Judging Freedom - INTEL Roundtable : Johnson & McGovern - Weekly Wrap Up

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

INTEL Roundtable : Johnson & McGovern - Weekly Wrap UpSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Friday, June 7th, 2024. It's the end of the day. It's the end of the week. It's a happy time for all of us. It's our Intelligence Community Roundtable with my two dear friends and colleagues, Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern. Larry and Ray, welcome here. Larry, you are still, I believe we would be with you, Larry, when the sponsor of our trip was arrested the night before we left. He and his family and his colleagues advised Scott to advise me not to come, and I didn't. Scott attempted to go, and of course we all know, because this is all over the media, two or three Border Patrol agents dressed in SWAT team gear approached them as he was about to abort a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul and demanded his passport.

They didn't identify themselves and they didn't give them a receipt. Have you ever heard of anything like this? An American citizen whose free speech, whose associational rights, and whose due process rights, you can't take life, liberty, or property without a trial, were summarily violated on the spot in front of a crowd at Kennedy Airport, Ray McGovern's church. Well, Larry will remember this quite well because he came to my assistance. I stood up and wound my way

onto the State Department Bolo list. Be aware, right? Be well aware. Bolo, be aware of this guy because if he comes near any department security, round him up. Larry sprung to my rescue and made sure that nothing toad happened to me. That's the last time I saw that the State Department was involved in this kind of thing. I think this time the State Department is being used by the deep state who really didn't want Scott to appear and to say the things that he was likely to say.

Well, Scott did appear by Zoom. He didn't give the speech he thought he was going to give, as you know. But he did participate in a conference and he said what he wanted to say. Larry, have you ever heard of this, aside from the incident that Ray just described? No, and this was a contrived step by the State Department. The Biden administration issued Scott a passport that was, let's put it this way, not correct. It should have had certain markings in it because of Scott's status. Well, they were the ones that screwed that up. So they were aware that they

had screwed it up. All they had to do was send him a letter and issue a new passport, but no. They chose to wait until he was on the board of the plane so they could embarrass him and make a scene. He was on the be on the lookout for, Bolo,

be on the lookout for. What were the markings that were to have been on Scott's passport? This is the first time I've heard of it. Yeah, it had to do with his previous legal status. So if you have some prior convictions, there will be some markings in the passport to signify that. And that's part of the reason the State Department knew he was going to travel. The state has got a notifier.

Let me just say, not directly related to that, but I have figured out a way to become wealthy. If I only get $5 from every person I've met in Russia who says that they watch Judge Napolitano and express concern about Napolitano and Ritter, man, I would be flying first class back and forth through the United States and Russia 20 times a year. Scott says that the show is very popular in Russia. And to be honest with you, I haven't accepted all the invitations because there were too many of them. But I have been inundated by Russian media this week. And I selectively picked the ones that I was comfortable with, particularly ones that I had been on their shows before. Dimitri Symes and people like that, that we know we can trust. Did you, Larry? It's not just Russians. It's Germans. It's Italians. It's Turks. I mean, honestly, God,

the number of people that come up to say, oh, my God, we love the judge. We watch you all the time. It was unbelievable. Well, it's very flattering to hear. Did you participate in any way at the St. Petersburg Economic Conference, Larry? Yeah, yeah. I was on a panel yesterday with Nicosi Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela and Pepe Escobar and

Alexander Dugan. Alexander Dugan himself, the philosopher. Oh, yeah. In fact, I had dinner last night sat next to his wife, Natalia, a lovely lady. She's also a professor. They've just actually published a book of Daria Dugida, their daughter.

They discovered after her death that she had kept a diary. And so they're just publishing a book of her diary, her writings. Wow. Well, you mentioned Pepe Escobar. We'd love to have him on the show, whether he joins you and Ray or whether he comes on on his own. He has a big following and understands the world as we do. So if you can pass that on to him or get his contact information to Chris. The Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, has basically said we will not put up with the West authorizing Ukraine to use the Western supply defensive if somebody else uses them or someone threatens our sovereignty,

we know what instruments are available for us. And the West seems to take this, NATO seems to take this in a way that you've described as blasé. What are you seeing here? Well, Stoltenberg, for example, said, well, this is not going to change anything. They're just bluffing. And no matter how many times Lavrov and Putin say, look, this time we're not bluffing, they are disregarded. The essential factor here, Judge, is that Russia is winning in Ukraine. That trajectory will not change in any material way. And so I think the Russians view this as kind of a desperate effort by the West

to do something to change that trajectory. And that has a good sense to know to change. Now, the use of attack rooms and Heimars and whatever else the Germans and the French have, those do not carry nuclear warheads. That's important. Why is that important? Because no matter what they hit in Russia, it's pinpricks. You can tell us what's going on in Ukraine.

