The MeidasTouch Podcast - Fed Up Ret. General Ben Hodges Drops the Hammer on Trump (Interview)

Episode Date: January 21, 2024

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas interviews retired General Ben Hodges who discusses Donald Trump’s cowardly and anti-American behavior and what’s at stake in Ukraine. Hodges is a retired United States Army officer who served as commanding general, United States Army Europe. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Western civilization today is not Russia. It's probably, more than anything else, ourselves and some of the horrible USA-hating people that represent us. I'm joined by Ben Hodges, former commanding general of the U.S. Army Europe and a NATO senior mentor for logistics. General Hodges, welcome to the show. I guess. Thanks very much for the privilege. For just a minute, I thought I had clipped into Russia Today listening to that last set of remarks. I mean, could you ever believe that there would be a situation

where someone who was in the White House would be making a statement like that, calling for the dismantling of NATO, saying that Russia is not a threat and that it is a lie to say that Russia is a threat, and also saying that the greatest danger to the United States of America are fellow Americans. Yeah, I think Ronald Reagan would be going crazy right now if he had heard a Republican presidential candidate or a former Republican president use those words. Of course, NATO is not perfect.

No alliance is perfect. All of its members bring their biases, their priorities, their own agenda. But for 75 years, this summer, 75 years, NATO has provided a security environment for Europe, the United States and Canada that has helped protect the most prosperous time in our history. Never in my life did I imagine an American president would question our commitment to NATO or the value of NATO.

And for sure, when I look at what's going on from the Kremlin, the constant threats against us, against our allies, the constant violations of sovereignty, of human rights, of disruption to our economy. I don't know how you could say they're anything other than a gigantic threat. You know, and then the attacks are also directed at retired American generals. I mean, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, Donald Trump said that based on his conduct in other ages, he said that Milley would be executed essentially calling for the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to be executed for treason and then Trump goes around the country and just speak so ill of retired military

generals here they'll show you this is one fairly recently in California here play this clip. At his retirement ceremony, he said, we don't take a vote from a wannabe dictator. General Milley, what he did is really treasonous. If you look at what he said to China, he's either stupid or it's treason. What he said to China should never be allowed.

That can never be allowed in our country. You know what, General Milley, who I know, he's a lazy guy. Billions and billions of dollars worth of equipment for the Taliban. General Milley is a lazy guy who's not very smart. But what General Milley did to China and with China is a disgrace. And frankly, there are many people that would call it treason. Thank you very much.

Any thoughts on Senator Feinstein? The expression, a hit dog will holler. I mean milley said in the united states of america we don't pledge our loyalty and oath to a dictator that's what the reporter was asking donald trump he said general milley said we don't pledge our oath to a dictator what's your response and trump Trump's response was that. I mean, again, I mean, you're in this group of top military generals who have provided service to our country, like all of the men and women of our military. And to hear that, I mean, what goes through your mind? Well, of course, I've known Mark Milley for many years. He is anything but stupid and lazy. He's probably one of the most well-read people in America, let alone Army officers. He questions things.

He's intellectually a giant and has worked like a dog in nothing but hard jobs his whole Army life. I really found that incredibly offensive that the former commander in chief would say that about an officer who had the highest responsibility in the military. Now, we are not beyond criticism. Of course, we are subject to criticism. But to question intelligence, work ethic, and especially his integrity, to call him a treason is, I have a hard time finding a way to describe it. But Mark's right, of course.

I keep a copy of the Constitution with me everywhere I go. It's always in my briefcase. And I do this because I got caught one time. I asked a congressional staffer, I said, why are you guys, this was 20 years ago, he said, why are you digging into how we do basic training? This particular staffer didn't like the fact that the army was beginning to integrate women into every aspect of the army.

I said, why do you care how we do basic training? And he said, Colonel, I was a Colonel. And he said, Colonel, don't you take an oath to the Constitution over and over? I said, of course I do. He said, maybe you ought to read it. Because in the Constitution, it said Article I lays out the responsibilities for the Congress. Article II lays out the responsibilities

for the President. And so the oath that we take, support and defend the Constitution of the United States is unique in the world. And that's the point, of course, that Martin was making, not that our loyalty. The thing that really pushed me over the edge on uh mr trump was when i heard him talking about my generals and my judges as if we were some third world country

that um the judges and generals and other authorities all owed their fealty to whoever the dictator was. And I just can't imagine that the founding fathers intended that, you know, the president would have this kind of personal control over generals. But that's obviously how Mr. Trump thinks, and it's reprehensible. Let's talk about the Ukraine supplemental, about $61 dollars in military assistance that really needs to be earmarked urgently for ukraine lots of republicans are balking at that would be an understatement some are outright just uh giving the kind of russian talking points i'll show you the latest here of speaker of the House Mike Johnson when he was asked about this. Here's what he had to say. He said that we don't want to get us into

another Afghanistan, he said. Here, play this clip. Ability for the funds. We need to know that Ukraine would not be another Afghanistan. And you see a lot of the American people having real, scratching their heads, having real questions about why that would continue without these appropriate answers. So I'm going to push for those. But before we even talk about Ukraine, I'm going to tell the president what I'm telling all of you. And we've told the American people border, border, border. We have to take care of our own house. We have to secure our own border before we talk about doing anything else.

