Judging Freedom - Aaron Maté : Is Kushner Netanyahu’s Agent?

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Aaron Maté : Is Kushner Netanyahu’s Agent?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Undeclared wars are commonplace. Pragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression with no complaints from the American people. Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected. What if sometimes to love your country you had to alter or abolish the government? Jefferson was right? What if that government is best, which governs least? What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong? What if it is better to perish fighting for

freedom than to live as a slave? What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now? Hi, everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, March 17, 2026. Aaron Matae joined us now. Aaron, thank you very much for your time to the breaking news of the resignation of the senior counterterrorism official in the Trump administration. I just want to read a portion of his. resignation letter, the echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States and that you should strike now. There was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie, and it's the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq

war that cost our nation the lives of thousands and are of our best men and women we cannot make this mistake again whoever thought we would hear something like that in writing from such a senior high-ranking official and where is his boss telsie gabbert on this i pass the ball to you my friend well i'm not surprised to see this coming from joe kent uh for people who don't know who he is uh he is a u.s army veteran who lost his wife, the mother of his children in Syria, to an ISIS suicide bomber. And Joe Kent ever since then has been very critical of the permanent war state inside Washington because he partially faults them for his late wife's murder because it was in Syria that Trump ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops in his first term.

And what happened? He was Trump's order was ignored by U.S. military commanders and State Department officials. In fact, one State Department official, a senior one for Syria, bragged that essentially the officials under Trump were misleading him and basically lying to him about how many troops were there in order to keep them inside of Syria. And so given that Joe Kahn has been critical of West Asian military interventions like in Syria, given that he bought into Trump's campaign pledges of no new foreign wars

and Trump's criticism of previous interventions like in Iraq and Syria, it's no surprise to me that Joe Kent can't, in good conscience, go along with this act of deception. And he said that in a statement that, you know, he believed Trump when he campaigned on no new wars and criticized regime change operations abroad. And so therefore, Trump completely betraying that at the behest of Israel was a betrayal. And Joe Kent couldn't go along with it. And now you're going to see the Israel's first crowd in Washington try to throw Joe Kent under the bus. They'll come up with anything they can to discredit him.

But this is, I think, a really significant event. I can't think of a resignation at this senior level in U.S. foreign policy in many years. And that includes, of course, the Biden administration where nobody anywhere near this level of seniority resigned in protest of Joe Biden's support. So Joe Kent doing this truly is historic. Chris, can you put up what you just highlighted? It appears to be from Joe Kent's post, and it appears to be a portion. a portion of his resignation. I just want to read that again. I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing little small. There we go. The ongoing war in Iran. Listen to this. Iran posed no imminent

threat to our nation. And it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. That crystallizes the argument. You, and Max and everybody else on this show have been making well before the war started. You want to hear the president's response? Joe Kent's a nice guy, but he's weak. Cut number 21. Well, I read his statement, and I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security.

I didn't know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy. But when I read a statement, I realized that it's a good thing that he's out because he said that Iran was not a threat. Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was. The question is whether or not they wanted to do something about it. They've been a threat for a long time. But they've really been a threat. If I didn't terminate Obama's horrible deal that he made, the Iran nuclear deal, you would have had a nuclear war. Four years ago, you would have had nuclear holocaust,

and you would have had it again if we didn't bomb the site. So when somebody is working with us that says they didn't think Iran was a threat, we don't want those people because, and there are some people, I guess I would say that, but they're not smart people or they're not savvy people. Iran was a tremendous threat. Wow, did you know that he saved us from a nuclear war four years ago? I mean, he calls Joe Kant weak. And first of all, I mean, the idea of someone who's never served, calling someone who's put his life on the line to serve the country, calling him weak.

