The Young Turks - College Kidnapping?

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

Cenk explains why he's removing a contributor from the TYT network. The Atlantic publishes the messages containing attack plans that were accidentally shared with their reporter. A pro-Palestine Tufts student on a visa was caught on camera being taken by masked men who called themselves "police." Hosts: Ana Kasparian & Cenk Uygur 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. All right, welcome to the young Turks. I'm your host, Jake Ugar, Anna's going to join me on a little bit. We've got amazing stories for you guys today. Someone has just been picked up by masked thugs in the streets of Boston on behalf of Israel. They've been rounded up.

We've got details for you on that a little bit. The Atlantic has published a full text of the national security conversation around bombing Yemen. We have that for you and the incredible fallout from that. But first, I wanted to start on a note about the network and talk to you guys about that. Because I think it's important for us to understand this and hash it out, et cetera. And then we'll get to the stories of the day. Okay, so let me get started. So recently Francesca Furentini asked us at TYT to take her podcast obituation room off the network.

And we happily agreed to that. And today I'm going a little further. And I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. So you won't see her on any of the TYT shows going forward. So I want you guys to know why I'm doing that and how this whole situation isn't really about Francesca. It's about TYT, our community, and what we see. stand for. And so we're for open minds and open hearts. And so I want all of you to know that and I want to build a community that believes in that and invites people in that believe in the

same things. And by the way, if you don't believe in the same things and you say, no, no, no, I have a strict ideology and I have no open mind about that. No problem. There are tons of shows out there for you guys. So first of all, we've had some disagreements. I certainly have with some of the far left, but I think they've been relatively small. But if you think that they've been large, no problem. So they've been around the issue of crime. Did crime rise between 2019 and 2023? Well, that's a fact. It did. And but it's okay. We could have different interpretations of it. That's not an issue at all. We certainly are against police abuse and we've fought against it. I would argue at least as much as any show on the planet and perhaps a lot more.

And I take great pride that Benjamin Crump, among others, said that Trayvon Martin would not have gotten anywhere near the national coverage that he did if it wasn't for the Young Turks. So nevertheless, we could have disagreements about specific policy issues. And we do on slogans and framing, et cetera. For example, defund the police, Latin X. These are normal disagreements within any community. And I certainly would never want to shut that down because we're, again, for open minds. And of course, we've had some disagreements on the issue of trans.

Let me just transgender rights. Let me just say quickly what my position is, because a lot of people outside of the network have been misleading you about this. So I'm for 100% constitutional rights for transgender Americans, because why they're Americans, just like the rest of us, and they should have the same exact rights as us. They should be protected in bathrooms. They should definitely be allowed to serve in the military. And I happen to think that they should be allowed to play transgender girls should be allowed to play in women's in girls sports in high school now my position on that is not overall popular in the country

I understand that and I have a strategy for hopefully how to win on that in the long run But I don't believe that they should be mandated to play in college and professional level I think the league should get to make those decisions on their own I think that that is a small disagreement. Obviously, others think that's a giant disagreement. But that's again, not the issue here. I think what the issue is is when others, among the issues, is when others say only my opinion is the correct one, the moral one, everyone who disagrees with me is

unintelligent, immoral, collaborator, etc. Well, we'll get to the specifics on Francesca in a second. I'm saying that generally. And that they speak for the left. Well, let's find out if they do speak, speak for the left. This is a little bit of Francesca, a little bit of Emma Vigland from Majority Report and spliced in is the actual facts about what the American people think. And interestingly, what Democratic voters think. First, let's watch this.

I'm a big messy fan, so. But let me answer my question. Would you allow him if he said I'm a woman to play in the American woman's national team? Yes, yes, yes, right now. Hell yeah, are you kidding me? Transgender female athletes in women's sports, only 18. percent of the country says that they should be, in fact, allowed to participate in women's sports. Your argument is really bad on this and you're out of your depth. You're correct that trans women should be able to compete in women's sports, but your argument for it is just scientifically and factually incorrect. I'm actually not bad about this.

I'm 100% right on this. I don't give it to scientific explanations. People, if they identify as a woman, get to compete in sports. If that's not fair in the short term for a variety of little competitions, I don't give a question. I mean, my goodness gracious, 79%. You rarely get 79% of the country to agree on anything. Because the societal interests of including trans people in society Trump's stupid competition, full stop.

So I'm right about this. You're wrong about this. You'd let Leonel Messi play in the women's national football team and destroy women's football forever. You'd let Usain Bolt. Hang on. To get a ticket, which would suck. I want to do a little checklist here. You'd let Usain Bolt compete as a sprinter in the American women's Olympic team.

Yes. Okay. You would let Floyd Mayweather. compete as a boxer in the women's American boxing team. Opposing them in women's sports. You get 67% of Democrats, so two thirds there. You get 64% of independence. You get about two thirds there.

So I'm right about this. You're wrong about this. Okay, generally speaking, if you want to say that you're right about something, sure, everybody has their own opinions. And it's their opinions. That's why they think that they're right. It's another thing to say that you speak for the left. As you just saw there, 67% of Democrats have a position that is.

actually to the right of mine. I say that trans girls should be allowed to play in girls sports in high school. 67% Democrats say no, not allowed any women's sports. So I'll work on my Democratic brothers and sisters and we'll try to get, I'll try to get them to my position on that. Nothing wrong with disagreements and if Emma Francesca and others can convince 79% of the nation that is opposed to that to come over to that side, fantastic, happy to have it, okay? So I think where the issue comes in is when things get personal. So we got three rules generally speaking on air here at TYT that are relatively bright lines.

So one is, and I say relatively, I'll explain that in a second. One is no lying, two is no threats of physical violence. And number three is don't denigrate personally the other hosts in the network over and over and over again. And I say relatively bright lines because it should be relatively easy to follow. But I get that people have disagreements about, hey, what's a lie? You know, are the what they say about crime stats a lie or not? No, I'm not gonna nitpick that and we get into the heated debates from time to time. Me and Ben Gleeb in the past, me, Ben Manquitz, me, Michael, et cetera, and I love those debates.

