DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Trump to Europe: Drop Dead | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss: • In a wide-ranging Politico interview, Trump said ideological divisions threaten to fracture Washington's alliances with Europe. “I think [their leaders are] weak, but I also think that they want to be so politically correct. I think they don't know what to do.” Ukraine—where Zelensky says he’s finally ready to hold elections—is the main point of contention. • Russia has long used Mexico as a base for espionage, earning it the nickname “the Vienna of Latin America” during the Cold War. American officials say those efforts scaled up after Russia invaded Ukraine. But the U.S. says Mexico is ignoring the issue. American officials who asked about a list of GRU spies were told the Mexican officials never got it, that it was too vague or that junior officials lost it. • Afghan fighters who served in “Zero Units” led by the CIA spiraled into despair because of inability to work, bureaucratic neglect and abandonment by the U.S. government, driving at least 4 to suicide. One was Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the man charged with shooting National Guard soldiers in DC. • Another city goes blue: Miamians elected Eileen Higgins as mayor, the first Democrat in 28 years. Higgins, a former county commissioner, defeated Republican Emilio González, an ex-city manager who had the endorsement of Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis, with 60% of the vote.• NYT reports that Trump Administration weighed sending survivors of U.S. attacks on alleged drug boats to CECOT prison in El Salvador, to keep them away from American courts. Lawyers say information disclosed in a court could undermine the legality of the attacks and the political rationale.

Hey, good morning, John. You're watching D-Program with Ted Rawl and John Kirooku. It's Wednesday, December 10th, 2025. Thanks for joining us. Good to see you, John. Good to see you, Ted. I like your shirt. Oh, thank you.

I decided to dress up for today's program. So no casual Wednesday, only casual Friday. But I can't promise this will be an ongoing trend. So we have some business, some housekeeping to take care of, and then we'll get to the show. As always, please chime in with your questions and comments on YouTube. And Rumble, if you're watching live, if you're streaming us later, thank you. Nevertheless, for joining us. We're here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern time, if that suits for live, and then you can interact with us.

speaking with about interaction. So next two days, let me explain what's going on. So John, you're out tomorrow, Thursday, Friday. So tomorrow, we have a live show. Robbie will be filled. Sorry, Scott Stantis of the Chicago Tribune will be filling in. Not to say that Robbie might not chime in as well, as usual. And then on Friday, we're going to try something brand new here for the show.

And I'm looking forward to this as a former talk rate. guy. We're going to be doing talk radio. We're going to, so we're going to have a Discord link. We're going to do the show. Robbie's going to explain how all this works in about 10 or 15 minutes. So stay tuned for that. But basically, you'll be able to call in like we're old-fashioned like Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Loris Schlesinger type call. And we'll have a little back and forth. And, you know, but we're going to, I'm sure, have more than one or two people who want to do this. So we're going to keep the calls short and quick and moving. They're could be tech glitches. We tried this a little bit on TMI yesterday, and it was kind of like iffy,

but we think we have it worked out and ironed out the wrinkles. So Friday is an all call-in show. We will obviously chime in on the news of the day, but that's basically it. Robbie will explain the logistics. Today we're talking about Trump's big interview with Politico, where he was dissing the Europeans. Not for the first time, but this was a more interesting interview than usual. Also, Ukraine looks like they're finally, this democracy is finally going to have some elections, interestingly enough. That's due to pressure from the president. Russia will talk about this. Russia has apparently has a lot of spies in Mexico and the U.S. has complained about it, but the Mexicans basically aren't doing anything about it. That according to the New York Times

anyway. The Afghan guy who is accused of shooting two National Guardsmen in Washington, one of whom died, was a veteran of a CIA-trained zero unit under the Afghan occupation government. And it turns out he is just one of many people who suffered mental health breakdowns because of the way they were mistreated and ignored after they arrived in the United States. And so I have thoughts. I'm sure you'll have thoughts, John. You, John, you brought up this important point. A big election in Miami, a runoff election, saw a giant sweep. 60% of the vote went to the Democrat.

And so basically, urban America is going blue. And finally, let's but not least, the New York Times has an exclusive report that says, that talked about the internal workings of the White House and how they're trying to deal with the survivors of the alleged drug boat attacks. they're kind of a major sticky wiki that kind of harkens back to the way that enemy combatants were treated and when during the war on terror it's kind of like what do you do with these people and there was thoughts of sending them to that gulag prison in el salvador they decided not to go with that so john what's your what's your what's your flavor for the first topic let's talk about

miami just to get it out of the way so the democrat won yesterday in the miami mayoral race. That initially sounds like no big deal. It's a big city. Big city is always elect Democrats, not Miami. Miami is a solidly Republican city. It's always been Republican, and this is the first Democrat

to be elected mayor of Miami in 30 years. That's right. And the race wasn't close. And not only was it not close, Trump campaigned for the Republican, Senator Witts' his face, Scott campaigned for the Republican, Republican. Rick Scott, thanks. And Ron DeSantis campaigned for the Republican. And he still lost.

So, man, if the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races didn't constitute a blaring, flashing red light for the Republicans, this ought to, because nationally, they're in trouble right now. And with the redistricting plans that they're pushing across the country, they're diluting Republicans. congressional districts and risking a real wave come next November. Yeah, Republicans are spinning this as Miami-Dade has always leaned blue. That's just, as you say, John. It's simply not true. That's not true, because especially all the anti-Castro-Cubans. That's right.

That was the major tipping point. And as you say, I thought of you because, by the way, the Republican candidate was not some wanker. Yeah. He was a very respectable, solid candidate. And Donald Trump doesn't like to endorse even Republicans if he doesn't think they're going to win. So this came as a surprise to the GOP. You know, just for the record here, Eileen Higgins is not like a progressive Democrat in the Mamdani form.

