Judging Freedom - Matt Hoh : Can Saudi Leadership Survive?

Episode Date: October 13, 2026

Matt Hoh : Can Saudi Leadership Survive?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, October 13th, 2006. Matt Ho will be with us here just a minute. Can the Saudi leadership survive? But first this. Winter storms have a way of exposing how quickly normal life can stop. The power goes out, the furnace stops, roads become dangerous, stores get picked over, and once the storm is already on top of you, your options shrink pretty fast. My friends at my Patriot Supply told me they saw this firsthand last winter. When major storms threatened, their Vesta outdoor heater and stove became one of the hottest

preparedness items of the season. It's sold out again and again as people rush to prepare at the last minute. That's exactly why they've created the winter prep bundle to help you get ahead of the storm this time. It includes 114 servings of emergency food with real meals you can count on, the Vesta heater and stove that's safe to use indoors, backup power with solar charging, emergency lighting, and thermal blankets. In other words, food, heat, power, and light already in your home before you need them. And when you go to prepare with the judge.com, you can save almost $300 on the complete bundle. Don't wait until the forecast sends everyone scrambling again. Go to prepare with the judge.com to get your winter prep bundle while still available.

That's prepare with the judge.com. Welcome here, my dear friend. Before we get to Ansarala and the damage, the serious damage that it's doing to Saudi Arabia in your analysis of this. A few minutes ago, at the request of President Trump, United States Ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned. Now, full disclosure, I have known Kimberly for 20 years and worked with her at Fox News for 10 years. The reason she was asked to resign is because she apparently asked a business colleague, to pay a $100,000 American Express bill for her before she was in office. Mike Huckabee is still the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

He has been signing phony and doctored reports to the State Department prepared by his aide, David Milstein, who happens to be the stepson of Mark Levine. Milstein has openly and notoriously doctored the reports of what's going on and the West Bank so as to mislead the State Department and ultimately the White House. Where's the justice here? There is none. I mean, certainly, Gilfoyle is an embarrassment to the administration. Certainly the exchanges she had with that donor were, you know, something that any administration,

even this administration, can abide. It's interesting, Judge. It seems that Donald Trump is much harder on the women, right? You know, he fires Christy Noem. He fires Pam Bondi. fires, I'm blanking on her name, the former labor secretary. He fires Gilfoyle. But as you're saying, with Huckabee, though, a man who should have been fired long ago, not just for his subordinates actions, but for his own actions, his own, you know, obvious belief that his job is to protect

and promote Israel, not to protect and promote the United States. But Gilfoyle's actions, the details, the availability of people to read, what she had requested. I guess was just too much for this administration, which is really quite something when you come to think of that. Right. But, you know, there is no justice. And, I mean, this whole insanity surrounding Israel and how far or how there are no balance, right? How there is nothing that is too indecent. There is nothing for which you can ask, have you no shame and get any response. I mean, certainly this issue with, you know, this visor of Huckabees, Milstein, suppressing the ability of the embassy and then the federal government to investigate Americans killed, murdered in Israel. But that's the whole Republican Party at this point now, too.

You just had a vote in the Senate judge where the Republicans, more or less, with the exception of a few, voted all in favor of, of, or voted against, excuse me, voted against the bill that would investigate these Americans who are being murdered in the West Bank, who have been murdered in Palestine. And so obviously you have not just individuals, but the entire political parties, an entire city that is captured by a foreign entity. Russia selling diesel to U.S. big oil. Now, a violation of at least two federal statutes, but of course, that's not news because we know that Trump doesn't care about the law. Even a law he's signed into existence just two weeks ago, even a law named after his once adversary, but at the time of his death friend, Lindsey Graham. President Putin laughing all the way to the bank. He's getting a premium on the diesel he's selling to the United States, and it's not going to affect the price of diesel at all.

And on the bigger kind of geopolitical aspect of this judge, right, just shows how there is no American policy toward the Russian-Ukraine war, that it is best for the Russians to try and win the war or for the Ukrainians and the Europeans to go it alone because this American administration, I mean, say what you will about Joe Biden and maybe how wrong-headed he was on many things. At least there is a degree of consistency and certainty to him. This is why in 2025, for Vladimir Putin says he'd rather see Joe Biden return to it because Putin obviously knew that Biden was going to be an adversary, a belligerent, would support Ukraine, but he'd rather have that certainty deal with somebody who is at least consistent or who is predictable. And with this administration, I mean, with Ukraine, Judge, we see them slide back and forth in terms of being being angry at Zelensky and the Europeans one day and then the next day saying, we're going to let you produce your own Patriot missiles, right? I mean, providing the intelligence to the Ukrainians to allow them to strike things like