And from somebody might cross the line and say something they shouldn't know, but we usually hug it out. And so I'm not nitpicking here. What we're looking for is, hey, are we all rowing generally in the same direction or are someone was drilling a hole in the boat. And so are you doing it over and over again on purpose to try to create an issue? Or even if you're not trying to do it, you are creating an issue by constantly attacking our own. And I have applied this to other times, which I'll tell you about in a minute. This all started, unfortunately, when I went on Francesca's show, and we had what seemed like a normal conversation and debate about this issue until it made a turn. And this is part of the

turn. Let me show you. I'm reminded of the, you know, the book by, I think his name is Michael Schneider on tyranny. And he wrote, it's like 20 lessons from the 20th century about authoritarianism and fascism. And one of the things that has come to mind when you say, my strategy will protect us is he has this chapter. I'm going to bring it up the first part of it called do not obey in advance. And it's, he writes, most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given in times like these individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want and then offer themselves

without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do. In other words, you don't have to do the sort of crackdown on the left around speech because I'm going to do it for you or you don't have to come to me. Again, you're misstating it. I'm doing the exact opposite. You're cracking down by saying, jank, you're out of bounds. So you should stop your stupid opinion. And because you're implicating me. I can't believe that a guy who I like did used to admire and who I thought had a lot of fight is trying to scratch the back of people who absolutely would never do the same for them. So we just spent an hour and a half of me explaining how I'm not scratching their back. I'm trying to get their populistic agree with us on things we believe in and we've always believed it.

And you go back to scratch their back. At least the trains will run on time. The train is running on time, presumably a reference to Germany. I'm the collaborator and I'm scratching the right wings back by having my opinion. The opinion I've always had, an opinion I've had for years and you guys have seen for years on the show. But if you don't agree with Francesca in that particular case and some other folks in the extreme left, well, you're not allowed to have that opinion. That is immoral by definition.

And how dare you disagree with them? That makes you a right wing or a collaborator, et cetera. But if you say, hey, Jenk, look, I know that she's quoting someone, you know, collaborating with an authoritarian government and saying that that's what you're doing and you're helping the right wing. And then she's not open to the idea of, hey, maybe there's a different strategy and a different opinion on this that gets us the same result protecting trans folks or whichever topic we're talking about.

Okay, if you're not. And at that point, I certainly hadn't done anything. I think that that was, you know, I didn't appreciate that, but that's okay. We kept going and she's been on the network since. Then she started to do more and more and more and more and it got more and more personal. So after that discussion, this happened. I like that we can both be very Mediterranean about it and get like super mad, but then rain it in and be cool and then be like, we're like, yeah, we're just going to yell and then we're going to be fine. and then we're going to get over it.

So that's the kind of, that's the kind of beer I like to have. Yes, thank you. I mean, I have my own thoughts on like why he's doing it. I think, you know, if you think your brain was broken by the 2024 election, I think I think we're looking at a case where someone's brain was broken even harder. Okay, so but look, guys, if she had said that about another host, I probably would have drawn the line there. But it's about me, so I wanted to give more leeway. My brain is broken. And by the way, that's still, okay, the first time she's getting super personal collaborator, maybe that's a political opinion. Now we're a broken brain, even though we were supposed to have a beer and we were supposed to hash it out and be okay afterwards. But apparently not okay afterwards. But then that was the tip of the iceberg. She continued again and again. Here's the next one.

I do think it's sad that even though they allow people like us into the fold and the fray, they refuse to learn from us. listen to us and I think that when you have been doing this work for so long and you still cannot grasp the idea of intersectionality how race and gender and class all intertwined with one another and how the right the fascist goal is to divide us based on these lines um like i don't even know i don't know like who you want like i'm i'm not even you're i don't even know if you're smart, you know what I mean? I don't even know. First of all, I don't know who your political mentors are. I don't know who you look up to. I don't know what your touchstones are. I don't know if you know your history in terms of like civil rights, women's rights, gay rights struggle in

this country. I don't even, I don't know anything. I'm I call into question all of that. It sounds like you are just an opportunistic mouthpiece who wants clicks time and time again. Okay, so obviously it's getting deeply personal there, opportunistic mouthpiece, can't grasp simple concepts, not smart. But guys, and I'm not angry. Look, people have different opinions and they want to get, make it personal it is what it is, right? I'm more sad about it. You know, I'll say something at the end about that. But but to me, the attitude that is toxic and that's what I don't want a TYT. I want to build a community that is really open to conversations is they refuse to learn from us. So the idea is, well,

obviously I'm right and the only moral center of the universe. And I already told them that. And this guy, wouldn't even learn from me. It's just such a deeply arrogant thought that if that if someone disagrees with you, they need to be reeducated. And maybe they haven't read any books at all. Okay, did she stop there? Of course then. And yes, as I told Jenk, I do feel very implicated. I have felt implicated by their takes specifically around crime and policing in years past, definitely by this new heel turn since Trump's reelection, and absolutely by the misrepresentation of the Los Angeles fires and who the responsibility lies on. It is, it is enraging, to say the least.

are not the responsibility of the mayor. They're apparently the responsibility of Republicans. I don't know. I don't know what her thought on that is, and I don't know why she's enraged by that, but that's okay. Apparently, I've taken a heel turn. By the way, all those folks, not just Francesca, but others that told you were right wing, you watch the show every single day you see us criticizing Trump and Elon Musk over and over and over again,

telling you how they're going to do a $4.5 trillion robbery in those tax guests yesterday. We talked about how they're already, you know, hammering Social Security and costing good Americans, you know, what they need from Social Security, how they're going to cut $800 billion from Medicaid, how there's a series of robberies on the way, et cetera. But it's okay, let's just simplify things and say anyone who disagrees with us a little bit is a right winger. But the good news is, at least Francesca will not be implicated anymore. And I never understood that because she's been saying this for a long time now,

that she was implicated by us. Then why keep taking a check? And it's not a big check. And Francesca has had, you know, career before us. She talks about that. Of course, of course she did. And she'll have a career after us. There's no problem with that.

