Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 6/19/24: Bibi Attacks Biden, Hezbollah Insane Drone Footage, Trump Punishes DeSantis Ally, Carville Says Trump Will Ditch Debate, Boeing Plane On Fire As CEO Grilled, Pentagon AntiVax Psyop

Episode Date: June 19, 2024

Krystal and Emily discuss Bibi attacking Biden over weapons shipments, Hezbollah drops insane combat footage, Trump punishes DeSantis ally in key House election, Carville says to bet money Trump will ditch first debate with Biden, Boeing plane catches fire as CEO grilled at Congress, Glenn Greenwald details Pentagon anti-China vax psyop.    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.com/   Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The OGs of uncensored motherhood are back and badder than ever. I'm Erica. And I'm Mila. And we're the hosts of the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast, brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday. Yeah, we're moms. But not your mommy. Historically, men talk too much.

And women have quietly listened. And all that stops here. If you like witty women, then this is your tribe. Listen to the Good Moms, Bad Choices podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect podcast network, the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you go to find your podcast. I'm Michael Kasson, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your guide on good company. The podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi.

We dive into the competitive world of streaming. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. There are so many stories out there. And if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Over the years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned no town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've heard from hundreds of people across the country with an unsolved murder in their community.

I was calling about the murder of my husband. The murderer is still out there. Each week, I investigate a new case. If there is a case we should hear about, call 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, Ready or Not 2024 is here, and we here at Breaking Points are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election. We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio, add staff, give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that. Let's get to the show. Good morning. Welcome to CounterPoints. I'm joined not by Ryan Grimm,

but by Candace Owens. I mean, Crystal Ball. Crystal, thank you so much for stopping by for another girl's show. It's always fun to have you here. And we should just invite Candice in too. Make it even more fun. While we're doing the girl thing, we could just, yeah, we could all three of us. Yeah. Lots to get into this morning.

I was going to say, this show is packed because we're in primary election season. Actually, we have a lot to talk about just from Virginia in the primary election season. Things are getting a little bit wild down in

Virginia, but we're going to be starting with updates from Israel. Then we will be moving on to talk about, break down some of the election results last night. Some of them are actually still real nail biters. We're talking about hundreds of votes separating people, including the chairman of the Freedom Caucus. We're then going to discuss James Carville's, I think, maybe prescient prediction about the debates next week. Crystal, coming up really quickly, crazy new video of an Air Canada Boeing jet catching on fire. discussed the insane Reuters story that found an incredible Pentagon operation, basically to undermine vaccines during COVID, undermine trust and faith in vaccines, in the Chinese vaccine, we should say. So Glenn is going to be here to talk to us about all of that. As a reminder, BreakingPoints.com to to subscribe premium. You get all of CounterPoints.

You get it in your inbox early as opposed to the few segments that end up on YouTube. You get it all right there and it goes straight to you. So on that note, Crystal, crazy updates from Netanyahu world yesterday. Probably a lot of people have seen, but if they haven't, we should start with that. Yeah, indeed. So many more difficult conversations happening behind the scenes because the Biden administration reportedly very, very angry about this video that Bibi Netanyahu put out. I'll show you the video in just a moment,

but let's actually start with the Axios report about the fallout from this video. This is Barack Ravid, who is actually, he writes for Axios. He's also an Israeli journalist, and he always gets these, like, they're very upset. They're having tough conversations, quote unquote, scoops. So the latest scoop is the White House is canceling a meeting and scolding Netanyahu in protest over this video that he put out. Apparently, some Israeli officials were on their way to Washington for talks about what's going on with Iran. Those meetings were canceled. We also had a White House aide who was in Israel effectively at the time when this BB video was put out.

And that's the individual who supposedly had the, you know, tough conversations behind the scenes. Effectively, what happened is Bibi put out this video in spite of all that, you know, I mean, Biden has done basically everything Bibi Netanyahu has wanted him to do, the bear hug, the support has been quite fulsome this entire time over the criticism of many in his own party.

In spite of all of that, Bibi put out an English language video criticizing Biden and claiming that he's not sending all of the weapons and ammo that Israel actually wants. And Bibi also compares himself to Churchill because, of course, he does. Let's take a listen to that video. When Secretary Blinken was recently here in Israel, we had a candid conversation. I said I deeply appreciated the support the U.S. has given Israel from the beginning of the war. But I also said something else. I said it's inconceivable that in the past

few months the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel. Israel, America's closest ally, fighting for its life, fighting against Iran and our other common enemies. Secretary Blinken assured me that the administration is working day and night to remove these bottlenecks. I certainly hope that's the case. It should be the case. During World War II, Churchill told the United States, give us the tools, we'll do the job. And I say, give us the tools and we'll finish the job a lot faster. So, Crystal, he didn't just compare himself to Churchill there. He actually sort of cast himself as someone greater than Churchill.

Yes, yes. Churchill 2.0, the new and improved Churchill. That's Bibi Netanyahu. Amazing, amazing stuff there. The administration was really left kind of shocked apparently because the truth of the matter is they have given Israel everything that Israel has wanted at the time and place that Israel has wanted it, with the exception of this one shipment of 500 2,000 pound bombs. And we can put this up on the screen. We have Tony Blinken's official response to Netanyahu. He says, we continue to review one shipment that President Biden talked about regarding 2,000 pound bombs because of our concern about their use in densely populated areas like Rafah.

That remains under review, but everything else is moving as it would normally move. It also seemed to be somewhat of a coordinated political attack because you also had Mitch McConnell putting out this statement at the same time on the Senate floor. He said that Israel needs the weapons the president has withheld. It needs the time and space to finish the job. We can put this up on the screen, guys. This should be A3. It needs the freedom to operate on its own timetable based on tactical reality in the Middle East, not on the political winds in Washington. Another U.S. official anonymously said, no idea what he's talking about. Only one shipment of the unguided 500, 2,000 pound bombs was paused. So, you know,

there's a lot of political backgrounds here, Emily. I mean, first of all, Democrats and Republicans just came together to invite this dude to come speak to Congress. A lot of Democrats very upset about that plane boycott or perhaps even, you know, give some counter protest of some sort to be becoming. Biden has been nothing but supportive of Israel's assault on Gaza, even the purported red line of invasion of Rafah. I mean, Israel's in Rafah. They have been for quite some time. It has not led to any actual consequences. And you also know and have known for a long time that ultimately Bibi would rather have Trump in office, who's not even going to do any of the hand-wringing, virtue-signaling stuff. So just on an ethical, moral, and political level,

once again, showing the foolishness of the Biden administration. Yeah, and the invitation to Netanyahu was originally extended as kind of a diplomatic chess piece. not feeling confident that what they were saying about Rafah and what they were saying about Israel's prosecution of the war was being taken very seriously. And so they thought, well, we can extend an invitation for Netanyahu to address Congress. And it's become a complete disaster for them because it's, I don't know, Crystal, that it's actually going to happen. At this point, I think it's just not going to happen because I don't know how they're going to make it happen in a way that's not disastrous for basically their support for the war period

because it's going to be such a harsh reception for Netanyahu from so many House Democrats that it will look so bad. I mean, I don't know. That's my prediction. Look bad for who, though? Because I don't think Bebe cares. To voters.

To voters. I mean, the ship has sailed in a lot of ways, though, because they already extended the invitation. I think there's a date on the books. So maybe there's some way to back out of that. But it doesn't look like this White House is willing to take a strong stand on much of anything. So I think they'll probably let him come and do his thing. He sees it as beneficial to him

domestically in Israel. His polls seem to go up when he's seen putting out these videos, you know, putting the U.S. in our place and, you know, standing up for Israel, etc., etc. You know, he's still unpopular in Israel, but he's doing better than he was doing right after October 7th. He has effectively, you know, let some of the fury over the manifest security failures of which we continue to learn more about die down and give himself a chance at political survival because it's not just political survival. He also is facing ultimately corruption charges that could land him in prison as well. So, you know, I think as long as he sees this visit as beneficial to himself, then it is likely to go forward. But we'll see how all of that happens. I mean, the other thing I have to comment on is like, you know, they're pulling a meeting.

They're having the tough conversations behind the scenes. So it's not like there's any real consequence to this video and this, you know, public humiliation of the president of the United States. So this isn't the first time that he's been publicly humiliated at the hands of Bibi Netanyahu. That's basically been the story of this war. They're actually more perturbed and upset over this video than they are over the complete flouting of any of the supposed red lines that have been laid out by the U.S. previously. I mean, you know, we've been saying for months and months there needs to be more humanitarian aid moving. There's not. You know, there's dire conditions in northern Gaza and in southern Gaza. Actually, since we put the pier into place, and now the pier is basically dead and gone and over,

by the way, the amount of humanitarian aid has actually fallen. So, you know, that has been completely flouted, you know, with horrific consequences for people on the ground. And also yet another humiliation of the Biden administration. We're about to talk about this very likely escalation in the war vis-a-vis Hezbollah in Lebanon. That is something else that from the beginning, the U.S. has been saying, like, we don't want to go there. We need to make sure that this doesn't happen. Well, guess what? It looks like it's going to happen. And then the most clear-cut example is Rafah. You know, the president made a point of saying, we will reevaluate if there is a major invasion of RAFA. Well, there has been. It's been ongoing for weeks and weeks now,

and we've never heard anything more about it. There hasn't been any consequences. This one weapon shipment that they paused is it. That's the extent of it. And in spite of all of that, the fact that there's even been any rhetorical, mild criticism of Israel has led to this video from Bibi Netanyahu and Republicans, by the way, positioning themselves to say, oh, we'll be even more pro-Israel.

