Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - Publish 12/7/23: GOP Debate Wild Moments, Israel Floods Gaza Tunnels, Biden Says Trump Is Only Reason He's Running, Ukraine Aid Package Fails, Massie Smeared As Antisemite, And Ivy League Presidents Reveal DEI Hypocrisy

Episode Date: December 7, 2023

Krystal and Saagar discuss the final GOP debate highlights, Israel floods Hamas tunnels in Gaza, Biden says Trump is the only reason he's running, Ukraine aid package fails in Congress, Massie smeared as antisemite, and Ivy League presidents reveal DEI hypocrisy.    BP Holiday Merch LIVE NOW (Use code BLACKFRIDAY for 15% off Non-Holiday Items): https://shop.breakingpoints.com/collections/breaking-points-holiday-collection  To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.supercast.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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A lot to get to this morning. We had the final GOP debate last night. It was a bit of a raucous affair. Sure. It was interesting. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I think it was actually the best of the four debates. I agree with you. Admittedly, that's a low bar, but we will show you all of the sort of highlights, lowlights, whatever from that. Also, we have a lot of updates coming out of Israel. They are preparing to flood those tunnels. More details about the hostages and the damage that's being inflicted there. So we will bring you all of that. We also have Biden saying that he may not be running for reelection were it not for Trump, which is interesting since

he's getting his ass kicked by Trump right now. So let's talk about that. Talk about that as well. We also have Ukraine aid failing in the Senate. We have Congressman Thomas Massey under fire being smeared as an anti-Semite for a meme that he posted. Break that down for you. And Sagar is going to do a deep dive into this whole affair with the university presidents, free speech, et cetera, et cetera. I got a lot to say about that. A lot to say about it. Anyway, let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. We just want to take this opportunity just to remind everybody we do have a discount going on for the holiday season on our yearly memberships. If you are going to be able to help us out, it really means a lot. By signing up

for a year, you're helping us all the way through the election season. And in order to fund our efforts, our staff was working overtime last night. All of us got very little sleep watching the GOP debate, so you don't have to. If you appreciate that, you can help us out, breakingpoints.com. And so with that, let's actually get to the GOP debate. What were the highlights, the lowlights? What do you actually need to take away from this? And the top line is that Vivek Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis spent a decent portion of their time attacking Nikki Haley because of her rise in the polls. DeSantis in particular using his very first answer to go after Nikki, showing that she really is bleeding not only some of the support, but more importantly,

the donor money. So we put together some of the attacks from the very first 15, 20 minutes or so of the debate just to give people a taste of what it looked like. Let's take a listen. Her donors, these Wall Street liberal donors, they make money in China. They are not gonna to let her be tough on China and she will cave to the donor. She will not stand up for you. She said, one of the first things I'm going to do all social media is I want your name. That's what she said. You can roll the tape. She said, I want your name. And that was going to be one of the first things she did in office. Then she got real serious blowback and understandably so, because it'd

be a massive expansion of government. It wasn't about the parents' rights and education bill. It was about prohibiting sex change operations on minors. They do puberty blockers. These are irreversible. Talk to Chloe Cole. She went through this. Now she's an adult. She's warning against it. She may never be able to have kids again. That is what Nikki Haley opposed. She said the law shouldn't get involved in that. And I just ask you, if you're somebody that's going to be the president of the United States and you can't stand up against child abuse, how are you going to be able to stand up for anything? That is the truth. We're talking about that trans issue.

And Nikki Haley's campaign launch video sounded like a woke Dylan Mulvaney Bud Light ad talking about how she would kick in heels. At the first debate, she said that only a woman can get this job done. That's what she said. After the third debate, when I criticized Ronna McDaniel after five failed years of leadership of this party, and criticized Nikki for her corrupt foreign dealings as a military contractor, she said that I have a woman problem. Nikki, I don't have a woman problem. You have a military contractor. She said that I have a woman problem.

Nikki, I don't have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem. And I think that that's where people need to know Nikki is corrupt. This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house. This is the problem. Using identity politics more effectively than Kamala Harris is a form of intellectual fraud. And it actually needs to, and there's our donor puppet masters wielding their puppet right up here tonight. This is how this game is played. The puppet masters put up their puppet and I reject the use of identity politics in this party. And in terms of these donors that are supporting me, they're just jealous. They wish that they were supporting them, but I'm not going to sit there and do nothing. And that crystal is the absolute state of where we are.

Who's bragging about Wall Street donors switching support? Genuinely grotesque. But thank you to our team, by the way. They did a fantastic job cutting all of that up. As you can see, knives are out for Nikki Haley. Why? Well, she's quickly coming into the number two position in Iowa and in New Hampshire. And she also obviously has a structural advantage in the state of South Carolina, where she's a former governor. And she is currently pulling their number two to Trump.

But I think the most important takeaway really was DeSantis and Vivek. DeSantis more so suffering because Americans for Prosperity, that Koch-backed organization, endorsing Nikki Haley and throwing absolutely billions and billions of dollars behind her bed on top of liberal billionaires, people like Reid Hoffman and others who are supporting her campaign. So she's the new it girl of the Republican establishment, or at least the anti-Trump establishment, as we showed people as well with that Paul Ryan clip earlier this week. Yeah, that's absolutely right. And this is most of all an existential threat to Ron DeSantis, truly, like a potentially campaign an existential threat to Ron DeSantis, truly, like a potentially campaign ending threat to Ron DeSantis, because he decided he was going to run his campaign in this different way of instead of having most of the money come in directly to his campaign,

where you have limits on how much individuals can contribute, that he was going to rely on a few massive donors, billionaire donors, to contribute to a super PAC. We covered previously how that super PAC is now in like total disarray. And then when you have donors fleeing him, moving to Nikki, this is a major issue for him. Because he's not like a Donald Trump to have like the grassroots support to be able to raise tons of money or like a Bernie Sanders or, you know, that type of candidate. He always was very reliant and explicitly from the beginning on a lot of big donor money. That's not like a slam. That's just

reality. So now he's trying to turn it around and be like, oh, she's corrupt because all these billionaires are backing her. And in that respect, she's 100 percent accurate when she's like, well, actually, Ron, the problem is you're just jealous. Yes. My overall read of this debate was I thought both Nikki and Ron seemed a little more on edge, a little nervous. Absolutely. I think because they know this is the last debate. Like, this is your last chance to change the trajectory. I'm sure it was no mystery to Nikki that she was going to be taking a lot of fire coming in. I think Ron DeSantis, who in previous debates has been happy to kind of sit back and let other people exchange fire and let other people do the attacking, he knew he really needed to go

on the offense this time because his campaign is sort of slipping away from him. Not to be clear, he's still in second place overall in the national polls, but clearly Nicky is sort of eating into his game here. So he knew he had to go on the offense. I don't think that is a particularly comfortable position for him. That's how it came off. So I didn't think either one of them really came out as an outright winner here. If the contest was between who did better, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, in terms of positioning themselves as the top Trump alternative, it was kind of a wash, which is probably at this point good for Nikki Haley since she's got the donors lining up behind her. Yes, exactly. She's got the money. DeSantis was not comfortable at all coming out, hitting her at the gate. Vivek is far more effective and I think just more comfortable because he's been like that from the beginning as an attack dog against her.

And there were some ideological fissures that did open up. There was a very long exchange on Ukraine, which we're about to play for everyone because it's very revealing in a couple of things. Vivek asked Nikki Haley to name three oblasts inside of Ukraine. She doesn't immediately do it. Later on, she does and incorrectly is unable to name three. But it was a productive exchange because it revealed also some Chris Christie coming in trying to white knight on Nikki Haley's behalf. He tried to pull out some of the old Christie magic, basically calling Vivek annoying, which is, look, let's all be honest. So there were blows exchanged in every direction. And this was definitely, I think, one of the most fiery exchanges. Let's take a listen. We'll give you our reaction on the other side.

It takes an outsider to see this through. Look at the blank expression. She doesn't know the names of the provinces that she wants to actually fight for. And there's a couple of donors right there. The donors right there that are playing with the puppet. Let me just say something here. His reasonable peace deal in Ukraine, he made it clear, give them all the land they've already stolen. Promise Putin you'll never put Ukraine in Russia and then trust Putin not to have a relationship with China. Let me tell you something.

That's no reason- That's not my deal. That's not my deal, Chris. Yes, it's exactly what you said. I'll describe my deal to you. You do this at every debate. I'll tell you what to do. You say no, don't interrupt me, I didn't interrupt you, okay? You say this- Tell them about how you want to send

our kids to die. You do this at every debate. You go out on the stump and you say something. All of us see it on video. We confront you on the debate stage. You say you didn't say it, and then you back away. And I want to say one. I'm not done yet. Now look.

This is nonsense. This is the fourth debate. The fourth debate that you would be voted in the first 20 minutes as the most obnoxious blowhard in America. So shut up for a little while. I'm going to respond to that. Chris, you're pushing us.

We're going to let you respond to that? We're going to let you respond to that. I'll take that. I want to say something else. We're now 25 minutes into this debate, and he has insulted Nikki Haley's basic intelligence. Not her positions, her basic intelligence. She doesn't know regions. She wouldn't be able to find something on a map that his three-year-old could find.

Look, if you want to disagree on issues, that's fine. And Nikki and I disagree on some issues. But I'll tell you this, I've known her for 12 years, which is longer than he's even started to vote in a Republican primary. Chris, your version of foreign policy experience was closing a bridge from New Jersey to New York. So do everybody a favor, just walk yourself off that stage, enjoy a nice meal, and get the hell out of this race. When it comes to Nikki, I think if you're going to actually send your sons and daughters to go die in somebody else's war. Hold on. You better, excuse me, Chris, I'm speaking and I'm not done yet.

