Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 8/25/25: Trump Floats Chicago Occupation, Bill Maher Warns of Trump Coup, Saagar Debunks Ghislaine Testimony

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

Krystal and Saagar discuss Trump says Chicago occupation next, Bill Maher warns of Trump coup, Saagar debunks Ghislaine testimony.   To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.comMerch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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What do we have Crystal? Indeed, we do many things to discuss this morning. We have Trump announcing plans to do to Chicago, what he's already done in D.C. and L.A., and I'll have a chat about that one. Galane Maxwell's interview was released. A lot of say about that one. You should definitely take the word of a sex criminal, for sure.

I'll break it down. Should definitely take that one at face value. Okay, the U.S. is taking a 10% equity stake in Intel. Actually, very interesting move. A lot to discuss there and some broader economic indicators we want to take a look at as well. Zoran is facing a new scandal over how much he can bench. Whether he can bench at all. Whether he can bench at all.

And he also had this big scavenger hunt in New York City. Thousands of people turned out. So kind of an interesting development with regard to his campaign, too. Meanwhile, Eric Adams, yet another corruption scandal encircling his campaign, the details are preposterous, just utterly ridiculous, which is kind of part for the course for Eric Adams. So we'll dig into all of that. I'm taking a look today at modern-day Holocaust denial with this starvation denial in Gaza. And we have a special guest.

This will be, I think, some pretty significant news who was fired from the State Department, apparently for his views on Israel. So he is going to join us and his first interview that he's given, right, on any sort of podcast or YouTube or cable news or anything like that. We were able to arrange it after he was fired. And so, yeah, trying to break some news here over at Breaking Points, which is a good reminder, by the way. Thank you to everybody who's been signing up at Breaking Points.com and help supporting the show. It's because of you that we become the first place to be able to interview, do some newsmaking stuff here, have people in power actually pay attention. I don't think it is an accident that he reached out to us.

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It really helps us grow by word of mouth. So with that, let's get to the show. All right. So President Trump announcing that he's, He is planning to expand his National Guard deployments, of course, started in L.A., both with National Guard, federalizing the National Guard there and calling in active duty, calling in active duty Marines. Here in D.C., of course, we've been dealing with that over the past couple of weeks. And next, he says, is Chicago. Let's take a listen.

And we haven't had to bring in the regular military, which we're willing to do. We have to. And after we do this, we'll go to another location and we'll make it safe also. make our country very safe. We're going to make our cities very, very safe. Chicago is a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent, and we'll straighten that one out probably next. But they're wearing red hats. African American ladies, beautiful ladies are saying, please, President Trump come to Chicago. Please. I did great with the black vote, as you know, and they want something to happen. So I think Chicago will be our next, and then we'll help with New York. So apparently this plan has been weeks in the making. We can put the reporting up for the

Washington post on the screen. They write Pentagon plans military deployment in Chicago. As Trump eyes crack down here, some of the details. They say the Pentagon has for weeks been planning a military deployment to Chicago. As President Trump says he wants to crack down on crime, homelessness, and undocumented immigration in a model that could later be used in other major cities, officials familiar with the matter said. The planning, which has not been previously disclosed involve several options, including mobilizing at least a few thousand members of the National Guard as soon as September to what is the third most populous city in the United States. They go on to say an additional piece of reporting with regard to the deployment here

in D.C. that troops here are soon going to be allowed to carry firearms, which is a change to their initial orders. Let me give you one more piece of reporting here. This from Jackie Heinrich over at Fox News in a relatively lengthy Twitter post. We can put this up on the screen. and I'll give you the TLDR here. So she reports that 1,700 National Guardsmen are set to mobilize in 19 different states in the coming weeks to assist DHS amid sweeping federal interagency crime and immigration.

Crackdown documents obtained by Fox News Show planning for activations in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming. So these are states with Republicans. Republican governors, so this would be presumably in cooperation with the federal government.

And so I were turning back to Chicago, this would be, in terms of the legal framework, this would be more akin to the deployment in L.A. because in D.C., you know, the federal government is more directly involved. They have more legal authority. Now, even here, it's supposed to be a quote-unquote emergency. Unfortunately, the courts have sort of broadly defined what constitutes an emergency. There may be a court challenge. there as well. But the LA National Guard federalization and deployment was much more legally contested and still, you know, there was at least one federal judge that actually said you can't go forward with this. So this would be, you know, this is the LA model now coming to.

That's right. And it hasn't wrapped, actually, that court case, as I understand it. What I, what I, this is very complicated. So just stick with us. But on D.C., people need to remember that because it's technically under federal rule, what it allows is the federalization of the MPD in a quote-unquote emergency, but that emergency has to be renewed by Congress every 30 to 45 days. There's obviously still an open question as to whether that is even going to pass. Obviously, most Republicans are probably going to go for it. But that is why the DC government and police department can come under genuine federal control. And they have much more leeway for the mobilization of the National Guard on top of that. So, I mean, we can, I've said here, I think the

mobilization is stupid broadly, especially because, you know, in my traipsing around the city, the only place I can find these guys is down by the national mall, protecting the food trucks and the tourists. So, you know, I guess, thank you for keeping us safe. I have actually yet to see them. Take a ride down to the mall. You'll see plenty of them. They're rolling around. They're all eating halal from the halal truck. So, I mean, I guess that's great. Yes, apparently they'll be carrying weapons now. I mean, the White House is like, oh, well, we have, what is it, we've arrested all these people and there hasn't been a murder in D.C. in nine days.

which, I mean, apparently D.C. was averaging like two murders a day or two murder every two days. So you can give them that, I guess. No one exactly sure on the actual causal effect. But Chicago is a whole other different story. And I think that's actually, if you read the Jackie Heinrich's reporting, what you're seeing is about that assistance with ICE and with DHS. But honestly, even that is very dicey legally because there is a prohibition under Posse Comitatis that the federal government can't even mobilize National Guard for civilian law enforcement purposes. They're currently being mobilized under something called, let me, I have it in front of me. It's called Title 32, Section 502F authority to which posse comitatis does not apply. Now, that section actually sets out, quote, required drills and training for the National Guard, and it says a member of the National Guard may be ordered to perform training or other duty in addition to their regular drills and annual training as prescribed by the Secretary of Defense. They're saying that they could be used under for federal benefits, remember this, for things like, quote, homeland security operation, counter drug, airport security, border support, COVID-19, and natural disaster relief. So that would be the deployment.

But even if it were to come about, it would not be even remotely like Washington because you can't quite literally cannot federalize the Chicago Police Department for a, like, for example, they can't, here in D.C., they're rolling back like cashless bail. that's something that they're allowed to do because they have federal authority. And same with the police commissioner who can report up. Over there, it is entirely a matter of the locality that reports up from Chicago police to the mayor, Brandon Johnson. And also, people should keep in mind, like the governor and the mayor both have both openly spoken against this. And it would be very different, much more akin to Los Angeles, where National Guardsmen

can, like, guard federal property. I don't even actually know what federal properties in Chicago, but anyway. So, like, they can do that. I'm sure there's a thing. Anyway, they can do that if they want to. They can help, quote, assist with ICE operations, although apparently even that is like a little dicey in terms of the way that it all goes about. So it would be a deployment, and almost certainly at this point, as we know,

for show purposes, which is mostly what we see from the administration. Yeah, that's right. I remember when we were digging into the details with regard to the legality of the L.A., the California deployment, it's supposed to be done in conjunction with the governor. Like, it's really supposed to be the governor who asked the president. And that's a key piece of what was being debated in court. And as I said, one federal court judge said, no, no, this is not lawful. Then you had at the appeals level, they issued an injunction against, you know, saying, okay, well, we're going to allow it to continue while this all plays out in court.

