fanatical pro-Palestinian support for the West Bank are a lot of them are Palestinian Christians.

That's right. Yeah, their land is actually the one stolen, I think, originally, you know, and they've found themselves at war with a lot of these Jewish settlers. I don't care if they're Christian, Jewish, Muslim, whatever. The point I think that we have here is it's obvious that the morality, you know, and the morality soapbox that these people try and preach from itself can often lead to much more immoral results. And they also just so happen to be in favor of an agenda that's pretty favorable to increased war and also for the state of Israel in the Middle East. It's just – that's part of noticing I, today here for overall Washington policy. And it's about what we're about to get to with the Iran deal because that is where things are going to be very interesting.

Tomorrow, hopefully, we'll cover the Hamas negotiation spat that's currently happening. But the amount of pressure right now from the pro-Israel groups is unbelievable on the Trump administration. And there's no indication that they'll be silenced or that they're going to take even, you know, their Columbia deportations enough of as a victory. That's not that's just the tip of the iceberg for what these people want. They want much, much more than. Oh, absolutely. They want all of the West Bank. I mean, they're mobilizing to, you know, allow Israel and they're likely to get that.

I mean, they they want the Trump Gaza ethnic cleansing plan that he has floated. So yeah, they won't be satisfied with just some show trials and some deportations or Colombia having their funding stripped. They have much larger goals in mind. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits

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My father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair.

Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, let's get to that Iran deal question because this is going to be one of the central parts for the Trump administration now. Let's go ahead and play this from Donald Trump talking about how he wants to have a deal with Iran rather than go to war with them. Let's take a listen. There are two ways Iran can be handled, militarily or you make a deal. I would prefer to make a deal because I'm not looking to hurt Iran.

They're great people. I know so many Iranians from this country. Well, not the leadership. No, not the leadership. The people. No, they're very evil people. No, but the people of Iran are great people. But they had a tough regime, and they'd meet and they'd be shot in the streets. I mean, it was a tough deal. So, as you can see, he's like,

we would rather have a deal. But the problem that they're finding is that Iran actually just rejected the deal. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. The Supreme Leader of Iran rejected any nuclear talks with the, quote, so-called bully states of the United States, and they're pursuing, you know, they're continuing their nuclear program. We don't know how much of this is bluster yet, per se, but part of the problem is, we talked about this with Trita Parsi, the reneging on the original Iran deal, it's like, okay, well, to what end? For what purpose? The purpose was to increase the sanctions regime and to hopefully see the country fall, the regime. That didn't happen. You know, in terms of their nuclear program, their so-called breakout time or whatever, apparently remains relatively

static to their ability to create it. Their ability to conduct war abroad and or in the near abroad, as they call it, you know, in that area. Well, you know, seem to be doing pretty well in Iraq, seem to be doing okay enough in Syria, Hezbollah, of course, in Lebanon. Have they taken some hits? Yeah, absolutely. Especially with Israelis being able to, you know, assassinate people literally in the middle of their capital. And of course, they had that whole back and forth with Israel. But then Israel retaliated against some of their nuclear missile defense systems near their bases. But they haven't fallen, which was the ultimate deal of what they wanted. So now we're in this situation basically of everyone's neocon making, where we've tried the maximum sanctions.

I mean, what sanctions could possibly be even left to levy onto the country? And Trump is in some ways in a problem of his own making. Because now, what do you do? You know, if they do get a nuclear weapon or pursue that nuclear program, you've said explicitly that we'll go to war for that. That would be a nightmare for most Americans. Also, though, you're saying explicitly that we'll go to war for that. That would be a nightmare for most Americans. Also, though, you're saying that you want a deal. And so two sides of your mouth, and especially full of an administration, which historically has been incredibly hawkish on the Iran question, it's one of those where you could easily find ourselves in a major crisis over this issue if we don't revert to what I hope is Trump's best instincts. Like

with the North Korea deal, there's no reason that we can't go and sit down with these people. And at the very least, that's what Trump has shown his ability to overcome, you know, these previous idiotic statements like, we will never negotiate with Hamas. We'll never negotiate with the North Koreans. It's like, well, they're in power and they're the ones with the guns. So, you know, what are you supposed to do? Yeah. So anyway, I hope that we pursue this. Maybe we can get over it. And it is still important that he's saying he wants it. I'm still worried, especially with Mike Walz

