Judging Freedom - The End of Zelenskyy Presidency? w/Scott Ritter

Episode Date: October 5, 2023

The End of Zelenskyy Presidency? w/Scott Ritter #Russia #UkrainewarSee 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 Wednesday, October 4, 2023. Scott Ritter joins us now. Scott, my dear friend, always a pleasure. Thank you for coming back to the show uh with the disastrous trip uh that he had uh to the un with the embarrassing internationally crushing episode uh in the canadian parliament uh with the efforts to talk to American billionaires about rebuilding Ukraine, which also didn't seem to resonate well. How close is President Zelensky to the end of his presidency?

He's actually closer than I think many people would suspect. Look, we need to understand what his role is. He is not a natural leader. He is not the modern day Winston Churchill. He's an actor playing that role, reading from a script written by American and British intelligence services, diplomats, who are putting on a show for their respective populations and the world at large. He only is useful in this role so long as the narrative is compelling and people believe in it. We're at the point right now where the narrative is collapsing. People no longer believe in Zelensky as a, as a viable leader. And I think now that he's, you basically, you know, he had a successful first season. We're in the process of seeing a failed second season and what happens

normally when a second season fails, there's going to be a change in leading characters. They're going to bring in new characters and new script, new ideas. And that's, what's going to happen with Zelensky. I think he's on his way out. Will the war survive his presidency? In other words, if he's gone, either he leaves and goes to Miami or he's arrested or he's assassinated, whatever, will the war continue or will this have a material effect on the war? I do believe the war will outlast Zelensky.

The question on the fate of the war depends on who replaces Zelensky. If Zelensky collapses from within, namely, say, a military coup or something of this nature, the coup is probably going to be motivated by one of two things, a desire to either more effectively prosecute the war, in which case they'll attempt to extend the war, or a recognition that this is a lost cause and therefore bring an end to this conflict as soon as possible. If Zelensky is brought down from without, it's purely to extend the war. It's to basically push Zelensky aside and replace him with somebody who will do a better job of selling the Western script. So two days ago, the Telegraph

of London quoted a senior British military source saying that the United Kingdom has run out of military equipment to give to Ukraine. I don't know if that's true or not. You may know, but the fact that this was leaked publicly causes me to ask you, is there a general consensus, albeit below the radar screen, that Ukraine has lost and it's over? I believe there is. I mean, politically speaking, they can't say that right now. They, you know, they're desperate to find some sort of off ramp. And a lot of the Western approach towards Russia is based on propaganda. That is an effort to carry out a psychological operation against the Russian people in the hopes that they will believe the negative press about their leader, about

state of affairs and rise up against Putin and that Putin will collapse from within. So, you know, if that's your plan and that's your strategy, then misinformation is your tool. And so why not misinform everybody while you're at it? But, you know, I think rational people realize that that isn't going to happen and that this is going to be settled on the battlefield and that Russia is winning this battle decisively. And there's nothing going to happen that's going to turn that around. And so what you're seeing now is people starting to be more honest with the public, with themselves, to prepare them for the inevitability of a Russian victory.

Here's someone, I won't even tell you who it is until we see her on the screen, who's the princess of misinformation, arguing that President Putin has provoked people like you and me and the hundreds of thousands that watch us into our opposition to American aid to Ukraine. I wonder if she expects Joe Biden not to run for re-election and that the Democrats might again, you must know who this is by now, turn to her. Cut number one, Gary. I think Putin is not only thrilled by the divide over whether we continue and at what levels to fund Ukraine, I think he is fomenting

it as well. Putin and his team that does the kind of interventions, covert and overt, aiming to undermine democracy and to suborn political leaders is a big part of how he sees his role. All right, put aside the undermining of democracy that was done by the CIA and the State Department when she was Secretary of State, but this is really some of the weirdest stuff I've ever heard. You and I and the thousands watching us are fomented by President Putin's misinformation, not by his integrity, not by his patience, not by his understanding of military procedures, not by the West having double-crossed him on NATO will never move one inch eastward, but by his chicanery against us? I think the first thing is she disrespects you, me and all American people. She disrespects our ability to discern facts independently.

