Judging Freedom - Phil Giraldi [FMR CIA]: The Israel First Administration.

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Phil Giraldi [FMR CIA]: The Israel First Administration.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

you Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, May 7th, 2025. Phil Giroldi joins us now. Phil, always a pleasure. You have a fascinating piece out of the UN's review, UNZ review, called More Exciting News in the White House. Of course, the title is Dripping with Sarcasm. And I do want to ask you about what is now, I would characterize it, I'm going to guess you will as well, the infiltration of the White House by the Netanyahu regime.

But before we get there, I've been asking everybody this week what they think of this. Chris cut number 10. Ukraine there's been discussions they will have to give up some of the land. Russia will have to give up all of Ukraine because that's what they want all of Ukraine meaning they wouldn't keep any of the land that they've claimed Russia would have to give up all of Ukraine because what Russia wants is all of Ukraine and if I didn't get involved they would be fighting right now for all of Ukraine Russia doesn't want the strip that they have now Russia wants all of Ukraine. Russia doesn't want the strip that they have now. Russia wants all of Ukraine.

And if it weren't me, they would keep going. Is there even a scintilla of evidence of which you're aware to back up what he just said, that Russia wants all of Ukraine? Well, I think the argument has to become, is this guy who unfortunately is our president just kind of ignorant and that nobody's telling him anything about the history or the politics of these countries that are involved and that his intervention, whatever he thought it was, didn't change anything or is he just stupid? And this is getting so perplexing because he contradicts himself all the time. Now, he's on one hand saying that he's cozying up to Russia hear in terms of some kind of compromise.

And then he turns around and he says that Russia is about to invade Eastern Europe, and this is what it's all about, and they want to conquer Ukraine as a first step. This is ridiculous. Here he is in the debate against Joe Biden, right after President Biden said basically the same thing. Russia wants all of Ukraine, and they want to go up to Poland and the Baltic States as well. But what Trump said during the debate absolutely, totally refutes what he just told Meet the Press.

Chris, cut number eight. It should have never happened. I will have that war settled between Putin and Zelensky as president-elect before I take office on January 20th. I'll have that war settled. People being killed so needlessly, so stupidly, and I will get it settled and I'll get it settled fast before I take office. She said, I don't know which is more telling his boasting or Biden's looking like he's a zombie during that debate, but whatever, we're not here to analyze Biden's Biden's brain. Uh, does Trump even know?

Well, Trump doesn't know what he's talking about. Does the Kremlin take him seriously? That's what I want to ask you. Does the dude, does Russian Intel take him seriously? That's what I want to ask you. Does Russian Intel take him seriously? Well, Russian Intel takes him seriously only in the sense that they're no doubt advising their own leadership that this guy is not to be trusted. He says one thing one day and another thing the next day. So that's what Russian leadership is probably aware of. No, they don't trust them. How could you possibly trust someone who essentially doesn't have a clue about what he's talking about?

How does this augur for Steve Witkoff meeting with Vladimir Putin. I mean, one of our guests suggested that Trump is so politically adept that he is boasting that Russia wants all of Ukraine so that when Russia ends up with Crimea and the four O-blasts, he can take credit for having, air quotes around this word, saved the rest of Ukraine. Or is that giving Trump more credit than he's worth? Well, I think there's certainly, there's this showman type aspect of him where he always wants to be in the limelight and he always wants to make it look like he's done something Wonderful, and then he's come out with something that is befitting of a genius

he's constantly playing that card and that's part of his problem and You know, but the fact is yeah, he probably up and then think about wit cough This is a I don't know if you've seen it, but there's been some talk this past week about Witkoff when he goes off on these missions and talks to people. He doesn't have any professional diplomats or intelligence officers or anybody accompanying him. So he basically goes in,

I guess he talks to Trump on the phone, and then he wigs it with Putin, and then he talks to Trump on the phone again and wigs it in terms of what the conclusions are. That's the only thing I can figure. Well, he really needs a professional staff and he needs intel with him. Does he know that whatever he's saying to Trump on the phone is being heard by Russian Intel? He should, but maybe he doesn't. I mean, he's a real estate guy. So you know, sure. I mean, everything is being listened and stuff that's not being listened is obviously being

relayed by Walter and others in the United States in case the Russians didn't pick it up first time around. Has Trump appointed anyone to sensitive positions in the State Department, as far as you're aware, who is not a committed Zionist? No, I had some hopes for Tulsi Gabbard. I think many of us did because she's shown some independence in the past when she was in Congress. But I guess she's decided that she needs the job or something like that and has apparently thrown that away.

