DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Gabby Tulsi | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, rats out Trump’s big Iran lies. The president said the Iran was rebuilding its nuclear enrichment capabilities—but that’s not what the CIA and other intel agencies told him, she tells Congress. Trump also said Iran was “two weeks away” from ICBMs that could reach the US, but Tulsi said Iran hasn’t even tried and, if it started now, couldn’t achieve them until at least 2035.• Is the Iran War running out of gas? Israel’s strike against Iran’s South Pars gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar and is the largest such facility in the world, was approved by Trump—but he denies it, even while threatening to blow it up entirely if Iran strikes Qatar—which Iran just did. Qatar’s foreign ministry called it a “dangerous and irresponsible step.” After stocks fell to a record low for the year and oil prices soared to $119/barrel—a 67% increase—and France called for a moratorium on attacks against energy facilities, Trump changed his mind and does not want any ‌further strikes on Iran’s ​energy infrastructure. • Israel blows up bridges crossing the Litani River in Southern Lebanon. Is this a prequel to annexation?• AG Pam Bondi stonewalls Democrats at a closed-door hearing over the Epstein Files, half of which still haven’t been released.MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.livehttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JohnKiriakouLIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuAPPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

There it is. There it is indeed. Good morning, John Curiaku. It is Thursday, March 19, 2026. And the Sisti program with Ted Rall and John Kirooku. Nice to see you, John. Good to see you, Ted. Welcome back.

Good to be back. And so, yeah, good news all around. Thank you for your support, everyone. We're now, I think, at 31,000 subscribers on YouTube. And so we're just in awe of you guys. Amazing. All right, we have a lot to talk about. just another busy newsday.

So we'll get into the latest out of the Iran war. We'll be talking about stuff going on in Lebanon. Main topic is Tulsi Gabbard and how she kind of had to do a delicate dance yesterday in front of Congress. And I don't know, she may be the next Christy Dome. That could be that all the ladies get fired. I'm super interested in the Pam Bondi story.

and just a little bit of housekeeping. In two hours, a special cross-pollinating treat as John. You're going to join Scott Stantis and I on the DMZ America podcast. That's 11 a.m. Eastern Time with myself and Scott Stantis and John Curiaku. So you want to see a different side of John, the same side of me. That's at 11 a.m. So Eastern Time. So please like, like, follow and share the show.

as always, we apologize for the slight technical glitch at the beginning, but Rumble was acting funky today. But it looks like it's back. Okay. John, any preferences to what you'd like to talk about first? Shall we do Tulsi? Let's jump in with Tulsi. I have to start off by saying that there have been so many signs, so many signals that Tulsi is not just not respected in the administration, but that she's on her way out, I can't believe that she has survived the last six months. And I don't believe that she will last till the end of this war. I mean, she's, she's not even, she doesn't even take part in many of the most important meetings. And then when photographs, she not invited to them or is that, or she, is that voluntary? I strongly suspect that she's

not invited, yes. And then instead, she's invited or tasked with going to Georgia to, to oversee the raid, the FBI raid of the election commission, something that the ODNI has literally nothing to do with. And then the administration is unable to explain why they asked her to do it in the first place. So I'm just not, and I like Tulsi, but I just don't think that this job is for her. I'm going to, I don't agree with, I don't disagree with a syllable that, you just said. So yesterday, she was called before Congress, and she was asked about the assessment, two assessments, two key assessments that were given us the main justifications for this war. Number one is that Iran was two weeks away from a nuclear weapon, according to President Trump.

Number two, and the CIA and other intelligence agencies concluded that that's not true at all, that Iran was not working on developing a nuclear weapon, was not rebuilding its nuclear enrichment capabilities at all. That was their assessment. Trump also claimed that Iran was two weeks, I guess they're two weeks away from everything, from building long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach the United States and euk, you know, John and I in Washington and New York, respectively. But that's not true. Not only did the, were the Iranians at least not to 10 years away on that point. They haven't even started it, according to the intelligence community.

She was asked about that. She didn't at all, to her credit, throw the CIA under the bus or anything like that. No, she didn't. She took all the heat. All the heat herself. I would say that, you know, basically she was really between a rock and a hard place. She acquitted herself as well as could reasonably be expected short of, you know, issuing a resignation letter. there's kind of like nothing much else she could do.

She didn't lie under oath. She told the truth and basically confirmed the, you know, everything that she knows. And she exposed in doing so, she exposed the president as a liar. And because, you know, the lie here is not, you know, nobody knows what the Iranians are up to except the Iranians. The lie is the certainty. I always say that about, you know, in 2003. We know Iraq has WMDs. The lie is not whether they have WMDs.

The lie is your certainty. certainty and, you know, saying, oh, they're two weeks away when, you know, you don't think they're two weeks away. That's a lie. Yes. So Tulsi, do you think she should resign? I mean, if you're her, what's the right play? Like another principled resignation? So first there was one, now there are two? That's what I would do. I would resign. Listen, she's just going to be beaten about the face and head on this issue. There's no, there's no, there's, There's no upside to her. Her job is to protect the president, her political job.

And then at the same time, it's to tell the truth to the president about what the intelligence is saying. So, I mean, you can tell the president the truth and then lie to Congress, I suppose. You're not supposed to, but you can get away with it. Either way, Congress knew she was lying. And so she took it on the chin. almost as much as Mark Wayne Mullen or whatever his name is took it on the chin from a member of his own party yesterday, Rand Paul. We could talk about that later. John, can you chat a little bit more about that now?

