Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 4/20/26: Kash Patel Meltdown, Sam Harris Smears Zohran, Pro-Trump AI Bots Exposed, Cuba Under New Trump Threat

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Krystal, Ryan and Emily discuss Kash Patel alcohol allegations, Sam Harris smears Zohran, pro-Trump AI bots exposed, FL Cubans beg for war.   Jose Luis: https://x.com/GranadosCeja    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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and you'll get access to our full shows, unedited, ad-free, and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at breaking points.com. Shall we turn to what's going on with the head of the FBI here and some internal drama here in the U.S.? In lighter news? Yeah, it is a bit lighter. Yeah, a bit lighter. Yeah. Well, Cash Patel, FBI director Cash Patel, was the subject of a truly wild Atlantic profile that posted.

It really was more of a profile than a report posted on Friday. And now I'm going to give the bylines on this. So this is Sarah Fitzpatrick. And it includes some prior reporting from Ashley Parker and Jonathan Lemire. Those are two, I would say, people who are sourced up in anti-Trump world. So keep that in mind. keep in mind that the FBI is undergoing some purging processes where you would have people who really, really, really dislike Cash Patel for political reasons and the like. But this is a-

But didn't they have, like, talk to, like, 12 people? Yeah, it's, I mean, it's, it wouldn't surprise me that they were able to find 12 people who absolutely hate Cash Patel, but this reporting is pretty, like, even if you hate Cash Patel, it doesn't mean that you're spewing lies necessarily. Right. Also, I mean, those 12 people would all have to, like, spin the same story in the same way. Yeah, it's really specific stuff. Like if we just read the lead here. On Friday, April 10th, as FBI director, Cash Patel was preparing to leave work for the weekend, he struggled to log on to an internal computer system.

He quickly became convinced that he had been locked out, and he panicked frantically calling AIDS and allies to announce that he had been fired by the White House, according to nine people familiar with his outreach. So, like we were just saying, a really specific story here corroborated by nine sources to the Atlantic. Two of them described his behavior as, quote, a freak out about a very specific instance very recently. So that was about seven days. It was like a week before the story published,

exactly a week before this story published, about the computer system. He can't get into the computer. He's so freaked out. Now, the Atlantic had reported not long before that Cash Patel, after Pam Bondi, was on basically a list, maybe not a formal list,

but a list of people who could be axed within DOJ at any moment. So maybe that had something to do with his paranoia. But it goes on to cite all kinds of, current officials, former officials who remain, quote, close to him, according to the Atlantic, saying that he is, quote, deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy, including what some reasons, quote, having to do with what witnesses described to me as bouts of excessive drinking. Now, obviously, that goes back to...

Are we talking about the same cash fatale here? I know. I just, I can't believe it, Emily. I mean, he looked like a novice, which. It was beer chugging in the locker room. Let's put C4 up on the screen. C4. This guy, this is the guy you're talking about here.

This one has a drinking. I just can't believe it. This was business. These people... This was business. This official FBI business. Reportedly Trump was supposedly pissed off about this, by the way. Yes.

Because Trump had a brother who was an alcoholic. Yes. And, you know, found this all to be sort of horrifying. Yes. And it's part of why I think Cassie. One of the reasons that Cash is actually justifiable. That behavior is rational, justifiably afraid that he is imminently going to be fired. Well, and people forget that there was a man who was detained, arrested, trying to kill Trump, literally the day that Cash Patel, allegedly trying to kill Trump, the day that Cash Patel is filmed chugging beers.

Well, almost at the same time, Cash Patel was chugging beers in the locker room of the Olympic hockey team, which, by the way, hockey team, awesome. Cash Patel, still nobody knows what was happening at all. They said this is according to, quote, several officials who told the reporter, quote, Patel's drinking has been a recurring source of concern across the government. They said that he is known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication. In many cases, at the private club, Neds in Washington, D.C. is just a corner from the White House. He's also known to drink to access at the poodle room in Las Vegas,

where he frequently spends part of his weekends. That is something that's Skullba in D.C. that he's not actually even in D.C. That often that he spends a lot of time in Las Vegas. I don't know how true that is, but obviously some of it gets into this story here. Now, Patel says, all lies, print it, I'll see you in court, and then responds on,

he goes on Sunday morning features with Maria Bartaromo just yesterday, known to be one of Trump's favorite shows. Obviously, Trump watches Maria Barter Romo, seemingly with religious fervor. So here's Cash Patel's response just yesterday to Barteromo, C1. The Atlantic Magazine Director is alleging that you have a drinking problem, that it is getting in the way of your work running the FBI. What is your response this morning to this article?

Look, Maria, you and I have been at this together for a long time, whether I was leading the investigation on Russia Gate back in the House or my time in the Trump admin one and now. And the results, I say, speak for themselves. If the fake news mafia isn't hitting you personally with baseless information in Washington, D.C., then you're not doing your job. And it's louder than ever because this FBI, under President Trump's brilliant leadership and backing the blue

and backing law enforcement, this FBI has the most prolific year in crime reduction in the United States history. So if I'm not doing my job, if I'm not working, then how is it that the FBI delivered the safest America

under President Trump's leadership in the history of our country? They can beat their drums and stand next to toxic waste all they want, but that doesn't make it toxic waste. And Maria, I'm happy to announce on your show.

show that we're not going to take this laying down. You want to attack my character? Come at me. Bring it on. I'll see you in court. So you're going to sue them? Absolutely. It's coming tomorrow. Tomorrow you will be dropping a lawsuit against the Atlantic magazine. Yes, yes I will. For defamation. All right. Well, we'll see what actually happens in that case today, Crystal. But let's actually go ahead and skip here to C5. Probably no surprise. This is Mark Elias posting from the democracy docket. FBI director Cash Patel said that his agency will soon make arrests maybe this week in connection to the 2020 presidential election,

which he claims was rigged. Now, you could hear in the Barteromo clip the sort of high school theater level of acting from Cash Betel said President Trump's leadership and his decision to back the blue. And you notice Fox had pre-prepared a graphic with all the stats. Did you see that they put when he started talking about that that had the like, this money arrests, this many child predators, blah, blah, blah. So Fox News, ready to go with this, you know, when he launched his high school acting moment here, they were ready to support him with that. Interesting.

