DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Cruzin’ for a Bruisin’ | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss: • Will the GOP Presidential Nomination Race for 2028 come down to a face-off between Ted Cruz and JD Vance? • 30 US ambassadors are being recalled abruptly, no reason given, with little notice. • Trump wants Greenland for Christmas. He’s appointed a special envoy, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, to the Danish territory. • ICE is targeting “at risk” unaccompanied minors as they check in for their 18th birthdays.

Good morning. You're watching The program with Ted Rollin, John Kiriaku. It's Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025, which means if you're going to order something for someone for Christmas, you better go out to the store and get it now. Good morning, John, and I hope you have all your Christmas shopping done. Good morning, yeah. My background is different today because I'm at my sister's house. and Bedford, New Hampshire.

Oh, well. Very nice, but very cold. Yeah, is it snowing? No, but there's still a little bit of snow on the ground from a couple of days ago. They were supposed to have, I drove up here yesterday. I took almost 11 hours to get here. Oh, well. Yeah, it was, it was long.

Because of the weather, or just that's how long it takes? Traffic was epic. It was ridiculous. Oh, man. and yeah but it took 11 hours and when we were in um what do you call it Connecticut which is a lot bigger than it looks like on a yes way that's true yeah um it was there were these signs on the side of the road these electronic signs saying to only travel if absolutely necessary because this big storm is coming during the night and it was going to

be a ton of snow. There's nothing. It's cloudy. Yeah. But there, there's no snow, nothing. Yeah. Well, remnants from last week. All right. Well, so let's get going. They'll do the housekeeping stuff. So just a reminder of people who are always wondering about the holiday schedules, how we're doing it. So we're going to take Christmas and New Year's day off, which means we're off the Thursdays, this Thursday included the next Thursday as well. But we're going to be doing the show as usual today, tomorrow, Friday, and then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday next week, as well as Friday. But also, it looks like starting Friday and through the end of the year, this will be a two-hour show because TMI show is probably going to be off

the air until the end, until the first of the year. So what we're going to do probably, this is the working theory here, is we're going to do the show for an hour, 9 a.m. is you. usual. Then at 10 a.m., we're going to continue, stay on the air, use up that extra space, and invite you guys to call in as we did that for a couple Fridays ago, which, you know, seemed we really loved. So we hope you guys loved it as much as we did. And so that's the plan. So Friday probably will be call in Friday. So sort of we'll keep you posted on that. Please like, follow and share the show. Thank you for your donations, as always. People who want donate to Robbie Aid. We're doing that. Because it is the holiday season, I'm going to go

ahead and put that up, his GoFundMe. If you want to kick a little extra scratch to Robbie for the holidays, and I know he can use it, even though he's very modest about asking for it, go to GoFund Me and go to deprogram Robbie. I put it up on the screen. I'll leave it up there for a little while. But our goal of getting $1,000 or more for Robbie every month is at the beginning of each month. So official Robbie Aid starts on January 1st. Well, or January 2nd, since we won't be on the air on January 1st. So anyway, please put your comments and questions in the chat. And as always, John and I will do our very best to get to all of them as much as possible. Let's speak so. Let's go ahead and do a few of those. Exile the Knights of Malta now. Or I should say, before we get into

the comments, I'm just going to sort of tee up what we're talking about. So Ted Cruz is flirting with a 2028 presidential bid. He must have had a conversation with his mother. You should run for president. Everyone loves you. You'd be so great. What a dope. Oh, my God.

Then there's Trump is the Trump administration. The State Department is recalling 30. U.S. ambassadors, serious U.S. ambassadors, who normally would have served three to four years. No reason given, they're just getting a phone call and saying, like, back up and come home. Yeah. And then Greenland, it's back. Remember that? So Trump has sent a special envoy there, and he, again, is saying that he needs, we have to have Greenland.

You know, we have to have it. And then the story that really, you know, made vomit rise in. in my mouth this morning, that basically ICE is asking unaccompanied minors who got special status for being under 18 and who were in the United States, in some case, for years. They show up to check in for their 18th birthdays with ICE, and ICE arrests them and deports them. Anyway, so those are the things that are going on here. Let's talk about, so let's get back to the comments, and then we'll go straight into the stories. So exile, that's another cartoon idea.

I would like you to run with Nick Fuentes, Ted Cruz, and Destiny with three quarters of a foosball game, and then comes Candice. So people always want to give cartoonists ideas, always. And this is something cartoonists talk about a lot. And it's just sort of never works. And most of my friends just basically say that my colleagues say, oh, they're not good ideas. That's not my problem. My problem is that I don't work in those typical formats that like most people think of as political cartooning. I mean, I don't view don't you don't monkeys or elephants or metaphors or allegories.

I mean, it's really straightforward. I'm like in a comic strip kind of way. So anyway, that's the main reason I'm just going to say thanks, but no thanks there, exile. Unsung Pat Robbie has Midwestern Roots in West Virginia, Nebraska, Irish Scottish documented 21 generations. Cheers to you. I love that. I went down the genealogy rabbit hole for my son, like the summer. And I was impressed that I was able to get back to the 1400s.

And at least one of my ancestors in France was a crusader. Wow, really. Isn't that cool? That's very cool, actually. So, although. I'm not to say that one of my ancestors was a saint. What? Yeah.