And that's the message I've had since day one. Now, we've been covering the border aspect of the supplemental funding where the Senate has been negotiating a bipartisan border solution with $14 billion earmarked for necessary resources there. So I just wanted to address that part. It's not what our interview here is to talk about. But when you hear Speaker Johnson talk about comparing what's going on to Ukraine to Afghanistan and when you hear some of these other talking points I mean what goes through your mind and what's kind of your response to that um well first of all what a bizarre uh comparison to say that we don't want another Afghanistan when talking about Ukraine of course there there are no American soldiers in Ukraine.

You have Ukrainian soldiers are fighting and dying against Russia, defending their sovereignty, trying to stop the murder of innocent Ukrainian civilians, but also protecting Europe and the West. Our economy, our prosperity is directly tied to European prosperity and security. So it's to our benefit that Ukraine is successful. And somehow Speaker Johnson either doesn't understand history or the geography or how these things are all

connected. Secondly, the majority of Americans support Ukraine. The majority, the majority of Americans support Ukraine. The majority of the Congress supports Ukraine. The majority of Republicans in Congress supports Ukraine. The Senate, including all the Republicans, clearly supports Ukraine. So what's happening here is a dereliction of duty, in my view, that for domestic political political gain a small number of members in the house are willing to sacrifice thousands of lives of ukrainians and if ukraine fails if ukraine

fails russia has made it very clear they're going to continue going against nato countries like the baltics estonia latvia lithuania pol, now you're talking about it's a NATO conflict. Now you've got American soldiers, British soldiers, German soldiers will become involved in the conflict. And you know, Mr. Johnson and his side, they talk about China is a bigger priority. The Chinese for sure are watching. Do we actually care enough about the things we say we care about? Our economy,

stability and security in Europe, which affects us, respect for borders, respect for sovereignty, respect for human rights. The Chinese are watching. If we're not willing to help Ukraine address those issues in a place where it's going to be much easier than it will out in the Pacific, then I don't think the Chinese will be too terribly impressed with what we say about Taiwan or the South China Sea. So these things are all connected, not either or. And General, can you tell us about the situation right now in Ukraine? I mean, what's taking place? I mean, there are reports that there are weapon shortages i mean from what we're hearing in places like abdivka because of these type of funding issues

i mean the resistance by the ukrainian soldiers i mean from what i've been following has been nothing short of heroism beyond heroism but there really needs to be this funding and perhaps you can give us kind of the immediate what's going on, and then perhaps we can kind of pull it back a little and talk about from the 10-year perspective since Russia's invasion back in 2014, how we can look at this and kind of put this in a historical context. But let's start with where are we right now? Okay. Right now, we are in a deadlocked situation. Despite the Russians having enormous manpower advantages, the Ukrainians have been able to stop them just about everywhere. The Russians have lost over 350,000 troops just in these last two years. the rate of a thousand per day now, which is a staggering amount of soldiers being killed. But of course, the Russians don't care about that. Most of these troops that they send into the meat grinder are poorly trained and they are recruited from out in the far reaches of the

Russian Federation. The Kremlin is careful to avoid recruiting troops out of Moscow and St. Petersburg because they don't want to have a bunch of funerals there in Moscow and St. Petersburg because they don't want to have a bunch of funerals there in Moscow and St. Petersburg. That's the ground situation. In the air, of course, we all just saw two very, very significant aircraft shoot downs. Russian Air Force radar and air control aircraft were shot down over the Sea of Azov by very clever Ukrainian air defenders using Patriot that was provided by the West. At sea, the Black Sea Fleet, which has a really cool name, is getting knocked out by the Ukrainians who don't even have a Navy anymore, but it's their innovation with drones. The cruise missiles provided by UK and France called Storm Shadow and Scout,

and through special forces, they have been able to inflict some serious losses on the Russian Navy there in the port of Sevastopol so that the Russians are having to withdraw some of these ships back further to the east to their own port of Novorossiysk. So I think there's a narrative out there that somehow this is inevitable and that the Ukrainians are losing this. That's not even close to being the truth. What's happening is that the Russians realize that they cannot knock Ukraine out of the war. They don't have the ability decisively to knock them out, but they can see that in the West, that we are wavering. They can see that there's a reluctance to fully commit to Ukraine winning. And I'm talking specifically the United States and Germany.