So why, if you think we're collaborators and we've taken a heel turn and we're working with fascists, why did you choose to get implicated with us all these days? But good news, no longer implicated. Believe it or not, she did not stop there. This is now another show. Watch. So Jenks line up until this point has been, no, no, no, it's at the collegiate level. and above. I think once you get to the college level and above, that's when it's bad.

So he would be on board with what the NCAA said recently. But you're so dumb. You're so dumb. I don't even know how to explain it to you anymore. Unless, unless, this is the other option, unless you also are a transphobe. You know what I'm saying? Unless you also are kind of a misogynist. Because if you disagree with Francesca or anyone on that part of the spectrum, well, you must be a misogynist. You must be collaborating with the fascist. And obviously, you must be unintelligent. Now, if I had called her dumb, I wonder what her reaction would have been.

My guess is nuclear. But I didn't call her that because we have a disagreement. We have a political disagreement. You don't need to make it personal. Not done yet. One last one. What does it got you? What did it get you?

When you go and share a stage with Dr. Phil, what did it get you? Nothing. You know why? Because you look like a bitch. You know what I'm saying? You look like a bitch. That's what it is. Like that's just what it comes down to.

You don't look like a fighter. You don't look smart. You look like a bitch. That's just the reality. I've tried to tell it to you nicely. I've tried to tell it to you cordially. I've tried to tell it to you on your show, on my show, on every show. And so either you A are a bitch or B,

you don't actually, you actually agree with the right. And I'm starting to think, in fact, I do think it's the latter. Okay, so again, if I had called her that, that would have been a different situation, right? But look, guys, also on the policy or the strategy, when you go talk to the right wingers, first we did that, and I mainly did that. And there was a lot of blowback saying don't, don't ever talk to the right wing, but they won the popular vote. How are we going to win back the voters if we never talked to them? If we don't win them back, we can't ever win an election.

And that doesn't mean the far end of MAGA, it means the independent. that voted for Trump and maybe some right wing populace that voted for Trump. Now I've noticed that that faction is now saying, well, I mean, I mean, of course we should talk to the right, but we should only yell at them or we should only accost them. That seems like a really productive conversation. And if now I guarantee you they'll say, no, no, no, no, no, I don't mean just yell at them, but but you know, but just like built coalitions, as Francesca said recently, apparently she's changed her mind about being a collaborator.

But but not with, you know, Trump voters. Well, who would it be if it wasn't Trump voters? Those folks on the edge of the middle of the spectrum were that we got to come bring to our side. We've got to convince them that the populist left is right, not necessarily a populist right, or parts where we agree, hey, great, let's work together on that. So who are we building coalitions with if it isn't the other side or people who voted in the other direction? And if we talk to them, what are we doing? Only screaming fascist in their face?

Or are we having a human conversation? So look, this is not an attitude that I agree with. Again, there are other shows that that love what she's saying. And no problem, to each his own, it's a free country. Go and love that and yell and scream and do all the things that you want to do. But do you think that after you do a joint appearance with Dr. Phil or anyone else, that the very next day, all of MAGA is going to show up and go, oh, I changed my mind.

You're absolutely right. No, this is a gradual process where Americans begin to talk to one another and start to learn about each other and start to learn about each other. And starts, oh, that's what you mean. Oh, that's how you perceived it. And we begin to have human conversations until we understand each other. Again, if you don't want to understand them and you don't want to do that, plenty of other shows. So she said, I tried to tell them nicely. Did you?

Did you? Because I might have missed that part. All right, guys, you get it by now. Look, there's two other times that I enforce this rule. One was when Sam Cedar was doing it to Jimmy Dorn. They were both in the network. Sam's show was not only in the network as part of our YouTube partner group. And that's what we were doing early on.

And I was happy and thrilled with all the folks that were in it before. And then we stopped doing that since then. So God bless, no problem with that. And in terms of Sam and others leaving at different points from that network we were trying to set up. So but while they were in the network, I said, Sam, you can disagree with Jimmy all you want. And in fact, I agree with you on that on the policy you're criticizing him on. But stop doing personal insults. You're doing like personal insult after personal insult.

So, so I talked to him about that. He wouldn't agree, he loved the personal assaults. He wanted to keep going. And apparently that's a, that's a thing that he does like it. That's what he likes to do every time apparently. And so, okay, that's Sam and but we did enforce it before. And then ironically, the second time we enforce it was against Jimmy Dorr when he was doing it to Francesca. And he'd called her an effing liar.

And he called her and he said that she was a paid chill, which is a classic go to move for Jimmy, although he misspelled it paid chill, which sounds pretty nice. And I said, Jimmy, you can't do that. I mean, ironically, he's the only one who actually apologized and said, I won't do it again. And he apologized to Francesca. Francesca apparently thought great, I'm allowed to do this, but no one's allowed to do it to me. Anyway, you guys get it. So I don't, like I said, I want everybody wrong in the same direction because we're trying to build something here. And why do we want to build something?

Because we want our movement to be strong. We want to get message to get out there. We want to win over those voters because at the bottom, the bottom line in all of this is eyes on the prize. You've heard me say that year after year after year. What's the prize? The prize, by the way, note to other online hosts, is not more subscribers. The prize is passing bills because those are the only things that affect our voters, our audiences, their actual lives. Let's pass paid family leave.

Let's pass Medicare for all, higher wages, et cetera. And I hope wherever you are on the left wing spectrum or the middle or wherever you are, I hope that you agree. And I hope that we all work together in trying to pass those bills. So please, eyes on the prize. And so look, I'm going to show you two charts here for a reason. So media matters to this chart recently. You guys, some of you might have seen it on air. And it has the right wing shows online in red. And it has the left wing shows online in blue. Okay. What we did there, I hope you can see it is we put a little bit of a green circle around the TYT show.

