Some More News - Even More News (Monday Edition): ICE Detained Mahmoud Khalil For Thought Crimes

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

Hi. On our new Monday(!) episode of Even More News, Katy, Cody, and Jonathan discuss the Trump administration's escalation of illegal detentions by abducting Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident who led protests at Columbia University last spring. They also talk about Trump's serious threat to annex Canada and the totally fine and respectful relationship between Elon Musk and Marco Rubio. PATREON: Patreon.com/SomeMoreNews MERCH: Shop.SomeMoreNews.com Produced by Moana Sherrill Edited by Nick Mundy

Hey, hi, hello. Welcome to even more news Monday edition. I don't know titles a work in progress. We're going to workshop that. I'm Katie Stoll. Hi. Hi Katie stole and thank you so much. I'm Cody Johnson. Welcome to To be determined the show The sloper the last three days the sloper bucket. Hi. Hi Jonathan is also here. Whoop. Whoop Hi, Autumn Monday. I'm here. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Prove it. I can't show you my bushy tail, but you

can see my bright eyes. I didn't want to shake my butt on camera. I want to see what you're drinking out of. Oh. Oh, do you? I really want to see. Look at that mug. Oh my gosh.

Jonathan is also here mug. Oh my gosh. It looks so is that? Jonathan is also here, mug! Oh my gosh. It looks so good. Oh, it's your beautiful face and you're saying hi and you're also there and you're on a mug and everything. Our loyal listeners and viewers to understand that you asked for this merch, you asked, you begged for this merch.

This is for you. And it is in the merch store and Jonathan is the only one that's bought one. Well, we've sold a sticker and a shirt. Oh. You know, it's not every day. Did you buy a sticker, Jonathan? No, I didn't.

I just bought it. Is there a sticker at the bottom of that mug? Although you shouldn't buy it. We'll reimburse you for that. It's not every day though you get to drink out of a mug with your face on it, except it is for me now. It is every day. It is for you now. Well, we made that merch just specifically for you.

Enough about that. I just need to introduce what this new version, this new show is. It's a new version. We want to do our best to keep up with the absolute fire hose of news. So we are recording this Monday morning and it is going, we're gonna do our best to cover all the stuff that develops between when we record on Thursday and now Monday morning.

It is gonna be a little different. It's gonna be quicker, no holidays to celebrate. Oh. Just mainline in that good news. Oh, good news. Good news. You said good news? I don't think there's that good news. Oh, good news. Good news. You said good news? I don't think there's any good news.

Unless you're a bad person, I suppose. Oh, well. Jonathan, where are we starting? I know, but explain for our listeners. We're starting in New York City. In New York City. The big city. Yeah, at Columbia University, Trump

is cutting $400 million in funds to Columbia because of apparently how they handled the encampments last spring. Yeah. And they're threatening to remove up to $5 billion in federal grants that they're eligible for going forward. And this did start developing last week. We briefly mentioned this and didn't have time to go into it, but more has developed since then. So last week he declared illegal protests. Funding would be revoked from schools over a legal protest. Oh yeah, and he said this months ago, like this was part,

like he mentioned this during his campaign, like we're gonna, this is part of it. And then over the weekend, a student permanent resident of the United States was detained by ICE for leading one of the encampments. His name is Mahmoud Khalil. He was taken from a university-owned residence on Saturday night by ICE.

He has a wife who is eight months pregnant. They don't know exactly. She's American, right? Yes. Their lawyer, Amy Greer, has been trying to track him down. They think he might be in Louisiana. They don't know where he's been detained. And let's be very clear. This is like a detaining people, disappearing people. This is terrifying.

This is thought policing. They say it's because he's a Hamas supporter. But of course he was leading a encampment aiming to get Columbia to divest from Israel, which is different from supporting France. This is what we've talked about, the difference between no, obviously Biden administration was terrible about the war. Kamala really missed the mark in how she campaigned. And we knew that this would be 10,000 times worse under a Trump administration.