Russian energy facilities or Vladimir Putin's home, you know, like as they did last year. And then now, supposedly, we're hearing news out of Ukraine to the Ukrainians claiming that the Americans may have turned off some of their intelligence sharing. So this is just an unpredictable, uncertain, haphazard, schizophrenic, diluted administration that, you know, the Ukrainians and the Russians, the best thing for them is just to stay away from the Americans because they can't, they can't depend on anything coming from the Americans. It's October, which means it's Cybersecurity Awareness Month. And cybersecurity isn't just for big tech companies with over 3.5 billion laws to scam. in the U.S. last year. Protecting yourself matters too. As someone with an active online presence, my privacy is really important to me. That's why our sponsor, Delete Me, is celebrating this month

by giving you a few quick tips to help you up your security game. Tip number one, when you get an unexpected email that looks legitimate, check the sender's domain before clicking links or opening attachments. Scammers will often use fake domains that trick you into clicking a malicious link. Tip number two, getting lots of spam calls don't answer them. Answering can provide a signal that your number is active, which then gets your number on even more lists, making the problem worse. Tip number three, search the internet regularly to see what personal information is publicly available. Delete Me can help by monitoring data broker sites, removing your information, and make sure it stays removed throughout the year. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up

for Delete Me. Now with a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to join DeleteMe.com slash Freedom and use promo code Freedom at the checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to join delete me.com slash freedom and enter code freedom at checkout. That's join delete me.com slash freedom code freedom. Just to live and things up a little bit. Kimberly Guilfoyle at her finest. President Trump is the leader who will rebuild the promise of America and ensure that every citizen can realize their American dream. Ladies and gentlemen, leaders and fighters for freedom and liberty and the American dream, the best is yet to come. Obviously, she couldn't have had in mind what happened to her today.

No, obviously the best was not yet to come to be publicly embarrassed like this. But I get a feeling she's a person who doesn't have much shame. And I don't want to say anything about her. I've only had one interaction with her judge actually. Actually, two. Twice years ago, like 16 years ago, I used to go on Geraldo's show quite a bit. And she filled in for Geraldo a couple times. And so that's my only interaction with her.

At that point, 16 years ago, she was great. She was supportive of getting out of the Afghan war, right? She liked what I was saying. So that's my own interaction with her. But overall, though, it just shows, I think, how phony our political class is. And the same thing can be said about Democratic Party stalwarts and sweethearts. You know, Gilfoyle has her opposites in the Democratic Party. And, you know, it just shows how this political class United States is nothing but phony and superficial and hypocritical.

Yeah. President Trump has been claiming that he negotiated a deal between Russia and Ukraine of a ceasefire for energy-related targets. It's a ceasefire that hasn't been honored by either side, but the president insists he negotiated it, and it's in place. Watch this. to a ceasefire, but both sides say they have not agreed to that. Well, they agreed. You know why? Because I said you agree. That's why. They agreed because I said they agreed. And that thing has to get settled. That war is a disaster. Well, what kind of sense does that make? They agreed because I said they agreed. They each have been attacking energy targets. Well, that, what you're looking at there is the target of the index, which is the Google of Russia. Now, that is not strictly speaking energy, but that is a significant, significant

targeting by the Ukrainians. Matt, isn't it true that the Ukrainians don't target anything without MI6 and CIA finding it for them, approving it, and showing them how to do it? I'm sure, Judge, we could find examples where they might be able to do that on their own. I mean, they've been in this war now for going on. close to five years. So they have built up that capacity or that capability to do that. But for the most part, by and large, you're absolutely right, correct, Judge, that without MI6 and CIA as well as U.S. military and NATO assistance, the Ukrainians really can't deliver those strikes, particularly against targets well within Russia. They need that type of targeting information, that type of

intelligence, that type of support in terms of technical support, guidance support, even, you know, back-end logistics support. So, yeah, absolutely. These types of strikes like you saw today and that Yandex strike, it will cause problems for the Russians for, you know, conceivably maybe a few days and maybe a couple weeks because those data centers are important, just as if the data centers were struck here in the United States, the difficulties we would go through in our day-to-day lives. But it's nothing that's going to knock Russia out of the war. It's nothing that's going to degrade Russia's warfighting capabilities. It's nothing that's going to make the Russian people say, up, you know what, let's give up. The Ukrainians struck our data centers. It's time to

give in on this war. In the same way, too, the Ukrainians aren't going to give in to the considerable and more devastating, more significant Russian attacks. And now what you'll see, of course, is the retaliatory strikes from Russia for these attacks on the data centers. And so, you know, the Ukrainians judge are the ones who, I hate saying the phrase they started it, but they are the ones who escalated this war into this current phase where there have been attacks not solely on energy facilities, but on all types of commercial facilities. Certainly if you go to Ukraine now, there are no gas stations east of Kiev. the Russians have destroyed them all.

