The Philip DeFranco Show - TRUMP IS FREAKING OUT! New Epstein Emails Expose Him & MAGA is Turning On Him Over H-1B Scandal

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

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Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Wait to see if there's a long-standing impact here or it's just a blip. And then I've got more news for you in a second, but do you ever wonder how many subscriptions you're actually paying for? Because if you're like me, it's more than you think. Right, and thanks to today's sponsor, Rocket Money, I found subscriptions I totally forgot about, like the random app I hadn't touched in months. And Rocket Money, it's the personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors you're spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings.
Starting point is 00:00:23 I also found I'd been paying for a service I hadn't used years. You know, Rocket Money, it gives you an all-in-one, easy-to-digest, dashboard overview of your financial life, subscription, spending habits, bills, and more. And Rocket Money will help you cancel unwanted subscriptions in just a few taps. But it also doesn't stop there. The app also helps you cut back on spending like it did for me with dining expenses I didn't realize we're adding up. Plus, it lets you set budgets and tracks your spending automatically. I mean, Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in cancel subscriptions and
Starting point is 00:00:49 saves members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features. And you can choose the plan that fits your budget. So cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Just go to RocketMoney.com slash PDS today. That's rocketmoney.com slash PDS. RocketMoney.com slash PDS. And then next step of the news. Wow, Epstein just exposed Donald Trump from the grave.
Starting point is 00:01:11 Right, because you have Epstein himself talking behind the scenes about the man who knew about the girls, the dog that has embarked, Donald J. Trump. Or because Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three bombshell emails this morning that they got from Epstein's estate, not the DOJ, which explains how they got around Pam Bondi's Stonewall. Because in case you forgot, and it's been three months and away. week since the committee subpoenaed the DOJ for all Epstein-related materials, and they've still only received a tiny fraction. And just the bits we've gotten today may explain why. It may explain why Pam Bondi's been acting how she's been acting and why Mike Johnson's been acting the way he's been acting. But getting into these emails, and as for the context, they're all from after Trump and Epstein's supposed breakup in 2004, as well as Epstein's
Starting point is 00:01:49 2008 plea deal in Florida. And so for the first email, it's from April of 2011. It's from Epstein to Galane Maxwell in which he says, I want you to realize that dog that has embarked is Trump. The victim spent hours at my house with him. He has never once been mentioned, police chief, etc. I'm 75% there. Within Maxwell appearing to respond, I have been thinking about that. Then the next emails from December 2015 when the author Michael Wolfe told Epstein that he'd heard CNN plan to ask Trump about their relationship during the Republican primary debate. And you had Epstein asking if I were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be? Which Wolf replied, if he says he hasn't been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you
Starting point is 00:02:25 a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or if it really looks like he could win, you could save him generating a debt. Of course, it is possible that when asked, he'll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness,
Starting point is 00:02:41 which is to be outlawed in the Trump regime. Right, and so you had many saying it, it sounds like Epstein essentially had blackmail on Donald Trump. Also, you had many questioning why a journalist would be saying this to Epstein. But then also a thing here is that CNN actually never ended up asking Trump about Epstein. But then lastly, as far as the emails for now,
Starting point is 00:02:56 there was another from January of 20, Right months before Epstein's final arrest, but weeks after the Miami Herald publish a series of reports on it. New of Epstein appearing to be responding to a question from Wolfe about whether Trump kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago. Reading, Trump has asked me to resign, never a member ever. Of course, he knew about the girls as he asked Galane to stop. And at least for now, that's what we have with the bits about Trump knowing about the girls, spending hours with one of the victims, and being the dog that has embarked grabbing the most attention. So among the things we've seen, you had Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee saying, These latest emails and correspondents raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the president.
Starting point is 00:03:32 And adding, the Department of Justice must fully release the Epstein files to the public immediately. The Oversight Committee will continue pushing for answers and will not stop until we get justice for the victims. Then also, on the other side of this, you had Oversight Republicans, pointing out that Epstein's estate gave them some 23,000 other documents and argued, Democrats continue to carelessly cherry-picked documents to generate clickbait that is not grounded in the facts. And as for those facts, they claim that the redacted. victim's name in the 2011 email between Epstein and Maxwell is actually Virginia Joufrey, the woman who took her own life earlier this year. With the GOP posting, why did Democrats cover up the name when the estate didn't redact it in the redacted documents provided to the committee? It's because this
Starting point is 00:04:08 victim, Virginia Joufray, publicly said that she never witnessed wrongdoing by President Trump. Democrats are trying to create a fake narrative to slander President Trump. And then as far as a White House response, you had Press Secretary Caroline Levitt saying, These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong. This This administration has done more with respect to transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein than any administration ever. And it is not a coincidence that the Democrats leaked these emails to the fake news this morning ahead of Republicans reopening the government.