But to me, the real takeaway here is it's two takeaways. First of all, urban America is pretty much done with the Republicans for the time being. And then the other thing was, okay, this is a harbinger. I mean, you know, we're always trying to read tea leaves, and I think it tends to be overstated a lot of times. But you can't ignore a solid 100% trend in favor of one party. And that's what we have right now. I mean, I think the Republicans are going into disaster zone next year.

And I saw the president's speech. I believe he was in Pennsylvania, your home state. And he was saying, basically arguing that the economy had recovered and that Pennsylvanians and I guess Americans by extension are doing great now. You know, you don't know I talked about this. We will talk about it again. That's political malpractice. You never, even let's just say you and I were the president and vice president.

And we were, you know, we thought the economy was rocking and that every, but you don't tell the people if they're grouchy and they think they're broke, then they're broke. And you have to come to where the people are. Ted, yesterday, and I know we're going to get to this in a second, yesterday Trump gave an interview to Politico magazine in which he said that this was the strongest economy in American history, which is so ridiculous. It doesn't even, it doesn't even warrant a response. And he also said that when he took office this second time, the country was struggling with his words, the worst inflation in American history. what that's jimmy carter yeah or at least in the modern era in the modern era that's right i mean the 19 let's not get started on the 19th century no it was depression after depression in the in the 19th century yeah the but like no i mean he always talks about that i mean you know look you always the truth is it's very smart to talk about the something something in american history

to a country that doesn't know anything about history so exactly it works people oh okay well you know he's he has the president he said it it must be true i've told you in the past i i watch uh ticot videos when i'm laying in bed at night my intention span by the end of the day is short and i go to sleep with these and there's this young guy who just stands in time square or uh at hollywood and highland and just asks people questions so he'll say who won the civil war and they'll answer like we did oh my god or russia you know stuff like that that's america americans don't know yeah there's a you know that i mean you the thing is that never gets old that stick um uh you know i think was it letterman or leno who used to do the same thing

just to go out on the street i think it was letterman it might have been letterman um and and like there's also This Ain't No Heartland was this Bush era documentary where these Dutch filmmakers did the same thing and they went all over

the country and talked to Bush voters at one point they go to like a shopping mall and an outdoor shopping mall and you can tell these are well off people okay and so this is to say

these are not like homeless derelict crackheads these are people driving like really nice cars that like I couldn't afford right and like bends and stuff and they show them a map of the world and uh and they're like oh what country should we attack next and no one says by the way why would we want to attack a country

that just doesn't and and they're like they look at the map but the names of the countries aren't written on the countries and so they're like oh uh i think that one the guy points to Africa and it's like oh what country is that oh that's iran and it's like oh so of course Of course, he says, I ran. Iran. Iran. So it's like, okay. So why should we attack them?

And he goes, their attitude. And it's stuff like that. I mean, you know. America. It's America. I mean, I don't think we really deserve democracy. No. We're ill-equipped to manage it.

Tocqueville would agree for sure. Yeah, I think so. So, okay. So, like, yeah, so, yeah, well, so basically, I thought of you, because Emilio, Gonzalez, who's the former city manager who lost and had been endorsed by top Republicans like the Santis and Trump, he had his victory. I mean, by the way, he conceded extremely graciously and promised to help the new mayor elect and stand behind her, you know, in a better way than, say, Andrew Cuomo did in

New York, or Eric Adams. But I thought of you because his party was at a, his victory party was at a Greek restaurant. and they broke plates as catharsis. You know, that's actually illegal now in Greece. It has been since the 90s. But you can do it in all the Greek nightclubs in Astoria. Why is it illegal? Because if there's lead in the plates or something?

No, as my dad and your dad undoubtedly used to say, you're going to put an eye out. That's true. Pass out safety glasses to all the patrons. that's pretty funny all right let's do some questions shall we have you so one dollar contribution thank you so much just want to remind you guys you can always contribute through youtube and rumble and frankly yeah we're begging because we're broke as shit so seriously

whatever you can do i yeah all right favorite christmas movies mine is charlie brown christmas and the year without santa because of heat and snow miser so i just watched my favorite Christmas movie for the umpteenth time it's bad santa bad santa is a terrific movie that's a terrific movie although nothing touches home alone home alone is a timeless classic no question i well the first time i ever saw home alone was on a flight from london to washington i had been overseas doing something i don't even remember what and i was laughing so much that the flight attendant came up and asked if i was okay

It's like, you're suffering from... It's the funniest movie I've ever seen. Hypoxia, hysteria, hypoxia-induced hysteria. Oh, my God. No, no, that means, you know, by the way, in French, the name for Home Alone, I know, because I was in France when the movie was out, it was, Mamon, gherete the avion, mom, I missed the plane. Really?

Home alone just seems, by the way, you could do it in French. at la maison tutsal. It would be fine. I don't understand. Anyway. Oh, my God. Nicholas Franco's question for you, John. Is it true that the CIA, along with Turkish intelligence, tried to kill a Greek intelligence officer in 1999 outside the Greek embassy in Nairobi? I believe you know his name.

In fact, he's a good friend of mine. Sabas Calendaridis. No, they did not. You to say. No. he's he is an absolutely lovely man he is a national hero in greece i thoroughly enjoy his friendship he's he's just a great guy and he has an awesome youtube podcast sometimes as many as four times a day any anytime something hits the news that's even slightly interesting to him he'll jump

on youtube and do a video um so if you're interested and you speak greek because he doesn't speak a word of English, Sabas Kalenderidis. No, they didn't try to kill him. Savas was involved in an operation to help save, protect Abdullah Ocelang, the founder of the PKK. And the Greeks became aware, I'm sorry, the Turks became aware that he was in the Greek embassy in Nairobi, and they worked with Kenyan intelligence to divers. part of his motorcade, and they grabbed him and turned him over to the Turks.

