The Young Turks - Kushner Betrays America - August 18, 2026

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

Cenk and Ana take on today’s top stories! Jared Kushner greenlights Netanyahu’s ceasefire violations. Eli Clifton, author of “Israel’s lobby,” joins TYT. Pete Hegseth to visit Iowa amid reports of the 2028 campaign. Thanks to today's sponsors: Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at shopify.com/tyt Get 40% OFF the Ground News Vantage Plan when you sign up at ground.news/tyt Stay informed without the media spin at ground.news/tyt Visit www.sleep.me/tyt to get up to $255 off your Chilipad 2.0 with code TYT Use less data, get paid by switching to Noble Mobile: https://go.tyt.com/getnoble Posting a job is easy at upwork.com Check out new podcast series by searching for Future Hindsight wherever you get podcasts 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 podcastchoices.com/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. That's revolution. Everything's computer. How terrific. Bacon. Begat.

It's Jank you or Anna Chris Faron with you guys. So, a usual set of hilarious and tragic news. Pete Higgsith, considering running for a president. Is he? We're going to find out. I see torturing someone as we speak, super worried about it. If you're skeptical, you'll see it's literal. Democratic operative gets caught by the audience.

I love that story. Does Israel control Washington? There are people still outraged by that question. How could you? Okay, we're going to ask that to a guy who's written a book about it. And by the way, spoiler alert, yes, is the answer. But how is the interesting part? But first we're going to start with one of the ghouls and goblins of DC in this Trump administration.

That's Jared Kushner. So let's get it started. We're very committed to the fact that we have a plan to rebuild Gaza, but we will not allow Gaza to be rebuilt until the demilitarization occurs. Nobody wants to put more money into a place that's gone on for so long until if it's just going to be taken over by terrorists or blown up again. And we're also not going to restrict Israel's right to defend itself if there are any imminent threats. And so we had to clarify what that means.

And then we went through the mechanism as well for what we need to do in terms of how to actually take the weapons. So that's Jared Kushner. I'm gonna tell you about his personal relationship with Netanyahu in a second. If you don't know it, it'll shock you. And he went with and talked to Netanyahu for four hours. And they decided that Israel should keep bombing Gaza. That is so surprising.

So I will rage in a little bit also about some of the lies that Kushner told there. But first, let's find out the whole story from Anna Kisperian. So obviously the outcome of that meeting with a longtime family friend of the Kushners, Benjamin Netanyahu, has led to the outcome that you just referenced, Jank, that the Israelis are free to continue slaughtering innocent people in Gaza. Wow, what a shocker. Now, according to the Israeli paper, Horat's, the meeting ended with an agreement that Israel will continue targeted strikes in Gaza, which have mostly killed civilians, and I'm going to prove

that to you in just a moment with the data. Now, these deaths have occurred after the so-called ceasefire that was agreed upon in October of 2025. Israel's attacks in Gaza, since the so-called ceasefire deal was signed in October of 2025, have killed at least 1,265 Palestinians and wounded 4,198, and that's according to the latest numbers released by Gaza's health ministry. But in June, the United Nations actually released a report where they reported specifically on confirmed deaths of Palestinians, confirmed killings of Palestinians. They were able to confirm the deceased by name, and then they did an analysis on how these individuals were killed, whether or not they're actually Hamas militants.

And I want to give you the results of their findings. Now this was published in regard to the data that they were able to confirm between October of 2025 and April of 2025. Obviously more Palestinians have been slaughtered by the Israelis since then, but right now we're just focusing on the months between October 2025 and through April of 2026, okay? So as you can see, 43% of those killed by the Israelis in Gaza, 43% children and women. And by the way, they were able at that time to confirm the fatalities of 629 people in Gaza. Okay, 284 of them since the ceasefire was announced were killed in their homes, tents,

or shelters. Israelis keep bombing literal tents in refugee camps like the one in Al-Mawesi and Nusarat. You know, I know some people like to refer to this as a pretendicide, as if they're super clever about all of this destruction and slaughter Americans are forced to pay for. But I don't think that's so cute. Let me continue. 196 were killed simply for being near, near the yellow line. So they're not Hamas militants, they're civilians, but they made the mistake of getting close to the area in which the Israelis are already occupying land that they intend to steal for

themselves. And so those Palestinians were slaughtered. This is again, according to a UN report. This is the reason why the Israelis don't like the UN, because every once in a while, the UN actually says the truth out loud. Let's take a look at the other graphic. By the way, I should note that today, UNICEF put out a report that found that at least 300 children have been killed since Gaza's ceasefire was announced. Now going back to the UN's reporting, in some incidents, only children or only women and children

were killed. So in 48 of the attacks that Israel carried out against Gaza, since the so-called ceasefire was signed in October, 48 of those attacks killed children, okay, only children. And in 21 of those attacks, women were killed in incidents in which only women and children were killed. Okay. So this is the reality of who the Israelis are. They tell us every single day, every day they tell us who they are.

And when we just simply acknowledge the bloodthirsty genociders for who they are, you get called all sorts of names. Well, they tell us, they say it out loud. So what do you want us to do? Pretend like we don't hear it, pretend like we don't believe it. Their words are loud about it and their actions prove that they mean what they say. They are genocidal scum who love killing women and children and innocent civilians in their quest to expand borders and steal land.