Starting point is 00:04:41 This is another distraction campaign. But with that, the most recent polling here, it proves a wrong. With a survey from late September showing that roughly three quarters of Americans, they want all of the Epstein files release and just 13% wanting only some released and 9% wanting none released. And actually, after today, the majority of Americans will be one step closer to getting what they want. Right, because Adelita Rehalva is finally scheduled to be sworn in right around when the show goes out. Which is that elected Democratic representative from Arizona that Mike Johnson has refused to swear in for 50 days now. And while many have seen that as Johnson trying to drag his feet on this whole Epstein situation,
Starting point is 00:05:13 you had Johnson claiming, hey, he couldn't do it because the government was shut down, even though there's no such rule that exists and even swore into Republicans who also won special elections earlier this year while the house was in recess. But you had the House coming back today to vote on the Senate's funding bill, and as of this recording, Rihullva is set to be sworn in as well. And then with that, it'll give Roe-Kana and Thomas Massey the crucial 218 signature on their discharge petition to force a floor vote on whether or not to make Trump give up the Epstein files. And with that you had House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffrey saying that when she's sworn in, signing the Epstein Files petition, it's going to be the first thing that she does as a congresswoman. But before you celebrate, that also doesn't mean that you're going to get the Epstein Files.
Starting point is 00:05:46 Because once she signs it, lawmakers have to wait seven legislative days before bringing the petition to the floor. And then, Mike Johnson has two legislative days to schedule a vote. And keep in mind, these are legislative days, not calendar days. So if the House cancels any upcoming days, that'll delay the vote even further. And even then, Johnson could use a couple of procedural tricks, such as tabling the final vote or referring it to a committee to keep delaying. And so the earliest possible time that the House could vote is the first week of December, but it also may take longer. And when it happens, there will be a series of procedural votes with hours of debate first. But then also, even if the House passes it, it'll have to pass the Senate with 60 votes, assuming that it even gets a vote at all.
Starting point is 00:06:18 And then it'll go to Trump himself for a signature. And unless something changes, you would likely veto it, at which point, you know, you'd need two-thirds of both the House and the Senate. And so for the Democrats, you know, this does largely seem like they're trying to get the Epstein files out. But if they're not able to accomplish that, they would then put a spotlight on why. And that is that Republicans and Trump do not want the files to come out for whatever reason. I imagine millions and millions of Americans are filling in the blank on that reason. And now at the last minute, we're actually seeing reports that top White House officials met with Representative Lauren Bobert this morning to persuade her to remove her name from the discharge petition.
Starting point is 00:06:50 Right, because if she did that, that would effectively cancel out Grie Hall the signature torpedoing the petition. But also I'll say, as of recording this, it's unclear what the outcome of that meeting was. But also, either way, with that, it seems pretty clear that Trump's panicking about this. But that also is not where Trump's troubles end today.
Starting point is 00:07:04 Because Trump's mega base, they are furious with him right now over comments that he made about H-1B visas during an interview with Laura Ingram. Because he was doing his usual bit, claiming, you know, we have the world's great as economy, saying we're ahead of China on fronts like AI, which then prompted Laura to ask. Does that mean the H-1B visa thing will not be a big priority for your administration?
Starting point is 00:07:22 Because if you want to raise wages for American workers, you can't flood the country with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of foreign workers. But you also do have to bring in talent. Well, we have plenty of talented people here. No, you don't. No, you don't have talented people here. No, you don't have certain talents and people have to learn. You can't take people off an unemployment line and say, I'm going to put you into a factory who are going to make missiles. And all of that, it pissed off so many of Trump's own supporters.
Starting point is 00:07:50 But many arguing that their president was arguing that the country's citizens, they're just not talented enough to sustain their workforce. So people saying, I'm sorry, but what the fuck is this? America's talent split the atom and went to the moon. American talent built everything the modern world takes for granted now. Give me a break. This is insanity. As well as what an atrocious thing to say, this will cost Republicans the midterms. And where is my president?