I haven't heard the time when you aren't speaking. And we're going to be done. So listen up to this. If these people want to send your sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine, they've been arguing for it for a year. $200 billion of our taxpayer money sent over. Neither of them could even name for you the provinces that they actually want to protect. Wow. So neither of them could. There was so much, I think, going on there, Crystal.

I will say about this, about Chris Christie, the guy who I believe at one point, what did he say? He told a voter to piss on their leg at some point. It was in the 2012s. It's been a long time. The guy who became popular for being like the hard nnosed, outspoken person who would even insult, what, teachers unions? Oh, yeah. So now he has a problem with going after people, questioning their basic intelligence. It's like, what are we doing here, man? True. You're lecturing us all about decorum. You are one of the people who became famous for rejecting it. That said, the exchange and overall that you saw there is that obviously there is an intense amount of personal animus, I think, at this point between all three of them.

DeSantis kind of just trying to sit back through all of it. But, I mean, ideology also is a little bit below it because the fundamental difference there was on Ukraine, on aid, and really just on foreign policy in general that it was happening throughout it. Yeah. And so let's talk about the substance first. I mean, obviously I thought I'm much more in line with Vivek's views there. And I think when he says about Nikki Haley, he had that line that we played in the other mashup. That's like, he, she wants to send your sons and daughters to die in a war that just so she can get a bigger house. I mean, that lands. And all the commentary, there's a reason why he's leaning into the attack on her, that she's a corrupt puppet of the establishment, puppet of the billionaire class.

It's an attack that he can make much more cleanly and effectively than Ron DeSantis, both because of his skill level and also because Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, is right. He's just jealous that these donors have left him at this point. In terms of Chris Christie, this was the first debate that he actually showed up for. You know, his performance in this debate was more of what I was expecting from him the entire time. And so I thought even though on the substance, I'm more with Vivek on this. I did think Chris Christie was effective in that moment of bodying Vivek, calling him out to be obnoxious, blowhard. If I had to say, you know, who did the best in this debate, I would say it was either Vivek or Chris Christie. Like they were the best performers in

this debate and I think are just generally more politically talented than either Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis. But the problem is that the Republican base just doesn't really like either one of them. I mean, Vivek, I really genuinely think it's not a policy issue. It's a personality issue. I'm not trying to be mean. I just think that people don't vibe with him. With Chris Christie, it's obviously his opposition to Trump. Like there's just only so much of the GOP base that wants to hear that. That was very evident in the debate last night. And there were all sorts of things that he said that I had a lot of policy problems with, but I did think he had a good moment at the beginning when he talked about, listen, he kind of,

it reminded me of Andrew Yang when he called out the theatrics of like, we're all up here with our makeup on, like, what are we really doing? He called out the absurdity of we're doing this whole debate, we're living in this fantasy world where one of us is gonna be the nominee,

when in reality, this other dude, Donald Trump, is kicking our butts and no one's even talking about him. And all three of y'all are too scared to say a negative word about him. And again, it may not be the message that Republican voters necessarily wanna hear, but it was true. And it's always refreshing when you have that moment

where you sort of pierce the veil, call out the absurdity of the theatrics that are playing out in front of you. And that is part of what has been so surreal about all of these debates is you've had this element in the room, you've had this preposterous like fantasy world where one of these people is actually in position to be the nominee when that's just not remotely close to the case at this point. Yeah, that really is a perfect segue to our next clip because this is Chris Christie actually really on Ron DeSantis on whether Trump is fit to hold office and whether he thinks that he's mentally unfit to serve because of how old he is.

Christie really tried to get him on the substance here of like actually to answer the question. Let's take a listen. Why isn't he just answering the question? The question was very direct. Is he fit to be president or isn't he? The rest of the speech is interesting, but completely non-responsive. And if we were in a courtroom, they'd strike the answer and say, Governor DeSantis. No, they wouldn't. They would say that. You're a smart man. They would argue that. No, they would. No, they wouldn't, Chris.

They would strike the answer. No, they wouldn't. Because you're not answering it. Is he fit? You have your thing. Is he fit or isn't he? No, I don't have my thing. We don't. He's the thing. Is he fit or isn't he?

We do not want to do someone that's almost 80. You're talking about him being 80 years old. It doesn't mean that somebody couldn't get elected. That's one of the people that are lying. Governor DeSantis, let him win. Ron, is he fit or isn't he? No, Governor DeSantis, let him win. Ron, is he fit?

I think we have an opportunity to do somebody who is in the prime of their life. You don't have to worry about all this stuff with cognitive. We can get it done, and we'll do it. I'm going to come to you. Finish. Look, Father Time is undefeated. I don't know how he would score on a test, but I know this. We have an opportunity to nominate someone and elect someone for two terms

who's going to be spitting nails on day one and for eight years deliver you big result. We should not nominate somebody who's almost 80 years old. He's afraid to answer. Well, he's afraid to answer. Pretty, I don't know, Crystal, what do you think? He went back to this with Ron DeSantis a number of times, and it sort of reminded me of the way that he didn't fillet DeSantis as effectively as he did Marco Rubio, but it had that energy of he called out Marco Rubio for having these sort of like slickly memorized talking points,

and right as he's doing that, Marco Rubio cues up a repetition of the slickly polished talking points he'd already recited. And he kind of had that same approach with Ron DeSantis here because repeatedly he went back to, this dude can't even answer the question. Like, it's a basic question. He asked you a basic question. Is he fit or not? Will you answer the question? And he just ends up looking extremely weaselly. I mean, I think even people who really like Donald Trump and don't want to hear that he's unfit for office, they also don't

like the fact that they can clearly see him maneuvering in real time and not wanting to answer this very direct, very simple question put to him. I mean, what they want to hear from him is, yes, he's fit. But obviously, DeSantis is uncomfortable saying that because he doesn't really believe it and because he's trying to go up against this guy. And so all of the political maneuvering and this like Weasley politician-y vibe comes out when Chris Christie is calling him out on that. So, you know, I thought he bodied DeSantis a number of times on that same point of like, you get asked a question and you can't answer the freaking question. Typical politician. I thought actually it was effective. And this is again where Christie, because he doesn't really

care, he's really just running as a foil to Trump was good because he was like, these three jokers are all, you know, pretending and then looking past they were running against Trump, but they can't say anything bad about him on that. I mean, he's obviously effective, but this is the central GOP conundrum. You also saw DeSantis there. So there's been some reporting behind the scenes, Crystal, that he's been telling voters, he's like, people just don't want to hear criticism of Trump. He was twisting himself in knots. He was like, well, we need a new generation. And Chris was like, no, is he mentally unfit or not? And he's like, well, he would be the same age as Joe Biden or whatever. Look, I think people see, I would have expected him more if he just said,

yeah, he's too old. He's not mentally unfit. He was unfit whenever he was president because he couldn't get things done. And that's why I'll do it. So try not to validate the liberal attack. But the problem is just any time it even rhymes with the criticism that the left has given people

are just going to write you off. I mean, you saw too, Chris Christie, he was getting booed the entire time, even by these like, you know, GOP neocon donors who are pro Nikki Haley. So even they are pro Trump. Like, you're in a tough spot there. Yeah, you're in a tough spot. This has always been the bind.

This is why I have always thought from the beginning, you can go back and watch our commentary. You can from the early, very early days when it looked like Ronnie D might have a real chance. And we were saying there is a central conundrum here, which is Donald Trump owns this party. He dominates this party. And I do not see a lane for someone to be critical of him that people really want to hear. I don't see how you're going to be able to make the case against him in a way that is going to move the base significantly off of him. And that is exactly what has played out. You know, the times when he has gone a little bit harder at Trump, there's been a backlash against him.

Then there's a reason why Chris Christie is at, you know, 5% or whatever he is in the polls, because that's about the size of the appetite for the anti-Trump message within the Republican Party at this point. So, you know, I mean, it's always perhaps in a different world if there was someone who was just extraordinarily politically skilled, maybe there's a case that they could prosecute against Trump with a Republican party base that people would hear. Ron DeSantis is not that man. And I'm honestly not sure that anyone could really effectively do that at this point, especially when there's just such a sense with

the Republican base, he's our guy and he's under siege and we've got to back him up, et cetera, et cetera. It's years of conditioning that have gone in to the sense that any attack on him is ipso facto illegitimate. Yeah, because this is the thing. Trump is not even really affirmatively running. He is like the anti-candidate in that he's the bulwark on which the liberals attack. And so because people hate liberals, they support Trump. I actually saw, I need to see, there was a clip from Tucker Carlson where he said, quote, I became an active Trump supporter when they raided Mar-a-Lago last summer. That just can't stand. I'm voting for Trump.

And I actually thought that was the perfect crystallization of why people support him within the GOP and why the Mar-a-Lago raid, if anything, really sealed his fate as the GOP nominee. They're like, if the FBI is going after him, we have to support him. It's nothing positive. Everything is just people who we don't like are persecuting him, thus we need to do this. Also, why DeSantis has a central thesis around why he's like, I'm the guy who will get things done. It's like, dude, I wish we lived in that world. People do not, primary voters at least, do not care about that. One iota, they don't care about that. That's the central reason. They also don't believe it. They don't think that he was ineffective. They don't think he

didn't get anything done. I mean, probably the best argument for Ron DeSantis was like the electability one, which he can't even make anymore because Donald Trump is winning in like every poll. So people, if there was even a question at any point, which I was never convinced that it was that strong of an argument anyway, but if there was even a question at any point of his electability, that ship has sailed. So, you know, I mean, it's also like a bet of their own making. They, all of these people spent years never criticizing Trump, never calling out when he was, when he was failing to get things done, when he was failing to keep promises that were important to them or important to the Republican base. And so now to turn around and be like, well, actually, his term in office was a disaster.