We won't even hand-ring at all. So just an extraordinary set of circumstances. And like I said before, I think really reveals the foolishness of the Biden policy of the bear hug of Netanyahu that we've seen play out for months at this point. Yeah, I mean, that's why I'm trying to imagine the pomp and circumstance of Netanyahu rolling into Congress in a matter of weeks. And you have the Biden administration, you have Democrats. I mean, Republicans are happy to rally around Netanyahu. It's just such a disaster for Democrats because it's going to, like, if they

are really sensitive about the video, I think that's an interesting point that this video in particular is like what has irked them so much. So Netanyahu moving through D.C., talking to reporters. I mean, I wouldn't put money on it exactly, but for Netanyahu, to your point, which I think is an important one, it's like he wants those optics, badly wants those optics for Democrats. Maybe they don't even realize what a disaster it'll be just in terms of all the questions he's going to answer, the criticism he's going to level at the United States, and then them having to answer for that and them having to be boycotting the speech or whatever. It's just buckle up if you're a House Democrat. Yeah. And it's not just like AOC and Ilhan Omar and the squad that are planning to skip the speech. Jim Clyburn has said he's not going to go.

So you have some number, significant number of mainstream Democrats who also are not going to attend. And partly, you know, Bibi Netanyahu has been the person probably most responsible for making attitudes towards Israel more partisan, both because of his conduct,

you know, indefensible conduct in this war in Gaza, and also because you'll recall, he came and spoke to Congress over the objections of President Obama back when Obama was negotiating the Iranian nuclear deal and Bibi came and really inserted himself in a partisan way. And also was really betting and pretty clearly betting that Romney was going to beat Obama in 2012. That obviously didn't work out. There's also reporting from the time of Biden and Hillary

Clinton actually were going to be taking a bit of a tougher line towards Netanyahu. And Biden is the one who came in and said, listen, I'm like your only friend and like undermined his own president's foreign policy with regards to this. So, you know, Bibi is perfectly willing to be partisan. He's perfectly willing to make it clear who he prefers. At this point, I think he has total understanding and clarity that Biden is unable,

unwilling, whatever, to actually, you know, impose any sort of consequences. And so he's just going to do what he likes and what he feels serves not Israel, not his people, but his own personal, narrow political interests. So I, you know, I think that's the way that we, that's the lens through which we should view basically all of his actions. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King,

John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free

with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her. And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills

I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your guide on Good Company, the podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's

next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi, for a conversation that's anything but ordinary. We dive into the competitive world of streaming, how she's turning so-called niche into mainstream gold, connecting audiences with stories that truly make them feel seen. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. It's this idea that there are so many stories out there, and if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Get a front row seat to where media, marketing, technology, entertainment, and sports collide.

And hear how leaders like Anjali are carving out space and shaking things up a bit in the most crowded of markets. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. She was a decorated veteran, a Marine who saved her comrades, a hero. She was stoic, modest, tough, someone who inspired people. Everyone thought they knew her, until they didn't. I remember sitting on her couch and asking her, is this real? Is this real? Is this real? Is this real? I just couldn't wrap my head around what kind of person would do that

to another person that was getting treatment, that was, you know, dying. This is a story all about trust and about a woman named Sarah Kavanaugh. I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying. Listen to Deep Cover, The Truth About Sarah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. At the same time, I mentioned before this very likely escalation into,

there's already been a lot of, you know, back and forth between Israel and Hezbollah. The whole northern part of Israel has been evacuated because of those ongoing, that ongoing fighting intentions. Well, this was extraordinary yesterday. You can put this up on the screen. So Hezbollah released drone footage showing sensitive, you know, key Israeli positions. We're talking chemical and oil storages. Most of this is around the port of Haifa. It appeared to show, according to a news report, parts of a factory belonging to a defense maker, including Iron Dome batteries, rocket

engine depots, David's slingshot facilities, and radar. So this is basically a provocation, Emily, by Hezbollah saying like, look, we're able to get our drones in here in spite of your Iron Dome systems and take a look at all of your sensitive positions. And if we can get our drones in there and get this kind of video, you can imagine what sort of military capabilities we would have as well. This comes as the Israelis are also projecting, they're saying they have operational plans in place.

They are very much threatening a wider escalation. You can put this up on the screen. So this is from The Guardian. Israeli foreign minister says decision on all-out war against Hezbollah is near. Sign-off on planning for a Lebanon offensive follows release of Hezbollah drone footage of Haifa in northern Israel. Let me read you a little bit of this. So Israel Katz, who is Israel's foreign affairs minister, he said in a post on Twitter that after those threats, quote, we are getting very close to the moment of deciding on changing the rules of the game

against Hezbollah and Lebanon. In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely beaten. Israel's military later said operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated and decisions were taken on the continuation of increasing the readiness of troops in the field. At the same time, we can put the next piece up on the continuation of increasing the readiness of troops in the field. At the same time,

we can put the next piece up on the screen. You did have a senior Biden advisor, although I don't know how senior this dude is. I've literally never heard of him. Special Envoy Amos Hochstein met with Netanyahu and Gallant. Part of the whole reason this dude was there to just try to head off a war with Hezbollah.

And once again, Emily, while he's there, literally for the purpose of trying to a war with Hezbollah. And once again, Emily, while he's there, literally for the purpose of trying to avoid war with Hezbollah, Israel is basically announcing their plans for war with Hezbollah. So that's where we are. Yeah. And it's actually an interesting, it's an interesting sort of split screen with what's happening in Rafah, because, you know, what we hear a lot of hawkish folks in Israel and outside Israel say is that they're surrounded by vicious enemies. And we can get into, you know, the deeper conversation about why that is, but it is true. And that means innocent people's lives

are very much hanging in the balance. And it's sort of unfortunate. The bridges that Israel has in some cases over the course of just the last like couple months, not fully burned, you know, to the point that you were making earlier, you know, they basically are still getting what they want from rubber stamps from the Biden administration. But the sort of moral credibility that has been, you know, with a lot of people who are involved in the negotiations, whether they're in the Biden administration or in the broader West, and diplomacy and all of that, now wanting to stave off, as we were just talking about Amos Hochstein, not a person I'd heard of either, great name, as he's trying to stave off the war. I have to imagine that these conversations are a lot more difficult

and any effort to prevent suffering of innocence is a lot more difficult because of some of this just wildly unnecessary prosecution of the war. Well, the Israeli public does not support the direction of Bibi Netanyahu. I mean, we're hearing more and more family members of hostages coming out and saying, like, Bibi Netanyahu is one of the key obstacles to the return of the hostages, which, of course, he's used the hostages rhetorically, you know, as a political weapon to justify continuing the war. But the hostage families themselves, many of them at least, see very clearly that, you know, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand the majority of the hostages were released through ceasefire negotiations. And Bibi Netanyahu, I mean,

Benny Gantz, former war cabinet member, came out and said this directly, that he was not interested. He was doing everything he could to undermine those potential negotiations. Now, I'm not taking Hamas's role out of this whatsoever, but always from the U.S. focus, these are the people that we are funding, that we are supporting, that we are backing unconditionally. And obviously, first and foremost, the actions have been devastating to the civilian population in Gaza, devastating to Gaza in general, you know, the levels of hunger, the level of annihilation, the reconstruction after whenever this is over is going to be years and years and years. It's just insane. The level of complete

destruction and devastation that we're talking about here. So that's first and foremost. But even from an Israeli political domestic security perspective, the decisions are incredibly foolish and very self-serving. And yet, if you were a real friend to Israel, you know, if Biden really was a true friend to Israel, sometimes you have to tell your friends difficult things. And you have to also, if you're the world superpower, hold them to account. And so the whole direction has been incredibly, I think, incredibly foolish, incredibly short-sighted from the Biden side. I think it's really damaging from the Israeli side. And now we're faced with, you know, another potential escalation, which can, I'm sure the Israelis have every interest in dragging us directly into that.

Will Biden resist that when he hasn't resisted anything else that the Israelis have wanted us to do? I think everyone should be very concerned about that. And Hezbollah is a serious adversary. I mean, they have a lot more weaponry and are a lot more serious militarily than Hamas ever could dream of being.