That is what they are. That is what we as American citizens are forced to fund thanks to our disgusting duopoly, where both parties are totally controlled by the Israel lobby and all that's sweet, sweet money. Yeah. That's the reality of the situation. So we're gonna continue to improve our cases. We go forward here.

We're gonna get back to Jared Kushner's lies in a second. And so, but to back up what Anna is saying, what's interesting is that if you deny the Holocaust or the Armenian genocide, you're called a genocide denier or Holocaust denier. That makes sense. And that's outrageous and terrible thing to do. But if you acknowledge the genocide in Gaza, the press then turns around and goes, no, no, you have to deny the genocide. You're a bad person if you don't deny the genocide.

Then being a genocide denier is great because it helps Israel. Well, history will not look favorably upon the scum that engage in that. Just know that. To all of the people who utter words like pretendicide, just know, history will look back on you and not in a favorable way. So I have a lot more where that came from. So I wanna go to Itamar Ben Gavir's quote, and he said this other day we showed it to you yesterday, but it bears repeating in this context.

He said, I think targeted assassination should be carried out in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat, there are people there who are not worthy of life. Oh, a pretendicide, right? That's what this is, a pretendicide? They shouldn't live, they're not even people. So that sounds directly like a Nazi quote. Now let's go to Goebbels and that's American media because, I mean, Anna just read you

the stat, 1,265 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire. And is American press jumping up and down going, I can't believe Israel violated yet another ceasefire and they will not stop violating it? Oh my God, you've killed more people since the ceasefire than October 7th. Because I was told October 7th was the worst thing that ever happened since the Holocaust. But when an October 7th happens in Gaza since the ceasefire, our press all of a sudden says, we don't care at all, at all. Those are just Palestinian lives.

They're not super precious Israeli lives. And by the way, as you're going to see in the Kushner thing, he makes it sound like the Palestinians are the bad guys and the Israelis are the good guys while pretending to be a neutral arbiter. But in reality, the Israelis have done 70 October 7th before the ceasefire, one after the ceasefire, and another one in the West Bank. And the entire time our press has been telling you, it's self-defense. Why are we even talking about October 7th? That was three years ago.

What's happening in the Gaza and West Bank that had nothing to do with Hamas, have nothing to do with October 7th? It's just a slaughter fest of a bunch of fascists who tell you, we don't. We don't think Palestinian lives are worth anything and our press pretends they're the good guys. So what does that make them? Genocidal scum. Yeah, it makes them the PR agents of a genocide.

100%. So there's no question about this. So back to Jared. Okay, so yeah, back to Jared. Others involved in this meeting and discussion with Netanyahu were, you know, the neocons' greatest hits like former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, okay? And earlier that same day, Kushner actually met with Hamas officials who, in my opinion, we're calling Kushner's bluff.

Because in that meeting, they said that they were, in fact, committed to disarming under the plan that was announced by Donald Trump, right? This is the whole Board of Peace Plan. We will definitely disarm. However, there is a caveat. And here's what the caveat is. Take a look. Hamas has publicly tied in Israeli withdrawal from Gaza to any sort of disarmament.

Were you able to clarify some of those positions in your meetings over the past 48 hours? Yeah. So Israel now is at the yellow line, which we agreed to in the negotiations for the initial deal in the 20-point plan. And right now we have to show that Hamas is serious. There's been many, many violations, you know, by them of the agreement. And then once we get them into full compliance with the agreement, and we're able to get the deal. demilitarization done, then we'll discuss the Israeli withdrawal. But the goal ultimately is for Israel to withdraw from Gaza, but only when Hamas is really demilitarized. And there's a whole governance in place there that hopefully can work on helping the people grow. And we don't want Gaza to ever be a threat to Israel again. You met with Hamas officials yesterday. Do you think

they're genuine about peace? I mean, they said all the right things, but obviously it's very, very hard to trust, you know, a terrorist organization that, that committed these terrible atrocities. I want to tell you about a new podcast series I'm enjoying from future hindsight, Occupy, an unfinished uprising. Occupy Wall Street is the story of the improbable becoming possible. In 2008, millions of people were devastated by an economic crash caused by Wall Street greed. But it wasn't until 2011 that there was a mass response from the left. A call to protests went out and thousands of people responded. I know, I was there. They raged against a system that was rigged against them and tried to create their own anti-capitalist village in a small Manhattan

Park. The movement quickly spread across the country inspiring hundreds of occupations and a new generation of activists. Occupy, an unfinished uprising, is told through the voices of activists who camped out in Zucati Park for almost two months, getting inside the drama of a movement that grew rapidly, felt both transcendent and chaotic, and then violently flamed out. Occupy changed the national conversation about capitalism, popularize the language of the 99% and inspired a generation of activists. As we approach Occupy's 15th anniversary this September, this series offers a reminder that collective action can reshape what seems possible. To listen, search for future hindsight wherever you get your podcast. The Knesset, that terrorist organization, is that what

he's referring to? No, he's referring to Hamas, which is hilarious because there is one group of people who have reneged on every ceasefire, who have been a major obstacle to peace, who have attacked all of their neighbors, who are currently provoking for a war against Turkey right now as we speak. Okay, it's amazing to me that the people carrying out genocide right now, wiping out villages in southern Lebanon, wiping out homes and running people out of their legal homes in the West Bank. Those people are not considered terrorists, according to Jared Kushner.