and some of these other folks in that administration. Because if there are other people doing the deal, there's never going to be any deal. Well, and you can understand the Iranians' perspective as well. Like, dude, you're the one who walked away from this. Like, how can we make a deal with your country? We did that before and got stabbed in the back by you. So when they're responding with like,

no, we're not gonna do another deal with you, that's part of the background that you have to understand. That and the fact that just the Trump administration has put on even more sanctions than existed under the Biden administration. They're targeting oil exports in particular to China. And also apparently there was previously a waiver that allowed Iraq to buy Iranian oil, and they've gotten rid of that waiver. And obviously, Iran is heavily dependent on their oil exports. That's a key part of their economic picture. Apparently, there were also sanctions

that were put on Iran's metal industries. So they are going all in and what he calls the maximum pressure campaign, which means amping up the sanctions even further and really trying to destroy the economy. So when the Iranians are talking about, you know, you're treating us like a bully would, that's what they're ultimately referring to. So, yes, obviously, it would be much better to like the best one of the best things that the Obama administration did, certainly in terms of international policy, was the Iran nuclear deal. One of the worst things that Trump did was getting out of the Iranian nuclear deal.

One of the failures, there were other worse ones, but one of the failures of the Biden administration was not jumping back into the Iranian nuclear deal, especially in the early days. This is something we did multiple segments with Trita Parsi about. They had four years to try to restart these negotiations, to try to get back into a deal, which for a time Iran continued to adhere to, even after Trump had pulled the U.S. out of the deal. And they didn't do it. And now the Iranians are feeling disinclined to want to go back to this rodeo. So, you know, I hope Trump's instincts to negotiate and desire to avoid war in this region to the extent that

he has one, I hope that's what prevails. But I think there's still a lot of big question marks here. And the Israelis, obviously, like, they know what they want. Oh, this is a nightmare. This is the worst possible situation for them. Yeah, they want us to be shoulder to shoulder with them in a war against Iran. That is the longtime dream. And, you know, they have a lot of purchase in terms of power in the Trump administration. You know, you have Miriam Adelson, who has already gotten quite a lot in terms of her $100 million investment in the Trump campaign. And Bibi is a savvy operator as well in terms of getting what he wants out of whoever the

political leader is in charge in the U.S. So I would say at this point, you know, there's certainly nothing off the table. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that

camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and re-examining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who did make it. I'm JR Martinez. I'm a U.S. Army veteran myself, and I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Honor,

Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and iHeart Podcast. From Robert Blake, the first black sailor to be awarded the medal, to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor, going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John.

Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, My father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair.

Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get on to the next one, the situation in with Columbia University. Yeah, so there's a bunch of stuff going on here,

but let's start with this. We can put this reporting up from our friends over at Dropsite on the screen. So on Saturday night, DHS agents entered a student residential building at Columbia University and they detained Mahmoud Khalil. He was one of the lead negotiators on behalf of pro-Palestine protesters at 2024's Gaza Solidarity encampment. I'm reading this from Dropsite's article here. And in what they describe as a sweeping attack on the First Amendment, the Trump administration said this week it would begin revoking visas of, quote, Hamas sympathizers, specifically citing Columbia University students. So now they have arrested Khalil, reportedly had no warrant. Khalil has not been charged with any crimes. He is not here,

actually, on a student visa. He's here on a green card. So he is a legal permanent resident. And at least as of this morning, he has been effectively disappeared. His lawyers and his wife, who is eight months pregnant, have no idea where he is. They originally thought that he was at an ICE facility in New Jersey. His wife went there to try to find him. The officers there said, no, no, he's not there. So they have no idea. And so it really is, we can put E2 up on the screen, which explains that situation about, you know, really having no clue where he is. This is from Thakur. He says,