Starting point is 00:08:10 With many of his supporters saying that Trump has lost touch with his base and that this is not what they voted for. With many invoking Charlie Kirk's name pointing to his, to him, especially as the administration has really tried to make everything about Charlie Kurt. And with that, pointing to a tweet where Charlie Kirk called H-1B visas a scam. So as the outrage was building, you had people like Marjorie Taylor Green, who really hasn't been afraid to buck or party in Trump recently using this moment to say, I believe in the American people. I am one of you. I believe you are good, talented, creative, intelligent, hardworking, and want to achieve. I am solidly against you being replaced by foreign labor like with
Starting point is 00:08:39 H-1Bs. I am America first and America only. And that last line is very connected to a big divide and shift we've seen in the right wing right now. Because seemingly more and more each day, you have more people saying that President Trump is either actually Israel first or tech oligarch first. And that's been creating more and more dissent among Republicans and specifically inside of MAGA. Though the outrage with Trump, it definitely wasn't just MAGA.
Starting point is 00:08:59 But you also had people on the other side of the aisle slamming Trump for hypocrisy. Saying the most anti-immigrant president in recent history now says that Americans are just too stupid and untalented to do most of the jobs that we're going to need to bring in foreigners to do. And quick refresher with what H-1B visas are,
Starting point is 00:09:12 they allow companies to hire high qualified foreign workers with very specific skill sets so that the US has top talent and is competitive in fields like STEM, medicine, and more. There's supposed to be temporary visas. Applicants have to have certain educational requirements to qualify. And these visas are actually capped every year, so only a certain amount of people get them annually, so they're kind of coveted. You know, this issue, it's not a new one. H-1B visas, it's been a divisive issue on the right for a long time now. You know, on one hand, you have people like Vivek Ramoswamy and Elon Musk speaking in support of these visas. Elon actually came to the US via an H-1B. Then on the other hand, you have a lot of MAGA being against them. Tons of people oppose them as part of their overall anti-immigration stances. You also have some saying that they've been abused.
Starting point is 00:09:48 Saying that they've actually been abused to bring in foreign workers that they can underpay compared to an American worker. And also, as this has been playing out, you had Trump earlier this year, signing an executive order to impose a $100,000 fees on H-1B visas. So some see, Trump's remarks to Laura Ingram is a change of tune here. And noting he even pointed to an ice raid that happened under his own administration is evidence as to why we actually need foreign workers. And that actually happened in my home state. Not long ago, there was an ice raid at a Hyundai facility in Georgia, where hundreds of people, most mostly from South Korea, were detained and then deported over their visa status. Now with that, you had Trump saying... They had people from South Korea that made batteries all their lives.
Starting point is 00:10:22 You know, making batteries are very complicated. It's not an easy thing, very dangerous, a lot of explosions, a lot of problems. They had like five or six hundred people early stages to make batteries and to teach people how to do it. Well, they wanted them to get out of the country. You're gonna need that, Laura. And then, this morning you also had Kristy Noem going on Fox News to address Trump's comments. And there, she just kind of defended the administration's general visa strategy. Now, we're going to keep using our visa programs.
Starting point is 00:10:48 We're just going to make sure that they have integrity, that we're actually doing the vetting of the individuals who come into this country, that they want to be here for the right reasons. And that's what I think is so remarkable is under the Trump administration, we've sped up our process and added integrity to the visa programs, to green cards, to all of that, but also more people are becoming naturalized under this administration than ever before. More people are becoming citizens.