Saint beats crusader every time. How about that? I was saint do you know like their name yeah he's kind of a minor saint saint christodoulos of patmos and what was his what was his deal he was a wealthy landowner who was very religious and he traded all of his land to the byzantine emperor in exchange for the cave where saint john received the book of revelation and he built the church and the monastery that are now on top of the cave on the island of Fatmos. Yeah.

Oh, so he was very dedicated, yeah. 15th century. Wow, that's so cool. Yeah, very cool. I've been reading a... A whole bunch of priests in my lineage, a whole bunch of them. I'm still reading that down. I could see that in you.

I could see you being a priest. You know, I don't know if it would take, but... Yeah, I'm not sure it would take. But I'd be proud of it, though. Yeah, no, nothing wrong with that. that at all. Ray, thank you very much to Ray C. 2020 for gifting a subscription

to the TMI show. Much, much appreciated. So that, and Unsung Pat was the recipient of that. Unsung Pat then said, here for a $20 rent to D program and then out. And so, okay, we'll read that. FU.S.S.

Thanks for the two bucks. Ben Shapiro shit himself with too much zio-karen energy. Well, that's every fucking day that Ben Shapiro. Okay, Ray. Let me interrupt real quickly. Real quickly, excuse me. Speaking of Ben Shapiro.

Last night, I was thinking even more about this, this MAGA split that seems to show itself at the Turning Point USA Convention. And, you know, when you have the likes of Nick Fuentes calling the vice president of the United States a race trader, This is a, because he's married to a brown woman. This is a, that's ugly. This is something that the Aryan Brotherhood says in prisons. This is a very important term in American prisons. If you want to be associated with the Aryans, if you want to sit at the Aryan table, if you want Aryan protection in the prison system, you can't be a race traitor,

which means you're not allowed to share a cell with anybody who's not white. right. You have to throw them out of the cell or beat the hell out of them so they're transferred from the cell to the medical unit or whatever. These are dangerous terms. So to use in public like this and say that the vice president of the United States is a race trader, there's a lot that, a lot of meaning that goes along with that. Well, it's also an OG Nazi term. You bet it is. So, you know, from Nazi 1.0. Yeah. Now, that is that that's, by the way, Nick Fuentes, that's not like a really Anglo name, is it?

No, but you know what he said? Somebody challenged him. I'm going to say in the last two weeks, somebody challenged him and says, wait a minute, you have a Mexican name. Fentz. And he said, yeah, but my people were the white Mexicans. Oh, please. Yeah, that's going to, yeah, like when, when they start. When they started grabbing people and deporting them on trains and dumping their bodies in pits in the Midwest, do you think they're going to be asking those kinds of questions, making those distinctions?

Exactly. Ridiculous. All right. So, okay, Ray C-2020 again. John, are you think of all the influence operations on top of influence operations? It's so apparent. Oh, my God. Isn't that the truth?

Yeah. What do you think he's referring to there? the influencers the influencers um think there's so much smarter than we are like we're not going to notice that we're being subjected to propaganda all day long every day it's crazy to me yeah no we we notice we notice in the same way that like you know you you go and look at uh airplane tickets for uh you know mexico and then like those ads for that airline pop up all over your your feeds yeah you know we we notice we're not idiots i mean that's a thing is we just the problem is that nobody can believe anything anymore right um that's really the

issue um all right so uh if you so gifted a was gifted in a membership by angela fall la la la so thank you for that um okay lisa locherico please would you answer a question for me why weren't the files released under she uh she says with but i think she meant under biden um well yeah why it's a good question It is a good question. I mean, I don't know if this administration was just basically like, I mean, look, both parties have a lot to hide when it comes to Epstein. And I think they were protecting Bill Clinton. I think it really came down to that. By the way, right before we went on the air, I got a news alert that apparently a new batch of Epstein files reveals, this is Reuters, reveals that Trump flew on Epstein's plane at least eight times. in the 1990s. So this would have been around the Bill Clinton period, too. The thing is, though, look at Bobby Kennedy. Listen, I've completely turned on Bobby Kennedy.

So it's not like, you know, we're pals or anything. But people complained, what, a year ago, two years ago, oh, Bobby Kennedy flew on Epstein's plane. Yes, he did. Many people did. A lot of people did. He was having a conversation with Epstein. at a dinner party with his wife with with Kennedy's wife and this is his previous

wife and Epstein said what are you doing for Easter she said we're flying to Palm Beach and he said oh I'm flying to Palm Beach for Easter why don't you guys come on my plane and so the Kennedy family flew down on Epstein's plane that was it that was yeah there's a lot of that with those people at that at that level yes so we got to be careful to not conclusions now with that said rich people be big moochers by the way big time big time mooters they always want something for free yeah so um there's there's something that's kind of breaking today and that is that and this is according to please ignore the scratching sound that the

shih Tzu next to me is stop it so um this is according to Liam Nissan on X, which of course is a phony name, he says, so apparently there are many Epstein files on the DOJ website where you can highlight the redacted text, copy it, and paste it into another document to read the redactions. It unredacts it. Oh, yeah, because they didn't redact it properly. Exactly. So they did it like in Microsoft Word or something like that, where they formatted it. Exactly.