So the Young Turks is right next to Rogan. We got 12 million subscribers. is one of the largest ones in the whole chart. But rebel headquarters is also on there, damage report is on there, indisputable with Dr. Rashad Ritchie's on there. And when you put them together, that's 18.8 million. And it is one of the largest presence in online media period. If you include our alumni, people that have been in part of the TYT network in one way or another throughout the years, then we're 30.1 million subscribers with the way that media matters.

does it? Today, actually, when you include all the platforms that were on, some of which media matters did not count, we're on, we have 27 million subscribers. Now, why do I tell you that? Because guys, we're trying to build something. Fox News has dominated this course in this country for at least 20 years, almost 30 now. And they've made an enormous difference. And I think for the worse, for the much, much worse. We're trying to build a network that makes a difference for the better. But by the way, you don't have to agree with us. And you don't have to say, oh, well, okay, then great, and we should help you and support you. No, you don't have to do that. Build something of your own. Instead of being destructive over and over and over again, how

about you be constructive? And you say, hey, Jake, I don't like the way you guys are doing the TYT network. And I see that you've had this huge success. And you've given rise to other progress that are now having success. And it seems like you helped to build something for our side. Well, what though these days I don't agree with you so I'm gonna build something larger guess what I would love that and whether you built something larger or not you built let's say you instead of building a media company or a media show you built a platform that actually got Democrats elected but progressive populist Democrats like Bernie Sanders Rokana etc and then they got those bills

passed oh my god I would love you for it please do that build something positive and that's what we're trying to do here okay so and I don't say this just just for Francesca. And the reason I'm doing this segment isn't just for her or to explain what's going on. But I do want to be clear with you. It's mainly to tell you what we stand for, not just the media end of it, not just the host, but as a community, we all have to be open-minded and open-hearted enough to get these things done and push forward. So look, last thing is, I wish Francesca well. I mean, she said those things, and I get it, we've got bad feelings these days, but all the power to her. Okay, if she can convince the country to be on her side

on all these issues, even the ones we disagree on, terrific. Go do, try that, try to make that happen. And no problem, happy to have it. Like she said, good career before. I'm sure she will afterwards. You can go check her out wherever she is. So I don't have hard feelings. I'm not angry. I'm just done with it. I want a positive atmosphere here where we fight for you guys. And we do that in all different ways. So if some hosts have a different idea on how to do it, great. Let's have that conversation. We've had that conversations, those debates, those discussions.

So we can get to the right answer. And so we could help you guys decide what you believe instead of what we believe. So for folks who don't want to be part of that, bless your hearts. Go get them, Tiger, okay? But for folks who think, yeah, that's a great idea. And I'd love to pass the things that are in your populace playing. Six incredibly popular policies live, you know, higher wages, anti-war, et cetera. Get money out of politics.

So if we can do that together, whether we disagree on some issues or not, wonderful. But whatever you do, please row forward. Please be mindful of others that are, you know, in this community, care for each other, love each other, and let's try to be positive together. And let's go build something as we always do at TYT. Love you guys. We'll be right back. All right back on TYT, Jank and Anna with you guys. And Brandon and Jesse Holberg, thank you for gifting five memberships apiece on YouTube. You guys are amazing.

There's a good comment here on the YouTube member section. He wrote in, I love people more than I hate their politics. Same. That's a great, great statement and love that. And thanks for everybody like Emily Zalko who wrote in, love you guys. We love you all back. All right, let's do the news guys.

All right, well, we actually have a pretty big update in regard to that big signal gate story that broke yesterday. Let's get into the latest. Nobody's texting more plants. I noticed this morning out came something that doesn't look like war plans. And as a matter of fact, they even changed the Title II attack plans because they know it's not war plans. There's no units, no locations, no routes, no flight paths, no sources, no methods, no classified information. Mr. Secretary, how do you swear what you said with what your messages show?

Well, defense secretary Pete Hegesith was defiant yet again today as the press asked for him to weigh in on the revelations that were revealed by the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, who was accidentally included in a signal text message group of Trump administration officials who were discussing specifics in regard to an attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen. Now, the latest is Goldberg, who has basically been dealing with attacks from Trump administration officials over his reporting on this, has released some of these text messages, which seem to debunk some of what you heard Pete Heggsitt say in that segment, right, Jank? Yeah, so I think that there's some really important things in here. Their discussion of Israel was slightly interesting, their disagreements were interesting, But what's absolutely clear is they totally and utterly needlessly lied. Why not just admit it?

So we'll show you how they lied and we'll talk about what they should have done instead. Exactly. So incredibly, the Trump administration is also attempting to spin this as a win for the administration, which is pretty incredible. But I'm actually happy to report that I'm seeing a lot of big name Trump supporters on social media who ain't buying it. And I commend them for not buying it because we shouldn't allow. for our preferred politicians to just lie in our faces about a very obvious reality here.

So let's get into these screenshots because a screenshot show, as suspected, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz was the person who added Jeffrey Goldberg to the group chat. You can see it. Michael Waltz added you to the group. This is a screenshot that was shared by Jeffrey Goldberg. So the first chunk of messages basically it includes Pete Heggzith, J.D. and waltz going back and forth about whether or not they should carry out strikes against the Houthis at all, with Vance arguing no and waltz, and Hegsith saying yes, we talked about that in more detail on yesterday's show. Once they decided to go ahead with the strikes, Hegsitz sent very specific updates on what

the military was doing. So let's take a quick look at that. As you can see from these screenshots, these are very specific indications of what the military is doing against the Houthis in Yemen, Hegsith Rites team update. Time now, 1144 Eastern Time. Weather is favorable, just confirmed with CENTCOM. We are a go for mission launch. 1215 Eastern Time, F-18's launch first strike package. And then he writes at 145, trigger-based F-18 first strike, window starts. Target terrorist is at his known location, so should be on time. I mean, these are pretty freaking specific. I think you guys can all see for yourselves. We don't need to do

story time reading hour. Now this was 30 minutes, or I'm sorry, 31 minutes exactly before the first US warplanes launched. At 2 p.m. Mike Waltz wrote, typing too fast, the first target, their top missile guy, we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend's building and it's now collapsed. J.D. Vance responds, excellent. Now 35 minutes after that, John Rack. who happens to be the CIA director wrote, a good start, which Waltz followed with a fist emoji, an American flag emoji, and a fire emoji. Really, you know, showing the professionalism, not only in using an unsecured app in communicating these attack plans, but also using the emojis in response to Hegsitz updates. So the Yemeni Health Ministry reported that at least 53 people