John, let's get back to the Miami thing before we answer a few more questions. I mean, what do you think happened there? I mean, do you think this was a matter of low, my theory is always these days that your biggest challenge is motivating your base and that maybe the Republican base isn't that excited about Trump slash DeSantis and slash the GOP as they used to be? or is it just the particularities of these two candidates? Is it a Miami thing? I mean, what do you think, do you know?

I think that it's at least in part that people are not liking this second Trump administration, probably for economic reasons, but I'll tell you where I think the Democrats are going to blow it because the Democrats always blow it. They do. And Trump knows it. And he talked about it in this political interview. The Democrats are going to blow it by. focusing on social issues and people don't like this trans stuff forced down their

throats no they don't they just don't like it and it shouldn't the thing is even people who are very pro LGBTQIA plus lmno p are are they they're not it's not a top issue for them it's right there's like sort of like caring about like we're going to talk about the boat strikes most americans disapprove of the of killing of the boat strikes but they're don't really care. Right. And that's something we don't talk about much is like what's the top issues that are motivating people, even people who are like, I love trans people. I want I don't want anything. I only want the best for them. But they don't want it to be a top priority over, say, the economy. No, that's right. And you know, a lot of my gay friends, and maybe it's more a factor

of the fact that they're baby boomers. But a lot of my gay friends say that most trans people do not necessarily identify as gay. And so why are they LGBTIQIAD plus whatever in the first place when they're actually turning public opinion against the LGBT community? Yeah, there's some major rifts there, right? Between like, for example, the radical feminists and the trans women, the trans-exclusionary feminist, the TERFs, radical feminists, and all that. And I mean, I think in the early days of when it was just LGBT.

I remember when it was just LGBT. Yeah, I do too. And when it was just LGBT, you could sort of, even then there were rifts, right? I knew lots of gay people who hated by people. And they were like, you have to choose your team. You're not allowed to be omnivorous. And then so the T's, you know, I mean, I understand the whole urge to build these alliances, but the truth is that's a very uncomfortable big tent.

You know, Philip Blair 9-511 just posted in the chat, Cuba is great at supporting queer families. That's true. I was shocked when I was in Cuba, what was it, two years ago, I guess, at how strong the gay community is there and how many government programs are available to them? It was really something. Yeah, as Lisa Mojica says in YouTube, it's the hierarchy of needs. And I think we don't talk about that in the coverage of American news politics very much. Non-American question, as Freud 6624 says, is the DNC the GOP counterpart in the other side? Repeat that?

This is a hard one to read. Is the DNC the GOP counterpart in the other side? No, the GOP is just a nickname for the Republican Party. The DNC is the Democratic National Committee, which is the governing body of the Democratic Party. is just the same and the Republican Party equivalence of the DNC is the RNC the Republican National Committee yeah, foreign question indeed

Cooper Dooper 23. I think the regular American voter is sick of the status quo I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of seats flip. I don't think it's anything to do with party anymore. We're figuring out who's bought. I don't think you're figuring they're all bought so I think what's happening is that people are frustrated they have two shitty choices

and when they're pissed they vote against the incumbent. Yeah, that's it. You know it really is about the economy. It's always about the economy. It's about people's well-being and their family's well-being. These other issues are extraneous. They only distract. And neither the Republicans nor the Democrats get it.

The Republicans got it last time. To your point, John, you know, the exception is when the economy is humming. You know, remember the mid-90s when that was the biggest economic expansion in U.S. history, least until that point. That's right. And those wedge issues that, um, uh, the toe-sucking guy, uh, you know, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, I do. Um, uh, the poster. The genius poster. I met him, it, his, it is, it is house. Um, he's a good, he's a good political. Dick Morris. Dick Morris, great political writer. Yeah. Um, anyway, Dick Morris, they came up with all those wedge issues in the mid-90s like flag burning and, uh, you know, gays in the military and all

that stuff, the geese and the military kind of ran against Clinton, but flag burning and God, like, oh, oh, sister, sister soldier, and all that symbolic crap. That works if the economy's moving in the right direction. But if it's not, it doesn't. That is right. Okay, so. Hey, I'm dying to talk, even if it's just for a minute, I'm dying to talk about Trump's comments on Ilhan Omar. okay let's do it listen to this quote i love this ilhan omar whatever the hell her name is with her little turban i love her she comes in she does nothing but bitch she's always complaining it comes from her country where i mean it's considered about the worst country in the world we got to get her the hell out of here she married her brother in order to get in right she married her brother to get in

therefore she's here illegally send her back I've ever seen. It's so, it's free association. Do you remember, John, after the Watergate tape transcripts were released, some famous poet like set a lot of the transcripts of Nixon talking to poetry and release them, it's like, and it was called like

the poetry of Richard Milhouse Nixon. Oh my God, I did not. I did not. This is like, but this sounds like that. That's awesome. Stuff could totally be. set to poetry. Yeah, I agree. I agree. It could. It'd be amazing. This idea that she married her brother has been running around Republican circles since she was first elected. She didn't marry a

brother. She married a guy, or she married a guy in a Muslim ceremony. His name was Ahmed Abdi Salan Kirsti. They had two kids. They separated. In 2009, she married a a Brit named Ahmed Nour Saeed Elmi. They separated in 2011. She reunited with the first guy in 2012. She divorced Elmi and remarried the first guy. Wow. That's a little bit Liz Taylor and Richard Bertany.

