Judging Freedom - Scott Ritter : Is the Ukraine Lie Collapsing?

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

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Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. MUSIC Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, July 7th, 2025. Scott Riddle will be with us in just a moment on, is the Ukraine lie finally collapsing? But first this. We all know how devastating war is. Lives lost, communities destroyed. But war can also threaten your financial freedom.

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Scotty, welcome here, my dear friend. As we are taping this, it's lunchtime on Monday, July 7th, 2025. Before we get to Ukraine and the collapse. I want to talk about what's happening in Washington. Benjamin Netanyahu and his Mossad colleagues are having lunch in the White House with President Trump. What do you think they're telling him? I don't know what they're telling him. I'm more concerned about what the president's trying to sell them. The president's looking for a grand compromise on Gaza. He has plans to bring the conflict to an end. And he is trying to get the he could transition into a permanent cessation of hostilities.

He's trying to sell the Israelis on the Abrams Accords 2.0, a vision where a Middle East led by an Israeli economic energy hub brings peace and prosperity to all involved so long as Israel's at the head of this arrangement. Netanyahu is going to be talking about the need for continued violence, continued war, that Israel can't truly be safe until all of Israel's enemies are destroyed.

And so we see Israel trying to lurch down a path of continued war, continued violence, and Donald Trump trying to find an off ramp from this, but one that legitimizes Israel's Israeli supremacy. Basically, what I see is two men have bought into fantasies that are so devoid of reality it's not even funny. Trump hasn't explained how he's going to make the Iranian problem go away and Israel hasn't explained how they're going to defeat Hamas. I just want to remind people over the course of the past several days, Hamas has carried out several very bloody attacks against Israeli soldiers in Gaza at the time when the Houthi of Yemen

have once again resumed military operations that have resulted in a ship sunk in the Red Sea that was heading toward Israel. And three, Houthi missiles not being intercepted hitting targets and Hootie drones hitting targets. If people thought that the day of Israelis running to air raid shelters was over, think again. And so, you know, I just see these two men living in, you know, fictional worlds in their own brains that operate outside of the harsh reality of the Middle East, a reality defined by continued Hamas resistance and continued Iranian intransigence

when it comes to bending the knee to Donald Trump's insistence that they get rid of their nuclear program in totality. Isn't it also defined by continued American finance of genocide in Gaza? Not just finance, Judge, I mean, money is money. I mean, we can't live without it. We all know that's a reality, but more important than money is integrity of values, honor.

And this genocide that's going on isn't just funded by the United States, but facilitated by American complicity in what Israel is doing. Israel is simply murdering Palestinian children and Palestinian civilians every day, a scale that has numbed most observers, including myself. I mean, you know, my heart goes out to everybody killed, but, you know, day after day after day, we get the Israelis bombing schools, bombing refugee camps, bombing humanitarian disbursement centers. We have Israeli soldiers confessing their crimes on TV

that basically they've turned Gaza into a free fire zone where the rule of law doesn't apply, where commanders, the local commanders get to decide who lives and who dies, and they always decide against the Palestinian victim of these Israeli crimes. So this isn't just America financing it, this is America condoning it. And I just wanna remind people

that it is American security contractors that are on the scene shooting to kill the people financing it. This is America condoning it. And we I just want to remind people that it is American security contractors that are on the scene shooting Palestinian civilians as they try to receive the humanitarian aid they they absolutely have have to have access to to survive. I want to ask your audience what would you do if your daughter if your sons were starving to death and there was aid being dispersed over there would you not seek to go and get the food? That your family desperately needs this did do that American contractors over the horizon would tear grass you and shoot you and if they didn't kill you then Israeli bombs would that's what's going

In on Gaza today. Why are American contractors there? And what are they doing there? Why are they killing Palestinians? American contractors there because the United States, the Trump administration was seeking to impose an American footprint on Gaza, part of his solution to the problem. Why are they killing? Because the people who tend to be contractors, is this and I challenge them. I'm not shy about this. You're a mercenary, you're taking money to kill people.

You're not there to serve the United States. You're there to serve a contract. And the contract implies some sort of security base. Now that's one thing if an American contractor was compelled to fire around in a very dangerous situation. But videos come out showing them cheering each other on as they shoot, hey, I think you got one. All right, hooray, that way to go guys.

These are murderous scum. These are the worst kind of people. These are people who shouldn't be allowed to carry a gun. And yet they're there in a zone shooting Palestinians as they try to gain access to the food they desperately need and These Americans are chairing this they think this is a good thing when you recruit from a pool of psychopaths Who have behaved abysmally abroad? Whether they wore the American uniform or they were there in other contract Scenarios, you know, this is what you get. I mean, this is disgusting, Judge, and yet they're above the law.