Because YouTube, we're not live on YouTube, and I'm going to try to fix that on my end. I can't find us on Rumble. On Rumble either. Oh, let me see if we are. Huh. No. Okay, so let me, let me see if I can add us through Stream Yard here. Okay.

We may have to start this completely from scratch because, I mean, we're just talking to Twitter at this point. Yeah. And Twitter, we love you. We do. We love Twitter. We do. Okay. No time to.

Okay. going to hit this hopefully this will work oh god i have to create a rumble stream really ah oh shoot no it's like so annoying yeah we're just like we're just not on air john um i have to create a i have to create a rumble stream all right let me see i kept uh hitting refresh refresh refresh nothing was happening fuck okay okay Okay, Horry, hold on. Create new live stream. So annoying.

Okay. So annoying. And you have to do, you have to enter everything. Like, you know what I mean? Right now. Yes, right now is when we want it. I wonder if Robbie has tried turning it off and turning it back on it yet. Yeah, he did, actually.

Yeah, he fucking did. Okay. All right. I just created a lot. live stream. Okay. Okay. Oh, Robbie wants us to pop them on.

Okay, hold on. Or we are on Rumble. Okay, good. We are. Good, good, good, good. Really? I don't know. I'm not seeing it.

All right, Robbie. We are live on Rumble. The problem is that there's some kind of a handshaking error with YouTube. All right, let me see if I can, let me just see if I can fix that. I'm just going to add YouTube. I'm taking, so I'm going to edit out, edit, edit, remove. Why the hell is there a second Rumble stream? Because I was just trying to create it, because we can see each other.

Now there is not. Okay. Okay, then we have 121 people watching us on YouTube. Please do not start another Rumble stream, Ted. You will blow us up. Okay, I didn't. Okay, so we should, let's just see. We should be on YouTube now.

Let's see. We're on Rumble, I see. We are on Rumble. All right, I'm hitting refresh here. I created a new YouTube stream. Maybe. Maybe I did. Let's see.

If you're watching us on Rumble, we're trying to get YouTube up. Sorry. Yeah, Dan Smith, full-time Rumble. Oh, here we go. Okay. Let's just see if this is right. This might be right. I believe we are live on the other YouTube feed.

Let me put that in to the chat. Tarek says, hey, John, please give Joe Kent love. Mad love for Joe Kent right now. Deep respect for the guy. Deep respect. I might disagree with him on politics, but... Okay, yeah, we're live on one of the YouTube Rumble things. Good.

Yeah, it was weird because we were trying to connect I guess this is the disadvantage of the shorter of the shorter thing. Okay, here we go. All right. I'm going to put in the link into the old YouTube so people can. All right, here we go. Please go to. All right.

All right. I did that. I did my part. All right, guys. Let's do this from scratch. What do you say, John? Because nobody saw anything. No, nobody's not. Let's start from scratch.

Everyone, thank you for tuning in. We're about to start from scratch. Thank you for your patience. I blame Clovis. Okay. Oh, hello, hello. Welcome to D-Program with Jed Roll and John Kiroku. 13 minutes late, better than never.

Rumble Studio is having all sorts of glitches. If you're watching us on YouTube, please bear in mind that we had to bring you guys over and create a new refresher, a new stream. we will fix all that on the back end a little bit later on. But for now, you can still see us. Thanks to so, for your patience. Rumble came up a little bit faster. Anyway, this is D-Program for Thursday, March 19, 2026. If you're watching us on X, we apologize for doing this all over again. All right. So today we're going to talk about Tulsi Gabbard and her testimony exposing Trump's

lies about Iran's capability and desire to develop a nuclear weapon and ICBMs that could hit the United States. We got to talk about the fight over the South Pars gas field, which is really heating up, like a couple hours ago. There was another really dangerous development. Israel is blowing up the key bridges across the Key Latani River in southern Lebanon. I want to talk to you, John, about whether this is a prequel to annexation of southern Lebanon. And finally, last but not least the Attorney General Pam Bondi went before the House Oversight Committee and basically stoned-walled the Democrats over the remaining unreleased Epstein files. And so, thanks so much, everyone. Robbie is going to try to clean up the pieces and get your comments up onto the board.

I'll do the best I can to try to mop up as many of the questions that you have. In the meantime, please like, follow and share. Please post your questions in the live chat. John, let's refresh everyone about Tulsi Gabbard. You were saying... I was saying that if I were Tulsi, I would resign. Tulsi's been put in an impossible position where you've got two competing missions. Number one is to provide the president with an honest and complete assessment of the intelligence. But the other mission is to protect.

the president, well, those two missions are mutually exclusive. At least they were yesterday. And so she had a choice. Do I tell the truth and rat out the president? Or do I lie to Congress and protect the president? She chose to lie to Congress and protect the president. There won't be any fallout for her. But it just makes her look weak. And it makes her look sycophantic. So I think she's short for this job. Frankly, just based on the last six months, I'm surprised that she's still in the position. I can't imagine she makes it until the end of the war. Well, I guess how long is the end of the war? I think this is going to be a longer war than people realize. I think that the Iranians are very smart. I think they're incredibly resilient. You can keep killing Ayatollahs and ministers of

this and ministers of that. It doesn't make any difference. There are always others who are going to take their position. We used to have this ongoing joke at the agency that we killed 27 number threes in al-Qaeda, which was probably true. It's just that they keep coming up with a new number three, just like the Iranians can keep coming up with new generals and new ministers and, you know, new scientists. Yeah, yeah, decapitation strikes are not it, as the kids say. So basically the key Casasbelly in this war, and of course a lot of them have been given, and we talked about that. But the big ones that Trump himself is focused on is that according to him, and I don't know if he's getting this from BB Denyahu or if he's just making the whole thing up or what, was that, you know, Israel, that Iran's going to have nukes within, they were going to have nukes within two weeks. That was unacceptable.