Well, that's probably what's booing him, to be honest, is that the FBI has had some successes cracking down on crime, but how much of that is actually the FBI and how much the national atmosphere, we could do a whole segment on that. But I do just want to read the part about the hockey team from the Atlantic story. They say, quote, while an official travel to Italy, he's chuggy beer, quote, the incident prompted the president who does not drink and his brother died following a long struggle with alcoholism to call the FBI director to convey his unhappiness according to two officials familiar with the call. So just keep that in mind. So you have somebody who would be familiar with the call as we try to figure out the sourcing here.

I also just wanted to bring up this other part of the story that gets to the sourcing, which says, that they are internally within the Trump administration already discussing who they might replace Cash Patel with. So that is, I mean, that's a pretty clear sign that he's genuinely in jeopardy and that this isn't just, like it is the most obvious thing in the world that if you go and you start purging career officials from the FBI, a lot of them are probably going to leak.

The FBI leaks a lot to journalists already. And so in this really polarized climate where people don't like Trump is the most obvious thing in the world that you're probably going to get some hit pieces written about you. That, what I just referenced, was quote, sourced to senior members

of the Trump administration, according to an administration official and two people close to the White House who are familiar with the conversation. So that tells us at the very least that Patel has enemies within Trump circles and that that tells us in and of itself that this is already

fairly serious, Crystal. Well, and here's a thing, too. I mean, it's demonstrably had an impact on his ability to do the job effectively during the Charlie Kirk early days of the early hours of the Charlie Kirk investigation. He was tweeting, oh, we've got someone in custody, giving very much the impression that, like, oh, we got the guy when they very much had not gotten the guy. The Brown case, too. Same very similar situation unfolded with the Brown case. What they say in this article is that suspicion is that that was because he was like half-drawn. when he was getting this information in and then just, you know, no inhibitions, tweeting it out, why not? The other thing, in terms of just like the seriousness that we're talking about, so they had to reschedule all his meetings to later in the day because he's like too hungover in the morning to be able to get up. Or he's in Las Vegas. Or is it. Yeah. And they also talk about how they're like, well, it's kind of nice when he's

not here actually, but then it's also kind of a problem that we don't actually really have an FBI director. And there have been times, too. There was a time when they had to summon breaching equipment, like the type a SWAT team would use to, like, bust into a house to try to get into his home because he was, you know, so sort of like passed out drunk or after effects, etc., that he was not responding at all, and he was behind locked doors. So that's the lengths that they've had to go to to deal with this guy. I mean, so that's the, I guess that's what is one of the problems of Cash Patel's leadership at the FBI. And do you think that he actually is likely to go? Or sometimes these stories from the

lame stream media, sometimes they push Trump in the other direction, it seems, where it kind of like, then he doesn't want to be seen as giving in to the Atlantic in this case. So he at least keeps them around for a little bit longer. You know, I was totally surprised by the Pam Bondi departure. That genuinely surprised me. There really hadn't been a lot of rumors at all that she was in jeopardy. which is almost always the case. You start hearing the gossip and people are upset with her. And it was true that some people were a little bit irked

by obviously the Epstein stuff. But the administration had just been doubling and tripling and quadrupling down in support of Pam Bondi on all of that. So I'm not sure. Cash Patel strikes me as someone who would be hard to replace from Trump's perspective,

like somebody who is as, what's the right word for it? Like as, I don't, it cares, is not the right word for it, but as performatively MAGA and anti-deep state, it's hard to find somebody. And he also, I mean, less we forget, Cash Patel did have, like, prior DOJ experience, which was one of the interesting, like, distinctions, I think, between him and other possible candidates

that he had actually worked, like, as a bureaucrat at the DOJ. Prior in his career, he was on, it was like this senior aide on House Intel. and to find somebody who kind of checks both of those boxes who is like so performatively MAGA and has some experience that you can kind of squeeze into the FBI director box, that actually could be tough for Trump. Well, and it seems like the thing that Trump is most pissed off about

is that he hasn't done enough to like go after Trump's enemies. That's the thing that Trump's disappointed in his performance over. And so that's why, you know, the information about, okay, now Cash is going to go out and try to arrest somebody or make some sort of action with regard to the election being stolen in 2020, it tracks with, okay, this is how I'm going to save my job, right? It also tracks with, it reminds very much of Tulsi Gabbard, getting involved in the Fulton County raid and inserting herself there

to try to reclaim her status within the administration after she had fallen off there. So I guess that's the way back into Trump's good graces. Yeah, it also reminds me a little bit of Christy Gnome, where, you know, we saw Christy Gnome doing some of this performative stuff too. even people whose jobs aren't in jeopardy. Like, we see it at those cabinet meetings are performatively pro-Trump, but there's an exasperation in some, like,

hardcore MAGA circles in D.C. with, for example, the Charlie Kirk investigation and other top priorities, Epstein, for example, for, like MAGA grassroots, in, you know, D.C. circles where they are people like Cash Patel who were saying, we're going to get to the bottom of Epstein. Like, this Epstein thing is a disaster for the left

and for the Democrats. And so there are people who are just utterly exasperate, with the showmanship of the Christy Noams on deportations, for example, and then looking around and saying, we want you to go much harder. Same exact thing with Cash Patel. That's something that you hear. There's just this exasperation with putting the showmanship over the substance. And that's where you have Mark Wayne Mullen coming out just in the new day, just director just in the last week saying, we're going to be doing stuff that you're not seeing in the headlines. Our goal is not to be in the headlines. He said that on, I think he said that on Fox. And so that's where it could

I could see changes being made in that people are absolutely sick of seeing so much performativity with a little substance. It kind of tracks it. I don't know if you saw this story. They're looking for a new, or I guess they nominated someone to be the new CDC head. And in the search for that, the criteria was we need someone who was not crazy. That was the idea. It's like, okay, this has been too much of a mess.