Outright horrifying. The fact that they, I mean, all of it's horrifying, but I'm really, really locked in on they don't know where he is. What the fuck do you mean they don't know where he is? Well, they didn't even know, like, they said his visa was revoked, and then he was like, well, I have a green card,

and like, well, that's been revoked too. Like, it was just this weird back and forth where they didn't even know the details of what they were doing. They were just like, the directive seems to have been just like, just get him. Just get him for, and say whatever you have to to get this person.

Which, and you have different, people have varying opinions about the protests and all this stuff. But this is the first one. This is not the last thing that will happen like this. To to back this up, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, well, he tweeted, We will be revoking the visas and slash or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.

First of all, legally they can't revoke a green card. Marco Rubio does not have the power to do that. Donald Trump does not have the power to unilaterally do that. An immigration judge would have to do that. And there's a lot of the language they use, like Marco Rubio says Hamas supporters, and then the DHS spokesperson said Khalil-led activities aligned to Hamas. So they're not even saying he's a member of Hamas or even someone who's like from an organizational capacity supported Hamas. They're just saying, well, he's aligned with them in that maybe he wants some of the same things that you can define That's so many different ways. Yeah wanting a company or a university to divest from

Another country is grounds for deportation now. Yeah, it's absurd and it is something we've talked about before Sorry folks but this is something that've talked about before. Sorry folks. But this is something that was always on the horizon. And the- Sucks being right, doesn't it? Sucks being right. But also this is something that again, we've seen like last year, a lot of Democrats and liberals

supporting this line of thinking and this sort of logic of like, oh, you're like calling people Hamas supporters who are at these protests, saying that you're aligned with Hamas for these divestment camps and things like that. And so they've laid the groundwork to let this happen more like they don't really have rights to stand on in defending this because they've spent a year calling them Hamas supporters. If you're supporting that narrative, you're handing Trump an easier time to get this stuff done. Columbia University did tons of stuff to crack down these protests.

Like they arrested students. They did all kinds of stuff to like do the right thing and do what everybody, everybody in that world wanted them to do, yet they still. Air quotes on do the right thing by the way. Do the right thing, air quotes for our listeners. So they've done all these things already and yet still they're like,

well, we're pulling your funding because you're Hamas terrorist supporters and all this kind of stuff. Again, it's like the laying the groundwork for this fascist crackdown is what happened last year and it sucks. I guess is my point, I don't know. I couldn't agree with you more completely, my friend.

And if you think it stops. I don't think that's gonna fit on a mug. I don't know, I was trying a new catchphrase. Couldn't agree with you more completely, my friend. My friend. I just feel like my head is spinning off of my body. The way it's framed when you dig into the discourse online about, let's say, these terrible riots at these college

campuses, citation needed about the riots. There was some protests. There were some, yeah, kids being stopped from going to classes a bit. Not really they can walk around. Regardless the sheer hypocrisy of an actual riot at our Capitol and all of these January 6thers being... I won't even I don't even have to use the word coup. It was a fucking riot. We can all agree on that. Just the the wild wild hypocrisy. These are students exercising their rights.

And then also though, when you dig in online, I fucking dare to tread into a libs of TikTok tweet about it. But I was horrified by the responses, but also pleased by some amount of people saying, I voted for Trump, but this doesn't seem right. Well, no, but I think the January 6 comparison is apt because they are, Trump is intentionally doing what MAGA perceives happened to them during the Biden administration, where they were all arrested and detained for their beliefs, they weren't.

But that's what they're intentionally trying to do. I want to point out that they do know where Mahmoud Khalil is being held. He is at a facility in Jenna, Louisiana. They originally told his wife that he was in a holding facility in New Jersey, and I guess he was there briefly, but she went there on Sunday and he wasn't there. So it's just a complete cluster. Another that spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security also said that the justification for detaining him was, quote, in support of President Trump's executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, which is different than aligned with Hamas

unless you just mash all that stuff together. The hypocrisy is what's really getting me, getting my goat. I mean, one of the Doge guys was like, yeah, we need to normalize Indian hate. And I love racism. Like, OK. Yeah, but to your point, Jonathan, there's no clear reason, because they know they don't need one, because they're just going to do this and they seem to have things in place where you can say, but that's illegal, sir. And that doesn't matter. And saying like, oh, you're Hamas supporter or oh, you're aligned with Hamas or oh, you're just anti-Semitic.