I hope that one day they're held accountable for the crimes that they are committing, because they're not serving the American people. They're serving Israel, and this is Donald Trump allowing Americans to be further corrupted in the name of Israel. I want to play a clip that I know you and I have seen because we watched it but it's appropriate while Netanyahu is having lunch with Trump. It's Tucker Carlson decimating Ted Cruz on the Nelson decimating Ted Cruz on the obligation Senator Cruz believes he has the command from God to support the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Chris? Growing up in Sunday school, I was taught from the Bible, those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed.

So that's in the Bible. As a Christian, I believe that. Where is that? I can find it to you. I don't have the the scripture off the tip of my... It's in Genesis, but... Where does where does my support for Israel come from? Number one, because biblically we're commanded to support Israel, but number two... Hold on. I'm not holding on. Hold on, you're a senator. We are commanded to support Israel. And we're told those who bless Israel will be blessed.

But hold on, define Israel. This is important. Are you kidding? This is a majority Christian country. Define Israel? Do you not know what Israel is? He's talking about the nation of Israel. You have nations exists and he's discussing a nation.

A nation was the people of Israel. Is the nation God's referring to in Genesis, is that the same as the country run by Benjamin Netanyahu right now? Yes, it is. How prevalent and dangerous is this attitude in the United States? What a ridiculous display that was put on. What an embarrassing display. I want to remind Ted Cruz that when the Declaration of Independence, we just

celebrated the 4th of July when it was signed, there was no Netanyahu-run state of Israel. And the founding fathers didn't speak about subordinating the will of America to some fictional entity. You know, at that time, the Ottoman Empire occupied the land and there was no talk about Israel or creating the state of Israel.

When the constitution of the United States of America was written, there was no talk about Israel. When the United States fought its civil war to define, further define who we are, there was no talk of the state of Israel. The state of Israel is a modern fiction imposed on the world by the British or the Balfour Declaration, by the Rothschilds who have bragged about creating the state of Israel. And Ted Cruz is an embarrassment as an American. No. I'm sorry to join the congress of the united states to serve israel to support israel.

I have to speak out against dan boncino who said you know my top priority is the security of israel. cash patel the fbi director my top priority is the security of israel. no if your top priority is to security israel get the hell out of american government. when you serve the american people you take an oath to the constitution of the United States of America, and your number one priority is the American people, not the Israeli people. Ted Cruz is the epitome of what is wrong

in Washington, DC today, what is wrong in America today, where we have forgotten who we're supposed to work for. Hey, Ted, there is no state-sponsored church here in America, and your Christian beliefs don't trump the Constitution, and they don't trump your duty to the American people. And if you truly believe what you told Decker Carlson, then you must resign. And if the citizens of Texas are going to allow their senator to posture in this manner in a way where he specifically says he will subordinate the interests of the United States. He will allow America to be put in harm's way

to defend the Israeli people. Then the people of Texas have to vote him out of office. No, Ted Cruz, you're the most un-American person I can imagine. You don't serve America. You're not serving your constituents. You're serving the state of Israel, and that's a problem with me. You recently referred on this program to, I'm switching gears now Scott, Ukraine as being in hospice and by the way our mutual friend Rick Sanchez on RT Today quoted you with glee for having said that, when Ukraine collapses,

what will the neocons seize upon next? It depends on the nature of the collapse. I mean, will it collapse in a way that causes Europe to follow through with many of these promises they've made? I mean, if you just saw Marco Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, giving just a horrifically embarrassing presentation where he basically

says that if NATO doesn't stand up to Russia, then all Europeans need to learn how to speak Russian. You know, he acknowledges the absolute failure on the part of NATO over the course of the past decades to build anything that remotely resembles a viable defense industry. And now recognizing that the only way that he's going to hold this artificial edifice called the European Union together is by promoting the continued need for NATO. But to have a continued need for NATO, you need a threat. And that threat now is being articulated as Russia. He is saying that they need to bankrupt themselves morally and fiscally in order to continue

themselves morally and fiscally in order to continue to promote this notion of NATO. So if the neocons are successful in getting Trump to attach themselves to NATO, then the collapse of Ukraine will simply be the vehicle upon which they will continue to pour untoward billions of dollars into sustaining this train wreck known as NATO. If Trump can distance himself from this, then the collapse of Ukraine can be used as a trigger for a collapse of NATO. And NATO needs to collapse. People need to understand that. Stop saying that we need NATO.