I just didn't really say so at the time. Again, people aren't going to really believe you when you were singing a different tune for so many years. So in a sense, you know, they've sort of put themselves in this box. Yeah, I think you're right. And then finally, we had to end on this because this is on the Haley side. People do forget how authoritarian this woman really can be. There were moments around anonymity online and all that, and there's a lot to be said about that. But listen to what she lays out about the censorship regime on Israel that she would enact if she were president. Let's take a listen. If this had been the KKK that was doing protests on those campuses,

every one of those college presidents would have been up in arms. This is just as bad. The idea that they would go and allow that kind of pro-Hamas protest or agree with the genocide of Jews and try and say that they needed context on that, there is no context to that. This is what we need to do to deal with it. First of all, we have got to get foreign money out of our universities. You've got Arab money, you've got Chinese money, you've got others. We need to go to every university and say you either take foreign money or you take American money, but the days of taking both are over. The second thing we need to do, the second thing we need to do is we need, Biden made a mistake not including anti-Zionism in the definition of anti-Semitism. If you don't think that Israel has a right to exist, that is

anti-Semitic. We will change the definition so that every government, every school has to acknowledge the definition for what it is. Okay, so we will change the definition so that every school has to acknowledge what it is. That's basically a national BDS law, which has already, at the state level, Crystal, been struck down in Georgia when Abby Martin successfully went against him. Not stopping her, though, from saying that. So between the anonymity online, the calls for war with Iran, the censor to the mass like censorship regime here in terms of compelled speech on campus. There's quite a bit going on. And as Crystal said, I am doing my monologue about this. I have quite a bit to say about it.

Yeah. I mean, it's just like a pure authoritarian instinct. Like I'm going to devise what speech is acceptable and what speech isn't acceptable. I know I've said this a million times, but Zionism is a political ideology, okay? It's a political ideology. We have to be able to critique any political ideology and it doesn't make you a racist. It doesn't make you an anti-Semite.

In fact, quite the opposite. To insist that every Jewish person must be a Zionist is in fact incredibly anti-Semitic. To paint with a broad brush of any demographic group is like the definition of bigotry and racism. So that's part of why I find this incredibly disgusting. Of course, it erases the many Jewish people who have opposed Zionism or had a critique of Zionism, et cetera. So it's completely insane. And it's insane. I know you're going to get into this saga, but I just have to say, like, first of all, it's such a fake moral panic too. They don't even point to specific examples of

people that things, that things that people actually said on college campuses. And for this to be your primary focus while what is going on in Gaza is going on in Gaza, it's so clearly designed to distract from the horrors that people are seeing unfolding in front of their eyes. So it just, it disgusts me on every level and especially because the Republican Party spent so much time pretending to be against cancel culture and in favor of free speech. And then like that, they turn on the dime and are ready to be as authoritarian as they possibly can in service of their own political ideology. At least Nikki Haley here. She also said this insane thing that we were both laughing about how being on TikTok makes you 17% more anti-Semitic. I'm like,

what the hell? Pro-Hamas, that's what it was. For every 30 minutes that you spend on TikTok, you become 17% more anti-Semitic. What the hell are you talking about? Yes, it traces back. So I found out. It traces back to some fake study made of like 1,300 people, of people who spent time on TikTok at the time that they were then served what the researchers classified as, quote unquote, pro-Hamas and or pro-Palestinian content. So that is the root of this idiocy. I actually tweeted this morning, Crystal, studies show every 30 minutes spent listening to Nikki Haley, you become 117%. That checks out. That checks out. No, that checks out. I actually, I saw that study you're

talking about and they conflate, of course, they conflated like anti-Semitism with just being pro-Palestinian or having a critique of Zionism. And in Nikki Haley's brain, apparently, if you're, you know, anti-Zionist, you're also anti-Semitic. So that's where this complete absurdity comes from. Instead of just looking very clearly at the demographic numbers and going, oh, a lot of young people are on TikTok. And guess what? Young people don't agree with your decades of propaganda on this conflict. And that's what's actually are on TikTok. And guess what? Young people don't agree with your decades of propaganda on this conflict. And that's what's actually going on here. But that you could have such words come out of your mouth and not realize how preposterous and absurd they are is disgraceful.

She just drives me crazy on every level. Like, her policy is terrible. The vague's right. She's completely corrupt. She'll do whatever the donors want her to do. And so it disgusts me to see the way that they're all lining up behind her. I was happy to see her take on some water here. Do I think it'll stop her, you know, marginal rise in the polls?

No. And this is the last thing that I'll say. I've been thinking more about, because previously I said, you know, I think DeSantis, this is probably still true, but he'll probably stick around through Iowa. If he loses, Iowa will probably drop out. I do think that there's a possibility that he drops before that. And here's why. I was thinking about, you know, Pete Buttigieg in that moment when Obama calls and everybody circles away.

And everybody drops out except for Elizabeth Warren very conveniently. And that's how they're able to hand the nomination to Joe Biden. They're not idiots. You know, the donor class, the Republican Party, or even liberal donors like Reid Hoffman, who are just very anti-Trump, they realize that if they have multiple Trump opponents in the race, this is a problem for them. And any prayer they have of defeating him as a GOP nominee is shot if they've got even just Ron and Nikki still hanging out in the race. And Ron DeSantis is very dependent for his political future on whatever that donor class thinks about him.

So they definitely do have some leverage with him. So it's not crazy to me to imagine. They don't have a kingmaker the way that the Democratic Party has Obama. But it's not crazy for me to imagine some group of donors getting together behind the scenes, pressuring him, providing some sort of incentive for, OK, after you're done with governor, this is what we're going to, you know, what we've got lined up for you. These are the types of things that will be possible for you or you could get this gig in a potential Nikki Haley administration or whatever. It's not crazy for me to imagine that that could happen because he is dependent on them both for a political future and also for a private sector future after he's done, you know, being governor. I could see it too. It's certainly possible. It's certainly possible. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids,

promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right.

It was really actually turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and re-examining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father?

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

That's so unfair. Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker,

the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast,

or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 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. All right, let's go ahead and move on to the very latest out of Israel. So go ahead and put these pictures up on the screen. What we're hearing is that there is a plan to flood the Hamas tunnels. You can see these sort of like, you know, big tubes, hoses, whatever, being attached from the sea and run along the shore here. And this is something that has been reported. There are a lot of problems with this. Put this up on the screen.

A lot of people who are sounding alarms about the way that using the seawater to flush out the tunnels could harm Gaza's freshwater for generations. Multiple academics saying this because, I mean, this makes sense. You have basically one sweetwater aquifer that Gaza has access to already. It has been pumped effectively dry. It's already been contaminated with seawater. So it's basically brackish at this point. So already it's not in great shape. If you additionally pump all of this seawater into these tunnels and it further contaminates that aquifer, you could really be in trouble in terms of the water supply in Gaza for years and years to come. There's another issue here, which is counterpoints reported on the fact that some of the hostages

who have been released at this point just went in on Netanyahu screaming at him for not doing more to get them out, for the fact that they're ignorant of where they were being held, for how much risk they were exposed to, that they actually said, we were terrified that we were going to get killed

by an IDF bomb and then you're going to blame it on Hamas. So one of the concerns here, I'll just read from you. This woman says, my husband was separated from us three days before he returned to Israel and taken to the tunnels. And you're talking about washing the tunnels with seawater. You're shelling the root of tunnels in the exact area where they are, an unidentified former hostage told officials in that private meeting on Tuesday. So effectively, they're saying, you have no idea where the hostages are. You've never had any idea where the hostages are being held. And if you're talking about drowning these tunnels in seawater, you are putting them at extreme risk at this point. So that's one of the dynamics that's playing out. You know, the other thing that I would point to here, Sagar, and let's put this up on the screen, is Human Rights Watch has now

documented via satellite imagery that Israel has razed orchards, they've destroyed greenhouses, they've destroyed farmland, all in northern Gaza. This has been raised since the beginning of Israel's ground invasion, compounding concerns of dire food insecurity and loss of livelihood. And you can see those satellite images of this agricultural land in the greenhouses and the way that's now completely been destroyed. And, you know, no justification has been given for this in terms of, oh, this is Hamas is hiding in the greenhouse or whatever. It seems to track more with that report from 972 about how the real goal is to shock, quote unquote, the civilian population and hope

that maybe they'll turn on Hamas if things get hard enough for them. So destroying the groundwater, destroying the orchards and farmland and greenhouses, etc., is very consistent with that approach that has now been documented at this point about what Israel's real goals are right now. Yeah, the orchard thing actually tracks. It's interesting. So Kissinger's death has prompted me to go back and reread a lot of stuff on Vietnam. And there's actually quite a lot of parallels between the initial actions of the United States in Vietnam, 1964 through 66, before the mass infusion of ground invasions during the bombing campaign. The bombing campaign on North Vietnam and on South Vietnamese

territory that was against Viet Cong was built on one strategy. We're going to have US advisors. They're not going to be directly engaged in ground combat. We're going to bomb the North Vietnamese population into either submission, degrade them militarily, and then we're also going to target as much of the countryside of South Vietnam as possible that the VC are using so that the population will rise up against the VC and join the South Vietnamese. Does anybody want to guess how that turned out? And that was a similar campaign in terms of the bombing, in terms of what type of targets were selected, both military and civilian. And what most reminded me of it, though, was the over-reliance on air power and the under-reliance on any sort of sustainable strategic policy. For people who want to check my work, you can go and read all the debates inside the Johnson administration at that time. When they weren't lying to our faces, they actually were admitting some of this behind the scenes. And it is eventually the failure of that strategy

is exactly why President Johnson unfortunately decided to send hundreds of thousands of American troops there and go in a different direction. But the point being that the bombing to compel the population itself and specifically to try and get the population to turn on the VC or the North Vietnamese to turn against their regime, did not work actually at all. Not only did it not work there. No, it hardened their support. It has literally never worked. And we skip forward to B5, actually, to give you a sense of the scale of destruction that we're talking about here.