Like, you would know that. Yeah. I always worried about stuff like that. Like, for example, when I write an article for La Wall Street Journal or whatever, I don't want them to see all my edits and all the iterations that I did. So I cut and paste it into a new document without the format. You can do it without the formatting. And then they just get a clean document, or better yet, cut and paste it into the email.

And it doesn't carry those things with it. So, yeah, that's, that's, that's really, what a fucking rookie error. That's, that's awesome. And, you know, besides, besides the redactions, the other big thing, the other big story today coming out of this is that they just outed all the victims yesterday. And the victims were up in arms, like, oh, because of the redacted. Yeah. Because they didn't fucking redact them correctly.

No. Well, they should have released the documents as PDFs. then that wouldn't have happened. Exactly right. Fucking morons. This is like, you know, whoever did that, they can still get a job at the intercept. No problem. Yeah, right.

No problem because then you can actively work against whistleblowers. Exactly. Exactly. Nicholas Franco's is asking us both. What do we think of John Meersheimer? I saw him on judgment Napolitano. I think he's on point, both on Ukraine and Israel. I love Meersheimer.

I've asked him a couple times to come on my other podcast, deep focus, but he's been so busy, just booked, booked solid. I think he's terrific. If he ever wants to come on here, he'd be good to have. I agree with that. Mr. Pro 54, John, why are almost all whistleblowers prosecuted when there are laws to protect such individuals? Do we have enough time left in the entire show to answer that question?

Is it always a personal vendetta against the individual? No. I'll sit back. sleep most of the time yes it is a personal vendetta but the real scandal is that the whistleblower protection act which is the law of the land exempts national security whistleblowers from its protections so it's basically useless it's useless but but if you work for the department of agriculture and you want to blow the whistle god bless you're going to you're going to be a big hero and although with this administration i'm not even kidding they

they might find a way to spin that into a national security issue. Yeah, they could. I mean, look at what they're doing with Venezuela. That's right. That's true. So, yeah, there's a whistleblower protection law, but if you're a national security whistleblower, forget it. You take your life into your hands. Now, with that said, so there is no law is the key part. Not really.

There is no law, not for national security employees. But what about the two IRS whistleblowers? I just went to their book launch a couple of weeks ago. I've got a $100 parking ticket for it, too. But anyway, went to their book launch the other day, and the secretary of the treasury showed up, and three Republican House committee chairman showed up. So they're big heroes. But under Biden, they were fired and threatened with prosecution.

So why did they get fired? What did they reveal? They revealed that Hunter Biden took a $10,000 tax deduction. for country club membership when it wasn't a country club membership it was 10,000 that he spent on prostitutes at a sex club and they said you can't do this. This is income tax evasion and his their bosses their or their boss said don't file a charge. It's the son of the president and they said we would be remiss if we didn't file a charge. And so they filed a charge anyway.

to which Hunter Biden pleaded guilty, by the way, before he was pardoned. And they were both fired and then told that they needed to hire criminal defense attorneys. So they are protected by the whistleblower protection law. But it didn't do that. Screwed by the Biden people. Well, yeah, that's the thing, right? Because it's basically the federal government is ignoring laws that the federal and who's going to enforce those laws, federal courts and federal government.

Exactly. Yeah, there's no, I mean, John, I don't want to skirm, you know, scoge over at this part where you said it's personal. I mean, I was always under the impression that whistleblowers get stomped like a bug because the system just doesn't want to allow that. Basically, like, it's like if someone, if someone squeaks, the next thing you know, all of our shit's going to come out, we just can't let it pass. You're saying it's more personal than that.

I think it's more personal. Look at Tom Drake. I mean, besides my own case, look at Tom Drake. Tom Drake started as a member of the Senior Intelligence Service, right? His very first day at NSA was on September 11, 2001. He's there for one hour. All hell breaks loose. He's pulled into a meeting with the director of NSA, who at the time was General

Mike Hayden. and and Hayden says in the meeting for people to hear he speaks the words out loud this is the greatest thing to ever happen in NSA's history because now they can tap everybody's phone and if anyone complains they just say national security never mind the never mind the 1947 charter that's right the charter says they cannot intercept the communications of American citizens. Right. So Tom went to his boss. His boss said, Tom, you need to just stay out of it. So he went to the general counsel. General counsel said, buddy, this is way over your pay grade. Stay out of it. He went to the inspector general who was not read into the

compartment and had no idea what he was talking about. By the way, this is all what you're supposed to do. All what you're supposed to do. Chain of command, they tell you. Then he went to the DOD inspector General because NSA is a DOD agency. And not only did he get no relief from the Inspector General in DOD, the Inspector General reported him back to NSA as a security threat. And when he didn't get any help from DOD, he went to the Congressional Oversight Committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and made his revelation, protected revelation. he was charged with nine felonies seven counts of espionage two counts of theft of government property

the property being the information he walked out of the building with the information in his head so he was facing so that section of his brain you were supposed to leave behind at his desk yeah facing 90 years in prison um and uh they he went to a proffer meeting. I don't mean to smile because it's sick. He attended a proffer meeting where DOD says, here's what we have against you. Here's what we're going to ask the judge to sentence you to, what are you going to do to mitigate it? And they said that he was responsible for the deaths of untold hundreds of American soldiers. Based on? That's what he said. Based on, get the fuck out of here. So they kept offering him.