Most people are totally worthy of trust, but when it comes to Hamas, I mean, honestly, you want to talk about terrorism. What Hamas did on October 7th pales in comparison to the ongoing terrorism that's been carried out by the Israelis, not just over the last few years, but for decades now, for decades. Yeah, they make it sound like our press says that everything started on October 7th. They're like, oh yeah, 59 years of brutal occupation and oppression by the Israel. It's not important, not relevant, not relevant. The Palestinians, the monstrous terrorists, just attacked out of nowhere because they hate

Jews so much. What a bunch of liars, a bunch of gobbles working for Israel pretending to be American press. Let me continue with clear facts about this. So he said, oh my God, Hamas has done many violations of the ceasefire. That's just literally not true. Israel has done endless violations of the ceasefire. They violated first, they violated way more than Hamas has. In fact, what violations are they talking about?

So meanwhile, I mean, do you see another thousand people killed in Israel? No, you see zero people killed in Israel since the ceasefire. And how many do you see Palestinians that have been killed? 1,265. And yet our press just lets Jared Kushner and every Trump person. And honestly, every Democrat lie about it 24 seven, because our press doesn't work for America and they don't care about the truth. Look, I used to like Trey Yinks, and he asked some good questions here that made some news.

But I mean, even his framing is preposterous. He didn't question a single lie of Jared Kushner and almost everything Kushner said was a lie. Not one was challenged. And then he frames it as, well, can Hamas be trusted? Israel's the one that violates every ceasefire. Israel's the one that's done 72 October 7s. But never does it occur to Trey Yings. Oh, can I ask, can Israel be trusted to hold a ceasefire and comply?

And now the biggest lie of all in this context. So Hamas and Trump made a deal where Hamas would disarm, then Israel would withdraw, then Hamas would disarm more, and Israel would withdraw more. And that is a logical way to go. Step by step, each side proves that it's doing the right thing. It's not Israel withdraws and just trust Hamas, and then Hamas gives it their weapons in at a later time. No, it's graduated. It makes perfect sense.

And I said, hey, nice job by Trump on that peace deal, right? So now Kushner is 100% lying and saying now the deal is Hamas has to give up all of their arms before Israel does a single thing. That's not the American position. That is not the position of the peace plan. That is Israel's position. So Jared Kushner is now saying the American position, I just threw it in the garbage. It doesn't exist anymore.

I went and talked to my godfather, almost literally, and he told me, that I am to have the Israeli position and don't care about what the Americans think. American voters don't like Israel anymore, they don't want any of these wars, they don't want to fund the genocide. He doesn't care. He works for Israel, stop pretending he's an American. And look at this, he's supposed to be an arbiter neutral, and he's like, Hamas are the terrorists, the Palestinians are the terrorists.

The Israelis are the ones that have to defend themselves, and we have to give everything to Israel. Now, the amazing fact about their personal relationship, every time Benjamin, Netanyahu went to America for a very long stretch of time, he would stay with the Kushners. Neutral Arbiter. In fact, the room he stayed in was Jared Kushner's room. So he's, he's, Jared Kushner's like a godson to him. It couldn't be any closer.

Meanwhile, our press is pretending that Jared Kushner's neutral or an American. No, he 100% represents Israel's interest. By the way, we're asking you guys online, who does he represent Israel or America? I mean, I'm curious how it's going to be. TYT.com, go vote there. Yesterday we asked you guys about Israel and who's prolonging this war, who's responsible for prolonging them war. 74% of you said U.S. and Israel, only 2% of you said Iran, and there's 48,000 votes now, I think, or 43,000 votes. I think the correct answer is the last one.

We're only in it for Israel, so they're completely irresponsible. And that came in higher than all three of them or Iran. So as Israel targets, they just bombed Syria, right? And so there are reports that the Israelis bombed Turkish military assets that were being sent to Syria in an effort to provoke war with Turkey, which they've been previewing. The Israeli officials have been previewing that for us. So when they tell us what they intend to do, and then they actually carry it out historically over and over again, we should believe them. So here's my question to you, Jank.

I mean, look, I don't know as much about Turkey's military as I do in regard to like the military capabilities that Iran has. However, I've been led to believe that Turkey has a formidable military. Yeah. We have, we are running out of missile interceptors. We have depleted our own military assets. So in a situation in which our bases in the Gulf have been destroyed by Iran in this war, in a situation in which we have limited military capability to respond to attacks toward

Israel. If Turkey gets involved in a war against Israel, what happens to Israel? And like, what is this? Are they setting the stage to use nukes? Like, what are they doing? Yeah, I'm definitely worried about it. So I'll tell you what I know and what I don't know. I know that if Israel bombs Turkey, that everyone's,

on American media will lie and say that it was self-defense and that Turkey had it coming. And it's all the Turks fault and all Muslims are terrorists. Because our media is a bunch of bigoted liars who work for Israel. So you can say, hey Jake, that's outrageous, that's totally wrong. Let's see what happens. I guarantee you they blame Turkey. And they'll talk about, oh, it's a NATO ally, but then they'll dismiss it. Yeah, but they're dirty Muslims.

So Israel had to murder them. Israel has to murder everyone. It's always self-defense. By the way, the Germans also said that it was self-defense. They were the victims of World War I. That's why they had to attack all their neighbors in self-defense. Okay, but who cares what the media says? It's not going to change the facts on the ground.