This is the Financial Times terror sheet. So they did an analysis. The headline is military briefing. The Israeli bombs raining on Gaza, devastation of northern Gaza comparable to allied bombing campaign of German cities. So in northern Gaza, approximately 68% of buildings have been damaged. For comparison, in Dresden, which has been brought up a lot and which Netanyahu has used, by the way, as justification for their indiscriminate bombing campaign, something like 59 percent of the buildings

were damaged during that infamous bombing. And just as in, you know, Vietnam, as you're discussing, Sagar, where it did not turn the population on, you know, the rulers there. Same thing in Germany. There was an idea that by bombing these cities and hitting the civilians and causing them pain and inflicting damage on civilian infrastructure that the population would turn on the Nazis. What political scientists have documented is that it had the exact opposite effect.

Same thing when the Germans bombed London. Yes. That was part of the idea there too, was thing when the Germans bombed London. Yes. That was part of the idea there too, was that they would demoralize the civilian population. Same thing with Russia bombing Ukraine, bombing Kiev, et cetera. The idea was, oh, this will demoralize the population and maybe they'll turn on Zelensky.

Guess what? It has never worked. It has the polar opposite impact. It causes people to rally around the flag and whoever the ruling class happens to be. And so in Gaza, and this gets back to the key point about what Israel is doing here. I mean, the key, key point is the horrific loss of civilian life, which is just unbelievable to watch unfolding before your eyes. But even if you put that aside, the strategy is completely stupid and ahistorical. There is no doubt at this point that they have already, even if you accept their best estimates of how many Hamas fighters they've killed,

they have 100% created more support for Hamas, more potential Hamas recruits than they have been able to destroy. They claim they've taken out, this is a new claim, by the way, 5,000 Hamas fighters. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not. They have killed, at this point, close to 20,000 individuals. There is no doubt. We saw the polling coming out of the West Bank. The West Bank is different from Gaza, but even in the West Bank, support for Hamas is skyrocketing. So if your goal is actually to undercut Hamas, you have to drive a wedge between Hamas and the civilian population. You have to give the civilian population some hope that there is some sort of process that's

going to lead to a better outcome without this violent terrorist resistance group. And this has created the polar opposite impact at this point. Yeah, I mean, I basically agree with all of that. And that's what I've been saying it here from the very beginning. And I think that they're going to fall into the same trap that we eventually fell into in Vietnam, which is you're going to end up sending in the troops anyway, if you're Israel, or you can abandon the mission, you have either, you are very likely going to do that. And you should have done it in the beginning because then you probably could have avoided all of this in the first place.

Hamas also has been releasing some combat footage which highlights something we've also been trying to show people from the beginning. This might also be why Israel is reluctant to commit more of their forces to the ground. Urban combat is a full-blown nightmare. Now let's be clear here. What we're about to show you are Hamas videos there,

but we also showed you- This is propaganda. No doubt about it. This is straight up Hamas propaganda. However, we don't have too many journalists who are on the ground there embedded with our, these troops. This is the best insight into what some of the combat actually looks like. It's straight out of Stalingrad. It's straight out of Iraq. It's straight out of the battle of Mosul for ISIS videos that basically were edited and looked exactly like this. So let's go ahead and play some of this, guys. And what you can see here is you have people,

Hamas fighters, again, who released this popping up out of tunnels who are then showing how close they are to IDF installations, to the IDF camps that they have that are nearby. This is just to show the vulnerability. It looks like there's IV bags that are hanging up as well as soldiers who are just sitting around. This is the craziest stuff. And of course, they edit it very favorably to them. And it shows you a bombed out moon-type landscape where they have Hamas fighters who are weaving in and out. They're not even dressed in military uniform using anti-tank munitions and others in order to fire against Israeli tanks and to try and disable them. They claim they were disabled. Nobody knows. We have approximately 100 or so IDF soldiers now who've been killed, multiple more released,

actually, in the last couple of days, which highlights some of the fight. But the truth is that they are not committing a significant ground force into this, and they are relying much more on strategic bombing. And that, as you said, I think aptly, as pointed out, we'll probably interview, or we're going to try to, somebody who wrote a great foreign affairs piece, actually, on all of this. But it does, at this point, they're not going to abandon this strategy. They are going through the same motions as we did in Iraq. They will eventually come to the so-called mission accomplished. And I think that's actually when the real nightmare begins, especially for Israel. For them. Yeah. For Gaza, obviously, the nightmare is in full effect.

It could get worse. It could honestly probably get way worse. So to that point, the Secretary General of the UN put this up on the screen. Secretary General Gutierrez has invoked something called Article 99. It's the first time he's done it in his tenure. He says, facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, I urge the council to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe and appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared. Now, this is seen as like the strongest diplomatic tool that he has in his toolkit. This is effectively Gutierrez pulling the fire alarm with regard to the human catastrophe that is unfolding on the ground at the hands of the Israelis and is

triggering a meeting of the Security Council to debate this potential ceasefire. Now, do I think that the U.S. is going to allow a ceasefire to pass through the U.N. Security Council at this point? No, I do not. But it shows you the gravity of what they see unfolding. And you got to remember, I mean, you had the specter of Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesperson who, when he was asked, where should people go to be safe? He's like, oh, go to these U.N. facilities. The U.N. comes out and says, there's literally nowhere that is safe in Gaza. Their own people, their own U.N. workers have been killed by the dozens. I believe there's literally nowhere that is safe in Gaza. Their own people, their own UN workers have been killed by the dozens. I believe there's over 100 UN aid workers who have been killed here. That is an extraordinary, unprecedented number in any conflict. So those

are the facts that the Secretary General is looking at here when he says, okay, I'm going to pull the fire alarm. I'm going to do whatever I possibly can to draw attention to this catastrophic situation. Because even the ability to provide any sort of aid trucks through the Rafah crossing, that has been severely curtailed since the end of that temporary truce. So, you know, diseases are spreading. We've shown you the footage of the high-rise apartment buildings being bombed. The area that they've told people to go to, that the Israelis have told people to go to that's supposed to be the safe zone, is literally the size of LAX airport. It's like a couple of miles wide, and there's nothing there. It's a deserted wasteland. I mean, it's a cruel joke to tell people that they could go there to find any sort of safety or any sort of aid.

All of the civilian toll that was taken in northern Gaza could easily be magnified. We see no change in terms of tactics and their approach to southern Gaza because now you have almost the entirety of the whole population clustered even more densely packed into southern Gaza, including in Khan Yunis, which is the major focus of the IDF at this point where they say Hamas leaders are fighting. Well, this is one of the places that people fled to because they were told this was one of the places that would be safe. So the potential civilian catastrophe here looms extraordinarily large. And the last piece, Sagar, which is, you know, really wild and I don't even know what to make of it. It's just unbelievable the level of failure on the Israeli side on October 7th

based on what we've learned at this point. Put this up on the screen. So the IDF actually knew that Hamas might attack. They knew that they might target this music festival where hundreds of people were slaughtered in some of the most horrific scenes. This is an article from Haaretz. They say, quote, this massacre should have been prevented despite Israeli intelligence warnings

about a Hamas attack. The army did not evacuate the Nova Festival. That was that rave music festival. Top defense officials held urgent consultations the night before October 7th about a possible Hamas attack, but no one in the IDF notified the Nova Festival organizers or the party goers, hundreds of whom were mown down, and for nine hours, no one came to save them. And if you read the details of this, it's horrific to contemplate that this could have been averted

if there had been proper warning. The music festival organizers said, if you even gave us an hour notice, we could have evacuated everyone. This festival, we also learned, had been extended actually longer beyond the original time frame. So they had gone beyond, you know, the length that they had originally petitioned for, and no one raised a flag about anything, even though they were watching these preparations taking place. And, you know, we also have all the details about how they had the attack plan more than a year in advance, but they dismissed

it as aspirational. They had these female spotters and intelligence analysts who were saying, no, we see them preparing for that. This was also completely dismissed. And then the night before, when they're starting to panic, saying, I think something might be going on here, they could have warned the festival and avoided so much carnage and yet another just catastrophic failure. Yeah, it's such a tragedy because when you read it, as you said, it's just, look, I think it highlights the incompetence of the Israeli security state at that time. The Shin Bet, the Mossad, their multi-level failure, their distraction, more questions than Netanyahu and his government all need to answer. Also, why are these people even still in their jobs? Every single one of them should be

fired on the spot. And yet they're actually more empowered in Israeli society than ever before, which is why these Israeli media outlets are covering it like this. They're in shock. You can't believe it. I mean, truly. And it's basically what happened here too after 9-11. The people who failed most actually got even more responsibility and were on a plane to Afghanistan two weeks later. How the hell does that make any sense? Still doesn't 20 years later. And yet, you know, it still continues over there. Yeah, well, we know Bibi's plan.

It's let's drag out this war as long as possible because he can say to the Israeli people, yes, we're going to do an investigation. Yes, there'll be accountability. I'll answer questions for what happened. But not until after the war. And that seems to be working for now. I mean, there are certainly calls for him to resign. His support is at like literally 8%. Everybody basically hates him and wants him gone.

But he's betting that the longer he keeps this going and the more he satisfies the desire for revenge, the better chance he has at holding on to power. So that is the political bet that he's making at this point. There you go. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family

that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and reexamining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free

on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, My father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead,

but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair. Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh, my God.