We don't need NATO. There's no reason for NATO to collapse. People need to understand that. Stop saying that we need NATO. We don't need NATO. There's no reason for NATO to exist. NATO's excuse for legitimacy ended with the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Russia does not pose a threat to either NATO or Europe. Russia simply In a world where NATO and the United States have been using, have been trying to defeat Russia, put their foot on the throat of Russia, Russia refuses to die as any sovereign nation would. But no, it depends on how the Trump administration attaches itself to Europe as Ukraine collapses and the SS NATO sinks. Well, I couldn't agree more with what you said. I just wonder if the people of Europe go to bed at night worrying about a Russian invasion, because I think this is just a fiction concocted by Mertz and Stammer and Macron and Ruta. Ruta

even said he expected the war in Ukraine to go on for another five years. He's out of his mind. Well, you know, sometimes hospice patients don't go gently into that good night and they hold on for some time now, but the bottom line is Ukraine will die. And then you can decide as a sovereign entity whether or not you want to bankrupt yourself from trying to prop up the false belief that like, and again, like Lazarus, another ridiculous analogy that Ruth they put out there, they can rise from the dead. Ukraine will not recover from this. As we see today, Ukrainian air defense is non-existent

and the Russians have free reign over the skies of Ukraine. If we try to resurrect Ukrainian air defense, we'll just bankrupt ourselves and we'll further weaken ourselves. I mean, there's a reason why p-tag Seth froze American assistance from continuing to flow into Ukraine is that and that is that you know, we have literally tapped out our own stocks of air defense systems You know if God forbid we were ever to have war with China over Taiwan

We have nothing to defend ourselves with with China over Taiwan, we have nothing to defend ourselves with. If the Iranians ever decided to press forward and fire their most advanced missiles, remind your audience that the Iranian missile cities that the Iranians built were not tapped into during this most recent war. Iran only used their older missile systems. There was no use of the more advanced systems, which Iran has in great quantities. And if Iran ever decided that it was necessary to continue the conflict with Israel and extend that conflict into striking American bases in the region, we have no way to defend ourselves. We are literally defenseless.

And yet, Trump wants to, what, continue providing air defense systems to Ukraine, air defense systems that the Russians have shown they can defeat at will. The best thing to do is just let Ukraine die. And remember, this isn't your kind old grandfather that we're asking to pass away. This is, there's an old story back in the 70s and 80s in Russia and Ukraine.

Don't ask grandpa, especially if he was a Ukrainian grandpa, what he did during the war, because you might find out that he killed Jews and killed Poles and fought on the side of the Nazis. That's who we're asking to die here. The old grandpa who has hidden his Nazi past, who when you dig through the basement, you find out he has the photographs of him

posing over the bodies of dead Jews of Babi Yar of fighting alongside the Nazis. This is who we're asking to die in hospice here. Not kind old granddaddy, but mean old granddaddy, the worst kind of granddaddy, and he needs to die. Ukraine needs to perish. This bandarest history that has been allowed to continue by the CIA and by American money, by European money, it needs to end. And Russia is going to bring it to an end. Here's Trump yesterday. You tell me if you think he understands what you just said.

I don't, but let's listen to him. Chris, cut number four. Why not help Ukraine the same way you helped Israel? I am helping Ukraine. I'm helping it a lot. And it's a war that should have never happened. You said you had a strategic call with Zelensky the other day. What strategy did you discuss?

I thought it was a good call. He's being hit very hard, as I said he would. He's being hit very hard and I was very disappointed with my call with President Putin. I was very disappointed. What did he expect President Putin to do? Roll over on the five or six contingencies that have to be met before the special military operation is over? There's no rolling over on President Putin. President Trump claims that he, my God, this President Trump who took the hand of Jolani, the HTS al-Nusra al-Qaeda ISIS terrorist who previously had a $10 million bounty on his head,

shook his hand and said, oh, he's a strong leader, a tough guy. He had to make some tough calls, tough decisions, but he's a good guy. I'll stand by him. You're not disappointed in Jolani for butchering Christian. They just burned a Christian village for butchering Christians at worship,

for facilitating the deaths of thousands of Alawites, of other people who don't support his al-Qaeda regime? No, no. He's a strong guy, a tough guy. Well, there ain't nobody stronger and tougher than Vladimir Putin. But we're not

forced to hold our nose as we acknowledge this. Putin is on the right side of history here, defeating the Banderites scum, these Nazi supporting criminals. And Trump apparently doesn't realize that, but what he does know is that Vladimir Putin is a strong leader. He's not going to bend. And at the end of the day, Trump acknowledges, I think indirectly, that what's going to happen to Ukraine is going to happen to Ukraine. He said, I told Ukraine what the consequences of not pursuing peace would be. Well, those consequences are playing out. There's nothing that Donald Trump could do to, to alter this.

Well, Trump apparently has no compunction about shaking hands with murderous genocidal monsters. He's having lunch with one as we speak. Do you think that Netanyahu is going to feed him more arguments about how dangerous Iran is and how we have to drop more bombs on us? Is that why he's there? There's no doubt about that. Netanyahu was there to basically, you know, steal the spine of Donald Trump when it comes to continuing to confront Iran. But I think what Trump is finding out is that the Iranians are tough guys, too. And, you know, Netanyahu can pull the wool over the eyes of his public by continuing

to censor the actual results of the Iranian strikes, but he can't pull the wool over the eyes of the president who knows damn well what was hit inside Israel. And I believe the you know, there's going to be a give and take where Trump is going to say you, you know, you got hit pretty hard. And now you want to talk about going back to these guys and continue to strike these guys, but they have a hell of a punch. What are we going to do when they punch back? And we don't have the ability to defend.