Okay, so what happens? No, no, that's the reason why that's relevant is then America will say, oh, even though we have an Article 5 obligation to defend a NATO country, Turkey, we won't. We'll betray them, we'll betray all of our oaths, and instead we'll help Israel, right? So those are guaranteed, those are baked in. Okay, I don't know what America is gonna do, but they're at this point Trump is 100% owned by the Israelis, it's the most obvious thing in the world. If you're denying it, you're denying reality, you look like an idiot, you look like such

a stupid fool doing Israeli propaganda. Oh no, this war was in our interest, even though it's destroying his, you know, his term, he's the lowest approval rating he's ever been in, the economies and tatters, but he's voluntarily doing it for American interest, for Trump said, no, he's doing it for Israeli interests, you morons. And stop pretending that you're Americans, when all you do is propaganda for Israel. Okay, so then I don't know with any degree of detail Turkish politics or the Turkish military readiness, okay?

But I do know this. Here's what I care about. America has to get the hell out of the Israel business. They can't like everyone in our disgusting gobles like media says, you have to defend Israel. No, no how many wars they start. It's your job to defend Israel. No, it's not. Israel's a pipscreek country that has nothing to do with us.

And in fact, they're a giant troublemaker, they're the ones starting all the wars, they're the ones who did a genocide. We owe them nothing. Get America out of Israel, out of the Middle East. By the way, if we stopped our lines with Israel today, we would literally have no wars in the Middle East. And we would have no wars in the Middle East as far as the I could see. Israel would probably try to do us. The only reason we're constantly in war at the Middle East is because Israel has ordered us into those wars to wipe out their enemies and made a whole new set of enemies for America.

And all of this was super obvious as the disgusting liars in our press pretended that it was for American interests. Oh, you have to go into Iraq because they have weapons of mass destruction, wink. Who gave us that intelligence to Israelis, the disraelis, the disson, the disson. We're reliving the same exact movie. Same exact movie. Where they're pretending the Iranians have weapons of mass destruction. Who's had weapons of mass destruction the entire time in the Middle East?

Only one country. Israel, but our lying disgusting press who works for Israel completely didn't tell you that, did they? Instead they hide. Oh, where did they get those nuclear weapons? Oh, they stole it from us. And our lying disgusting press says, oh, that's perfectly normal. It's not normal.

So what's gonna happen, Anna, if we can somehow extract Israel from our government and our media, and we absolutely positively must, until we get out from underneath the yoke of Israeli oppression and occupation here in America, we will never be free. We'll be constantly at war, constantly doing Israel's interests, constantly wasting trillions of our, in fact, not our money. We have to borrow trillions from China that your kids and grandkids have to pay for for the rest of their lives so Israel can have more war and more conquest, while everybody in our disgusting media lies to you 24-7 and calls all of Israel's critics anti-Semites and

tries to destroy them on behalf of Israel who they clearly work for. So if we don't extract ourselves, we will then be in a war with a NATO ally and Iran, and God knows when Pakistan is going to get involved. And right now, Ukraine is trying to drag Russia into that war. So here we go, World War 3, except this time we're on the German side, the fascist side, right? Yep. Okay, if we extract ourselves, then what happens?

My guess is that Turkey and Iran at that point, if this all comes to fruition and Israel gets its dreams come true, where they get to attack Turkey and Iran, that Turkey and Iran will start winning. And when they start winning, Israel will definitely use a nuke. Because Israel doesn't have any tolerance for pain. They're murderers of women and children. They don't want to fight a real war. That's why they make this, the sucker Americans fight all their awards.

If America withdraws, Israel will press that button so quick, because they have, the current leaders of Israel have no morality at all. They're some of the most evil people on the planet. I just read you their quotes about how they don't even consider their neighbors human. So they say we should slaughter the innocence. I read you the quote, there's no question about it. And that's not the one quote, that's one of dozens of them. and dozens of course of different Israeli government officials saying they're not human,

let's murder all of them. So will they use a nuke? They won't hesitate for a second to use a nuke. And then they'll say self-defense. Well, I had 13 Israelis who died and their lives are worth 13 million Muslims, they'll say, they will literally say it out loud. And our press will then come and go, the Muslims had it coming, they should all be murdered, it's okay that they use the nuke.

The Democrats will pretend to complain, but vote yes, right? And then they'll say, well, now America has to get involved. America has to re-enter. With what weapons? With what weapons you guys have already sucked us dry with what weapons? So you know what? If they finally get what they want, revel in it, enjoy, okay? But you suck away all of our resources for decades upon decades upon decades.

Risk our national security, sacrifice our soldiers. When you finally get the war you want and you're being battered by it, Joy, I know I will. We got to take a break. We'll be right back. Hey, Andrew, what's up? Hey, Jank, you ready to make the switch? Yeah, I guess.

I promise it's easy. Universal, basic, and you get income. Yeah, you keep saying that. But you sure I'm going to have coverage? Of course you will. You think I would have bad service? I'm Andrew Yang. Of course I have good service.

All right, let's try. But I'm so bad at tech. So, wait. Should I do this thing of the hashtag business? Andrew, you're still on, right? Yep. Oh, I see it. Oh, yeah, I do see it.

Here we go. I actually did not realize that you'd be searching in real time, but I love it. How much do people actually normally say? Yeah, the average American is going to save between $500 and $1,000 a year on Noble. Yeah, no. You know what I'm going to do, Andrew? Are you ready to become a noble member? The two buttons are do it and go back.