It's been all over the place. Trump is not comfortable, I think, with all the anti-vax stuff, because obviously he sees one of his primary accomplishments from his first term was the quick spin-up of the COVID vaccine, and which I think he deserves some credit for the, you know, Operation Warp Speed, I think was highly successful in, you know, developing and then pretty rapidly the Biden administration was able to deploy the vaccine pretty rapidly. But you brought in this Maha coalition, which is deeply vaccine skeptical in RFK Jr., obviously, like his whole thing is like hating vaccines, basically. He'll object to that, but that's just the reality. And so, you know, I don't think,

I don't think Trump, like, Trump is not really expressed that he's ever been fully on board with this stuff. And so now it feels like he is, okay, this is, this is a mess. This is causing problems for me and my, you know, political desires. So we got to get in someone here who is, in his view, not crazy. So, interesting. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see.

Kind of assembling a crew of crazy people was the 2.0, like, strategy. So. Yeah. How's that going? Right. Christy Gnome, it wasn't that she had a bunch of DHS experience. It was that she was a good, Trump saw her as a good spokesperson. So I think it's probably similar with Cash Patel.

And it tracks. I mean, this is the through line of the show today, is that Trump is so obsessed with optics that sometimes it undermines his substantive goals. Yeah, true. All right. Well, Emily, thank you for doing the first half of the show. We're going to swap out, swap you out now for Ryan. It's my pleasure. Ryan's going to tap in.

I'm passing the baton. That's right. metaphors can we mix. And then Saugger's planning to be back tomorrow. Excellent. All right. We'll see you soon. See you.

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Very interesting political event, I guess, New York City where former President Obama came to the city and went along with Mayor Zoran Mom Doni to visit some adorable little preschoolers. Let's go ahead and take a look at some of the cute things that unfolded there. You know her you are. You're not a New York City. You're not a new city. You're going to go to the city.

I know you name. You know my name? What's his first name? That's my mom. That's his name was man. Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish. The way it was on the bus to. Swish, swish, swish, swish.

This was at a child care center in the Bronx, and I actually think in terms of, like, future of the Democratic Party, I actually think this is kind of a significant event. Because, I mean, first of all, Obama was very much involved in screwing over. Certainly Bernie this last time around. So, you know, having him, you know, signaling,

for the character is seen as like one of the most lefty characters in the Democratic Party, someone who never received the endorsement of Chuck Schumer. Still hasn't, right? I think what, Hakeem Jeffries came in like a day before, I guess I'll go for maybe, okay. Anyway, moving on. That Kirsten Gillibrand called like a jihadist. And Obama's not only meeting with him, which we knew they had had phone calls before,

but he came to the city to do this, you know, very cute event supporting one of Zorans. key legislative priorities. I think it's very important. Signal to liberals, signal to Democratic establishment leaders. Like, no, this guy is good. We need to embrace him. We need to not have this, like, hostile energy

towards him and what he represents. Yeah, and if it's, and the fact that it's around kind of universal child care is also, I think, important because that's a signature part of like a social democratic agenda. Yes.

But it's, he did, he's not coming in supporting him on his abundance housing agenda or whatever yeah right exactly he's saying no like this is this is public social policy that you know we need the public sector

to invest in people and and put a positive fun face on it yeah and I have to think that Obama sort of sees himself in Zoran you know like oh because he's a young guy grew up overseas

he's a Muslim socialist from Africa Exactly, just like Obama. With a weird name, you know. No, I think he has to sort of see himself a bit in Zoran and recognizes for his own, Obama's very interested in legacy preservation, which I think was part of his opposition to Bernie. Because if Bernie came in and was doing Medicare for all, well, that makes Obamacare look bad, right? So it was kind of like a direct attack on his legacy, right? But with Zoran, he says, oh, this is the young new thing. and I need to associate myself and my brand with this guy who is, you know, not only really built

this political movement, captured a lot of attention, really, you know, captured the imagination of a lot of people, but that this is kind of where the party is going, and I need to associate myself with this direction for his own sort of strategic branding purposes, which is another sign of sort of like victory for not just Zoron, but the segment of the Democratic Party that he represents. Absolutely. And if Obama is coming to the Mamdani wing, then that's, then welcome him in. Because if you can have, that's exactly right. Like if you can go to the normie, you know, Democratic primary voter and say, Obama's good with this. Like whatever, whatever the thing is that they're pushing, then you have completely boxed out the opposition. Like, where is, where are Hillary

and Schumer going to get purchase if they're coming at the party that goes from Bernie Sanders to Obama? Like, where, like, where's the space for opposition there? It just completely collapses. Yeah. So if Mamdani can keep playing to his, uh, his, his, his ego and his sense of legacy and, You know, the other thing is this is not class war. This is not, you know, tax the super rich. This is the feel-good side of social democracy, which is children should get a good education. They should get child care.

It's easier for Obama to agree to than saying Ken Griffin should pay for it. Right. Although that video did just come out when Obama arrived. To me, that is also the feel-good part of the Democratic Socialist agenda. personally for me. Some, had to play this from Sam Harris, so just to give a sense of how unhinged some of the commentary from, you know,

someone who I guess I would describe himself as a liberal has been in the views of Zoran. And I mean, frankly, like, there's no way you could describe what you're about to watch Sam Harris say other than it's just blatantly, like, bigoted and racist and totally disconnected from the reality of Zoran and what his political project actually is. Let's go ahead and take a listen to this.

A few comments here. I'm sorry, but Sam, equating Mom Dani to Trump is insane. He's infinitely more ethical than any person in the Republican Party. What do you have to say for so apologies for one point of confusion there, which really is confusion. He's he's not the equivalent of Trump. He's a very different sort of character than Trump, right? But also one who we should want nothing to do with politically. I think he's a he's an action. I think he's a sinister figure. I think he's a a nun-to-closited Islamist or at minimum apologists for an apologist for Islamists. He's not ethically sane by my lights at all,

though he can seem to be somebody who really just cares about, you know, people who are finding it hard to make ends meet in New York, right? But if you double-click on many of his political allegiances and the kinds of things, his wife likes on social media and all of that, what you get is a picture of someone who's captured by a fairly sinister, theocratic agenda and an anti-Semitic one. You know, this is not about garbage trucks and, you know, cleaning up Central Park and really helping the city. The thing that really seems to animate him are these political concerns that don't have a lot to do with being mayor and have a lot to do with Israel and and uh Islam.

