Judging Freedom - Hot Topics - Putin Speech, Harry & Meghan and South Park Creators

Episode Date: February 21, 2023

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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, February 21st, 2023. It's about 1035 in the morning here on the east coast of the United States. We have two hot topics for you. Both are serious, even though one has a lot of levity to it. The first are the speeches by President Joe Biden and particularly by Russian President Vladimir Putin today. And the second has to do with Harry and Meghan and a lawsuit. Oh, my goodness. We'll start with the serious. President Putin announced a long time ago that he would give a major speech today to the Russian Duma and other invited guests about the status of the war in Ukraine. Kyiv yesterday, which we understand from sources that were inside but have publicized and published their feelings, terribly aggravated and irritated President Putin and his inner circle. His inner circle and his advisors include some ultra-nationalist, hard-right people that wanted to turn Ukraine into the stone,

wanted to bomb Ukraine into the Stone Age, and feel that Biden's presence in Kyiv was thumbing the Western nose at the Russians, that Biden would feel safe enough to be in Kyiv. One of Putin's advisors even said, well, Biden could have come to the front lines if he wanted, address the troops and leave, and not a hair on his head would have been harmed. That's probably true, not because the Russian military is weak, but because they don't want to harm or kill or capture the president of the United States. Surely Russia knew the president's trip was coming about. Surely Russian intel knew. It wouldn't surprise me if the Americans actually called the Russians to tell them that this was going to happen. There is almost always, as we know, a back channel level of communications that

goes on between Russia and the United States, between China and the United States. So there are no drastic, catastrophic, irreversible mistakes. What did President Putin say? Well, he said the war is the fault of the West and the West started the war. closer to Russia with its offensive and defensive weaponry, 800 miles closer than George H.W. Bush and Jim Baker, President George H.W. Bush's Secretary of State at the time, promised President Putin we would move to at the time when NATO assumed the former Warsaw Pact countries. Remember, there was NATO, the North American Treaty Organization, and there was the Warsaw Pact, which was Russia and all of the Eastern European satellites. Nearly all of those Eastern European satellites, Eastern European countries, controlled by Russia from the end of World War II until the end of the Soviet Union.

Almost all of them are now no longer members of the Warsaw Pact as it doesn't exist anymore. They're now members of NATO. NATO itself is meeting as we speak in Warsaw. The President of the United States is addressing NATO and the Polish parliament in Warsaw. But NATO did not keep its promises to the Soviet Union when without firing a shot, it disintegrated and Russia went back to its original for many hundreds of years borders. President Putin has been wanting to return those borders to where he believes they were historically, and that includes the Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine. Whether you agree with President Putin or not, you can agree with the argument that the United States has no dog in this fight. There is no threat or harm to United States national security, to United States persons, to United States property. Why are we sending troops there? Surreptitiously, because the Congress has only

authorized cash and military equipment. It's not authorized military force. It is not authorized troops. President Biden has sent cash, military equipment, and troops. The excuse is we need the troops to operate the military equipment. This is the same way the Vietnam War began. We sent military gear to South Vietnam. We sent troops as advisors and inspectors. Before you knew it, we were fighting a war. Before you knew it, Congress authorized it. Before you knew it, 500,000 American troops had rotated through Vietnam, 10% of whom came home in body bags. Is that what the United States wants now? President Putin, in his speech, gave a full-throated defense of Russia's military activities in Ukraine. And then he said, and by the way, we are no longer

honoring the START treaty. The START treaty is the most recent treaty between the United States and Russia, which limits the use of nuclear weapons. I don't think that the Biden administration or American intelligence was startled by that comment about the START treaty, because I think American intel and the Biden administration and Trump administration as well have known for years that Russia's manufactured placement threats about military equipment indicated no intention to abide by this treaty. In America, where the treaties are signed by the president, ratified by the two-thirds of the Senate, they can only become ineffectual if two-thirds of the Senate says so. In Russia, the president, who's also the dictator, can rescind the country from the treaty. I don't think this is a big deal. What is a big