And she disrespects, you know, our ability to build a foundation of information based upon our own, you know, intellectual capacity. He expects that we should be sheep who willingly follow the dictate laid out by her and her fellow establishment figures. Unlike Hillary Clinton, Vladimir Putin deals with issues in a collegial fashion. He calls people in, he listens to them, he considers what they say, and he then formulates a position that is then put out there for review before a final decision is made. Why do I bring that up? Because if we're falling victim to anything, it's not Vladimir Putin. We're falling victim to the rational approach taken by Russia as a nation state towards international problem solving. And I would believe most rational people would say that's probably the best way to go about solving an issue, as opposed to literally the dictatorial manner in which American leaders approach this, my way or the highway, listen to my information. Anything that's different than me is misinformation, is disinformation.

And, of course, because they don't respect you and I, it must come from a source other than the American people. It must be Putin's fault. If you hear somebody blame Putin, the first thing you know is they know nothing about Russia. Well, here she is again. And by the way, this is the PBS NewsHour taped earlier today, Wednesday, October 4th. Here she is again, cut to Gary saying, Ukraine's not corrupt. Putin is. When I see people parroting Russian talking points that first showed up on Russia Today or first showed up in a speech from a Russian official, you know, that's a big point scored for Putin. When I see Americans in positions of responsibility talking about how,

you know, we shouldn't support the people of Ukraine. They're corrupt. And talk about corruption. There is the master of corruption living in the Kremlin. One of our, I mean, the viewers are going crazy over this with one of them saying she's nuts. Master of corruption. We just heard from the mistress of corruption.

You know, the Clinton Foundation. If people don't understand, when she was secretary of state, they literally, she and her husband had a deal where she would use her access afforded to people as secretary of state to initiate a meeting. And the bill would come in with literally a suitcase ready to receive the money to fund the Clinton Foundation. She is the epitome of corruption. For her to throw out corruption claims against Vladimir Putin, again, just underscores the level of her ignorance. And for her to crop up Ukraine as somehow this bastion of liberty and democracy, where everything works by the books. Even the U.S. government acknowledges that Ukraine is the most corrupt place in the world. Why is it we won't allow an audit? Why is it we send them over $130 billion worth of aid so far and we're afraid

to find out what happened to it? Because we know what happened to it. We know that 60, 70 percent of it gets skimmed off into the pockets of corrupt Ukrainian officials. And our government can't be honest with the American people about that. I learned this in an email that you and I shared this morning. The depravity of corruption in Ukraine is such that Ukrainian soldiers know that they have to have cash in their pockets. Why do you need cash on the battlefield? Because when you get hurt and you're bleeding to death, you have to bribe the medic to pick you up. And then when you get to the hospital, you have to bribe the nurses and the personnel and the doctors to take care of you. Otherwise, you'll be at the back of the line and you'll be dead by the time they get to you.

That is a level of depravity, corruption that I've never even dreamed of. And to the West is almost unimaginable. But it's accepted and expected there. Yeah, I mean, it points to the sad state of affairs of the Ukrainian military, where they've been thrown into this, you know, counteroffensive that has killed, you know, more than 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers since it began, wounded many, many more than that. The medical facilities can't handle it. If you have X number of combat medics, unfortunately, they're not going to run out. If they run out and there's five guys lying on the ground, it's given the state of affairs in Ukraine, it's the guy that's flipping the money

that's going to get picked up and dragged out first. Then when you get to the hospital and the doctors are doing triage, it's not who needs medical care first, it's who can pay me first. Then when you get to the hospital and the doctors are doing triage, it's not, you know, who needs medical care first? It's who can pay me first. This is just the way it is in Ukraine right now. From top to bottom, entire society is corrupt. I want to bring you back for a minute before we have more Mrs. Clinton and we have an Admiral Kirby where he's Baghdad Bob again. I want to bring you back to this piece in the Telegraph. Does this sound reasonable to you that the British would be leaking that they assume will be running out of military equipment to send to Ukraine? Does that sound rational? I think what we have right now going on in England is just more evidence of the dysfunctional nature of British rule. You have a prime minister

who had to appoint somebody to take Ben Wallace, the Minister of Defense's place, and he appointed perhaps one of the most incompetent people ever. And what you're seeing right now is a new defense minister who's running off at the mouth, talking about British ships going to the Black Sea, talking about British boots on the ground, talking about expansive British engagement. And I think you have people in the establishment are saying, we need him to shut up. And so they're leaking the truth to the media in an effort to get the facts out there so that maybe some political pressure could be put on the defense minister to stop running his mouth when reality is England can't do anything that he says they want to do.