Except, okay, and there's a big exception, and that is when they hit early warning radar that enables the Russians to come out if they're under a strategic attack. That hurts. And that's why I'm getting all these warnings. Don't let the Russians say, look, don't fool around with our early warning radar. That's the threat here. And as Ted Postol, the noted MIT professor of literature, points out, the Russians have a very limited capability for early warning. They do not have the kind of sophisticated satellites we know that we, that as long as something is launched,

we know about it. No, they don't have that. And so when you knock out two or you try to knock out two of the only 10 such early morning radars, that's trouble. That's when Putin makes these unprecedented assertions that, look, we can use nuclear weapons and we can use conventional weapons in places where we would least expect it, and we're sending our Navy to the Caribbean. So these are sort of counter threats, but the trajectory is the same, and I think the

Russians are using it or viewing it as a little bit alarmist because, you know, here are the criminals behind Putin. They say, I've let in the Vladimir Vyshyn. Two of our early warning radars. What are the Americans trying to do? And Putin said, well, it's not the Americans, it's the Ukrainians. Come on, Vladimir, it's the Americans. Are they really trying to weaken our early warning capability? We better serve them.

We know that's not going to happen. Larry, how dangerous is it for Biden to have authorized it? I don't know if he authorized this very attack, but he authorized the use of the weapons to strike in Russia. And somebody in the CIA or the DOD knew that they were going to hit the early warning systems. How dangerous is that? That's very dangerous. That's why we're here. Now, it's not completely certain that somebody in the Pentagon at a sufficiently high level knew that the Ukrainians could do this.

But that's not the point. The point is what the Russians think. It's not what I think. Larry, what do you think about this? Well, I sat across the table last night from Alexander Dugan, and he was sitting next to Maria. Oh, I think we've lost Larry for a moment. He's coming back. Yeah, I'm back. Okay. So, and I asked Dugan specifically about that. There has been a decided shift in the, not just the rhetoric, but what the Russians are

communicating to the West. As Ray noted, it's extremely serious. And it's not just Putin, it's Lavrov, and it's the Deputy Foreign Minister Rybkov. I've spoken directly to Rybkov in the past. So the Russians are laying down a market. They're very serious. And I would anticipate that if the United States follows through with these attacks, that you will see Russian missiles being used against U.S. military bases in Syria and against U.S. military ships in the Red Sea via the Houthis. The President of the United States is in France today celebrating the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Of course, the Russians weren't invited. Admiral Kirby, unfortunately, was there with him and spoke to my friend and former colleague

at Fox News, Martha McCallum, and made the absurd statement, we're going to play for you in a minute, that Putin has stalled out. Chris, cut number 13. I do think it's important to remember they haven't made much progress for all the effort and the ballyhooing about what they were doing or trying to do at Kharkiv. They basically stalled out once they hit the first line of Ukrainian defenses. That was kind of it. And now they're reassessing, we think, about what they might do next. So they still can be within range of Kharkiv. I don't want to diminish that. That's why we're giving the Ukrainians permission to strike across border at imminent threats.

But they have largely stalled out. And Mr. Putin has achieved none of his strategic objectives. Larry, what kind of nonsense is that? Putin has achieved none of his strategic objectives and he has stalled out. Does Kirby expect the West and the American public to believe that? It looks like President Zelensky brought some of his cocaine from Kiev and shared it with John Kirby. That or some hallucinogens were involved. I mean, it's just absolute nonsense. It's crap. And it's that kind of stupid rhetoric that's so

dangerous. The Russians are not playing around. They're not making idle threats. And the problem is the Biden folks have mistaken Russian patience for weakness. And it's damn dangerous.

Ray, I'm going to play a clip from President Putin who was asked about the use of nuclear weapons. You want to say something before I play it? Go ahead. Just a real quick one, George. The Russians were invited. And then the Russians were disinvited. To the D-Day celebration?

Correct. Yeah. Invited them. And then he was told by the U.S., disinvite them. Biden won't come with some high-level representative from U.S. account. It was even worse. Now, are the Russians going to use nuclear weapons because they've got about that? No. But this is a last-minute piece of the puzzle. And they see this for what it is. The U.S. still reigns supreme in France. Let me introduce one little thing about French foreign ministers.

