Judging Freedom - Ray McGovern : The Dangers of an Unbridled Military.

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

Ray McGovern : The Dangers of an Unbridled Military.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 Monday, December 8th, 20205. Ray McGovern will be with us in just a moment. How dangerous is an unbridled military. But first, this. History tells us every market eventually falls. Currencies collapse.

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There's no pressure. And that's why I buy my gold and silver from Lear. And right now you can get up to $20,000 in bonus medals with a qualified purchase. Call 800511-4620 or go to Learjudgeonnap.com today. Ray McGovern, welcome here, my dear friend. Before we get to the National Security Director from the National Security Strategy that President Trump put out a day or so ago, the Secretary of Defense seems to think that he can kill anyone

the President tells him to kill us. long as they put some sort of a label on them. How dangerous is a military with an attitude like that? We're not talking about people who are waging war in the United States. We're talking about people who, at worst, are transporting drugs, 1,500 miles from the United States. At best, are innocent fishermen that have nothing to do with controlled dangerous substances. Well, Judge, it's incredibly dangerous. That can be turned. domestically on you and me. Let's be realistic here.

The Admiral in charge of Southcom, who ostensibly was supposed to be running these operations when really they were run by special forces, not under his command, he quit. He quit, and the indications are very clearly that he disagreed, with hexeth on these things. And on the advice of his lawyer, Colonel Maher, who also, his JAG officer, who said this is illegal, Admiral Holesy quit.

Now, he retires on the 12th of December. See, that's just a couple of days from now, isn't it? Let's see if he has the stamina, if he has the courage to explain exactly why he quit, because that would be a very big deal, not even Congress, as cowardly as it is, could avoid dealing with an admiral who on principle quit because he was ordered to, because he was given illegal orders. Was this attack on the boat, both the initial attack and the follow-up,

conducted by Navy or Army, do we know? Judge, we have a special operations command that combines the Navy SEALs and the other, the other services, and was run by the commander of that. Now, it's Admiral Bradley. So there you go. He was promoted, all right? So you have this separate chain of command, the communications and other intelligence of which is not available to even Admiral Holsey, okay, much less to represent. representatives and senators in our Congress. So we have this deliberate avoidance of any compromise of these illegal operations.

Well, we'll see where it goes. You know, this was not the only attack where there were survivors. And the next time there were survivors, the government changed its policy, and it rescued them. And then it called the DOJ and said, what should we do with them? And the DOJ said, well, do you have any evidence of crime? And the Navy said, well, it's at the bottom of the ocean. We can't get it. The DOJ said, okay, you better send them home.

So those survivors survived and are home. Because I think the government recognized the criminality of the first hit. We'll have to see what happens. I hope we get to see the film. Senator Cotton looked at the film and called the attack, Righteous. Hines looked at the film and said he almost got sick when he saw people struggling to stay alive on the splintered parts of the boats being blown out of the water.

Yeah, and the latest is that there were about 45 minutes watching these two survivors calling for help, waving to what seemed to be a U.S. drone overhead saying, please, help us. so it wasn't like one of these instantaneous decisions had as we had earlier been brought to believe a fog of war no there there was no fog there these guys were there and admiral bradley in his own wisdom zapped them okay now he's he's got sort of caught the bullet for heggseth he said well you know i did it all by myself like my my kids do and they do something i did it all by myself

Well, yeah, all right. He did it all by himself. Now, one thing, Judge, that's really interesting here. We now have the National Security Strategy Paper. Okay. Now, there's a connection here that I see. We knew about this as early as the 5th of September when Politico ran an article about it. And what political said was that the United States is going to husband its resources, it's going to concentrate on two things, the Western Hemisphere and domestic threats. Whoa. So we're going to make sure that our forces were not overextended in places like Europe or Asia so that we could work our will in places like Venezuela, but also domestically, okay? Now, what does that mean? You know, think about that. Okay. Now, all of a sudden, we have the final draft now. And it's really official. I mean, you could probably notice this signature here. Pretty oppressive. Okay. And what does it say? Nothing. Nothing about domestic use of our armed forces. So what I'm seeing here is if this emphasis on the west, on the, sorry about that, if this emphasis,

The emphasis on the Western Hemisphere also includes the initial draft, namely emphasis on having enough troops around, oh, let's say by next November or whatever, what does that mean? These people do not care about the law, mind you. And whether we're carrying narcotics or not, doesn't matter. What matters is what the internal use of these forces would be. So I see a connection there. We can talk about the guidance or the strategy later, but we are talking about Venezuela and the total disregard of the law.

There is this connection that I see. It worries me greatly because the new guidance, the strategy, doesn't mention anything about that, but we have no threats from Western Hemisphere, for God's sake. I can say that the people running our policy do conceive a possible threat within the United States. they want to have enough forces to deal with that expected threat. I wonder what they expect. I guess they expect to see troops in the streets shooting and killing drug dealers. It's not very much of a leap from what they're doing in the Caribbean to what they may very well want to do on American streets.