But this is continuing to play out in court. I'll say some of my commentary because we're going to talk about Bill Maher and his commentary on this. And then we can talk a little bit more broadly about the implications. Obviously, I find this, you know, incredibly ominous. It's both a combination of buffoonish and pointless and a waste of money. And also, you know, quite, in my opinion, ominous to see these normalization of the military in American streets for domestic law enforcement, all of these masked up agents. There was actually a horrible incident just recently where two guys who disguised themselves as law enforcement were, you know, pounding. on the door of a homeowner, homeowner, you know, smartly doesn't let them in and ends up

actually shooting and killing them. There have been other instances of mass people coming in, claiming to be ICE, claiming to be law enforcement. And, you know, it's not to say that has never happened before in the past. But when you have the normalization of these massed, unidentified agents who refuse to even tell you what agency they're with, let alone what they're there for, let alone show you a warrant, you know, nobody should be surprised that those are some of the consequences that unfold. I can go ahead and put up on the screen A4, which is Governor Kritsker of Illinois's response. He says the state of Illinois at this time has received no request or outreach from the federal government asking if we need assistance, and we have

made no requests for federal intervention. The safety of the people of Illinois is always my top priority. There's no emergency that warrants the president of the U.S., federalizing the Illinois National Guard, deploying the National Guard from other states, or sending active duty military within our own borders. Donald Trump is attempting to manufacture a crisis, politicize Americans who serve in uniform, and continue abusing his power to distract from the pain he's causing families will continue to follow the law, stand up for the sovereignty of our state, and protect Illinoisans. Is that Illinoisans? Is it Chicagoan? All right. People there can let us know. In any case, obviously, you know, not lost on anyone that it's blue states that are facing

these military deployments, even though, look, it's not about crime. I think we can all be honest about this has nothing to do with crime. This is about domination. This is about a show of force. This is, I think, you know, in some ways, yes, a distraction from me didn't like the storyline about Epstein and other things going on. I think that's true too. But, you know, at bottom, it really is not about crime because if it was, this would be an entirely different approach. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, at 6.33 p.m., everything changed.

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Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, sis, what if I could promise you you never had to listen to a condescending finance, bro, tell you how to manage your money again. Welcome to Brown Ambition. This is the hard part when you pay down those credit cards. If you haven't gotten to the bottom of why you were

racking up credit or turning to credit cards, you may just recreate the same problem a year from now. When you do feel like you are bleeding from these high interest rates, I would start shopping for a debt consolidation loan, starting with your local credit union, shopping around online, looking for some online lenders because they tend to have fewer fees and be more affordable. Listen, I am not here to judge. It is so expensive in these streets. I 100% can see how in just a few months you can have this much credit card debt when it weighs on you. It's really easy to just like stick your head in the sand. It's nice and

dark in the sand. Even if it's scary, it's not going to go away just because you're avoiding it. And in fact, it may get even worse. For more judgment-free money advice, Listen to Brown Ambition on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Violent crime is not the only metric. Quality of life crime has to, of course, be one. There's no question, quality of life crime, especially in the biggest cities, which are all Democratic or blue or liberal in some form, are much worse to be in. Now, I think there's a lot of questions as to why. And Chicago is a very good example.

I mean, this part of why, honestly, Chicago is probably the best pick out of all of them, because it's the one. one with the most clownish mayor, Brandon Johnson. What does he have? An 80% disapproval rating, 20% approved. He basically was elected as some sort of like DSA slash, you know, BLM-style candidate. And he's been a disaster, mostly for the city. Don't listen to me. Listen to the people who actually are his own constituents who can't stand him. The violent crime rate there has technically fallen. But if you look at the overall spike in homicides, I mean, they were 60% higher in 2021 than in 2019. that feeling and general, you know, like safety into the city of Chicago is one that was like the number one cause for people who were leaving the city, which is destroying their tax base. That is empirically the same problem across the entire, like, major cities in America.

This isn't just about Memphis or any other places. And it's also a bit of a cop out, in my opinion, because like Memphis never claimed to be like the third largest city in the United States. It's not a center of commerce. Like, it's lost on no one. These are all blue states. I'm not, I'm not disputing. Can we, like, just be honest about what's going on here. And can we also be honest about, imagine if you had a Kamala Harris administration

or a Joe Biden administration that was deploying the National Guard into red states to enforce COVID rules. I mean, everybody would be freaking out. And yet, you know, this pretext of, oh, it's about crime, that's just complete and total bullshit. D.C. is not even like in the top list of cities for violent crime in the country. I am not saying that this is all about crime. What I am saying is that I think it's bad and a bad idea for Democrats, particularly to not acknowledge the fact that most of their cities suck to live in. And I think that that is one of those, which needs to be, like, centered at the heart of blue governance. This is one of the things I appreciate.

I just don't think that's true. No, it is true. It's absolutely not. I mean, these are all, like, net population loss cities. And here's the thing, if you want to get violent crime down to, like, European, if you want to get crime down to, like, European capital levels, then, okay, let's have European-style gun laws. Let's have European-style social safety net. It's a canard because we've always lived in a gun-loving, we've always lived in a gun ownership country

who haven't always had this level of violent crime. Now the point is, if you go back to the, let's say, the year 2000, if you check both violent crime and just generally, where you're walking down the street seeing homeless vagrants constantly harassed people on the street, it was not happening. We had plenty of guns. Yes, there are 400 million guns in this country.

Our violent crime rate and our homicide rate is always going to be orders of magnitude. That's why it's not necessarily the metric why you need to look at it. You need to look at the fact that a lot of these places have sky high taxes. They have sky high cost of living and they're very unpleasant to be in. And so deploy the National Guard and federal. I mean, that's the thing is like I just, I hear you on the crime. We've had the debate.

Like we can consider you talk about this. This is not about crime. I agree. This is about domination. This is about dominating democratic cities and states. It's about a show of force. It's about what he can get away with. And it's about, yes,

distracting from whatever else. So I just don't even want to like... But that's the problem. That's what I think the issue is. No, it's not. Because the minute that you go down this rabbit hole of, oh, well, let's talk about what's really causing crime in D.C. or Chicago versus Memphis, blah, blah, blah. You are playing into his narrative that this has anything to do about crime.