And then Prime Minister Sunak, in response to the brouhaha that you just described, said, well, we don't intend. This is such a British phrase, Scott. I don't think we use this here, but I'll use exactly what he said. We don't intend to put boots on the ground, quote, in the here and now, close quote. OK, there is no now. It's like the future or the past. What does he mean we don't intend in the here and now? We may intend it next week. That is a BS statement just intended to calm the British public. I think one of the things that his new defense minister was talking about was that these boots on the ground, so to speak, would be British

trainers. British forces sent to Ukraine to train the Ukrainian military right there, as opposed to bringing the Ukrainian military to England to receive training. You send the trainers there, it's more efficient. And there's no doubt in my mind that as soon as this conflict ends, that's what the British would intend to do if there is still a Ukraine. And that's what he means, that as long as there's a shooting war between Russia and Ukraine, the United Kingdom is not going to put any boots on the ground. But once that shooting war ends, then you can plan on it.

Is the Ukraine military collapsing? Yes, as we speak, it is in the initial stages of total collapse. They're exhausted. They've exhausted their resources. People need to realize that a starving body is in collapse, but it takes some time for the body to finally eat itself up before the body collapses to the ground Ukraine is a military is a starving military they're being denied the resources they've exhausted their human um you know capacity they have no reserves left the war is still going on grinding up this is like not carb loading before a marathon you're going to get to you know mile mile eight and your body's just going to run out of energy and you can't go forward. That's what's happening to the Ukrainians. The military is literally running out of the energy necessary to continue this fight.

What happened in Slovakia recently and is there significance to it with respect to the EU or NATO? I think what we're seeing, what happened in Slovakia is there was an election for prime minister, and Robert Fico, a former prime minister who had to resign in 2018, has been brought back in, and it looks like he's going to be able to create a coalition government he is pro-russian anti-sanction and anti-supplying ukraine with weapons and he has said these are the policies that slovakia is going to be pursuing going forward he's joining victor orban the prime minister of hungary who has similar policies uh in two weeks, Poland has an election and the government that will probably emerge from these elections is similarly anti-EU and increasingly fed up with Ukraine. And so you're going to see in Central Europe a growing block of nations where populism,

the will of the people, imagine that, is manifesting itself electorally. And they're saying, we want you to take care of us. It's not just Ukraine. There's a whole immigrant issue. Again, Americans, take note. The people of Europe are starting to stand up and say, we don't want illegal immigrants swarming us. We're going to protect our borders. And governments that vote against that, like right now in the European Commission, in the European Parliament, they're trying to pass laws that will, you know, again, force governments to allow these immigrants into their countries. And Poland's saying, we're not going to do that. So it's not just Ukraine that's

created a problem. It's the overall concept of a European Union dictating solutions to sovereign people. And I think you're starting to see the tables turn on the forces of liberalism that had seized control of Europe for so long. more conservative populist movements take control. And it's the will of the people. I mean, again, it's amazing what happens in a democracy when it actually functions. Here's an exhausted Admiral Kirby yesterday with one of his standard, this isn't just our fight. This isn't just the Ukrainian fight. It's the American fight. I can't speak to individual polls, and certainly the American people should speak for themselves.

We believe that Americans understand what's at stake here. We believe that Americans understand that it's not, although it is first and foremost about Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and their sovereignty, it is bigger than that. The American people understand that, that there's more at stake here than just the borders of Ukraine. It's the vast security environment on the European continent. And it's the very idea of independence, which is a founding ideal in this country. If there's one thing that all Americans, no matter who you vote for, can get behind, it's the idea of independence. That's what Ukraine's fighting for.