Mahmoud's attorney says they do not know where he is. They were first told he was sent to an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey when his eight-month pregnant wife tried to visit him. She was told he's not there. They've received reports he may be sent as far away as Louisiana. So Mahmoud Khalil, again, who is a green card holder, set to be deported over pro-Palestine activism, meaning that if he had criticized, if he had been involved in protests criticizing the U.S. government, he'd be fine. But because he was involved in protests targeting Israel, a foreign nation, now he's been disappeared and set for deportation. Yeah. And I actually looked to see if he'd even been charged with a crime. He was not even charged with a crime. No. That would be,

see, that's another thing. It'd be one thing. It's like, oh, you were arrested. You know, you're here on a visa. You're a guest in this country. It's like, okay. But literally just being a student protester, it's like, I'm not seeing this because there are plenty of Israeli students who are out on the streets and UCLA and all that protesting on behalf of Israel. Okay. We're going to start revoking their student visas or any of that anytime soon. They got great universities in Tel Aviv. I've seen them. Why are you even over here if you need to come protest? So that's the problem that I really have with this thing. And I was looking into it.

You know, he is a lawful permanent resident. As you said, he's a green card holder. He actually is entitled to a hearing with an immigration judge. So the judge would have to buy that. Because the thing is for DHS to initiate deportation against a green card holder, and this is very different than a student visa or other temporary visas. Temporary visas can be basically revoked without cause. The student green card legal permanent resident holder

effectively has like, they have very similar rights to a US citizen. And for their deportation, they have to prove that they violated criminal procedure. Now their claim here is that this was a violation of President Trump's executive orders on anti-Semitism. So that's where this whole thing falls apart. And like I said, it would be one thing. It's like, okay, you commit a crime. Sure. Get out of here.

You, you know, have done this or that. Fine. You know, I have no issue with that. If we want to apply a blanket standard against all foreign students aren't allowed to, I even would be okay with that because it would include some of these other folks. But this is just capricious and it's on behalf, clearly, of a foreign state who just wants these people to be deported for having the audacity to protest against them. That's where I really have an issue broadly because it just is so blatant. And I'll just continue on this. This is the end result of the Bill Ackman faction joining the Republican Party. Let's not forget, why did Bill Ackman become political? The day after October 7th, he publicly started doxing students who were protesting Israeli military campaign in Gaza. Did some of them say a lot of stupid shit? Absolutely. But he, you know, is compiling Google Doc dossiers of these

folks saying, oh, we shouldn't even hire them. We got to, you know, deport all of these folks. And that is, again, where, you know, we have an American billionaire here basically agitating to deport people who are protesting a foreign nation. And that is where it's just so unbelievable, you know, to watch this all happen and the power of the United States government. When, yeah, if you were protesting, I don't know, the U.S. policy in Syria, nobody even cares. Right. You know? You see it all the time. Protest Trump. I was telling this about. Protest Biden. I was telling this to Ryan. You know, we live here in D.C. You know, you see it all the time. Protest Trump. I was telling

us about Biden. I was telling this to Ryan. You know, we live here in D.C. You know, you go down to Embassy Row. There's there's protests about everything. You know, there's Myanmar protests outside the Burmese embassy. There's protests outside Darfur. Always. There's always a protest outside of I don't know. I've seen protests of the Cambodian embassy. Nobody cares. Nobody's, you know, out here is like, oh, let's deport these folks or whatever. Go outside the White House. Anytime you're here in Washington, there's some stupid protests. Sorry, but there's some protests outside of the White House.

It's not usually Palestine or whatever related. It's like, I don't know, Turkey, something like that. Nobody even blinks an eye. It's just the average everyday part of life. But somehow for this one, the full force of the U.S. government comes down on their side. I can't deal with it. I really can't. It's just unbelievable.