There's no going back. We're doing it. We're doing it. Here we go, Noble Mobile Mobile. Oh my gosh, I just called you and are you now on Noble and not Verizon? Why didn't you tell me it was going to be super easy? I know, man. Now you just stay away from your phone and watch the money roll in.

I can do that. You can go phone, yeah. What? Jank, you still there? Andrew? Oh, well, at least I got Noble Mo. It was really just one take. The whole thing is wild.

It's in my shoe. This is my shoes. Hi, I'm Brett Ehrlich with Breaking News with Brett Ehrlich. This is Breaking News with Brett Ehrlich. Hi, Brett Ehrlich here. According to EPA head Scott Pruitt, climate change is not happening. He cited a meme on Facebook you saw. When pressed to back up this source, he said it must be accurate

because the watermark said it was made by a scientist. So your move, truth. Your summer travels deserve an upgrade with select Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac vehicles connected by OnStar, you can stream, game, and more on the go. Whether you're headed to a music festival or a cottage getaway, you can access hundreds of apps on Google Play right from your center display. Explore OnStar Tech Today at OnStar.ca and discover how to take your summer to the next level. OnStar. Better never stops.

All right, back on the Young Turks, Jane Canana with you guys. And also, GKNKR, Dan on YouTube. and really appreciate it. Makes a big difference to us. So hit the join button below if you can. And I'm just gonna read this public service announcement for one of our members on DYOT.com. Jenks left tricep. Fury said,

voted all progressives in Florida primary. Hope at least one can sneak through. Don't forget today is election day in places like Florida. So make sure you're out there voting in New Hampshire. And it's in New Hampshire today, sorry. Anyways, in Florida, Oliver Larkin is running as Muscovitz. Make sure you vote. Muscovitz is not an American, he's an Israeli, and he wants to funnel all of your money to Israel,

and he wants endless wars for Israel. Now he'll probably win anyway, but I don't know. Oliver Larkins has made a good run, so make sure you go vote. All right, Anahou. Well, something we talk about quite often on this show is Israel's undue influence over the United States government is getting more and more attention for obvious reasons, as the US gets dragged into fighting, fighting yet another war on behalf of the Israelis. And here to talk to us about the situation, because he just co-authored a book about it,

is Eli Clifton. He co-authored the book, Israel's Lobby, America in the Grip of a Foreign Power, alongside Ian Lustick. For those who are unfamiliar with Eli Clifton's work, he is a co-founder over at the Quincy Institute, a publication, and an organization that we here at the Young Turks really value. And Eli, we thank you for coming on the show to talk about this book today. Thank you so much for having me. It's our pleasure.

Let me start off by asking you, you know, obviously this is a book that's kind of like a follow-up to the legendary book that was published by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. This was back in 2007 called the Israel Lobby. What, if anything, has changed since that book was published? Well, quite a lot. And I think one thing that was probably an accurate prediction. had everything stayed the same in their book, was that Israel's support for Israel inside the United States had been diminishing already at that time when they published it, which was like

in 2007. And really it was the wake of the death of the Oslo Accords around 1999, 2000. And the global war on terror was bringing Americans to become more critical of our foreign policy and question the relationship with Israel and indeed start to question whether Israel and whether it's liberal Zionism and a two-state solution. were really feasible and were really something that Israel's leadership was working towards. And what they predicted was that this diminishing public support was going to create space for other organizations, other groups who would advocate more strongly for policies and for candidates who would be advocating for a readjustment of this relationship to perhaps

make it, I think they may have characterized as more normal. Now, something that happened is that indeed that public support continued to decline, but in 2010, the Citizens United and Speech now court decisions came down. And what those decisions did was open the floodgates of our campaign finance system to groups such as the Israel lobby. But at the time, the concern was that what it would do is flood our elections with corporate money and with dark money. And that was well-placed concerns, but what we saw out of the gate, the first post-citizens united election 2012 was the biggest donor, the most active was Sheldon Adelson. And Adelson was very clear about why he was supporting at the time Newt Gingrich and later went on to support Mitt Romney.

And he said, you know, this is this is because of Israel that I'm doing this. This is because of a foreign country. That's why I'm engaged in our politics at this level that nobody's ever seen before. Now this was like a pre-Russia gate, pre-Hunter Biden and the concerns about him type of America. People weren't maybe as sensitive to the notion of a foreign countries, role in our elections or the fact that American donors might be motivated by trying to advance a foreign country's interests in the manner that I think they are now. But the answer is that that's the key thing that changed after the publication of their book. We bring a lot of other stuff into it as well about how the end of the Cold War shifted, how the lobby

worked as well as its cost for Americans. But I think that like a key factor in this is the Citizens United decision. Now public opinion can continued to crater, that's now created a new set of techniques from the lobby that are more coercive, more punitive, and are now focused not on winning debates, but in shutting them down and silencing. Yes. Yeah. Just real quick comment, you know, the chapter in your book about the witch hunts was really

resonated with me. And I think that the witch hunts kind of violate our constitutional rights and it's being allowed to happen. And it's just, I mean, it's not shocking to me at this point, but I really appreciated that chapter, I just want to make that note. Yeah, I actually want to come back to the witch hunts in a minute. But Eli, so your book would be relatively obvious because, I mean, we know through the Guardian that the Israeli lobby donates to 94% of Congress.