It turns out what I think they just found out, 97 FAD missiles, very expensive advanced interceptor missiles were fired during these 12 days, depleting the American stock, bankrupting the american taxpayer You know, they don't grow on trees these interceptors and trump will say to netanyahu Where do you think this stuff's going to come from to defend you? How do you plan on defending yourself? And you know to what end are we are we doing this?

So I think there's going to be some pretty tough discussions behind the scenes And the other thing that trump is going to tell Benjamin Netanyahu is you need to clean up, you know Get your act together at home. You're on trial, you know, I can only put so many social media postings out there Threatening sanctions against Israel if they continue to pursue this but before you talk about going to war with Iran and continuing this fight in Gaza about going to war with Iran and continuing this fight in Gaza, maybe you need to solidify your domestic political base at home so that if we do side with you, you don't get swept away. And then I have to deal with somebody else. This is a very complicated situation here. Netanyahu is trying once again to wrap himself in the flag

of the United States of America so they can sell himself as an American-backed savior of Israel to the Israeli public who increasingly is finding that lie a very difficult spoon of poison to swallow. As if all this weren't bad enough, here's John Bolton. Here's a tweet from John Bolton yesterday. We must finish the job in Iran. Critics of the US strike in Iran are still fighting the last war in Iraq, wringing their hands rather than accomplishing anything. Iran's worldwide terrorist proxies and advanced nuclear programs are orders of magnitude more threatening than Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Moreover, no boots on the ground need be involved.

Iran is not Iraq, which Jerusalem and Washington have already partly demonstrated. I suppose one of the best things Trump did was fire Bolton, but not after he listened to him. No, I mean, John Bolton is, I'd like to just say he's a joke, but he's a dangerous joke because as he continues to, you know, his voice continues to resonate in certain circles in Washington, D.C.

And what's scary is that outlets like the New York Times are publishing his work, you know, which means that his voice is also resonating with Democrats. You know, the United States, these elites that define the establishment are warmongers. They are desperate for conflict. They need conflict to continue to feed this military-industrial congressional complex where money gets poured into the defense industry who pours out weapons that needs to be expended in wars so that this cycle of monetized violence continues. And John Bolton is the manifestation of this. And we need to recognize that. He's not looking to defend America,

make things better for Americans. This is a man who has been willing to sacrifice American blood to keep this machine going. He is behind the lies that were told the American people in Iraq about Iraqi WMD. And now he's telling more lies, peddling lies. He's been peddling the same lie about Iranian nuclear threat for decades now.

And I would hope that the American people would see through this. It's time for MAGA, to be honest here, to step up. Step up your game. You voted for this guy, this president, because he said he was going to avoid wars. So why do you allow, you know, people like John Bolton have an echo chamber in your mind? This man wants you to go to war, not because he's looking to make America greater

again, but because he's looking to promote the same military industrial complex that has given us all the wars in the past that Donald Trump said he was going to try to avoid getting Dragged back into this is what he's trying to drag us into yes. We dropped bombs on iran Let's not make that mistake again. Let's find a path towards peace Did you not listen to tucker carlson's interview with the iranian president? There does not need to be a war with iran. is part of the pro-Israeli, greater Israel fantasy that's being sold to the American people. But you know, MAGA is make America great again,

not make Israel great again. And we need to remember that there is a separation between these two, that just because it's good for Israel doesn't mean it's good for America. And oftentimes if it's good for Israel, it definitely means it's bad for America. John Bolton is pro-Israel, not pro-America. We should never forget that. Before we go, for those that haven't seen it yet, tell us about Highway to Hell. 15, 2024, to highlight the threat that nuclear weapons posed to the American people and to the world

and the absolute need for arms control. I just remind you that John Bolton is anti-arms control. He is pro arms race. He's the guy that's gonna get you all killed. Highway to Hell is a book that if you read it, you will be empowered with the wisdom to stand up to those people who promote a continuation of the idealization of nuclear weapons.

And it also will empower you to recognize the absolute necessity of disarmament and arms control if we're gonna survive as American people or humanity collective. Scott Ritter, thank you, my dear man. Thank you for letting me go across the board on all these subject matters. Thanks for your passion and your courage as always. All the best my friend. Thank you. Of course. A great man with an unbelievable knowledge of all this and enough personal courage for, well, a lot of personal courage.

Coming up at two o'clock today, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Dress in the Pallet Town Hall for Judging Freedom. You