They also had no involvement on October 7th. And the core of this conflict right now between Israel and Hezbollah is all about Israel's assault in Gaza. That's the core of the problem there. It's the core of the problem with the Houthis, with Iran, of course, as Israel had that dramatic provocation of attacking the Iranian embassy. So once again, we are at a precipice of potential escalation and increased chaos here in the context of this conflict. And it's worth noting in the video, we started the segment talking about the Netanyahu video, that the United States government is reacting to. He mentions Iran. He went out of his way,

really, to cast the war as really one. And this is in his ability, in his attempt to persuade the United States or to even shame the United States into being more fully supportive, which is a high bar, obviously. He mentions that this is, or he casts this war as one that's really ultimately against Iran. And we're having this conversation after Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un just had a pretty warm meeting. And it's not hawkish or warmongering just to note how fragile the geopolitical ecosystem is right now. And so Netanyahu, Hezbollah, a war potentially with Hezbollah, Netanyahu talking in those terms about Iran. There's a hot war happening right now in Ukraine that the media seems to have suddenly forgotten about. So it's just, I think ultimately, the way that Netanyahu has gone about this war, whether it ultimately makes Americans more safe, whether it ultimately makes Israelis more safe, is genuinely an open question. But I mean, an open question

maybe. I mean, I personally don't think the answer to that question is yes. But, you know, we'll still see the scale of how this continues to escalate because it's not de-escalating. That much is very clear at the moment. Yeah, that's right. And, you know, Bibi wants to wait on Biden. He's hoping just like he hoped that Obama would get beat by Romney. He's hoping that Biden will get beaten by Trump. And, you know, that's the other thing that's just incredible to me is like, you know, even just from a petty political standpoint, this guy is not your ally. He doesn't want you to be in office. He's trying to knife you and undermine you at every possible point.

And you, you know, just even from like a very human, narrow, petty, self-interested perspective, you are unwilling, unable to do anything about it. So just, you know, more of the same of what we've been seeing, I think, over since October 7th at this point. Yeah, Lebanon is the place to watch going forward, sadly, looking like another escalation.

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

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott.

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Cor vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

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

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her and it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case,

bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still

somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never got any kind of answers for.

If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures, and your guide on good company. The podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood,

CEO of Tubi, for a conversation that's anything but ordinary. We dive into the competitive world of streaming, how she's turning so-called niche into mainstream gold, connecting audiences with stories that truly make them feel seen. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. It's this idea that there are so many stories out there, and if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Get a front row seat to where media, marketing, technology, entertainment, and sports collide.

And hear how leaders like Anjali are carving out space and shaking things up a bit in the most crowded of markets. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. She was a decorated veteran, a Marine who saved her comrades, a hero. She was stoic,

modest, tough, someone who inspired people. Everyone thought they knew her, until they didn't. I remember sitting on her couch and asking her, is this real? Is this real? Is this real? Is this real? I just couldn't wrap my head around what kind of person would do that

to another person that was getting treatment, that was, you know, dying. This is a story all about trust and about a woman named Sarah Kavanaugh. I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying. Listen to Deep Cover, The Truth About Sarah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Should we move on to domestic elections, Crystal?

Let's talk about it. All right. So Virginia in particular, Crystal's home state, for whatever reason, had some very interesting races last night. We can put this first element up on the screen from Punchbowl News, and they were digging into Virginia's 5th District, which results are actually still outstanding. We're going to get to them in just a moment. That, I think, might have been the most interesting race last night. We can put the next element up on the screen. We're just sort of taking a tour through these. There's a Democratic brawl in Virginia's 10th. Crystal, do you, before I move on from this, did you have any sort of takeaway on what was going on in Virginia's 10th district? Because

this one was kind of hard to get a handle on. There were so many candidates. Yeah. So this is Jennifer Wexton was representing this district. She has a neurological condition that is untreatable. And so she's stepping down. And so this is the primary to attempt to fill the seat. This is a district that is in the sort of ex-urban D.C. area centered in like Loudoun County, which used to in the very recent past, at least, you know, from my perspective, be consistently Republican. This is one of the

places that has really realigned into the Democratic Party. Now, Jennifer Wexner did not have an easy race. I think it was relatively close when she first won the seat. But this is seen as a district that Democrats at this point in time should be able to win. However, this primary apparently really went sideways. So first of all, because it is a prime, you know, opportunity for ambitious Democrats, you had a whole bunch of Democrats jump into this race. There was no consolidation behind like this one particular candidate. You had people who were well-known who had held positions of power. You had a woman, Eileen Fillercorn, who was the former, I think, state speaker of the house.

So you had a number of names that were well-known. It looked like this one dude was very well positioned. He'd raised the most money. Dan Helmer is his name. He was a state rep. And at the last minute, these revelations came out that he had been, he was a sort of serial sexual harasser, that the board that he previously had sat on, they had to change all their rules around sexual harassment because this dude was such a problem. So you had that. You also, with the woman I mentioned before, Eileen Fillercorn, you had a scandal involving her as well because she received the endorsement of this PAC Democratic majority for Israel that, if you guys follow Ryan's reporting, he's done a lot of reporting on. They're sort of APAC-aligned,

super PAC. They're solely pro-Israel and take the APAC line on that, et cetera. They endorse her. And the very next day, she donates $150,000 to them. So it really looked directly like she basically paid for that endorsement. So she was in the mix. So there was another person in this race

whose name was Crystal actually Call. She apparently was lying about her resume and really, like, embellishing beyond the norm. So there was just, like, a whole bunch of stuff. What the hell is going on? I don't know. People lost their minds in this race. But so there was a whole lot of stuff going on there. Ultimately, Democrats became very nervous about the fact that this dude, Dan Helmer, could still potentially win because the allegations came out so late. And, you know, they seem credible enough and like enough of a problem that it could potentially in a district that still is a swing district, hand that district to Republicans. He did not prevail, however.

So I think they're breathing a sigh of relief. And we have, I'm looking at, do you know what number element it is? We do have the results from that that we can show people of who ultimately was able to win the day. I think it's B4, guys. Yep, B4. I've seen enough.

Suhas Subramaniam, I'm gonna go with. Sorry, guys. Wins that district. So Cook Political is now giving it a rating of solid D. So I think the Democratic establishment, I didn't have a horse in this race. I was glad Eileen Fillercorn lost because of that whole DMFI thing, but that's about as far as it went for me. But anyway, they'll be happy that he won and not the other gentleman. So there you go. Yeah. And it was fairly close. I think he

won by like five. I think he ended up pulling it out by like five percentage points, somewhere around there. But we should also note, and I know this is always bizarre to people who've lived in Virginia for a long time, but if you Google wealthiest county in the United States, it is Loudoun County as of right now. They have the highest median income, sort of formerly rural area, further out than Fairfax County outside of D.C. But a lot of people from those big tech companies, defense contractors that have landed in Northern Virginia over the years. This is a district that's full of those sorts of people. It was a center of the sort of school board battle in 2020, 2021. So it's fairly interesting how this ended up playing out and that it became such a big battleground. I can't imagine the amount of money that was spent just for this one seat.

Yeah, Loudoun is a really beautiful area. It was, you know, was and in some ways still is this sort of like horse country, you know, so if you're a wealthy lobbyist and you have to commute into D.C. or you've retired, like this is sort of the prime area that you've moved to. I'm sure they've experienced a boom post-pandemic with people having the hybrid remote work schedules as well so that you can more easily live in a place like Loudoun where you are going to have a decent commute if you need to go into the city. But if you only have to do that a couple times a week, then it makes a lot of sense.

So in any case, this is an area, right, to point out, it was one of the centers of, like, the school board battles. I think Republicans, when they elected Glenn Youngkin, got very excited that this is the type of place that could be back in play. And that's still theoretically possible, but I do think Democrats got, you know, a decently strong contender here. And it's likely they'll be able to hold on to the seat. And that, of course, matters a lot when you consider what is the House margin right now, three seats or something like that. It's as close as it could possibly be. So each one of these seats becomes incredibly, like, pivotal and potentially determinative in terms of the next House majority.

Yeah, sigh of relief at the DNC. I'm sure the DCCC should say for these results. Now, staying in Virginia, because believe it or not, we have two more Virginia races to talk about. Eugene Vindman, a lot of people know what Alex Vindman, Alexander Vindman, but his twin brother, Eugene Vindman, who is also part of the whistleblowing on Donald Trump's quote, perfect phone call, which we needn't get into, Crystal.

But part of the whistleblowing and that entire sort of impeachment saga that played out during the Trump administration won a primary, a Democratic primary. This is for Abigail Spanberger's district, which I believe is Virginia 7. That's right. Virginia 7 yesterday, you get Eugene Vindman, twin brother, $5 million he raised to win this seat in Congress or the primary for the seat in Congress. Crystal, again, because this is Virginia, that is, I imagine, going to be a fairly contested general election. It's probably safe, Dem, but could actually turn into something going forward. Again, he raised $5 million. Spanberger is running for governor, sort of an establishment Dem favorite, centrist. And this is, in a lot lot of ways makes sense as somebody who would potentially replace Abigail Spanberger. True. But I could see this escalating a little bit in the general

election contest. So this is the district that I live in. I explicitly voted against Vindman yesterday in the primary. I sort of expected he would win, but I guess you hate freedom and democracy. That's it. I just don't want to preserve democracy. That's, I'm against that. Fascist. Yeah. So, you know, this district, it's been redrawn recently. So I formerly was in more of a conservative, more rural district. Now it's been drawn. So it takes in more of the sort of ex-urban area that does make it much more of a swing district. The reason you're joking about how he's the perfect successor to Spanberger, Spanberger's former CIA. So these are like two deep staters, I guess. I guess people around here just love the deep state. I don't know what to tell you. But he obviously has huge fundraising capacity.