We know that they're a top donor, lifetime donor to Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Hakeem Jeffrey, Chuck Schumer, Mike Johnson, almost all of our leaders. We know they were the top donor class in the last election cycle, and they've already spent over 100 million dollars in this election cycle. We know that the Edelson's have given Trump over $300 million over three election cycles. So these are not in dispute, these are just facts. And like the only way you could dispute Israel's massive influence to say the least, if not control, is by just saying, no, Israel is the one lobby that no politician listens to.

Although again, their voting record would show you empirically that is 100% incorrect, right? So there's really no argument here at all. But in Washington, you're considered the heretic and an outside voice and conventional wisdom that is that Israel's lobby control. That's an anti-Semitic trope. That is outrageous. They have no control, no influence at all. They're pure as a driven snow.

So what's going on here? I mean, I understand why the government officials are bought off. They get bought off by big oil, big farmer. It's not complicated, it's just legalized bribery, right? But what's going on with the media? Why are they completely lying on behalf of Israel? Well, I think that, you know, you kind of hit the nail on the head with the witch hunt that's gone on, where there is a lie that Israel's lobby is synonymous with Jewish Americans.

And to criticize Israel's lobby is to attack all Jews, Jewish Americans or otherwise. And to be clear, that is an anti-Semitic trope. That is the dual loyalty canard, claiming the Jews cannot and are not loyal singularly to the countries in which they inhabit, that they will always, always have loyalties to Israel or into a broader Jewish network or conspiracy, as it were. And that is, first of all, it's false, it's a really dangerous conspiracy theory and trope. watching APAC and the ADL over the course of really the past year or two weaponize that. Basically saying that if you criticize Israel, if you challenge Zionism, if you suggest that

APAC shouldn't be one of the biggest spenders in our elections, that you are denying Jewish Americans the opportunity to participate in our democracy and that you are attacking all Jews. Now I think this is an argument of last resort for a lobby that has fundamentally long public opinion across, you know, a variety of demographics, a variety of political groups when you look at polling. They're suffering losses across the board, even with Christian evangelicals, Christian Zionists, who we've been told were sort of the linchpin of Israel's lobby and their electoral power. They are losing support with them. And all they are left with is to say that Israel's lobby is somehow synonymous with, you know, the collective

Jew, which is a very dangerous and big lie to tell. And I would say you're actually feeding anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracies. You're playing to the worst instincts that people may have when you fall back on that argument. And watching Israel's lobby have no misgivings about doing so, I think shows you how low they're prepared to go in order to defend their ability to maintain these status quo policies of U.S. support for Israel, even as a growing portion of the public has shown that they are dissatisfied with these people. policies and want to see it change. Yeah, so Eli, again, what you're saying is relatively obvious, right? So some of the top leaders in the peace movement are Jewish. Bernie Sanders is probably the biggest advocate for Palestinians in the history of the United

States Senate. 63% of Jewish Americans are opposed to the current Israeli government. And in fact, when you say, when we say, hey, the government of Israel should stop this genocide and you say, no, it's all Jews that are doing it, that's arguably anti-Semitic, Right? I think it's- So, and incredibly dangerous. Yeah, and very dangerous to say all Jews are co-signing on this genocide, when in reality, the great majority of them are against it.

So it's not only anti-Semitic, it flips truth on its head. So, and when you break it down, it's painfully obvious. But one of the things that the media is trying to avoid is saying that, yes, it's not Jewish people, but it is radical Zionists, right? There are radical Zionists in this country, and by definition, they're nationalist, and they're not nationalist for this country, they're nationalists for a different country, but the media again lies to cover up for them. In fact, does their anti-Semitic bidding, and sometimes you can't tell the difference

between the Groyper's in ADL. Absolutely. Yeah, and they're both like, they're both screaming at the top of their lungs, it's the Jews, it's the Jews, so whereas we're saying it's not the Jews, and they're like, you're anti-Semite. No, so okay, all of this is clear, but what I don't understand is why all of American media is again lying on behalf of Israel. Well, I mean, I think that there is a certainly a media bias that so many of us have observed, particularly since October 7th, really since October 8th, which is when Israel's war on Gaza began, when the genocide began. And that this is something

that while the mainstream media, I think, has been very slow to want to cover it. I think that they have done an enormous effort to try to downplay and to present the Israeli side of events. It's no longer something the mainstream media is able to contain. And that's where I think social media comes in, and indeed Israel's lobby and Israel's fixation on trying to shut down the debate on social media. And you see Netanyahu when he was at the UN General Assembly speaking to influencers, I think it was last September, he was talking about them. The most important thing that he sees in terms of Israel's ability to convey its message has to do with the purchase of TikTok by the Ellison's. And he cited that Elon Musk is a friend suggesting that that's another point where there might be

efforts to try to shape the message that's allowed to get out. And you see Van Jones's inflammatory comments when he went on Bill Maher. And he was suggesting that there's somehow a conspiracy going on when he said, you know, when he opens up his feed on TikTok and he sees dead Gaza baby, dead Gaza baby, did he? Dead Gaza baby, dead Gaza baby. Now Thomas Friedman who was there thought that was hilarious. So did Bill Maher, so did the audience. And he someone was suggesting that like Qatar is behind it or something. But in fact, what he was giving voice to was the fact that You can't contain these images and that it horrifies the conscience of a lot of Americans to think that their taxpayer dollars are going towards the killing of children. And it's very hard,

even when you try to say, well, you know, sure some people in Gaza are civilians, but others are Hamas and so on and so forth, dead kids are still dead kids. And I think that's something that even with the mainstream media, having done a great deal to try to downplay, you know, the horrific things that were going on in Gaza, it's very hard. to contain images and facts like that. I agree with you that it's impossible to contain those images. And, you know, Israel decided to carry out a genocide as it was streaming in 4K, and we've all seen it.

