Judging Freedom - Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: Biden and Wider War.

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: Biden and Wider War.See 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 Tuesday, November 19th, 2024. Professor Jeffrey Sachs will be here with us in just a moment on why is Joe Biden playing with fire? And can his latest bring us to World War III? But first this. We're taught to work hard for 35 to 40 years. Save your money, then live off your savings. Unfortunately, there are too many threats undermining the value of our hard-earned dollars. The Fed's massive money

printing machine is shrinking your dollar's value. Just the cost of groceries is absurd. Let me be brutally honest. I think the dollar is on its way to being extinct, not just here, but globally. The BRICS nations, led by Russia and China, threaten to remove the dollar as the world's reserve currency. Central banks have been shifting away from the dollar and into gold. And if we go to central bank digital currency, that will not only destroy the dollar, but we will lose our freedom. We will lose our privacy. They can track anything we do.

You need to take care of yourself and your family. So here's what you need to do. Immerse yourself in knowledge and information. The writing is on the wall. Now is the time to consider shifting some of your dollars into gold and silver as your bedrock financial asset. Call my friends at Lear Capital, the leader in precious metals investing for over 27 years. They help me diversify into gold and silver. They can help you too. Call Lear today at 800-511-4620, 800-511-4620, or go to learjudgenap.com. Professor Sachs, welcome here, my dear friend. Thank you for accommodating our schedule. You and I have talked about the advent of what happened last weekend for a long time,

and that it happened. The Biden administration authorized the use of long-range American offensive weaponry into Russia, and it's already been triggered, as we learned this morning, that three o'clock in the morning Russian time, a storehouse, a warehouse, a military depot holding artillery shells some 70 miles into Russia was destroyed. What are your initial reactions to what the Biden administration has now done after his presidency was repudiated overwhelmingly by the electorate? Well, I find this action shockingly reckless and irresponsible. It is reckless and irresponsible on its own merits because this very decision went the other way just a couple of weeks ago. But it's also especially shocking for a lame duck, a not even lame duck, a dead in thewater administration that has been repudiated to be putting the world at risk

this way. It's disgusting, is what it is. It also shows the profound flaws of our political system. One person, ostensibly, we don't even know whether it's him anymore because we don't hear from him. He may not be even responsible for this, but in the name of one person without public debate on an existential issue, on a decision that was explained to us just a couple of weeks ago. The Pentagon rejected this proposal. This went ahead. No debate, no discussion, no deliberation, no explanation, no word to the American people. It's absolutely extraordinary. It shows the breakdown of the American political system. It shows the profound recklessness and irresponsibility of the Biden administration. I think it makes anyone watching this feel a sigh of relief that this administration is not continuing.

What do you make is Biden's goal from his own perspective, or let's make this more accurate, the goal of those who made the decision? They must understand, whether it's the Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, or the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, they must understand that Ukraine is on its last legs. All this is going to do is poke the Russian bear. This is not going to cause Ukraine to survive any longer. What conceivably is their goal other than maybe handing a disaster to their successors? Frankly, this is the most disgraceful foreign policy that I have seen.

And that's saying a lot because we have had one failed administration after another. So I've long ago given up trying to understand Jake Sullivan or Antony Blinken. They make chronically, serially wrong decisions. This is another one of them. Again, it's also amazing that on a decision like this, we don't hear a peep from the president of the United States, who we don't know whether he's functional. This is one of the problems. some aides or advisors are making decisions like this with a non-functioning president is even more grotesque to contemplate. I can't give you an answer to this. It made no sense before. It was rejected before. It was said by the Pentagon it could not alter the course of the war, but it could be a tripwire that would lead to nuclear escalation.

And so this is just incredible how these people act. When you remind us, Professor Sachs, that it was rejected before, you're talking about that embarrassing scene in the White House with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who, when he left London on his jet, believed that the answer would be yes. And then the Pentagon basically said to the president while Starmer was flying here, forget about it. And by the time Mr. Starmer, Prime Minister Starmer, got here, Joe Biden had angrily agreed that he would not do it. This is the time you're talking about. Now they've gone 180 degrees from that. Yes, after losing an election and after it being absolutely apparent that there is no use to this except wanton,

reckless escalation that could lead to disaster. It's mind-boggling, truly. And what's also mind-boggling, Judge, is if you look at our mainstream media, which is pathetic, round the clock, no real reaction to this because we don't have serious people treating the issues of life and death and survival of the planet, seriously. We just don't. And we have seen one failed assessment after the next. This is a failed administration, and it should not, just on principle, be making decisions like this, because it is on its way out and it should not be making fundamental decisions that in any event in a functioning political system would be deliberated but there's no deliberation at all there's just announcements. Here's the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, whom you probably know, Professor Sachs. It's a brief clip, but he's not very happy.