They don't seem to care about the American values, about the Constitution that they took an oath to uphold. I mean, the national security strategy, however, though it's couched in very personal, arrogant, Trumpian terms that he's a president of peace, does appear on its face to reject the 80 years of Cold War liberalism, doesn't it? Well, it rejects what Wolfowitz did in 1992. You remember that a very high-ranking general went to see Wolf Woods after the brilliant victory on Desert Storm, 91. And he said, now, Paul, what did you learn from this experience? And Wolfowitz said, your most important thing we learned is we can do these things and the Russians can't stop us. But bear in mind, with General Clark, Wesley Clark, bear in mind, Wes, it will come a time when the Russians will be able to stop us. And so we have to make sure we do everything in the interim to put ourselves in the strongest position.

Now, Wolfowitz was no fool. He could see that the Russian army and its armed forces being rebuilt. That's what we'll come to now. The Russians can stop us. stopped us in Ukraine. And all the breastbeating by people like Biden, let me just say about Biden. I was thinking about how this reverses Biden's policy as well. You'll recall he was given very bad intelligence, right? The head of national intelligence told him in December of 2022 that the Russians have run out of weapons, they're leaving them on the ground, and they have no

indigenous capability to produce such weapons to take the place to the ones that have fallen. And then the head of the CIA told Biden, look, Putin has already lost. And that's what Biden told a big audience when he spoke in Helsinki about how. Now, what happened? What happened then? Well, he was interviewed for 60 minutes, okay? And Scott Pelly says, now, Mr. President, Don't you think taking on wars in the Middle East and Ukraine might be, how do he put it? Could we handle this? Can we handle all this this time? Now, I memorized, but I want to read it to you. This is what Putin-Biden said.

Where are the United States of America? For God's sake, the most powerful nation in the world. In the history of the world, we could take on both, and there'll still be enough to do. national offense. Now, he was badly informed. That was October 15th, 2023. The Ukrainians had pushed back Russian forces. The Russians had made a strategic retreat. And what we saw was they regrouped and took back that territory. And now they've taken almost all of the Dunbass. The situation is completely different. Now they're happy to deal because they've won. And that's the backdrop to this whole thing. Right now, the Russians have won. Will they deal? Of course,

they'll deal with the proper attitude from Trump. And when Putin says, you know, I believe Trump is sincere. And we discussed each one of those points. That's why it took five hours. And, you know, believe me, we think the Russians, we think the Americans are sincere about this. And when Trump, for his point, says, look, I think Putin really wants to have some peace there. Well, you know, we have to at least be aware of those situations and can't recognize or acknowledge that those talks went really well. Now, Whitkoff and Kushner will the British say, well, that's not proper. It's not proper to deal with unofficial emissaries. Who cares what's proper or not?

They're making steps forward. So this business is about that initiative being dead on arrival or other things. You know, people just can't bring themselves to realize that a real negotiation is going to take time, but it's going to take place. And eventually Lavrov and maybe even Rubio, if they'll let him, will be at the negotiating table. But for the nuns, we have working groups under the foreign ministry of Russia, which was said by Ushan. off, and they're working it out. So this notion that all is lost, well, not all is lost. And I think the big thing, Judge, before I conclude this little thing, is that the Europeans, in the persons of Marz and Macon and Stomber, in London, today, as we speak, are hosting Zelensky.

What are they going to say to Zelensky? You know what the guy? going to have to say if they're honest, sorry, we have no money. We thought we could get money from frozen Russian assets, but we have to tell you, it's not going to work. So we have no money. Make the best deal you can. That's if they're honest. If they're more interested in staying in power and putting this thing off for a while, you have maths saying on Friday, look, if we get that money, we still get this money, we can make this war continue for two or three more years. That's the name of the game. On the 18th of December, we'll know whether Ursula von der Leyen prevails or whether the Belgians and the other most sensible Europeans prevail.

If there's no money, there's no more war, the negotiations are going to have to take that into account. I want to go back to the use of the military domestically before your soliloquy. This is General Kane yesterday on the very topic. He's the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chris Cut number eight. We have not. If you look back over the arc of our deployment history over the last few years, we haven't had a lot of American combat power in our own neighborhood. I think that's, I suspect that's probably going to change.

We'll see what we're ordered to do. And of course, we follow that guidance. But we're definitely spending some time there now. So there's two ways to look at neighborhood. He could mean Chicago or he could mean the Caribbean. Yeah, as you mentioned, them going against drug dealers. Well, yeah, they're going against us, too, protesters. Ice came to Raleigh two weeks ago and did their bit.

with people who look not like me, but look, they might be Hispanic. So, you know, the, not only the Army, but ICE and Border Patrol, they were all militarized to do the president's bidding. And that's what worries me about the fact that we had that initial indication. It was from Politico, very well plugged in, that it was a two-fold influence, Western Hemisphere, and Domestic Affairs. Now, the guidance doesn't say domestic affairs, but there you saw General Kane. Right.