And they were also going to have ICBMs within two weeks. So starting in two weeks, the United States was going to be vulnerable. And since Iran was inherently evil, as soon as they got it, they would use those nukes. John, I have a question because I literally just drew a cartoon to put to this question about this for next week. North Korea's had ICBMs and they've had nuclear weapons for years. They're more erratic, I'd say, than the Iranians. And they're more of an enemy to America than the Iranians. yet they've never used one.

So where does it, where does the idea that if a rival power were to get a nuclear weapon with ICBMs, they would automatically use it? Where does that come from? It comes from the pea brain of Bibi Netanyahu. That's where it comes from. And, you know, like we said last week, we're not talking about North Korea today. Why? Because North Korea has a nuclear weapon.

Correct. Nobody's going to mess with it. And until Iran gets a nuclear weapon, everybody's going to mess with it. It's like Oprah. Everyone gets a nuclear weapon. You remember the old Bugs Bunny cartoon where, you know,

Bugs starts by smacking Foghorn, leghorn, not foghorn, leghorn, Yosemite Sam. He smacks Yosemite Sam with his glove, and Yosemite Sam pulls a knife, and then Bugs pulls a gun, and then Yosemite Sam pulls a bigger gun, then Bugs pulls a cannon, and then next thing you know,

there's the planet Earth and there are two, two guns pointing at each other. So good. But in the end, you don't destroy each other when you have nuclear weapons because then you end up just destroying yourself. Mutual assured destruction. Yeah. Well, okay, so we have a very unfortunate thing that happened. It looks like some of the super chats vanished from the early part of the YouTube show So I'm gonna I see one and I think we should get it get a go ahead and grab that

Anyone else who had a lost super chat that got eaten at the beginning of the show due to the technical difficulties Please pipe put them into Please put the same questions indicate we're gonna do this on the honor system Indicate that it was a super chat in all caps super chat followed by your question and we will get to it. Okay, but honor system is appreciated. Okay, Sneaker Dad, do you think the attack on Iran's natural gas fields may be Israel's non-nuclear Samson option to sink the world economy like theirs? And we should talk about the natural gas field. So Iran has a giant natural gas field called South Pars. They share it. It's a big undersea lake, an underground lake of natural gas. They share it with

Qatar and it's the biggest in the world. Basically, the Israelis bombed it. It has not, fortunately, only some of the facilities caught fire, but the whole thing didn't blow up. Trump's denying it, but there are credible reports that he signed off on this, but now the Qataris, understandably, are pissed and they're saying, please don't do that. This is a dangerous and irresponsible step. So Trump said it won't happen anymore. We won't let Israel do that. anymore. This tanked the stock market overnight. The oil, oil prices at one point surged to 119 a barrel, 67% increase over where we were three weeks ago. And France is calling for a moratorium on tax against energy facilities. But then basically Trump said, don't worry,

we will blow up. I will blow up that field entirely if the Iranians hit the Qatari's again. the Iranians a couple hours ago decided to hit the Qatari's again. That's a big Iranian fuck you, right? It is. It is. And they figure rightly in my view, they've got nothing to lose. What's he going to do? He's going to bomb him?

He's already bombing them. He's going to kill the leader. He already killed the leader. Blow up a girl school, already done. Whatever we can dish out, the Iranians are going to take. They accept it. And so they're showing the world that they are not a, afraid of us.

No, they're not afraid of us. No, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, for, you know, for us. Um, wow. So, um, I guess so, so, so what about that question? It, do you think that's Israel's, um, sort of back? I don't, but you think it's their, their, they're, uh, roundabout way of having a, you know, exercising their Samson option. Take the global economy down with them. Samson light. You know, one thing I learned about the Israelis when I was at the agency is they don't give a shit about international oil prices.

Because they buy their oil from us or they buy it on the gray market. So they're going to get oil no matter what. All the Arabs can cut them off. It doesn't make any difference. They're still going to get it either from us or from the Arabs through Cyprus or through some broker through Switzerland, whatever. They're going to get it. so they don't care. And we're going to subsidize it anyway.

So then they really don't care. It doesn't make any difference if Donald Trump tells them stop bombing gas facilities. They're going to do whatever they want. And they expect the Americans to fall right into line. So, John, you know, I don't know. Have you ever heard of this crazy natural gas, like disaster in Turkmenistan under the Soviet period? So it's still burning, isn't it? It's still burning.

The Soviets basically were drilling for oil. They accidentally struck a deposit of natural gas. This was in northern central Turkmenistan. This was in 1971. Yeah. It's a tourist attraction now. It's called the Gates of Hell. And, you know, just if you ever wonder why we have so many greenhouse gases.

So that fucker's been burning for half a century. And, you know, the current president, wants to finally seal it off for obvious reasons. But, you know, they haven't been able to do that. But that's just to bring, to put this into perspective, the Fars field is bigger. South Pars is bigger than the- I remember reading a paper on South Pars when I was still at the agency.