That's ridiculous in itself. But then also, it's also a sign of weakness if you have to lie through your teeth and now claim that if he had stayed in the Iran nuclear deal, which constricted Iran's ability to have a nuclear weapon, that if he had not pulled out of that deal, there would have been a nuclear war is just so absolutely ridiculous. It doesn't even need much comment, along with all the other fake pretext that Trump has put up to justify this war. And Joe Kent pointed out the truth that what he said was specifically, Iran was not an imminent threat, that there was no threat from Iran to attack U.S. forces, to attack the U.S., to attack Europe, to build a nuclear weapon, which they consistently said they do not want to have. And amazingly, you could argue that they've kept to that position at the detriment of their own security. because as many of your guests, including John Mearsheimer,

have long pointed out that Iran wouldn't be in this position if they had developed a nuclear weapon. But it goes against the religious edict of the former Ayatollah, who was recently murdered by Trump. And they've kept to that. And so for Trump, just to now claim that Jo Ken is weak and doesn't understand the threat from Iran, Joe Kent pointed accurately that the only imperative driving this war

was a push by Israel. It was Israel that fed Trump, all the fake intelligence, about Iran supposedly threatening U.S. forces. It was also Israel, by the way, that fed the U.S. the intelligence that Iran was behind a plot to assassinate him. People like Tucker Carlson and Max Blumenthal have been saying this for a long time. And the New York Times recently confirmed it that the source for the supposed intelligence that Iran was behind a plot to assassinate Trump, it came from where else, but Israel.

So it's Trump actually, I think, if you're a U.S. president doing the bidding of a foreign state and lying about it, I think that's the definition of weakness. and Joe Kent didn't want to go along with that. Chris, put that note from Trump on the board again. This is what Trump said when he nominated Joe Kent. Presidential nomination confirmed with the Senate. It's my pleasure to nominate Joe Kent as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. As a soldier, Green Beret and CIA officer, Joe has hunted down terrorists and criminals his entire life.

Above all, Joe knows the terrible cost of terrorism losing his wonderful wife, Shannon, a great American hero who was killed in the fight against ISIS. Joe continues to honor her legacy by staying in the fight. Joe will help us keep America safe by eradicating all terrorism from jihadists around the world to the cartels in our backyard. Congratulations, Joe. A year later, he says, he's a nice guy, didn't know him, but he's weak. I think that that you're right. I think that's probably the tip of the iceberg, the lobby, as John Mir Sharmer calls on. will begin to dump in this guy. I don't think they can lay a glove on him

because of his personal background, his personal losses, years, his career, military and intelligence. I can't think of somebody who sort of embodies the contradictions inside Trump's movement more than Joe Kent. He served in the U.S. military, unlike all these chicken hawks like Mark Levin, who want to send off U.S. soldiers to die for Israel.

He sacrificed. His wife was killed. And his wife was killed. because of neocon policies, people who sabotaged in order to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria because neocons in Washington wanted to keep U.S. forces there to keep Syria weak, unable to access its own oil and wheat because U.S. forces were occupying the parts of Syria that contain Syria's valuable resources that can feed its people. And they wanted to deprive Syria of that because they were launching,

because they were conducting a regime change war in Syria in order to fracture the acts of resistance against Israel. Joe Kent, having served, having sacrificed, and having clearly opposed regime change wars, he represents the part of Trump's movement that Trump has turned his back on and has instead decided to listen to people like Lindsey Graham and Mark Levine and all these other neocons who want to sacrifice U.S. forces and many more people throughout West Asia for the cause of a greater Israel. You know, the letter says everything but naming names. it's obvious who he knows these people were who fed these lies to Trump because it was probably

in the room when the lies were fed. Now one wonders, was his boss in that room, was Tulsi Gabbard there? Might this open floodgates of resignations from senior people? Well, listen, the fact that Tulsi Gabbard has been missing an act, and ever since Trump launched this war, how long can you keep this up for? How long does that can she stay out of the spotlight. She campaigned even far more vocally and prominently than Joe Kent did on opposing regime change wars. She went before voters on Trump's behalf during the campaign and said, if you vote for this

guy for Trump, we're not going to be in these regime change wars. When Trump killed Kassin Soleimani in his first term, she was against that, and she was very vocal in opposing any kind of regime change war in Iran. Same thing with J.D. Vance. Now, J.D. Vance has, as you've covered, has offered some merely mouth. excuses. He says, well, okay, Trump's different than our previous president. Sure, yes, he's launched a war, but he's

smart, unlike our previous president. Oh, good Lord. What has Tulsi Gabbard done? Silence. Now that one of her top deputies has resigned in protest, how long can she keep this up for? Actually, Tulsi Gabbard did break her