And it does not. If you cared, if he cared about homelessness, if he cared about juvenile delinquency, any of these things, the Republicans wouldn't have stripped a billion. million dollars from the D.C. budget. You know, they wouldn't have cut so many of these programs that were just slashed during Doge across the board. He wouldn't have pardoned the January 6th violent rioters. So that's why I just have no use for this conversation that even, like, you know, gives credence to the idea this has anything to do with crime because it doesn't. The countercase for that is that Trump still has the approval rating of where Obama was in his second term. And the fact is

and was elected with a popular vote of some 1%, the first president since 2004 for a Republican to actually win it. Why did all of that happen? Now, Kamala is a part of it. I think these city governance is a big part, especially if you look at the blue state swings towards Donald Trump. People are broadly fed up. And if you look at the fact that with these polling around this,

people say it is a bad use of taxpayer dollars, people say that it's buffoonish, but they acknowledge the crime. And if it was being done properly, they would be very okay with it. Now, I'm against just generally the federalization, and I agree that it's being buffoonish and the way that it is being doing is for political purposes. The reason why I think, again, the crime, the vagrancy, the homelessness, the drug addiction, all of that has to be put on the table is no one can objectively look at Chicago and say, yeah, this place is doing it well. So put it on the table, but it has nothing to do with this. It's a totally separate topic. Let's see, what you said is exactly the problem. You said, oh, a billion dollars. If money could fix DC, DC spend, more per capita per student than any other public school district in the entire nation. It has nothing to do with money. It's about, it's literally about criminal enforcement.

It definitely does have to do with money. And by the way, once again, crime is way down in D.C. From 20203, it's still sky high compared to 2000. We have the lowest, on track with the lowest level of violent crime in 30 years in this city. Baltimore, same thing. Baltimore is having their lowest level of homicides in like 50 years. And actually, there is significant crime down. There's significant, Okay, so you don't need to send in the friggin' national guards and this is the thing. It's like, that's, this is not about crime.

So, yes, do I think that there is, you know, a narrative about, oh, Democratic cities in decline and chaos, blah, blah, blah, a lot of which is bullshit and overblown, by the way. But do I think there's a narrative about that that has some political salience? Yes, let's be honest that this has nothing to do with solving that problem. I don't think nothing to do with it. I agree. I'm with you. I mean, I don't think that we're.

That's it. That's all I want to get. That far apart, but I do think, I mean, again, it does drive me and a lot of other Republicans crazy when they look at people like, oh, Washington, it's like, no, it sucks. It's sucked for a long time. Chicago sucks. Like San Francisco, there are parts of Chicago, which are beautiful. When we were there, I was actually, wow, this is actually quite nice. A lot of the media narrative is wrong, but the overall per capita crime rate in many of these

neighborhoods is a disaster. And that is the part where politically, again, you cannot just like, oh, it's not about crime if you don't have an answer to crime because then Trump is going to win every single time. Crime is down. So clearly there are some answers to crime which are being deployed. I mean, and that's the other thing is like what frustrates me is when there's all this hand wringing about crime, ringing about crime, which justifiably, like people deserve to be safe. They deserve to live in neighborhoods where they feel comfortable. Yes, on board with all of that. But then there's no willingness to talk about, you know, changing gun laws, right? That's completely off the table.

If you look at us as a nation versus, if you look at us as a nation versus other countries around the world, the big outlier is in terms of gun ownership. So, you know, if we're going to talk about why this country is overall so violent, and by the way, some of the red states have the highest crime rates in the country. If we want to talk about that versus the rest of the world, you have to talk about guns. You have to talk about social safety net. You have to talk about the fact that we have this vast inequality and we have very little in terms of social safety. net. We have very little in order to support people, including young people, who feel utterly hopeless. But instead, we're just going to, like, roll in the National Guard and pretend like that's any kind of a real solution. It's just so frustrating, preposterous thing. I think it's

completely fair, and it is true that the National Guard is not the solution. And I do think the gun thing has to be acknowledged. It's obvious. We have 400 million guns in the country. I'm not for gun control. Also, by the way, it's just not going to happen. And Illinois has some of the strictest gun laws in the entire nation. So within the framework of, like, quote, the possible, where we're going to acknowledge, yes, we're going to have violent crime. We're never going to be a European capital. We don't live in Geneva. We don't live in Zurich.

We don't live in Vienna. That's in Tokyo, any of these places. That is not politically feasible. What is feasible is the year 2000, in my opinion. And now we have to all ask, how exactly did we get to this point here? Is the National Guard, I just, I continue to emphasize it for a sole reason. I continue to see this BLM style, oh, it's all because of social safety. It's like, no, it's not.

It's addiction of huge part of it, and it's soft on crime policy. And the fact is, is that if you embrace, like, a narrative of actually crime is down, when in reality it's still very high compared to 2000, especially 2010. How does our incarceration rate compared to other countries? Yes, we have one of the higher incarceration rates in the world. But it's not just— Because we're soft on crime. That's nonsense.

Well, yeah, but there's been a great shift since the year 2020, of which the consequences have been disastrous. And it isn't just about incarceration. Well, if those policies are still in place, then why is correct? crime going down so much. Because they're not being enforced. It's because, Sagar, I mean, I, look, those policies, I'm not going to say that they don't have any impact, okay? I think that would be dishonest. But I think if we talk about, okay, what has really changed between, like, let's say the year 2000 was the benchmark you set out.

And now, we are suffering through a national societal breakdown, right? Inequality is skyrocketing. That's part of it. Social misery and stress and political polarization, like all of these things are pulling us apart. It is no surprise that at a time when you had the COVID lockdowns and an additional level of stress and isolation and loneliness, that yes, out of that you see a spike in crime, not to mention kids being out of school and all these sorts of things. So, you know, I'm not going to say the policies don't matter. But I think the bigger picture is those broader societal trends, which is why this is not a blue state or red state or red city or blue city thing. It is a national epidemic that we struggle with, which has a lot of contributing factors,

and none of which will be solved by the National Guard standing outside of Georgetown Cupcake. One of the things that you didn't mention is illegal immigration, which actually some of this probably will be targeted towards. And so that is an important part of the story as well, where you have a mass illegal immigrant population, which is ballooned since the year 2000. So look, this is why, even if you look at violent crime compared to my benchmark, Violent crime is actually, if you look at 2000, so it wasn't a great year for violent crime. Like, that's why it's not the right benchmark. The benchmark is quality of life.

The quality of life has many different constituent parts to it. Inequality, certainly. But, again, like, culturally, juveniles here today are not getting prosecuted. Juvenile, like, delinquency is a genuine BLM creation, like from 2020 post on here in Washington. ATV gangs, lawlessness, cashless bail. these are BLM policies directly implemented as a result of the protests, which have skyrocketed crime in New York City, in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Brandon Johnson, 2023, they went ahead and implemented cashless bail. I get it. If you think about cash bail, it sounds inequitable. But the consequence has been a disaster. And so, I mean, we cover that story of that guy who, what did you do? He, like, ran into a, it was in the state of Illinois, I believe. He, like, ran into some parade and killed a bunch of people released on bail. I mean, these are cashless bail. This is always the issue. is that we don't evaluate all of this, like, new age policy. Oh, we need to talk about addiction and not criminalize it.

It's like, well, look at Skid Row, look at San Francisco. Look at the most non-criminalized areas for people in addiction. It has destroyed the quality of life for the residents of those cities. So we should definitely not criminalize addiction. We should have much more forceful rehab as you and I discussed. Again, I come back to the point. None of this has to do with the National Guard. Fair.