You're not going to see domestic affairs and the guides because of the statutes that absolutely prohibit it and the uproar that that would raise, even though this administration doesn't care about the Constitution or about federal laws that restrain it. The document claims to recognize and respect national sovereignty and legitimate security needs and refer, the document itself refers to Donald Trump as the President of Peace. What about Gaza? What about Ukraine? What about the threats on Venezuela? What national sovereignty and legitimate security needs of Venezuela is this government recognizing and respecting? Well, it would be indelicate to say the least to mention in the National Security Strategy document

the need for suppressing dissent at home. But that's the name of the game. And that's what worries me most. And most people, you know, it was really bizarre, Judge. That was the 5th of September of this year. Big leak by Politico. Revised National Strategy, Western Hemisphere, and Domestic Affairs. Not a word between September 5th until just last week.

about this new guidance. Now, the new guidance appears, and there are good things and there are bad things in it. The good thing, of course, is that Trump associates himself with core values. We have no core values in Ukraine. That's what Obama said 10 years ago. Biden was an outlier. What does Putin say? We have core values in Ukraine. So if we have none and Putin has some, there's ample room for negotiation, particularly if they want to put, could you, I'm being called by my wife. Just a second, please. Hi, Chris, let's play President Trump warning of land strikes in Venezuela, cut number nine. So now they're coming in by land, and even the land is concerned, because I told them that's going to be next.

You know, the land is going to be next. And we may go to the Senate, we may go to the, you know, Congress and tell them about it. The sea drugs are almost dead, and they can't come in that fast from the land. And the land drugs are much more dangerous for them. It's going to be much more dangerous. You'll be seeing that soon. And in recent weeks, you've been working to deter Venezuela and drug traffickers, of which there are many? Of course, there aren't too many coming in by sea anymore, if you probably notice that.

We'll be starting to stop them by land also. The land is easier, but that's going to start very soon. We'd warn them. Stop sending poison to our country. That's, Ray, you're back with us? Yeah, that's the president threatening land strikes, not only on Venezuela, but on Colombia as well. in the same breath in which his administration claims to respect to become sort of a john meersheimer realism of respecting the sovereignty of other countries and their legitimate security needs the same time he is killing these people in the Caribbean he released from federal prison

three years into a 45-year term, the biggest distributor of cocaine to the United States and the history, in the modern history of the United States. So there's so many inconsistencies here. You were pointing right before you were called away from the camera and the microphone, you were pointing out the inconsistencies in the national security strategy of saying the Cold War is over. but we'll intervene wherever we want to intervene. Well, you know, Judge, the backdrop of this, as I've said before, is the shift, the tectonic shift in power from west to east,

which was no more apparent than during the celebrations in China and Beijing on victory over Japan Day in September, September 3rd, I think, of this year. Right. Trump had to realize, look, will. Wow, you know, we are no longer the indispensable country in the world, which is what Biden like to quote Madeline Albright about, okay? Now, we've better tuck tail here. We're going to have domestic problems here. Let's find a place where we can flex our muscles and beat our breasts and say, just as, just as Reagan did in attacking the small island of Grenada in 1983, after he had suffered a major.

defeat with 241 Marines killed in the barracks in Beirut, just as as Reagan did in 1983 a week later, we invaded Grenada and removed the leftist group there that was endangering our students, a big, big charade, okay? So we needed to show our metal and make a show of Pete Hetzif has something to prance around about. What can we do? that? Well, we're overextended. We can't do it in Ukraine. We can't do it really. China is, no, we can't do China either. Let's do the Western Hemisphere and that's where Venezuela comes in. I think it's mostly that. I just hope, hope to God, that the Russians and the Chinese are whispering in their channels to Washington. Look, don't do this. This is a fool's errand. You've been there

before. Remember Vietnam, don't do this because we will be forced to support Venezuela. And by the time you leave office, you'll have several hundred thousand troops in Venezuela on a fool's errand. Yeah. Well, I wish they would, I wish they would listen to him. My former colleague Trey Yinkst from Fox News, who's the Fox Foreign Affairs Chief Correspondent recently was honored by journalists in Washington, D.C. You'll appreciate this.

It was last week. And here he is calling for the Israelis to allow journalists into Gaza. So let me begin by acknowledging the fearless and tenacious Palestinian journalists in Gaza, who do not have the luxury we are afforded to simply leave when the story becomes too dangerous. May we not forget their sacrifice and contributions to our industry. Let me also reiterate a position that is incredibly important right now, that international

journalists must be given independent access to Gaza to report. We must continue to speak loudly and fairly, even when it is unpopular to do so. We must hold governments and militaries accountable for their actions, and we must continue each and every day to be a voice for the voiceless. Thank you very much for this honor. Right, right. Well, they killed American journalists already, American citizens, The Israelis is not going to pay any attention to that, and the follow-up is not going to come from Fox News or anyone else.

In other words, that's nice to say the next day, is you going to say, now we have heard from Netanyahu, and he says, go pound sand. No, he's not going to say that. We tried, so I'm sorry, your friend does not impress me. Thank you, Ray. My dear friend, thanks for everything. We look forward to seeing you on Friday with Larry. All the best. Have a good week.

Okay. Coming up later today, Larry Johnson at 11.30 this morning and at 1.30 this afternoon, a former colleague of Ray's and Larry's John Kiriaku, the only CIA agent who went to jail over torture for revealing it. He'll tell us what he saw and what he knows. Josh Napolitano for judging freedom. Thank you.