Starting point is 00:11:11 But all of that, it also did not. go over well with a largely anti-immigration base. I mean, tons of conservatives again writing things like, we do not want or need more people to become citizens. Are they trying to lose the base? How can they be this out of touch? And we didn't vote for this. You even had some commentators like Mike Cernovich saying he's not in the mood to defend Trump from all the Epstein allegations because of this visa issue. So it's kind of cool to learn where certain people's lines are. You know, ultimately that's where we are right now, and I really would love to know your thoughts, opinions, and reactions, whether it be the H-1B visa
Starting point is 00:11:39 situation or the Epstein emails of it all. And then I've got to I've got more news for you in just a minute, but first let me say, you know, you ever overdraft by five bucks and your bank acts like you committed tax fraud? Because yeah, that's why today's sponsor Current exists. It's the banking app built for real people who are tired of getting punished for just, you know, existing. With current, you can get a paycheck advance up to $750. I mean, that's the difference between peace of mind and paneguggling, how to sell plasma fast. Right, or maybe you overspend a little. Same thing. Curran's fee-free overdraft gives you up to $200 of breathing room without the gotcha fees. Waiting till Friday to get paid, it can be ancient
Starting point is 00:12:09 history. With Current, you can get your paycheck up to two days early because your bills don't wait, so why should you? Also, like, do you need a billed credit by you pay credit cards? The current build card helps you raise your score safely. I mean, users see an average 80 point jump in six months. Plus, you can also earn 4% on savings and use 40,000 plus fee-free ATM nationwide. It's fast, it's flexible, and it's bill for 2025, not 1995. So, hey, scan that QR code or head to current.com slash fill and use code fill for $50 on us. Terms and conditions apply. But then next up in the news, we've got to talk about how Trump sent more than 250 Venezuelans to was Salvador in prison and they were harassed, tortured, and abused.
Starting point is 00:12:42 And Trump and Company did this knowing full well that they'd be mistreated and even faced threats to their lives. Right, that, according to Human Rights Watch, and Christosal, which is a group focused on investigating violations in Central America. And, very notably, this is also the same group that was recently forced to suspend its operations in El Salvador due to threats from the government. Right, the government there didn't seem to be big fans of their work documenting conditions in the country's prison system.
Starting point is 00:13:03 And so keeping that in mind, this report, it's based on dozens of interviews and independent forensic analysis of injury sustained by detainees. They were freed back in July as part of a deal that included the release of people from the U.S. being held in Venezuela. The Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying at the time that the American citizens and permanent residents had been arrested and jailed without due process, and also calling for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela. Though that, of course, as the Venezuelans arrested in the U.S. and jailed in El Salvador, were also not granted due process. Right, many of them were actually asylum seekers who fled the Venezuelan regime, and according to this report, roughly half of them had no criminal record at all, and only 3% had been convicted in the U.S. of a violent crime.
Starting point is 00:13:38 And that, despite accusations from the Trump administration, that they were all terrorists and gang members. Though, again, at least under the law, even if that ended up being true for some or all, it wouldn't justify the mistreatment that they allegedly suffered while in El Salvador. Because according to the report, they received little to no medical attention, few opportunities to actually bathe and almost no privacy. Some also saying that they were psychologically tormented by the guards who told them that they would never get out alive, that nobody knew they were there and that their families had abandoned them. Though it also wasn't apparently all verbal and mental, you had others saying that they were beaten from the moment that they arrived in El Salvador and throughout their time in detention.
Starting point is 00:14:10 Also, three said that they had been sexually abused, though notably the report suggests sexual assaults were likely more widespread and just not reported due to social stigma. Yet the report detailing these beatings and other abuses appear to be part of a practice designed to subjugate, humiliate, and discipline detainees through the imposition
Starting point is 00:14:26 of grave physical and psychological suffering and adding, officers also appear to have acted on the belief that their superiors either supported or tolerated their abuse of acts. And you know, with that, another key point being made is that not just El Salvador, but the U.S. bears responsibility here. With, for example, the reporting, pointing to Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam's visit to the facility back in March. You know, when she posted that video of herself standing outside of a cell where these men had been packed into, like sardines. And some of the detainees actually reported that they were beaten after that as punishment for shouting and asking to be freed.