None of it. None of it. None of it. And so that's why I find it frustrating to even, like, indulge the conversation when it's very clear what is being done here. It's the whole attempt is to get this conversation put on the table, even though Trump has no interest in solving it, has been more pro-criminal than maybe any other president, given the way that he's pardoned, not only, you know, not only the J-6 or all these, like, you know, white-collar criminal fraudsters who just, like, pay the right person and are able to get their pardons. So that's my core frustration with the way this conversation is unfolding.

Let me get to the Westmore part because this relates to what we're discussing and we can talk about Bill Maher and get into some of the sort of darker possibilities of what Trump is doing right now. So let's go and put A5 up on the screen. Trump going directly after Westmore's governor, Maryland, talked about as a presidential candidate. He's, you know, not really my style. He's a little too moderate, corporate, et cetera.

etc., but in any case, Trump says Governor Westmore of Maryland has asked in a rather nasty and provocative tone that I walk the streets of Maryland with him. I assume he is talking about out-of-control crime-ridden Baltimore. As president, I would much prefer that he clean up this crime disaster before I go there for a walk. Westmore's record on crime is a very bad one unless he fudges his figures on crime like many of the other blue states are doing. But if Westmore needs help like Gavin Newscombe did in L.A., I will send in the troops, which is being done in nearby D.C. and quickly clean up the crime. After only one week, there is no crime and no murder in D.C. When it is like that in Baltimore, I would proudly walk the streets with the failing because

of crime, governor of Maryland. P.S., Baltimore has ranked the fourth worst city in the nation in crime and murder. Stop talking, get to work West. I'll then see you in the streets. And then he goes on to say, I gave Westmore a lot of money to fix his demolish bridge. Not even true. That came from Joe Biden, but, and he says, I'll now have to rethink that decision. Okay. Westmore responded to this on the Sunday shows. Let's go ahead and take a listen. to what he had to say. Are you so opposed to this deployment? Well, there's plenty of reasons. You know, one, it is not sustainable. You cannot continue this type of pace of operations, particularly when it's costing over a million dollars a day

in order to do this. The second, it's not scalable. You're not going to be able to do this in every single major American city, particularly when many of the cities that have the highest crime rates are the places that have actually deployed their National Guards to Washington, D.C. So who's going to go do the work in their cities? The third, It's unconstitutional. It's a direct violation of the 10th Amendment. The fourth reason is because it's deeply disrespectful to the members of the National Guard. You know, as someone who actually deployed overseas and served my country in combat,

to ask these men and women to do a job that they're not trained for is just deeply disrespectful. And so when we're thinking about all of these lasting factors, when we're thinking about the fact that it serves as a distraction from the fact that the president's disastrous economic policies are making everything more expensive for everyday Americans and is making life harder for everyday Americans, there is a multitude of reasons that I am against this and I will not authorize the Maryland National Guard to be utilized for this. So his reasons where he said it's unsustainable, it's not scalable, it's unconstitutional, and it's a distraction. So that was his take on all of it.

None of which, you know, I mean, he didn't downplay that obviously Baltimore has long had a crime issue, although they have done a better job. This year in particular, violent crime is they have done it. Yes. The social worker part of it is not the whole story. The prosecution is a big part of it, having dug a little bit into it. But, yeah, let's give it credit where it's due. I will say Moore also is diving into the gerrymandering fight, and he's going to make it so there's only one Republican seat in the state. No, there is currently.

Or sorry, no, only one, and they're just going to take it away. They're going to get rid of that, too. They're going to take it away. So race to the bottom, I guess. I mean, Maryland has been a blue state, I guess now for quite some time. Might as well just make it official. I think Moore is, I think he's quite talented, actually. I mean, I don't know.

It's like you said, I'm a bit suspicious of the more corporatized element of it, and he does seem very cut of the mold of, like, exactly what the centrist Democrat would want and almost wears it on his sleeve a little bit about, like, practicing with the football squad and all of that, making it go quite viral. But, I mean, there's no question. He's quite popular, actually, in the state. It is generally smaller. And in terms of national profile, like, I don't see it as much for him as with Newsom.

But if Trump picks a fight with him, obviously, then he's going to be. That'd be very elevating for him. Yeah. And I think a lot of Democrats, ambitious Democrats, are looking at the Newsom model and they see that like this is working for him. And I don't know why it took them this long to realize that, you know, trying to troll Trump, like get in his face, make a lot of noise, be controversial. Obviously, that's what you have to do in this era. And so I think West Moore is trying to do kind of his own version of that. And the pick, the fight that Trump has picked with him is obviously very elevating for him. Right. Anyway, I think broadly, look, yeah, to wrap up our discussion, I agree.

I think the National Guard, and most Americans are smart. I've always believed that. I can see through a lot of what this is. Even people like me who are like, yeah, I think crime is a huge problem. I think illegal immigration and all of that is a huge problem. If they view it as a showmanship and is not serious, then they're going to get upset. I do wonder politically how it shakes out because it sounds, quote, unpopular in all of that today. What I continue to wonder about is the actual merits of how the Democratic opposition fights this. And that's why, you know, that's part of what I thought our discussion is important for is if the alternative is seen as still like soft on crime, then it will be a genuine question at the ballot box, especially for the future of the discourse, as to like what this will look like in terms of preference. because we have to be honest, like, you know, even if you look back at the height of BLM, sending in troops to the cities was broadly popular, and especially in retrospect, if you go back and now look at some one or two years later on the question of that polling, people were very upset by the breakdown of the social order chaos, and they're not going to pick. In general, in my opinion, people will pick social order over everything. That is not actually a good societal natural instinct, but it is broadly true. The question politically is how this will sustain it. I think Gavin, one of the ways that he was smart, was talking about rule of law, and they weren't doing the BLM style, like, actually, it's mostly peaceful.

Most Democrats were criticizing the Mexican flag burning, you know, like the burning of the cars, rioting, and any of that. That seems to be a politically palatable position that I think a lot of centrist more Americans could go with. But it is still like a very live question today. I can see where the centrists are going. But I also see where the activist base is. And so I'm still curious to see how that actually shakes out. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a very different moment from the moment of COVID and BLM because there is a sense that, like, you know, things have calmed down in these cities and it's not this heightened moment that it was at that point in time. I was just looking there is a little bit of polling.

I mean, who knows how this shakes down what people really think in the long run and all of that. But data for progress found a majority of voters 51 percent opposed the Trump administration taking over D.C. police force and deploying the National Guard. in the city. So 44% support, 51% oppose. That's basically right in line with Trump's approval rating. Yeah. So I think it really is just like a vector for do you, do you trust Trump or do you not trust Trump? And you've got a lot of people too who, you don't think that it is indicative of authoritarian. Trump is being authoritarian, 57%. Trump is just doing this to distract from other issues, 51 percent. More than half of voters, if 51 percent also agree Trump is doing what's necessary to crack down on crime, though voters are closely divided with 46 percent disagreeing with that

statement. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, at 6.33 p.m., everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Apparently, the explosion actually impelled metal glass. The injured were being loaded into ambulances. Just a chaotic, chaotic scene.

In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, and it was here to stay. Terrorism. Law and order, criminal justice system is back. In season two, we're turning our focus to a threat that hides in plain sense. that's harder to predict and even harder to stop. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A foot washed up a shoe with some bones in it.