Yeah, very much. But she's not married to her brother. She's never been married to her brother. I never understood how these things get out. And by the way, Republicans are not unique in having these strange conspiracy theories. No. Democrats do it, too. They do it too. U.S.

triple X A-Rod, 21, thanks for the two bucks. Do we think that this means Democrats will lean into the economy or go back to social issues that the majority of the country doesn't care about, not holding out hope for them? That's the question. Are they smart enough to be able to read the writing on the wall

that it's about the economy? No. Or are they going to try and force all these stupid social issues down our throats? If we're, look, honestly, John, if they did social issues, at least they'd be doing issues. Yeah. I mean, you know, I hear them talking, the Democrats recognize they have a problem. They can't just be against Trump. But they don't, they still can't articulate or won't articulate what they're for.

And I think it's because they can't agree on anything. And, but basically, they have terrible messaging. They have no leadership. Mama Bear Pelosi's gone. There's no one knocking heads and saying, like, listen, all you fuckers, this is what we're going to say. Here's our talking points. So, I mean, you know, Hakeem Jeffries is like more useless than useless. So there's, I think there's just no, I think they're going to, they're going to fuck it up.

I mean, no, I think right now they're counting on a sense of betrayal on the part of the GOP who will sit. Enough Republican voters will sit on their hands and not vote. That's the key. That's the key right there. It's all about turnout. Yeah. It's not about. Democrats are more motivated.

Yeah. So they will turn out next year. I don't know how federalized the election will be like the way Newt Gingrich successfully did at 94 with the Republican Revolution. Yeah, that was brilliant. Absolutely. And I'm surprised nobody tries to replicate it. It's kind of like, dude, it's like Howard Dean in his 50 state strategy. No one tried to replicate. Again, brilliant.

That was the fallout between Hillary Clinton and what's his name from New Orleans, who said it's the economy stupid. Oh, Carville. James Carvel. James Carvel was the one who came up with the 50 state strategy in the 90s because it had worked so well for the Democrats in the 60s. The Democrats won Senate seats in North Dakota, South Dakota, in both of those cases, all four Senate seats. Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma. I mean, there were viable Democratic Party structures in those states. and then the Democrats just said,

nah, we're not going to do that anymore. We're just focus on the electoral college. Yeah, we're just focusing in electoral college. We're not going to try to build local and state party structures to support candidates for state legislature or for state. Obama gutted that farm system. Gutted it. And the Democrats have been paying the price ever since.

They have. And the other thing is even if you're only looking at national races, which is dumb, but let's just say, because where did Barack Obama come from, right? He was wet behind. the ears local Illinois dude. But the thing is that the Republican, I mean, the Democratic Party, even if like the reason you campaign in all 50 states is even in the states that you're going to lose. Let's say you can't, let's just say for example, you campaign as a Democrat in

North Dakota, a state you're probably not going to get as a presidential candidate. But people turn out and see you. And they and other people who are watching back in, say, New Jersey are watching on television and they're seeing your appearances on the internet and they like that you went to North Dakota and maybe your brother lives in North Dakota and says, oh, I went to see that guy and he was great. And then you vote for him. He doesn't, but you get that vote in New Jersey that you wouldn't have gotten. That's the point of the 50 state. You're exactly right. You are exactly right. I mean, Donald Trump understand. That's why Donald Trump, like, I remember like when I knew Trump was going to win in 2016, when Hillary Clinton spent

$5 million for her campaign announcement, and she built a stage in the shape of the United States right out, right on the, in Long Island City, so that she could use Manhattan as the backdrop. By the way, Manhattan as a backdrop, not a good image for the entire country. No. But $5 million for the stage. And Donald Trump went and gave a speech in some shitty elementary school in like in Scranton. And it's like, you know what? You're both on television.

It's all the same. And Donald paid nothing except for the flight of the airfare. to Scranton, right? That's the difference. And that's why he won, you know, with a, you know, paying a couple million dollars to win the presidency as opposed to $7 billion for Hillary Clinton. Although she's not about the Russian, about the Facebook ads, but whatever. Yeah, yeah. It was the Facebook ads that did her in. Right. For sure. I will do, we have more questions coming in, but in the meantime, let's talk a little bit. You know, this is your, obviously, your bailway. So according to this report in the New York Times, Mexico is harboring all sorts of GRU spies.

Apparently this is a tradition that goes all the way back to the Cold War. Oh, it goes way back to the 50s. And they claimed that Mexico City was like the Vienna of Latin America. Absolutely true. And the U.S., apparently under Biden, handed the Mexicans a big dossier with, you know, hey, here's all the people we know who are spies in Mexico. You know, can you, like, kick them out. The Mexicans basically are ignoring the whole thing.

There's no word on whether Trump administration policy has changed or that they're leaning on the Mexicans to try to do anything. They might be. They might not be. It just didn't say. But basically, I like the fact that the Mexican officials said, well, we never got the dossier or it was too vague. We didn't really understand what you were talking about.

or that it was lost people like we someone recycled it you know we were recycling i don't know so what do you think about all this well it would be a normal liaison event uh for the for the for the CIA to pass the names of um of kgb or gru or svr or whatever they're calling themselves these days uh to to a friendly liaison service they do that all the time um mexico cities particularly important because it is a it is a hub of international espionage like you said vienna london paris washington why moscow city because um they spy on the united states there our embassy is so gargantuan in uh in mexico city and so much happens there that they're targeting the american embassy for the most part and what they what they probably are doing what i thought it was vacationing