Well, and the way that this all got spun up is we can put E2B up on the screen. This is our old friend Shai Devadai, who is this absolutely psycho professor at Columbia, who actually, I think he was forced to be removed from campus because he was being so aggressive and abusive towards students there. He was doxing his own students. Yeah. So anyway, I don't want to misspeak because I'm sure Mr. Deveday will come after me, but you guys can Google, you know, the extent of what he was involved with there, Columbia

University, and the abuse he was hurling at his own students there at the school. But so he had tweeted this. He says, Dear Secretary Rubio, thank you for your strong statements. Now, we want to see strong action. Illegally taking over a college in which you're not even enrolled in distributing terrorist propaganda should be a deportable offense. No, I would love to see what this quote unquote terrorist propaganda is, by the way, because they always say this. And I have yet to see what this alleged terrorist propaganda was, because that's what Mahmoud Khalil from Columbia SJP did yesterday at Barnard College. So this guy makes Mahmoud Khalil, who, again, has been charged with no crimes, but was a lead negotiator in terms of like the Palestinian rights movement encampment on campus, et cetera. So targets him. Next thing

you know, DHS is coming in without a warrant onto campus and arresting Khalil. Apparently, when they first were interacting with him and his wife, they were under the impression that he was there on a student visa, which again, I would find unconscionable to, you know, criminalize, like, First Amendment speech and whatever. But it is a very different deal when you're there on a student visa. And they find out he's a green card holder, but they've been given instructions to target this guy. So they just continue forward. And when Dropsite and other news outlets asked DHS for comment on the fact that this was a green card holder, a legal permanent resident, not a student visa holder, they said, you need to talk to the White House, meaning this came from the top. This came directly from the White House.

And so now Rubio has put out a tweet. Let's put this up on the screen, saying, doubling down on this, what is also to Sagar's point about the process that you have to follow here. Like this is all brazenly illegal when it comes to green card holders, because there is, they do have a right to due process. You cannot just arrest and disappear someone with no warrant and deport them without going through a process and coming in front of an immigration judge and proving that you have cause to revoke their green card and ultimately deport them. But Rubio doubles down here saying we will be revoking green card and student visa holders of, quote unquote, Hamas supporters.

What's more, actually put E5 up on the screen. They're using AI to sift through all of these students' social media accounts to find ones who are, quote quote unquote pro-Hamas, was him participating in rally chants or leading rally chants like from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. That's what we're talking about here, okay? We're not talking about he's, you know, joining up and he's, you know, like an actual material supporter of Hamas or any other terrorist organization in any way. We're talking about rally chants and handing out flyers on campus. That's what they deem, quote unquote, pro-Hamas. And so this is incredibly dystopian. Like, I don't care what you think

about this particular issue. If you support basic speech rights, you can see the way that this is an authoritarian overreach, a mass government censorship effort to try to quash speech that they and their donors specifically do not like. And the fact that this was so lawless as well, like if they don't have to follow the laws in this case, they don't have to follow the laws in any case. It doesn't have to just apply to people who are green card holders. It could apply to literally anyone if you're just going to throw the laws out. So if you're someone

who's positioned yourself or claim to support the First Amendment, this and the revocation of Columbia's $400 million in federal funding, like this is all a blatant attack on basic First Amendment right to speech. So it is outrageous. And I hope people understand what the stakes are here, because it also is really a test case. We can put E4 up on the screen. This is the Trump administration, again, without any process here, says it was cutting off about $400 million in federal contracts and grants to Columbia University. This, by the way, after Columbia did really everything you could want them to do.

They suspended a bunch of students. They suspended faculty that were, quote-unquote, anti-Semitic or shared, you know, had some text message exchange that they found to be problematic. They've instituted some sort of, like, Rudolph the anti-Semitism task force that's going after students for things like

the crime of writing a pro-Palestine op-ed. They invited the cops onto campus to, you know, get to arrest people who were involved in the takeover of Hind Hall. Like, they have done everything that a Biden and now Trump administration would want them to do, but it's never enough. They're going to be made an example of. And there are many other schools that are also on the target list for the Trump administration would want them to do. But it's never enough. They're going to be made an example of. And there are many other schools that are also on the target list for the Trump administration. You've got Harvard University, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins, New York University, Northwestern University, UCLA, UC Berkeley, University of Minnesota, and University of USC, University of Southern California are the ones that are particularly being targeted by the Trump administration here. So, you know, spare me your lectures about 1A support if you don't have anything to say about this one.