And it said that if the Iranians and the gutteries continue to lift gas at the present rate, there's enough gas in that field for the next 550 years. That is crazy. It's a lot of gas. It's a lot of gas. I found another one that I think I've been able to rescue here. This is from Sean WP.

Thanks for the 499. Is the administration trying to get the cutteries off their back by saying that they weren't involved in that strike? Oh, probably. 100% right yeah the israelis hate the cutteries but we love the cutteries and cutter is home to aludate airbase which is the largest u.s airbase in the world it's the largest airbase period in the world um so we need the cutteries and the Israelis just hate that we're friendly with them so i'll tell you what i never met a cuttery that i didn't like i i really truly mean that they're good people and uh you know they just just believe that Palestinians deserve human rights and Palestinians deserve a homeland. And even after the Israelis came to them and said, you know, we want you to change that position. They said, no, we're not we're not, we're not, you know, the rest of these. Well, you know what?

I have to temper my language here. No, we're not going to change our policy. How about that? That's good. Yeah, by the way, oh, my God, I'm going to have to delete these like extra YouTube feeds. but I'll take care of that. There's like three and they're all kind of like, it's like what the hell? Okay, so let's do some more questions.

All right. That Kiwi, thanks for the $5. Do you think that if the U.S. had actually communicated with its allies before starting the war, that they'd now be more open to coming to help? I think so. But you can't constantly criticize them and call them, you know, old Europe versus New Europe and we're with New Europe and then we're going to invade Greenland and screw you. And then, oh, by the way, we're going to wage war against Iran.

We need your help. We're going to say, screw you. I was talking to a German professor yesterday. And he said the Germans will not lift a finger to help the Americans in Iran. The Germans are all in with Israel because of this national guilt over World War II. but they are not going to help in Iran. And even on BBC this morning, I was watching BBC International this morning,

they were saying that, you know, the UK, you know, we want to help, but we can't because the labor party's against it, the rank and files against it, and Kier Starmor doesn't want to risk his position. They're not going to do anything for us. In the meantime, the French, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Italians are all yelling,

get out of Iran, doggone you. So this is not going well for us. No, it's not. I mean, it's so funny too because, you know, we keep making the same mistake, right? Like this is like that famous meeting between Ho Chi Minh and John Foster Dulles, where Ho Chi Men, where fellows, Dahl said, you can't beat us. We're, we have, we're much more powerful and wealthy than you are. Exactly.

And Ho Chi Men said, you'll win every battle. We will win the war. You know, we just don't understand. Like, for the Iranians, they have. to win. It's existential for them. And we made it that way for them. You know? Yes, we did. So, yeah, and coming in with the Israelis is such a mistake. I mean, it's so many mistakes. By the way, if you're just joining us, this, we are, it's now 928 light Eastern time. At 11 a.m. Eastern time, join the DMZ America podcast with me and Scott Stantis and John

Kirooku will be joining us. Scott always wants to talk to John. And he's always, I've never met Scott. I know. It's so weird. So finally, this will be, you know, when worlds collide, the DMZ America podcast will be hosting John. I know Scott's very much looking forward to it, as am I. So, you know, just look for DMT America podcast. We're on YouTube and Rumble.

You'll see it. It's also in my X feed. I posted the link. John, this question came down, I think yesterday from Ray, but thanks for the five bucks. Thoughts on Israel locking down the Church of the Holy Sepulcher during Orthodox Holy Week. Easter and Miraculous Holy Fire, not even Caliphate Ottomans ever did that. You know, I mentioned the other day, I think I mentioned it on the show, I mentioned it to somebody, that someone had posted on YouTube video of the church of the, from inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,

at the edicule, which is that, that, what looks like a building on top of Christ's tomb, right in the center of the church. Yeah. Air raid sirens were going off in the distance. You could hear the faint explosion off in the distance. And it was just like one priest just taken video and the place is completely empty. And I thought, wow, what a shame. I hope that it remains, you know, safe. But the Israelis have just closed it yesterday, just completely closed.

And not just closed. Closed for the holiest period of Christianity. Holy Week for both the Western churches and the Orthodox churches a week later. Closed, unprecedented. Somebody in the chat said, even the Ottomans didn't do this, which is true. Even the Ottomans. Well, I mean, do you think they're trying to keep it safe or do you think there's something more nefarious going on? No, I think it's more nefarious.

The Iranians are not targeting holy sites. They're not targeting the old city of Jerusalem. They could have destroyed it by now if they wanted to, and they haven't done that. I think this is just to piss people off with the mistaken idea that it's going to turn people against the Iranians. And it's not. It just makes Christians angry. Yeah, yeah. So if that Kiwi, if Israel did trigger the Samson option, what would the fallout, excuse the pun,

be from the international community. Would anyone actually do anything aside from strongly worded statements? God, that's a, that is a great question. I mean, you know, of course you want to think, okay, that's like a bright red line in the sand and like that couldn't be allowed and the entire world would come together as one would invade Israel, take their government out of commission, put the Israeli government on, you know, in the docket at the Hague. But I'm, not so sure. Yeah, I have to agree. 50, 50, maybe? 50, 50, 50, impossible to say. You raised an important point here, too, Ted. And I know that this is never going to happen. But I think that as a country, we need to reassess our position on the

International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice. Right? I think Netanyahu belongs in the dock. And I can name a half a dozen American leaders that probably belong in the dock with him. but if if the united states is to be taken seriously as a country that respects the rule of law and civil rights and human rights then we need to we need to sign that treaty for sure um have al gang 22 thanks for the 20 bucks have you guys been following the situation with afro man well worth five minutes of investigation if not for an exemplary microcosm of systemic racism for the laugh. Highly recommended.