Americans. Right. No. No, it's trying to recruit Mexicans who work inside the American embassy. It's probably 75% Mexicans that work in the American embassy, right? Because you're not going to, the head of the motor pool is not going to be American. The head of logistics is not going to be American. But they have access to information that if you put it together like a puzzle, you can come up with an entire picture. For example, I was working overseas. I won't say where. And the logistics guy had been in place for 30 years. He was a local hire. 30 years he had been working for the American embassy. And he's the guy that makes sure that your shipment of personal household effects, you know, makes it onto the ship in Baltimore, doesn't get washed overboard in the Atlantic and finally makes its way to its end destination. well once you once your stuff arrives he's the guy that arranges to have it brought to your house and then when he calls you in the embassy from the second floor where he was based and you answer the phone you know regional affairs or training division or whatever that he knows is a bullshit assignment

there is no such office. He reports back to his people, his handler, hey, this guy, John, this new guy, he's CIA, I'm sure of it. Because he's not in the political section. It says in the diplomatic list, political officer, he's not a political officer. He didn't answer the phone in the political section. You know?

So they're able to put little pieces of the puzzle together. And when you have two, three, five, ten people inside the American embassy recruited, Because remember, they're making Mexican wages. They're not being paid like Americans would be paid. And the Russians are supplementing their incomes to the tune of a few thousand, five, $10,000 a month. That's meaningful. Sure. John, we have an ad.

Let me. And then we're going to bring in Robbie. Before, but just very quickly, do you think it's true that the republic, as being reported, that this really ramped up after the Russian-Ukrainian war started? because basically we're using Ukraine as a proxy to spy against Russia right on its border. And so the Russians are kind of like, let's turn about as fair play. I believe that's the case, yes. All right.

Let's get to the ad. Looking for smarter ways to browse and enjoy your favorite content without ads. Get the perplexity pro bundle with Rumble Premium for just 1999 a month when you sign up before December 31st. Normally a $2,99 value with Rumble Premium. you'll get an ad-free viewing experience across all your devices and access to exclusive premium content, no interruptions, just the videos and streams you love anytime, anywhere, plus perplexity pro, boosts your productivity with unlimited research, unlimited uploads, exclusive member perks, and access to the latest and most advanced AI models for faster, smarter answers every day. Save over 30% on this powerful bundle, heads at rumble.com slash premium before December 31st to sign up and unlock your premium experience. All right, we're going to bring in Robbie West, our producer, who's here thanks to your kind support, kind listeners and viewers, to explain, first of all, what we're going to be doing on Friday. Okay, so on Friday, I'm really looking forward to this.

It's going to be exciting. So we are going to be doing a call-in show. So think Rush Limbaugh without the windbaggery. That is exactly what we're going to be doing. So to make this work, I will post a link in the chat to our Discord server. and once you go in and we'll put together a little screenshot or something to put the subway people are able to see

you will see at the bottom of the server you're going to see a lobby, a waiting room you're going to just park your cute little pixel itself there. I will then drag your cute little pixel itself down to the call room where you'll be speaking with John and Ted and you'll be able to ask your questions and then after your question is asked

I will then mute your pixelated cute little butt so that way someone else can come on in. Now, this is going to be a Rumble exclusive. Are people still going to come to Rumble as usual to the channel and then we're going to post the URL? Yeah, I just post the link. Just click on it, join the server. I mean, it doesn't cost you a dime.

It's completely free. So on Friday, that means there's no live show on YouTube. We will post the recorded show on YouTube later in the day. But if you want to watch live and comment and all that, you got to be on Rumble. You got to be on Rumble. And the reason for that is this is not me peeing on YouTube. It's because I cannot control what comes out of your mouth. And YouTube is so strict with their community guidelines.

As somebody just goes on a full on a tear about a topic against a protected group, you put whatever in there that is that you want to put in there, YouTube will nuke the channel. Rumble won't. So whenever I say that Rumble is what allows us. is what allows this this channel to speak freely. That's not hyperbole. That's true. When YouTube, when they demonetized John and Ted, Rumble didn't.

And this is the right-wing platform paying the bills of two lefties. And I guess me now. So, yeah. You're working on getting you over to the left, Robbie. Well, I'm working on pulling you all over to the right. So maybe we'll meet in the middle somewhere. Big tug of war. Or on the other side.

All right, Robbie. I hope everyone understands that. Just to reiterate Friday, watch on Rumble if you want to watch live at 9 a.m. You don't care about that. Just you can watch on YouTube later in the day, let's say after 12 noon, Eastern. And there will be a link in the Rumble chat that Robbie will post. I'm also going to post a link on YouTube on a community tab. So that way people just click on that.

Are you going to just join my email? A little warning, we're not going to be able to talk to every. If a lot of people want to do this, we won't be able to take every call. but we will try to take every call. Correct. Before Robbie gets off, too, there's actually a question for him in the chat. Did you see it? It was Robbie.

Do you think that... The show Yellowstone. Yeah, Yellowstone has caused real estate prices to go up in Montana. It didn't help anything. Because most people don't think about Montana. No, it's just one of those invisible flyover states that you may or may not be able to find on a map. but no people go in they see it they see how big it is they see how beautiful it is

and it is amazing i i love it there i've been there and out three times i've taken my kids it's fantastic hey i love it here i moved here in 2015 and or 2010 and his home but no that being said yellowstone did a very great way of kind of of uh showing montana as this paradise which is always is true however the winter's here are brutally cold. So Montana's closed. You do not want to come here. It is cold.

And there are large, bitey animals. Yes. Yeah, there are. There was actually a mountain line walking down my street yesterday. That's awful. Bring him in as a pet. Take two companies to your cat. Or anyway, beat him up.

