The Young Turks - "AIPAC Shakur" - August 27, 2025

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month Shopify trial and start selling today at ⁠shopify.com/tyt A tragic shooting unfolds at a Minneapolis Catholic school. The Israeli military claims a strike on a Gaza hospital targeted a Hamas camera — but provides no evidence. Charlamagne tha God dubs Hakeem Jeffries “AIPAC Shakur.” Benjamin Netanyahu appears on the PBD Podcast. Hosts: Ana Kasparian SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞  https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK  ☞   https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER  ☞       https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM  ☞  https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK  ☞          https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH  ☞      https:/www.shoptyt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Ontario, the wait is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget online casino is live. Bringing Vegas-style excitement and a world-class gaming experience right to your fingertips. Whether you're a seasoned player or just starting, signing up is fast and simple.

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Eligibility restrictions apply. See golden nuggettcasino.com for details. Please play responsibly. What's up, everyone, welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Casparian. This is the first time I've ever done the show out of a hotel room. I don't recommend it, but it shows my loyalty to our wonderful audience, okay, that I'm here's New York. I was supposed to do another episode of Abby Phillips's show on CNN tonight, but I got canceled. Apparently, they want to do extensive coverage of the shooting that occurred, which I'm going to also detail at the top of the show today. But I will be back at, or in L.A. tomorrow. And so bear with me as I do the show from a completely different environment. We still have really

great content for you, lots of great elements to share in all of these different stories that we have produced and ready to go for you all, starting with that shooting, which we'll do at the top. Later, we're also going to do a little bit of a follow-up on that double-tap strike on the Nassar Hospital in Con Unis in Gaza. Lots of interesting efforts to make excuses, provide cover for what was obviously a war crime, which was something that the U.S. military got a lot of flak for, rightly so, when it came to our military activity in the Middle East. So we'll get into all of those details and more. Benjamin Netanyahu has continued his propaganda tour, and we're going to show you the latest and debunk some of the statements that he had to say about that. Apparently,

he's had a come to Jesus moment in regard to the Armenian genocide. Should we believe him? Spoiler alert, no, we shouldn't, but we'll get to that later in the show. And then I got to say, man, Charlemagne does deserve credit when he just rips into ineffective politicians, especially ineffective democratic leadership. And so we're going to get to that in the show as well. Second hour, Wozni Lombray joins us. We're going to show you some highlights from my CNN appearance last night. We're going to have some fun as well.

So definitely stick around for the second hour and the bonus episode for our members. You could become a member by going to t.y.t.com slash join. or you can just smash that join button if you're watching us live, smash it. And if you're having, you know, you got to tighten the belt a little bit. You know, you don't want to spend too much money. That's totally fine. Obviously, you don't have to be a member of the show to enjoy all of the free content that we have for you. But if you want to free an easy way to support the work that we do here at TYT, just like and share the stream. It's, again, a free, easy way to help spread our message and promote the work that we do.

All right, well, without further ado, why don't we start with the very first topic here, yet another tragic shooting this time in a Catholic church? So the question was, neighbors had said that the door to the church had been barricaded. The shooter approached on one side of the church building, and on that side, at least two doors, it appears there had been like a two by four placed. Every one of us needs to be wrapping our arms around these families, giving them every ounce that we can muster. These were Minneapolis families. These were American families. And the amount of pain that they are suffering right now is extraordinary.

Okay, at least two children were killed this morning after a gunman decided to open fire inside the. the Annunciation Catholic Church, which is part of a Catholic school in Minneapolis. Bear with me as I try to get through the story because I'm just, I'm personally overwhelmed by how many stories we have covered this year about children getting killed, you know, obviously abroad. But hearing about it here in the United States is just as painful. So this gunman is also dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, bringing the total death toll to three, 17 more individuals though were injured, 14 of them being children. Two of those children were in critical condition in the hospital. Now, among the children who were killed was an 8-year-old

and a 10-year-old. And the Annunciation Catholic Church has a school for children from pre-kindergarten to 8th grade. So this is the beginning of the school year for them. They were in church praying. It was their first day back at school. And according to the New York Times, a gunman fired a rifle through the windows of a Catholic church in Minneapolis where students were celebrating their first mass of the new school year. The attacker then shot and killed himself in the rear of the church, according to Minneapolis police chief, Brian O'Hara. So before opening fire, this sick individual decided to barricade, essentially trap everyone in the church. before he carried out his attack.

So at least two doors of this church had been barricaded from the outside the chief said. The gunman, who was in his early 20s, also fired a shotgun and a pistol. Now, reports do indicate that the shooter was armed with multiple weapons, including a rifle, shotgun, and a handgun. Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, of course,

who's a pretty strong advocate of gun control laws, was beside himself and just absolutely rejected thoughts and prayers, which is typical after shootings like this take place. Take a look. Don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church. These are kids that should be learning with their friends. They should be playing on the playground. They should be able to go to go to school or church in peace without the fear or risk of violence and their parents

should have the same kind of assurance. These are the sort of basic assurances that every family should have, every step of the day, regardless of where they are in our country. So I have no faith in our lawmakers, whether it be on a state level or obviously not on a federal level, Congress is pretty much useless. And while I understand the calls for, you know, better gun laws, I don't think that gun laws alone are leading to the prevalence of the gun violence that we have in this country. Yes, it's simple to point to the guns. But clearly, there's also a very serious problem with young people and mental health in this country. This keeps happening over and over again. And oftentimes, you know, when you hear these stories of young people

accessing these weapons, the weapons might belong to their parents. Maybe that's how they access them. Their parents bought it legally, but they didn't secure the weapons and their kids were able to access them. I don't know. We still at this moment do not know how the shooter obtained the guns, whether or not this individual obtained them legally or illegally. We're going to have to wait for the story to develop a little more. And as you guys know, in the past, I've certainly been vocal in being in favor of things like federal background checks when you purchase guns. But even if you pass those gun laws, right, even if you do, clearly there is a huge problem in this country. When we talk about things like the male loneliness epidemic, people think about it as if it's like some sort of fun, you know, sex war, gender war.