He's not the worst person you might find in, uh, in that, uh, vein, but he's, uh, far too close to being a shill for Islamist theocrats, then I would want running a major American city to say nothing of our government, right? So if we had a Mamdani character who was a viable presidential candidate who had these kinds of ties to, obvious anti-Semites and Islamists and, you know, Muslim Brotherhood adjacent evil, I would find that genuinely terrifying. So he describes him as a sinister, nun-to-closited Islamist. And Sam Harris, who supports a genocide, wants us to know that it's Zoron who's not ethically,

quote, sane. I mean, it doesn't even make me mad because it's so preposterous that it's just absurd. It would be, like, arguing that, you know, in reality, has wings and he can fly. I mean, that's how connected to reality this is. And, you know, I don't think it lands with anyone. It apparently, even like, you know, Trump, who loves to play all sorts of fearmongering about, oh my God, they're communists, they're this, they're that. I mean, obviously it didn't even land with Trump. So I can't imagine there are a lot of people out there who are really thinking that Zoran is a sinister Islamist who is really secretly

harboring this theocratic agenda. And I love to Ryan how he is. like what he's really about are all these things with regard to Islam and Israel. It's like actually on a day-to-day basis, what he's talking about is, hey, let's have child care, let's do buses, let's do grocery stores, etc. And it was Cuomo and his opponents in that race who wanted to make it all about Israel and Zoran's views on Israel. Yeah, Sam Harris has so much contempt and hostility for religion in general, and Islam in particular, that it really has sent him around the bend.

And so he doesn't even make sense anymore. Like you, you watch that and you're like, this is completely incoherent. And it forces him to reach to like his wife's Instagram posts, which are just condemning genocide. Well, and I like, too, that that is the own, on that whole screen about how he's, you know, this bigot and this Islamist and this anti-Semite, blah, blah, blah, he doesn't offer a single example. The only example he cites is some sort of. social media likes from Zoran's wife, some of which the posts that they highlighted were when she was like 15 years old, too. That's the evidence you have for making these really quite extraordinary claims about the mayor of New York City. Yeah. And I feel like the moment for this

kind of person has kind of passed. Like there was some, there was some purchase around this level of hatred a while ago. But I just don't think it's there anymore. And it's like not too closeted. I don't know, if he is a secret Islamist jihadist or whatever, it's pretty well closeted. It's fooling a lot of people. Yes, that's deep in the closet. Yeah. Not fooling Sam Harris, though. Let's go ahead and get to this Michigan State Convention that happened over the weekend, because this also speaks to the future of the Democratic Party. So the Senate race in Michigan, closely watched, you've got Haley Stevens, who is definitely like the Chuck Schumer, A-Pack, overtly Zionist candidate.

Okay, so that's her. Then you got Mallory McMorough, who has tried to strike this middle ground and recognizes where the base is, trying to signal that she put on a whole thing. I'm not going to take A-PAC money, but you guys reported she, her team had submitted an A-PAC policy paper. So she's been trying to kind of, like, split the difference and find a lane there where she can be not too scary to the, you know, more conservatives and also not, you know, evil to the rest of the party. And then you've got Abdul al-Sayyad, who, you know, Bernie Sanders supporter, Medicare for all,

out front opposing genocide, you know, being very clear, throated about, you know, being very clear about all his views on all of those things. So that's sort of the range of the candidates. And extraordinary to see what happened at this Michigan State Democratic Convention. I've been to these things. I'm sure you've been to these things. These are your, you know, rock solid, vote blue no matter who, Democratic activists, the ladies who were like manning the phone banks and the young people were going out in field cam. It's like, this is the diehards of the diehards. Normie Democrats, right? Haley Stevens, who is a sitting member of Congress, Haley Stevens got booed when she got up to speak throughout her entire speech. She was booed by this group of just normal

Democratic voters, let's go ahead and take a listen to how that went down. So I don't think I've ever seen something like that, like a sitting Democratic representative who is actively booed at a state convention like this. And then McMorrow apparently was sort of like, you know, she got a decent reception, but then at the end, everyone is chanting Abdul. And then Abdul just gets this rock star reception where people are going crazy for him and he had huge crowds and the enthusiasm was through the roof. Yeah. And that all all the way through Haley Stephen's speech. Yes.

She tried to use Unite Here and other unions as kind of human shields. She kept mentioning them. Like, you're really going to boo the UAW and boo the Unite Here? Like, come on. They're like, yeah, we are. No, we're booing you. Yeah. And now it also speaks to El Saia's ability to organize his supporters, you know, because he clearly got, you know, a lot of those are like his people who showed up to this convention.

you're right. Like this is this state party convention. This is this is deeply unusual to have Schumer's candidate as Schumer's recruited candidate getting absolutely savaged all the way through. Now there was there was also a critical attorney general race at this convention between the Oakland County was kind of the Oakland County prosecutor was the kind of McDonald was her name Karen McDonald, she actually a progressive prosecutor when she first ran. I think like Soros backed and like in that, in that wing. But this time was the known as the establishment candidate had the support of all of these kind of Michigan Board of Regents people who, if you remember, during the 2024 encampments, worked with Dana Nessel to smear and then try to prosecute a whole

bunch of these with felonies, a bunch of these student protesters that that fell apart. Dana Nessel then you know, came under a lot of criticism for that, and then it created this giant thing where, you know, her fight that she had with Richita Taleb and Jake Tapper. And so that candidate lost, that prosecutor lost the Attorney General nomination. But even worse for them, this guy Jordan Acker, who was one of the leading kind of regents

pushing to have these students prosecuted, was challenged by a dearborn, attorney, Amir Macled, who in the days leading up to the race was, you know, the Detroit News and others came after him because he had retweeted Candice Owens calling Israelis demons. And what they said was praise for Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah. And he beat Acker at this convention. Wow. So now Acker himself is facing this massive constitution.

controversy from this Guardian report where a bunch of his like really foul slack messages emerged. Just kind of gross stuff across the board. So that certainly hurt Acker as well. But yeah, it's not enough to like link somebody to like Hesbill and Candace Owens and knock them out. He still knocked out this border region Canada at this very convention that you guys saw there. I don't think that a lot of Democratic electives have really great. grappled with how much the base has shifted. And that this isn't, I see all kinds of, yeah. I see all kinds of cope on the timeline now, but, oh, this isn't representative and blah, blah, blah.