You know, I don't know his real capabilities as a politician. It doesn't really matter that much at these house level. People don't tune into them capabilities as a politician. It doesn't really matter that much at these house level. People don't tune into them enough to really distinguish between the political talent of various actors, et cetera. But because he has that national fundraising base, I'm sure the party loves him and feels like this is exactly who we want to be the face of the Democratic Party in 2024. So there you go. And, you know, I do think that this district is rated, you know, lean or likely or something,

done by a Cook political. So I think he's, you know, he's most likely to prevail, but it is still a district that could kind of go either way. And you mentioned Abigail Spanberger running for governor. I think she'll have a decent shot at that as well. In Virginia, you can only serve one term as governor. So Glenn Youngkin is already lame duck term limited out, which, you know, in my opinion, that rule is very silly, but not that I'm a Glenn Youngkin lover, but just in general, I think that's a silly rule to have that tight of term limits. But in any case, she will be

on the ballot next time the governor's race comes up here. So yeah, that's where we are with that one. And let's shift over to Republican races now, because over in Oklahoma, Tom Cole, we mentioned this in the, this was actually on the tear sheet that we put up first, combined with what happened in Virginia 5. But if we take a quick visit outside of Virginia, we're then going to return to Virginia, of course, but let's just start in Oklahoma, where 11-term congressman Tom Cole, Republican, had a primary with four different candidates in it. And some of them were sort of like upsurge, almost, I don't know, it reminded me kind of of how the Tea Party, you know, you had these sort of anti-establishment candidates that were all jockeying for a position. He managed to hold on in that race, which was a fairly interesting result, but it was a pretty convincing margin of victory for Tom Cole. Let's go back over to Virginia 5, where a former guest of CounterPoint, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good is currently trailing. We can put B5, this is B5 up on the screen.

He is trailing 285 votes to McGuire. And this is a crazy race. And one of the more interesting, if not the most interesting results that came in last night, saving the best for last year, because McGuire ended up getting endorsements from Donald Trump, Kevin McCarthy, I think Marjorie Taylor Greene jumped into this, and Virginia 5 became this bizarre, probably will be one of the most interesting primary races on the Republican side this entire cycle, this bizarre sort of test case battleground over Trump, McCarthy, DeSantis, all of that. Bob Good, again, currently the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, looks like he's about to lose his primary

by a few hundred votes because he voted against Kevin McCarthy and he endorsed Ron DeSantis. So while Kevin McCarthy is out there, you know, still going after Matt Gaetz. If you listen to Matt Gaetz's take on things as kind of shiving him with these ethics investigations from behind the scenes, that's how Matt Gaetz put it when there was an announcement of a new ethics investigation into him just this week. Kevin McCarthy is seeking revenge against Bob Good, who is one of the few, just, they needed just a few people to vote against Kevin McCarthy in order to oust him as Speaker. Bob Good was one of those people. He also endorsed DeSantis over Trump, which brought Trump into the race. Bob Good couldn't be accused by anyone's standards of being sort of moderate. But because he endorsed DeSantis over Trump and because he voted to oust McCarthy, all of the support came in for Maguire. And it looks like it was enough to put him over the edge,

even though Good still had support from other people, Freedom Caucus people, Chip Roy, other sort of people in MAGA spaces. It was kind of MAGA on MAGA violence down in Virginia Five last night, Crystal. And it looks like, again, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, who when Ryan and I interviewed Bob Good, I want to say this was back in February, somewhere around there of the winter. He basically said, you know, reporting about the Freedom Caucus's divisions is overstated. We're okay. He really went after Marjorie Taylor Greene. I forget exactly the epithet that he used, but just used, I don't think it was, what did the other representative call her, like blonde, bad, butch body? I don't

think he said that, but it was brutal. Bleach blonde, I think. Yeah. That built Butch's body. That's the one. It was alliteration, poetic. It was great. But in both directions, I mean, I just unironically enjoyed that exchange. I don't think we ever talked about it on the show, but just perfect. It's not the Congress we need, but the Congress we deserve. Yeah.

True. as we deserve. That the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, more powerful than I think so many people realize, is about to lose in this mega, mega violence. It shows you Democrats are getting their normies, at least in Virginia, their normies are hanging on. Normie hung on in Oklahoma on the Republican side, but I don't know. I don't know that Republicans are, you know, there's in so many ways, like it's still downstream of these like 2016 divisions, which were in and of themselves downstream of like the 2010 divisions. It's just this long simmering battle that they can't put a lid on. Yeah. And, you know, it seems like, by the way, the race isn't called yet.

So it's possible. It's only separated by a few hundred votes, but McGuire's taking the lead. He's been the lead, you know, by those few hundred votes for a while. So it's looking good for him. So we'll ultimately see. I mean, it could even go to a recount. We don't know. But, you know, it looks like good could have survived maybe just the Kevin McCarthy thing. Because didn't Kevin McCarthy also come for Nancy Mason that didn't work out down in South Carolina? So I don't know that he has the juice on his own

to take someone out. But then when you endorsed DeSantis against Trump, that was really the one that seemed to seal his fate. I'm curious from you, Emily, you know, like, what do you read into this? What does it mean politically? You mentioned that he's quite powerful. What does it mean sort of ideologically? Or does it just demonstrate that ideology is really not even second to like tertiary

or way down the list from just aligning yourself with the right politicians and picking the right horses and staying on Donald Trump's good side. Yeah, I mean, it's really about Donald Trump at the end of the day. I think that's basically what it comes down to. I think the other big takeaway is that the Freedom Caucus actually is a mess. And that sounds like maybe a background Capitol Hill story, but I really don't think it is. I mean, we saw what happened with Kevin McCarthy,

the 19 ballots just for him to become speaker, then the obviously motion to vacate, which only takes one person, and he's ousted. They're now in the situation with Mike Johnson, where a lot of people will say behind closed doors, shit, we were better off with Kevin McCarthy. That's basically the understanding that a lot of people have. Or some people will say, you know, maybe we don't know if we were better off with McCarthy, but it was still, you know, worth the effort to oust him to sort of scare the Republican establishment, etc. The bottom line, though, is that without a Freedom Caucus that is able to be effective, the Republican establishment is going to get whatever it wants. And it's hard for everyone to be on the same page when you have such a tiny

margin. And House Republicans, in and of themselves, aren't that powerful when they have such a small margin. But they are still powerful enough. Kevin McCarthy gave a lot to the Freedom Caucus. He put them on the committees they wanted to be on, gave them chairmanships that they wanted to have. He gave them the motion to vacate, which eventually is what was his downfall. He gave them a lot. Mike Johnson is giving them basically nothing, even though they always felt like Mike Johnson was kind of Freedom Caucus adjacent. And so these Trump divisions have just basically destroyed the Freedom Caucus. They can't get on the same page. They can't be unified as a bloc because of those divisions, which means that the Republican establishment is just basically running,

just bulldozing any sort of disagreements. And the last thing I'll say on that point is, as annoying as some people may find the Freedom Caucus, I will say they are an actual unified anti-establishment voting bloc in the House of Representatives. sort of pro-war, pro-defense contractor, pro-austerity, all down the line establishment that exists in Congress. And so things are at least a lot more interesting and fun and, you know, worth debating when they have a sort of organized voice that is actually able to put some pressure on the establishment. Yeah, I mean, this is basically since the Tea Party era. This has been a group, not the same individuals,

but this vibe and this grouping has been giving hell to Republican leadership, you know, since the early 2010s. And as a leftist, I've always looked at these groupings with jealousy that there was a willingness to use power. Because, yeah, if you have this slim majority, then basically the power is up for the taking. Or a small group of people who are willing to, you know, willing to use hardball tactics. And the Freedom Caucus is currently the only group that really has exhibited any willingness to actually use the power that they have. So I don't agree. There are a few of their goals I do agree with, but, you know, mostly they are like pro-Estere. I mean, they're, you know, hardline conservative Republicans, obviously don't have a lot of common cause with them. But tactically, I've been very envious of their willingness to throw their weight around

in a way that we just literally never see on the Democratic side. I mean, this was the hope of that the squad would engage in a similar adversarial type of politics vis-a-vis their own leadership. And that just has not manifested whatsoever. Yeah, I do want to give credit, you've got, you know, Rashida Tlaib and others who've been willing to be very critical on Israel specifically. But in general, when they had the opportunity, when Democrats were in their own narrow majority, and there was a possibility of engaging in similar adversarial politics

within their own party coalition, we didn't see any of that. And a quick fact check. Producer Mac says, bleach, blonde, bad, built, butch, body. Which I don't think we had in the proper order. We may have even left something out. So bleach, blonde, bad, built, butch, body. Thank you, Producer Mac for the fact check. I know there were t-shirts made. So guys, just check those out. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

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And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders.