No, no, no, no. There's something really serious happening in the country right now. Okay, high levels of depression among young women, loneliness among men, we need to figure out how we can take care of each other, how we can assist people with mental health, how we can provide better mental health care. This person, I'm going to give you some details about the shooter as we know them at this moment. And again, I just want to warn you all, the shooting took place this morning. It's likely going to develop further. We'll learn more about the shooter. This individual allegedly had a manifesto that police are currently investigated. But from the evidence that I've seen in the reporting so far, this person was crazy, like absolutely insane, like writing all sorts of hateful, bigoted garbage on the magazines for his weapon, racist things about Latinos, just it was, I mean, I'm not going to repeat everything that he wrote on those magazines, but you could tell that this person was, not doing well mentally, to say the least. Now before I give you some more details about the shooter and what we know about him,

the Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has kind of weighed in on something you may have seen online. You know, I don't know why this has been a trend lately when it comes to shooters, but immediately you'll see a bunch of accounts online argue that it's a trans problem, that the shooter was trans. Okay, we don't have any evidence right now that the shooter's trans. trans and besides which, obviously, you have a lot of shootings happening all across the country from different demographics, but a lot of the mass shootings are carried out by young white men, okay? I don't think that there's a big problem and we need to do something about young white men. There is a problem in the country with these shootings, and we need to get to the bottom

of why they're so prevalent here in the United States and what we can do to mitigate it, to stop it. But this is what the mayor had to say. Anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community or any other community out there has lost their sense of common humanity. This is what he said during a press conference, quote, kids died today. This needs to be about them. And I totally agree with him on that 100%. So here's what we do know about the shooter so far. Okay, so the police did not release his name or say whether he had a connection to the church.

However, the New York Post had an exclusive where they initially identified the shooter, and now it's also being reported by other publications. So there's a photo of the individual. Robin Westman is the individual's name. As I mentioned earlier, he is dead now from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Now, he reportedly had a manifest that the police are investigating. Now, Westman, who is in his early 20s, opened fire through the state. glass windows of Annunciation Catholic Church during a celebratory back to school mass filled with children around 8.30 a.m. Wednesday. A disturbing video believed to have been posted by the shooter shows Kill Donald Trump and For the Children scrawled on gun magazines. So that's just a few of the examples of what was posted or written on the magazines. So people who immediately want to jump to politicizing this or making it about political identity. He also had

a lot of what some would consider right wing nonsense, scrawled on the magazines. So let's just please think about the victims and put this person's alleged political ideology aside. Obviously this person was not well. Okay. So we'll wait for that story and his background to develop a further before we really weigh in on it. So one video, show diary entries with a drawing of the church and writing in both English and Russian. I'm not going to show you those images. They are available online, including in the New York Post article. Other videos show that the shooter had an obsession with mass shooters, including the Sandy Hook killer, Adam Lanzah. So Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said one of her former

staff members has three kids who were in the church when that shooting happened. And she cited the account of one of the children, quote, she watched a child get shot in the stomach and another in the neck. Kids were scrambling down in the pews to protect themselves. Here's more from Klobuchar. Take a look. We're mourning for those kids that were in there that may have survived, but will never be the same. And we are supporting our law enforcement and our hospitals. And there's right now some doctors and nurses that are sitting in an operating room with a little kid trying to save them from a shot in the stomach or shot in the neck. And that's what we think of viscerally now. But to just let it go there and say thoughts and prayers is no longer enough.

And Minneapolis has been dealing with a lot of gun violence recently. I mean, the country has been dealing with a lot of gun violence. But this really stood out to me from the New York Times reporting. has seen a string of deadly violence in the past 24 hours, the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church was the fourth in the city since Tuesday and the second near a school. In total, the attacks have left at least five people dead and 25 injured, according to the police. When it comes to these types of shootings, I don't know what else I can possibly say. Obviously, it's tragic. I have a niece who's eight years old. And so reading about that eight-year-old girl or eight-year-old child,

I don't know if it was a girl, but eight-year-old child getting shot and killed is absolutely heartbreaking. Another 10-year-old getting shot and killed. We do have a problem with shootings in this country, and we got to stop doing this thing where every time a big shooting happens, people will talk about it, they'll debate what the solutions should be, and then nothing happens. And it's the most depressing reality about our country, just the ineffectiveness of our political

leadership, the pain and suffering of our people, whether they're suffering from severe mental health issues that go untreated, whether they're severely depressed, you know, whether they've been dealing with violence, domestic violence that goes unchecked. There's just all sorts of things, all sorts of problems in our country. And typically, what the people of any country would do is they would look to their leadership for solutions. But we haven't had any real attempt at solving this ongoing problem in the country. And that's what breaks my heart. What breaks my heart is thinking about all of those kids in that church barricaded in there, okay, literally trapped in there by this disgusting gunman, nowhere to hide,

nowhere to go, nowhere to escape, just terrorized by someone opening fire against them like this. So hopefully the media will do its job. I know Ken Clippenstein will because Ken Clippenstein doesn't do this cutesy little thing that journalists do these days in America where they hide the manifesto and refuse to report on it.

