Judging Freedom - Kremlin Attack_ Zelenskyy on Leaks_ US Troops to Southern Border

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

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I'm Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023. It's about 1130 in the morning here on the east coast of the United States. Here are your hot topics, and we have some very, very interesting and compelling ones for you today. One is an alleged attempted assassination of President Vladimir Putin by bombing his home in the Kremlin with a drone. Pentagon leaks and what President Vladimir Zelensky knew or didn't know. Joe Biden sending U.S. troops to the border, a la Donald Trump, and how bad was the school lockdown shutdown for eighth graders on their history tests. We'll start with President Putin. So we don't have clear information on this. One report is that two drones attempted to bomb a building in the Kremlin last night. Another report is that this happened over the weekend and the Russians have just revealed it. We're going to show you one of the two drones in just a moment.

One of the reports says that the drone had effectively been disabled electronically, whatever that means, and so by the time it struck the building in the Kremlin, and you'll see the explosion in just a moment, it was effectively neutered and couldn't hurt anyone. Now, the Kremlin itself is walled, surrounded by a large, thick, tall stone and brick wall. It's obviously secured. It's protected. Inside the Kremlin are about 20 buildings, which form the heartthrob of the Russian government. One of those buildings is the Russian White House. They don't call it the White House, but it's the residence of the president of Russia. It is a place where Vladimir Putin lives and sleeps at night. He was not in that building at the time these drones struck.

So let me show you the clip that we have of the one drone. It appears to. Kremlin says that there were two of those. We only have the shot of one of them. What do I think? I don't think this was a serious attempt to assassinate President Putin. If it was, it was amateurish. It was either done by rogue elements intending to inform the president that the Ukrainian military can reach inside the Kremlin, or it was done in an extremely amateur fashion,

or it wasn't done by the Ukrainians at all. It was done by the Russians as sort of a false flag to justify either an assassination of Ukrainian President Zelensky or a more aggressive attack on the city of Kyiv and the government of Ukraine itself. It just seems to me that given the level of sophistication of the Ukrainian military leadership and the level of sophistication of the Ukrainian intelligence, if this was done by them, it was awfully sloppy and really didn't serve any purpose. Where it's going to go, we don't know. President Putin hasn't said anything. One of the members of the Russian Duma, the lower house of parliament in Russia, has said it's time to assassinate President Zelensky. President Zelensky's government has denied responsibility for either of these drones.

Again, we only showed you one. The Russians said there were two. One of the Russian reports said it happened Saturday. Today is Wednesday as I speak. One of the Russian reports said it happened overnight. I always end these stories by saying more as we get it. That's literally true in this case, of course, more as we get it. The Biden administration hasn't said anything about this. And the Russian government hasn't said anything about this. The report of Saturday was leaked from Russian intel. The report of overnight is what the Russian media said, obviously, more as we get it.

To the Pentagon leaks. Now, you've heard me talk about this until you and I are blue in the face. These are the documents leaked allegedly by Jack Teixeira, the part-time Massachusetts National Guardsman, who supposedly was leaking these documents to his buddies in his chat room. The documents apparently had been leaked since February of 22, which is the beginning of the Russian military incursion into Ukraine. The leaks weren't discovered or at least made public until the end of March, just a little over a month ago. It's now the first week in May. So what did the American government know and when did it know it? Well, whatever the American government knew and whenever the American government knew it, according to President Zelensky, it didn't tell him.

Even though these documents, if true, are embarrassing to the Ukraine government. I'll tell you why in a minute. According to President Zelensky, he learned about this like the rest of us did on the news. I don't know who broke the story first. I think it was the Washington Post. The Washington Post almost seems to have some sort of an insight in on this because they seem to be breaking the story daily with more and more documents. We'll talk to Larry Johnson later today about how that could be happening. Of course, we're also going to talk to Larry Johnson later today about how that could be happening. Of course, we're also going to talk to Larry Johnson later today, and hopefully Scott Ritter later this week about whether or not this drone attempt is serious. But back to President Zelensky.