And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 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. All right, let's talk about a little bit of domestic politics here. Some extraordinary comments from our current president, Joe Biden, about why exactly he is running for re-election again, in spite of the fact that his approval ratings are really low and no one really wants him to run again, including Democrats. Let's take a listen to what he had to say. Would you be running for president if Trump wasn't running? I expect so. But look, he is running and I have to run. Would you drop out if Trump went down? No, not now.

So he's saying, you know, if Trump wasn't running, maybe he wouldn't run. Yeah. He also, Crystal said that to donors behind this. It drives me absolutely insane how he drops all of these nuggets to donors that then leak out as quotes. And then he tries to walk them back. When we all know the way that he's speaking freely amongst donors is what he actually thinks. That's whenever he said that we were on the brink of nuclear war. I forget. He made another comment, which was like worldwide consequential to these donors. It's an outrageous practice by the president. Think about the level of disconnect. Think about the bubble you have to be in to look at your approval rating, which is in the 30s,

to look at poll after poll coming out that says you're losing to the dude that people also overwhelmingly hate and who has been indicted multiple times. You're losing to him in basically every swing state and every national head to head at this point. And you're saying this is the reason why you're holding on and why you're going to run again? Like just your level of delusion at that point is insane. So and if he really, you know, if he really is just committed to defeating Donald Trump, then why not have a Democratic primary process where people have a chance to evaluate whether they think you're the best guy or whether they think somebody else is the best guy. But no, he's terrified of that because he knows he is not fit

to actually go up on a debate stage against anyone. And yet he thinks he can beat Donald Trump, who, you know, for whatever you think about him, is certainly a skilled political performer. And in spite of his advanced age, certainly seems to have a lot more sort of on the ball and certainly a lot more energetically than Joe Biden does. It's just amazing to me, the delusion and the bubble that these people live in. Yep. That's incredibly well said, Crystal. And it's just one of those where it's almost too on the nose because that is an admission. He's like, I wouldn't be running if, well, then you're not affirmatively running on anything. And it just, again, highlights the negativity, the negative effect of American politics. Everybody is running for, everybody is running basically against something. There's no

positive reason. It's all negative. At the same time, that's the smartest thing you could say, right? Two thirds of the people voted for Joe Biden voted because he wasn't named Donald Trump. That's it. Period. End of story. And it's one of those where now Trump and Biden do really need each other in many respects. Because Trump also loves to play off of this liberal hysteria of who think of him as like some grand Mussolini style dictator, when in reality, he's more like Selina Meyer from Veep whenever he was in office. He both likes to play into the dictatorship meme. And then the Biden campaign is like, no, no, no, no. See, that's why we have to run against him because of the big bad Trump. He actually addressed some of this in a town hall with Sean Hannity. Let's take a listen.

I want to go back to this one issue, though, because the media has been focused on this and attacking you under no circumstances. You are promising America tonight. You would never abuse power as retribution against anybody. Except for day one. Except for he's going crazy. Except for day one. Meaning I want to close the border and I want to drill. That's not a drill. That's not that's not retribution. I'm going to be I'm going to be, you know, he keeps we love this guy. He says, you're not going to be a dictator, are you? I said, no, I'm gonna be, he keeps, we love this guy. He says, you're not gonna be a dictator, are you? I said, no, no, no, other than day one.

We're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I'm not a dictator, okay? That sounds to me like you're going back to the policies when you were president. Why does Hannity keep trying to clean up his answer? It's like, what are you, his press secretary? Yes, the answer is yes. Let the man speak. He knows exactly what he's doing, okay?

He knows he's about to trigger Biden and he's going to trigger the liberals. He can read the New York Times op-eds and the Atlantic op-eds as much as anybody. And he obviously gets a kick out of it. So I thought Hannity, the way he conducts himself is just so ridiculous. But I actually thought, well, putting those two things together, Crystal, does demonstrate how both of these industrial complexes need each other. Trump needs to trigger the so-called liberal hysteria, the idea that he's gonna be some insane dictator. And then Biden needs those Atlantic headlines like Bob Kagan,

I don't know if you saw this, wrote this long thing about American democracy is under attack, which given Bob Kagan's track record, that means he wants to invade it. But that's what the Biden campaign is then immediately fundraising off of. And there, I don't know if you saw this, there's a new whole Atlantic series of articles about the dangers of what a second Trump administration would look like. And they're all, you know, they're all just complete, like, old-style 2016 almost, like, claptrap. The only thing, one, I do think is legitimate is on the criticism of election in January 6th. Okay, 100%. The rest of them, it's like, yeah, the guy who literally could get nothing done for his first four years has miraculously changed and transformed in his old age and is now going to be the most effective, you know, GOP dictatorship president

in history. It's like, what are we talking about here? I think two things can be true. One, that he's a cartoonish buffoon and Keystone cops, Veep, whatever you want to say. And also that there is a genuine danger because of what we saw unfold with the fake electors and with January 6th, et cetera. I mean, that was a genuinely destabilizing moment. He genuinely wanted to hold on to power, even though he'd lost. And that is genuinely dangerous. So I can't look at what unfolded there and especially what we've learned about all the machinations happening behind the scene, all the fake electors who'd been pulled and the slates created and all of this that was going on and just sort of like hand wave away all of the concerns about Trump.

Now, on the other hand, liberals do themselves no favor when they're trying to pretend like they're all about democracy while they're actively behaving like authoritarians, like in the state of Florida, where they just decided we're going to make Joe Biden the nominee and we're not even going to have a process. Like you can't end democracy to save democracy. It doesn't work that way. And so, you know, when I look at that Hannity-Trump exchange, there's a few things. First of all, Hannity clearly hands him the softball, and he does it twice, by the way. He asked him once, he's like, you're not gonna be a dictator, are you? And Trump dodges and says, oh, you mean like the way that they were towards me.

And then what we showed now was he comes back around and is like, no, no, I just want to make it clear you're not going to be a dictator. And Trump's like, well, after day one, right? The audience loves it. Why? Not because they just think he's joking, but because there's a genuine desire for authoritarianism and for a dictator in the American public. And it's not surprising. It's not surprising for a couple of reasons.

Number one, because in times of tumult and chaos, the instinct towards or desire for a sort of like daddy figure who's going to make it all better. And I'm not even talking partisan at this point. I'm just talking blanket statements about the American public at this point. There is always a consistent rise and desire for dictatorship, authoritarianism. Some daddy figure to just come in and do the things that you think need to be done, get it done, trains run on time, et cetera, et cetera. That is a consistent theme throughout history.

And number two, you've had for years now cynical operators in the news media and cynical political operators, cynical pundits, cynical elite class members who think that the best thing that they could do is to convince one half of the country that the other half of the country is truly evil, demented, and, you know, an existential risk to them. Do you think democracy is going to thrive in such a circumstance? You can only have democracy thrive when you accept that your brothers and sisters that you're in this project with

are basically good people who are trying to figure these things out. And you may have some fundamental differences with them. That's fine. You'll work it out. But they're not an existential threat to you, your family, your way of life. And so that's why on the Republican side, when Trump says things like, oh, I'll be a dictator on day one, he's giving a large chunk of the base what they want to hear.

They're not upset about this. They want him to be that strong man and do the things and protect them in the way that they feel they need to be protected. And that's why on the Democratic side, there's very limited outcry when they do things like, you know, just decide in Florida that it's going to be Joe Biden. Or when they tell people that we can't afford to have a primary process, we have to subvert democracy to save democracy. Why there's very little outcry because people feel that same sense of existential dread on the Democratic side as well. So that's what I see going on. I think you're right. And I think why the reason I get so angry about this dictatorship and all this is because to me, it's actually anti-democratic in that why is Trump beating Biden? Let's actually look at the polls. It has nothing to do with democracy or any of this. People are pissed and angry about the economy.

So if you believe Trump is a threat and a dictator, then you need to beat him on an economic answer for why people should vote for you as opposed to him. And I have seen nothing but an onslaught from the Democratic press, from the liberal establishment, absent very, very few examples, people like Jeff Stein and others who are honest, who are not like, why are these idiot voters complaining? Prices are, I just saw a Financial Times piece, I'm not sure if you saw that, where they ridiculed American voters for thinking that prices were higher today than they were in 2022. And they were like, well, see, inflation is fake. And it's like, okay, well, yeah, it might be marginally true. But zoom out. From 2019 to 2023, inflation is running 22.3%. That is three times higher

than inflation from 2015 to 2019. So when people are saying prices are too high, they don't mean prices are too high in 2023. Prices are higher 2023 over 2022. They feel that way because everyone remembers what a bag of groceries costs not that long ago. And they didn't have that amount of inflation in their lives for decades as opposed to the fast pace that we've seen under the Biden administration. Now, it's not all Joe Biden's fault. I think a lot of it is. But the point is, is that if you cannot address and speak to that, you're going to lose. And that's what actual democracy looks like. So for me, it's all of

this trying to browbeat people over the head about trying to gin them up and be afraid is just as bad on that other side when they're not actually trying to engage in a small D democratic argument over why you should vote for them. People are not stupid. The main reason that a lot of people are gravitating towards Trump on the economy right now is just comparison. They're like, well, under in 2019, gas was X, Y, and Z. He's also got the great talking point of there was no Russia, Ukraine, or Israel or whatever while I was president. And that's a compelling pitch, especially if you don't have something to fill the vacuum, which Biden does not. I mean, when's the last time he even did anything about this?

Nothing. He said something about price gouging recently. The guy cares more about Israel than he does about inflation. That's the closest you could come. Well, to me, there's three major factors. There's the economy, as you point out, and the fact that, you know, people actually had more money in their bank accounts during COVID when you had all of these social safety net programs that were genuinely helping people in the child tax credit and checks coming in, etc. Under this Democratic president, those programs have all been stripped away. So at the same time you have inflation, you have a diminished ability to, you know, to survive that inflation, be able to pay for the things that you need to pay for and people racking up massive credit card bills, et cetera, et cetera. So that's one piece. Second piece is just, you look at the guy and you're like.