were killed in these strikes and later that day, Hegseth told the group chat that attacks would be continuing. So let's talk a little bit about the Trump administration's response to the latest revelations that broke today. But before we do, I want to give you an opportunity to weigh in, Jake. So look, this is a huge mistake and it's obviously, they're calling this sensitive information. And I understand that it obviously would normally be classified, yes, Trump could say it's no longer classified or we magically unclassified it earlier. Sure, they can say that. But we all

know that normally this would be classified. I mean, imagine if instead of Jeffrey Goldberg, they accidentally sent it to someone else, a journalist or otherwise, who made it public. Then our pilots could have been shot down because then they would have known that they were coming. It could have gotten people killed. It's a super serious issue. And you can say, hey, wow, we made a mistake there. And we're deeply sorry about that. Thank God, nothing. went wrong, at least for the pilots in our side, etc. But here's what we're going to do to address it. But they haven't done that. They just keep doubling down on the lie after lie. And interestingly, now some of the right wing hosts are turning on them and saying, why are you guys

lying? Because this is obvious. This is brazen. So that to me is the bigger issue. So remarkably, remarkably, even after Jeffrey Goldberg released these screenshots of the exact messages he was able to read the messages that he received containing specific details about military operations. The Trump administration is claiming victory. And look, to be fair, the Trump administration has gotten away with doing this exact strategy in the past. It's just not working this time because the evidence is so overwhelming against them. So Mike Walts, for instance, posted on X, no locations, no sources and methods, no war plans, foreign partners, had already been notified that strikes were imminent.

Bottom line, President Trump is protecting America and our interests. I mean, we just read you specifics in the messages a little while ago. Obviously, he's not telling the truth here. Vice President J.D. Vance piggybacks off of that. It's very clear Goldberg oversold what he had. Did he? The Defense Department is hilariously trying to claim that the title of today's Atlantic piece is actually proof that they were lying since they called the messages a

attack plans as opposed to war plans. So we're gonna engage in the inevitable semantics nonsense. Here are the attack plans that Trump's advisors shared on signal. Look, I don't care if they call it attack plans or war plans. It is bad that you have high level Trump administration officials communicating on an unsecured app and accidentally including a journalist who they allegedly didn't want to include in those conversations. Obviously, there is a security failure here, they got caught, and they refused to take responsibility. And for me, that's the biggest issue.

Look, mistakes happen. I hate the fact that they use this app. Obviously, they shouldn't be doing it. But if they took responsibility and apologized and said, look, we are going to take steps to prevent this from happening in the future, we'd be done with it and we wouldn't have to waste more time focusing on this story. But the reason why we're focusing on the story is because they're acting like middle school kids who can't take responsibility if their life depends on it. And it's pathetic.

This is not the, you know, the indication of real leadership in the country. This is the way children behave. But let me continue, there's more. So as Wall Street Journal National Security reporter Alex Ward explains, a war plan is the full scope of an operation, i.e., invasion of Ukraine or campaign versus ISIS. An attack plan is the acute outline of what will be used to attack targets. So any way you cut it, whatever word you decide to use, these are obviously sensitive details that should not have been communicated about on signal and they made a mistake, okay, big, big mistake. Ward also writes, some former military officials said attack plans are more sensitive than

war plans because they involve tons of specifics and classified details. War plans, while important and certainly sensitive, tend to be higher level and far less operational. And DNI director Tulsi Gabbard has been repeating the claim that no classified information was shared, but CNN reports otherwise stating that the information Secretary of defense Pete Higgs has disclosed in the signal chat was highly classified at the time he wrote it, especially because the operation had not even started yet, according to a U.S. defense official familiar with the operation and another source who was briefed on it afterward. The reason why this is a big deal, guys, is because we have American soldiers based all throughout the Middle East, all throughout the world, okay?

And so when you're communicating specifics like this on an unsecured app and you have accidentally included people that you didn't want in that conversation, well, that risks the lives of U.S. troops based outside of the United States, based in other parts of the world, okay? because they are now sitting ducks who could be attacked with the, you know, intelligence that someone might have been able to hack into and get hold of. Now, with that in mind, not everybody is buying the lies on the right. And I want to give credit to, of all people, Dave Portnoy. I came across this video on X today. And again, I want to give them credit for calling a spade a spade because we need more people like this in the country who are willing to tell the truth.

Let's take a look. In this new administration, you want to take accountability. Trump, you may love Michael Waltz. You love Pete Heskitt. You may love these guys. Somebody has to go down. To me, it's Michael Waltz. He's the one who added him to this conversation.

But you can't have the top of the top security people in the United States with the most sensitive information in the world, adding random editors of a magazine that hates Trump's guts. To a group chat talking about an attack before it happens on a terrorist group. You can't poo-poo it. You can't downplay it. You have to sit up there and be like, holy this is a of epic proportions. And it is. It is an F-up of epic proportions.

I saw Tommy Lerrin also said, listen, you guys are trying to twist this. It's not working. This was a mistake, take some accountability. And I agree with them. I obviously am not a supporter of Donald Trump's, but nonetheless, I commend those who are supporters of Donald Trump's and are willing to tell the truth and want accountability. Yeah, look, I got to say, told you. So what did I say about the brosphere, right?

The guys who are not diehard Republicans from the old days, they're not Hannity clones, the Joe Rogans, the Dave Portnoy's, I'd always say Rogan Portnoy, right? And others, they're a different breed. They disagree with us on a lot of issues, especially social issues, right? But they haven't, like the Hannity's of the world are financially incentivized by Murdoch and others to do talking points. They're robots, they're corporate robots. These guys like Portnard are not corporate robots.

So will they agree with Trump on most things? Yeah, of course, you know, supported Trump, et cetera. But when they see BS, they have no incentive, financial or political, et cetera, to say, oh, yeah, I will now lie on behalf of Trump and Walls and Hegseth, et cetera. He went on a six minute rant there about what the hell are they doing? This is crazy, right? And he's right. That's common sense.