I think we need to know what the motives were. I think we need as much information and transparency as humanly possible. People should not be living in terror like this. People should feel comfortable dropping their kids off at school or going to church

without worrying about some crazy person, insane person, hateful person, whatever, whatever motivated this person to open fire and cause the type of pain, death, and destruction that this shooter did. Anyway, let's take a break. Let me just gather my thoughts. And when we come back, we'll move on to some other news. You know what's the one dish I make? It's called spaghetti a la jane.

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So the comment is love that Abby Phillips keeps involving our beloved left media YouTubers. You did great last night, Anna. Thank you so much. Look, I have to say, I'm very impressed with Abby Phillips. I've said it on the show before, but I, It bears repeating. She's actually very brilliant. Like, she's a smart woman and knows her stuff.

And I don't say that based on what you get to hear when she's on air. I love getting to know her during the breaks. Like, she's very talkative during the breaks, and you can tell that she's an intellectually curious person, digs deep, and is fair in her analysis. So I really like Abby Philip. I know that maybe some on the right would disagree with that, because the way the show was formatted. She tends to butt heads a lot with Scott Jennings. But honestly, she's, she impresses me every, every time I meet her and hear what she has to say during the break. She's

very impressive. Anyway, with that in mind, let's go ahead and move on to our next story. I don't believe for a second that those journalists were not targeted. I think journalists are being targeted in Gaza. They're not allowing international journalists to report on the ground to enter the Gaza Strip, unless, of course, they're being accompanied by IDF soldiers. And hundreds of journalists have been slaughtered in Gaza. Every single time it happens, Netanyahu comes out and says, oh, it was a mishap. And the United States just forgets about it and moves on, continues providing more bombs. At first, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the double strike on the

Nassar hospital in Kahn Yunus in Gaza, which killed at least 20,000. people, including five journalists, was just an unfortunate mishap. It was an accident. You know, people make accidents like that all the time, right? Where at least 20 people were slaughtered. Well, now he's claiming that the IDF carried out the violent and deadly attack because they believe they saw Hamas surveillance camera at first. And even though it was a mishap, they allegedly killed six Hamas combatants. Now, I don't buy any of that, and I'm going to explain why. Luckily, and this is a nice change of pace, it looks like the Associated Press is also questioning the narratives coming from the Israeli side of this situation.

So, as the Associated Press reports, Reuters Camerman, Husam al-Masri, was killed in the first blast, okay, the first. attack while filming from the site, according to a fellow journalist and a doctor at the hospital. So the Hamas surveillance camera was just a camera belonging to a journalist. That was the first journalist that got killed in the first strike. But as I mentioned, it's a double tap. That's what made the video of what happened so unbearable, so disgusting. And we're going to show you that video again, so just prepare yourselves for that. But a Hamas official denied that they had a camera surveilling the IDF and told the Associated Press that if this claim about a Hamas camera was true, there are many means to neutralize this camera without targeting a healthcare facility

with a tank shell. Now, whatever you might think of Hamas, that statement is undeniably true. So the idea that they're going to use tank, do it, like use a tank shell in order to neutralize a camera, that's ridiculous. Like at this point, even the establishment corporate media can't stomach the brazen lies. Because they lose credibility. Whatever's left of it, if they just regurgitate and repeat, the insane talking points coming out of the IDF. and the Israeli government. By the way, a little backstory to all of this. Netanyahu first came out and said,

this was a mishap, unfortunate mishap. The IDF got upset that he said that publicly. And so now all of a sudden, oh, there were six Hamas combatants. Sure, there were. So hospital officials say that the second person who was not identified was also killed, A second person who was not identified was also killed in the first strike.

So I wanted to mention that as well. But what about that double tap? Like what is the excuse, meaning, you know, the second strike that was carried out by the IDF as rescue workers, family members of patients at the hospital, and other journalists arrived on the scene. And if you don't remember what I was talking about, this is what I was referring to. The The Associated Press, now, now, now.

The Associated Press reports that no one on that staircase was seen holding a weapon. You guys can all see it for yourselves. These are the first responders after the first strike happened. The military released its initial findings into the strike, offering no immediate explanation for striking twice and no evidence for an assertion that six of the dead were militants, including two who were identified by their employers as a health care worker at the hospital and an emergency services driver. The dead also included five journalists. How much more evidence do people need to finally understand, realize, and process the fact that these are intentional killings of innocent people? When you look at aerial images of the Gaza Strip and you see it leveled, every single residential building every single school, every single university, every single hospital, every single refugee camp.

When you see the videos, like the one that I'm showing you right now, right now, how are you going to look at that and make the argument that they're just going after Hamas? They leveled Gaza. They destroyed it. They destroyed it. 83% of the people killed are civilians, and that's according to internal IDF data, as reported by Israeli publications. 729. Read it for yourselves. The idea that we're all idiots and that like the Israelis are so much more sophisticated than us. We're just dumbasses. that can easily be lied to and we'll just soak up their slop and believe their garbage lies is so insulting. It's the most insulting thing that I have to stomach every single time I do the show.