Also missed John at the wedding in Sydney. That would have been fun. I tried. I tried. I do not know. Oh, I remember Afro, man. Yes. He sued a bunch of cops in Ohio.

And like sort of live streamed the crimes that were being committed against him. He was a rapper. I didn't realize he won. He won yesterday, as a matter of fact. Jury sides with rapper rapper Afro Man in Adams County Civil Trial. Good for him. Anytime a black guy beats the cops at trial, that's something he got to sell.

In a state like Ohio. True, true. Although Ohioans deep down are common sense people. I remember there was in Dayton, a black guy was sitting in the west side of Dayton, which is a, you know, minority neighborhood. And the cops broke in wrong address, busted his house. He had a gun. He shot one of the cops to death because he thought it was a home invasion. The cops never announced themselves.

They weren't wearing uniforms, no badges. And, you know, it was a, it was a, it was a, it was touch and go for him. But, you know, 12 Daytonians, good and true said he should walk. And he did. Wow. Hey, Ted, I wanted to ask you about the latest polls from Ohio that show the Democrats winning both the Senate seat and the governor's race. What do you think of that? Well, I mean, it's a long way between March and November.

It's a long way. Look, I suspect that this has a lot to do with two major issues in Ohio. First of all, the economy, you know, which has not been good since I was a child, you know, during my child. Literally since 1978. Right. It's been a, I mean, it's just been circling the drain and then NAFTA was the last nail in the coffin. You know, I mean, Trump won Ohioans by promising to, you know, get rid of these free trade agreements to to basically focus on bringing jobs back. He, you know, he has fallen short there.

And I think Daytonians are paying attention. I mean, Ohioans are paying attention. Temperamentally, he doesn't fit with Ohio. You know, he's too spazzy and he's too aggressive. Ohioans are polite people. They're very civil, very, like, moderate, almost to a fault. And I don't think he just doesn't fit. Trumpism is no longer a good fit.

But I think as this president goes off the rails and focuses on international adventurism, I mean, I'm sure. sure it's the same way in your neck, old neck of the woods, Western Pennsylvania, too. You know, Western Pennsylvania used to be solidly blue, like as blue as blue could get. And now it is ruby red. But that can change. But that can change. You're exactly right, especially if turnout is depressed.

And it looks like that's the problem that the Republicans are going to be struggling with, is that Republican voters are not motivated. They don't like the direction of the country. They were led to believe that this was an anti-war president and an anti-war party, and it's not. And now inflation's up and gas prices are up and everything else is trailing, but it's going to go up because of gas prices. And then what do you do? Then elections are upon you.

Look, I hate to say Democrats are right because they're often not. But, you know, they said that Trump was a con man. And I'm, you know, there's a lot of bait and switch in this presidency, right? Like, oh, I'm, you know, just the stuff that you mentioned. And like now the Democrat, they're chasing down the Save America Act. And it's like, well, but they're promoting it like it's a voter ID bill. It's not. It's not a voter ID. I vote for voter ID. Did you know, I didn't know until yesterday that the Republicans attached onto the very back end of this Save America or Save Act, whatever it's called. They attached two. riders, one to ban trans women from, or trans women from women's sports, and the other to ban, um, whatever they call it, gender affirming care for minors. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Which has nothing to do with voting. No. Even, look, even your favorite senator, John Fetterman, came out against this move and said that he's not going to vote for the Save Act. He says he just wants a con-voter ID act. I mean, John Federman, the man who's like a compass that points south consistently wrong, he's right on this. Yeah, he's right on that.

I agree. Yeah, now, okay, so that Kiwi, thanks for the two bucks. Do you think other notable figures are going to follow Kent's resignation? And would Trump even care? Tulsi Gabbard might, it would be the right play. I mean, because you know the thing, John, right? Like once as an incident, twice as a co-eastern. incidents three times makes a pattern. Tulsi Gabbard has the chance to make a to make a coincidence.

And then whoever's next really makes a splash. They all get to go on Tucker. They all get to make a big deal. They get to maybe end up on MS now or whatever as you know, like where all former Republican traders go. The good Republican of the day. Exactly. You get to everyone could be Michael Seale. Such respect for this guy. His wife was killed. in action in Syria. He knows what war is. He did 11 tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A glutton for punishment. Seriously. I mean, this guy's got nothing to prove to me. And I think he shouldn't have to prove himself to any American. The smear machine is on, like, it's at 11 with him, though. Yeah, it is. It is. They're just dumping

all over him. And it's like, oh, like, oh, but the FBI is investigating him for leaking now. Yeah, right. He didn't make anything. A weaponized DOJ. And it's like, of course, you know, if he hadn't to, look, it's like this. It's like if you had never blown the whistle, you'd still be sitting at your, you'd still be sitting at the agency, right? And it's like, and they'd love you and you'd be getting awards and raises.

And similarly, if he had been, you know, hadn't, hadn't squawked and hadn't resigned and made a make splash, everyone would be talking about how great he was, all the Republicans. Yes. And it's so transparent. It's ridiculous. Let's see. Kleefti Antiquity, $1.99. Thoughts about the leaked to USCB document condemning Kerry Prejean. I have no idea.

Do you know? No. I'm sorry. I know Carrie Prejean, but I haven't seen anything. Who is that? Isn't she the nun? The anti-death penalty? Is that right?