They're not going to be able to control all those guys. And so what's interesting is I, you know, I go on social media and I interact with the right wing. God help me, right, mainly because of the reaction from some on the left, right? But I learn a lot from that. I see their positions, right? And on some things, like a little bit more open than you would expect. Now some things not at all open in a way that's really discouraging. On this one, when I posted about it, they were halfway open.

And I was like, really? In the old days, they would have closed ranks. No way, nothing was classified. You're all no good lives, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? And there was plenty of that, but there was a whole third or so who were like, Yeah, it is a major screw up. I don't know why they did this. And why are they obviously lying?

And I realized after seeing the portnoy clip and I happen to run into it in a different way, I'm like, ah, there you go. It's because they're hearing it from the media that they watch and they listen. And it's no longer just Sean Hannity of Fox News. Now it's a variety of sources and some of them are actually even honest, whether we like it or not on different issues. And here I do like it and appreciate the honesty. So last couple of things for me on the substance of this, an attack plan as Anna read from the expert, of course is more sensitive than even a war plan.

They literally said where they're going to bomb, when they're going to bomb, who they're going to bomb. That nothing is more sensitive than that. And now I want you to imagine, imagine that it was not the secretary of defense. It was a lower level Pentagon official. And he made the mistake of sending these specific attack plans before they happened to a reporter. Would he be fired 100%. Everyone knows whether it's a Democratic or Republican administration. If you're not at the very top and you made this kind of error, you will definitely be fired, right?

But the elites get away with everything. So that's point one. Point two is, imagine if someone in the Pentagon who was a Democrat but was a civil servant, leaked this information on purpose to a reporter, they might charge him with treason. I mean, they're looking for leakers within the administration as we speak. That was something that Tulsi Gabbard herself had announced just days prior to the scandal happening. And so they take that very seriously. I understand why they would take that very seriously.

But if you are very much concerned about sensitive information or classified information being leaked to the general public, well, then you have to also look inward at your own behavior and question whether or not you're doing anything that jeopardizes that classified information. material and certainly using, you know, a third party app like signal falls under that category, an unsecured app that could be hacked into. In fact, there are government agencies that are not allowed to have the app downloaded on their government issued phones for a reason. So again, it's not the end of the world to admit that mistakes were made, to apologize, to say it won't happen again, move forward, find who's guilty of making the mistake and see what kind of consequences make sense. But we don't live in that era anymore in this country. And we have

in a very long time. So instead of immediately having that knee jerk reaction of providing cover for your preferred politicians, we as Americans should demand more from politicians overall regardless of which party they're from. I think it's insulting to have administration officials lying to the American public, including to their own supporters. Yeah, last two things. Why do they use signal in the first place? And the answer to that is because they didn't want it on the record. Because things that are on the government record, eventually, you know, historians find out about it. This wouldn't have been a FOIA request, which because it's top secret,

presumably would have been in the real world top secret, but could they have found out other things about these people's opinions if they did it on official, you know, communication lines? Maybe, and that's why they're using signal so that they're not revealed, right? Now, when you look at what they actually said, again, I think that JD Vance arguing against the strikes was surprising and positive. positive and he was, you know, having a polite debate with the two neocons there, Mike Wals and Pete Heggsiff, and they both wanted to strike and Vance was a little bit more cautious about it. And they said, oh, the Europeans can't strike, only we can do

this or Israel. And they had this hilarious line of, well, Israel might beat us to it, but then they would of course ask us to pay for it. And they all assumed that obviously then we would have to pay for it. That was an incredible part of the story. It really was. I know almost no one's talking about that. And the last funny part of the stories, Mike Wells is like, I don't even know Jeffrey Goldberg. How did his number get in your phone? That's hilarious, right? And the reason he's denying that is because obviously he was a secret source for another story or two with Jeffrey Goldberg. And that's why he's trying to deny it. So I'm curious which stories he leaked.

Yeah, well look, we got to take a break. We've got a lot more news to get to, including a pretty terrifying breaking news story involving yet another student who has been arrested and we don't know where her whereabouts are. And it's over the fact that she simply wrote an op-ed for her school newspaper. It's amazing. We have that story and more coming up. Don't miss it. All right, back on TYT, Jane Hidana with you guys, but also Tim Hankins and Tanya Pyle. Thanks for joining. Guys, we're appreciated. They hit that join button below the video on YouTube. You can also join up at tyt.com. And Lady AF, thank you for gift. Five memberships and Bucks, thank you for gifting one. We're all part of a community here. And I love that you guys have

open minds, open hearts. Thanks for supporting us. Anna. Well, up for this story. This is happening more and more, and it is terrifying. It should be something that the courts weigh in on and it is unconstitutional, but nonetheless, let's get to the details. Yesterday, men dressed in street clothes, who identified themselves as simply the police, arrested Tufts university student Rumiesa Ozturk after she co-authored an op-ed that was critical of Israel. And that's it. She simply co-authored an op-ed that was critical of Israel. Now before we get into her so-called anti-Israel activism, as some people have decided to put it,

here's some more on who she is and what happened. So Ozturk is a 30-year-old Turkish national who is currently a doctoral student at Tufts. Now, this happened in a residential neighborhood at around 5.30 when Ozturk was heading out to meet some friends. for Iftar, a meal that actually breaks the fast during Ramadan. Now, according to residents in the neighborhood who apparently witnessed this, these DHS agents all had their faces covered and they were in unmarked vehicles. So you saw the footage for yourselves, you saw the men, you can notice that their faces are covered, and their vehicle was an unmarked car.

Now, according to Ozturk's attorney, her name is Masha, when reports started coming out, he stated, we are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her. No charges have been filed against her to date that we are aware of. The lawyer said in a statement, now Ozturk has a visa allowing her to study in the United States. So she's not a permanent resident, she's not a green card holder, but she does have a visa and is in the United States legally. As I mentioned earlier, she's a doctoral student. Now according to Salon though, as of this evening, the ICE database listed her as being detained at an ice processing center in Louisiana. If you can recall, Mahmoud Khalil was also sent

to a detention facility in Louisiana. And this dispute, and by the way, this is despite a federal judge stating just yesterday that ICE could not remove Ozturk from Massachusetts, where she currently resided without notice. I don't understand why it took the government nearly 24 hours to let me know her whereabouts. Why was she transferred to Louisiana, despite the court's order, is beyond me. Rumiesa should immediately be brought back to Massachusetts, released, and allowed to return to complete her Ph.D. program, and that was a statement from her attorney. I want to get into whether or not Ozturk posed any kind of threat as a doctoral student on a visa in the United States. We'll get to that in just a minute.