It's like, you know, these are your normie democratic voters, right? This is a sign. And Harry Enton just did a piece last week of, like, there is no divide in the Democratic Party on Israel. There is a divide between the base and leadership. But in terms of where the base is, there is no divide with regard to policy on Israel, APAC, Palestine, Middle East, more broadly. And so, you know, these, you are going to have a record. You're having that recant. I was thinking about the fact, too. It was just 2022 when Haley Stevens won in a primary against Andy Lemon and who was more progressive and as like a liberal

Zionist. And she was able to defeat him, I think pretty soundly, in that primary. That was just four years ago to show you how quickly. There's no way she wins. Today, that primary reju- not a chance she wins a Democratic primary against him in these, you know, in these conditions. Yeah, yeah, I think that's right. And that was such a pivotal race, too, because Andy Levin was a synagogue president, called himself a liberal Zionist, but would always defend Rashida Taleb and Ilhan Omar against charges of anti-Semitism and saying, no, they have legitimate serious criticisms of Israel that need to be listened to. And you should not be smearing them for them because they are right about what they're saying. here, one, two, and three.

And APEC was very explicit that they considered him a more serious threat in some ways than Rashida Taleb and Ilan Omar because of the credibility that being a synagogue president gives you on that issue. And so spent millions backing Stevens over him. But I think you're right that he would win. And this is the Levin's dynasty. That's not a small thing. Sandy Levin, Carl Levin, like, they go way back in Michigan.

to be able to knock him out was a real flex of their power that I don't think they have anymore. And you talked about the Jesus Christ statue with Emily earlier, right? Yeah. So that happened in southern Lebanon. And I think a lot of the Democratic voting bases, a lot more sophisticated about this stuff right now. They actually, a lot of them know that Hezbollah was born out of these Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. And so it's like, this guy is saying nice things about Hezbo, people are like, well, maybe Israel shouldn't be occupying southern Lebanon, destroying statues of Christ, blowing up, using white phosphorus, blowing up villages, Christian and Muslim. And so the charge that he said something nice about Hezbo, it doesn't land the same way when people have a more fulsome understanding of who Hezbollah is resisting.

I think it's also just the charge of anti-Semitism has been so overplayed that, you know, it unfortunately becomes almost like a badge of honor. Like, oh, if you're being smeared, you probably did something right. You probably did something morally courageous because that's the upside down that we live in now, where if you dare to oppose a genocide and say, hey, we shouldn't be sending, you know, bombs and bulldozers to murder people and destroy entire village. then you get tagged as an anti-Semite. So I think that's part of what it is too, is, you know, in a similar way that, and I'm not equating the two, but in a similar way that for a lot of people,

the, you know, that the hated media establishment hated Trump and that these like liberal villains hated Trump, that was a signal to them, oh, this guy must be pretty good then. If he's pissing off all the right people, I think there's a similar dynamic here too of like, oh, you're pissing off the right people. You must be the candidate for me.

And I do think that the whole Hassan Piker, freak out, manufactured freak out, because Abdul's side brought him in to have a rally and there was a whole like, do you condemn Hassan Piker? And Mallory McMorough threw in with Haley Stevens and the side that said, no, we should not associate with Hesan Piker. I think that has really backfired. You know, it is given Abdul a lot of momentum because it clarified for people where everybody stood in the race. And the Democratic base is looking for candidates like Abdul. And Mallory McMorra up to that point had done a good job of being like, I'm more or less like with. him where he is. And, you know, that kind of revealed, it's, it's an issue where it's hard to straddle

the line. And it revealed, okay, no, she's on that side. So we're, we're consolidating behind Abdul. And he is the one, if you believe, the polls, that has all the momentum in the race right now. He was, you know, hanging in there in third, but like pretty close behind, but in third consistently in the polls. Now he's either, he's, you know, more or less tied for the lead with her and is gaining steam at obviously the most critical time as you had into primary day. Yeah, and we talked about this last week. We did that poll with Dropsite and Zateo, where we asked, basically, is APAC a proxy for you? And does, if somebody is willing to stand up, if somebody is not willing to stand up to APAC, do you think that they will sell you out on other issues? Yeah. And something like 70 plus percent

of Democratic primary voters were like, yes, I agree with that statement. Yeah. So it's, so people are like, oh, this is just a foreign policy issue, it's just a few million people over the Middle East. No, to them, to them, you know, we're busy people. It's hard for us to figure out, you know, who we can put our trust in to represent us in Washington. And so you need to look for these clues. Yeah, it's a signal of character. For a while it used to be Medicare. If they say they support Medicare for all, that's going to cost them a lot of corporate donors. And that's a signal to me of where they stand. Yep. And so even if you already had health insurance and wasn't your number one She's like, okay, I get it. I'm with this person over here because they said that. Now it's,

now it's this. I will not take APEC money. Yeah. And one last thing on this, because I'm also seeing a lot of commentary about, oh, Jewish Democrats are politically homeless. It is disgusting and just incorrect to assume that all Jews, period, support the murderous, genocidal actions of the Israeli terror state. I mean, that is actually anti-Semitic and disgusting. And just factually, it's just not true. There was a poll recently that came out about how a large percentage of Jewish Americans also oppose APAC and are looking for candidates that oppose APAC and refuse their dollars. So people need to stop with this nonsense. I mean, historically, Jewish Americans have been some of the strongest supporters of civil rights, of social justice, of universal human rights. And that tradition, you know, continues to this day.

Not saying that it's, you know, uniform across the board. Of course, there is a lot of pro-Israel sentiment. within, you know, I mean, this is like a culture that you're raised in, and that's going to have an impact. There's no doubt about it. But to paint with this broad brush and say, oh, well, Jewish Democrats are politically homeless now because we've got candidates who refuse to support a genocide. I think it's just utterly disgusting. Yeah. All right. Let's go ahead and talk about these AI avatars that are now being used to push the Iran war. Canadian women are looking for more. More into themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are at them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce

The Honest Talk Podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast and IHart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. 2%.