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In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi, for a conversation that's anything but ordinary. We dive into the competitive world of streaming, how she's turning so-called niche into mainstream gold, connecting audiences with stories that truly make them feel seen. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. It's this idea that there are so many stories out there, and if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content. The term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Get a front row seat to where media, marketing, technology, entertainment, and sports collide. And hear how leaders like Anjali are carving out space and shaking things up a bit in the most crowded of markets. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

She was a decorated veteran, a Marine who saved her comrades. A hero. She was stoic, modest, tough. Someone who inspired people. Everyone thought they knew her. Until they didn't. I remember sitting on her couch and asking her, is this real? Is this real? Is this real? Is this real? I just couldn't wrap my head around what kind of person would do that

to another person that was getting treatment, that was, you know, dying. This is a story all about trust and about a woman named Sarah Kavanaugh. I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying. Listen to Deep Cover The Truth About Sarah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaking of the 2024 election cycle, James Garville, he seems to be everywhere these days, Crystal, ball cap,

t-shirt, not doing the whole DC thing. So I'll give him credit for that. What's going on with James Carville now? Yeah. Well, you know, he's just one of these like irresistible political characters and has been for like 40 years. So in any case, he was on MSNBC talking about the CNN debate between Trump and Biden, which is set to occur next week, which is crazy. And he said he would put money on Trump not showing up. Let's take a listen to that. Well, if I was a gambler, actually, I am a gambler. Yeah, I take even money. Trump doesn't show up. All right. I just think you don't think Trump's coming next week. I mean, I don't know. But if I was I think he's going to wake up and say and decide.

He's just like he said he was going to testify in his defense of his trial. He put on the defense. He's let him show up. I wouldn't be shocked, but I certainly would not be surprised if you gave me even money. I'd say he's a no show. He'll just get up and do it. What do you think of that, Emily? Think he's on to something? I was curious why he made a point of saying that on TV. Because as freewheeling as James Carville is, he is also a major voice in the Democratic Party. He's on cable news. Is he trying to almost challenge Trump?

Is he trying to— I don't know, I mean, I thought, I'm not trying to say he's playing 4D chess, but when people go on TV, when powerful people go on TV, I mean, I know he's not in the administration or anything or on the campaign, when you go on TV, you kind of know that you're going to be making the sort of ripple, you're going to have a ripple effect throughout how campaigns are thinking about these things. So I don't know. I wonder.

I think, of course, Donald Trump shows up for the debate. I think he relishes the opportunity to debate Joe Biden. You know, the debates were not as one-sided in 2020 as I think some people expected them to be, just given Biden's age, which even then was a question. You know, they're similar in age, but Donald Trump, for whatever reason, is obviously a bit more high energy than Joe Biden, even if he, you know, has memory issues at certain times, too, probably not quite on the same level. But, you know, Biden was able to handle those debates, I would say, fairly well, better than I expected him to, frankly. But I still think Donald Trump feels very confident.

I mean, debating is Donald Trump's thing. That's his whole— That's how he made his mark. What was vaulted to political success was in the debates. So I don't think he—you know, it's one thing for the Republican primary when he's obviously winning and doesn't want to kind of dignify it. This is a statistical dead heat. I think the RCP average has them like literally tied right now. It's not quite the same thing. So I don't, honestly, I don't totally understand that prediction. Yeah, you might be onto something with the idea that he's like trying to bait him and trying to,

I don't know, make sure he shows. I don't know. I can't get in these people's heads, but I find it preposterous the idea that Trump wouldn't show up to this. I mean, who's going to be intimidated by Joe Biden at this point? It's a good point. Nobody. Because 2020 Joe Biden is, 2024 Joe Biden is not 2020 Joe Biden. It's a different Joe Biden. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's it. Like in the first debate in 2020, Biden won, not because he was so amazing, but because Trump was such an over the top, aggressive asshole that everyone just couldn't say he could not let Biden get a single word out. It was just so obnoxious that the overwhelming consensus and the consensus among voters, et cetera, was that Biden had actually won that debate. And, you know, he handled himself well in the final debate against Bernie too. So, you know, when it was time to perform in 2020,

he was able to do well enough, remembering that the bar for Joe Biden is always set like basically at the floor and has been set at the floor for years now. But it is four years later and he has declined more. I mean, it's very noticeable. Like it's very clear that he has declined significantly since then. So, you know, I think it's very up in the air. Now, there was an interesting, I'm curious your analysis of this, Emily. There's an interesting rule that they've deployed here, which is that the mics in between answers are going to be cut. So people can't, so basically Trump can't like constantly cut Biden off in the same way. And I know a lot of the analysis has been like, oh, that's such a gift to Biden. But I think it could cut either way because on the other hand,

again, the whole reason Biden won that first debate was because Trump was so aggressively cutting him off and coming off as such an asshole. So, you know, I could sort of see that cutting in either direction in terms of, you know, who is perceived to have won this next debate to the extent that such a thing even really matters. Yeah. And so that's also really interesting because this is the first modern debate that's not being held by what is it called? The Presidential Debate Committee, whatever the formal committee is. Yeah. Commission. Yeah, commission, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so that, I mean, is normally these debates, the only reason to go is, you know, you can talk to people on the campaigns beforehand. Everyone's sort of in the same place.

You do the spin room afterwards, which is of, you know, questionable value when you're just talking to people's surrogates. And it's kind of the whole, you know, campaign circus. But this debate, I think, is going to be particularly interesting for, I'm like very curious. It's one of those things I almost wish I was going to because the process questions are huge. Like, I don't know if CNN can even pull this off because both camps are going to, that was, to your point, that was something that was reportedly at least a Biden campaign request about the muting of the microphones. There's also this rumbling that this debate is happening so early before the conventions, which I don't know if that has

ever happened, but before the conventions, because Democrats, you know, are looking to see how Joe Biden is able to handle himself. And if he basically melts into a puddle on stage, they may have time to replace him. Now, whether or not that's true is a different question. I'm sure they have some tricks up their sleeve should something happen, because the bottom line is he's an old man. They're both old men and anything can happen at any point in time. But that is also part of this. Like, is that the reason why they convinced CNN to do a debate in late June? And if that's the case, how does CNN, without the Presidential Debate Commission and all of the pre-existing norms and rules going into this,

are they going to be able to pull it off where both candidates feel like next week, you know, night before, nobody pulls the plug and says, wait, we want this to happen. CNN's not doing it. So maybe James Carville's onto something just about purely the process questions. Maybe it could even come from the Biden camp, frankly, who doesn't feel like CNN's going to be tough enough on Trump. I mean, there's just a lot that can go wrong here. Yeah. Well, and by the way, the two moderators are Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. So you can imagine the Israel portion of this is going to be just absolutely horrendous. Not that there's all that much daylight between these two candidates on Israel or RFK Jr., who they have outrageously, you know, completely rigged this to shut out of

even having a chance to make the debate stage. But I guess if I really were to guess what was going on with these James Carville comments, there's been more discussion of like, oh, Biden's going to find some excuse at the last minute to say he can't do it. Like Trump will do something outrageous and he'll say, oh, I can't dignify this man by sharing the debate stage with him or something like that. So maybe he's just trying to, you know, put the shoe on the other. Well, actually, I think it's Donald Trump that's afraid. Just a bit of political bluster and bullshit, effectively. If Democrats aren't feeling confident in Biden, Biden campaign is like, oh, he's not doing so

well the night before. What excuse can they find? Because this is not a formal presidential debate commission. It's a new thing. What excuse can they find to be like, this is not going to be fair. We'll reschedule, something like that. Yeah, I mean, I think at this point, it is likely to happen because, we can put this next piece up on the screen. I mean, Biden's losing.

He needs to do something to make a comeback because he's behind. This is the latest Economist forecast. They give Trump a 72% chance of winning. Biden's at 28%. Those odds, you can see the tracker there up on the screen. The red line is Trump's opportunity. The blue line is Biden's chances. And Biden's chances have really fallen off a cliff. But the next piece up on the screen that tracks the likely electoral votes, right now they've got Trump sitting at likely to win 306 electoral votes. Of course, 270 is all you need to win and Biden down at 232. Now, many have pointed out, this is roughly what the odds

looked like back in 2016, only reversed when Trump came from behind to beat Hillary. So it's not like this means the election is over, especially when you do have a significant amount of time. Also, other forecasts say other things. However, Biden is behind. And I personally do think that these debates are likely to be more consequential than other debates in the past for the sole reason that when we did those word clouds with jail partners, did those word clouds and we were able to show them, the number one word for Biden with every single group, including Democrats, is old. That's the number one word they associate with him. So, you know, ordinarily, all the political scientists will tell you other debates don't really matter. They may move the

polls briefly, but ultimately things return to the norm. But if the key question for voters or one of the key questions for voters is just like, does this guy have another four years in him? Then I do think what happens in these debates, especially given how limited he is in terms of the public eye, could be unusually consequential and break the norm of the debates not really mattering. I think that there's a good argument to be made that because of those very unique dynamics where people are really saying, like, you know, what do we think here? Let me test the waters and see if I can imagine this guy up there still four years from now. I think these actually could really matter and could

actually make a sustained difference in a way that debates typically don't. In terms of the timing of it, you know, my read on why Democrats wanted it so early is not because they have any ambition of replacing Biden on the ballot. I would love to imagine that that was the case, but I don't think that it is. I think it's because they want to allow, if it's a disaster, time to recover from that disaster. And then they can also, there's another debate schedule they can decide, like if it is a disaster, they can decide to come up with some excuse for pulling out of that one and, you know, do what they can through ads and paid communications to try to recover the damage

that would be done here. Right. And then they wouldn't have to debate before the election. So they can say, the candidates already debated. Donald Trump did not play fair. The voters already had their opportunity. Like, we will not dignify this convicted felon going forward. Yeah, that's it. That's it. So that's my guess for what it's worth. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that

Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated.