When asked about this, a spokesperson for the White House said, we talk to our Ukrainian counterparts daily and we don't discuss publicly what we talk to them about. That doesn't really address the issue of what was known and when it was known. Look, the documents show that the American senior military command believes that Ukraine will lose this war and believes that the Ukraine air defenses, which is the main instrument of Vladimir Putin's military at this point, are substantially degraded and will be degraded down to zero by the end of May, which is the end of this month, four weeks from tomorrow. So that's what the documents reveal. The United States government has not challenged the authenticity or the accuracy of the documents. On the contrary, to the contrary, Admiral Kirby, John Kirby, who's the spokesperson for the National Security Agency or Administration, National Security Council, which actually is in the West Wing of the White House, said, you believe this? Don't look at the documents.

Well, don't look at them. When you tell somebody, if you want somebody to read something, tell them don't look at it. Don't look at the documents. Why did he say don't look at it. Don't look at the documents. Why did he say don't look at them? Because they're real. Because they're authentic. Because they're accurate. Because they were prepared by senior military command for the highest levels of the American military, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, from whom we haven't heard a peep about these documents. So we can only conclude using reason and common sense that the documents are real, that the American military command believes Ukraine is losing and will lose,

and that Russia has substantially and materially degraded the Ukraine air defenses and will have completed the total degradation of Ukraine's air defenses by the end of May or early June. You can't blame President Zelensky for being upset that he had to learn about this on the news. We don't know what he since has learned. When asked what his opinion was of the American silence, he said, very interesting, if this were just Ukraine against Russia, I would tell President Putin what I think of him and what I think of the degradation of the Russian forces. But this is not Ukraine against Russia. This is Ukraine and its allies trying to expel Russia. And so I'm not going to be critical of one of our allies. Probably a good and a diplomatic answer.

But needless to say, he was upset that he learned about this the way the rest of us did from the news, to the Texas border where Joe Biden has just ordered 1,500 active duty military to the Texas border to back up the Department of Homeland Security. So here's the background. In the Trump administration, the government used its authority, commonly referred to as Title 42, to bar people from entering the United States if they came from a country where COVID was rampant. Without even testing these people, it could just turn them away until the pandemic was over. When it did that, that obviously required fewer DHS personnel at the border, because instead of processing people, instead of testing them for COVID, instead of asking them for their papers, instead of giving

them a court date, instead of finding out why they're entering, instead of authenticating, are you fleeing tyranny or are you just looking for a better life? Can't blame them for either, but whatever it may be, instead of doing all that, the DHS was just turning them away. Well, now that the CDC, the Center for Disease Control, and the Biden administration have concluded that the COVID pandemic in America is over, there are still some people sick with COVID. I have a very good friend who is. She's doing well, but she's quarantining until she and her family are released by the doctors, that they're no longer contagious. Nevertheless, the government has concluded,

the government has concluded, not medical science, the government has concluded that the pandemic is over. Aha! Once the pandemic is over, then the government no longer has its authority under Title 43 to turn people away because of COVID. So now it must begin to process whoever wants to come into the United States. And remember the law, if they are fleeing oppression, if they are looking for asylum under the law enacted by Republicans and Democrats, signed into law by Ronald Reagan, the government must accept them. If they are fleeing prosecution in their country, the government doesn't have to accept them. If they are sick, the government doesn't have to accept them. If they're coming here looking for a better life, like my grandparents did, three of my four grandparents, the government doesn't

have to accept them. If they fit within the quota from the country from which they are coming, if there's no belief of sickness, then the government ought to begin processing them. To make this longer story a little more precise, the government will need more human beings at the border to do all this processing. Will the troops be doing the processing? No. Will the way President Barack Obama used the military there. This is the way President Donald Trump used the military there. This is the way President Joe Biden says he will use the military there. Back from the border, probably a mile or so, so they can't be seen. This doesn't look like they're going to shoot people. Performing ministerial tasks, recording information, securing buildings,