Starting point is 00:14:54 And with that, you had H.R.W.'s American director arguing that Noam's high-profile visit, it proved the administration's awareness of the abuse is taking place. Saying with Christy Noam visiting directly and recording that video, the U.S. government is very clearly complicit in the very serious and systematic torture that Venezuelans face. So also, I'll add, it was clear long before Nome's visit the kind of conditions that one could expect in a Salvador in prison. In fact, our own State Department's annual human rights report has regularly expressed concern about the prisons in the country. Or at least I'll say, until this year, oh gosh, I wonder what changed when it claimed that there were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses in El Salvador. But with that, you had the head of
Starting point is 00:15:27 Christosal setting the record straight, saying that the Venezuelan's treatment reflected a broader pattern that has seen 90,000 Salvadorans arbitrarily detained, disappeared, and systematically tortured in the past three years and dadding. It's caused the deaths of at least 420 people, although we think it's probably many more. And saying there's a large and very credible body of evidence that demonstrates it in Salvadorian prisons, the El Salvador government itself could be committing crimes against humanity. And that's the prison system that the United States contracted to disappear the migrants into. And so then with all that, you have these rights groups calling for an independent investigation
Starting point is 00:15:57 by the Justice Department in the United States, though, I will say that that's unlikely. I mean, you had a White House spokesperson responding to questions from Politico about the abuse allegations, and they just doubled down on the administration's narrative, saying President Trump is committed to keeping his promises to the American people or removing dangerous criminal and terrorist illegal aliens who pose a threat to the American public. And adding, Politico should spend their time in energy amplifying the stories of angel parents whose innocent American children had tragically been murdered by vicious illegal aliens that President Trump is removing from the country. So we're going to have to wait to see how this continues to play out, though. It doesn't seem like the Trump administration
Starting point is 00:16:29 is going to change much. But also, like, I think, to consider, and this is kind of crazy. If you look around, there's actually a decent faction of Trump's base that think he's not being cruel enough. So oddly, and it's not equally, but it is a situation where he's getting hit from two different angles. But the next up in the news, the president is now directly pressuring the Supreme Court
Starting point is 00:16:46 to rule in his favor in the legal challenges against his tariffs. Right, because last week, the Supreme Court heard a pair of incredibly consequential cases against the president's use of emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs. With the plaintiffs arguing that Trump doesn't have the authority to unilaterally enact tariffs
Starting point is 00:16:59 without the approval of Congress, While, the Trump administration claimed that Trump was able to impose the duties through the use of emergency powers. But a majority of the court, including key conservative justices, appeared to be skeptical of the administration's defense. And that's a massive deal because, one, if the Supreme Court strikes down Trump's tariffs, I mean, there could be major economic consequences and a messy unwinding that would require the government to refund money that American importers paid for the tariffs. And two, it would mark one of the few times that the Supreme Court actually moved to limit Trump's power after what seems to be like endless rulings that have dramatically expanded his executive authorities. Instead of no one's surprise, Trump is fighting tooth and nail to make sure that just doesn't happen. But he's repeatedly threatened that a court ruling against him would literally destroy the country.
Starting point is 00:17:37 Instead of a post on Monday, he claimed that, quote, the actual number we would have to pay back in tariff revenue and investments would be in excess of $2 trillion. But then he later up that number to $3 trillion and added, it would not be possible to ever make up for that kind of drubbing. That would truly be an insurmountable national security event and devastating to the future of our country, possibly non-sustainable. Now, notably, it is true that various essential have put the revenues from Trump's tariffs at between two and three trillion dollars over the next decade, but there are a number of important caveats.
Starting point is 00:18:06 First of all, the higher-end estimates don't usually account for the negative economic side effects that the tariffs could bring. Or like tariffs that other countries on place in the United States and retaliation, increased inflation, higher prices, and lower GDP. In fact, one study by the Tax Foundation did account for external impacts, and they estimated that all told, Trump's tariffs would only bring in $1.8 trillion over the next decade. And that, as you have many others, noting that even with the higher estimates, it doesn't offset the four trillion dollar price tag of the tax cuts in Trump's big, beautiful bill. Right, even though the Trump administration has repeatedly promoted the tariffs by arguing that they would offset the trillions of dollars that the BBB will add to the deficit.
Starting point is 00:18:39 So as a result, you had many arguing that Trump was trying to bully the Supreme Court into ruling in his favor. And those allegations were then bolstered when Trump appeared to try to bribe the American public to get on his side. Where was Trump telling reporters in the Oval Office that if the tariffs remain in place, there will be so much more money floating around after the tariffs that he'll start giving it away to Americans, saying, we're going to issue a dividend to our middle income people and lower-income people of about $2,000 and we're going to use the remaining tariffs to lower our debt.
Starting point is 00:19:02 We're going to be lowering our debt, which is a national security thing. But again, there are a ton of flaws in that promise. For one, the president has not provided any other details besides saying in a truth social post that high-income people wouldn't be eligible. But he also hasn't said if the dividend would go to children and dependents or how high the income cap will be. Right, and this, as experts are saying that the math isn't mathing. Where the committee for a responsible federal budget projected that the dividends could cost around $600 billion, nearly double the amount that the U.S. is expected to make in tariff revenues from imports over the next year. And with that, you had one expert saying that even if there's an income cap of 75,000,
Starting point is 00:19:34 or like there was with the stimulus checks, there still wouldn't be enough tariff revenues to cover the cost. But then also, beyond that, these dividends might not even offset the money that the tariffs will end up costing the American people. In an analysis, by the Budget Lab at Yale, it predicted that the duties will cost American households on average $2,400 just this year alone. And again, all of this is kind of best case scenario if you're taking him at his word. As well as ignore the words from the experts whose life is really all about this. But hey, for better or worse, I guess we'll see. And then there's more we're going to dive into in a minute, but first let me say, you know, stop the procrastination already. Head to NordVPN.com slash fill for a huge discount on a two-year plan plus four extra months free.