Yesterday at the Security Council, number 12, Chris. Perhaps Joe Biden, for many reasons, has nothing left to lose, but we are astounded by the short-sightedness of the leadership of the UK and France. They are eager to play into the hands of the exiting administration and are dragging not just their countries, but all of Europe into large-scale escalation with drastic consequences. Dragging all of Europe into large-scale escalation with drastic consequences. The other interesting factor, before you weigh in on what the ambassador said, Professor Sachs, is the change in the Russian publicly stated rules for the use of nuclear weapons, which now says that if a nation without nuclear weapons is using offensive military equipment supplied by a country with nuclear weapons, Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons or the equivalent of nuclear

weapons on both countries. Absolutely. And then the stupid people in our government say, oh, don't worry about it. Oh, it's a bluff. Oh, the ones that have gotten everything right day after day, year after year. In fact, the ones that have gotten everything wrong day after day, year after year, make decisions about our survival in this flippant and irresponsible way, and then tell us not to worry about it. It's stunning. And one should factor in that Starmer and Macron also beating the drums of war. Macron is despised in his country right now. He's lost one election after another. The public despises him.

These are people without sense and without legitimacy. And this is an extraordinarily dangerous situation. And the idea that it's not because Russia's bluffing and they're so sure of it, and yet we are now actively engaged in attacking Russia because Putin's whole point, and it's a valid point, is that these weapon systems are under American control. So this is America fighting, shooting missiles into deep Russian territory. Americans doing this. This is the point people need to understand. And the Russians said, if you do this, we are at war with you. Well, thank you, Mr. Biden. You do not have the constitutional authority for that. You may not have the mental competency for that. You certainly have not had any deliberations with the American people or with our representatives in Congress

about this, and you reversed a decision from two weeks ago without any justification, on your way out, after your administration was repudiated. It's a disgrace. The equipment we're talking about is so sophisticated, it can only be operated by the use of secret American satellite technology, which can only be downloaded by an American with a top secret security clearance, which can only be put into and trigger this stuff by another American with a top secret security clearance. So this is clearly, you are clearly correct from a moral, legal, and now technical standpoint, Professor Sachs. This is the United States of America waging an undeclared, unjustified, unlawful war on Russia. Russian technicians that were Russian-built, that were Russian-managed, that were flying on Russian targeting, even if someone else pressed the button that the Russians had set up. I hope people will reflect how they would feel about that.

They would feel that Russia has attacked the United States. And they would understand that the consequences could well be world war. And the flippancy with which this was taken is just unbelievable. I want to read for you a statement of Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's official spokesperson. This decision, referring to the one we're talking about, is reckless, dangerous, aimed at a qualitative change, a qualitative increase in the level of involvement of the United States in this conflict. Now, Professor Sachs, you know who Dmitry Peskov is. You probably know him personally. He obviously speaks for President Putin. very serious, very straightforward, and very accurate statement. And the Pentagon knew this two weeks ago. And told us this two weeks ago. And sent the British Prime Minister packing two weeks ago.

Because this was reckless and dangerous, irresponsible, provocative, a qualitative change, all the things that Mr. Peskov said. Because it is correct. And the Pentagon said so. So is this Jake Sullivan having his final rah-rah? Or what is this? What are we watching right now? Well, we may be watching Americans on the ground in Ukraine, active duty troops in uniform, out of uniform, intelligence community, CIA and others, and American military contractors expressly authorized to be there by an executive order signed by President Biden. We may be witnessing those people as being killed.

Yes, or all of us getting killed as this thing gets out of hand. One of the ironies and risks of all of this is that this senseless action was taken in the name of attacking or responding to the claimed North Korean troops in Russia, by the way. And it is notable that the most serious account that has been written in recent years of the risks of a world-ending nuclear war, Nuclear War, a Scenario, which came out this year, and it's a meticulous scenario of how a world-ending nuclear war would occur in the course of two hours. It begins with a missile strike on the United States by North Korea. It doesn't give an explanation in the book why North Korea would strike the United States. But if the U.S. is attacking North Korean troops and then we are depending on the bluff of North Korea or the bluff of Russia, this is a kind of gamble that no sane leader, no competent, mentally competent leader