Like those three things are not just but you know what I mean? Those are all the same and you can define it however you want and get rid of whoever you want. And nothing matters. Our Monday morning show is off to a rousing start feeling good feeling fine. On Friday we talked about the tariffs and their potential their justification for the tariffs none of which makes sense and why they might actually be doing this, particularly to Canada. And one thing we didn't mention is this attempt by Trump to economically demolish Canada so that they will become the 51st state. And this suggestion,

you know, we've kind of laughed it off because it's so incredibly absurd but Trump has said he's serious and Justin Trudeau has said he's serious they're taking this very very seriously. Well I just want to acknowledge because we've got a lot of Canadian viewers and listeners and we love you so much and we appreciate you and rightfully some people were not mean or anything this isn't like a pointing out that the reality of what it feels like to be living in Canada right now to be experiencing this rhetoric and feeling this and it's horrifying and under no circumstances do we want to brush that under the rug this is a

threat and it's mind-boggling. Yeah I mean it's like there's this idea of like well he only he's only gonna go after like Toronto in the area around there. I mean any kind of expansionist... But even that, like, there's nothing... No, of course that's absurd. No, even just invading Quebec a little bit or something would be... What are you talking about? No There's seemingly no reason for it other than hubris and Maybe like oh, they've got some resources there that we could use and that's what other leaders do is they you know That's what Putin's doing expanding his area He just thinks it would be cool if he was the guy to expand the United States

Yeah, first time and however long and he's also seems to be aiming for you know places in the North and like Greenland. And it does seem like it's one of those it's one of those things where conservatives and Republicans and fascists, I guess, don't believe in climate change. But their actions are aligned with what a fascist might do if they did believe in climate change. aligned with what a fascist might do if they did believe in climate change. Even like Trump's back in the day, his golf course, they built a seawall for the rising sea, but he doesn't believe in climate change. It's a hoax from the Chinese. But he still his actions still line up with it. And a lot of the Canada Greenland stuff seems to be somewhat related to that,

where it's like, well, obviously it's like real, but we're going to treat it differently. Cody, you think, though, if the sea level rose, that Trump wouldn't just sell his golf course and move it to somewhere else? It's a good point. It's a good point. Why wouldn't you just sell it and move it? He should just sell it to somebody, some fictional fucking aqua. Ah, you know, it's hard to follow all of the threats. It's hard to understand what's gonna stick and what isn't. We've got some terrorists on, some terrorists off.

You guys are feeling that for real and it's really, we don't know where this is headed at this exact moment or what will actually materialize, but it's all terrifying. You know, our new producer, Moana, pointed out, right now he's doing an executive order to start logging our national forests. Is this tied in with the tariffs?

You know, on lumber from Canada. Yeah, he put a logger in charge. It's like, it's just, it's a lot to sort, but we certainly acknowledge this and Gosh don't hate us I also think Trump might not have known that a bunch of the Great Lakes are like Technically split between the United States and Canada Like I think Lake Michigan is completely in the US

But all of the others were just kind of like the jurisdiction is through the middle and he's like no we should have the north part of Lake Erie too. What the hell? He keeps learning stuff And you know, but we shouldn't be doing that and like some of some of these stuff is like, yeah but like we made the deal like what do you like it's just this this long pattern of betraying our allies and Making them simply not trust us anymore for anything. Yeah, not that we should be like fully trusted In all the things that we do but like every single thing is like well, we should just redo it

We should just take it back. We shouldn't have done that deal It's a bad deal. Yeah, but You're new man, right? He he the the emphasis on the 1908 border treaty is very Putin-esque He's saying look this treaty that demarcated the borders 120 years ago That's that was not a valid treaty because of, you know, like that's very, very specific. Like, well, let me regale you with the history of this country. I believe Putin probably knows Russian history a little. Even though he's distorting it, he knows Russian history way better than Trump knows American

history. I don't believe Trump could pass a civic test. Trump half distorts it just because he has no idea. Right. So they're both lying about stuff, but for far different reasons. Yeah. The also that I just want to highlight, we're talking about this terrorists, we're going to talk about this forever and ever. He's still talking about them like they're threats and deal and part of a deal making.