Hold on. We'll have to look that up. Pre-Gene. Oh, no, no. No, she's the model. Oh, pre-gene, the nun was, oh, Carrie Pre-Gene, of course. She was Miss California. She was on the president's religious advisory council.

Oh, she gave an interview to Tucker last week. That is absolutely fascinating. You have to watch it. No holds barred, man. She came out swinging. What's she saying? What's your allegation? That this Paula, that Paula White, the nut, that that that, that,

hilarious video there's a hilarious video of this woman Paula white she's the head of the president's like religious council whatever and his personal pastor she's the one that's going in africa in africa in africa in africa in africa angels angels angels angels angels angels like and there's a guy like reading a book and pacing behind her it is freaking hilarious talk about cultish so anyway they told her um that she needs to get with the program because on her social media, she's not saying all the right things that she's got to, she's got to support

Israel. Right? Israel, Israel, Israel. And she's like, no, they're discriminating against Christians. The original Christians by the end of this year, there will be no Christians left in Bethlehem. That has been a Christian city slash village for

2,000 years. 25 years ago, that was a substantial. That was a substantial. population 25 years ago. It was the biggest Christian population in in Israel. So they told her, you got to stop. You got to go back and delete all these posts and you've got to endorse the president and endorse Israel. And she said no. And they're like, okay, then we'll await your resignation. And she's like, okay, fine. And they told her, but you're not allowed to say anything once you resign. She's like, fuck you. She's gone on all of the talk shows. Now people are saying,

this is what a Republican Senate candidate should look like. Yeah. Okay. Which I think is a very cool idea. John, we have a lot of questions to get to. So let's try to get to bang them out. No, it's all right. Pac-Man's, thanks for the 20 bucks.

Back in 2012, a guy sat with my friend and I in Kekladi's Astoria and ask us what we thought about Obama. We were in D.C. for school. Do you think that was a Fed? He walked in midmeal and sat down with us. We are Greek-American. Could be. Sure.

Astoria for people who don't know is the Greek neighborhood in Queens. If you're ever really seriously hungry, that is a good place to go. Yeah, go to Astoria. Yeah, they could have been, sure, sure. They do that. They do that just to see what people are going to say. Because people often, you know, implicate themselves unwittingly. Just a random, I appreciate Edison's comment here.

Just a random thought. I find it strange how almost 90% of the time people only address John in questions when Ted's major part of this show. I encourage all other chatters to watch Ted's A Life. Thank you. I agree. I appreciate that. Thanks, John.

Bryson Smalls, 99. Hello, Ted and John. Your show has become one of the best parts of my day and mine. What is your assessment on China invading Taiwan? My friend believes this should be America's main focus and that war is inevitable. John and I think it's fair to say that you and I both think that your friend needs to relax. Taiwan is safe. Yeah, Taiwan's safe.

The Chinese just as a matter of longstanding policy are generally not imperialistic. They believe that Taiwan will rejoin China, make one China in due course. They don't feel they need to force it militarily. Yeah, they're going to get it back the way they got Hong Kong back. That's right. It's like, you know, the Chinese are like, it's a cliche for a reason. It's like the one thing we have is time, times on our side, as the Rolling Stone said. Claudio Javier, thanks for the 5,000 Argentine, whatever that is.

John, do you know, I've never been to Argentina. I want to go. Oh, it's magnificent. John, why did al-Qaeda fighters fly to Pakistan instead of Iran, underestimated Pakistani protection because my real question is how many al-Qaeda went to Iran and might be polishing their weapons now. Not many went to Iran.

One of bin Laden's sons went to Iran with his group of cohorts, but mostly because Iran was not friendly at all to al-Qaeda. Of course, al-Qaeda is Sunni Muslim. Iran is largely Shia Muslim. And as soon as they crossed the border into Iran, they were placed under arrest and held in a house under house arrest. But I mean like for years, for almost a decade. So they didn't get a friendly reception in Iran.

In Pakistan, you know, we worked very closely, of course, with the PACs to, you know, bust down the door and grab people. But the PACs were overwhelmed. There were just too many people who had flooded across the border from Afghanistan. Afghanistan. And so I think that the calculation was they had a better chance at remaining free in Pakistan if they could hide than they would have in Iran. Now, we did go to the Iranians repeatedly and say, we want bin Laden's son. And they said, can't, can't do it. Now, this was under General Purvez Musharraf. And look, I have personal knowledge of that. Professor Mushayev made an unholy bargain with the Taliban to fight the Indians in the cargo conflict in 1999.

And he became, you know, he was not a Taliban guy at all. But he was a, but he was definitely Taliban friendly. He was a Pakistani nationalist. And if that meant joining forces with the Taliban, then by God he's going to join forces with the Taliban. He was really a pig that way, really, truly. I can't believe we gave him money. John, there's breaking news. The Pentagon just put in, it's just issued a request for the Iran War. They want $200 billion more dollars. $200 billion more. That is correct. I will read the story. This is from the Associated Press.

So, you know, they're very reliable. Okay. The Pentagon is seeking $200 billion in additional funds for the Iran War. A senior administration official says the department sent request to the White House, according to the official. It's a blah blah blah blah. First, the new funding request first reported by WAPO asked about it. Hague Seth did not directly confirm saying it could change, but

said we're going back to Congress and our funds there and our folks there to ensure that we're properly funded. It takes money to kill bad guys. Apparently it takes a lot of money. Well, that's only going to last 100 days. Just what I was going to say. But also, we're

there's also indications that they're sending more, you know, aside from the 2,500 troops, they're going to, they want to send thousands more. Sounds to me like they want to do the Karg Island operation. Do you think, I don't think the Kargai land, I mean, I think it'll put it, it'll certainly annoy the Iranians, but I don't think it's going to reopen the Strait of Ormoos, do you? No. Because the Iranians will still be able to fire at stuff that's passing through there.