So no, I don't know of a single one that isn't that way and vociferously that way and insistently that way. I guess it's Professor Sachs has said that this administration is an Israel-first administration and I can't say it better than that. Is Trump as culpable for genocide as Biden was and does he deserve a similar sobriquet as genocide Joe got? Well, he's not as guilty as Biden because Biden ran this for a whole, what, nine months and killed arguably hundreds of thousands of people. And we've had reports again this week from the media, former staffers for the Biden administration

revealing that Biden never ever during that whole time put any pressure on Israel or on Netanyahu to come to some kind of ceasefire or agreement. So he was not even interested in that. Trump at least made a minor effort with Witkoff, which of course Netanyahu then destroyed. And again, there was no pushing. So the whole question is, you know, in my mind, if Trump actually has any kind of independent spirit when it comes to the Israel lobby

and to the Jewish state of Israel, what will it take from Netanyahu to arouse maybe a contrary reaction? I'm very much watching to see if anything like that is going to happen. There's some burbling going on today about the Houthi business and the messages that are being sent, contrary messages

and incomprehensible messages, again, coming out of Trump and coming out of others in the administration. So this is the norm. You mentioned Tulsi Gabbard. Here she is last week, cut number 20. I think it's important for the American people to see the contrast and the difference between the neocons who are very ready to rush into war

without allowing what President Kennedy spoke about in his historic speech at American University, which was to choose peace, to do the hard work of diplomacy, to recognize the true cost and the serious cost of war, and that it requires strong leadership, and that it's not something that you just go, okay, good, we got peace, and then you walk away. No, it requires consistent engagement

and that strong leadership that once again strikes that balance and recognizes that we cannot be prosperous unless we are at peace as a nation and ensuring our nation's security. That was an interview she did with my friend and former colleague Megan Kelly and what she said there was terrific but she wasn't showing her Zionist side. She was showing her pro-peace libertarian side, which we applaud, but there's more to her, as you know, and as you said.

Yeah, that's the tragedy there. She's smart enough, she's experienced enough to do the right thing, but somehow she switches it off. I mean, some have suggested it's because she's a Hindu nationalist and religiously and that they, like the Jews in the Middle East, have this thing about Muslims. In fact, we see almost a state of war developing in India, Pakistan right now. Right. The manifestation of this. And it's this sort of thing. Does that drive her?

Is that why she's talking the way she is? Someone as intelligent and willing to take risk as she proved in her earlier career? This is a tragedy. People come into our recent administration, and I'm saying recent, I'm saying certainly since Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and these people are basically trash. I mean, they're in to make their own agenda come to life, they hardly can speak in terms of doing what's right

for the United States and for the American people. We're seeing this all the time now. And it's just at a certain point, when is it gonna stop? Do we need another revolution? You know, I don't know the answer to that. This woman, Tulsi Gabbard, was far better as a member of Congress than she is now in the administration and very different. Just as Marco Rubio was far worse as a member of Congress. I don't know if he's changed. I hope he has. We're getting all kinds of theories that he has and he hasn't, but whatever,

their public words in the administration are what they think the president wants to hear. Now, what they whisper to him in private, who knows, but that clip was magnificent. That statement could have been written by you or Jeffrey Sachs or John Mearsheimer and instead it came out of her mouth extemporaneously. Back to Genocide Joe and back to Trump. was of the view that Trump humiliated Netanyahu by not telling him in advance before he told the press that we had stopped the bombing of the Houthis. Of course he also accompanied that statement with something equally as absurd as what he just told Kristen Welker on Meet the Press and that is that the Houthis have capitulated.

All right. So the Houthis are not going to bomb Navy ships that are no longer there. That's a capitulation? Yeah. I mean, it fools me. I mean, as soon as they're talking about capitulation, I was wondering, did they sign a peace treaty on the deck of the USS Missouri or something? You know, this is, this gets so ridiculous and there's so much hubris in

all of this about, you know, having victories or winning. One thing I'm bloody tired of is seeing every time Trump is like here talking to the Canadian Prime Minister, he's standing there and he's raising his fist. Like this is the hero, I am the hero. This guy is a draft dodge. And you know, he's now wanting to have a military parade on his birthday. When does this stop?

When do we realize there's a real touch of insanity floating around here? I don't know when it's going to stop or how it's going to stop. He insulted President Putin and Deputy Foreign Minister, I'm not sure of his title, the former president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev today by claiming that May 9th is the American victory and not the Russian victory. Now they lost 27 million people, about two and a half million military and the rest civilian.

Here's what Mr. Medvedev said, our people sacrificed 27 million lives of their sons and daughters in the name of destroying a curse at fascism. Therefore, victory day is ours and it is May 9th. So it was, so it is, so it will always be. So it is, so it will always be. I mean, if I were Trump, I would show up on May 9 and show my appreciation for this Russian celebration and then I'd stay for a week because President Xi of China will be there, President

Modi of India will be there, the four of us, Trump, if I were Trump, Trump, Putin, Xi, Modi would sit down and craft a new world order where people can be at peace with each other and trade openly and freely. That is not going to happen, Phil. Yeah. Well, I mean, one thing that astonished me again that demonstrates this guy's ignorance, the world war II did not end when Berlin was taken by the Russians. The world war continued in the Pacific with the United States. When I was growing up, we used to refer to VE day, victory in Europe day,

and it was VJ day, victory in Japan. And did he did. Where did he go to school anywhere? I mean, did they actually? He went to the New York Military Academy as a prep school. And then he went to the University of Pennsylvania and Ivy League School. His sister, before she died, a federal judge, a colleague of mine in the New