But then he says, like, well, actually, the terrorists are going to bring in billions and billions of dollars and you have more money than you could possibly imagine. Well, which is it? Which is it? Are they good and necessary or are they a threat to get some other deal happening? And what's the goal? What are we talking about here?

It's absurd. Also, like you have, he's like talking about saying like, oh yes, we need a rough transition. Secretary of the Treasury said it was a detox period is what they described it as. Other words for recession. It's not good folks. None of it's good. It's not good for us. It's not good for Canada. It's not good for the world. Nothing is good. Everything's bad. I have a small thing I could talk about. Oh, you've got a small thing?

Yeah. Letterfire. I got a small, just a small little thing. My friend. Yeah. All right. Even more news, colon, all the small things. All the small things. We're gonna need you guys to sound off in the comments what we should call this. Even more news, dammit.

What, Cody, what's your small thing? My small thing is something that doesn't technically matter, but it does in the large scheme of things, and it's illustrative of the many obvious lies told by the Doge guy and his Doge team. I'm going to read this tweet. It's from a couple of days ago. It's from Doge at Doge on Twitter.com.

The VA canceled a $56,000 contract to water about eight plants for five years. This is about $1,400 per plant per year. The contract has been canceled and Doge will water the plants free of charge. Those plants are dugs out. The first reaction is those plants are dead. You're gonna throw those plants away or they're gonna die slowly.

What a weird thing to say, Doge will water the plants free of charge. No, they won't. They're not going to be living in the VA offices. Like, what are you talking about? They're not going to show up to water these plants multiple times a week. So that is absurd and a lie, obviously.

But what I want to highlight is so stupid. I'm sorry for wasting everybody's time. They share two pictures in the tweet. And one is a picture in the office of two plants in like the lobby. And another is a picture of the paper that tells everybody not to water the plants. I'm gonna read this and describe the piece of paper.

Please do not water these plants. These plants are serviced by a plant contractor. Thank you. Buildings Management Division. The paper has pictures of 15 different types of plants. There are 15 different types of plants that they're not supposed to water. There's another picture of two of the same type of plant in the office. Therefore, one can assume there are at least 16 plants

in the office that are to be watered. About eight is a weird estimation when there are 15 different types of plants that are to be watered by these people. I would posit that there are probably like 20 to 30 plants, not about eight. So actually it costs about 700 per plant per year or probably less. And that's all I wanna talk about. This is a small thing, you're right. You're right.

It does not matter. But you know what? This is the weekend update, whatever, whatever, in the last three days. This is the weekend update, it doesn't matter. I just think it's like very, again, it's very illustrative of like, but that's an obvious lie.

About eight, you're sharing a picture with 15. Cody's worked up. Why would you say about eight? It's just like, there's such liars. I'd like to bring one other thing up related to this. Because even if you think, even if you agree like, okay, well the government shouldn't let people who work in those offices bring their own plans.

We should find, whatever. Totally. Doge is supposed to be saving hundreds of billions of dollars. If they are bragging online about saying, we're saving you $56,000 over five years, like 10K a year for the federal government is like me saying, I saved money by not buying my son

this like whale bath toy where the water goes, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like this is nothing, this is crap. Like what are you talking about? If my wife came home and I'm like, I saved us so much money today, I canceled the contract, I'm returning this. I'm returning this for 35 cents, consider the money saved.

Why did you waste my time? You should have worked two minutes longer and made more money if that's how this worked. Also be like you saying like I returned nine of them and she'd be like, but we only have one. Alright, boys, your point has been made. This is stupid. But tell me, surely the Doge guy is getting along with other people. Things are going swimmingly in cabinet meetings. Like his relationship with Marco Rubio, for example. Oh, for sure. So, I mean, on Friday we got... Queen of transitions. I love these Palace intrigue stories. Maggie Haberman is like... I don't buy the thing that

the media loves Trump and they want to trump back, but Maggie Haberman is like, thank goodness. I do buy that thing. I do buy the thing that the media loves Trump. I mean, it's a complicated love hate, but please keep to it. It's complicated, but I wouldn't, yeah. There was this cabinet meeting on Friday, hastily assembled. It was called Thursday night. They met Friday. The whole cabinet was there.