They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable. These are the coldest of cold cases. But everything is about to change. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA. Using new scientific tools, they're finding clues in evidence so tiny you might just miss it. He never thought he was going to get caught.

And I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. On America's crime lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors. And you'll meet the team behind the scenes at Othrum, the Houston Lab that takes on the most hopeless cases, to finally solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes it's hard to remember, but... Going through something like that is a traumatic experience, but it's also not the end of their life. That was my dad, reminding me and so many others who need to hear it, that our trauma is not our shame to

carry and that we have big, bold, and beautiful lives to live after what happened to us. I'm your host and co-president of this organization, Dr. Leia Trey-Tate. On my new podcast, The Unwanted Sorority, we weighed through transformation to peel back healing and reveal what it actually looks like, and sounds like in real time. Each week, I sit down with people who live through harm, carried silence, and are now reshaping the systems that failed us. We're going to talk about the adultification of black girls, mothering as resistance, and the tools we use for healing. The unwanted sorority is a safe space, not a quiet space. So let's walk in. We're moving towards liberation together. Listen to the unwanted sorority, new episodes

every Thursday on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's just go ahead and move on to Bill Maher and then we can talk more about this. But in any case, he had a take on his show over the weekend, which in my opinion is interesting for a variety of reasons. Let's go ahead and take a listen to that. I don't know if I was the first one to use the phrase slow-moving coup. I know I was using it before he was... Thank you. I know I was using it before he was president the first time. So maybe somebody got to it first. I don't know. And people were laughing at it. I mean, whenever I said he was never going to concede power, they would say, oh, you smoke too much pot. Well, it turned out I smoked just the right amount of pot.

He does this magic trick. You know, he's passing out pizza. And it's all about big balls and we're all laughing at what's going on in D.C. Yeah, he's passing out pizza of the troops. If there was a slow-moving coup, let me just describe some of the steps, and you tell me if I'm being paranoid. First, create a masked police force. Get people used to looking at that.

Normalize snatching people off the street. Get them used to that. Normalize seeing the car, the National Guard, and the military on the street. Then start talking about crime in the Capitol, is basically, you know, has always been a fairly crime-ridden city. This is our nation's capital where elections are decided. And then have, because the crime is so bad, have other states start sending their troops, not just the National Guard there in D.C., but now at least six

other states are sending their troops, which then Trump can then federalize. So you're having many state's troops on the ground there, and now they're under federal control. So you have in the capital, a sort of permanent police presence. So when an election dispute might come up, just hypothetically, I mean, I don't want to be a big pessimist and I'm going to pretend for the rest of the duration that the Democrats do have a chance of winning and they might win the next election. I just don't think they're ever going to take power because this is what's going happen because I think this coup is going to go off a lot smoother than the last one. So what do you make of that, Zagra?

Well, it just makes a lot of sense that if you believe that to go to the White House and to have dinner with that person, that's what I'm like, Bill, come on here, man. I mean, look, you can't have it both ways. You're either literally a fascist who's trying to take over the country, which I don't think is going to happen, or we're all having dinner together, and why wouldn't I go and have dinner. I mean, you know, it's like, look, Bill, if you believe that, you know, would you really, quote, have dinner with anybody? I don't believe that for a second. That's why, you know, a lot of it just really seems to be centered around him, like personally and, like, his own ego.

So he's happy to talk about soft coos or whatever on his show. But if Trump were to invite him to the White House tomorrow, he would probably go. And then he would, you know, say that there's a reason why it's because we all need to have conversations. And it's like, which, what are we doing here, man? And it's funny because for me to be saying this, but I'm just, for me, I hate inconsistency. I hate people who are obviously just so wrapped up in their own ego and blowing with the wind. I mean, Bill Maher is probably, you know, the most, like, the best example of blowing, you know, whichever way the tide turns. He's trying to return to some more of his original, like, more liberal roots and appear heterodox. But he was basically like a right winger for a year, right?

Yeah, the right was loving the sky. The election, yeah, which is humiliating for them because they'll take, like, one guy says something, like, oh, my God, he's making so much sense, Bill Maher. Anyway, that's my own personal pet pee. But yes, that's my Bill Mark. I mean, and it wasn't just any dinner. He went and, you know, he did. And he did, Dana White was there. But then afterwards, he did a whole monologue about how charming Trump was, how funny he was, and how why can't this guy be like the public guy? You know, I mean, it was very fawning. And so, and the other thing is to your point about the self-importance, I mean, these people act like they're like diplomats on some sort of a sensitive government mission. It was the same thing with Joe Amika, the way they freeze when they did their little trip to Mar-a-Lago.

He acts like this, you know, comedian with a once-a-week show going and meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago is like the Camp David Accords. I mean, it's just, it's so silly, it's so preposterous. But then, yeah, if you do that and then you turn around and say, which, by the way, I agree with what he's saying here, you know, his language of it's a soft coup, a slow-moving coup, I think that everything he said is. reasonable considering what we experienced and saw on January 6th and, you know, the fact that there's a concerted plan now to roll out National Guard troops in blue cities and blue states across the country. But you don't have a lot of credibility on that when you're doing the like, you know, the nicety-nice with him as well. So I just want to say this again comes to the difficulty that I have in trying to accurately assess the threat posed by the Trump administration.

because on the one hand, like we're here in D.C., the National Guard deployment is buffoonish. Like, it's silly. It's ridiculous. They're, you know, they're at MRAPs at Union Station and apparently on the National Mall and, like, roaming around Georgetown Cupcake. I'm seeing videos of them just like going up and down escalators. It's ridiculous. On the other hand, they are going to be armed, apparently, starting this week. You know, it's not hard to imagine some sort of disaster, disastrous conflagration, which creates way more chaos, way more violence or way more backlash or whatever it is. And part of you has to wonder if that's not part of the point, right? If that's not part of the desire is trying to stoke this sort of animosity and chaos in the streets.

And then you do all, he makes the point specifically about elections. And I think it's that one is a fair one too. Like, are we going to have this armed force in blue cities when when it comes to election day to try to intimidate Democratic voters from going to the polls. I don't think that's preposterous to suggest, especially as right now we see the president manifesting concern about the midterms, saying he wants them to try to get 100 new Republican seats, already casting doubt on mail-in ballots, which by the way, he did excellent with mail-in ballots. He would have lost the election.

It's because of boomers. He would have lost the election without mail-in ballots last time around. But in any case, this is all about stoking concern and being able to say after the fact that it was rigged. We see him going to red states and saying, you need to create new maps so we can get more Republican seats. So all of that is to say he's clearly concerned about the midterms. You now have this, you know, armed, militarized force being deployed in cities across the country. It isn't crazy to say, what is this all aiming towards?