And for the longest time, people reporting for the Associated Press just regurgitated the lies. You know, one side's saying this, the other side is saying that. You decide. No, how about you guys do your jobs and do accurate reporting. It looks like, finally, for the first time in the Associated Press, we are getting that. They're like, oh, well, you know, Israel is claiming that they killed six combatants, but, wow, they didn't, they didn't provide any evidence. Yeah, how is this any different from all of the other controversial bombings and shootings we've covered?

But none of this, sorry, there's something in my eye, none of this is enough to convince Scott Jennings. Let's go to the video. If you take this story at face value, bomb a camera, killed 20 people as collateral, and then say, as Netanyahu said in a statement today, that this was a tragic mishap. Yeah, I think they said also six terrorists were killed in the attack. We've heard, how do you know? I know it's BS because of the IDS internal documents,

which indicate that 83% of people killed there. You know for a fact that there weren't any terrorists. I'm not going to sit here and regurgitate the lies from the Israeli government as they're conducting a genesis. And even if there were, even if there were six terrorists killed in the strike, there were 20 people killed total. So there were a lot of people who were killed who according to Israel were not terrorists. Five of those people were journalists. The second strike occurred when there were aid workers coming to assist people who had been caught up in the strike. That's what I'm talking about.

So look, Abby Phillips wants to be as fair as possible. I'm past the, I'm going to be fair to the Israelis as they've been caught lying to us again and again and again. And again, I'm not interested in that. Now, if they provide evidence, great. But since there is no evidence, there isn't a shred of evidence that there were six Hamas combatants killed in that double strike. I'm not going to regurgitate their BS lies. Okay? If people are uncomfortable with that, oh, I'm sorry.

I didn't know that I was just supposed to repeat one side's BS arguments when they haven't provided any evidence whatsoever. I'm not playing that game. One of the journalists killed was a contractor for the Associated Press, by the way. Maybe that's why they're finally doing their jobs and throwing cold water on evidence-free claims made by the IDF. The military did not elaborate on why it struck a second time or how it would have identified militants among the crowd on the staircase. Among the six people killed Monday that Israel claimed were militants were Jamah al-Najar, a healthcare worker at Nassar hospital, and Imad al-Sar, a driver with Gaza's civil defense agency. The very people that they keep calling combatants tend to be, you know, journalists, doctors,

health care providers, important people that would help document the war crimes that Israel is committing. Important health care workers that would try to keep wounded Palestinians alive. You know, the very people that this genocidal government would have all the interest in the world getting rid of so they can carry on with their war. war crimes, with their ethnic cleansing, with their genocide. Without offering evidence Israel has in the past, this is the Associated Press, identified emergency responders who work under the Hamas-run government as militants

to be targeted, including in the killing of 15 medics in March when Israeli troops opened fire on ambulances in southern Gaza. That is the reality of the situation. Entire groups of humanitarian aid workers, medics, journalists, they've gotten so brazen that they try to kill like a few of them in one fell swoop. A little later in the show today, we're going to show you more of my exchange with Scott Jennings on CNN. So you have that to look forward to. But I really do wonder how people like him sleep at night. Like, does he just regurgitate Israel's lies because he's afraid that he might get targeted the way that people like me are getting targeted right now?

Is he worried about career opportunities being taken away from him? I don't know. But how do you live with yourself? Just, you know, casually repeating the lies of a military or a government that has killed so many innocent people. 83% of the people killed in Gaza, civilians, civilians, innocent people. Unless, of course, you don't see Palestinians as people. And I suspect that there are unfortunately a lot of people in both Israel and the United States who think that way.

And that causes so much pain in my heart. I don't know how anyone can be capable of dehumanizing anyone or any group of people to that extent. But unfortunately, those people exist. And I have to think about them and deal with them every single day. It's the most black-pelling thing in the world. Reading, playing, learning. Stellist lenses do more than just correct your child's vision. They slow down the progression of myopia. So your child can continue to discover all the world has to offer through their own eyes. Light the path to a brighter future with

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Neutral. Refreshingly simple. What's also black peeling is... any mention of our democratic leadership. So why don't we get to that? I love having the speaker, minority speaker, Hakeem Jeffries. Because, you know, I'm a political nerd.

Like, I love talking about politics. Charlemagne hates him. You do? I don't hate him. I just don't think he stands for anything. Well, I think that he's, I call him Apex Chacore. Correct. All right.

Charlemagne is correct. Now, look, I don't begrudge anyone who likes to have political discussions. I just find it hard to believe that you're really having an in-depth, you know, stimulating talk with Hakeem Jeffries of all people. That's not to say that he's dumb. He just doesn't really come across as a charismatic person who has deep thoughts. But nonetheless, on yesterday's edition of the Breakfast Club, Charlemagne was joined by Claudia Jordan and Erica Cobb. And while Jordan said that she absolutely did enjoy having a chance to interview to House Minority Speaker Hakeem Jeffries.

Charlemagne, obviously, not so impressed. So here's more of the back and forth with Jordan. Take a look. We did talk about messaging. And I actually went to the Capitol, I had a meeting with him. And we talked about messaging and how I was like, the frustration with the party is y'all have to get more gangster.

Like, stop going by the politics of the late 2000s, you know, in 2010. And you have to like rise to the occasion in the messaging. And he did. I saw him do more afterwards. Hakeem is a puppet. Hakeem's not doing anything if Chuck Schumer don't tell him to do it. And it's simple as that. I think Chuck Schumer is probably important to Hakeem Jeffries. He probably does listen to what Schumer has to say.