Yeah, that's a massive part. Can you make it through four years? Like, I'm struggling to listen to you put a single sentence together. Like, I'm holding my breath, hoping you get to the end of this thing and it's not a catastrophe. How are we gonna do four more years like this? That's one piece.

And then the latest piece, the reason you've seen a huge deterioration recently is because of disenchantment with the Democratic base over his unconditional support for Israel, which has really hit key Democratic voting blocs. Young people, first and foremost, Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, people of color in general actually have a very different view of this conflict than most white voters, just judging by the polling. These are key Democratic-based groups.

And so the recent decline for Biden has actually been mostly among Democrats who are very unhappy with what's going on. Now, are they going to vote for Donald Trump? No. Are they going to stay home? Very possible. They're betting that going back to the well of Trump is terrible, Trump is bad, and you cannot vote for Donald Trump and staying home is a vote for Donald Trump, shaming, cajoling voters is going to work another time. And I'm just not so sure that it is. I could be wrong. But I think, like you said, Sagar, you have to actually make an affirmative case at this point for why four more years of you and your program and what you're going to do is going to leave people better off.

Because, you know, I mean, people look back at the Trump years and they're like, yeah, that was chaotic and it wasn't great and it was terrible, but we survived. It's cheaper. We got to the other side of it. So maybe this, all of this is not as, is not as extraordinarily existential as it seems. So in any case, speaking of delusions, Liz Cheney has also decided that perhaps she will throw her hat into the ring, the presidential ring, and make her own bid for president. Let's take a listen to how she explained that. Whatever you do, whatever you think about, you know, the possibilities that Donald Trump might present, he's not an acceptable option. He's not an acceptable alternative. I hope

that he is defeated in the primary, but if he's not, we have to defeat him in the general. And people need to take seriously and literally what he's saying, which is that he would in fact unravel our democracy, potentially terminate the constitution. It's a risk we can't take. So she's saying that she may run for president to help defeat Trump. And when you talk about, I mean, Biden's level of delusion doesn't even compare to this level of delusion. Because even though it shouldn't be this way, because Trump has become the central question in American politics, the fact that Liz Cheney has put herself on the anti-Trump side of the equation means that her favorability ratings are entirely on the Democratic side. She has very few Republican supporters left, which is why she left Congress.

So the idea that she would take more from Trump than from Biden if she were to win for president is completely preposterous. I want as many people in this thing as possible. This needs to be full-blown, like 1807 election, all this other stuff. It might finally destroy some of the vestiges of the establishments that remain. I don't know. I mean, this level of delusion is one I almost genuinely admire. I think my life would be a lot easier if I was that delusional. And less neurotic, I guess. This is one, too, where I do think it highlights as Biden gets weaker, the chaos element of the no-labels type candidates, people are already floating Nikki Haley against Trump for no-labels. Now we could

have Liz Cheney versus Nikki Haley for no-labels. Joe Manchin is doing whatever the hell Joe Manchin is doing out there. Joe Lieberman and all these people are not screwing around. They really could actually mount somebody. Then you've got RFK Jr., who will be, I mean, who knows how much bigger he could get. You've got Cornel West, who's still hanging out there. And especially for people like RFK Jr., he says he's going to get on the ballot in all 50 states. This is a serious problem, a serious problem for both of these candidates. And you throw in a no-labels person like that, who has so much money and could easily get the petitions, now you're going to have four, almost five people on the presidential ballot. That's extraordinary. Not to mention the

libertarian candidate. Right. Who will probably be there as well. The only one of those candidates you mentioned that could take more from Trump than Biden is RFK Jr. Yes. And I think it's a real toss up. And the polls seem to show that it's kind of a toss up, that it's relatively split between the two of them. I think it depends on who he picks as Veep, what he focuses on, how effective the Fox News hatchet job against him is at this point, because, man, they turned on a dime. They used to be pumping this guy up like crazy. And now every time he goes on, they've definitely got their knives out for him. So they want to convince everybody that he's really, truly a Hillary Clinton-loving liberal and using whatever they can to make that case. Of course, a lot of his focuses in recent years have aligned

more with Republicans and more with the GOP base, which is why people like Steve Bannon were building him up for so long when he was an effective cudgel against Joe Biden. So with him, I think it's kind of a toss-up where he draws more from. I think it could potentially be that he takes more from Trump at this point, but hard to say. All of the other ones, Liz Cheney, Joe Manchin, Cornel West, Jill Stein, et cetera, definitely draw more from Biden than from Trump. And so it just further complicates his reelection path, which was already very complicated. I think you're right too, Sagar, that the more that we see him decline, the more that opens the door for just total chaos. Because people like, I mean,

I don't think Mark Cuban actually is going to run, even though I kind of wish that he would. But people like him who have huge name ID, who have lots of money to spend, et cetera, they got to be looking at this thing and going, you know what? It wouldn't take that much. I actually think I could have a shot at this thing.

Everybody hates these two dudes. If I jump in there and mix it up, you never know. It might only take 30% of the vote to be able to win this thing outright. Hey, I'll say this too. The Rock has been making a lot of appearances here in Washington. Yesterday, he put out an old video. He was at the Pentagon. He's been on Capitol Hill twice in the last month. Nobody actually really knows what he's doing, why he's receiving classified briefings at the Pentagon. So he also, on Joe Rogan, he said, people have approached me to run for president at one of the two major parties.

I'm not sure how true that is, but at the very least, he's floating it. He's floating something out there. So it could be any one of these people could do it. I think The Rock would cream Joe Biden in a primary, just to be clear. But anyway, we'll see. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids,

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and reexamining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. day. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John, who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast,

so we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair. Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process.

So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 Catherine 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. Some big news whenever it comes to Ukraine. There was a major vote in the United States Senate last night, and with the Senate aid package for Ukraine,

Israel, and other military appropriations, failed with the majority vote. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. 49 to 51, Senate Republicans blocked the Democratic bill to fund Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and border security over their demands for tighter border restrictions. Bernie Sanders also voted no. Many now fear the aid package is stalled for good. So there's actually quite a lot to say about this, Crystal, because it illustrates two separate political dynamics. The Republicans all voted against this aid package because it provides aid to Ukraine but does not fulfill the border demands not only of Senate Republicans but of the House of Representatives. And this is where I want to spend a little procedural time because it does show you how difficult it will ever be to get

the Ukraine package through the House. Speaker Mike Johnson put out a letter where he said two things in criticism of the administration on Ukraine. Number one, you have to not yet provided us with a strategic path forward to what victory looks like, aka you're just funding an endless war. Fair. So, yep, eminently fair. Number two, if we pass this $61 billion, the legislation, the border legislation that is attached to it, has to look like H.R. 2. H.R. 2 is a Republican bill that was passed earlier in this Congress, which is an absolute non-starter for basically any single Democratic lawmaker because it includes a major reforms to asylum. Now, to be clear, I support HR too, but I'm saying from a political perspective, it's never going to happen whenever it comes to the Democratic lawmakers. So a lot of the constituencies going on behind the House who

are negotiating on the border, even if they do come to some sort of a deal, it has no backing in the House of Representatives, which shows the to some sort of a deal, it has no backing in the House of Representatives, which shows the political future for this. Two, and this explains the Bernie Sanders vote, Sanders voted against the package because the Israel aid is not conditioned to Israel to make them comply with international humanitarian law. And I actually think that that going on in the future could be a major impediment because as growing calls for conditioning Israel aid and all that, it would make it only even more difficult to try and pass some sort of border pack or some sort of package through the House when you're packaging all of

these together. This is a lesson too, by the way, on why maybe we shouldn't be bundling all these things together, but that's a whole other separate conversation. Well, the original idea for why you put these things together is because the White House really wants the Ukraine aid, right? And they thought, okay, we can throw in this like border security sweetener to get the Republicans to come along. Now the Republicans are saying like, no, no, we don't, this border security thing, we don't even want to vote for. It's not good enough for us. So blows up that rationale. Then there was another assumption that like, oh, everyone will vote for the Israel piece. And still overwhelmingly, like Bernie's the only one who's voting against it because of the aid is not conditioned. But there has been even Joe Biden, you know, expressing

openness to the idea of conditioning aid. And you've had some mainline run of the mill Democratic senators saying the same thing. Chris Van Hollen just recently came out and said he thought aid should be conditioned. So even the Israel piece of this has now also become a little bit more fraught and caused at least Bernie Sanders to withhold his vote from this thing as well. So the original logic of putting all these things together has kind of already come apart. Every single piece of it is controversial. So it's hard to see at this point how they're able to reform and change it to make the whole thing, you know, make this cake bake.

Yeah, there's a lot of problems that are happening for them. And at the same time, I mean, the situation in Ukraine is just crumbling. The political architecture of the Zelensky regime is falling apart before all of our eyes. He's at open war with his top military commander because that guy told the truth and said it was a stalemate. Who, by the way, I did a little looking into the polling, is more popular, has higher favorability. Zelensky is still very popular from what we can tell from the polls, but this head commander guy is more popular, has more trust with the population. And now the mayor of Kyiv, let's go and put this up there on the screen, is speaking out against Zelensky.