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are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side, a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's T-W-O-Persent on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's two golden rules that any man should live by.

Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And Rule 2, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck.

I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe.

On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So as the number of actual real-life human being supporters of the war in Iran on the American side, dwindle, apparently that's not a big problem because you can just use AI to create fake humans and push your pro-war propaganda. Let's go ahead and take a look at some.

some of the characters that are being created. If this offends, you could keep scrolling. But if you love Trump, you just gained a follower. Hit, follow. If this offends, you could keep scrolling. But if you love Trump, you just gained a follower. Hit, follow. If this offends, you could keep scrolling.

But if you love Trump, you just gained a follower. Hit, follow. If this offends, you could keep scrolling. But if you love Trump, you just gained a follower. Hit, follow. It's not too sophisticated there, I would say. For people who are just listening, you've got like very beautiful women who are all in like military, either like casual or actually in uniform.

And they're obviously all saying the exact same line. Were you offended? I'm totally offended. Very awkward cadence. Very awkward cadence there too. If this offends you, keep scrolling. Yeah. But it is, I don't know, it's both very dystopian and bleak.

And also kind of pathetic because the Trump coalition is really falling apart at this point. And the, you know, Iran-pro-Iran war coalition never really existed to begin with. So it feels like, you know, this is kind of last-ditch effort to gin up some sort of public support. The problem is, of course, they're going to get so much better. Like, okay, they're, like, embarrassingly bad now. Yeah. But pretty soon, it's going to be pretty hard to tell the difference. between, you know, real people and fake ones on there.

People already have a very hard time telling the bots from real people. And then the real people start acting more like bots. True. As it just kind of infuses the... With culture. And we all get dumber. And if your sense of where the public is on an issue comes from your interactions, online, what happens when you can't tell whether something's real or not, and you're just

getting bombarded by these beautiful women telling you that your position is correct? And that you just gained a follower. It's like, wait, how did that happen? How did I get a follower? Yeah. Well, and we're already at the place where, look, it's easy for us to look at these because this is part of a news article about how these are fake. and be like, oh, these are obviously fake.

But it is already at the point where it's hard to tell. It's already at the point. And also to your point where the humans are behaving enough like bots where it's difficult to distinguish between bot behavior and human behavior because we're all such like so many mindless sheep out there who would post something like this. And it also allows real things to be covered up. So yesterday, you know, we talked earlier in the show about the, the Israeli soldier smashing the statue of Christ in southern Lebanon.

Eunice Tarawi posted that. After he posted, I reached out to him. It's like, hey, can you show me where this came from originally? And he showed me the account. And so I'm like, oh, okay, this is definitely 100% real. So I shared that. And I reported this is real. I've confirmed this.

And even despite that, and despite people knowing that I'm a journalist with 20 years of history of getting things right. A lot of people were like, no, it's not. It's AI. Grock says it's AI. This chatbot says it's AI. And I bet there are still people to this day, today, despite Netanyahu coming out and confirming that it's real and apologizing for it, are still saying it's AI. Yeah. So, and the better that AI gets, then the more it's going to give people the ability to just say, well, this thing that I don't want to confront politically is AI. And if people won't do that, you can have AI bots come out and say that this thing is AI. Yeah. And so if it's impossible to understand what the true will of the people is, how do you have, how do you allow people,

how does that become expressed publicly? Like, what is a democracy? Like, what are the forms of democracy that can even exist if you don't have any idea of what's, what the, what the will of the people is and what's producing that will? How do you measure it? So yeah, this is like the beginning of the end of like an era kind of thing. Remember Trump saying that the pro-Iranian government celebrations in the streets were AI? Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's very possible he actually believed that. Even though the New York Times had a reporter there filming it. Yeah. Yeah, he probably might have believed it. So it very not at all hard to imagine the president of the United States getting taken in by. AI scams and believing, you know, whoever is telling, oh, that's not real, that's fake,

you know, don't worry about that. Actually, they're on the verge of collapse. And so even someone who should have access to, like, the best information on the planet is, you know, a boomer, adult, like, who, brain who wants to believe whatever he wants to believe and is easily taken in by this crime. So, no, we're already, we're already through the looking glass. We're already in the dystopia or all of the, you know, images of horror. Your example of the desecration of that Jesus statue is a perfect one, but there were so many times over the course of the gem side in Gaza where the allegation went, oh, this is stage, this isn't real, this is AI, etc.

And if you're a person who doesn't want to believe that Israel is capable of these horrific crimes, that's a very comfortable space for your brain to go. And then you can just any images you see that don't accord with the way you want reality to be, you can just easily dismiss image to the side. Yep. Yep, exactly. And whether you believe it's AI or not, you can just claim you do, and then just move on. Yeah. So you've got the actual AI that is deceiving people. You've got the allegations that real things are AI that are deceiving people. And no one seems to be really leading the charge to do anything about the complete destruction of any sort of shared sense of reality in our society. And at the same time, you want to put E3 up on the screen just because, again, this is very tied in with what's going on. on with AI and the development we're at. The job market in Hollywood is completely collapsing. Now, this is not all AI. There's a lot that's going on there that we could have Griffin on to talk

a lot about. But one thing that is also, you know, very likely to upend this entire significant industry that is a major cultural, it's important culturally, obviously, for sort of like American soft power around the world, but also just important as an industry that creates jobs in America and creative output, AI is going to be very transformational there. And we're also already seeing the way with programmers coming out of college, the way those jobs are being destroyed. So all kinds of negative impact already showing up in the numbers. Yeah. Hollywood was already facing Hollywood and Los Angeles facing this kind of ghost town problem

before AI really picked up with, you know, whether it was Atlanta or Canada or around the world, you know, picking up shoots and editors working around the world, to then also have kind of the back-end production, mostly eliminated. Mm-hmm. Automated, yeah. Like, I mean, Los Angeles still have beautiful weather, but other than that, what's it going to do? Like, who's going to clean your mansion? Like, what, this is, this is heading in a really dark direction unless something, unless people kind of grab control of it.

Yeah. And actually value like human creative art and output, which, sorry, unfortunately, there's not a lot of side of given the amount of slop that's already consumed and celebrated. Let's go ahead and turn to what's going on in Cuba. You know, we don't want to lose sight of that, given that Trump continues to make threats there and insist that, you know, after a run, whenever that concludes, he's going to turn his eyes to Cuba. Canadian women are looking for more. More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart.