I mean, they've got to collaborate, right? They're considered democratic leadership. I think what's more problematic, though, is what really speaks to our lawmakers. And so when you hear someone like Charlemagne called Jeffries A-PAC Shakur, here's what he's talking about. Let's take a look at APAC tracker doing great work, showing how much influence the Israel lobby has. Man, Hakeem Jeffries has collected quite a bit of money from APAC. So, man, nearly $2 million. So $1,742,105 from APAC. That's wild. That is a lot of money. Now, according to AAPC tracker, Jeffries has taken that money from the pro-Israel lobby. But Schumer,

He's doing pretty well himself. Let's take a look. Okay, similar amount of money here. So Schumer has taken $1,727,974 from, you know, pro-Israel lobbyists. So pretty identical there. Interesting. Now, both of them are from New York and they are also both still refusing to endorse the Democratic primary winner for the mayoral race in New York City, which is a incredible. Of course, I'm talking about Zoran Mamdani. And over the weekend, Dana Bash actually asked Hakeem Jeffries why he's holding out on his endorsement. And here's how that went down. What does he need to do to secure your endorsement? Well, we had a very candid and constructive and community-centered conversation a few weeks ago before he went off to Africa. I've, of course,

been on the road for the last several weeks, dealing in part with the Republican effort to try to rig the midterm elections through their gerrymandering scheme. It's pretty, just for context, it's pretty unusual for a high-ranking Democrat like yourself to withhold the endorsement of your party's nominee for candidate for New York City Mayor. So what are you hoping to hear from him that you haven't yet? I don't think we've withheld an endorsement. We are engaging in a conversation about the future of New York City,

about the issues that need to be addressed, particularly the housing crisis. Does it have anything to do with the fact that he hasn't denounced using the term or supporting the term globalized the antifada? Well, listen, I've raised several of the issues with him privately, as well as publicly spoken about some of the concerns that I've had. The only thing that could maybe help me gain a modicum, not much, a modicum of respect for Hakeem Jeffries is if he just had his mask off moment and said, listen, one of my top donors doesn't like that Mamdani doesn't want to visit Israel as mayor of New York City.

So I'm not going to endorse him because I follow orders for my donors. Just say it. Just say it. Just be honest. Instead of like playing this like cat and mouse game with the press over why you won't endorse the Democrat who won the primary for mayor of New York City. It's just it is wild. And the guys, the globalized, he never said globalized the antifada. He refused to condemn it because he doesn't want to play the games that members of the left are oftentimes forced to play in various interviews. I mean, just think about how many times people who have been critical of Israel's conduct have been forced, okay?

You don't have to force, okay? I condemn what Hamas did on October 7th. It's not that difficult. But when you're like a year and a half into a freaking genocide that's being carried out by Israel and the first question you have for me is do you condemn Hamas, it's pretty frustrating. So you have to do all the throat clearing before you can finally address. what's happening here and now.

So for Zerun Mamdani, he's like, I'm not going to play that game. And you know what? I respect it. I respect it. He didn't take the bait. He's not going to be pushed around. Again, his policies aside, and I'm a little bit worried about some of his policies, I'm going to keep it real.

Okay? But putting that aside, the more they attack him for these types of things, the more I like him. Because he's willing to be. to go against the grain. He's not willing to be bullied by corporate Democrats, corrupt Democrats, who are far more concerned. Hakeem Jeffries, sitting there talking about, oh, I'm worried about affordable housing. No, you're not. No, you're not. How long have you been in Congress, you bitch? You've been in Congress for so long. What have you done for affordable housing?

Don't sit there and lie to us about how you want to do something about housing. The Democratic Party in Congress has been absolutely useless on the issues that they purport to care so much about. So do not deflect and tell me, oh, I'm too busy with the housing issue. I'm going to skip ahead because Dave Smith was on Joe Rogan's podcast recently. And it's really interesting to hear how some of the more open-minded people, libertarians, even some people who consider themselves right wingers, how they've been kind of talking about Mamdani. Because typically you would think of right wingers as individuals who like fearmonger about Mamdani being a Muslim. Ooh, this is going to be the Islamification

of New York City. And to be fair, there are plenty of disgusting Islamophobic right wingers who say that. But in terms of those who have a bigger platform, they're not saying that. In fact, they're taking a good, hard look at how Mom Doni is being treated by the Democratic Party, and they've got some interesting things to say. So let's hear what Joe Rogan and Dave Smith had to say. I also don't agree that this should be this massive coordinated campaign from both sides. to make sure that he doesn't get into power. Yeah.

Because you don't agree with him. Like, I think a lot of the stuff he's saying is ridiculous. Like, using New York City funds to pay for transgender surgeries for people who can't afford them. I'm a nay on that. Yeah, but it just sounds nuts. It sounds like you're only going for that nutty vote. Like, you want that nutty vote. But are we, what is this?

Are we allowed to disagree? So I disagree. I don't support that. I don't support a lot of the stuff he's saying. raising of taxes, I think, is going to be really problematic, but I'm not an economist. But what is this game we're playing? Is it the people get to vote? Because the people voted, and they voted, and he won the primary.

So it's supposed to be the Democrats get behind him, and then it's the Democrats versus their public. Or are we doing something different? No, the people get to vote, but if they vote wrong, then the powerful might have to come in and let the people know that they have erred. That's what Andrew Cuomo is trying to do. He is appealing to Trump to try to get Trump to get the Republican in the race to drop out, thus solidifying the independent vote and I guess the right wing vote for Cuomo so he can maybe beat Mamdani.