silence, Aaron. Are you ready for this? She posted today, not about Iran, but prayers for Susie Wiles for her breast cancer. A nice sentiment, but hardly that which you would expect from the Director of National Intelligence at a time like this. Especially given that this Director of National Intelligence has previously affirmed

the U.S. intelligence consensus that Iran does not have nuclear weapons and does not want nuclear weapons and would only develop nuclear weapons in response to unrelenting threats from the United States, which, of course, Trump ignored when he launched the first round of aggression against Iran last June. Wow. Moving to another topic, why is Trump starving the people of Cuba? Is it for Marco Rubio? Basically, yeah, the same forces that have encouraged Trump to go to war against Iran are also encouraging him to go to war against the people of the Global South that live under governments that don't do our bidding. And so Trump, after his successful kidnapping of Nicholas Maduro, got the new Venezuelanian. government that he helped install under essentially a hostage situation to cut off oil deliveries to

Cuba. He did the same thing to Mexico threatening them. And so yeah, Cuba's suffering as a result, which is the intention. And as we've talked about before, this policy goes back to the early 1960s, when you have State Department memo saying the goal should be cause deprivation, suffering among the Cuban people so that support for the government collapses and the state collapses. And Trump is now saying, Yeah, I want to be the guy who takes over Cuba. And making people suffer in extreme hardship is the only way for him to achieve that. And he's seemingly very proud of it. The Iranian foreign minister has very pointedly decried Trump's use of so-called negotiations as cover for the actual attacks on Iran.

It happened twice, as we know. I guess it's safe to assume that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his real estate partner, Steve Whitkoff, were parts of that were prominent in that deception. Trump has even started saying that he went to war because of what Jared Kushner and Steve Whitkoff told him. Wickhoff has been going around saying that Iran bragged to him that they were going to make 11 nuclear bombs, which is just such a complete lie. Iran is repeatedly affirmed it does not want nuclear weapons. And I think to the extent that the possibility of nuclear weapons was discussed was basically Iran telling Kushner and Wickhoff, we have this material, but we don't want to use it because we want the sanctions that you've been using to destroy our economy lifted. And Iran enriched simply to give itself leverage in response to the U.S. increasing sanctions. And also another reason for Iran enriching is that, look, if the U.S. and Israel were going to continue down the path of rejecting all diplomacy, then it makes perfect sense that Iran would need eventually to make a nuclear weapon.

So enriching at a higher level while still not being at the level for nuclear weapon was Iran's way of saying, eventually you're going to give us no choice. And especially if you attack us with nuclear weapons, which you cannot rule out with Benjamin Netanyahu, given that he has a nuclear weapon. weapons arsenal. He's prepared to use it. He threatened to use it. Iran, if it was attacked with nuclear weapons by Israel, would need to develop a nuclear weapon as a way to save itself from any further attacks to give itself some deterrence. So Iran was simply trying to develop some leverage because the U.S. and Israel had refused all other paths for diplomacy. And Wiccoff and turns around and says that Iran is bragging about making a nuclear weapon. And Wiccoff and Kushner, that can't, They've also been lying about claiming that, or I think they've been lying in saying that Abasarachi, the Iranian foreign minister, has been texting them begging for negotiations.

Oh, my. When it's very clear that it's that that's not the case at all. I mean, I've heard from a few Iranian officials that there's been no contacts between Abbas Arachi and Wikha. And that makes sense. If you're Iran and for now twice and less than a year, Israel and the U.S. have used. the ruse of diplomacy to launch an act of aggression against you, including in this latest round, when they've massacred, hundreds of civilians, including a bunch of schoolgirls,

you're not going to have negotiations with these people, unless you can permanently guarantee that it won't happen again. And that requires establishing some deterrence, which Iran is trying to do right now by hitting U.S. military bases in the region. So Wyckhoff lied about what Iran said before the aggression, and they're still lying now about what Iran has said after the aggression. And the most plausible motive I can see is that, you know, Trump, despite claiming everything would be fine and don't worry about rising energy prices, he needs to try to calm the

markets. So maybe putting out there that they're trying to talk to Iran, that might be their strategy to try to drop the price of oil and calm the markets. This is not going to work. Here's Whitcroft two days ago. We must also address the threat posed by Iran. Iran must never be permitted to enrich uranium or develop any nuclear from the place. Amen. Amen. This is where I add live.