take a deal take 15 years take 10 years take eight years he was like fuck you the night literally the night before the trial started they dropped all the charges of course they had nothing they had nothing they had nothing but they raided his house he had to hire lawyers he had to get a case and be ready for trial he went bankrupt he lost his job with nsa he lost his security clearance his wife was an NSA employee and they went to her and said we're raiding your house and arresting your husband as we speak you have a choice to make you're either with him or you're with us wow and she chose to go with them so his marriage went kaput of course he had to fight for his kids he had five kids he lost everything literally everything and not only did he not do

anything wrong. No. He carried out a public service by blowing the whistle on waste, fraud, abuse, illegality, or threats to the public health or public safety, which is the definition of whistleblower. John, what, do you think there ever will be actual strong legal protections for whistleblowers in this country? Or is it just against the interests of the elites to do that? It's going to be a real uphill battle. But I'll tell you what, if we have another president like Donald Trump. And a Congress that is willing to, you know, take a bold position, I would say yes. And I'll tell you what, the only supporters that whistleblowers have in government are from Republicans. Charles Grassley, Chuck Grassley, the senior senator from Iowa, is the greatest champion of

whistleblowers on Capitol Hill. Yes. there are a couple of Democrats. Ron Wyden is one from Oregon, the Democratic Senator from Oregon. Bernie Sanders is pretty good on this issue. Not great, but he's pretty good. And Ilhan Omar is really, really great on this issue. But otherwise, it's Comer and it's Jordan and it's Marjorie Taylor Green and it's Massey. Rand Paul. Rand Paul. These are the friends He's a good egg. He's a good egg. Yeah.

There's, I mean, yeah, but I guess the thing is, it's like, it's only a few and the ones that there are a Republican, right? Is that a fair way to put it? Yeah, that's a fair way to put it. Sure. So, all right, let's look, we have a bunch of comments and we keep them coming, but let's, we got to hit some news. All right, so maybe we can dispose of Ted Cruz quickly.

So Ted Cruz is obviously flirting with a run. The media is trying to tee this up in advance as a clash between. you know, MAGA world represented by the vice president and, you know, traditional country club conservative Republicans represented by the son of the man who killed President Kennedy, Ted Cruz. So I'm being sarcastic there, YouTube. That didn't happen. But anyway, so is Ted Cruz really going to do this?

Is there any viable, real viable alternative to J.D. Vance at this? this point? Is J.D. Vance a lock for the 2028 presidential nomination? I feel like as long as he doesn't fuck up too bad, he probably might be. I don't know, man. What about Marco Rubio? Listen, we all know the Republican Party is going to move right back to its neocon roots. True. Marco Rubio is that neocon. Yeah, he is. Well, then there's the question is, will the Republican Party choose a nominee with a strong view toward electability in the general election? go for someone that they like and, you know, whatever, we don't know if we can get to 50%. It's a good question. I think J.D. Vance is very strong, but I think his problem is that he's also

very young. And I think that others in the party leadership may, you know, be mumbling under their breath that it's not his turn yet, even though he will have been vice president for four years. Cruz is a clown who has no chance of winning He has a better He's despised inside the Senate despised in the Senate He can't get along with anybody

He probably has a better shot of being elected Prime Minister of Israel Along with Lindsey Graham They would have to battle it out To be Prime Minister of Israel And I think it's really going to be Between Rubio and Vance Interesting

And then how to it go? I mean, I mean, I don't know how much to what extent, if any, the Republicans look at the Democrats. But, you know, it's a bad look generally to ditch your sitting vice president. I mean, you know, the Democrats flirted with doing that after Joe withdrew. And, you know, it weakened Kamala. And she wasn't a strong candidate to begin with, but it didn't help. You know, do they pay attention to that? I mean, do they want to do that? I mean, I keep thinking of like whenever there's like a bait a switchout like in 1972 when uh mcgoverned replaced uh thomas eagleton with uh sergeant shriver as his running made that week and already weak candidate

um do you know i mean aren't the republicans kind of conventional wisdom aren't they stuck with vance really and then there's the question of you know we can't really equate maga with the gop so how does that look see this is the thing there's a lot of moving parts here a lot of moving parts and and what you have just said is is really the bottom line question for the republican party and we're seeing multiple very different answers is what happens to maga is the republican party a maga party i would say no it's not i would say there's a huge faction that's maga sure i think the republican party is a neo-conservative warmongering party agreed just like the democrats that's that's

But the Democrats have not, but MAGA has taken over. Maga has taken over. You're driving the car. But the Democrats, progressives would never gotten to drive the Democratic car. That's true. But the MAGAs are driving the car right now only because Donald Trump is such a strong personality. True. Yeah.

Yeah. He's a quantum singularity in American politics. I mean, I can almost see it from his point of view. Look, I would hate this idea. It's dangerous. It's unconstitutional. but I could see why the temptation, like, oh, I should run again even though I can't. Right.

Well, you know, he met with Dershowitz the other day. Did you see this? They actually put it on, I saw on YouTube, but Dershowitz and Trump had a conversation about how Trump could run for a third term and keep it, you know, quasi legal. It's like, you can't. The Constitution could not possibly be any more clear. But the Constitution is clear on lots of things that get ignored. Yeah, it all comes down to the Supreme Court.