And so their efforts at propagandizing Americans into believing that slaughtering innocent people is actually a good thing, it hasn't worked. But you know, there's two areas where Jank and I have a disagreement, right? And I think more, I think most people would think that Jank is more reasonable than I I am in these two disagreements, okay? No, but seriously. And I want you to weigh in. I want you to be the moderator between the two of us, okay?

So is it unacceptable to state what I believe is obvious, which is that our media, our legacy media is Zionist owned and controlled. Anything that hasn't been Zionist owned and controlled, David Ellison is looking to buy it up. And it hasn't really hidden the fact that he wants to buy up media in order to perpetuate is Prairie propaganda. You know, the whole Barry White situation, he was very clear about why he hired her, even though she's a talentless hack.

So I'm curious, is it unacceptable to say the media behaves the way it does because it's Zionist owned? I wouldn't go so far as to say it's because it's Zionist owned. I think that for starters, I don't think that has always been the case. I mean, David Ellison is certainly an interesting example of somebody who has been pretty clear about, and I include his father in that as well, since that's where the money is coming from and I think Larry Ellison has been pretty clear about it. He's referred to our Israel in statements he's made.

He's talked about his donations to friends of the IDF and Oracle even in their actions. You know, this is a company that he started that he's certainly made his billions from. And this is a company that would refer employees to human resources for mental health counseling if they were insufficiently pro-Israel or took issue with the company being pro-Israel. So I mean, that tells you where they're coming from. from what their perspective is, I think that's a pretty extreme perspective. I think that on a number of networks, they feel different pressure. They feel, and certainly not just television networks, newspapers as well, feel pressure from

their readership, they feel pressure from their editors. But I think there's this other factor here, which I know I'm sort of skipping over to something slightly related, but it's somebody like Joe Biden, when you're socialized into that environment, when you grow up around the belief that being reflected, Reflexibly pro-Israel isn't just good business, isn't just good politics, it's just the right thing to do. Old habits die hard. And as we saw in that election, it died really hard. And in the case of mainstream media, I think their inability to contain the message is a very clear indicator that in as much as they are trying to shape the public debate in the discourse, it's just not working.

But let me add one quick thing to that though, Eli. So look, I think these things are all related, right? So yeah, are there some radical Zionists that own giant piece of the media? That's, again, empirical. It's not arguable. Larry Ellson, Rupert Murdoch, who by the way, again, is not Jewish, but is a radical Zionist, right? And he owns huge properties in media. There's no question about that, right?

But to me, I think most of the reporters and the anchors are not acting because they got a memo from a Zionist boss saying, hey, you must kiss up to Israel. I think they're all deathly afraid of losing their job if they criticize. Israel at all and that's because the witch hunts that we were talking about earlier. So that's why I think the witch hunts are so, so important because there is a group and then I'll go very far and but it's true that that is trying to terrorize both average Americans and the media into complying with Israel's version of reality. Otherwise they'll be fired and their lives will be ruined.

So the power of the lobby and cutting across just media but politics also has historically been rooted partially in creating carrots, you know, creating incentives, you know, it's suggesting the idea that if you go along as a politician or perhaps as a journalist as well with the lobby in their narrative, that you will be rewarded. But there's also a stick. And sometimes that stick is implicit. It's not explicit. It's the belief that if you cross this group, if you cross this special interest, there will be an enormous consequence that will fall on your head. And to be clear, some of that's rooted in anti-Semitism. The belief that there is this vast power base out there. And there's a great documentary called defamation where Abe Foxman

basically acknowledges as much saying that I basically he says, I sort of weaponize that anti-Semitism to get my way by making people think that there's an enormous amount of power behind me that may or may not actually be there. So I think that that's when we go to the things that people are socialized towards, be it in our media or in our political class, isn't just the idea that there's something to be It's the idea that maybe I'll lose my job. Maybe I won't get that promotion. Maybe I'll be silenced in some manner that will hurt me professionally or politically. Now again, whether or not that that as actually the consequence that would occur might be sort of,

that's not the point. It's the fact that the fear has been instilled. Well, the consequence certainly does get doled out. And I've witnessed it firsthand myself and I welcome it because I, there is no amount of career advancement that's worth advocating for the slaughter of innocent people. So for the cowards in the media who care more about their careers as opposed to doing the right thing, and more importantly, okay, more importantly, focusing on how much our relationship with Israel is bleeding the United States dry.