That's the kind of game that he's going to try to play here, which screams, I don't really care about democracy. I don't like the results of the primary. so I'm going to try to play games in order to give me an upper hand and potentially beat Mamdani. Look, again, take the policy out of it. I want to have a deeper discussion about whether or not we live in a country that values the democratic process. Because I heard a lot from Democrats about how important it is to protect our democracy. But when it's convenient for them or when they're faced with a Democratic politician who's inconvenient for them,

All of a sudden, democracy goes out the window. The will of the people doesn't matter. And so I'm really happy that Rogan called the Democrats out on this. And honestly, Mamdani, just the mere fact that he is different from corporate Democrats in that he wants to pursue some of these more socialist policies when it comes to certain areas of his agenda, that was enough to get the mainstream Democratic Party against him. But then you have the fact that he's a Muslim. And on top of that, he won't bow down to Israel.

Of course he's going to be a target. But nothing has been more of a white pill. I've been talking about the black pill a lot on this show, right? Nothing has been more of a white pill than to see how unstoppable Mamdani has been in the face of these ridiculous unfair attacks. So, and you know what, he looks poised to win, and if he wins, I hope he proves me wrong on some of the policies I'm worried about. Look, I'm worried about some of his more anti-police policies, right? Because I've seen how they've played out in L.A. It's bankrupting us now

because we pay so much for police overtime, and we're short about 1,500 deputies. So you have to be smart in pursuing these policies. If you're concerned about police brutality, then you need to reform policing. But if you have an anti-police approach, I am worried about that. Okay, I just am. So I'm going to wait and see. But here's one other thing that I will say. If you look at the, you know, political landscape for this mayoral race, I mean, what other options do you have, really? The guy who killed a bunch of seniors by taking elderly people with COVID and forcing nursing homes to take them back in when they still had COVID, that guy, Andrew Cuomo? No, I don't think so. The Curtis Sliwa guy, you know, he's a little bit of a kook. He's

fun. I don't think I want him to be a mayor. You get what I'm saying? I don't think the people of New York City wanted to be mayor. That's why he didn't win. But again, this idea that the Democratic Party is not reneging on all sorts of things that they have previously said about supporting the Democrat, making sure the Democrat wins, unless the Democrat is inconvenient. for their donors and for their, you know, economic agenda, which is far more corporatist and less concerned with doing what's right for the people. Now, I want to move on to Jacob Liu, who became the U.S. ambassador to Israel almost immediately after October 7th.

This individual recently spoke to the New Yorker, and he admitted that under the Biden administration, children. Wait, hold on. I'm in the wrong story, aren't I? Yes. Okay, let's just ignore that entirely. Let me fast forward to graphic 10. So one of the things that Mom Donnie gets a lot of heat for is he's vocal about what's happening in Gaza. And I know what it's like to be vocal about what's happening in Gaza and be met with all sorts of hate and threats. But nonetheless, he, I'm going to give you an example of something he said recently. He says leading global experts just confirmed what we've long known. Gaza is in famine. At least half a million Palestinians are facing starvation, acute malnutrition, and death, and it's likely to spread. The U.S. government is not a bystander to this genocide. We can end it today. By the way, his views on Israel and Gaza, Chef's Kiss. It is nice to see a politician openly talk about these things, honestly talk about these things. Friend of the show, John Fugel sang recently stunned a CNN panel. by stating that Momdani's policies are actually far more Christian than the right-wing Christians who are fuming at Mom-Dani for calling Israel out.

So why don't we take a look at that? Zoran Mamdani, who is running for mayor of New York, maybe you've heard of him. His policies are much closer as a Muslim. His policies he's fighting for, for families, for mothers with children, for food, for transportation, for expanded housing, much closer to the actual teachings of Jesus Christ than the, Christians who can't stop smearing Zoran Mamdani for being a Muslim socialist. His policies are closer to the gospel. Christ never talked about abortion, never condemned gay people, never condemned immigrants, would not shut up about poverty. It was like his Layla at all of Jesus' speeches. He's actually doing what Christ called for as a Muslim, and it's infuriating

right-wing Christians. Okay. Go ahead. A little lighter than that. Fugle's saying is great when it comes to, you know, sussing out the, you know, fakers, the religious people who are really just fakers. And I love what he had to say there. Look, I'm excited about the fact that it does appear that the Democratic voters are hungry for something different. And that's what we need. You know, I'm hard on the Democrats. And when I say that I'm, hard on the Democrats, I specifically mean those in positions of power who have abandoned their voters, who have not done right by their constituents, who are corrupt, who are feckless. We need to stop providing cover for them merely because they're Democrats. You can't change

these issues unless you admit that you have a problem. And right now, democratic leadership is a problem. Seeing someone who identifies as a Democrat who won't back down, who actually is a fighter, he's really nice for a change. And so we'll see what happens in the general, but he does appear poised to win, and we'll see how his policies play out. But the fact that we finally have a Democratic politician who is openly criticizing the genocidal government of Israel, and the more he does it, he doesn't really get hurt by it, is fantastic. And by the way, huge, huge portion of people who voted for my Donnie happened to be Jewish New Yorkers.