Maybe. All right, Robbie. Thank you very much for all that. And all right, well, and we will become. All right, let's resume our regular schedule programming here. Okay, so anything else I want to talk about about this? I mean, so why do you think the Mexicans are brushing off

the Americans on this on this Mexico City thing? Yeah, I think, honestly, the Mexicans are just sick and tired of us. You know, we probably, when we passed them in the names, we probably also told them, hey, wrap all these guys up and expel them all from Mexico. We're waiting. And they probably told us, take care of your own problems

we have other things to worry about yeah and not to mention you know when does the does even a Democratic president ever go on TV and talk about the great cooperation that the Mexican government provides us with nobody I mean it's thankless right

it's a one way where you know they're very cooperative but we treat them like we treat we talk about them like dogs yeah we do we do we treat them not just like second class citizens we treat them as as coolies you know and and they don't appreciate it so they just dragged their feet they're like we're a real country yeah we have national pride fuck you're an important one yeah very important one and actually a great country too yeah if you said oh i had to live in mexico the rest of

my life i'd be like oh well okay um not a bad thing at all no um should we talk a little bit about the um trump's interview yeah let's let's so trump's basically, this is a repeat of something he has said before. He said that basically, this is a quote, I think their leaders are weak, but I also think that they want to be so politically correct. I think they don't know what to do. He basically, this all seems to be like centered around the debate over Ukraine. The Europeans are leaning on, you know, Trump wants the war to end. The Europeans clearly wanted to go on. And we can talk about why that might be. But Trump's really signaled that he's almost done with Ukraine. And he also said,

you know, Ukraine's not much of a democracy, but doesn't have elections. Finally, you know, Zelensky, who has claimed now for years that there's no way to hold elections during a war, suddenly miraculously says that within the next three to six months, there will be elections, both presidential and legislative. A bunch of questions, John. Is it going to keep his promise about that? And if he does, what will the results look like? And will he win re-election?

I think he's done. I really do. I think that, yeah, he's going to keep his promise because he has to keep his promise. He can't continue to push back against the pressure from the United States. It's just too much. So I think that there will be elections, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if, you know, he goes and casts his vote and then drives to the airport and gets on a plane and flies away.

What if he pulls an Eric Adams and decides just not to run for re-election? And I think that's also a definite possibility. I served my country during war. I'm exhausted. It's time to pass the torch. And Ted, you know, there's a lot of reporting about. Cabinet members driving Bugatti's and Lamborghinis around Kyiv. It's not cool. The corruption is now in your face and somebody's going to have to answer to it. And of course, Zelensky and his buddies are big beneficiaries of that corruption.

So, I mean, here's the thing. I've got to say, not for the last time, I agree with President Trump about this. I mean, I kind of don't know if the word weak is the word I would say, but like sort of like feckless would be the word I would say for president's Macron and so on. Like what are they on about? I mean, like it's kind of like they're clearly anyone with the brain can see that, you know, the outcome of this war has fallen in favor of Russia. It's not like the outcome's not likely to change anytime soon.

And they want, you know, Macron these guys, they want Zelensky to keep fighting, but towards what end? I mean, they're just going to lose even more territory. At this point, I mean, I'd say the sooner, if I'm the Ukrainians, the sooner I negotiate, the least bad deal I'm going to get. Exactly. And if the sticking point really is just Kersan now, figure it out. Right. Right?

It's a negotiation. Yeah. Maybe Kersan can become like a Danzig style, like demilitarized nuclear, neutral city. that kind of thing fine with me sure why not i mean i mean i could i think you know looking for things that the russians feel that they could agree to um okay and i'm i'm like so many americans i just i'm tired of this i'm tired of spending all this money for a for a never-ending war we're going to get nothing out of it it's time to move on totally all right let's should we do some questions yeah we're a little bit behind

All right. Thanks for your patience, guys. Junaid Javid, thanks so much for the $20 donation on Rumble. Please keep Imran Khan in your thoughts. Imran is still in illegal custody, and the field marshal in Pakistan has gone full fascist. Yeah, that's my understanding, too. Yeah, that's, I mean, you know, the thing is a lot of prime ministers and former prime ministers end up in prison in Pakistan. You know, what's never clear, John, is what kind of conditions they're held under.

Right. You know, it's like, it seems like, I mean, Pakistani prison can't be that pleasant. I wouldn't want to be in. Listen, I've gone to many Pakistani prisons because we were locking people up there. I would never want to be incarcerated in a single one of them. So you don't think there's any like VIP lounge treatment, first class? No. You'd have to get on your hands and knees and beg for home confinement.

Oh, man. Okay, so let's see. We answered that. Anil Ape says Democrats, Democrats, Republicans want us to care out social issues because it doesn't affect their donors. True. Cooper doper. What about Jasmine Crockett's Senate ad? How does that speak to anyone?

And Al Red dropped out. Just yesterday I said, oh, it's going to be a big fight. Allred's the stronger candidate. He dropped out. And he announced he's going to run for the House of. representatives again. My fellow Daytonian, Sammy Landgren, the problem with Democrat platform is that it's not honest. For example, transhumanism. Most don't even understand what that is. Yeah, I don't know what the fuck that is. That's like intersectionality. Who fucking knows what that means? Nobody.