Sure. And like we said day before yesterday, too. If there's one thing that the Iranians are really good at, it's harassing ships with fastboats. Yeah. You know, they're really good at it. And they have drones and they have missiles. Let's talk very quickly. Let me, I think we can dispose of this in about 30 seconds. So the Latani River is a key landmark in Lebanon.

It basically, I don't know, it's roughly the bottom eighth of cuts off basically the border. It's the northern border of the bottom eighth of Lebanon. And traditionally, the Israelis kind of view the Latani River as sort of like whenever they want a buffer zone, they invade up to the Latani River and they kind of like keep that until their operations are over to protect northern Israel from attack. The Israelis just blew up all the key bridges across that river. What does that tell you, John? I think they're serious this time about a buffer zone. I think that they fully intend to make all of the area south of the river. the Latani River, a no-go zone for everybody.

Like permanently is my take. Yes, permanently. Don't forget, they've got Israeli settlements that are practically right on the border with Lebanon. It's just too dangerous for these settlers to live there. And the Israelis want to continue expanding settlements. And so the best way to do that is to clear out the southern southern eighth of Lebanon so that Hezbollah can't fire these small rockets. into the settlements.

And, you know, they've been, the Israelis have been talking about this for decades. They just never actually did it. Well, now that they've got fully, fully one-ninth of the entire population of Lebanon on the road as internally displaced people, now's the time to implement it. I mean, it's like Gaza 2.0, right? I mean, where are these people supposed to go? They're being bombed out of Beirut, the biggest city in the capital. They're being pushed out of the south.

I mean, I guess it's just we're going to, could we see another Gaza style mass carpet bombing genocide? I mean, Lebanon's a lot bigger than Gaza. Yeah, you know, I hate to even say yes, but we both know the Israelis. So, yeah. Terrible, terrible crimes against humanity are a distinct possibility. The OGJD, thanks for the 1999. Good morning, gentlemen.

I got my pardon John's shirt yesterday. Hey, great. Can't wait to wear it in D.C. for the 250th celebrations in July. Question for John. What's one thing I can do daily to develop a glass half full mindset like yours? That's a good question. You know, I've been answering that question a lot on TikTok. I did it twice this morning, as a matter of fact.

You've got to do things for yourself. You've got to love yourself and engage in self-care, even if that just means working out for an hour, maybe go for a run, maybe just listen to music for an hour. You know, something. It makes me so happy. Yeah, something to divert your attention from, you know, these terrible events that we talk about every morning here on the show. Do something for yourself. You know, get a massage.

It's an investment. It's true. I never regret getting a massage ever. Never. It's James Kelly, thanks for the $10. Is it weird? BB said in his last video that they'll be that they will be watching from above. And now we see, we hear people seeing drones above military bases. Am I crazy? Including in Washington, where both

Pete Higseth and Marco Rubio live. You think it's drones? I don't think there is Israeli drones, because drone don't have that much range. No, I, unless there are Israeli drones launched from, you know, the Israeli embassy. I think this is about satellites. What do you think? Oh, yeah, definitely, definitely satellites yeah uh soden thanks for the 1999 good morning john the forgotten war in sudan the rebels are taking control due to the straits being blocked uae can't get weapons and other items to the opposition what are your thoughts and what other ramifications you see happening you know isn't that an interesting point the the Saudis and the Emirates are very very angry with each other right now to the point where there's a very serious and unprecedented split in diplomatic relations

between the two countries, to the point where they're fighting, they're fighting proxy wars against each other. We focused on Yemen, but there's a proxy war in Sudan as well. Sudan's right. This is going to be a problem, and it gives a major leg up to the Saudi government to arm its side, which is the Sudanese government. Robbie's got a message for our viewers. Okay, hold on.

And Robbie, before I forget, do we have an ad? Uh, we do. I will pop it up here. So just a real quick quick request for y'all. If we missed y'all super chats, either because of the technical issues earlier or just because it's just busy, if y'all email me, uh, the super chat, preferably with a, with a screenshot, just makes like, this makes life easier. If not just send it to me at West Glacier Gaming at gmail.com. I will make sure I get submitted, gets pulled to the stack the next day for the fellows here. And, uh, also if there's ever any kind of problem like, is this morning. It's almost always has to do with a handshaking error. If y'all come,

if we're supposed to go live on YouTube, but you don't see us, come over to Rumble. Nine times out of 10, we are live on Rumble before YouTube goes up because the stream originates here and then gets rebroadcasted. So just so that way you're not missing any of them. Thank you, Robbie. Yeah, that's a good advice. Also, this is, by the way, for people who are irritated by the countdown that I do edit out, but it takes a few hours to do that. that that's why we have the countdown it's for the handshaking so that we have time to get all the streams sync down and this morning what happened i didn't figure out why youtube youtube rejected the stream key from rumbled uh youtube just will not just would not let us stream from rumble over

youtube like what they don't really do i don't know if it's caused the lawsuit going on or what but what lawsuit interesting uh so basically youtube is being sued uh in a couple of different court cases, one of which has to do with how Google AdSense basically as a monopoly on ads and how they were working with the global consortium of advertisers. And YouTube and Google basically push out all the competition. They control the ads. And so Rumble is suing them saying that they're not for anti-trust stuff. Yeah, 100%.