And, you know, you have the buffoonery and the, like, idiocy on the one hand. And on the other hand, you have a record of genuinely, like, nefarious plots executed, you know, by this administration and Trump being much more sort of unleashed this time around than the first time around. So I do, I do give credence to what Bill is saying there, even as I acknowledge, she's not the best messenger at this point. I would say it is incorrect to rule a lot of that stuff out, considering a lot of the ways the administration has acted in its first nine months. I think the greatest danger is actually some sort of spontaneous incident. And like that's the one, which look, it's fair. I mean, you talked about the mask thing. If you come to my door, I mean, especially after more recently that attack, whoever that weirdo was the pro-life guy who dressed as a police officer with a mask, right, and who went to those politicians's door? Yeah, that's right. I mean, look, even if you're, you know, have that on, and I'm looking at the camera, I'm going to be like, look, name, badge number. Like, who are you, you know? Like, there needs to be some serious vetting before you open your door for anybody. And I would advise that for everybody out there especially.

after that type of incident. And the same with some sort of mass incident, right? So exactly in that scenario, it's dangerous, and there were protocols all of there for a reason. That is setting up the ground for something that could go very, very wrong. That's part of the reason why people look at Kent State, you know, for example, as kind of a horror in modern American history. And it's like nobody was going there to kill them.

It's just that it erupted in a bad, in chaos, and people ended up dead. that's the issue. And, you know, like, it's not like there wasn't, like, genuine violence or whatever, but the point is that people looked at that and said, hey, we should not try to normalize this. And that's exactly what I think the danger is, is that the longer that you have, let's say a deployment or armed deployment or something like this in a 90% blue city, it does seem like it's only a matter of time until somebody, you know, somebody crazy. It's a provocation. And then, you know, same if from there and then from there. Who knows what's going to happen, right? That's not excusing somebody who's going to attack them or whatever. I'm just, you know, it's obvious. obvious. It could happen. Right. And so that, I think that's probably the thing I would be the most afraid. I am most afraid of, especially for the deployment here. Because you just don't know. Like, you know, things, crazy stuff can happen and has happened many times.

And you have people out there, you just have no idea. I mean, you had the whole weather, I've been thinking a lot about how America really reminds me today of the 1970s. And the more that we, like, cling to that framework, it's really important. I mean, the weather underground, like, tried to blow up the capital, like, crazy. A group of just 20 people can cause, can do some crazy shit and can have actually cause like some widespread social panic and chaos. Yeah. That's very possible. And then from there, it's not just a civil liberties question. It's really more about how and what, how are we

going to deal with this going forward? And with the administration, you can see like they're not afraid of picking a fight where they think they can come out politically on top. From my conversation with them, they think this is the best thing that they've done so far. They used big balls getting beaten up as like a Reichstag fire to deploy the National Guard. They did. And that's not to say that it was like a setup. I'm just saying they used that provocation. Sure. We're like we're sending in the National Guard. Now, let's say imagine that that homeowner who shot the two, you know, people who were pretending to be law enforcement, let's say they actually were law enforcement. Let's say it was ICE agents who refused to identify who came knocking at the door and the homeowner thought,

or an illegal killer. This was, that would be. We're off to the race. I mean, and the homeowner thought genuinely, these were home intruders and, you know, killed them. Imagine what this administration would do given any sort of a pretext for some sort of massive crackdown. Like, we know that they'll do it. They're already doing it based on, like, you know, a few protests with some with a couple cars set on fire and some Mexican flags and big balls getting beat up. So they'll use anything. You know, I mean, we just had a situation where one of these, wasn't one of the MRAPs that, like, T-boned a car here in the city.

Thankfully, the people in the car were injured, they were taking to the hospital, but I think they survived aren't going to be okay, which is like a miracle given what unfolded. But again, you can imagine like an angry crowd forming. It's not hard to envision the way this could all go off the rails and the way this administration could use that sort of provocation for an even larger-scale crackdown. So I think we all have to be concerned about those possibilities and concerned that that is actively the plan. Like, that's what they're actually hoping for, because Trump loves to create the pretext of a national emergency to grab more and more and more power. Yeah, I don't think, look, I don't think it's that far-fetched.

Yeah. I do think it is dangerous, just broadly, like, actually, societally, for that type of stuff to happen. And if it is seen by the people as something as that, then you're political, even just politically, like you're going to suffer a lot. Because that is really the question that, anyway, that's just like the question I'm grappling with the most. Because it's like you said, too. I mean, here's, here is the truth that is uncomfortable. A lot of people will choose safety over security. And we've seen that over and over and over again.

Safety over freedom, you mean. Safety over freedom. Yeah. The question is about safety itself and, like, what that even means. I do think there is a deep strain, especially for a lot of American, especially a lot of American Republicans who are still furious about BLM, which I understand, is to punish the people who were responsible for that. But, you know, one of the things that they also need to grapple with is three and a half years ain't that long of a time, okay?

Because whatever's what's been unleashed, it's coming for you too. Yeah. I mean, I'm from Texas. I don't know if you remember when Obama, like, there was this whole Jade Helm exercise. Oh, yeah. Oh, I remember. And the Texas National Guard was mobile. And people there freaked out.

Like, my neighbors and other people were like, they're going to come and invade us. And, like, that's equally, I can see, you know, that strain. having lived through that, of what that could look like. You know, there's some reason why a liberal city or whatever can't do the same thing. That's kind of a scary place to be. That's just what I would say. Yeah, I agree. Another pandemic, you're ready for Governor Gavin Newsom to send the National Guard into your cities

and enforce everybody, you know, close the churches and lockdown. I don't think Republicans are going to be excited about that possibility. That is the point, though, that the right-wingers always point out is like, hey, you guys are happy to use a National Guard to close down the beach or, you know, to enforce all these. I don't think they did that. No, in California, there was law, maybe not National Guard, but there definitely was, I think there was some National Guard deployment for COVID-19. I forget exactly what it was. I think it was Operation Warp Speed. But anyway, law enforcement closing down the beach, a lot of the stupid policies, restaurants, etc. So it's like, it's not exactly as if they're, like, you know, against, like, a lot of authoritarian tactics when they want it to be. That was, by the way, another reason why I think it's important to say, like, there was no mass revolution in America or anywhere in the entire West. against draconian COVID policies, people actually should sit with that,

especially in retrospect of how ridiculous they were and wonder if we would all do it again. I personally will not go along with it again. I don't know how many people would go along with it again. And I do think that is an important societal, like social question for what it means. This is interesting, just aside. I don't know that this is the only deployment,

but one of the deployments of the National Guard during COVID was Red State, Ohio to assist hospitals. But it was like to assist hospitals when you had... But he was the lid. What was the guy? Mike DeWine. Mike DeWine. And then obviously, at the same time,

you had National Guard deployed to deal with the George Floyd, the riots in the context of the Black Lives Matter. So in any case. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush. Parents hauling luggage. Kids gripping their needs.

Christmas toys. Then, at 6.33 p.m., everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Apparently the explosion actually impelled metal, glass. The injured were being loaded into ambulances, just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, and it was here to stay. Terrorism. Law and order, criminal just system is back. In season two, we're turning our focus to a threat that hides in plain sight that's harder to predict and even harder to stop. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes it's hard to remember, but...