It's like, you know, go into your Jack Dairy doc election and look that up. Kevin Cronin, PBS and NPR do not represent the Democratic voters. Fair. Question for both of us from Ali. Does this lacking, does the Democrats lacking a message and distrust in Republicans not leave enough of a gap for a third party to come in? Ah, you would think. You would think that it would. I was talking to a group of people last night about this exact issue. And Ted, I repeated what you and I had said that as recently as 100 years ago, we had a half a dozen viable national parties in this country. And with so many people, with actually a plurality of Americans now described, themselves as independent, in my view, that opens the door for two political parties, one on the right and one on the left. Yeah, there's a place for left-wing progressive Democrats and there's a

place for America First Republicans. That's right. Because even with under Donald Trump, the Republican Party is controlled by the corporatists. Sure it is. We have two corporatist parties. And they're lackeys like Lindsey Graham. My theory here is that the problem with third parties in recent decades has been that they've all had a national strategy, right? Their theory has always been, let's just run someone for president, and then it'll trickle down and we'll run people for governor later. Exactly. It's the opposite. Right. Because that can't work because of the electoral college.

Because the electoral college is set up, you have to have 270 votes to win the presidency. Even if a third party candidate had 70% of the popular vote, he or she would still lose because of the Electoral College and it would go to the House of Representatives and either the Ds or the R's would vote for their own team. It has to be from the grassroots. And those parties that you mentioned, John, from 100 years ago, including but not limited to the Prohibition Party, the Socialist Party, Socialist Labor Party, and so on.

They all, the Populist Party, they were all grassroots parties. They ran people for Congress as aldermen and so on. That's exactly right. Yeah, I used to joke that when I was doing my little dance with the libertarians, I would get these hair-on-fire emails like, oh, my God, we just elected somebody to the Water Commission of Anchorage, Alaska. It's like, okay, that's a start. But you need to run people in like every congressional race, every state legislative race.

You got to start at the bottom. The Water Commission of Anchorage is not going to do it for you. No. But on the other hand, it's not a terrible thing to just, if you have, you know, if you have a national strategy and you have, I mean, the Libertarian Party has been around a long time. Yeah. You know, I mean, they're one of the better organized third parties. Yeah, they are. Well, listen, I always make this joke, but it's funny because it's true.

I was invited to the Libertarian Christmas Party a few years ago. And, of course, being libertarians, they held it at the end of January because they just could not get their act together. I think I'd mention this to you. I thought you were going to say because they're cheap and didn't want to pay top dollar for the space. It was in this townhouse in Alexandria, Virginia. All the leftover nog. Oh, yeah, a townhouse in Alexandria, Virginia, old town. And we're all wearing, hello, my name is, name tags.

Of course. And this guy looks at my name tag and he says, oh, John, I've been hoping I'd run into you. And he's wearing his tag. He's the head of the Libertarian Party for Virginia. So I said, oh, nice to meet you. And I shook his hand. He said, listen, do you want to run for governor? And I said, absolutely not.

And he said, really? Why? And I said, look, I like you guys. You're all nice guys. But I know how this is going to play out. I said, I'm going to be completely out of pocket. Nobody's going to raise any money for me. And in the end, I'm going to get 2%.

and I'm going to humiliate myself. And everyone will make fun of you. Yeah, I said no thanks. And the worst part is, I'll tell you the worst part of it. If you did that, in the middle of the night, you'd have these weird thoughts like, what if I could win? Right, exactly. And you can't. Oh, listen, listen, listen, when I was traveling with Gary Johnson, Gary, Gary, Gary was the governor of New Mexico and he was the libertarian nominee for president in 2016 and 2012.

but this was in 2016 and we were in the upper peninsula of Michigan and his sister joined us at dinner one night he had given a speech i was traveling with him to introduce him at all of his speeches and so his sister came to dinner with us that night and she was running for congress from that that upper peninsula uh district and so i said to her just because i was trying to make conversation i said did you see the latest polls the incumbent republican is only polling it like 40% appear. That's how unpopular he is. And she goes like this.

She goes, I might actually win this thing. And I thought to myself, no, that's not my point. You're not going to win this thing. It's just that he's unpopular. She ended up getting 2%. But it's not uncommon to delude yourself into thinking that, you know, lightning might strike and you might actually, win this thing. Although, yeah, I mean, think about Donald Trump, that great picture from the New Yorker

in 2016 when they, they capture the entire family in the hotel suite. And they just announced that Trump is going to win. And to a man, they all have this the fuck. Yeah. Kind of expression. I think I mentioned to you that my next door, my old next door neighbor when I was still married, he was the White house pastry chef and he told us that he was at the white house when when trump went to meet obama for the first time it was four days after the election and he said trump looked sick and he looked scared like you never thought he was going to win he was only running to enhance his brand exactly he's a dog who caught a car yeah oh boy i mean honestly though i think you should be scared if you win the presidency.

No matter who you are. It's a big job. Yeah, you really should be. Thanks, glass and candy for the definition. Transhumanism is when humans start replacing parts of their bodies with mechanical replacements. Is that what that means? As a pacemaker can be called transhumanist. It has nothing to do with social justice.

I don't know. I've heard liberals talk about transhumanism, too. I don't know. See, I just learned something. I never heard that before. Me neither. catty catastrophe too any thoughts of on ice in minnesota i don't know what that is well you know the you know the immigration enforcement oh ice i'm sorry i was thinking because it's winter and

it's minnesota sorry oh my god immigration and customs enforced right thank you i'm not completely as stupid as i sound okay um in minnesota specific Yeah. My brother and sister both lived in Minnesota. My brother was there for nine years. My sister was there for like 15 years. There are large communities of Somalis and Hmong from Cambodia. And Laos. And Laos, large Lao community. I was unaware that a lack of documentation was a problem up there. I'm unaware of that too because it seems to me like these people were. brought in especially as refugees they were former CIA exactly exactly they were working for the CIA or working for the military and we brought them as refugees and correct me if I'm wrong my understanding is that basically in these refugee situations basically everyone packs into a C-130 they land at whatever U.S. Air Force base they happen to land at and then that's kind of like where you live that's how Dayton ended up with a ton of Vietnamese and Bismarck North

Dakota and St. Louis with a ton of Kurds, Iraqi Kurds. So, exactly right. I kind of, I mean, there's a certain beauty to that, but it's also very strange. Thanks for the, for the $10 from Unsung Pat. You will sing your praises. George Washington warned against the dangers of political factions in his farewell address. Political parties could become potent engines of faction that could lead to the erosion of national unity. It's true that the founding fathers did not anticipate a republic with political parties, but they quickly formed. That is true. By the 1800 election, they were basically what we see today.