But Jake, this is, this is freaking terrifying because literally all that's been cited is that she co-authored an op-ed that Israel doesn't like. I mean, it's- Yeah. Yeah. No, so that's the Israeli thought police on American streets, kidnapping Americans, or in this case, people that are legally allowed to be here on a student visa. They have also done it to legal residents who have green cards. And they're saying, apparently the biggest crime in America now is criticizing Israel. And part of the reason they're doing it to these folks is because they think they can. It's a little bit harder to arrest American citizens for criticizing Israel, but we're warming up to it.

So, but when they came for someone with a student visa, if you didn't fight back because you weren't on a student visa, and they came for someone who's a legal resident, but you didn't fight back because you're not a legal resident, when they come for you, there'll be no one here to defend you. So that's the idea. You intimidate, you bully. If anyone dares criticize Israel, you see masked men on American streets picking them up. Just saying we're police. We don't even know who they are.

There's the irony that one of the demands of the Trump administration had of Colombia when they withheld their $400 million is a no mask policy. And then here's mass thugs kidnapping are off the streets. When I first saw the video, I'm like, wait, it's a Turkish national being taken by mass thugs off the street. Is this Ardawan? Because Erdogan is in the middle of ending democracy in Turkey. And I was like, oh my God, it's not Erdogan. It's in America. Yeah. And look, are they very likely to be American agents of ICE or whoever? Yes, but they have masks on. Are we positive that they're even U.S. agents? No, I mean, it's, Jake. I mean, it's terrifying, right? Unmarked car, they have their faces covered,

and they're in plain clothes. And they're just walking up to her. They immediately take her phone. out of her hand and begin arresting her. I mean, look, I'm going to read some comments from people who know her personally about how she's soft spoken and everything. So obviously a person who's soft spoken a little more on the meek side isn't going to fight back. But imagine someone who decides to fight back, right? You've got to identify yourself. Because you don't even know who they are. Exactly. Exactly. They just said we're the police. You can hear it in the video. And are you the police or are you ICE? Because those are two different things. Who are you?

Right. But I'm sorry, I don't want to ask too many questions because Israel might remove me from America for asking questions about Israel. This is just the most outrageous. And this is all under America first, that's becoming a sick joke. And guys, this is over a published op-ed that she co-authored that was critical of Israel. That's it. And if you think, well, if you're here on a visa and you say things that the government doesn't

like, they have the right to deport you. they don't actually. The Supreme Court has weighed in on this matter, not this specific matter, but the matter of immigrants, visa holders, green card carriers, even people who are in the country illegally, believe it or not, they are protected by the First Amendment. You cannot retaliate against them simply based on their speech, their political views, their beliefs, okay? And in this case, I mean, it's just an op-ed that's critical of Israel, but apparently rights mean absolutely nothing when it comes to the precious feelings of members of the Israeli government. It's disgusting. And by the way, you can tell that Anna's right, first of all because of 200

years of Supreme Court precedent and et cetera, but also because those same folks can criticize America all they like. And they've never been rounded up for criticizing America. They've never been rounded up for criticizing Canada or Russia or Turkey or Saudi Arabia. There's only one country you get rounded up for, and that's Israel. So these are stone cold facts. If these facts make you uncomfortable, good, they should make you uncomfortable. Why is a foreign government ordering our government to arrest and deport people that they have no right to arrest their deport because their feelings were hurt? And by the way, the op-ed is Anna's going to tell you it was about an economic boycott.

Oh, don't you dare, dare touch the economy of Israel. Now that'll get you arrested and deported in America. Outrageous. The most embarrassing part about all of this is that Mr. America First, Donald Trump, who purports to care about Americans and ensuring that we're taking care of first is being dogwalked by a foreign government, just like Biden was, by the way. But Donald Trump has allowed it to get even further to the point where he's rounding up doctoral students because of op-eds that they've published.

All right, so was she actually a threat? I mean, obviously, based on what we know so far, you know where I stand on. on this issue, but let's actually hear from some folks who know her personally. So Rayan Blige, an assistant teaching professor in psychology at Northwestern University, told the globe that she has known Ozturk for more than a decade since Blige taught her at a university in Istanbul. Jenk, you want to take a stab at that? Shehir University, and that's Rayan Bilge.

Okay, obviously, now Oster came to the US to get her master's degree Columbia as a full bright scholar. Wow, she sounds very dangerous. Now she researched media literacy, representation in children's television and pro social development according to a 2021 social media post. She was also the co-founder of an independent children's media initiative in Istanbul.

Yeah, sounds super dangerous, maybe a terrorist. I mean, children programming, oh my God, what an outrageous threat to national security. So Blyge also says that Ozturk is very soft spoken. If you were actually to have a chat with her for about five minutes, you would understand how kind and how decent a person she is. So look, there's no indication. I haven't seen a single thing that indicates that she is a threat, that she is in any way hindering the foreign policy objectives of the Trump administration.

So according to Salon, Ozturk was allegedly flagged by the pro-Israel organization Canary Mission for having engaged in anti-Israel activism in March of 2024. So a year ago, an interest group that apparently is monitoring people in this country for not being adequately pro-Israel enough flagged her. That activism, according to the group, consisted entirely of co-authoring an op-ed in the Tufts Daily. A student newspaper, bro, what are you guys doing? That group, are you on a mission to increase anti-Semitism in the United States?