Going through something like that is a traumatic experience, but it's also not the end. of their life. That was my dad, reminding me and so many others who need to hear it, that our trauma is not our shame to carry, and that we have big, bold, and beautiful lives to live after what happened to us. I'm your host and co-president of this organization, Dr. Leitra Tate. On my new podcast, The Unwanted Sorority, we weighed through transformation to peel back healing and reveal what it actually looks like, and sounds like in real time. Each week, I sit down with people who live through harm, carried silence, and are now reshaping the system. that failed us. We're going to talk about the adultification of black girls, mothering as

resistance, and the tools we use for healing. The unwanted sorority is a safe space, not a quiet space. So let's lock in. We're moving towards liberation together. Listen to the unwanted sorority, new episodes every Thursday on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison, or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth. Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps,

are short-term, highly regimented correctional programs that mimic military basic training. These programs aim to provide a shock of prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor and rehabilitation programs. Mark had one chance to complete this program and had no idea of the hell awaiting him the next six months. The first night was so overwhelming, and you don't know who's next to you. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning.

Nobody tells you anything. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll all remember that we told you the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche sat for two days of interviews with Galane Maxwell in a proffer session. The Deputy Attorney General and the DOJ has now released the full transcripts, or at least what they say, are the full transcripts of their conversation.

And you will be absolutely shocked to know that Galane Maxwell doesn't implicate Donald Trump, doesn't implicate anybody powerful at all. Prince Andrew did nothing wrong. Bill Gates did nothing wrong. Jeffrey Epstein was a simple money manager. By the way, to the extent that anyone did anything wrong, it was Jeffrey Epstein. was, of course, after Galane Maxwell was ever in the picture. Maxwell herself did nothing wrong.

Nobody did anything wrong. And by the way, she would like her pardon immediately. She did say a few interesting things to the extent that we give credence at all. Let's keep in mind, every claim that she makes needs to be deeply scrutinized and I will get into them. Let's go to the first part, shall we? Let's put it up here on the screen. This is the first most important section where Maxwell claims that she does not believe that Epstein, quote, died by suicide. She says, quote, I do not believe he died by a suicide. And Todd Blanche goes, do you believe that? Do you have any speculation of you killed him? She says, no, I don't. He continues. I ask that because if you don't believe that and there's any truth for the allegation of blackmail, etc. Did he have any reason for people to hate him? Why would somebody kill him in prison? And she says, and this is something I keep emphasizing. People are like, how could they get somebody to kill him? Listen to her answer. In prison where I am, they will kill you or they will pay, somebody can pay a prisoner to kill you for $25 worth of commissary. That's about the going

for a hit with a lock today. That is an important thing to underscore because he was in, you know, MCC. People keep asking, they're like, who killed him? It's like, it's obviously another prisoner. These guys kill each other over literally 25 cent gambling debts

to maintain respect. So the idea that it would be difficult for somebody to kill him, or especially to strangle him to death, is like so, that is the most plausible scenario. It's far more plausible than that he killed him. Right. So anyway, the one piece of sense

that Galane was saying. But even in that, guess if she doesn't implicate? Yeah, that's right. Of course. The Trump administration and, you know, and Bill bought anyone powerful, right? And obviously it was the first Trump administration when Jeffrey Epstein died, however that unfolded. And so she's very careful to, you know, I don't think you killed himself. But it was just some, you know, prison beef is probably what happened.

Nobody powerful was involved. Don't worry. You can trust me. This whole thing is like a joke. Let's go to the next part here. This is her angling for her pardon, shall we? quote, I never saw the president in any type of massage setting. I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way.

The president was never inappropriate with anybody in all the times I was with him. He was a gentleman in all respects. And she even says that, by the way, I just want to say that I find it so impressive that he was able to get himself elected president of the United States. Of course, I'm sure those are just, you know, very normal feelings, right? Okay. Now, let me just again lay out how much of her testimony or whatever in her proffer session is just a provable lie. And this is the easiest one for me to point out. Let's put it up here on the screen. She told Todd Blanche directly that she built all of Epstein's houses. And the idea that there are cameras in them is preposterous. So here is the exact transcript. From what you know, you do not believe a camera exists or a video camera exists or a camera that takes pictures inside any. of his residences. Galane Maxwell, correct. Here is a picture from Jeffrey Epstein's bedroom with a mounted surveillance camera above his bed. There are many other photos of surveillance cameras all over the 77th Street mansion. There are FBI acknowledgments that during the raids

of his houses that they found cameras apparently everywhere. Like this is the part where Todd Blanche doesn't even push back in any way. He's like, oh, so you're telling me there's no cameras? Okay. And she goes on this whole long spiel. She's like, I built those houses from ground to, you know, from floor to ceiling. I know every inch of them in the wiring. There's no cameras anywhere.

And he's not sitting there being like, well, what about this photo of a camera? Like it's like, what? You know, I'm just an idiot. I'm literally an idiot on YouTube who has read as much as I can about the Epstein case. And immediately I'm like, what are you talking about? Here's 10 photos of cameras in there. Did those cameras show up after you built the houses? If they did, who put them in there?

What was the name of the house manager? Who were the employees who would have known how to do something like that? What was the subcontracting firm because you claim to run all of its finances and know every inch of the desk? So many of the things that she said were totalized, even worse, the way she tries to minimize and everything that happened, it's sickening. Like, I read all 400 pages of this lady's testimony. At every end, she's like, oh, that was Jeffrey.

It was after I departed. Or I never saw anything wrong. Like, every, oh, Prince Andrew, I met him through Diana's friend, and I don't wish to speak ill of her. But Andrew, he's so British, he would never do anything like that. And it's like, for Andrew, for Bill Gates, for Leon Black, for Les Wexner, it's like the most bullshit explanation that does not even pass a remote smell test. Blanche lets her get away with it. And the worst part is this will probably use, is already being used by the Epstein defenders, is look, see, she drove a knife in the heart of a, all of the Epstein conspiracy.

Why would we listen to this lady? This lady was charged with perjury in 2020 for lying in a deposition. Now, to be fair, the prosecution ended up dropping the perjury for her sentencing because she'd already been convicted. The broader charge was going to send her for prison for 20 years. Like, open and shut decent enough proof

that she has lied under oath for a deposition. Not only that. Like, let's just be really clear about the context here. This is a woman who wants a pardon. She's trying to get a pardon. And she's trying to project, not just to Trump, but to anyone powerful, that you're not going to have a problem with me. I'm going to keep my mouth shut. Your secrets are safe with me.

I'm going to be no issue. I'm not going to implicate anyone. I'm going to downplay this thing. We can all just move on. I mean, that's the point of this. And so even if she wasn't like a proven liar, which obviously she is, you have to think about what are her motivations. Obviously, she's not going to come forward me. Oh, yeah.

I saw Trump doing X and Y and Z. Oh, yeah. He's totally, Epstein was totally, you know, an intel agent. Oh, yeah, there were, you know, cameras everywhere. Because the minute you acknowledge our cameras everywhere, too, that again confirms, there's a lot of information out there that we have never been given access to. So that's why the camera piece is important. And it is one of the most easily disprovable pieces.

I mean, didn't we get that information not only from a lot of witnesses who saw such things, but there was also when Epstein's mansion on the Upper East Side was, you know, rated by law enforcement, they also didn't, weren't they part of, you know, talking? about the cameras that were there. Like, this is, they say it directly. This is, there is, you know, this is proven fact. This is not speculation. This is not conspiracy theory, et cetera.