And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast and IHeart Radio or wherever you're. listen to your podcasts. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter, and on my podcast, 2%. I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking

with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's T-W-O-Persent on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's two golden rules that any man should live by.

Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck.

I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. They said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends.

Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. According to new reporting from Zateo and also confirmed by USA Today, Cuba could be next, Donald Trump saying they might hit it on the way back from Iran, but sources telling Zatea and also USA Today that serious military plans are being drawn up a foreign assault on the island.

President Trump himself was asked about, you know, how significant the planning is towards that type of military action. Let's take a look at how he parses what he's planning to do with Cuba. been reports that the Pentagon's preparing for military action in Cuba. Are those reports true? Is Cuba next? Well, it depends on what your definition of military action is. Would it look like Venezuela or Iran? Really, it does. It depends on what your definition of military action is, as Bill Clinton would say. You understand that? No. That a lot of people don't understand that.

Joining us to discuss this is Drop Sites Latin America Bureau Chief Jose Luis Granados Seja. Jose Luis, thank you so much for being here. Jose, just got back from Havana yesterday on a reporting trip. Thank you for being here. Absolutely. Thank you so much for the invitation. Yeah, so what is the, what was the mood on the island when it comes to the question of whether or not there's going to be an American assault? I would first begin by saying that, you know, I talked to dozens of Cubans from, you know, hotel workers to people on the street, to people engaged in private businesses, to young journalists, government officials.

Overall, the message from the Cuban population is that they want to have a peaceful coexistence with the United States. They want to have a positive relationship. They know that it's possible because it happened before. There was this diplomatic breakthrough with the Obama administration. Obviously, we know that Trump reversed that and then Biden kept it largely in place. And then Trump comes back and is actually doubling down on this policy. And now, of course, engaging in direct threats, threats of war, right? I think we shouldn't, you know, dance around the fact that this language is very bellicose, you know, that when U.S. officials are asked about a potential military aggression when they say, well, it depends what you mean.

It doesn't really matter how they want to parse it. An aggression against Cuba is an act of war. But, you know, and the Cuban population wants peace. But the other thing I would say is that there is an incredible determination by the Cuban population to resist, to defend their country, to defend their sovereignty. You know, they're in these negotiations with the U.S. government. They call them talks, dialogues because, of course, Cuba says we're not going to negotiate our political system.

We're not going to negotiate our sovereignty. But we want to find a peaceful resolution to this, a diplomatic solution to this. But I think they also want to send them. the message to the U.S. government, to the Pentagon, that this won't be easy, that this won't be, you know, a simple operation, that if they do engage in an act of war against them, that they should expect the entire Cuban population to resist. And that's because that's their military doctrine. It's called the war of all the people. And so you can talk to members of the Cuban militia, members of the Cuban on forces, but even ordinary citizens who understand that there's a place for

them. And this is overwhelmingly the attitude of the Cuban population. that they're willing to put their lives on the line to defend their country in the face of an aggression. And so I think there's been, you know, many military experts talking about the miscalculation that the United States made when it comes to Iran, engaging in aggression and receiving what arguably was an unexpected response.

I think that would be similarly the case of Cuba. Just a really firm determination by the Cuban people to defend their system. And yes, their socialist model. That is something that is also part of the discourse that we're hearing from the Cubans, from government officials, but also from the population. They defend their system. They're proud of it. You know, being in Cuba and experiencing it on the firsthand, I hadn't been in 20 years. So I'd been a long time. You know, that drive, that passion that

they have is still so present to share everything that they have, despite what, admittedly, and everyone else will also tell you this, there are very challenging circumstances on the island right now. Yeah. Jose Luis, it's important that we know. know what kind of hotel you stayed in and also whether Hassan Piker was anywhere nearby before we can really discern the importance of your reporting here. Now, I am curious that what are the conditions on the ground, you know, day-to-day has there been an easing? I know some fuel and supplies have been able to get in. So what we're able to witness in regard to that? You know, the situation is dramatic. It's very difficult. You know, I was there attending

the Batria Colloquium. It's the first one that they've had. And this one was held in very challenging circumstances. But despite that, you know, what we saw was a very well-run operation. People really going, you know, all out to try to perhaps insulate us a bit from the realities. But of course, it's undeniable, right? You know, there were power outages in the middle of a presentation, and we'd all have to patiently wait and wait for the power to come in or the generator to kick in so that, you know, the microphones would work again, and people would be able to participate in the event.

You know, I would state, if you want to know, Paceo Reform. So I'm a Mexican citizen. I don't have to run my hotel stays by the U.S. government. I don't need to listen to those rules. I can stay wherever I want. And, you know, it's a modest hotel. But even then, right? Because it happens to be next to a hospital. It counts on a regular supply of electricity. But you cross the street and the streets are blacked out because there is no power, right? You know, I expect that the young of that little bit of fuel that was able to come in. Some of it was allocated to us so that we would make sure that we had. that, you know, diesel for the generators. But, you know, there was this one moment. I went out one night to go to the corner store, and there was one single light post that had electricity. And, of course, all of the young people from that neighborhood were gathered there playing football in the streets.

Because when there's no electricity, when it's too hot to stay inside your home, when there's, you know, no radio to listen to, no TV to watch, you know, internet is very limited because of the lack of electricity. It's not because of government censorship. You know, people get together and do. what they can and there's an extraordinary resilience amongst the population to do what's best. But, you know, they will tell you. The situation is very challenging. And the capital in a lot of ways is under the best of the circumstances on the island, right? If you talk to people who've been

able to go into the provinces, they'll tell you. It's not just about having our, you know, a couple of hours of power in the day. It's we're talking about a couple of hours of power throughout the week. You know, people will settle an alarm or they'll make sure to leave their lights on in case the power comes up in the middle of the night, they wake up and they go and, you know, do what they need to do, run the washing machine, right? Like, whatever requires power to charge up their equipment in the middle of the night because that's the only way it's possible, right?