And does anybody really trust the Supreme Court? Not anymore. I used to. I used to think that even with a conservative majority, for the basic stuff, you could trust them to do the right thing. Yes. You know, and for me, it was like, but now they have their thumb on the scale. It's untoward.

So basically, but Ted Cruz is not the man. Basically. All right. I think we agree on that. Not in a chance. Elliot Covert 3796. I have a sense that Gen Z has way more extreme ideas about race and identity than the rest of MAGA and America first. Thoughts am I making this up? I don't know. I mean, I have to say, I like all my Gen Z people. My son is Gen Z. I don't like, you know, I mean, I think they're a fantastic generation. But, you know, I don't know about the demographic age, age demographic politics inside MAGA to that extent.

Do you, John, any inside? I don't. I don't. Hey, let's bring it, Robbie. Maybe Robbie. We got a taste of this at Turning Point USA, but maybe Robbie can enlighten us. Yeah, help us. So it's not so much a racial thing.

It's an immigration thing because the zoomers, that generation, they're coming up. And as far as I know, I could be wrong on this. As far as I know, they are the only generation that's looking. looking at a lower standard of living than their parents have. Oh, no, Gen X was the first generation like that. And I just wasn't sure I was either one of the only ones or if not the first. And Gen Z are the children of Gen X. That's not a coincidence.

Oh, no, for sure. I mean, the boomers looted the country. And they just kind of just take it a step further. While their standard of living is going down to the point where they have to use credit to buy groceries and they're being told, no, you forget about getting married. You forget about having a house. You can forget about having a good paying job because we sent them all to all to Indonesia. We're going to keep on importing all these migrants.

You can just sit down, shut up, we're going to call you a racist. It doesn't matter if white, black, Indian, it doesn't make a difference. It's not a racial element. It's a nativist element. And frankly, as an America first, at this point, probably an America only kind of guy, I like to see it. Because our government should defend the American people first. why do we have to open up our doors the whole rest of the world and import everyone when we have people here who are being crushed and make that argument to me it's not a racial thing it has to do with you and i'm on the left i mean i think if we like i've always said um you know why are we sending a single dime to israel when we have a single homeless person why are we importing anyone to work on h1b visas when we have unemployed and under we never talk about under employment But we have massive underemployment in this country.

And, I mean, probably most people are underemployed in this country. And then, you know, unemployment and, you know, how can you justify that? You're bringing someone from the other side of the planet to fill a job that an American wants and can't get? Yeah. And that's the argument they have to make. And neither political parties are willing to make it. The Republicans just ignore it. And the Democrats say, stay on shut up racist.

Well, that doesn't work. It doesn't work anymore. And that's all the reasons why. If you go on Instagram, so I'm blessed. I have two young kids, my son's 16, and his friends, their, his friend group is very, is very diverse. We're on YouTube, so I can't tell you the things that they say. But for them, racism is literally the single biggest joke. It's not a buggy man.

It's not a hammer. It is a joke. And that's how you take the power away from those terms is that you flip it on its head. It's no longer taboo. Yeah, laugh at it. and you say now those words are hurt us anymore but you're going to you're going to hear what we have to say and i'd love to see it all right robie thank you for that insight we have more to get john go ahead yeah i had one thought one of the things that i i love about my kids about my kids generation i've

five kids between the ages of 33 and 14 and um they live in it they live in what i would call a post-racial culture. Yeah. Like, it doesn't occur to them that their friends are of different races. Yeah. Look at me. I'm with my whatever friend. Yeah, right.

I think that's a wonderful thing. They just have friends. They just have friends. Their backgrounds are irrelevant to anything. I think that's part of why, like, things like these Boomer Legacy programs, like affirmative action and quotas, probably just seems so, like, weird and esotericans. stupid to them. It's punitive. Yes. It really is. It's

punitive. And I mean, as one race traitor to another, I don't have to hold my nose and vote for J.D. Vance. I mean, Nick Fuentes, they can help me make that decision. You know, I blame the Republicans for platforming, Nick Fuentes. The guy's a nut.

He's an extremist. He's pro-Nazi, pro-neo-Nazi, whatever is. There's no... And he's a virgin. And a virgin. And he's an in-cell, virgin. He's an in-cell. Yeah, he's an Encel virgin. Get that kid laid. Why we give this kid 10 seconds of airtime

in this country. It's a mystery to me. He should be a nobody. He shouldn't be born Pierce Morgan and Tucker Carlson and all these different things. He should be just dismissed and pushed off to the side. But that's where I disagree with you. Because here's the thing.