The Russians have destroyed something like 80% of Ukrainian commercial warehouse space. Actually, I just saw this yesterday, Judge, for the first time in 100 years, the Ukrainians did not produce a single ton of metals. And metallurgy and agriculture, are there two big industries, and the Russians effectively destroyed it all. So the Russians, I mean, so the Ukrainians can continue to provoke and attack and do these things. types of escalations. And the Ukrainian belief is that I don't think the Ukrainians believe the Russians will get tired or that the Russian public will become angry and demand and exit from the war, if anything, the Russian public's anger only increases Russian government action. But what they're hoping for is that the Russians will do something beyond the pale, that they'll escalate too far,

that they'll commit some type of atrocity that will force NATO into the war. And so that's why I think we keep seeing the Ukrainians continue to poke and provoke and attack Russia, knowing what the response is going to be with these strikes into Russia, because they hope that NATO will be forced into action because the Russians either deliberately or more likely inadvertently commit some type of atrocity. Does Trump control the CIA? Or will they stay there even if he tells John Ratcliffe to bring them home? Does any president control the CIA judge, right? Right. I mean, I just As soon as you said that, I thought about Harry Truman writing that op-ed following JFK's assassination in the Washington Post saying the CIA needs to be, if not rained in, then abolished. And that op-ed didn't make it into the afternoon edition of the post that day.

So the CIA just doesn't control the executive branch, but they control all sorts of functions in and out of government, including large parts are major media. or at least if they don't control, they have massive influence and they're able to manipulate. And this idea that Donald Trump controls the CIA because he put his, you know, his man, John Ratcliffe in charge of it, I don't think there's any. I think Ratcliffe is a useful idiot for the CIA. I think he has neo-conservative beliefs. I think he has an American exceptionalist mindset. I think he is probably a historic in his understanding of the world.

And so he's easy to be controlled by the CIA. He probably reads Tom Clancy novels believing that that's the ground truth. And so he's probably easily controlled by those at the CIA. And that in turn means that the executive's not in charge. The White House or the director of central intelligence is in charge, but the CIA career people are in charge, many of whom should be in jail. I know with all you went through in your military, career, you did not have to go through this. What do you think the troops think of a audience

at a public execution and the execution by a military firing squad live streamed around the world? It's actually. Before you answer, Chris, Hegeseth with Jack Posobiac on the USS Lincoln Do we have that? This news that came down regarding firing squad. Can you tell us about how that came about and what led to that decision process? No-brainer. Execution by firing squad. Army Major betrays his country.

Radical Islamist kills a bunch of Americans at Fort Hood. Of course we're going to do it at Fort Hood. We're going to do it on a Thursday. We're going to do it at 1 o'clock, which is when he did it. And it's going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad. It hadn't been since World War II since we've done that. Well, I kind of like the mentality we had in World War II. which was win, which was, understand when the enemy attacks you, you need to stand your ground.

And so he's going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be. And we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that is public, because people need to understand that this is a, there's serious consequences for these types of things. Has Major Hassan made any final request, reach out to the president, anything like that to your knowledge? Don't care. He seemed like a breathless madman as he was answering that question. He is. And again, like this idea, the phoniness, the superficiality, the hypocrisy, the, again, the ahistoric belief about how the world works.

What is supposedly the best aspects of our country? What are the things that men like Pete Hegseth say they believe in? They say they believe in our Constitution. They say that's what sets us apart from the rest of the world. But then this is what they embrace. This is what they enact. this is what they espouse, the shooting to death of a man in a wheelchair. It's not even into the aspects of this is exactly what this man wants.

He wanted to be a martyr. He wanted to die in that attack. And now we're giving him not just that death, but also the audience and the conversation. I hadn't thought this guy, Judge, in 16 years probably. And now here he is again. Here we are talking about Nadal Hassan saying his name. I mean, so the idea that you're going to give this man exactly what he's looking for, I mean, the stupidity of that, but then the hypocrisy of or the phoniness of this idea that we are an exceptional nation because of our principles, because of our Constitution, and then we act this way.

And then I think, too, I think you're in, I don't know where you are on death penalty judge, but I don't believe the state has a right to take a life, not in a non-extremist circumstance. We are 110% on the same page on that. To my surprise, not as popular a view as. as I thought it would be, but I've been a fierce opponent of the death penalty my entire adult life. Let's talk about Ansarala. How much damage are they doing to Saudi Arabia? And isn't Saudi Arabia an ally of the U.S.? Why is Trump turning them down when they're asking for help? You know, Judge, I'm looking at the Iran war this past year, right?