A fire did speak up on behalf, so I'm very glad to see it. Oh, fire's great. Fire's awesome. We love them. By the way, the ADL did come out with a new statement on the situation. Let me go ahead and read this because it's just good. It's delicious, right? We firmly believe there should be swift and severe consequences for those who provide material support to foreign tourist organizations, incite violence in support of terrorist activities or conceal their identities. We appreciate the Trump administration's broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus anti-Semitism. And this action further illustrates that resolve by holding alleged perpetrators responsible. Obviously, any deportation action or revocation of a green card or visa must be undertaken in alignment with required due process protections.

We also hope this action serves as a deterrent to others who might consider breaking the law on college campuses or anywhere. And so, yeah. I mean, you know, this is the irony. If you broke the law, charge them. That's what I was saying. This is the irony. If you broke the law, charge them. That's what I was saying. This is the irony of it. You remember that whole UCLA thing when you had those guys who, you know, they got into a clash or whatever you want to call it in the middle of UCLA? How many of those people were Israeli citizens? You know, how many of those people were dual Israeli citizens?

It's like, well, we don't want to talk about that one. It's like that's my point with all of this is that the capricious standard is just applied on behalf of this foreign. It makes me want to throw up as an American citizen. You know, we could protest India, Pakistan, whatever. Nobody cares at all. We could protest our own government. And you should. You know, you should protest your government.

But it's just like with this one, it's just so naked, the way that it all – and it's all, again, because of this genuine obsession. And I know a lot of these people who are obsessed. They really believe that all of these folks are like paid assets to protest on behalf of Palestine. And it's just such cope because, you know, even – look, people here know. I couldn't stay – I even told – advised people not to do this because of potential blowback in your personal life. But not only is it a right, they believe that they're only doing it because of being paid like further action. And they just can't grapple with it's just as organic as any right-wing protest that

we've seen. You can offer support, camps, any of that other stuff. But if people don't actually feel outraged about it, then they're not going to show up. So there's always this astroturf argument and they really believe like America is just all like okay with what's all happening in Israel. And I mean, to the extent that they are, if they don't even know anything about it, they don't think about it that much. With the people who are, it's like, okay, fine, let them do whatever they want to do. And, you know, Trump even said prior to that, do we have that thing about him expelling people? Do we have that?

It is— I don't think so. Okay, we didn't pull it over. Ryan and I did a segment about it. I mean, he's basically saying a U.S. citizen would be expelled from their college, you know. And I remember I was engaged in all these fights back in the 2014, 2015 time period over these kangaroo courts, over like Me Too allegations that would expel students. And it was similar, mass hysteria over this, basically denying not only due process rights, but literally expelling students for some he said, she said incident. Well, you know,

here you have the government in a similar position just coming in and saying, even if you haven't committed a crime, that expressing an opinion or doing wrong think will get you expelled from college. That's the part where I just can't take it. And I'm somebody who hates higher education. I'm happy to see Columbia with less money. They didn't even bother with the kangaroo court here. That's what I mean. My net benefit would be slash them all.

I think it would be great. But to do it on behalf of Israel, that's too much. It's too much. You've got to at least try and do it from the perspective of what's good for us. That's the part that I can't say. It truly is outrageous. I mean, right now, right now, Israel

is cutting off, they already cut off aid to Gaza, and they're cutting off electricity to Gaza. This makes it very, like, this severely limits the amount of just clean drinking water because, you know, the desalinization plants, like the water purification, obviously you need electricity. You're not allowed to protest that. You're not allowed to have a problem with that. Like, you can have your status, like, as a legal, lawful permanent resident here revoked without any due process.

You could be kicked out of school without any due process. Total carte blanche for the government to sift through your social media posts and see if you're engaged in any sort of wrong thing. I mean, this is truly some of the most authoritarian, anti-First Amendment overreach that I have seen. And we've laid the groundwork for many administrations, starting with the Patriot Act, probably starting before that, but really ramp it up with the Patriot Act. You know, every administration has increasingly, you know, sought to censor those who they, you know, they found their voices or their opinions to be inconvenient. This is another level. It truly is another level.