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

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

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote

unquote drug man Benny the Butcher, Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone,

I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her, and it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case,

bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your guide on Good Company, the podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators

shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi, for a conversation that's anything but ordinary. We dive into the competitive world of streaming, how she's turning so-called niche into mainstream gold, connecting audiences with stories that truly make them feel seen. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core.

It's this idea that there are so many stories out there. And if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Get a front row seat to where media, marketing, technology, entertainment, and sports collide. And hear how leaders like Anjali are carving out space and shaking things up a bit in the most crowded of markets. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. She was a decorated veteran, a Marine who saved her comrades, a hero. She was stoic, modest, tough. Someone who inspired people. Everyone thought they knew her. Until they didn't. I remember sitting on her couch and asking her, is this real? Is this real? Is this real? Is this real?

I just couldn't wrap my head around what kind of person would do that to another person that was getting treatment that was, you know, dying? This is a story all about trust and about a woman named Sarah Kavanaugh. I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying. Listen to Deep Cover The Truth About Sarah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaking of convicted felons, someone was testifying before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations yesterday who maybe should be a convicted felon, but isn't. That would be the CEO of Boeing, who again was in front of the Senate. They have these like select permanent subcommittees. This is one of them. This is the one on investigation. He was testifying there yesterday and faced some tough questions.

Before we get to that, though, we want to start with this video. This is a video. We can start playing it. You should be able to hear some of the sound. This is of an Air Canada flight. This is a Boeing jet that Air Canada was flying Wednesday, last Wednesday, from Toronto to Paris. You can see the plane. It is visibly on fire. People just exclaiming in the background, like, what the hell is going on, basically. That was chalked up to a, quote, engine issue. An engine issue. I think that was actually by Air Canada. It said, quote, engine issue. Probably a lot of people are going to look at that and say, what do you mean engine issue? Tell me more about this so-called engine issue. And I'd love to know why Boeing seems to be having so many issues with the engines or other parts of the plane.

Crystal, that video is insane. It's terrifying. It's absolutely terrifying. Like, I've never been afraid to fly. It's never been, you know, an issue. I don't love the, like, when there's turbulence, but it's fine. You know, I've never had reluctance to set foot on an airplane. I am now, like, I will be uncomfortable next time I get on a Boeing aircraft because we've just had so many of these incidents. And now we've also had so many whistleblowers come out and say, you're right to be afraid.

You're right to lack confidence in this company and in their planes because they're using faulty parts. They are cutting corners at every turn on safety. And it's not just one individual at this point. It's many multiple individuals who have come out and testified to very similar culture of profit first, safety last. And when you're talking about, you know,

something that's got to take you up super high in the air where you want everything to be perfect and pristine and every single I dotted and T crossed, that is a terrifying thing to see. And then you see a video like this and you're like, Jesus, what the hell? What the hell? Yeah. I mean, just like it's easy to say bad timing for Boeing, but it's not bad timing in a sense. It's perfect timing as all of this stuff is happening. It's being verified like with things that people can see. So actually, the CEO, again, David Calhoun, he was before the Senate yesterday, got some questions about those

whistleblowers that you just mentioned, Crystal. Let's roll this next clip. Mr. Calhoun, what is it that you get paid currently? Senator, that's well disclosed in our proxy documents in each of the years that I've been employed. Yeah, but what is it? It's a big number, sir. Well, let me help you out. It's $32.8 million this year. Does that sound right? Yes, it does. That's a 45% increase over last year. Does that sound right? Yes, it does.

What is it you get paid to do exactly? I get paid to run the Boeing company. Yeah. So just help me understand that. I mean, do you get paid for transparency? Is that one of the metrics for your income? I think the board counts on me for transparency. Really?

Because you're under investigation for falsifying 787 inspection records. The Boeing's under criminal investigation for the Alaska Airlines flight. You were investigated by DOJ for criminal conspiracy to defraud the FAA. This is all in your tenure. This doesn't sound like a lot of transparency to me. Have you seen the reports that the subcontractor that you used to make that door piece that fell out of the sky, that when the FAA went and toured the facility, they found one door seal being lubricated with Dawn liquid dish soap and cleaned with a wet cheesecloth, and another was being checked with a hotel room key card. Does that sound like safety to you? Senator, I think our relationship with that particular

supplier has been well documented, reviewed by the FAA, and most certainly us. And I'm very intent on acquiring that company so that none of that ever happens. We've had multiple whistleblowers come before this committee and allege that Boeing is cutting every possible corner on quality and safety, not just in the past, but now. They've alleged that you've eliminated safety inspections, that there are fewer inspectors doing quality inspections out there. They've alleged that when they raised quality issues and concerns, they were reassigned, they were retaliated against, they were physically threatened. That doesn't sound like attention to quality to me.

And yet you're getting paid $33 million a year. It's extraordinary. Senator, we have increased our quality inspectors significantly. Okay. So Richard Blumenthal also asked some questions, some tough questions about the whistleblowers. And David Calhoun said he actually hasn't met personally with any of the other whistleblowers. That was one of the takeaways from his testimony. Yeah, it's insane. family members of victims who had died in 737 MAX crashes that were there for the hearing yesterday. And Calhoun turned around, sort of like people might remember Mark Zuckerberg doing that recently, and said, I would like to speak directly to those who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. I want to personally apologize on behalf of everyone at Boeing. I can't even read these words. We are deeply sorry for your losses.

Nothing is more important than the safety of the people who step on board our planes. Every day we seek to honor the memory of those lost through a steadfast commitment to safety and quality. Steadfast commitment to safety and quality, though, is, Crystal, basically exactly what he's getting questions about because it's very clearly at this point not quite as steadfast as it should be for a country that is a company that is a defense contractor and gets, I can't even, like if you

had to calculate the amount of subsidies that Boeing has gotten over the years from state governments, from the federal government, I don't know if you could even tally it all up. Oh, it's astronomical. And I just have to note there, David Calhoun looking very tanned and rested as he's taking those questions. I don't know if you guys remember, he announced recently he's going to step down along with at least one other executive level individual. And I think they're interested in saying like, okay, these people are stepped aside, problem solved. But what we know, and people like Matt Stoller have done a great job of documenting, that this is a company-wide systemic cultural issue. And it also ties into, I mean, it ties into the broader

structuring of our economy, the way so many of these companies, maybe all of these public companies, have become all about the shareholder profit maximizing bottom line. And this very short-term mentality where whatever you can do to juice the stock price is what you're going to do. Quality, safety, workers, et cetera, be damned. Boeing is part of that trend. And with Boeing, obviously, it has led to utter catastrophe. In fact, we're fortunate that it hasn't led to more utter catastrophe because when that door plug blew out,

you know, if they were a little higher in the air, that's it, it's over for that plane as well. So in a lot of ways, we have been very fortunate that there hasn't been more death and destruction thanks to this individual and many others at the company who have pushed profits and speed over safety and making sure that people can feel good when they set foot on their planes. You know, there's also a government tie-in here,

which, you know, is important to get to as well, which is as part of the like neoliberal era deregulatory push. Multiple administrations across both Republicans and Democrats have, you know, stripped back a lot of the safety regulations and have made it so that basically Boeing self-certifies their own planes

as being safe. This is insane to anyone who has a brain, you know, but this has been the operating thinking under neoliberalism of basically like, well, they're the experts and we're just the government. We couldn't possibly do as good a job of understanding this as they do. So we're just going to kind of outsource this to private industry, again, with totally predictable results. So that's how we end up in this place. And, you know, I think it's really important to dig into these details here on just, you know, because of this one individual instance in this company, which is so critical, both to obviously passenger safety, but also, as you pointed out, Emily, it's an incredibly critical part of our defense industrial complex, but also because of what it says about our economy more broadly. And you just ask yourself, how many other companies that we are trusting our lives to or our health to are engaged in very similar

cost-cutting, corner-cutting efforts in order just to juice their stock price in the short term. Right, and with our money. I mean, with taxpayer money, with the trust, the credibility stamp that comes with government, the regulatory revolving door, all of that, it's outrageous. And saying that you haven't even met with the whistleblowers, you're the CEO, you haven't met with the whistleblowers. I mean, he said at one point during the testimony that a lot of this can be chalked up to, quote, an untrained workforce. Well, why, if you're a company that has a, quote, steadfast commitment

to safety and quality, can any of this be chalked up to an untrained workforce? Shouldn't your steadfast commitment to safety and quality mean that you're not operating with an untrained workforce? I mean, what the hell is going wrong with Boeing? But more importantly, I mean, this is something that has gone wrong in the entire system. You know, the logic that you just mentioned, Crystal, the sort of neoliberal logic is that there is no market incentive for Boeing to have safety accidents because then, you know, it's bad for Boeing's business. They don't get as many contracts for the government. Maybe people fly in different planes. Like, that doesn't work in the airline industry. What is someone going to be like, oh, I'm not taking this flight that's at the exact time from the exact

place that I need to go because it's not Airbus? It just doesn't, like, it doesn't work here at all. It's just, it's not the place where you can just say, like, oh, the market will take care of the safety and quality problems. It's just outrageous. Maybe the U.S. government can go to Airbus or something, like, maybe. But at this point, there's so much money being spent on lobbying. There's so much invested in Boeing that it's clearly a company reacting to a horrible system of incentives, one that it helped create, no doubt about it. But it's a broken system.