Because they control the space. Well, we can play the prices. Well, don't worry, guys. We don't we we we are streaming right now. not through Rumble Studio. We're streaming through stream yards. So we can still get to YouTube and that's not going to go away. All right, Robbie, please put up that ad and in the meantime.

I'll answer a question. Thank you. Okay. So yesterday, this reminds me, there was a leftover $50 donation from Quincy Brown. Hi, uncles. I'm a young man who will still soon graduate with his master's in clinical mental health counseling. Social psychology is something I plan to utilize to gain support for leftists.

Yay. I'm also organizing locally with socialists. also yay. It's great to see a fellow lefty and Ted. However, the important question is, what are some ways in your experience, Ted, to win over people like Robbie. Robbie, I would love to hear your thoughts as well. As always, thank you, Robbie for running the show, Ted, for bringing awareness to Americans, and John for standing up for what he believes in. After out, all, a man who stands, well, you know, we get the picture. I don't have the rest of it. I would read the rest of it, but I don't have it. Robbie, do I ever convince you of things?

Yeah, you have. I read your book. And if you want to change my mind, you do it by making an argument. You don't do it by calling me a Nazi. It's pretty straightforward. Name calling never works. No. And the ad is up now. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, basically talk to people like their human beings and meet them at their level and, you know, not, you know, not like, don't condescend. Just be respectful and try to use logic. Yeah. You know, I don't think it's that hard, unfortunately. Okay, so let's redo the ad. They can freeze your accounts, shut off your cards, lock you out of your own money overnight. Banks don't protect you, they control you. That's why real financial freedom starts with ownership. Introducing Rumble Wallet, it's a non-custodial wallet built for people who refuse to give up control. With Rumble Wallet, you don't just buy digital currency like Bitcoin and Tether.

You can own Tether gold, real gold, on the blockchain. Through Tethergold, you get direct ownership of physical gold bars, each one fully allocated. verifiable by serial number, purity, and weight. And you can get up in the middle of the night and look at it and cackle. This isn't paper gold. This isn't an IOU. This is real gold without bank vaults, storage fees, or gatekeepers. You can buy, sell, or move at 24 hours a day, seven days a week,

even when traditional gold markets are closed. And if you want, tether gold can be redeemed for physical gold, which I would do. That's power. And when you support creators on Rumble, you can tip them directly using Rumble wallet, peer to peer and outside the banking system. No permissions, no middleman, no cancel button. This wallet is yours forever. Okay, so John, let's try to get through as many of these as we can today,

but we're not going to get through them all, I'm afraid. Did we see Mullins confirmation hearing? What a circus. He may make Christine Nome look sane. Glad Rand Paul called out his character. And on top of, yeah, on top of, you know, trying to fight the head of the United Auto Workers, in the midst of the hearing, it looks like the guy just has made all this shit up

about his military heroics. I wanted to ask you about that. Made it up. Do you think he was a Merck? I do, actually. I do. That was my take. Yeah.

That's why he didn't want to talk about it. And he still doesn't want to talk about it, even especially under oath. Well, he's got to. He wants to be confirmed. Ridiculous. Lorraine Frost, thanks for the 1999. Much appreciated.

Heather Jackson, thanks for the five bucks. No votes, A-PAC people, J.E., Jeffrey Epstein, Protector, warmongers, ever. Christine R.K., thanks for the $799 Australian dollar. What happens if Trump continues threatening allies and they close U.S. Intel facilities in response? What happens if facilities like Pine Gap are gone?

Could that ever happen? It could. It's unlikely because other countries always take a longer view than we do. They know that Donald Trump's only going to be president another two and a half years. And so they're just going to buckle down and hope for the best. Father Timothy Curran, thanks for the 1999. John, thanks for highlighting the plight of the indigenous Christian population of the West Bank. Did you see the article Ted Cruz posted that was directed at Orthodox and Catholic voices in the conservative space? Ted Cruz is a cultist who has no

connection whatsoever to Christianity. He's he's a nut and we should dismiss him as a nut. Adams, thanks for the 10 Deeroms from the Emirates. My previous super chat got skipped over. Robbie, please try to fix that. That Julius fellow, thanks for the 99, don't know if it was discussed. Will the Russian oil and possible envoy be allowed into Cuba? Thoughts on how that will play out? I would suspect it will be allowed into Cuba. Yeah. I don't think Trump has his hands full. Yeah, he's not going to want to take on the Russians right now.

That would be a mistake. Yeah. Trip D, thanks for the 499. What's the chance of the rise of MBS in Saudi Arabia to the throne and his consolidation of power is encouraged by the CIA, more control of the Middle Eastern region? I think the CIA came around very quickly on MBS. You know, Muhammad bin Nayef was their guy.

from the very beginning. Muhammad bin Nayef has, it was given the highest honor that the CIA could possibly bestow on anybody. And, and then he was, you know, thrown out and placed under house arrest. And so I think the CIA came around very quickly on MBS

and has worked very closely with MBS post Jamal Khashokji. And I think that they are looking forward to his ascension to the throne. John, have a great trip. But I'll see you in an hour. right on the DMC America podcast with Scott Stantis and myself. As always, we take questions over there as well, so don't be a stranger.

Much appreciated. See you later. Please stay tuned for the TMI show with me and Milo Chan. That's coming up right now. See you and everyone.