Starting point is 00:20:12 I mean, this month, research has confirmed a massive leak of over 183 million accounts, including verified Gmail usernames and passwords now just floating around the dark web. And also, before you think I've never been hacked, remember, most of these leaks, they come from random third-party sites that you don't even remember signing up for. One reuse password later and boom, they've got your emails, socials, maybe even your bank. Stop procrastinating and get today's sponsor, NordVPN. It's your digital first line of defense. Their threat protection, it blocks malware, fishing sites, and sketchy links before they can touch your device. In the dark web monitor, it actually alerts you if your email or password shows up in a leak before hackers can use it. And I use NordVPN daily. I mean, whether I'm traveling, working on public Wi-Fi, or just avoiding ads that somehow know what color socks I bought
Starting point is 00:20:48 last week. Plus, NordVPN's no logs policy and next-gen encryption, it means your data stays yours. So scan that QR code or go to Nord VPN. VPN.com slash fill for a huge discount on a two-year plan for extra months free, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee. Lockdown your online life before someone else logs in first. But then next up in the news, we've got to talk about this crazy look we got into the CIA's classified operations in Afghanistan and their secret weapons and not what you'd expect. Because during the 20 years of war in Afghanistan, the United States, it dropped a lot of stuff from the sky, missiles, bombs, and tons and tons of ordinance. But now we're also finding out that among all of that we're apparently billions of
Starting point is 00:21:21 tiny poppy seeds meant to covertly weaken the country's opium crop. Right, because in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, the opium trade was ramping up. And with that, it was taking its toll on American goals, had taken down the Taliban and stabilizing the Western-backed government. Right, they're trying to eliminate terrorist groups. In that heroin market, it was disrupting the U.S.'s grand plans by fueling corruption in the government and helping pay for the Taliban's weapons and equipment. And that's before even mentioning that Afghan heroin,
Starting point is 00:21:42 it made up the majority of global heroin supplies at the time, with the stuff usually heading to Europe and the former Soviet Union. You know, you had Western allies and U.S. government agencies arguing extensively about the best way to handle this, or at least put a dent in it. They're trying to figure out how do you handle the opium problem without undermining the rural Afghan support of the government. So ideas get thrown out, like buying up the entire crop to be sent out and processed into medicine.
Starting point is 00:22:02 But what they didn't know is that someone else was already working on the problem, with the now being revealed and confirmed by 14 unnamed sources familiar with the program that the CIA attempted to influence the crop by spreading specially modified poppy seeds throughout the country. And these air drops, they started in 2004, right? While you had diplomats and other agencies arguing
Starting point is 00:22:17 about the pros and cons of spraying the crops with herbicide? The CIA, they had pilots flying over fields in the two biggest poppy provinces in the country. And the idea was that their seeds would germinate and they'd grow into plants that contained nearly none of the chemicals needed to be refined into heroin. They had next to no morphine in them, but they produced the most vibrant red flowers which would hopefully push farmers to save the seeds and replant them as well, as offer them to other farmers and spread this American poppy seed across the country.
Starting point is 00:22:40 You'd weaken the crop and therefore heroin production as a whole. And this wasn't like for a little bit. These drops were kept up for a decade or so from the Bush administration into the Obama time. So also this was apparently held so close to the chest that some senior Pentagon and state Department officials involved in Afghan policy said they never heard of it or only heard rumors. But ultimately, what ended up happening is it was expensive to keep up, and eventually the money just ran out. In fact, the CIA counter-narcotics center's budget, it was so squeezed that they tried convincing other agencies to fund the poppy seed drops. And while around 2015, the State Department's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau picked up the cause for this project, they never did another drop. Now, reportedly the Afghan government, they weren't made aware when this program began, and it's also not exactly clear if they figured something was going on.