I get off the teleprompter and I say, I wish my 93-year-old Jewish mom from the Bronx was here because Yose-Cohan, the ex-head of the Mossad, just clapped for me. So just a question, Judge. That was not two days ago. That was about a year ago. Oh, all right. I thought it was recent. Yeah, but the fact that here you have Trump's top envoy for diplomacy with Iran gushing and getting emotional that a former head of Mossad clapped for him.

It tells you everything you need to know about this administration and its commitment to diplomacy. You're going to send a guy to go negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran who gets like verclimped when a former Israeli spy chief claps for him. That's your top negotiator. It tells you that Steve Wickoff is not working. for the best interests of the U.S. or for global stability. He's working for Israel. Right. He's Israel first.

If he's going to get, if he can't even control his emotions to hide that he's touched that a former Israeli spy chief is clapping for him and that's, and that's personally meaningful for him, it tells you where his loyalties lie. And that's why we're in the mess that we're in. And this is the guy that Trump put forward to negotiate with Iran. And he says there also that, you know, not only can Iran not have nuclear weapons, which they've repeatedly said they don't want to have. but also Iran can't enrich.

Well, then he's saying that Iran can't have what it's legally entitled to. Right. Non-proliferation treaty. And he's adopting the Israel line. Whereas he previously said once that if Iran was emerging at the levels of the JCPOA, which was 3.67 percent, that was fine, which he retracted after a brief freakout from the war lobby and the Israel lobby in Washington. But that's Steve Wickoff.

And that's why we're in the war we're in, because we have a top U.S. diplomat who's not even an official position, along with Jared Kushner, who are completely loyal to Israel and all of its demands. Didn't you tell me that the Kushner family is so close to Netanyahu that sounds weird, that Netanyahu used to sleep in Kushner's bed in his family house in New Jersey? Is that true? It's 100% correct. When Netanyahu would visit the U.S., he would sleep in Kushner's bedroom,

and Jared would go sleep in the basement. That's how close they are. And that's also who Trump has negotiating supposedly in the interests of the United States. And it's clear, I mean, it seems to me why the reason why Trump put Kushner and Wickech off in these positions. Again, two people who don't even have official positions, especially Kushner, who explicitly said he was not going to return to government after Trump's first term, is because he doesn't want to make a deal. He doesn't make a deal. Like that's why you're sending to Israel firsters with no government positions to negotiate on your behalf because you actually have no interest in a deal whatsoever.

Here's the Iranian foreign ministers saying, forget about it. We haven't asked for a ceasefire. Why would we trust a ceasefire? Number one, Chris. President Trump said this weekend he is not ready to make a deal with Iran because the terms aren't good enough yet. Has Iran asked for a ceasefire? No, we never asked for a ceasefire, and we have never asked even for negotiation. We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes, and this is what we have done so far,

and we continue to do that until President Trump comes to the point that this is an illegal war with no victory, and, you know, there are, you know, people being killed only because President Trump wants to have fun. This is what he has said. Have fun? Yes, this is what he said, that they are sinking, you know, ships and targeting different places because it is fun. He did say that. Trump. He was quoting others, but he said it approvingly, and then he laughed and he got, I don't know

what kind of an audience he was in front of, we got the audience to laugh at the thought of an Iranian ship filled with cadets, not with weaponry, but with cadets, learning how to man a ship, 160 of them dead. I also have to laugh at the spectacle. of an Iranian official telling an American broadcaster what the American president said. Right. And why is it that? I mean, you know, it tells you like that Iranian officials are more up to date on what the U.S. president is saying than even a prominent U.S. journalist. But yeah, what he's saying there is it totally tracks.