The Russians therefore have decided they're going to continue this, what the Ukrainian troops refer to as meat wave attacks to give the impression or convey the impression that Russia can do this for as long as it takes, forever. It's not true, but that's certainly the impression they want to convey. And then they're launching precision weapons against civilian targets in Ukraine. So that's where we are. The Russians have opted for a war of attrition that they think they can win this year. Obviously, they're hoping for a Republican of attrition that they think they can win this year obviously they're hoping for a Republican administration that will be willing to abandon Ukraine

and then more kind of in a historical context and you know you and I were even chatting before the interview I mean this is a war sure I mean you know the the another part a wave of the invasion if you will two years ago which many people think was the start but really you're talking about a a 10-year war right in terms of what's been taking place since 2014 the kind of unlawful annexation of crimea can you talk us through that what's gone on in these 10 years. Yeah, the war actually started in 2014 with Russia's invasion of Crimea. And there was a lot of fighting in the early months and then it kind of settled down somewhat. There were negotiations going on, but the war did start 10 years ago and Russia has built on what they got in the beginning with the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. Plus they were supporting so-called separatists who were actually proxies fighting for them

in Donetsk and Luhansk, the two easternmost oblasts of Ukraine. Since then, when they started the large-scale invasion back in just over two years ago, I'm sorry, two years ago, February 2022, they have obviously made it all the way to Kiev, were stopped, and then they've come back, and now after 10 years, and I think putting this in perspective helps understand why I am so optimistic about Ukraine eventually going to win, is because after 10 years, Russia with every advantage only controls 18% of Ukraine. Their air force has failed to achieve air superiority. That's always job one for any air force. They have failed to interdict the lines of communication,

bringing ammunition and equipment from Poland into Ukraine. That's a job too. So they failed both of their things at which our air force is the best in the world um the black sea fleet i've talked about is having to pull back where we hit where we have failed in this 10 years and now uh over the last two years we have failed to commit to uk Ukraine winning to say clearly what our objective is. And this is where I will agree with one thing that Speaker Johnson said. Maybe he didn't intend it this way.

The biggest mistake we made in Afghanistan was over 20 years. We never had a clearly defined objective except in the first year. For 19 years, the objective was never clearly defined. And now here we are after 10 years with Afghanistan, we still don't have a clearly defined objective for how do we want this to end? The answer should be, we want Ukraine to win for all the reasons I mentioned earlier.

And if we want them to win, then we give them what's needed so that they are able to defeat Russia. Not one American soldier has broken a fingernail in Ukraine and yet they are wrecking the biggest threat facing the United States. And that's a nuclear armed Russia. Why don't we give them the capability to finish the job?

And let's finally kind of talk about that. What are those capabilities based on your expertise? What are those capabilities that you think are necessary? I mean, look, $61 billion, $100 billion, you know, these are big numbers, but what do those numbers represent in terms of military capabilities that are actually needed to decisively win? And can that be achieved with the supplemental? So let me put that in context. Yes, absolutely. That's a lot of money, but it is pennies compared to what we will end up paying if Ukraine fails and Russia continues on against the NATO country. And we end up in a conflict with Russia as part of NATO.

Now you're going to be talking about trillions and trillions of dollars of damage, ruined economies, and lost lives. So this is a very, very small amount of money, a small part of our Department of Defense budget that goes to helping Ukraine wreck the biggest threat that we face. And by the way, the vast majority of that money is not put on an airplane on pallets and shipped to Ukraine. It's spent in the United States on equipment, on ammunition, on things that we are making here in the U.S. and providing to Ukraine. Much of the equipment is used equipment. So making sure we understand what it is we're talking about there. Now, specifically, three things that we should provide immediately. The very first one would be for the president to come out and say, we want Ukraine to win. That's our policy. We're going to do everything it takes.

Not this empty for as long as it takes, but very specifically, we're going to do everything it takes for Ukraine to win, along with the other 49 countries that are helping. That's that is needed. That'll take a lot of the steam out of Russia's hope that they can just wait us out, because that's what they're trying to do right now. Number two, long-range precision weapons. Every inch of Russian-occupied Ukraine is within the range of what we call ATACMS, A-T-A-C-M-S. This is the 300 kilometer range precision weapon that the U.S. Army uses. If Ukraine had that, there would not be a safe spot anywhere in Russian occupied Ukraine for airplanes, ships, drones, logistics, none of it. And then, of course, that would put pressure on Germany to go ahead and provide their cruise missile equivalent called Taurus. The third thing that's needed is ammunition that is a reliable supply of ammunition.

Let me say it that way. Right now, you know, the Ukrainians are having to ration out ammunition against an army that depends on thousands of humans in waves attacking. So you have to have artillery to be able to stop those attacks as well as take out Russian artillery. So we've got to figure out how not just from the US, but other countries to get that ammunition to them in time. You know, F-16s, fantastic aircraft. They're coming eventually. They should have been there a year ago. The training is happening, and I think the Ukrainians will employ F-16s in a smart way

once they're ready to, probably in the summertime. Ben Hodges, we appreciate you coming on the Midas Touch Network. I hope you will come back soon. Keep giving us these kind of constant updates, and I think it's helpful to just get this data out to the people. So thank you so much. We appreciate it. I love what you guys do.

I watch it every chance I can, so I'm grateful for the opportunity. Thank you so much. General Ben Hodges, everyone, and I'm Ben Mycelis. Make sure you hit subscribe. We're on our way to 2 million subscribers. Let's get there this month and have a great day. grow this unapologetically pro-democracy network.