No, that's right. I mean, you have massive industry consolidation here. And frankly, you know, it's an industry where scale really matters. So it's kind of probably one of these where there's a natural almost near monopoly, which means you have to have additional regulations and scrutiny to ensure that there aren't abusive predatory practices across the board. But even outside of, first of all, so many of our industries are monopolized in massive consolidation, et cetera, that that statement applies to many, many, many of our industries.

But in addition, if you're looking at these individual executives, Senator Hawley was asking Calhoun about, well, how much are you making? Much of his compensation will come from stock. So he has every incentive.

His incentives are 100% aligned for himself personally to do whatever he can to goose the numbers that Wall Street cares about and do stock buybacks and all of this other market manipulation, which should be illegal, but isn't, in order to jack up the stock price because that goes directly into his pocket. And then he's not gonna be CEO forever.

He's betting that, you know, by the time the problems emerge, he would be gone. Now, unfortunately for him, the problems emerge and he's not gone. But guess what? He gets to step down. I'm sure he's gonna get, he's already fattened his bank account

to many millions of dollars, probably getting a nice retirement package, golden parachute, et cetera, since he's voluntarily stepping down. So for his own personal interest, even though it meant costing the lives of many people, these decisions worked out for him. And that's the sort of,

when I talk about like the short-termism, those are the sort of incentives that are consistent across basically every public company, you know, American public company, multinational public company that exists. And so that's why this idea that like, oh, well, you know, they, of course, they're incentivized to make safe products because if they don't and there's a problem, the market will punish them. That's why that very like, you know, high-minded, almost idealistic, like, you know, classic libertarian view. That's why when it meets up with the real

world and the way these companies are structured and the way executive compensation is structured specifically, why that does not work out at all in the real world. And we see examples of this across industries, you know, not just in the airline industry, but this is a particularly dramatic and consequential case in point. Yeah. I mean, especially in industries that do have, like you were mentioning, natural monopolies, you know, it's worth mentioning right now that Boeing stock is still selling higher than it was in 2016. It was up really, really high in 2018. So it's down a lot. 2019, I think it's down a lot from that, but still selling higher than it was in 2016. Still, you know, not tanking because when companies are too big to fail, their incentives are not in any way aligned with what we're told the market will take care of that much is for sure. Speaking of utter corruption at the Pentagon, Glenn Greenwald is going to be joining us after

this to talk about an absolutely insane Pentagon op. You have to stick around for this segment because Reuters blew the lid off a crazy story this week about how the Pentagon ran an operation to undermine the Chinese vaccine in countries where it could have saved a whole lot of lives. So we will be talking to Glenn about that right after this. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes

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

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

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

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast hell and gone, I've learned one thing.

No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her. And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there.

Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your

guide on good company, the podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi, for a conversation that's anything but ordinary. We dive into the competitive world of streaming, how she's turning so-called niche into mainstream gold, connecting audiences with stories that truly make them feel seen. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. It's this idea that there are so many stories out there,

and if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Get a front row seat to where media, marketing, technology, entertainment, and sports collide, and hear how leaders like Anjali are carving out space and shaking things up a bit in the most crowded of markets. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. She was a decorated veteran, a Marine who saved her comrades, a hero. She was stoic, modest, tough, someone who inspired people. Everyone thought they knew her, until they didn't. I remember sitting on her couch and asking her, is this real? Is this real? Is this real? Is this real? I just couldn't wrap my head around what kind of person would do that to another person that was getting treatment, that was, you know, dying. This is a story all about trust and about a woman named Sarah Kavanaugh. I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying.

Listen to Deep Cover The Truth About Sarah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, we're excited to be joined now by Glenn Greenwald, host of System Update, a wonderful program. Glenn, thanks for joining the show. Always great to be with you guys. Thanks for asking. Now, the story we're here to talk about is, was blown, the Reuters blew the lid off of this insane story about a Pentagon operation

targeted at people in the Philippines who could have benefited was blown, the Reuters blew the lid off of this insane story about a Pentagon operation targeted at people in the Philippines who could have benefited from the Chinese COVID vaccine, Sinovac. A lot of people might have remembered some of the coverage surrounding it at the time. But what we didn't know is that the Pentagon was running, as the Reuters headline you can see on your screen there says, a, quote, anti-vax campaign that was aimed at actually just undermining China's status in the Philippines. Obviously, at a critical time in the way the Pentagon sees it for the relationship between the Philippines and China. But used this vaccine as an opening to come in and try to sow distrust. And, you know, Glenn, it's likely that lives were lost as a result of this campaign from China,

or from the United States Pentagon. Yeah, there's so many amazing aspects to this story. And I do think we should begin, as critics of corporate media, all three of us are, to acknowledge that this is actually the kind of investigative reporting I wish these large media outlets did more of, where they're not exposing bad acts by foreign governments we're told to hate, but actually the things that our own government does, those are the things we most need to hear. And this was actually a very, not just good investigation, but well-reported article on

this program. And there's so many aspects to it. First of all, this was done at a time when we were being told that there's nothing graver or worse or more immoral than for one country to interfere into the political discourse of other countries using covert disinformation campaigns and fake Twitter and Facebook bots. And of course, the United States has been doing that for so long. It has been doing it not just since the Cold War, but even recently. And that's why this idea that, oh, Russia had stepped so far to the line of decency and normalcy by putting up Facebook, big Twitter bots and the like in 2016 was such a joke, not because it wasn't wrong when Russia was doing it, but it was because it's completely standard practice that our own government does constantly as this investigation and so many others show. But the other aspect of it is, this is being done at a time when if you were an American citizen and raising doubts about the vaccine, either its

efficacy or its safety, you would almost immediately be banned from being heard online at the demand of the U.S. government. You could lose your job if you didn't take the vaccine. You would lose the ability to have free movement. So our government was imposing this demand that we take the vaccine, that nobody questioned the vaccine. And at the same time, our government was engaged in a secret disinformation campaign using fake Twitter and Facebook profiles and the like in order to manipulate people in the Philippines, but also in the Middle East, not to take the vaccine that China was offering for free. They were trying to help the people in the region, whether for motives of self-interest or whatever, while the United States had basically told Pfizer and the other health pharmaceutical companies,

you can sell to the rest of the world for whatever prices you want. So they were really trying to prevent people from taking a vaccine that in the United States, they were telling us was a lifesaving vaccine that we had to take. And the motive was so hideous, which was to drag these people away from China and force them to buy from American pharmaceutical companies in order to separate these countries from China. Yeah, and in the Philippines, there was reportedly a lot of vaccine hesitation. In any case, they were having a lot of trouble getting their population to take the vaccine. And then the campaign here was so nefarious.

Let's put E1B up on the screen that has some of the details of this propaganda campaign. They say, tailoring the propaganda campaign to local audiences across Central Asia and the Middle East, the Pentagon used a combination of fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to spread fear of China's vaccines among Muslims at a time when the virus was killing tens of thousands of people each day. A key part of the strategy, amplify the disputed contention that because vaccines sometimes contain pork gelatin, China's shots could be considered forbidden under Islamic law. And, you know, there's a whole lot of reasons why this is disgusting and immoral. is that our vaccine program, because we put the emphasis on profits for drug companies and basically took priority for ourselves over obtaining access to the vaccine,

we left much of the rest of the world out in the cold so that, you know, getting the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine, that was not a possibility for the Philippines. They really were dependent on the Sinovac. So to have this type of disinformation, it really, I mean, you know, and that word has been thrown around so much, but it really is an outrageous abuse

that apparently came over the objections of the State Department too, who were also concerned about what this could do to our relationship with the Philippines. As well as health professionals inside the United States, some of whom resigned, like senior health officials resigned. And then they went to a bunch of, you know, pro-Fauci types, like medical professionals were interested after the fact and revealed what was done. And they were horrified. I mean, this is not the first time,

by the way, the United States did this. The United States had a program in Pakistan in order to try and find Osama bin Laden and to spy on Pakistan, where they were going around basically convincing Pakistanis to have skepticism over various vaccines that the United States had been obligatory. And I think this is the key point, Crystal. Obviously, there are still people in the United States who have skepticism over the vaccines that we use, that Pfizer and the rest were giving to us, which is one thing. But nobody actually believes that the Chinese vaccine was worse in any way in terms of efficacy, in terms of danger. So it wasn't like there was any valid reason to be warning the world about the Chinese vaccine in terms of whether or not people should be taking it for health reasons.