Starting point is 00:23:18 But we do know that rumors circulated among farmers in Afghanistan about foreigners messing with their plants. Also, I've got to mention here, whether or not this was truly effective, that remains to be seen right now. Western officials, they've been pretty clear that the open campaign for countering narcotic production in Afghanistan that wasn't successful, saying it was doomed to intergovernment and interagency bureaucratic squabbling. However, according to several former CIA and State Department officials, the seeding program was working at least for a time, saying there was a degradation and the potency of Afghanistan's poppy crop with one former official adding. There was a sense that it worked, but maybe over time. time, it worked less well. The juice wasn't worth the squeeze. This is actually an example of
Starting point is 00:23:52 creative, out-of-the-box thinking by the agency. It was dealing with a problem in a non-kinetic, non-military way. And the numbers certainly reflect that something happened while the program was running. But with a 2018 report finding that there was a drop in the poppy crop between 2007 and 2011, but it jumped right back up after that and then skyrocketed in 2016. With a report reading, no counter drug program undertaken by the United States, its coalition partners, or the Afghan and government resulted in lasting reductions in poppy cultivation or opium production. And so all of that, one, I think it's just very interesting news that we should talk about. Especially because, too, when you see stories like this coming up,
Starting point is 00:24:25 it also makes you wonder what is secretly happening right now. Because there's so much to be like, wow, that's crazy about what we know is happening. And it really just makes you wonder what else is there. Then finally today's we're winding things down. I want to end with a congratulations and one more thing. Starting with a congratulations to Andrew M. Seekkeek's latest weekly winner who just scored $500 in tickets and has planted on seeing and John Mullaney. For the rest of y'all, that's right. Seekeek is still giving away $500
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Starting point is 00:25:32 Then finally, one more thing today. I don't even know how to introduce this. This morning, I had a very cathartic crash out with my buddy Alex Perlman on our podcast that comes out on Wednesdays crashing out. Well, it opens up with me kind of just letting loose. This show right here is like 95. 5% news, 5% opinion, this podcast is the opposite of that.
Starting point is 00:25:48 One of my favorite things to do on the pod is to kind of slowly wind Alex up and then let him go. And so for today's PDS, I thought we could go out on me, get an Alex to go off on Ben Shapiro and the magus of a war that's playing out right now. I remember back in fucking 2006, sitting on Myspace, hearing about Ben Shapiro for the first time. And he was like 19 years old. And he was like, I'm Ben Shapiro. And I like violin and hate rap music. And porn is part of evil. and I wrote a book about it.
Starting point is 00:26:16 His job was always to make mummums and pop-ups want to pat him on the head and say he was one of the good ones who was, you know, he was a kid and now he's 40. He's in twink death, okay? Ben Shapiro is in twink death. That's the pull quote.
Starting point is 00:26:32 Make that the fucking clip. Put it up on Instagram. Ben Shapiro looks like he thinks he still looks young. He's not. He has crow's feet. He is using just for men. There's been accusations about whether or not he's getting lip filler. All right, Ben, you're a 40-year-old man arguing with fucking streamers.
Starting point is 00:26:52 All you do these days is watch TikTok clips. That's what you do. You're a TikTok reactor. You're not better than any of us. And this is all he's done for a very long time. So, of course, someone like Nick Fuentes will come in and not only eat his lunch, take a shit on the table and say, that's you. Because that's what he can do over and over that.
Starting point is 00:27:11 Nick Fuentes can look down the camera and say, young man you'll never own a home you'll never own anything young man you'll never be able to have a family they're trying to keep it off from you who are they i'm never going to answer that question but you will on twitter like this is what this is what a whole part of this thing is and and nick feuentes is following a very long line of especially on the right wing but especially if you follow recruitment from the clan recruitment from neo-nazzi groups and other different white supremacist groups over time. He's just doing it digitally on a fucking stream with super chat. Back in the day, the clan would go and they would circle right wing rallies and they would pass out cards
Starting point is 00:27:51 around the edges. Now instead, he is just on there and people are paying him 10 bucks and then he's to ask him a question. It's fucking, this is just, this is where we are. And then my friend is where this video is going to end for now. But again, you've got more just to click away. We join us in crashing out the newest episodes here. It's like an hour, 10 minutes. It's my new favorite thing that I do. Also, a lot of people are saying, like, just watching it, it's very cathartic, and or there's the newest PDS that you might not have seen yet. But with that said, thank you so much for watching. I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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