Elon Musk is there. A bunch of cabinet secretaries have been going to Trump and saying, this guy is firing people left and right. Is he running my department, or am I running my department? And Trump is like, let's get in the boardroom. Let's apprentice this. I can figure this out. Elon Musk starts just berating cabinet secretaries,

pulling out like, well, I've run a bunch of billion dollar companies. You don't think I know what I'm doing? Marco Rubio gets all upset and they get into a shouting match back and forth. So Elon and little Marco. the New York Times says, Elon Musk was letting Mr. Rubio have it, accusing him of failing to slash his staff. You have fired nobody, Mr. Musk told Mr. Rubio, then scornfully added that perhaps the only person

he had fired was a staff member for Mr. Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. So they all hate each other. They're not doing very well. Musk also suggested that Rubio was quote, good on TV with the clear subtext, this is the New York Times, with the clear subtext being that he was not good for much else. I would posit he's not even good on TV, but. Yeah, this is again, just like, yeah,

this is what we would expect. But now there's lots of they love each other tweets, nothing to see here. Oh, it's so funny. this is what we would expect. But now there's lots of, they love each other tweets. Nothing to see here. Oh, it's so funny. There are other way, folks. One interesting thing about the story, I thought, because the Rubio thing is like, okay, Rubio, you're not gonna last that long.

I know you're on board and you're gonna pretend to be like, we are a serious administration, but you're gonna be slumped in your little couch while Zelinsky is like, they him to be like to thank them or whatever Sean Duffy was also involved in this story and Sean Duffy for viewers for younger viewers he He's he was on the real world. He started his career on the real world Seattle. I think on the real world. Seattle, I think. It's a show on MTV.

MTV is music television. MTV was music television. Television was this thing you could have, like you have all these channels, right? Ooh, okay. But Sean Duffy is the head of the Department of Transportation, and he also had a bit of a back and forth with Musk, because Musk's doge kept demanding that he fire air traffic controllers.

And Duffy was like, but no, this is my department. And then Musk was like, but how many, like who named the names, name names, who's be fired? And Duffy was like, well, nobody, cause I didn't do the thing that you demanded I do. So I can't give you names cause I'm not doing the bad idea that you have. Hell yeah, real world.

And I thought that was just like, that's an interesting, I know, like it's. This is the real world must. It's a fascinating thing because like Marco Rubio knew what he's getting into. Like he's like, oh, I'll do okay, yes sir, Mr. Trump. Sean Duffy is like one of those guys like, yeah, I'm a Fox News guy.

Yeah, all right, Trump's great. Like they just like gassed him up for years because like part of their career and all this stuff. And it seems like he's like, wait, but I thought I was gonna like run the department of transportation Wait, is this kind of like a fucking clown show? I gotta read this thing According to the new york times the exchange ended with mr Trump telling mr duffy that he had to hire people from mit as air traffic controllers These air traffic controllers need to be geniuses,

he said. What are you talking about? End of episode. End of the apprentice episode, not this episode. Well, pretty close. Yeah, it is all wild, mind boggling, chaotic, not the way to run a country, terrifying for anybody that's working in these departments, or just your average American that wants to fly somewhere soon. And I don't want to lean into all the rhetoric about the amount of crashes we have being reported because there is some, we do have more plane accidents than we realize, and they are being reported now, but it's a wild time to be talking about firing these people. have more plane accidents than we realize.

And they are being reported now, but it's a wild time to be talking about firing these people and having- I'm fine blaming them all. I mean, it's not gonna get better like this. I'm fine saying it's all their fault. Oh, a real quick conclusion to this Duffy story. One day later, Elon Musk unfollowed him on Twitter. Oh, burn.