I love it. Absolutely love it. So sorry, Jeffries. Sorry Schumer. I can't wait for the day. Those guys are voted out of office so we can get real Democratic leadership to represent Democratic voters because right now we don't have much. We really don't. All right, we got to take a break when we come back. I want to do one more story for you. Patrick Bet David had Benjamin Netanyahu on for an

interview. I'm going to show a few portions of it and share my thoughts. Don't miss it. We'll be right back. Welcome back to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian. We don't have much time left and I don't want to be late for Woz who's going to join us for the second. an hour. So let's get right to our next story. They're calling you a, a wartime criminal,

the offenses you've done, the amount of, you know, again, like I said earlier, they're calling under genocide. How do you answer to the critics that they don't follow politics? They don't follow the stories closely. But if they see, if they see 120-something countries that if you land there, they're supposed to arrest you, the average person is going to say, maybe this isn't a good guy. Patrick Bet David had Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his podcast. And, you know, based on the comments, the video got, PBD is facing a little bit of backlash. I'll let you read all that for yourselves. But you should watch the full interview.

We'll include a link in the description box. And yes, I do work on a show under the umbrella of Patrick Bet David's company. And so I do want to commend him because he lets me run my mouth as much as I want, especially on issues like Israel. And I'm going to do that right now. And so, you know, you guys can weigh in on how you feel about how he conducted the interview. I'm more interested in debunking Netanyahu's just insane lies in the context of this interview. So why don't we do that, starting with this?

We've gone through the Holocaust, and I'm committed, as are my people. to prevent a second Holocaust that Iran was planning. And that's what we've been doing in this war. It's taken this long because we had to break this noose of death that Iran was going to put on us, in their plans to conquer the Middle East, in their plans to then proceed to Europe, and in their plans to then proceed to America. They say death to America. We're just standing in their way.

And boy, did we stand in their way. Israel is receiving and is very grateful for the American military as since about 3.8 billion a year. And 80% of it is spent in the United States. That's the deal. So it helps American industries. But we also produce these incredible weapons that we share with the United States. We produce intel that is invaluable for the United States. There is a lot to debunk there.

beginning with this notion that Iran wants to conquer the Middle East. You know, I've noticed this trend with Netanyahu. Every time he makes an accusation, he throws an accusation against another country or a people's, right? Whether it's the people of Gaza, whether it's, you know, Iran, he's usually accusing them of doing something that he wants to do. So just a quick reminder, he very recently told I-24 News, an Israeli publication, that he has like this religious connection to the Greater Israel Project. He wants to conquer the Middle East. That's what all this warring is really about. It's not about getting the hostages back, which is why they're annexing the West Bank as we speak, folks. Okay. There are no hostages in the West Bank. We all know that. They've been bombing Yemen. They've been bombing Lebanon. And these are recent bombings, by the way. Okay, so this has been going on because he wants Israel to dominate the Middle East, the Greater Israel Project. look up the clean break memo, which was drafted by three neocons in the American government,

handed over to Benjamin Netanyahu, clean break from the Oslo Accords, from establishing peace with the Palestinians, from allowing for the formation of a Palestinian state. And in that memo, I mean, it's basically a blueprint that has played out exactly as the blueprint intended. So saying that Iran wants to dominate the Middle East is rich when Netanyahu and the Lakud party literally have the Greater Israel Project in their charter. Okay. The other thing I'm noticing about Netanyahu's, you know, media tour is he really tries to frame things in a way that would make Americans think, oh my gosh, we really need Israel without Israel. We'd be goneers. We'd be goners. Israel's really protecting us from Iran.

Except we're the ones who provide all the bombs, all the weapons. And let's not forget, it was the United States. It was the American military. It was American bombs that were utilized to strike Iran's nuclear sites, which could have led to a full-blown hot war, but because of Iran's, Iran's restraint, it didn't lead to a bigger hot war. But you know what? Netanyahu's not satisfied. Israel's not satisfied.

They want the U.S. to go into Iran again. That story is developing as we speak. I'll probably cover it tomorrow. Israel's protecting America? Are you kidding me right now? What a joke. And then one other thing I just have to note. The military aid that we give Israel, the country that had an economic surplus.

in 2021, you know, in the middle of a global pandemic, while the U.S. is drowning in debt, Israel is enjoying a sweet little economic surplus, but we're shelling out a ton of money in military aid to Israel anyway. And he talks about how it's so good for America because 80% of that money goes toward buying American weapons. First of all, if that were true, oh, wow, thanks, Netanyahu. Tax dollars are being redirected from work. working class people to a tiny group of weapons contractors and manufacturers. How does that benefit ordinary Americans who can't afford housing, don't have health care or universal health care, that's for sure, who just had their Medicaid benefits cut?

How exactly does that benefit the American people? But besides which, what he says isn't even true. Israel gets a special little loophole that all the other countries we give military aid to don't get to enjoy. While other countries have to use that military aid to buy American weapons, Israel can actually use that money to buy or manufacture its own weapons, which is why I keep bringing up the point that our foreign policy toward Israel is essentially helping Israel build its empire using our soldiers and our money. So I hope you had a nice day. work today, a portion of your earnings are going to go toward building Israel's empire. Now, he also mentioned intel. You know, Israel is an important ally to the United States

because they provide us intel. You know, the kind of intel that informs our government that Iraq is a big threat to the United States because they are harboring weapons of mass destruction, which of course they didn't have. And that preemptive war in 2003 was a complete and utter disaster. Not a single IDF soldier lost their lives. None of them were on the ground in Iraq, but we certainly lost a lot of soldiers. And we certainly spent a lot of money looking for weapons of mass destruction that didn't even exist. But hey, you know what? Israel got the regime change war in Iraq that Beebe so desperately wanted.