You know, this is absolutely shocking. And he did it also in a New York Post interview. He says Zelensky is turning Ukraine into an authoritarian state just like Russia. This is Vitaly Klitschko. He's with a famous boxer. It is very famous inside of Ukraine, very well revered, and was a previous opponent actually to Zelensky. But the mayor of Kyiv is obviously an incredibly important position inside of wartime Ukraine

right now. It remains a city that's probably battered the most by Russia, and it's their overall capital. And again, let me read the direct quote. At some point, we will no longer be any different from Russia, where everything depends on the whim of one man. There is currently only one independent institution, but enormous pressure is being exerted on it. Local self-government, he said. So he is obviously speaking out against the command and control of Zelensky, who's trying to tighten down actually on all of his opponents as the war starts to

crumble underneath from him. And if you think about it too, his sole real purpose in this war was to be like a hype man and to basically emotionally pressure the West to keep funding him. Well, if he stops being able to get the checks go, then what is his purpose as the head of Ukraine? This is exploding too. Again, just to cover some more of the domestic politics inside there, let's put this up there on the screen. They are now actually reporting, Crystal, that Poroshenko, who is one of Zelensky's major opponents and who though has been kind of a quiet ally of his ever since the invasion, was blocked this week from leaving Ukraine. He had his passport confiscated, and he was not allowed to leave the country,

specifically because Poroshenko was set to meet with Hungarian President or Prime Minister Viktor Orban. They believe that Orban has been blocking EU military aid, and he's also been outspoken about allowing Ukraine into NATO. They call him pro-Russia. I think he's actually much more of a realist. But anyway, he is very dissident from the way that the rest of the Eastern European nations speak. The sheer fact that he was meeting with him was enough for the Zelensky people to cancel it, to block him from leaving the country. That's not something that a person who's confident in their leadership does. So things really are beginning to fall apart for him. You have the aid that is now canceled.

They continue actually just yesterday. Some of his representatives were here in Washington. They went on Fox News. They said we have no plan for negotiation, all of that. So we continue to fund much of their delusional dreams. But from a sheer military perspective, they are, you know, I mean, they're on their last ropes. They've got an average age of 43, 600,000 or so of their troops have fled, hundreds of thousands of their men or they're dead or maimed, maimed permanently from the battlefield. And even if we were to provide them at this point with every military piece of equipment that we're asking for, they have had zero proven ability to properly employ Western-style tactics and equipment on the battlefield. That's really what came through in the key findings segment we did earlier this week, is that their military leadership is incredibly incompetent and

arrogant and does not listen to US military advice. So there's so much going on here, Crystal, that I don't, I do not currently see a path for this Ukraine aid package. Now, I would never put it past them to not shoehorn this thing, you know, for the rest of all eternity to try and keep getting some money flowing to Ukraine. But this $61 billion, I really don't see a political path forward to this, especially this year. And everybody I've spoken to on Capitol Hill will privately say the exact same thing. Yeah. And I mean, just think of what a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, Zelensky was being declared Time Person of the Year. And you could not have said any of this publicly. Not in Ukraine, not here. Western

outlets, New York Times was certainly not going to be writing it up and talking about it, et cetera. And it shows you there is a level of instability among the Ukrainian, like in the domestic political situation that has been completely bubbling underneath the surface and has now completely exploded to the surface, given the state of affairs with the failures of the, or disappointments, I should say, at least, of the military campaign. And that was one of the things that this mayor was saying about Zelensky is he's lying about how well the conflict is going, about how the war is actually going. And, you know, you can't do that when you're asking your men to sacrifice their lives on the front line. Well, they're drafting them. They're drafting people who have serious medical conditions. And banning them from leaving the country.

And you're lying about how things are going on the front lines. And then you see, you know, okay, the funding is starting to run out from your biggest backer, et cetera. It's a dire situation. It is a chaotic, unstable situation. And basically nothing would surprise me at this point in terms of Ukrainian domestic politics. I mean, I'll say it here. This is speculation. I think that there is a very serious possibility that there is a coup against Zelensky because you've got the serious, you know,

the chief military advisor who he is, he's not even speaking to. He's issuing orders to his troops around basically the equivalent of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That's an insane thing. Like what a completely unstable military architecture. Now you've got his political opponents who are openly speaking out against him, calling him authoritarian. Remember, he's canceled elections, but he's like, well, it wouldn't accomplish anything or any of this. So, and if he is not able to politically deliver on aid from the United States, which is the sole thing that is keeping them going,

he has no real purpose there at the top. So I think he's seriously overplayed his hand. I think his arrogance and the way that he conducted himself in the West and also really at home has set them up for serious reality check whenever this aid package doesn't pass. And it would not be surprising to me at all if he is removed and you have a very, very different style of leadership come in just being like, okay, it's time to cut a deal. Or something even more horrible, because don't forget, Russia is still waging war in Ukraine. That has not ended. They're continuing to reign. And if anything, they're getting even better at it, holding their defensive positions and raining down these very cheap attack drones all over Kiev and attacking their infrastructure

as the winter goes on. So it's going to be, I think it's going to be a cold, cold winter all across Ukraine as all of this sets in. All right, let's move on to the next part here. Had to weigh in on this, and we touched a little bit in the initial A block on Nikki Haley and her comments around anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. So there was a resolution put before the House of Representatives which equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. Zionism is a political ideology that has to do with land and is very separate from discrimination against a religious group, especially when members of that religious group, including

people like Albert Einstein, previously had spoken out against Zionism and that some of the most fierce people who object to Zionism are themselves Jewish. Well, it overwhelmingly passed the House, and many of the progressives ended up voting present, actually, on the resolution. But one of the members who has been most singled out for his opposition to that resolution was Congressman Thomas Massey for tweeting out this meme. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. He tweeted out, for those who are just listening, it's the Drake meme of the person who is holding up his hands as if opposed and says, Congress these days to American patriotism. Then he's pointing his finger and he's smiling,

Congress these days towards Zionism. Funny meme. Definitely making fun, again, of these symbolic, ridiculous resolutions that are just, what, just like flagellating people themselves about how pro-Israel they are. Like how many of these fucking things are going to pass? Yeah, I know. They don't need to do anything. So what's the purpose? All right. Let's put that aside.

The purpose is just to smear people as anti-Semitic. They don't lockstep agree with Israel on literally everything. That's the purpose. And guess what? That's what they decided to do. Not just Republicans, but actually prominent Democrats, including the White House, the Biden administration. Let's put this up there on the screen. The Biden administration's put out a statement saying all Americans,

including House GOP leadership, should condemn this virulent anti-Semitism from a sitting member of Congress. This was retweeted by the White House. This himself is a White House spokesperson, and it was reiterated by the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Let's go and put that one up there on the screen. He says, Representative Massey, you are a sitting member of Congress. This is anti-Semitic, disgusting, dangerous, exactly the type of thing I was talking about in my Senate address. Take this down. And Massey said, well, you know, it seems like you guys care a lot more about a foreign country's borders than our own. I think he's absolutely correct on that one. But this is the absolute state of our discourse, Crystal,

is that a meme making fun of meaningless resolutions where a country continually affirms, you know, the right of a foreign government to exist and then affirms the inability to even speak out against the actions of said that government or even any political ideology is then not able to be mocked and instead is flipped around and said, you are a anti-Semite. That's one of the worst things that you can say about somebody in the 21st century, especially with the legacy of the 20th century. And yet they have no compunction doing it. I think it's really disgusting what they're doing. It is utterly disgusting and disgraceful for a variety of reasons. Number one, when you throw around the word anti-Semitism to talk about a meme, which

is not remotely anti-Semitic, to talk about people meme which is not remotely antisemitic, to talk about people who have critiques of the Israeli government which is not remotely antisemitic, when you just use this word for everything you don't like, the word becomes meaningless. And then when things happen that are genuinely antisemitic, which of course do happen all the time and there has been an increase in the number of actual real antisemitic, which of course do happen all the time and there has been an increase in the number of actual real anti-Semitic incidents during this time period, you have no words and no language left that means anything to anyone. And if you're an organization like the ADL where this is your thing, like you have completely bankrupted your credibility to apply this label to anyone or anything. So it's disgusting on that level.

It is utterly disgusting and preposterous on this level as well, which is that we are providing the bombs and the unconditional support for Israel in their war on Gaza, which has not only exacted a horrific toll on the civilian population there, but has made Israelis less safe and have made our own men and women in the region less safe. And yet you want to spend your time at the White House and the head of the Democrats in the Senate, very powerful individuals, you want to spend your time railing against a freaking meme online? That's what you're spending your time and your outrage focused on? What a clown show.

Like, what a preposterous caricature of a decadent, failing society, which cannot even focus on the actual real-world events that are unfolding before our eyes. We're arguing about memes. We're inventing, as Sagar's going to discuss, we're inventing incidents on college campuses to debate. We're castigating a congresswoman who said rape was horrific because she didn't say it hard enough. Like, what the hell are we doing right now while our big, great friend in the Middle East,

Bibi Netanyahu, is actively floating plans to Congress to, quote unquote, thin out the Gaza population and all but announcing outright that his end goal here is ethnic cleansing. And we're spending our time on a meme that Thomas Massey sent out. Few things could possibly disgust me more than what is unfolding in elite discourse right now. Yeah, I mean, it's just it's totally nuts. And, you know, it's interesting. I care about American sovereignty more than anything, especially whenever it comes to the meddling of foreign governments in our domestic politics. And yesterday I noticed this. I'm going to read it for everybody because what you were saying reminded me of it. The defense minister of the state of Israel tweeted this out. Let's be clear and unequivocal.