If you're Iran and you've been attacked twice now in less than a year, both during periods when you're supposed. supposedly negotiating with the U.S., you can't tolerate this, and this can't continue. So if they feel like they have to reestablish deterrent so that it doesn't happen again. So I believe him, much more than I believe anybody in the Trump administration and saying that Iran is not asking for a ceasefire. And to the extent there's any possibility of one anytime soon, Israel just made that a lot more difficult today by assassinating Ali Larajani, Iran's top security official, who's previously advocated diplomacy with Iran

and coming to criticism for he's previously advocated diplomacy with the U.S. And he's taken heat for that inside the Iranian establishment for having that position. And Israel claims today that its forces assassinated him in an airstrike, which I actually believe, I don't think Israel would go out and say that if it wasn't true. They usually don't claim to have assassinated people

at that high level unless they are very sure that they did. So if Israel's claims are true, and I think they are, then Israel has just made an off ramp to this war, if one was even possible, a lot more unlikely. And it's clear why. Trump went to war on Israel's behalf. Israel told him that after he did so, the government of Iran would collapse. The people will come out in the streets and praise Trump as a hero. That hasn't happened because Iranians actually have self-respect and they want to defend their sovereignty. And so given that this is not going the way Trump was led to blue.

believe it would go. Israel wanting to keep this war going. We'll do anything it can to sabotage any possible opening for peace. So that's why I think it targeted Ali Ali Larajani today. Oh, but this is not a war. It's a special military operation. What's this? Number 23, Chris. Iran now is a foreign policy priority for you than China. And on Cuba, the Cuban government. Iran is just a military operation to me. Iran is something that was essentially, largely over in two or three days. Does the man have any idea what he's talking about? No, I mean, this is so embarrassing and so ridiculous.

He said this was, obviously, previously a few days ago I said this was an excursion. He said it was for regime change, not for regime change. As you've talked about, he's bragged about blowing up an Iranian naval ship that was unarmed. He's all over the place. His administration is all over the place. Marco Rubio, Mike Johnson, what did they say initially, that we had to go to war because Israel was about to go to war. And then Markerubio denied saying that I've never seen such incoherence

and transparent falsehoods. At least the Bush administration, when they went to war against Iraq, they stayed on message. It was also all lies, but they had them. It was WMDs and Saddam working with Al-Qaeda. And they stuck to that. This administration is just all over the place because they took their cues, not even relief, I think, from any coordinated interagency process,

but from Israel. And so when you do that, you're going to put yourself in positions like this. And Trump, with a loud mouth, will occasionally learn out the truth. So a few times the truth has gotten through. He said that actually, we went to war because Iran's never been weaker. They weren't a threat. The U.S. perceived them to be weak. So therefore, this was a good opportunity for regime change. One more clip for you. The Iranian Foreign Minister, pretty determined. Cut number 17. When we say we do not want a ceasefire, it is not because we are seeking war.

It is because this time, this entire conflict must be brought to a definitive conclusion in such a way that our enemies will never even contemplate the possibility of repeating these attacks and this aggression. And I firmly believe that even up to this very moment, they have already begun to absorb a very profound and lasting lesson. Profound and lasting lesson. Yeah, I think you're talking about there is deterrence that if you continue to sabotage diplomacy, pretend to engage in diplomacy, and launch these criminal acts of aggression, as the U.S. and Israel have done to Iran, which started off in this round with the murder of more than 150 children, there needs to be a lesson taught so that this can't happen again. And that is now Iran's goal. And they're doing this with their only forms of leverage, which is to, you know, choke off the state of Hormuz to deny access to countries that are part of the coalition that are attacking, that are attacking Iran and, you know, forced economic pain on them, as, by the way, the U.S. has been doing to Iran for decades.

It's so funny for all the complaints from Trump and he's mad at his allies for not helping him out to, you know, reopen the state of Hormuz. So the U.S. has the right to openly sabotage cripple. Iran's a country. economy as you played the clips many times you know scott vasson on on down bragging about how they've caused misery for ordinary iranians so u.s is allowed to cripple iran's economy when iran in response to an active military aggression tries to uh cut off the global economy when it comes to the energy supplies that go through its own shoreline this is a criminal act by iran and it can't be tolerated and no wonder trump isn't getting buy-in from even his allies on this to come bail him out because because he spent so much time alienating and mocking them.

And he launched a war not with their help, not with their consultation, but simply by listening to Benjamin Netanyahu. So he's in trouble now. And no wonder Iran doesn't want to have to deal with them anymore. Aaron Matte, thank you, my dear friend. Great, great conversation, as always. Much appreciated.

We'll look forward to seeing you again soon. Thank you, Judge. Good to see you. Sure. Good to see you. Coming up, if you're watching us live in 27 minutes at 2 o'clock, Matt Ho, and at 3 o'clock, Colonel Karen Koukowski, Justinapal Teno for judging freedom.