And I'm thinking, my God, I couldn't be more embarrassed. Like, this is just what a mess this is. this is just a humiliation and to watch my country carry out this war to be a former Marine and see our military so inefficient and ineffective and so so messed up to put it politely. And then I see the Saudis, right? So I feel a little better that at least we're not the Saudis in the sense of how bad of miscalculation. I'll use another, I'll say it politely as well, miscalculation on the Saudi side. But really, Judge, I mean, I think one of the things that comes to me out of this Saudi

re-ignition of this war is it demonstrates just how unsurious, how corrupted, how rotted, how superficial the American Empire and its vassals are. You look at the seriousness of Ansar Allah, their preparation

to take advantage of the restarting of that war by Saudi Arabia, the fact that over the last several years during a ceasefire, they have planned, they have trained, they have supplied themselves to be able to carry out the campaign we're seeing them carry out, not just in Yemen itself, but into Saudi Arabia as well as anyone else who wants to fight them. And that's very analogous to Iran. Iran's preparation, their seriousness

towards the war they knew it was always going to come. Again, they're planning, they're training, they're articulating, they're articulating clear political objectives and then building strategies, strategies to attain them. I mean, and then you look at the American Empire and you look how just how silly it is, how corrupted it is, how superficial it is, how it can't do any of the things you see these adversaries doing. You don't see the United States or the Saudis carrying out, carrying themselves in their campaigns the same way that the Iranians or the Ansarolaa is both in terms of their ability to come up with and then carry out strategies,

but then also the military campaigns, the executions of them. The United States Navy can't even supply its ships at sea. What's the Navy supposed to do? I mean, that's one with its core tasks. It can't even do that. So, I mean, looking at this war and the position that Saudi Arabia has put itself in, reaching out to anybody and everybody for help, even suggesting bringing in al-Qaeda from Syria, having Akman al-Shara send 10 or 20,000 of his al-Qaeda fighters into Yemen on Saudi Arabia's

behalf. The Syrians deny that's going to happen. But that's where the Saudis are at looking for that type of help because they are in a really bad place where the Ansar Allah offensive seems destined to take ties, take large parties, of central Yemen and ultimately take aid in the Saudi proxy government's capital. And so this idea of Saudi Arabia having done this to themselves and just the damage they are sustaining, not just militarily, but politically and economically, I mean, this is really quite something.

Oster Crook says that Muhammad bin Salman has far more to worry about from internally in Saudi Arabia than he does for Montserralah. He's made so many enemies of royal family elites, oligarchs, just about everybody around him. Yeah, he has centralized his power. He's cut a lot of people off from the benefits of being a part of the royal family. But he also, too, has come up with these schemes over the years to move Saudi Arabia into the 21st century,

these visions of his, including, what was that, that 100 mile long city he was going to build, all these pipe dreams and fantasies that I think have angered, you know, Saudi public in general because they see their resources, which are tied to oil, being put into the fantasies of this crown prince. So I think there are also, too, or the schisms that existed before. There's certainly the dangers of fundamentalism that exist. that exists throughout Saudi Arabia.

I mean, certainly what we say at the end of the 70s, why something like that couldn't happen again in Saudi Arabia, where you have something like the Grand Mosque taken by fundamentalists. And so this idea then that the Saudis are in shaky position, as well as their overall disruption to their economy in this last year from the war on Iran, now this war on Yemen, how they didn't understand that this was going to cost them, you know,

the ability to transit through the Red Sea peacefully, you know, it really just shows that these leaders that the United States has kept in power, particularly the monarchs. I mean, this is the slight against nepotism, right, and inheritance and, you know, monarchies, this idea that MBS in this position because he's somebody's son, not because he fought his way there, got him. I mean, he certainly has fought him's way there, and he has, as I've said, cut out. other parts of the family. But yeah, no, I'll just shut up and say I agree with Alster. Yes, yes. Thank you, Matt. Great conversation. Thanks also for your sensitivity on the death penalty. Very, very serious issue. This attitude that Higgs-Seth manifested in that brief interview

is truly one of barbarism. We are descending into barbarism. Maybe Trump will get the message. I don't know. Right. The lack of decency and shame. But again, the things we supposedly believe in as Americans, where are those values, where are those, and we've been throughout our history falling short of those. But where are they at all in this president administration?

Yeah. Thank you, Matt. All the best. Look forward to seeing you next week. All right. Thanks, Judge. Sure. Coming up soon, if you're watching us live in 35,

minutes on all of this, Colonel Karen Kvokowski, Justinapal Tano for judging freedom.