And what they have done here, it clearly violates this Mahmoud Khalil's rights to due process. The fact that they have no idea where he is is terrifying and outrageous. And the message that they are trying to send here also is terrifying and outrageous. And the message that they are trying to send here also is terrifying and outrageous because many people will think twice about speaking out for their own job and school prospects, et cetera. And certainly if they are, you know, certainly if they are green card or student visa holders, et cetera. And that's exactly the point. The ADL said, like, I hope this serves as a deterrent. And that's exactly what the goal here ultimately is. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results.

Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and re-examining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all

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and I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and iHeart Podcast. From Robert Blake, the first black sailor to be awarded the medal, to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor, going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your Not the Father Week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, My father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it

to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up, so what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair. Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago.

Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back

or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Crystal, what are you taking a look at? One of the weirder mysteries of the Kamala Harris campaign was what the hell happened to Tim Walz? So he came out of the gates hot, was turning his cable news campaign, his stellar Minnesota record, into a vice presidential slot.

He honestly seemed like the perfect choice. He's an affable Midwesterner, history of electoral outperformance. He translated a down-to-earth vibe into an incredible record in a purple state. He honestly seemed like the perfect choice. He's an affable Midwesterner, history of electoral outperformance. He translated a down-to-earth vibe into an incredible record in a purple state. In fact, with his selection for the ticket, it seemed like Kamala was eschewing her previous cautious positioning. To go bold with a character who resonated on TV, it did not shy away from using power. Wallace had a natural talent for pitching progressive policies in a way that felt moderate and characterized Trump and Vance in a way that went instantly viral. These guys, they're just weird. You know there's something wrong with people when they talk about freedom,

freedom to be in your bedroom, freedom being your exam room, freedom to tell your kids what they can read. That stuff is weird. They come across weird. They seem obsessed with this. They continue to try and tell you. And look, the thing that I find the most weird about it is, is they never do the things they say. I heard one time very early on, you do not need your elected officials to give you a sermon, but they should try and live one. And these guys are weird on how they frame it. They are obsessed.

And I said it the other day, the He-Man Woman Haters Club, I don't know where this is coming from. And I have to tell you today here in Minnesota, joyous day. I just appointed our newest associate justice of the Supreme Court, Sarah Hennessey. Minnesota was the first state, and we have a majority women on the Supreme Court, and we have a woman of color as the chief justice. That scares the hell out of these guys. That just terrifies them. And then they start being weird. They think they have to listen to their stories. They think they're connecting with people and they tell things and everybody feels uncomfortable around them. So I'm sticking with that because I don't know what else describes it, but I know

that it's more cynical and it's, it's deeper and it's hurtful and hateful. But I think one of the things you point out to this, they're not offering us anything. They're not going to come with a plan. And this is my thing every day. I ask, where's your healthcare plan? So yeah, they're not offering us anything. They're not going to come with a plan. And this is my thing every day. I ask, where's your health care plan? So, yeah, they're weird. And I am not changing that. But of course, he did not ultimately stick with that. After what was a phenomenal launch, he quickly became a massive draw on the campaign trail. And the Harris campaign looked like they were set to use Walz's Minnesota record as a way to fill in the gaps on Kamala's own ideological vagueness. They released even a solid proposal to go after price gougers, which caused a glorious right-wing meltdown about supposed price controls.

Wall suggested himself a focus on bread-and-butter issues, things like paid leave, which had been really popular in Minnesota. He leaned into J.D. Vance mockery, even made some couch jokes out on the campaign trail. But then sometime around the DNC, things really seemed to flip. Price gouging was out. Opportunity economy was in. Weird was out. Fascist was in. And Sean Fain, head of the UAW, was out. Liz Cheney neocon was in.

Now, Politico has revealed what many of us have long suspected. Tim Walz was sabotaged by an insecure Kamala Harris who didn't want him to outshine her and by dim-witted, arrogant consultants who thought they knew better about what would resonate than the organic response which had originally greeted Tim Walz and his framing of the race. So according to Politico, quote, after he was selected in early August, Harris was not yet doing interviews and aides did not want Walz to get out ahead of her, several former campaign aides said. Harrison Walls would not appear together for their joint interview with CNN until three weeks later. Even into October, the Washington Post described him as a, quote, surprisingly bubble-wrapped campaigner. And as for his signature framing of Republicans as weird, quote, there were also efforts to curb some of his signature lines, including casting Trump and Republicans as weird, which slipped out of Walz's speeches.