Censorship, it never, it never works because we're not talking about censoring him well hold on well but if you don't platform him i mean that that that's that's that's the inverse of the same coin right and here's what i'm saying the guy obviously he's he's a political phenomenon arguably bigger what trump is and the problem is is that he says mean and hateful and divisive things and i think he doesn't uh think part of it is showmanship that's a big part of it he's trying to be edgy he's trying to say things that people aren't going to say and that gets clicks yeah that's what everything is now it's not even just in

politics that's all that's the entire internet it's just the problem is is that is that as that grows i think he tapped into some into some real rage i've said on this show and people called me a nazi for it i have no problem with it with the interracial society but multi cultural societies don't work if nick foentes had said that we would be having this conversation but instead of he's just trying to just go on this whole this whole racial tirade which is frankly retarded and i hate to tell you this you cannot be a christian and be a racist yeah it is impossible i agree with that yeah totally agree totally all right robbie we're going to take you out here we'll i'm sure we will see you again all right so um let's all right so i do want to hit um the story about the ambassadors i thought

you might have some insight oh my god i'm so glad yeah what's going on so the president has recalled the numbers are different. Yesterday it was 20 ambassadors. It became 30. It became 40. I saw 39 this morning. These are not political appointees. These are career ambassadors. 30 plus year veterans of the foreign service. These are the professional diplomats that we have all around the world to carry out the foreign policy of the United States. The president has begun recalling them and forcing them out of their positions. This is unprecedented in American history. Unprecedented. And at the State Department, I was talking to a guy yesterday. He is ambassadorial rank. We were first tour officers together. We've been friends ever since. He was just promoted to ambassadorial rank. I'm going to say

three years ago. And he's, well, no, I won't say what he's doing. Anyway, he's an ambassador slot but is not ambassador so he's being recalled and i called him i was like what the fuck and he says i have to retire he said if if i can't make ambassador in the next three years they're going to throw me out anyway um and trump is recalling me now for no reason at all other than his present position just happened to be given to him while Biden was president And so, do you think this is just retribution? It's just retribution. I'm doing a little bit of consulting work right now in Ghana.

And so there's a woman who until very recently was the U.S. ambassador to Ghana. And she's a career long, not just career long foreign service officer. She's been in Africa all of her career, 25 years. And she was recalled. And we have no ambassador in Ghana. Well, what the president has done in the last couple days is he withdrew our ambassador to China. He withdrew our ambassador to Japan. We have no ambassador in Russia.

He withdrew our ambassador to Australia. Who's carrying out American? These are major, major countries. With a lot going on. We can't afford to have these positions vacant. No. And then ambassadors to have to be confused. confirmed by the Senate, no? That's right. They have to be confirmed by the Senate. And first,

they have to be vetted by the Senate. So this can take six months. I mean, Kimberly Guilfoyle. Look at Kimberly Guilfoyle. How are we going to negotiate over Ukraine? I know, right. Look at Kimberly Guilfoyle. She has the support of the entire Trump family, obviously, strong support of the president, strong support of the Senate, strong support of the Greeks. She became the ambassador to Greece. And still it took her six months. So it's not like we can just fill these slots overnight, just so our foreign policy doesn't fall apart. This is a big mistake. So, I mean, do you think this was just, you know, the personal impulsiveness of the president?

Or is there anything else going on inside the administration? I think that's what it is. It's an impulsive move by the president. And it's a very weak secretary of state who just doesn't have the guts of the ability. to stand up and say, wait a minute, wait a minute, this is wrong. Yeah, no, Marco Rubio definitely exudes weakness. No question about that. Question from Ali KKLY.

Did the Patriot Act actually help anything or anyone, or did it just pay way for more abuse? I like that question. I did an op-ed recently in which I asked a rhetorical question. How many terrorists has TSA? stopped since 9-11. I'll give you the answer. The answer is zero. But in that same period,

156 TSA officers have been arrested for stealing out of people's luggage. Well, I mean, we probably, I have been saying this for years, John, that we could easily just go back to the days where you could walk your friend to the gate or go meet your mom at the gate when she arrives from out of town

and help her carry your luggage. and it would be fine. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Unsung Pat, thanks for the $10. Whistleblowers go to jail now, IRSW whistleblower, who released Trump's tax returns via the Guardian, same as Snowden, caught real quick,

also passed a ProPublica tax avoidance of all 1%. Oh my God, this is like so long. I don't even know what to say. Whistleblowers go to jail now. Let's just leave it at that. Right. So, guys, when you put your comments in there, it's okay, you can use tons of abbreviations and stuff,

but this is live podcasting, and we have to read them on a screen, and it's small, and it's like, you know, my brain is not always fully operational at this hour. No, it's just kidding, but like, just go easy on the abbreviations, please. Mountain 16, thanks for the 20 bucks. I wonder what's the worst flight or airline you've ever been on.

Oh, I have stories. Oh, yeah, I want to hear yours first because I'm sure yours is worse than mine. Well, okay, so I can like, I'm going to say, okay, so my, without a doubt, the, the worst one was this flight from Wuramuchi. Oh, no, I'm sorry, that's not true. It was from Kashur, which is Kashgar, in western China, in Xinjiang, to Islamabad. So long story short, we were supposed to take the, my friend and I were supposed to take the bus. We were told, and then it was like there were landslides on the Caracrom Highway. So the highway was closed.