There was one really outspoken guy who Madeleine Albright made the mistake of saying, look, you are not supporting us. You are violating the tradition of the Marquis de Lafayette. And he said, look, If Marquis de Lafayette knew what you had become, how do you mind that you have become in favor of what is supporting your revolution in the first place? So things are getting pretty out of hand. And that's just a little vignette to show how it used to be when people spoke to the Secretary of State. Hey, forget about it. Here's President Putin being asked about the use of nukes. He doesn't like the question, and he goes right at the questioner.

Could you tell me that this is not the articulate, measured response of a serious diplomat on the world stage? Number seven, Chris. There are always accusations flung at us that we are nuclear cyber-rattling, but am I the one asking the question about the possible nuclear war? You were the one to ask the question. You are pushing me towards this question, and then you'll say that I've been, you know, brandishing the nuclear truncheon.

You know, this is a very grave subject. The U.S. is the only country to have used nuclear weapons during the Second World War. Hiroshima, Nagasaki, 20 kilotons. Our tactical nuclear weapons is 70, 75 kilotons, just the nuclear, the tactical nuclear weapons. So let's not push the situation towards the point when even a threat is involved, let alone the use of nuclear weapons. For some reason, the West believes that Russia is never going to resort to that. But we've got the nuclear doctrine in place. Have a look at it. What does it say? It says that someone else's actions threaten our sovereignty or territorial integrity, then we believe we have the right to use all the tools at our disposal. And And no one should take that lightly or superficially.

There needs to be a professional view of that. We have the right to use, Larry, all the tools at our disposal. And no one should take that lightly or superficially. And then I wonder if this is the jab at Blinken who refuses to take Lavrov's phone calls. There needs to be a professional view of that. Yeah, yeah. Now listen, what people need to understand about the Russians are they are what you see. They are not layered in innuendo and nuance they are very straightforward

they are very uh up front and they again the shift in director i can't emphasize this enough but what alexander dugan told me he says the message that Putin, Lavrov, Rybkov have been communicating this week is represents, in his words, a seismic shift in what Russia is saying to the world. And the world, the United States and Europe better damn well pay attention because the Russians are not going to give them a second warning. Ray McGovern, is Russia afraid of NATO? I think Russia is afraid of the people who are leading NATO. If you recall, Putin himself said about six months ago, what he prefers in an American president is predictability. There are a bunch of folks in Washington now who have a lot on their mind. They don't want to lose an already lost war in Ukraine.

They don't want to lose an election and they don't want to lose their freedom. If that other fellow comes in, he's got the goods on all of them, not only on Hunter, but on Daddy and on Sullivan and Blinken as well. So there's a personal stake here. What the Russians are afraid of is these people are run amok. Now, what's the only check on that? That's this professional view. Where does that come from? That comes from the Pentagon. The only sane people left. General Brown, Air Force guy, chairman of the chiefs of staff, is he going to acquiesce in some sort of threat that could unleash a small nuclear attack from Russia? I don't think he's going to do that. He may, but the Russians can't count on the fact that he would be perspicacious and as

sensible as Donald Trump was at two instances during his tenure, prevented us from getting in very deep. Larry, this is an off-the-wall question. The new president of Mexico, Claudia Scheinbaum, is she likely a CIA asset? Let's put it this way. is it would not be the first time that we've had a president of a country in Central or South America that was a paid CIA asset. When I asked that to Larry Wilkerson, he said, no, she's a Mossad asset. Gentlemen, I'll let you go. Thank you for this roundtable.

Larry, you're a million miles away. Travel safely home. Gentlemen, thank you very much for your time. Excuse me for your courage and for your analysis. I hope we see you both. Larry, will you be around for your regular time slot on Monday? I'll be back in the States tomorrow night, Saturday night, 11 p.m.

Okay, great. We'll see you both your usual times on Monday. Have a nice weekend. Travel safely, Larry. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, that's it for the week. I hope you've enjoyed it.

I must tell you, I want to thank all of you for watching as much as you do. This has been an extraordinary week, which either is the highest number of viewers we've had, or the second highest number we've had. When I said to my team, Chris and Sonia, I want to hit 400,000 subscriptions by the 4th of July, they said you're going to hit it well before the 4th of July. How about half a million by Christmas? All of your regulars will be here next week. Have a great weekend. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thanks for watching!