God. Burn. Elon Musk unfollowed him on twitter. Oh burn. God I also before we move on or end Rubio with the rubio story. Yeah, there is a deputy State department official named darren bady Uh who has deleted a bunch of tweets? Oh, it's a racist guy who was like we need white people in the government. Yes. Yeah So he's deleted a bunch of tweets Where he called a ruby olo IQ and said he went to foam parties. I believe it Okay, whatever a foam party is but I do want to read a tweet that as of now he has not deleted

Okay, yummy that tweet says competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work. Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities and demoralizing competent white men. That tweet's up. That guy is high ranking in the State Department. Yeah, he is. It's horrifying. Yeah. He works for Marco Rubio.

It's all real bad. I we got a little silly and I want to tie this back. And these all these people are very racist and they're all these bad people who work in this administration. And that is to tie it back to what we're talking about. They're just going to like go after like black and brown people and people who don't look like them and deport as many people as possible who don't look right. And we're seeing the start of that and using using this as a pretext that a lot of people seem to be going along with. I've already seen like some liberals be like, well, he's a terrorist.

So like, get him out here. It's real, again, like flashbacks to past administrations. And it is- Well, they set the stage for this. 100%, yeah. And now we're here, Biden. But even like, you know, like post 9-11 flashbacks and stuff where it's like, okay, we're just like, calling everybody a terrorist, trying to get them out.

And now we have these, again, like these vicious clowns kind of working together in this like cobbled together movement of people who disagree with each other but agree on just enough. And one of the main things they agree on is like Trump is king and he's going to do all this stuff and get it done. And anyone who says that's illegal will not be involved for long. And it's chilling. So chilling and overwhelming. Yeah, you can get away with accusing people

of something without any evidence. And there's so much coming down the pipeline at all times. It's hard to keep track of stories. Okay, and one fun thing we will leave you with. We all have to watch this more in depth, but Sam Cedar did a Jubilee style debate situation and the clips are absolutely astounding. I am going to treat myself by watching it all later today.

Oh yeah. It does tie in with a lot of these conversations. When you talk about, you said that they are racists. You know, it's easy to say, and I don't think that everybody that voted for Donald Trump is racist. I'm gonna say that again, even though, but a lot of them are.

And one of them is highlighted in this video. And she just flat out says it, like what's wrong with having an ethno state? What's wrong with us being white? Other people just so unable to grasp the basic reality of, oh no, DEI in the government doesn't mean that they're getting tax breaks because they're the fucking government,

they don't pay taxes. It is mind blowing, but watch it maybe. It's a fascinating look, I've watched it. I think I have to believe some of these people are doing characters and bits. They can't be real people. There's no way they're real people. I know they are, but my brain is really struggling to believe that they're real people. But sort of to a point I was kind of making earlier about the Trump movement,

it is really interesting to see 20 conservatives talk about these issues. And first of all, they don't actually address the things he says. It's very much they're sort of making his argument for him by being like, actually, nationalism is great or actually billionaires are great. Like they sort of argue in a weird way by not arguing with him. But it is interesting to see, like, oh, there's like four racists who are like, yeah, I'm racist. And then there are other people who are like, wait, what? Like there is there are these factions of people

who have been cobbled together in support of one thing, which is Donald Trump and the like many, like swirl of lies that he says. And it's just very interesting to see them all try to argue these same things, but in different ways for different reasons and then be like, wait, well, I don't agree with racism part. I don't agree with that guy, Seth.

Right. Like it's very, very. And it kind of proves. It's very, very interesting. It kind of crystallizes everything that we've been saying, that I've been saying, which is like, yeah, people have bad ideas. Some of them are bad about this. Some of it has nothing to do with race,

but it does have to do with this. And it's all wrong and bad. Or it doesn't, they don't realize it. And like, yeah. But then like, it's just more nuanced and more insidious. And with that, my friends, my friends, I think we've done it. I think we've done it.

I think. Don't know what this voice is. I agree with you completely. Thank you. And I couldn't disagree more, my friend. Jonathan, my friend, how you doing? I feel great. The end of the show check-in you doing? I feel great. The end of the show, check in.

Awesome, we feel great, we feel cathartic, ready to go tackle the week. Go read more news. My friends at home, we love you very much. Much! End of the show! You said it so quickly!