acquiring supplies, office supplies, food supplies, bedding, things of that nature, so as to free up the DHS employees who normally were doing that so they can go to the border to do all the processing. What's interesting is Joe Biden, of course, said he would never send troops to the border. Now he is confronting reality doing what his predecessor did. And of course, when his predecessor, President Trump, did it, then former Vice President Biden was a critic of it, as were a lot of liberals. But the chickens have come home to roost. The government recognizes that with this surge of migrants now expected, because the migrants know that the government can't

unilaterally turn them away because of COVID, they're going to come to try and get into the country. And the government, in order to make this orderly and peaceful and not catastrophic, needs more human beings at the border. And the president has decided to send the military. Secretary of Defense Austin has signed the documents, and as I speak, the military is on its way to the Texas border. 1,500 troops. Trump had 2,500. We'll see if Joe Biden decides to send more. How bad were the school lockdowns during COVID? I hate that word. I wrote a piece about that word. It's a prison word. When there's a catastrophe or a potential catastrophe or an escape from a prison, the prisoners are put on lockdown. They're put in their cells and they can't come out for any reason unless it's a matter of life and death.

That's the origin of the word lockdown. And I despised when it was used to apply to Americans, people living in America, schoolchildren, people wanting to go to church or synagogue or mosque on a weekend or even a weekday. Lockdown, lockdown, lockdown. This was used by the governors who became tyrants when they wouldn't let us go about our daily business. I've said before, and I'll say it again, I think this was a dry run to see how the government could control people by scaring the daylights out of them. And from the government's perspective, it worked. Some of the more draconian governors, like my own in New Jersey, Phil Murphy, have said, we may have gone a little too far, may have gone a little too far. We challenged you at the time. I have expected the state police, many of whom are my friends, to knock on my front door saying the governor wants to take us in.

And I would say, wait, we need the cameras to view this. I'm being a little snarky here. Now, by closing down the schools and having the students supposedly learn from home via Zoom, at least in the state of New York, this has had a catastrophic effect on the ability of the students to learn because eighth graders in history and civic tests recorded record lows, record low scores, which were just revealed yesterday, scores of uniform test given to all eighth graders in public schools in the state of New York. A perfect score would have been 500. The average score was 258. That's failure. You remember the grading system that we all used

when we were in school, you know was in the 90s and a B was low 90s, high 80s, and a C was mid 80s to high 70s, and a D was 70s, and an E was below 60. At least that's what it generally translated to. So you now have scores where the average, the average was failure. The average was an F. This is on history and civics. Who is the president? How does the president get elected? What's the difference between a state court and a federal court? What does an appeals court do? Who is George Washington? What is the difference between a state court and a federal court? What does an appeals court do? Who is George Washington? What is the Declaration of Independence? What is the Constitution of the United States?

Who writes the laws for the United States? These are very, very basic questions that eighth graders in New York, after two years of no school, compelled by the government, attempting to teach them via Zoom at home. These are dramatically lower scores. 31% were failure. The average was just a little above failure. So failure is 60% or below. So failure here was 31% of all the students that took it. But the average was a D because the students didn't learn, because the government wouldn't let them learn, because the government that we elected turned on us and became tyrants and wouldn't let us go to work and wouldn't let us go to the supermarket and wouldn't let us go to school. Oh, they let you go to massage parlors and liquor stores. Remember all that? God, I remember boasting that the then, since he's retired,

Roman Catholic bishop in Northwest New Jersey, where I live, basically told Governor Murphy to go take a hike. The Catholic churches were open and mass would be set on Sundays and mass would be set on weekdays for those who go during the week as well. Within 24 hours of my saying that, on Fox News at the time, within 24 hours of my saying that, five state troopers showed up at the residence of this bishop, saying, we have orders from the governor to bring you in if the Catholic churches are not closed by tomorrow. And he closed them. That's what the government was like in those days.

The schools had already been closed. All of your tax dollars to support school teachers was done to them talking into a computer over Zoom rather than truly educating the students. And now we know how poor all that education was. All right. More as we get it on all of this, we will be watching the events out of the Kremlin. Was this real or not? I don't think it was. Larry Johnson here at 2.30 this afternoon, Eastern, and that's the very first question that I will ask him. More as we get it. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.