The only reason to do it was to undermine China. And even if that meant convincing people that the Chinese vaccine, the only one that they could get, was dangerous or evil or heretical or anti-religious, we were willing to allow people to die by not getting the vaccine in the perspective of the United States health establishment for our own reasons. And that, I think, is the key, too, is the context for this was that the Trump administration negotiated under the banner of America First that these pharmaceutical companies were required to give priority to American citizens,

to give very good prices, to sell them the American market that made it affordable. And in exchange, they were told, you can gouge the rest of the world however you want and charge them whatever you want for the vaccine. And these companies did exactly that, of course, because they're profit motivated. China stepped into that breach

knowing that there were a lot of poor countries that couldn't buy the vaccine and offered to give their vaccine essentially for free. And that was the relationship we tried to impede in part, again, to prevent these countries from having gratitude toward China but also in part to force these poor countries to pay exorbitant prices to these pharmaceutical companies that were drowning in profit already it's so immoral it's so hypocritical and it's actually you know it's repugnant if the position of the United

States government is true which is that these vaccines are life-saving and you need to take them to protect yourself against COVID. To convince people not to take them, the only option that they have, if you think about, you know, what the United States government was saying at the time and what they were believing at the time, it's hard to find anything more repulsive than that. And they've been hand-wringing, I mean, these are the same people that are hand-wringing over the propaganda operation on TikTok that is allegedly coming from the Chinese Communist Party. You know, they'll say it's all CCP propaganda on TikTok that is manipulating the American public. Well, they're doing the same thing. And I don't doubt that China is doing some

of this as well, but I want to read actually one of the tweets because just so people get, or one of the fake tweets, so people get a feel for what it was. COVID came from China and the vaccine also came from China. Don't trust China. From China, PPE, face masks, vaccine, fake, but the coronavirus is real. And it was like a weird meme picture of a syringe. All of this continued into the Biden administration, started under the Trump administration, continued into the Biden administration. Reuters actually got a senior defense department official to confirm that they had run a secret propaganda operation. When Twitter looked at some of the tweets that were identified, they actually took them down

and said this looked like a coordinated bot campaign. So Glenn, I mean, it's not news to anybody that the American sort of intelligence apparatus has little respect for people in other countries when they engage in some of this. But it's almost like you couldn't write satire like this to some extent because it's literally the lives of people in other countries that are being threatened directly by some stupid meme campaign on X. Well, I think, and again, the context here is that basically the main political scandal that we were drowning in for three or four years that we're likely to hear again is that Russia is a uniquely evil country because of their willingness to use disinformation campaigns to interfere in the political discourse in the elections of other countries.

And of course, and this is by far not the first time that the United States got caught doing this. They had a whole fake Twitter account, a whole fake Twitter platform in Cuba to destabilize the Cuban government. They've been doing this sort of thing everywhere. We just learned that Israel has a similar campaign to manipulate Americans to be more pro-Israel using fake accounts. So that part of it is just so infuriating that, you know, we were so angered and had such indignation over what Russia did when we're obviously doing not just the same, but far worse. The other detail I think is really interesting, Emily, is that Facebook immediately detected this. They had, you know, their algorithmic monitors that detected that this was a false governmental disinformation campaign.

And they called the Pentagon in anger. And the Pentagon said, yeah, you caught us. You're right. But don't worry, we won't do anything more regarding COVID. Because, of course, the U.S. government was constantly demanding that Facebook remove vaccine skepticism from their own platform. And they did. They banned all kinds of Americans at the behest of the U.S. government.

And now Facebook was watching the U.S. government spread vaccine skepticism with false bases in other countries. And the government said, oh, don't worry, we won't use it for COVID anymore. We're just using it against China. And they continued to do it. And of course, the excuse of the U.S. government was, well, we had to retaliate for disinformation the Chinese were spreading about us, trying to insinuate that, you know, ground zero for this COVID vaccine was an American service member, or that it might have come from Fort Detrick, which is the lab that produced the anthrax attacks. But the victims weren't the Chinese. The victims were the poorest people in the world who had no other way to get a vaccine other than by taking it from China.

And they were misled and deceived into believing that it would be a dangerous vaccine, that it could kill them, that it was against their religion. And these were all lies. It'd be one thing if that were true, but these were all lies. Glenn, what does this incident also tell us about the overwhelming commitment to this new Cold War with China, and also the efficacy of our approach to foreign policy versus theirs. So on our side, we're hoarding the vaccines for ourselves. We're running a PSYOP on the Filipino population and trying to bully and strong-arm them to paying astronomical prices for the vaccines that our for-profit companies are creating. And on the other hand, China is saying, hey, we create a vaccine here. We'll help you out here.

We'll provide this for you. And this did come with some foreign policy consequences. The Filipinos dropped an objection that they had, a key objection that they had to China's influence in the South China Sea. So what does this tell you about this obsession with this new Cold War vis-a-vis China that we would even be willing to? This is not just dangerous for Filipinos, but, you know, in a global pandemic, these things don't stay within the borders of one country either. This also contained additional global risk. For sure.

I mean, there's, you know, an obvious visible trend where countries and regions that were once under the exclusive influence and dominance of the United States and its NATO allies in Western Europe have been migrating, not all that slowly, rather rapidly, in fact, to an alliance that is led by China, the BRICS alliance that has India and South Africa and Brazil, along with China and Russia. And there's this really fascinating speech that was given by Fiona Hill, who is a kind of very hawkish American foreign policy advisor. She was a protege of John Bolton. She worked in the Trump White House, super hawkish on China and Russia. She gave a speech last year to European elites in which she warned that the reason China is being so successful in recruiting countries onto its side to prefer to do business with China, to be in China's sphere, is because there is a worldwide perception that the United States abuses its power as the sole hegemon through wars of the kind that the world perceives they're fueling in Ukraine, whether you

believe that or not, that's how the world perceives it. And the war in Israel, that is, of course, the United States is behind as well, the war in Gaza, but also this kind of disinformation campaign. And so the more we look like we're these sort of hypocritical bullies, it's not just that,

oh, it's a bad thing to do for us. It's actually very harmful to our interests. And if China really is our great adversary, which is what we're being told to the point of, we are kind of on the verge of, at best, a Cold War of the kind that consumes all resources for the military and the intelligence community. It's the worst possible thing to do if we're really worried about China to engage in behavior like this that is precisely what China successfully exploits when convincing the rest of the world that it is not in their interest to live in a U.S.-dominated global order. Right, because it undermines the credibility that the United States is claiming to bring to the table, and everybody can see it playing out. Everyone can read Reuters.

I mean, it's just stupid. It's not even clever. They're not even doing a good job at their propaganda op. Yeah, I mean, you know, you listen to any interview with any kind of authoritarian or dictator type in, say, parts of Asia or parts of Africa or parts of South America, and you raise the issue

of press freedom with them, and they're going to immediately say, who are you to lecture us on press freedom? You took the most consequential journalist in the West, and you have him in a dungeon

for 10 years, and you want to kill and you have him in a dungeon for 10 years and you want to kill him and keep him in prison for life, meaning Julian Assange. This kind of hypocrisy works if you are the only power in town. I mean, people might be angry at you, but no one can really challenge you. We are now basically in a multipolar world. I mean, China has become this genuine powerhouse economically and militarily. And at the same time, while we're constantly told that China is this aggressive and militaristic country, since 1979, the U.S. has fought dozens of wars and China has fought a grand total of zero wars. 1979 was the last war China ever fought. It was a one-month border dispute with Cambodia and Vietnam.

And since then, not a single war. And if you look at a map, there's U.S. bases surrounding China. The rest of the world sees this. The American population doesn't because we're constantly propagandized to believe that we're this nice, peaceful country and China is the evil aggressor. But that's not how the rest of the world sees it because it's actually not true. And if we're really worried about Chinese influence and Chinese dominance, the behavior in which we're engaging of the kind that Reuters just exposed, so many other things, is basically the worst possible thing you can do to undermine what you claim are American interests vis-a-vis China.

I think that is all incredibly well said. Glenn, it's always great to get to chat with you. Thank you so much for taking some time with us. Yeah, always good to be with you guys. Thanks, Sarah, for having me. Our pleasure. All right, well, that does it you guys. Thanks, Sarah, for having me. Our pleasure. All right, well, that does it for us on today's edition of CounterPoints.

Crystal, it's always fun to do a show with you, as fun as it can be when you're talking about, I guess, like the impending apocalypse. Yes, fun. This is how we have fun. But no, always an enjoyable conversation with Emily, a stimulating, intellectually stimulating conversation with you. Emily, I'm always happy to do it.

Likewise. Well, we will be back here on Friday. Ryan and I taped a really, really cool conversation with the one and only Matt Taibbi on the arc of his career. If you haven't ever sort of done a deep dive on Matt Taibbi, a lot of his career started in Russia, actually. Well, first the Soviet Union. We talked to him about that. And then as the oligarchs were kind of scrambling for property in Russia, Matt Taibbi was there to chronicle all of it. We talked to him about that, about the Twitter files, about Elon Musk.

It's a really cool conversation with a fascinating person. So that will be on Friday. BreakingPoints.com if you want to get it early Thursday night straight to your inbox. Crystal, looking forward to having Taibbi on. Yeah, looking forward to checking that one out. And you guys should all check that on as well and make sure you support us over at breakingpoints.com so we can continue expanding as we did with Counterpoints Friday, which I've, it's just been, it's been really fun to watch what you and Ryan have done with that. It's been a blast. And Glenn was—that may have even been my favorite episode so far. Glenn and Ilya Shapiro on Israel.

People should check that one out. Campus protests. Oh, yeah. Crystal, you'll be back here with Sagar tomorrow, am I right? I will. Busy lady this week. Oh, man. Yes.

All right. Well, I'll see you back here. I'll be watching. Everyone, thank you so much for tuning in. We appreciate the support. And we will see you back here, Crystal and Sagar. We'll see you back here. I'll be watching. Everyone, thank you so much for tuning in. We appreciate the support and we will see you back here. Crystal and Sagar, we'll see you back here tomorrow. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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