So it speaks to her credibility and the motivations that she has in this whole exchange. Absolutely. Let's go to the next part, please, because, you know, just to continue to give you guys a flavor of what we're all dealing with. This is Maxwell. I never saw a single masseuse ever look unhappy or not come back or whatever. Yeah. That's what we were doing with. So she's like, so based on my observation, I don't, this is classic.

I don't think that if you were being raped as he's now like this prolific, I just, I can't even imagine why you would return. All right. So it's like, you know, when battered women, this is the justification that people make about battered women. They're like, well, if they wanted to leave so bad, they would just leave. I'm like, oh, yeah, it's that simple, okay? Talk to any cop who's ever had to go to a domestic violence call. And some lady has her face broken in.

And she's like, oh, we didn't do anything wrong. Maybe there's a bigger context and some power dynamic and money exchange and blackmail or whatever, which is keeping people there. Just my opinion. Yeah. Well, and the testimony is that, I mean, dozens of girls down in Florida in particular in Palm Beach, that she would intentionally go to rough areas of town where you had, you know, girls from troubled homes who were in very difficult situations. They were desperate, you know.

I mean, she prayed on people who had already been abused, who were testimony of Virginia Goufrey being a perfect example of that, you know, as a teenager, as a young teen at Mara Lago, and she recognized this vulnerability, and those would be the girls that she would go after and pray along. And, you know, of course, to her, she never did anything. She didn't even look at an underage person while she was at me ever worked for job. I'm serious. That's the way that she talks in all of her testimony. Remember Trump even acknowledged that Virginia Goufrey was like stolen from him. by Galane and Jeffrey Epstein. Yeah, all right. When she was, what, 16? Yeah, I believe so. Let's go to the next one.

This is another one. He asked, you know, do you have any reason to think that your, that Epstein was part of Mossad or the CIA or any intelligence agency? She says, quote, I think it's bullshit because if it were true, then Epstein would have bragged about it to her or tried to play it off and tried to be cool about it. And so because he was never cool about it and didn't brag about it to her that she thinks that it's all wrong. Now, let's keep that in context, this part, specifically, for the next, which remains the central question of the entire Epstein mythology, which is, how did this guy make all of his money? Here is Maxwell's explanation on the type of services that he provided for Les Wexner and Leon Black.

Quote, let's say you had a billion dollars to invest. So you would, you know, in people's normal investment portfolios, you would have, you know, some T-bonds and this and that. But Epstein's strategies would be much more sophisticated. So, again, we are to believe that the college dropout, non-accredited investor, Jeffrey Epstein, had, quote, sophisticated strategies that were only accessible to him and not to the richest and most powerful people in the world. There are richest, most powerful people in the world who use investment advisors of all kinds.

Goldman Sachs, and they don't need to deal with Epstein. Why do they need to deal with the Jay Epstein company? All right? Goldman and all those other people can get you into. venture capital as an LP or any of that, and they can return on your portfolio between 15 and 20 percent per year. Or you could just invest it in the S&P 500 and still get a decent enough deal. This does not pass a smell test at all. Leon Black, one of the most legendary investment advisors of all time, just had to use Epstein and didn't have to use his own money. That's why

I paid him $170 million. Again, Todd Blanche, no explanation. He doesn't challenge her. He's like, well, exactly what were the sophisticated strategies? She goes, he was just a whiz at math. What? No. You know, no. This stuff is ridiculous. Well, if that were true, all of the people at the Harvard math department who he was constantly cultivating or MIT or any of them, they would all be billionaires and be filthy rich. If that's not the case, is it. So it's just that is the part where the explanation on everything is anodyne. Everything is just, oh, he made his money by being smart. He, nobody was abused except by him. I've learned about that after his death, of course. I didn't know about it, any of it at the time. Everything we ever did was above board. Every connection that he ever had to quote intelligence or whatever is, quote, bullshit, because he would have bragged to me about it. And I just can't, you know, with the entire thing.

It really, Todd Blanche just did a horrible job. Like, he really just did. No, he did a great job for what his purposes were. Sure, but I mean, for transparent purposes, what he effectively did is engineer. It would be like a softball interview, is the example. It's like when Republicans are in trouble or Democrats are, you know, Republicans are trouble and go on Fox and Democrats are in trouble and go on MSNBC, what can they be assured of that when they're in their interview that they will be asked in the most anodyne way without any follow-up about what's happening so that they can, quote, get on the record and get ahead of it, but they can't actually, they don't actually have to answer any of the specific questions. And that's effectively what has happened here. So it's just the whole thing is preposterous. And I just want people to remember that. Yeah. A couple other things, interesting nuggets from there. She was asked about her dad's ties to Intel, and she basically was like, well, once you're an intelligence agent, I don't think you're ever really not an intelligence agent. It was basically her response there, which I thought was kind of interesting. And then she got asked about Epstein's relationship with former Israeli Prime Minister Ahou Barack. He's the one who met with Epstein dozens of times. There's that infamous picture of him, like covering with his face covered, going into Epstein's a Upper East Side Mansion.

And so Blanche asked about that relationship. And if she knew what the nature of that relationship was, and she was just like, no, I didn't know anything. Have, you know, very little memory of meeting him. Don't know if he's with Epstein or I don't remember. I just know that I did see him. And I'm trying, struggling to remember the context around it. But if I'm sure it happened, but it must have been very brief because I don't have

any serious memory of it, any, like, deep memory of that. So there you go. Yeah. That's what we're all dealing with. Let's just put B7 please up on the screen just to give people an idea. All the Epstein files given to Congress were apparently already public. Okay. Got it.

Yeah. Rokane is sounding up in this piece, by the way. I mean, he's really been leading the charge. Apparently, only 3% according to him, of the documents given to the Oversight Committee are new. He says the rest are already in the public domain. Less than 1% of the files have been released. DOJ is stonewalling the survivors deserve justice. The public deserves transparency.

Yeah. Got it. And finally, just in terms of the protection, B7, please. We can show everybody here. What do we have? The inmate at Galane Maxwell's new prison was apparently transferred to a grim lockup after slamming Galane in an interview.

So, hmm, her name was Julie Powell. She was serving just one year for theft. She was actually removed after blasting Maxwell, quote, as disgusting with a British paper earlier this month. According to her lawyer, the prison warden, called her into her office and said that she was being moved immediately because, quote, because that she had given an unauthorized interview. And she literally, quote, only decided to speak up

because one of her family members was actually a victim of sex trafficking. She didn't want to be in the same prison as somebody who had that charge. We will all keep in mind that you're not even supposed to be in the prison camp with Gleine Maxwell's charge. By the way, I will be there next month back in my hometown. So maybe I need to go on by. that'd be interesting yeah i mean i wonder how close you can get because these daily male guys all have photos of elizabeth holmes like working out and apparently they have those super long lens cameras but there's no fences apparently like with the camps like it's very

lax apparently they just have to be back for count like there's not a lot of enforcement it's basically if you leave you're like hey just so you know we're coming after you and you have such a cushy gig like why would you actually want to just in terms of the way through these federal prison camps work so maybe i can get if you're a guard by the way federal prison camp uh brian reach out I would love to talk to you. Yeah. Interesting. But, yeah,

apparently they're going all sorts of links to protect this lady. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA. Right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. On the new podcast,

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