Apparently. You're going after the authors of an office. In a university paper, okay, well, you just drew a lot more attention to that piece. I hadn't read it, I'm gonna read it now, I might actually do a segment on it on the show tomorrow. But nonetheless, that's what this is all about. So it's in the Tufts Daily student newspaper in which she and three other graduate students called on the school to acknowledge the Palestinian genocide and divest from companies with ties to Israel as called for in resolutions passed by the student senate. We as graduate students affirm the equal dignity and humanity of all people. The students wrote in the article, wow, wow, wow, sounds dangerous.

I feel like our national security is really under threat. Yeah, so yeah, I don't know anybody spreading more anti-Semitism than Benjamin Nanyahu groups like Canary Mission. And look, among all the terrible consequences of this is I'm worried about my Jewish friends and my Jewish family, because these guys are going around and going, if you criticize this rule, we're going to snatch you up off the streets. Show you can never criticize it. Are you insane?

Are you insane? What is that going to do? That's going to get everybody to go, ah, you see, the Jews run the world. That's not true, my friends don't run the world, they got nothing to do with this. Some of the best peace protesters are Jewish, but you idiot, lunatics are going around being giant thugs to everyone who disagrees. Cut off Columbia's funding, arrest that. You know why they're so upset about her because the op-ed called for an economic boycott.

And that's the thing that there's two things that triggers the Israeli supporters more than anything else. One of you call them colonial, you know, what they're doing colonialism. And I was like, yeah, Anna would just want like this, right? I didn't understand in the beginning either. I was like, why do you care so much about that? And I thought maybe it was a racial thing, or they don't want to be called white and they're actually originally from the area. No, it turns out they don't want you to talk about how they become an imperial empire. Because what is Eretz Israel?

What is greater Israel? What is this Benjamin Net Yahoo described it from the river to the sea? Israel wants to control more land. And they brag about it in Israel. The American media almost never talks about it. But they want the West Bank, Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon, and Western Syria. And lo and behold, there they are in Western Syria, West Bank, Gaza strip and was recently in southern Lebanon.

Let me let me take over for a second. And it's a very easy, clear message, which I'm sure that the folks over at the Canary organization are gonna reject, but that's okay, you can continue rejecting it, but everyone else sees it for what it is. If you don't want to be called out for stealing land, I don't know, maybe stop stealing land. That's it, it's simple, sample, okay? Like it's ridiculous. It is ridiculous.

So if you want the entire world to stop saying negative things about Israel, the Israeli government with the help of the Israeli defense forces should stop stealing land. They're occupying huge swaths of Syria right now. They attempted to steal land in Lebanon and failed. I'm sure they're gonna try that again. Obviously they have encroached on Palestinian territory again and again and again with the legal settlements. They have driven Palestinians out of their homes in the West Bank and continue to do so.

If you don't want to be called out for doing these things, then don't do these things. But the idea that the Israeli government is going to continue engaging in this behavior, and the rest of us need to be censored by our government about it, that is unacceptable. It is unacceptable. And for all the American citizens who are sitting by, standing by, watching others get rounded up like, this for simply expressing themselves in op-eds, you better hold on to your butts because they're going to come for you at some point. The deterioration of their rights will definitely come back to haunt you.

I promise you that. Yeah, so I started calling it the Israeli imperial empire, because that's what it is. And so they're doing imperialism here and you say, oh, you can't say we're stealing the land. So what should we call it? Are you borrowing it for a couple of thousand years? I mean, you took more and more of the West Bank. That's indisputed, undisputed. That's, you're doing more in the West Bank now.

You blow up every hospital in Gaza, was that was an accident? No, you did it on purpose. You blow up nearly every school in Gaza, you blow up 80% of the buildings in Gaza. If you're still in the like deranged school of thought of, oh God, gee, they didn't mean to do any of that. It was just an all an accident. It was all the human shields. So we had to just slaughter for over 50. thousand people and destroy all their buildings and then moving our troops and then

promising a ceasefire that we'd move up but then not move out and start talking about how we're gonna add Gaza to Israel well you can call it anyone anything you like but everybody else on the planet understands you're stealing that land and you murdered those people to steal their land so don't do that don't do that it's not complicated and you're not making Israel a safe haven you're You're doing the exact opposite. You're getting the whole world to hate Israel. It's such a dumb, dumb and deeply immoral strategy.

Canary mission, come for me, you sons of bitches, trying to control America. Don't do the trope, don't do the trope. What the hell's the matter with you? You're gonna get Jews here in America hurt, you're gonna get Jews across the world hurt, and you're murdering those poor Palestinians to take more of their goddamn land. We want Israel to be a safe haven. The way you get there is to have two states, not to keep saying, no, I'm gonna be safe after I take this land and this land and this land, stupid Arabs, who cares about them?

Well, I care, I care, and all decent Americans should care. And stop kidnapping people off the streets of America. And for any of you who thinks Israel's not making this decision. Come on. Come on, come on, you're a joke, you're an utter joke. And then finally, the thing that they're most triggered by is economic boycott. And again, that's the thing logically. I don't understand, that makes sense.

If you think somebody's doing something wrong, what are we normally doing in America? We do sanctions, right? The sanctions in South Africa and that worked. Ah, that's right. It worked. The problem is it works. So they'll, no, no, no, not economic boycott. If anybody says economic boycott, put on your mask, order them into the streets, kidnap them,

put them in a jail in Louisiana, even if a judge says, don't do it. Put him in a secret dungeon on behalf of Israel. No economic boycotts. We can murder 15,000 Palestinian children, that's not a problem. You touch our economy even a little bit, and we'll have you kidnapped off the streets of America. So no, I'm tired of this crap, absolutely disgusted by it. So I don't want mass thugs running around kidnapping more people in America that are legally allowed to be here because they use their freedom of speech. And if you're on the right, man, if you say, no, I don't care about freedom of speech now,

they've hurt Israel's feelings. Apparently, you never, ever meant it. Of course. Yeah, and by the way, I mean, for those who think this is going to work, you can imprison a person. You can't imprison ideas. We've got to take a break. When we come back for the second hour, we've got a lot more to get to, including how Florida is planning to fill vacated jobs thanks to you know, the ban on undocumented immigrants being able to work in the state.

They're looking to child labor. And it is an insane bill that is likely to pass. I can't wait to show the details. Come right back.