Well, that is really a bizarre statement. I don't even think President Zelensky would go along with that nonsense that Ukraine is fighting for independence. I mean, if you talk about the will of the people, the will of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea is nearly unanimous. They're Russian. They're fighting for their independence. We can't hear you, Scott. They're fighting for their independence from a pro-military and Ukrainian state dominated by, you know, Western Ukrainian adherence to the ideology of Stepan Bandera. You know, but the interesting thing about

Kirby when he spoke, he talks about democracy and things of that nature. It's curious that we're fighting for larger European issues and all that. Well, the people of Hungary disagree, the people of Slovakia disagree, the people of Poland disagree. And they're right there, next door neighbors to Ukraine. What is it about the Ukrainian conflict that has them taking a position different from Americans who are thousands of miles removed? And again, with all due respect to Admiral Kirby, I don't think he has the most fundamental notion of what the American people think. He's up there spewing policy talking points from a Biden administration that is so far removed from reality, it's not even funny. What are your views on the Republican revolt in the US House of Representatives.

To me, it was over former Speaker McCarthy not being faithful and truthful to promises he made to the libertarian and conservative wing of the Republican Party to dial back spending and then pass spending that was the same levels that Mrs. Pelosi did. But it was also the belief that a speaker, former Speaker McCarthy, had cut a secret deal with the Democrats and with the White House to get more aid to Ukraine. When that belief

spread amongst the libertarians, they went wild. Look, I agree. First of all, let's just start off. It's not in the best interest of America to have a dysfunctional House. We would be well served by having a speaker in place so that, you know, government can get back to the business of governing. But in defense of those who have brought this about, you know, the government has become so far removed from anything resembling democracy. You have these special interests. You have these political cliques that operate regardless of what the people think. You have people who are elected to office to represent the will of their constituents being told to shut up and sit down. Just do what we tell you to do.

We're smarter than you. Well, guess what? They're not that smart. Kevin McCarthy's not that smart. He thought he could get away with the elites cutting back room deals with other elites, and it's led to his downfall. I'm hopeful that Congress can get back into the business of governing, but the fact of the matter is, you know, the budget right now is held hostage to people who are married to ideas that aren't coming from the bottom up, meaning the will of the people, but rather indicated from the top down by political elites. And, you know, the whole idea of the House of Representatives was that it would be the people's house. We would elect people for two years to go in there and do what we want. And that's not what's happening. The House has become subordinated to a Senate that's become subordinated to a deep state that puts in place compliant presidents, and that's not democracy.

You're 100% correct. Last subject matter, the Canadian Parliament Nazi controversy. Did this reveal more than meets the eye? I believe so. I believe it reveals not only the ugly truth of Canada, which is that the Canadian government, Canadian institutions have been hijacked by a Western Ukrainian diaspora, which is 100% aligned with the ideology of Stepan Bandera, and also are associated with the actions of Adolf Hitler's

Nazi Germany in the Second World War, meaning that in the cause of Bandarism, they perpetrated horrific crimes against humanity, the slaughter of Jews, the slaughter of Poles, the cause of banderism. They perpetrated horrific crimes against humanity, the slaughter of Jews, the slaughter of Poles, the slaughter of Russians, the slaughter of Magyars, Hungarians, etc. This was known in Canada. They allowed whitewashing to take place. It's deliberate whitewashing, by the way, a little revision of history. And I think this, it's been exposed. This is a reality. And if it continues, you're going to find out the same thing happened here in the United States. The same thing happened in the United Kingdom. The same things happened all around the world. The level of the willingness to accept. And you saw in Politico, there was an article just published that, hey, look, just because you fought against the Russians in World War Two doesn't make you a Nazi.

Well, actually, if you fought against the Russians in World War Two, you were a Nazi because they were the ones fighting against the Russians in World War II doesn't make you a Nazi. Well, actually, if you fought against the Russians in World War II, you were a Nazi because they were the ones fighting against the Russians in World War II. Right. Scott, always a pleasure, my man. These are dark days and difficult issues, and you have a way with the courage and intellect and experience of explaining them. It's a gift for us to hear you. Thanks so much for your time. Thank you. Okay. More as we get it, Matthew Ho at 4.30 this afternoon, and at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, Eastern time,

it will be 8 p.m. in Beijing, where he's coming from, Professor Jeffrey Sachs on the history of all this. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Продолжение следует...