It is a very challenging circumstance. But I do think one thing I wanted to mention is just, you know, there's this saying that the Cubans use. It's something I've actually carried in my heart for a very long time, which is that it's not about giving what's left over. It's about sharing what we have. And even here, right, international guests, come to visit. You know, they did everything they could to share the little that they have,

to make sure that the event could happen smoothly. But even, you know, the meals were very modest, admittedly, right? We're talking about, you know, basically not enough calories to survive on. You know, this is very, very limited. But there they were, giving us the little bit of meat that they have access to to make sure that we could be well fed so we could participate in the event. And that is the Cuban solidarity model, you know, and it's true of international events. You know, Ryan was there a few weeks ago for the Nostarmatica convoys on a reporting trip as well. You know, I'm sure he saw the same thing of just this willingness to, here's what we have. We know it's not a lot, but let's share it together.

And, you know, that applies into its international policy as well, right? We've seen this effort to crack down on the Cuban medical doctors program. But that, you know, there's a lot of propaganda around it from the U.S. side, saying that it's slavery, you know, that it's abusive, that it's exploitative. No, you know, it is Cuba trying to share what it has. What does Cuba have? Doesn't have a lot of industry, but it does have a lot of doctors. And so it sends them throughout the world. And that is so much of what is representative of the Cuban people that often goes on mentioned in so much of the mainstream media, that the Cuban people really are, you know, an incredibly generous and loving population who want to talk to everybody who's willing to listen because they understand that the threat is really real. Certainly there is, I was also struck by the level of social cohesion kind of that remained, because if the U.S., for instance, was in a state of almost perpetual blackouts for extended periods of time, it would be a deeply Hobbesian situation, I think would be confronting. Cubans here in the United States have a slightly kind of different version of solidarity as they express it.

If we can put up F3, this is Representative Maria Alvira Salazar. She was sharing a poll in the Miami Herald that has Cuban Americans differing with non-Cuban Americans here in the United States very strongly supporting a military attack on Cuba, whereas Americans, other than Cubans, very strongly oppose a U.S. attack on Cuba. And she says, Cuban Americans are sick of waiting for a free Cuba. The message is clear. The time for change in Cuba is now and decisive U.S. military action to end the dictatorship has overwhelming support. We've always known this. President Trump knows it, and so does the regime. Freedom for Cuba is closer than ever with or without resistance from dictator Diaz Canal and the Castro criminal family. So, Jose, you actually interacted a bit with President Diaz Canal. What was his reaction to, you actually. the increasingly, you know, explicit threats from the U.S.? Similar to the Cuban population, just a firm determination that they're going to resist. And he understands that it could quite possibly mean his life or his freedom, right?

We're not sure exactly what the United States has planned. You know, in the clip you showed at the beginning, there was this mention, is it going to be like Venezuela? Is it going to be like Iran? Essentially, you know, we know that what they are likely, aiming at is some kind of decapitation, right? But I would say that also the Cuban system is different. It is a system that is very consolidated, right, where the Cuban Communist Party has very firmly established itself with, in terms of all of the different various mechanisms of the state and of society. So even if there is a decapitation, even if they take out the leadership and the next line and the

next line, the expectation is, and the order, the instructions that are coming from the top is that it doesn't matter, that we will put the next person in line. And that next person understands that their responsibility is to continue to resist. You know, obviously, we don't know how things will play out, and there could be a surprise. There could be elements that are less faithful. But my sense is that the Cuban leadership understands the states. You know, they understand that this is a life or death scenario. I mean, it effectively is already. The crisis is serious. And so they understand that. that it means having to put their lives on the line. And Diazcanal, like the Cuban population, are willing to say that in those explicit terms, that they understand what it means,

but that they have a right to self-defense, they have a right to protect their sovereignty, and to continue to face down these direct military aggressions. They want to emphasize, of course, as always, right, let's find a diplomatic solution to this. It is perfectly possible, but it's very difficult to feel like that's possible, especially when you read, the reports, right? There was this recent report from the New York Times where they say the State Department official told the New York Times that the American delegation insisted that Mr. Trump was open to a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but signaled that the United States would not tolerate in resistance to its demands, which is to say, I mean, if you come to the

negotiating table and you're not willing to concede anything, then you're not really negotiating anything, right? You are trying to extort the population through by threats of violence. And those threats are real. We've seen them play out in Iran, but we've seen them play out in Latin America as well. So the leadership has been very vehement. And just to close on this, you know, the gathering happened to coincide on very important dates in Cuban history. So there, of course, most of people will be familiar with the Bay of Pigs. The Bay of Pigs was preceded by the bombing of airports in Cuba where many Cubans died. And it was actually at one of the rallies held after that bombing on April 16, 1961, where Fidel Castro declares the socialist character of the Cuban

revolution, right? He says, this is what they cannot forgive. The fact that we are right here under their very noses and that we have carried out a socialist revolution right under the nose of the United States. That's true today in 2006 as it was in 1961. Jose Luis, thank you so much for your insights. We really appreciate it. It's always valuable. Thank you so much. All right, before we wrap, had a quick update on what we were talking about earlier, the members of the delegation. I guess J.D. Vance was in, then he was out. Now it looks like he's in. Yeah, BBC and others reporting advances on his way to Islamabad. Do you read anything into the inclusion or exclusion of J.D. Vance, significance?

I do think that his involvement gets us closer to a deal because I don't think the Iranians take Wittkov or Kushner seriously and assume them to be just agents of Netanyahu and who are there to like make sure a deal doesn't happen. Whereas they do think that Vance has his own presidential ambitions, that he was, you know, against the war. He also doesn't have the corrupt business ties that they have to. He does not have billions of dollars tied up with the Gulf or Pakistan crypto firms. Yeah. Netanyahu didn't sleep in his childhood bed like with Kushner. Yeah. I mean, you do have the Peter Thiel connect, but it's a little less, you know, I directly have investments in this region that I'm looking after with my decision making as well. And not to mention Kushner and Witkoff, I think we're unable to just like understand the deal terms before the war as well. So I'm sure they take a look at that as well. So in any case, we're going to be following it closely. As you guys know, Saga will be back in tomorrow. So we will track all of the latest developments. Thank you to Ryan and Emily for combining forces to help us put.

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