They even had their own media outlets and everything. I just like this quote, and then we got to do another story. HV to ADK, I will live in Montana, and I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me, and I will have a pickup truck, maybe even a recreational vehicle. I've always thought about having a recreational vehicle. and just like the commitment and the gas mileage or the reason I wouldn't do it. But it looks fun as shit.

It does. Okay, so let's talk about this report out of the New York Times. Well, there's two reports out of the New York Times. Let's talk about the Afghan zero units. This is more your preview. So the United States recruited, maybe you can explain what a zero unit is. Under the old Karzai, Ghani administration that ruled Afghanistan from under U.S. occupation from 01 to 2021,

the local Afghans who were kind of, you know, collaborators, let's just say, were reported, were served in the zero units. Some of them were brought to the United States, kind of like those Laos and the Hmong and all those people. And they, but they, a lot of them were really mistreated and neglected upon arrival. At least four of them have committed suicide. And now Rachmanullah, Lacan Wall stands accused of shooting two National Guardsmen in D.C., basically, by all accounts,

he was mentally ill. And, I mean, for that reason alone, he should walk and be institutionalized. But the thing is, apparently these guys, when they call in for help, they're told, oh, we can't find you in our computer. They don't get work permits because their names are a little bit misspelled. Basically, we're not taking good care of them. And they're really in a bad state. And I got to just say personally, when I was in Afghanistan in 01, I remember talking to people

and they thought the U.S. was as the preeminent superpower in the world would work miracles. People would say, like, oh, now that the Americans are here, they're going to rebuild all our highways. We're going to have skyscrapers all over the place. We're going to have everything is going to be beautiful within months. The Afghans just, because their state was so bleak, they radically over us. estimated our degree of competence and our ability to do things efficiently. And I was like, no, no, no, no, you don't understand. I'm from a city that can't build one mile of subway tunnel at all. Okay, like we can't do anything. It's not going to be like that. I was trying to just explain how slow and dysfunctional the U.S. government can be. Anyway, I just wonder if that feeds into the psychology here, these Afghans, like, I've made it to the promised land. And the gap between that level of expectation and the reality, you know, basically made them crack i think that it's darker than that tell me i think that you get recruited into not just the cia but this very specific cia unit and they start

taking you out in the middle of the night to do raids and to kill your fellow tribesmen right people who are members of your extended family just because the cia disagrees with them politically you're given no training you're given no treatment no therapy no nothing just come with us and shoot that guy and it's enough to make people crazy you know most people can't take the pressure of of committing serial murder which is really what it comes down to or mass murder and then we say oh don't worry we're going to bring you to the united states and it's going to be the land of milk and honey and you're going to be fine if you need it you can get therapy and then they move into what you just described there's nothing efficient about the united states there's no therapy that's being given there's

no work permit there's no nothing we throw them into this country where they barely speak the language if they speak it at all they can't work they don't know anybody they're completely out of their element can you imagine leaving the the afghan desert and then ending up in let's say Denver what the heck are you going to do it's it's got to be it's just kind of make your mind explode yeah and and then at the same time the u.s. government has just turned its back on you and they tell you well you're on your own yeah that's and i guess many of them also are losing certainly members of their extended family right yeah we basically turn as long extended families which is common to afghans into a nuclear family and that's also a culture shock very quickly the new york times says that the trump administration

is having trouble figuring out what to do with these survivors of these drug boat drone attacks in the Southern Caribbean. There was thought of sending them to El Salvador to that prison, the Seacot prison, but that was ruled out. And basically the problem is,

here's the thing that gets me, John. The administration officials are admitting that they don't want to try these people through the courts because if they do, the legality of the attacks is going to come into question, and the rationale is going to come into question.

But I'm like, if we're going after drug traffickers, isn't the main point to arrest them and then threaten them with charges and find out who their bosses are? And speaking of which, the Washington Post is reporting right now that the House Armed Services Committee is ending its probe into the boat strike.

So we will never get answers to those questions, Ted. So, yeah, I was trying to read between the tea leaves. Does that mean like it's over? go home nothing to see here or does it mean we've finished our inquiry and you can expect a report from us later on no report they've only been inquiring for three or four days you would need you know six months for your investigation to do the to do the investigation no the white house put pressure on republicans in congress specifically on that weak jellyfish uh mike johnson and so there will be no investigation into the boat strikes ridiculous um john

John, thanks for joining me. As always, always look forward to these mornings with you. We are back here with the program. Scott Stant is from the Chicago Tribune. We'll be filling in for John tomorrow, Thursday, 9 a.m. Eastern Time. Friday, John will be back. 9 a.m. Easter time. It's all call-in time. So be articulate, be pithy, be short, as Robbie suggests. Please stay tuned to the TMI show with me and Millett Chan. That's coming up at 10 o'clock Eastern time. in other words, just in a minute or two, if bear in mind Friday's show, just to remind you,

is a Rumble exclusive. Only Rumble, not YouTube, no YouTube, only Rumble. Thanks, everyone. Bye, John. Bye-bye. Thank you.