Calling for intifada, a murderous insurgency perpetrating acts of women, is not free speech. Chanting from the river, from the sea, openly calling for the destruction of the Jewish state, quote, is not free speech. Both are examples of dangerous, violent hate speech, and they must be treated as such. Why is the defense minister of a foreign government, who, by the way, does not have free speech in their country, trying to define free speech in our country? How about you worry about your goddamn job and we will do ours? But the reason that they feel so comfortable getting involved in this, getting involved in BDS, I mean, the freaking Israeli ambassador has been going all over this country now for years, promoting anti-BDS legislation at a state level. Imagine

if the United States ambassador was going around Israel and getting involved in which kibbutzes govern themselves and what they're allowed to say. I would speak out against that. I would say, leave these people alone. I don't believe the United States should be doing that, period, at all, whenever it comes to meddling in foreign governments. Vice versa. I mean, this is a total disrespect, honestly, to us. And this is how I see a lot of these resolutions. And, you know, I don't even necessarily agree with a lot of these, like, anti-Israel talking points and all that. But this is America. We get to say whatever we want, period. End of story. And I truly wish they cared as much about this country,

about our rights to do all these things, maybe our rights to say whatever we want, as much as they did as affirming anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism. So they are fulfilling, by the way, all of the worst anti-Semitic tropes around government, about controlled speech. True. Dual loyalties and all this. Yeah, dual loyalty. You know, by criminalizing or trying to make it such that you can't talk about it in the public domain. And all that has made me do is angrier and more determined not only to defend it, but to actually say some of these things out loud. The other thing that's preposterous, I mean,

the Congress is overwhelmingly Christian. Yes. Like, it's just like, what, 90% Christian? And then you're defining what anti-Semitism is? Like, that's absurd as well. The whole thing is completely ridiculous. And the most disgusting, I don't know, there's a lot about it that disgusts me, but it's just such a clear tactic to distract from what our policies are actually doing in the region and the horrific toll that the American people have overwhelmingly rejected. I mean, I just saw another poll. Two-thirds of American people want to cease fire. It's almost a majority of Republicans who want a permanent ceasefire, an overwhelming majority of Democrats. And it's Democrats, of course, who are in charge of the White House. So they're trying to distract from the things that actually matter. And it's

just never been more blatantly clear to me that that's what's going on here, playing all these games and taking up news cycles, debating theoretical things that might be said on a college campus. With regard to the river to the sea, Chan or whatever, you know, Ryan did a great job with Ted Cruz on this. Like, hey, you know, they say this in the Likud party platform. What do you have to say about that? Well, that's not a problem when it's the Israelis. It's not a problem when Netanyahu is literally holding up a map of Israel that completely disappears the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and says this is the new reality from the river to the sea, by the way. That's fine.

There's no problem with that whatsoever. But, you know, let's criminalize chance on college campuses because that's really the important thing for us to focus on right now. Yeah. And by the way, even if it did mean it, I would still defend people's right to say it. I said, yeah, you can say it. Why should that be criminalized? Why do you need to be passing resolutions and all these other things against it? You should not be policing what people are saying anywhere in public life, especially whenever you're the government. But anyway, apparently that's a minority position here today. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often

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

one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father?

Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it

to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair. Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back

or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. Sagar, what are you taking a look at? Well, if there's one thing that drives me more insane than any other, it's hypocrisy.

It hurts even more when it's from people that you considered friends and even allies in some way. And for the last two months, I think it is fair to say I'm pretty much done with it all. The number of people who've built now entire careers decrying attacks on free speech, safe spaces on college campuses, and ideological witch hunts have switched on a dime now that it is a cause that they agree with and are leading only the latest iteration of the famed current thing. This movement has kicked into overdrive

after a group of university presidents from Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania refused to say that specifically calling for the genocide against Jews was against the university's code of conduct. Let's take a listen. Dr. Kornbluth, at MIT, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate MIT's code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment? Yes or no? If targeted at individuals not making public statements. Yes or no? Calling for the genocide of Jews does not constitute bullying and harassment?

I have not heard calling for the genocide for Jews on our campus. But you've heard chants for intifada? I've heard chants which can be anti-Semitic depending on the context when calling for the elimination of the Jewish people. So those would not be according to the MIT's code of conduct or rules? That would be investigated as harassment if pervasive and severe. Ms. McGill, at Penn, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn's rules or code of conduct? Yes or no? No. violate Penn's rules or code of conduct? Yes or no?

If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment. Yes. I am asking, specifically calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment? If it is directed and severe or pervasive, it is harassment. So the answer is yes. It is a context-dependent decision, Congresswoman. It's a context-dependent decision. That's your testimony today.

Calling for the genocide of Jews is depending upon the context. That is not bullying or harassment. This is the easiest question to answer yes, Ms. McGill. So is your testimony that you will not answer yes? If the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment. Yes. Conduct meaning committing the act of genocide? The speech is not harassment? This is unacceptable, Ms. McGill. I'm going to give you one more opportunity for the world to see your answer. Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn's code of conduct when it comes to bullying and harassment?

Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard's rules of bullying and harassment, yes or no? It can be, depending on the context. What's the context? Targeted as an individual. Targeted at an individual. It's targeted at Jewish students, Jewish individuals. Do you understand your testimony is dehumanizing them? Do you understand that dehumanization is part of antisemitism?

I will ask you one more time. Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard's rules of bullying and harassment? Yes or no? Anti-semitic rhetoric. And is it anti-semitic rhetoric? Anti-semitic rhetoric, when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation, that is actionable conduct, and we do take action. The answer is yes, and this is why you should resign. These are unacceptable answers across the board. Don't get me wrong, it sounds bad. And also, we also know that if you replaced the word Jew with trans or black,

they would give a different answer. But that gets me to the crux of the point. There is a freakout of unprecedented proportions over this clip from the likes of billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, from celebrities, from pretty much every right-wing pundit who is out there right now, calling out the presidents for not immediately saying yes. And it's not just they're furious over the hypocrisy, it's that they want an end state where calling for genocide would result in an immediate expulsion over the so-called bullying and harassment policies of these universities. Again, this is after years of this entire ecosystem talking about how these systems

are unfair kangaroo court struggle session systems proliferated with talk of marginalization, snowflakes, safe spaces that violate the basic tenets of the First Amendment. And that's where I got to speak out. I jumped on board the train when I thought we agreed that system itself was flawed, illegitimate, and un-American. Now that you are upset you don't fit the definition of marginalization within the diversity, equity, and inclusion regime. As my friend Jason Willick has so aptly pointed out in the aftermath, quote, the presidents did not give good answers, but they were right to not answer categorically. There is no genocide exception to the First Amendment. In America, unlike many countries,

you can say Hitler was right. Either campuses tolerate First Amendment speech or they don't. The obvious retort then is that these are private universities. The First Amendment doesn't apply when we're talking about the code of conduct. And he gave what I thought was the best answer. When universities have embraced their conception of purpose as expelling people with bad beliefs, the result has been an aggressive and polarizing suppression of disfavored political ideas. First Amendment neutrality is the least bad model realistically available to major U.S. universities. And I could not agree with that more.

It leads me to what I think is the best mental path forward to think of this. Many American Jews right now are outraged that they are not considered marginalized and instead demand to be so. This reminds me of huge debates within the Indian community and amongst Asians whenever there was a fight over affirmative action. Asians had a choice. We could try and adopt the language of black liberation and convince these higher education DEI monsters, we too are marginalized,

and that's why we also should get preferential treatment for admission in higher ed, or we could reclaim our rights as American citizens to demand equal protection under the law and race colorblindness and striking down an unfair system. We joined forces with those who sought to destroy racial preferences in college admissions, and it was the right thing to do, not only because it secured our rights for fairness in higher ed throughout the United States, but it enshrined those rights for whatever group may be considered not sufficiently marginalized 100 years from now. Jews themselves should understand this. They were the first to be discriminated against at Ivy League universities and throughout the American elite in the early 1900s. But I'm not naive. Jewish leaders and most Republican members of Congress have instead decided to abandon the pretense of calling for free speech and instead adopting a censorious

DEI machine as their own to be used for their own ends. Consider the recent testimony of many Jewish students on campuses who attest to not feeling safe and describing what they say are horrible conditions. CAA protesters blocking the hallways, storming the offices of the MIT Israel internship offices, and harassing the staff and faculty there, and inviting dangerous outsiders to campus to join them in yelling hateful and violent chants. This is the same climate of anti-Semitism that has led to massacres of Jews throughout the centuries. This is not just harassment. This is our lives on the line. What is it like to be a Jew at NYU? Being a Jew at NYU is walking to class and passing torn and defaced posters of innocent hostages with the words

occupier and murderer written across their faces. It is going to both library to study and being interrupted by unauthorized protests where students and faculty call for a globalized intifada revolution. Since October 7th, the unmistakable anti-Semitism that I have experienced on campus is reminiscent of the Jew hatred I've heard about from my grandparents, Holocaust survivors, who experienced firsthand the deafening silence of their neighbors in Poland and Germany when the Nazis first rose to power. On a personal level, I feel bad for these students. I'm sure it sucks. But replace their rhetoric with many who have preceded them, who were trans, black, BIPOC, whatever the du jour term is these days, made up mumbo jumbo, about how they don't feel safe on campus. From statements made

by people who they disagree with, you end up with the same regime. They equate feeling safe with hearing things that make them uncomfortable and hearing things that they find abhorrent. To that I say, welcome to society. Two months ago, that was not a controversial point amongst a certain set, but apparently now it is. So I'm going to end with wise words from my friend Jason, who I should say is also Jewish. The organizing ideology of elite American universities isn't free inquiry and liberal neutrality. It is identity politics. Under identity politics, groups deemed marginalized are entitled to affirmation. Jews have never made a good identity politics client group. So when Jews demand that universities acknowledge a cause And he wisely ends, quote, And that's what has driven me totally. And if you want to

hear my reaction to Sager's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at BreakingPoints.com. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye.

Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and reexamining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus.

So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son,

even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair. Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh, my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. I'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.

Thank you all so much for putting up with us and for signing up for the yearly membership. It really does help us out. Otherwise, we'll be on standby over the weekend, and we will see you all on Monday. You're not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. He's trying to give it to his irresponsible son, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. They could lose their family and millions of dollars?

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

You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today.

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.

This is an iHeart podcast