Jersey judiciary claimed that he paid people to take exams for him to get into before she died, a federal judge, a colleague of mine in the New Jersey Judiciary, claimed that he paid people to take exams for him to get into Penn, and intimated he paid people to take exams for him while he was at Penn. Who knows? Well, he certainly paid off somebody to get his bone spurs so he wouldn't have to go to Vietnam. Well, anyway, there were a lot of people like that. Yes, yes. You mentioned something that I had not heard of in your piece, more exciting news from the White House. Do states, American states, states of the union, States, American states, states of the Union actually require pledges of no boycotting Israel, meaning no intentional purchase of a good or a commodity or a service from somewhere else

in order to receive a state benefit. That would violate the Commerce Clause, it would violate the First Amendment, it would violate the Fifth Amendment. the commerce clause and it would violate the first amendment, it would violate the fifth amendment. Yeah, no, it's absolutely true. There are right now 38 out of our 50 states that have one measure or another. It can either be a written document that you have to sign saying you will not engage in any boycotts or any similar punishments of Israel if you want to get this state benefit or this state job. And in some cases it's just you have to stand in somebody with presumably your hand on the Old Testament and swear that you are not going to participate with any groups that

advocate anything like that. So there are 38 states that do that and they condition their benefits and their jobs and whatever else on your swearing an oath or pledging something having to do with a foreign country. So that is a fact. And of course, now we're seeing this kind of stuff replaying in the Congress with the various bills that are before Congress right now that basically would do the same thing at the federal level

where if you are basically someone who has boycotted, advocated boycotting Israel, there will be consequences for you in terms of your interaction with the federal government. The bill, fortunately, that this was supposed to do, that was, I think, two days ago, and it's still bouncing around. Yeah, the House leadership,

this is the bill by Congressman Mike Lawler, Republican of New York. The House Republican leadership pulled it from a vote because they didn't have enough votes. But Phil, this is a criminal statute. This provides for prosecution and criminal penalties. This is lunacy because under the Fifth Amendment, you have the right to decide from whom you're going to purchase anything. There you go. Thomas Massey, MTG, that's Marjorie Taylor Greene, trash bill that would punish orgs who boycott Israel. This is another one. This is not Mike Lawler's. This is Marjorie Taylor Greene. Massey, of course, is opposed to it. The Democrats are opposed to it. Massey

just needs one or two of his buddies to oppose it with him. They can't get it off the floor of the House. But think about what they're doing, punishing you for making a personal choice about from where you're going to buy a product. That freedom is protected from assault by the Fifth Amendment, assault by the federal government assault by the Fifth Amendment, assault by the federal government by the Fifth Amendment and protected from assault by the 14th, from the states by the 14th Amendment. It's beyond me what these people think they can get away with. Yeah, and of course it also has a free speech aspect.

Yes. Where you're suddenly criminalizing, saying certain things or supporting certain things, a lot of people will take the lesser path by, you know, basically not being willing to speak the truth or be honest about anything anymore and will not be willing to vote that way. We'll not be willing to look what's going on also at the State Department with looking at people's social networks to see what they email to their friends. This is becoming an issue that they won't issue you a visa if you're a foreigner and they don't like what they're seeing. And they're also of course using this as a pretext

to deport people that they, again, that they don't like what you're saying or what you're thinking. Now I'm looking at the shirt you're wearing that appears to have the map of Italy on it. If you went to a store and had a choice between buying that shirt and a comparable shirt made in Tel Aviv, you'd have no choice. I guess you wouldn't see it in the store because the storekeeper wouldn't have the choice. Well, I would probably have an accident and kind of have the Israeli Tel Aviv shirt fall on the floor so I could step on it, but that's my personal opinion and I'll probably be in trouble tomorrow with Congress

so we're over that. And I understand they're reopening Alcatraz. Have you seen that? Probably you and me and a lot of other people will have reserved rooms there. I just hope we have a nice view of the Golden Gate Bridge or something like that. But this is so ridiculous.

They're criminalizing everything that used to be rights, privileges, and liberties of the American people. And God knows where this is going to go. Phil, this has only been 110 days. I don't know how many thousand days are remaining, but three years and nine months to go. Yeah, yeah. Why do they call Biden Genocide Joe and there's no sobriquet for Trump? Well, they're probably waiting for something even better, but because there's certainly

some real loony stuff in the pipeline. Yeah. Phil, thank you very much. Thanks for your courage. Thanks for all the research you do. Thanks for the columns that you send us and thanks for being a regular on the show. We'll look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you.

Look forward to seeing you. Of course, all the best. My best to Angela. Tomorrow, Thursday at two o'clock in the afternoon from Tehran, Iran. Ready for this? Max Blumenthal, three o'clock, Professor John Mearsheimer, four o'clock, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, 4.30 from Moscow, Pepe Escobar. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. You