That happens periodically. It's a very difficult highway. So instead, so I talked to my Chinese travel agent in the hotel, and he goes, oh, there's a flight. And I'm like, there's a flight. And he goes, well, it's not as luxurious as where you're used to in the United States. I'm like, I'm easygoing. It goes up. It comes down. Fine. Whatever. How much is it? It's like $550 per person. I'm like, great. He's like China Eastern Airlines. Done. It's like you're sure. This is not what you're used to at all. I'm like, yeah, yeah. I'm up for anything, man. Like, you know, like when I go to omacase for a Japanese and the guy and the sushi chef says, is there anything you don't eat? I'm like, no. I'm man style. Like bring it. Right. So anyway, he keeps asking for. assurances. He's like, well, it's one flight. It's Saturday morning. It's only, it's only

Saturday morning. Be there or be square. And I'm like, okay, we'll be there. We pull up to the airport, which is basically the size of like two 7-Elevens side by side. And we pull right up. And the door is like propped open. And there's a guy standing there. All the lights in the little airport are closed. and I walk up there and he goes, Mr. Rawl, and I'm like, yeah, he's it. Like, the airport is there for us, right? Just for us. So we walk through the airport, all the lights, there's a few little counters, the off. There's a little, there's a little, you know, security checkpoint.

There's no one there, unmanned, turned off. We just walk through with our bags out to the tarmac. And there on the runway is a 1943 German Falker, which is, so I turned to my friend. And so it's an out, it's a plane like, you know, it's like Indiana Jones. Like you're literally outside. And like, so it's a pilot. There's four seats, right? There's like, there's the pilot.

There's three passenger seats. So we each get, so my friend and I take two seats, one seats for the luggage. it's all strapped down we're given goggles I'm like where's my scarf man like the red barren anyway long story short you can still see the Nazi logo

on the back it's like worn off from the paint I have photos and when we walk out there I go da da da da da da da da so the point is you have to fly off you're at high altitude you're like

you're on the Tibetan plateau there right So you're high. And it's like, I think it was like 9,000 feet or something. Long story short, the plane is basically drives off a cliff and then makes a straight drop. And then they start the plane as it's falling. And it's like going off, you literally feel like, you know when you're in a steep, like on a steep roller coaster and you feel like you're going to fall out? Well, here you're literally going straight down. So you're sure you're going to fall out.

But you don't. It's a propeller plane, and you're outside. And, like, anyway, and there's dead planes at the bottom of the gorge. Anyway, long story short. So it's amazing. Then, like, after that, we flew through, we flew basically along the route of the Karakoram Highway. We went through, you know, a branch of the Himalayas, like the Karakoram Mountains. There's a mountain that we think was K2.

Oh, my God. It was like, the snow was like 20 feet deep in the passes. And we're like, brr, I mean, it was an amazing. I mean, like magical experience. But if, you know, the plane had gone down, you're dead for sure, even if you managed to land, which you couldn't. Anyway, we finally, we land in Islamabad. So this Pakistani, you know, soldier comes up to me.

And it comes up to the plane, welcomes us. And he's like, you will need to use. the restroom before we we before customs because in and indeed I had pissed and shot myself all the way down my legs from like the initial takeoff and I go how did you know and he goes everyone who takes this flight has to use the bathroom when they arrive so that's my worst story there are others but anyway John tell me I cannot top that in in 1990 I was flying from Jedda Saudi Arabia to Suna, Yemen, on Yemenia Airways. And it was an old Russian Ilyushin I-L-76.

I know them well. No seatbelts. Of course not. And the seats fold forward. Yeah, they fold forward. So I'm going like that feels safe. I'm going like this, like, I can't find my seat there. And I get up and I'm putting my hands.

hand in the fold of the chair there are no seat belts no people brought animals onto the plane i bet there was a guy next to me kept a chicken in his lap sitting next to me a chicken in his the whole time one guy at the back of the plane brought a goat onto the plane and the goat just kind of stood in the in the aisle and was like all through the i bet he was better behave than many american children there was one bad part where just as we're taken off, this guy gets out of his seat, sits cross-legged in the aisle,

starts trying to light like a burner to make tea. He's going to make tea for himself. And the stewardess is like, no, no, no, no, no, you're going to blow up the plane. We're going to give you tea. We give you the tea. And then finally,

the flight attendants are coming around and one of them just hands me this. grotesque sandwich with some kind of gray meat on it. And I go, what is this? And she goes, meat. And I said, what kind of meat? She goes, I don't know. And I just said to the guy next to me holding the chicken.

I said, you want this? And he's like, yeah, I want it. It was awful, awful. But that's only like a two hour or something. minute flight. No big deal. Yeah, no, that's awesome. You know, the thing about starting the fire, in China, I was on a train where they told me that, like, so they had first class was in the front, second class, then third class was

at the back. And someone on the train explained to me that in the, and I went back to visit that third class just to see what it was like. And there were people cooking back there on the floor, on the ground of the, of the, they were made, they had like a stove. and the and one of the train people told me oh sometimes there's fires i said on on third class so that's why we put them at the end we just decouple it and just keep going and leave them behind what oh my goodness turtles travel and then ted we just keep going back for more you know when i was still with sputnik i had to go to israel i went twice within like four months.

So Mindia, who is our general manager, he tells me, hey, I want you to go to Israel to cover the election. I said, fine. So I booked this flight. It's from Baltimore to Togo to Ethiopia, to Israel. He goes, why would you book a flight like that? I said, I've never been to Togo.