would make, especially with a few weeks left of a term in office. So it just, for for me is an added irony, you could use a soft word, an added alarm bell to this, that the very scenario that has been discussed in recent months in this brilliant account, this nuclear war scenario that was published this year, we may actually be seeing it played out and explained why North Korea would fire a missile. And then is Jake Sullivan going to come out and say, oh, don't worry about that. They'd never do that. What are we doing? And since there is no military case for this whatsoever, only the recklessness of escalation. It's all the more shocking. Sullivan told Face the Nation that the administration still has, you ready for this? $7 billion, billion will it be, authorized by the Congress for Ukraine and unspent. And they intend to spend the $7 billion, all of it, between now and January 20th. Of course they do. Don't they know inwardly, privately, that the Ukraine war is lost?

And if they do, how could they morally justify this waste of cash and equipment? First of all, moral has nothing to do with it. There's not a scintilla of evidence that moral considerations have ever come into the minds of these people. After all, there are hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians dead on their watch because of a war that Biden could easily have prevented and that could have been stopped, in fact, with an agreement that was already initialed in March 2022. So I would not use the word moral to have anything to do with how these people think, act, behave, or frame any issue. Why are they spending the money? Probably there's some military contractors that want the extra billions of dollars. So they're shoveling it out to friends, most likely. Terrible state of affairs. We have about four or five minutes left before we have to jump off.

Prime Minister Netanyahu seems ecstatic with the individuals that President-elect Trump has indicated he plans to nominate to key positions. Pete Hegseth in defense, an ardent Zionist. Marco Rubio at state, an ardent Zionist. Michael Walls at national security advisor, an ardent Zionist. Mike Huckabee, a fanatical, beyond ardent, fanatical Zionist. It's almost as if Netanyahu picked these people, Jeff. Well, of course he did. But I think the thing that Americans need to understand, which I will reiterate because we've discussed it earlier, Netanyahu has done more damage to America than any of the Pentagon to fight wars on behalf of Israeli extremism. And the war in Iraq in 2003 is a Netanyahu war. The attempt to overthrow Bashar al-Assad in Syria starting in 2011 and continuing 14 more years of war is a Netanyahu war. The overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, unleashing instability not only in Libya but across Africa, is a Netanyahu war. Netanyahu and his friends in the U.S. government, these arch Zionists so-called, have had effective control

over the U.S. military. They have cost you and me and the rest of us as taxpayers trillions of dollars. It's quite a dandy deal that the Israel lobby or the Zionist lobby puts in, say, $100 million into campaigns, and it gets trillions, trillions out. Not billions, trillions out. And so when Netanyahu speaks, it's bizarre to me. It's not who Trump is appointing or naming. It's that the United States of America has let itself be used by a band of extremists on serial wars that have been disastrous for

America's interests. Fighting Israel's wars so that Israel can maintain its extremism and its occupation of Palestinian lands and its apartheid rule over Palestinian lands is not in America's interest. And President Trump, who speaks for America, should be saying to Netanyahu, first day, I am president of the United States. You no longer run our country, Bibi. That's what I hope President Trump will say. Before we leave, what happened to a member of the Knesset when he attempted to say, close to what you said, not as articulately as you, but here's what happened to the poor fellow. Cut number 13. There are 17,385 babies in Gaza which your system has killed.

Of those, 825 are under the age of a year. There are 35,055 orphaned babies in Gaza. The blood of all of them will haunt you. And still in your impudence, you wonder how you are accused in the International Criminal Court. Benjamin Netanyahu! What is your vision? What is your vision?

For over 30 years, you have been a serial killer of peace. Get off the platform immediately! Get off the platform immediately! Get off the platform immediately. Get off the platform immediately. A serial killer of peace. What is your vision? A serial killer of peace. Get off the platform immediately. Yes. You know, it's one thing that Israel has been taken over by extremist murderers, which it has, but it's another thing for the United States to give away its sovereignty and its military to that purpose. So I'm just asking for something more modest. I'm not asking for us to fix Israel. I'm just asking for us to say to Israel, to Netanyahu in particular, you are not running our country anymore. You are not leading us into wars anymore. You do your own thing. We'll do ours. Professor Sachs, thank you very much, my dear friend.

Much appreciated. Hope you'll come back. Of course. Again next week. All the best. Safe travels. Thank you. Coming up at 2 o'clock Eastern, which is very close to now, live from within steps of Gaza,

Matt Ho, and at 3 o'clock Eastern, Karen Kwiatkowski. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. Thank you.