Okay. And then there's the intel that they don't share with the United States. Now, Scott Horton, who's incredible, very well read, and I've learned a lot from him, talks about an important piece of intel that wasn't shared with the United States in the lead up to a bombing in Beirut. This was in the 1980s. Okay, so this was the 1983 Beirut bombing, which killed 240 Americans, 241 Americans, to be specific. They were all soldiers, and 50, 59 French troops as well. So here's Scott Horton talking about it on Pierce Morgan's show.

In Victor Ostrovsky's book, by way of deception, he says that the Mossad knew that Hezbo, or I guess, proto Hezboa at that time, was making a giant truck bomb and decided explicitly not to warn the Americans before the Beirut attack that killed 241 American Marines in 1983. I have to wonder if that's why Ronald Reagan went ahead and pulled out at that time. that of doubling down. It's because he knew of their treachery. That's again in the book by way of deception. It just goes to highlight the vast daylight and discrepancy between the interests of the nation state of Israel, which as the gentleman said, of course, they're a very small

nation state. It's in their interest, obviously, to get America to do what they want. I'm a big fan of Scott Hortons, and I'm very excited that he will be joining us on on TYT on September 5th. That's a Friday. He will be on a panel with myself and Dave Smith in the first hour, and we'll be talking about foreign policy. I'm obviously very excited about that. But what he mentions is the exact type of intel that would be helpful to the American

people, to our soldiers, 241 of them who got killed in that bombing in Bay, So when Netanyahu brings up how critical Israel is in sharing intel with the United States, it literally makes me feel sick to my stomach. And then get a load of this. He actually brought up the Beir bombing while talking to PBD. Let's take a look. Israel is different. It really is.

We know that we have to fight for ourselves. And we do. But when we fight for ourselves, we fight for you too. because we fight Iran. Iran try to murder President Trump, not once, but twice. Iran killed and wounded thousands of Americans with their IEDs, explosives devices in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran killed 241 Marines in Beirut. They bomb your embassies. They burn American flags. But if you look at who's actually fighting Iran, it's Israel. It's Israel, our brave soldiers. No, this man makes me sick.

He makes me sick genuinely. USS Liberty, another Israeli attack, by the way, on one of our Navy ships in an effort to, you know, frame Egypt and get the United States to invade Egypt. This stuff is sick. And so to hear him talk about how important Israel is to our safety here in the United States. States. Not only is it a lie, it's an insult. Final thing that I need to bring up because Israel does not officially recognize the Armenian genocide. And to Patrick's credit, he did bring this up. Now Netanyahu is the type of person who will say anything to anyone at any moment when it's convenient for him. I want to give you that warning ahead of time. And then I'll give you

the receipts for why I think he's full of it. But take a look at this. For anybody that doesn't recognize Armenian, Assyrian genocide, if there's any country that I would have expected to be on the list that recognized the Armenian and the Syrian and the Greek genocide, it would be Israel. Why haven't you yet recognized the Armenian, Assyrian, and the Greek genocide that the Turkish did to that community? In fact, I think we have. have because I think the Knesset Pester resolution to that effect. I don't know if it's come from you, though. I don't know if it's come from the prime minister of Israel.

Yeah, I just did. Okay. Here you go. All right. Well, thank you for doing that. Thank you for doing that. I appreciate you. That's important to me.

And I'm sure a lot of Armenians, Assyrians and the Greeks around the world appreciate you saying that. I'm not one of those Armenians. I don't appreciate anything about Netanyahu. I think that he is a disgusting war criminal. I think he's a brazen liar. And simply saying, I just did in regard to recognizing the Armenian genocide when he hadn't, he had mentioned the Knesset passing a resolution.

Okay, that's not you personally making a statement about how you recognize the Armenian genocide, the barbarism, the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians, nothing in there about that. I just did. Like, get off it, get off it. And the reason why I don't believe anything that comes out of Netanyahu's mouth, especially as it pertains to Armenia and the Armenians, is because of what Israel's been up to in regard to arming Armenia's enemies. So this is reported by the Times of Israel.

Few have benefited more from the two countries' close relations. that means Israel and Azerbaijan, then Israeli military contractors. Experts estimate Israel supplied Azerbaijan with nearly 70% of its arsenal between 2016 and 2020, giving Azerbaijan an edge against Armenia and boosting Israel's large defense industry. Let me just remind you all that Azerbaijan used those Israeli weapons to ethnically cleanse 150,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. and also use those weapons to invade Armenia. They're currently occupying Armenian land as we speak. I mean, Netanyahu would know a thing or two about occupation.

He specializes in it. He's absolute scum. Israeli arms have played a very significant role in allowing the Azerbaijani army to reach its objective, said Peter Weisman, senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Reism. Institute, which tracks arms sales. So Netanyahu can take his, I Just Did, and shove it up his ass. He is not an advocate of the Armenian people. He's not an advocate for humanity.

He's absolute scum. That's what I think about him. He's a war criminal. And I pray that the day will come where I get to see him in shackles, imprisoned where he belongs. And until that day comes, I am not going to listen to any of his lies and regurgitate them.

He's a bad guy, and he deserves the worst. We've got to take a break. We'll be right back.