Oh, did you stop? Did you get to stop? It was 20-hour layover in Togo. Yeah. Oh, okay. Oh, I guess. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Exactly. See, you understand. Totally. Like, that's like I was going to, I was supposed to go to Reunion Island. Oh, very cool. And it was like the plane, the flight I found stopped in Madagascar. And I'm like, oh, get a couple of, a few days in Madagascar. That's great. I like it. Yeah. Totally. What are they called? Boabobab. Boabab. Bayobab tree. Yeah, go see those.

Yeah, I love that. Aaron Walker wants to know, and we do have a few other stories to catch, too. But I love our questions so much, so I don't mind. Aaron Walker, Ambassador recalled John's friend who started out, in quotes, with him. Does that mean the guy was or is CIA? You do not have to answer that. No, no, no. Our careers paralleled each other, mine at CIA, his at state.

We got hired the same week. We went through the State Department foreign policy training. together was 11 week course and then we served in Kuwait together and served in Bahrain together as first tour officers and then second tour officers and we just remained friends best travel question as as a CIA officer I could never be an ambassador because CIA people can't be ambassadors you got to have an ambassador being the be the ambassador a state department officer um so just as a general rule ambassadors and deputy chiefs of mission are never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, CIA, never.

So that's, that should make sure that, like, there's no confusion there. There has to be no gray area at that level. Because at the CIA, if you're CIA officer, you cannot make foreign policy. You cannot. It's against the law. You carry out foreign policy. Gotcha. Glass and Candy is asking, which guy gave us, which country gave us the best diarrhea?

Uzbekistan for me. I was purely liquid for probably weeks, two weeks, three weeks. I mean, I was so dehydrated. There's these Chinese trumpet pills that are better than emodium, and they saved my life. Because otherwise, you're like on the bus, and I remember clenching my ass cheeks together. Just please, please, don't let it leak out, you know, please. Been there more than once. Yeah.

For me, it was Cairo. I was staying at the Marriott, and I ordered a salad. My buddy goes, you sure you want to eat that? Oh, man. No, it's the Marriott. They must have water filtration system or whatever. Oh, I'm like in the hospital begging for death to liberate you. I bet.

It was G. Oh, God, I've had Gartia. Oh, my God. It comes back, too. It does. It comes back. It came back where in the States. Yes.

Or when you're tired, when you run down. It does. Because it lives inside your body. It never goes completely away. No. And then, oh my God, I remember stopping at a roadside rest somewhere in Sinai in the desert. It was just like this truck stop. And I said, I'm do come hamam.

Do you have a WC? And the guy's like, yeah, it's around the back. I go around the back. and it's just a completely shit-covered hole in the ground. Literally just a hole in the ground, but like for the last 20 years, people had taken a shit over it and had just missed the hole. Yeah.

And I couldn't do it. So I just ran out into the desert and just exploded out there. Got to, yeah. Yeah. All right. We're going to do two stories in four minutes here, John. Greenland and nice. Okay, so Trump wants Greenland for Chris.

Christmas. I don't think he's going to get it. I mean, is he serious? That's really my question. Is he serious? No, he's not serious. Greenland's owned by Denmark. Denmark's a member of NATO. A U.S. takeover of Greenland would be an act of war against NATO and it would compel all NATO members to attack the United States. So, okay. So what's this about? It's just trolling. It's trolling. Yeah. And what's for? Is it like for the base? Is it just for fun? I think it's more than the base. I think he's got his eye on rare earth minerals over the longer term. So it's a negotiating tactic? I think so.

He's strong-armed the Ukrainians already into providing rare earth metals for like the next 20 years. And I think he wants to do the same thing with the Danes over Greenland. I think it's all that. We already have a base there. We don't need another base in Greenland. We don't need to own Greenland in any way. We rent it. Greenland's health care is way better than what.

what we have in the United States. It's not like they want to join us and get our healthcare. Yeah, well, certainly not these days. That we could do a whole show about the new numbers that are coming out. People are having to pay like $40,000 a year for under the Affordable Care Act,

the Affordable Care Act. ICE is picking, is basically picking people up as they show up for their 18th birthdays and becoming no longer unaccompanied minors. And it's a bad look. so much that even Homeland Security is starting to deny that it's happening, but like Daily Beast and other outlets have reported to be true. When does, I guess the question here is, when does the methodology of the ICE deportations, when does that become politically unsavory to the point

where the administration has to start reversing itself? Honestly, I think when these deportations begin to lead to inflation. It's one thing to pick up workers standing outside the Home Depot. It's another to raid Purdue chicken and take all the chicken workers. Or there was the car thing, right? Like, was it the Korean, exactly, the Hyundai plant in like Georgia? Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

So once this leads to more inflation, I think people are going to say, hey, wait a minute. This isn't what we banked on. Well, people put two and two together. will they will they see the correlation i think so because it's been going on for long enough you know and listen everybody wants people who have committed crimes who are here illegally and who have committed crimes everybody wants them out that got it but our economy right now and robbie's going to jump up and down our economy would crash without undocumented labor we will all right so So we'll, Robbie, you will have to respond to that some other time because we are all out of time.

Thanks, John. As always, please like, follow and share the show. We're here Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. We'll be back tomorrow, even though it's new, it's Christmas Eve, 9 a.m. Eastern Time. So check that out. Please stay tuned for the TMI show with Manila Chan and I. And if you want to watch DMZ America, one dropped yesterday. And it's in the stream.

All right. See y'all. Bye, everybody.