deal is President Biden's promise to support Ukraine for as long as it takes. As long as it takes to do what? To expel Russian troops from Ukraine and Crimea? well, that's not militarily reasonable. That would be impossible to do. To expel Vladimir Putin from office, that's not militarily feasible. It would be impossible to do. You want the Congress to declare war on Russia, Mr. President, that would be unlawful. War requires a serious military threat, a grave military threat to the United States. Russia poses no military threat to the United States whatsoever. And yet we have troops on the ground out of uniform in Ukraine, troops on the ground in uniform in Poland, aiming sophisticated equipment at Russian troops. Question, are American soldiers killing Russian soldiers? Answer, yes. Question, did Congress

authorize this? Answer, no. Question, where is the Congress? Where's Bernie Sanders? Where's Rand Paul? Where are people on both sides of the aisle who are against war? Silence. Where's the German hierarchy, the German government over our attack on the German-Russian pipeline from Russia down to Germany? promised. It's almost a year anniversary to the beginning of hostilities. That anniversary will be the 24th of February, which is this Friday. We'll see where all this goes. He has 300,000 to 500,000 troops ready to enter Ukraine. Fresh troops, which will enter from the north and from the east. They will sweep over the Ukrainian troops and their American advisors, no matter how many advisors are there and what type of military equipment we provide them. As for the president's speech before NATO and the Polish parliament today, and as for his arrival yesterday, it was timed perfectly. It got under the skin of

the Russians. It got under the skin of the president of Russia. It was a great photo op. If President Biden wants to run for re-election as a wartime president like his heroes, Abraham Lincoln and FDR, he may very well have that. He may very well be manipulating, maneuvering us into war. It would be immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional. But he seems to be getting us there anyway. Okay, a little bit of a lighter subject, South Park. So Harry and Megan are threatening to sue South Park. Apparently they're upset over South Park's satire. We don't know exactly which piece of satire has upset them. We know how irreverent South Park can be. It's one of the longest running shows on television.

It can be, oh my goodness, or it can be side-splittingly funny. Here's a one-minute clip that I'm sure got under Megan and Harry's skin. Take a listen. The prince and his wife. We want privacy. We want privacy.

Thanks for having us on the show. It's so awesome to be here. It's great. So let me start with you, Sam. You've lived a life with the royal family. You've had everything handed to you, but you say your life has been hard, and now you've written all about it in your new book, Win. Yes, that's right, friend. You see, my wife and I are totally like,

you should write a book because your family's like stupid, and then so are like journalists. So you hate journalists? That's right. And now you wrote a book that reports on the lives of the royal family? Right. So you're a journalist? We just want to be normal people. All this attention is so hard. Isn't it true, sir, that your questionable wife has her own TV show and hangs out with celebrities and does fashion magazines? What are you suggesting? Well, I just think some people might say that your Instagram-loving bitch wife actually doesn't want her privacy. How dare you, sir?

My Instagram-loving bitch wife has always wanted her privacy. And you know what else? To hell with Canada. We are leaving. We'll go find some quiet place where we can be normal people. Come on, wife. We want privacy. We want privacy. We want privacy.

Classic satire, taking a person's features and exaggerating them to the ridiculous point. If they would file a lawsuit over clips like that, they would suffer what's called Rule 11 sanctions, which is a federal rule of civil procedure whereby when the plaintiff files a lawsuit that is utterly frivolous, that there is no legal basis for it, then the legal fees incurred by the defendant in order to resist such a lawsuit will end up being paid by the plaintiff. This is what happens when you become a public person. I myself have been the subject of satire. You don't like it, but when you're in this business, you laugh at it. In this case, I thought it was true and accurate, Sapphire.

Harry and Meghan, enjoy life. Laugh along with everybody else. Don't use and abuse the American legal system. It is not in existence to soothe your tender egos. More as we get it. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.