Quote, he was encouraged to stop focusing on the weird criticism, said another former Harris aide. I think it is fair to ask whether even if weird wasn't quite right, his instinct about how to approach Trump to make him seem small and a huckster wasn't closer to correct than the more self-serious tone that may have made us sound too in defense of the status quo. Now, in an interview with Politico himself, Walls slams the play-it-safe tactics, which led them to position the campaign as if they were sitting on a big lead rather than desperately trying to pull off an upset. Quote, we should have been playing this thing so safe. I think we probably should have just rolled the dice and done the town halls where voters may say, you're full of shit. I don't believe in you, Walls continued.

I think there could have been more of that. We as a party are more cautious and engaged in the media, both mainstream and nontraditional, Walls said. And during the 2024 campaign, he said in football parlance, we were in a prevent defense to not lose when we never had anything to lose because I don't think we were ever ahead. Now, one thing you can say about Trump is he is happy to tell campaign consultants and other advisors to piss off. If he tests a line out on the campaign trail and it gets a big response, he goes with it. He's got a gut instinct about these things, yes. But he also buys much more into the wisdom of the crowd than what some focus group poll-tested suit tells him he should be saying. Walls actually had a similar approach.

He didn't just invent weird for the Kamala campaign. He had done a bunch of town halls. He talked to voters all around Minnesota. And that was the Trump characterization that he found really worked. So he brought it to the national stage and it immediately hit. Bernie actually has a similar approach. He's not out there checking his lines over with a pollster. He's getting rock star receptions,

leaning into the same message that has resonated with Americans he's spoken with for over 50 years. Now, it helps that they both seem like they actually believe in something, too. There's new data that should further strengthen Democrats' resolve to get rid of all of these arrogant, grifting, idiotic consultants who think that they know better. A recent Yale study found they literally don't. Random people do just as well predicting what political messages will resonate as do paid political professionals. These people, they are literally worthless. You would be just as well off to throw darts at a dartboard and pick

your policies as to listen to these people. Now, there are signs that Walz remains one of the Democratic Party leaders with the best instincts in the country. In a recent interview with Molly Young Fast, he told her that Democrats need to stop messing around with small ball and actually give voters real change they can sink their teeth into. Take a listen. Look, I hear the thing out there is, is that when we get back, which we will, we'll fight. I'll tell you what people are going to expect is they're not going to expect us to tinkle around the edge with the ACA. They're going to expect universal health care. And if there's a lesson here, I always said this, we had a one vote majority in Minnesota. When we moved clean energy,

we moved reproductive rights. We moved, we moved a whole slew of progressive, very popular, including things around guns and gun safety, very popular things. We moved it with a one vote majority. And people ask, well, what do you call a one vote majority? A majority. Simple as that. Now, if you need a demonstration of how popular that message is, how much energy there is behind it, just behold the response to an 83-year-old Bernie Sanders, who's been hosting overflow crowds on top of overflow crowds in Midwestern swing districts. It's actually insane. Biden's average crowd, as pointed out here, when he was president and running for reelection was 1,300. Here is Bernie in Warren, Michigan, on a random March day,

attracting more than 10,000 people. Now, as far as his 2028 plans goes, Walls is playing coy, keeping his options open. I think opening up about the Harris campaign's failures, albeit in a diplomatic way, is definitely step one. Getting back out there on the road for town halls and districts where Republicans are too scared to show up is step two. And then we'll see. My man definitely does need to work on his debate skills. But if he ditches the consultants, leans into his instincts to be visible and to be bold with his economic agenda, he might still yet be the future of the Democratic Party. And I mean, this is the big thing for him is people are going to be.

And if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at BreakingPoints.com. Thank you guys for watching. We appreciate you. We'll have a great show for everybody tomorrow, and we'll see you later. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John.

Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast. So we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. He's trying to give it to his irresponsible son. But I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. They could lose their family and millions of dollars?

Yep. Find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. Enter Camp Shame, an eight-part series examining the rise and fall of Camp Shane and the culture that fueled its decades-long success.

You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an iHeart Podcast.