So they're selling out their own country by going along with Israel's disgusting genocidal narratives. But final question for me on this, and it's the second area of contention between me and Jank, he brings up this debate time to time about how much Israel controls our government. Is it 85%? Is it 70%? I believe it's 100%. And the reason why I believe that is because our government carries out actions, including foreign policy, that is at the detriment of our own country, that harms our country. So someone can offer me a million dollars to try. chop off my arm, but I'm not gonna chop off my arm because I'm not gonna cause harm to myself based on how much money someone is gonna give me, right? But in this case, I mean, it's just

amazing how quickly our politicians will throw the country under a bus, okay? Know that this is really harming our country, getting our soldiers killed. Sure, there's the influence of the Israel lobby. I feel like there's something else at play that helps explain why it is that these politicians are willing to do what they're doing. But two questions for you. To what What extent does the Israel lobby control our government? And also, is there something else at play aside for money in politics that's influencing these politicians? So the answer to the first question that I would provide is that actually I'd say it's as American as apple pie, just not in a manner that we have so frequently seen. This is something

that George Washington warned about in his farewell address. When he, when he warned about the passionate attachments that a faction of Americans may have to a foreign country. And he would I was saying this in the context of explaining how our democracy would function, with the idea being that yes, there would always be factions within our democracy who would want one set of policies versus another. And in most cases, if one group had some success in moving policy, there would be a counterbalance. Another faction would emerge that would help balance it to create compromise, to stifle the change that one faction was trying to generate. And in doing so, this notion of rival factions could help balance our government and our policies. But he said there

will be a major exception to that, which would be, as I said, a group of citizens who have a passionate attachment to a foreign nation. He was wondering about France, to be clear. And the point he made is that, you know, that's maybe more of a niche issue to the degree where it would be highly unlikely that you would have a counterbalance to it. You wouldn't have a rival faction emerge per se. And I think that that is largely an explanatory window through which or frame to apply to Israel's lobby. There is no immediate countervailing counter faction to it. But where Israel's lobby is now, I think, running into some limits is that it has overplayed its hand. Israel has become more and more of a crazy state in no small part because of Israel's lobby and its ability

to shield Israel from the consequences of its more extreme policies and actions over the past several decades. And Israel as a result has become something that is deeply unpopular, globally and is increasingly unpopular inside the United States. And a growing number of Americans are now saying, actually, we don't think it's a bad thing to give voice to the notion that we should be cutting aid to Israel. Half of House Democrats actually voted for that now. So they've also shown that you can politically survive taking those positions,

but that moves us into something more dangerous, which maybe gets into the second part of your question. And that is the efforts to stifle debate now. The efforts to weaponize the state to use coercive measures like like cutting aid or refusing to to provide grant funds to universities because they allowed criticism on their campuses, the effort to stifle the efforts to deport green card holders who have been critics of Israel. And I think this is going to be a growing problem in one that that strikes at our own civil liberties and strikes at the sensibilities of Americans who will say that's just not American to do that. This runs against any sense of how we believe our democracy should run.

And if a faction is losing power in our democracy, this is not the way that you're supposed to respond to losing political power. Eli, thank you for being so generous with your time. And more importantly, thank you for all the work you're doing, not just with this book, but over at the Quincy Institute, we really, really value that organization and everything you're putting out into the world. So thank you again. I hope you'll come back soon. Thank you for having me. Our pleasure. All right, everybody, we have to take a quick break. When we come back,

we'll get into that story about Pete Higgs, of all people, potentially consider a presidential run in 2028. I'm not kidding, it's not a joke. The Washington Bose wrote about it. We'll be right back. All right, let's go to members on t.yot.com. Brad O'Donnell says, is there anyone left in Hamas? Like seriously, they must be down to the last 20 guys.

That's the big boogeyman? Yeah, it doesn't matter. Remember when Israel said that they would comply with the terms if Hamas returned the hostages? Hamas returned the hostages. Israel didn't comply. And all of our media had collective amnesia. And they just immediately went to the next Israeli talking point.

No, they have to disarm. And then after they disarm, no, they have to all murder themselves. Whatever, they'll invent something new and the disgusting liars in our media will pretend it's real and we'll just move the goalpost again. Okay, Scandinavian aliens says when my wife asked why I was at a motel with a female co-worker, I told her not to worry. It was my special ally. Turns out she was still mad. But that's why, because you didn't have the entire national media backing you. They would have called her an anti-Semite and said, we should destroy her life.

How dare she object to your special ally? Mangus dragon says measurement Romney and I immediately think of genocidal Anthony Blinken. Yeah, that's who. Hadnog is my favorite meat. That's who Romney was talking to when he admitted that the Israelis want to buy TikTok, and that's why the Americans are forcing TikTok to sell. And Anthony Blinken was like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, but we shouldn't say that out loud. Remember, we all secretly work for Israel.

So Anthony Blinkin's another traitor. Ghost says keep up the great work, Jank and Anna. We love you, keep speaking truth. Someone has to stay strong, thank you, we appreciate that. People always wish us good health and now worried about our lives. You know why they're worried about our lives? Because outside of mainstream media, everyone knows that Israel is mental and they have no moral boundaries and they really could do anything, including to us.

I thought it was because. Back on the young church, Jank and Anna with you guys. Oh, Noble Mobile, they got a new offer, by the way, guys. So first month's only 10 bucks. So jump in it, as they say in a different commercial. T.y.com slash switch lets you do it. It's T-Mobile's 5G system. Nothing on your phone changes.

Why waste money? Please, please, please stop wasting money. Max you could pay is 50. I pay in the 30s because they give you money back if you don't use your data. And the first month's $10. You're crazy not to switch. TYt.com slash switch. Okay.

So now let's go to our next story. Secretary War, Pete Hegsith went to Iowa. Why? Because this fool thinks he's going to run for president. Oh my God, what an idiot, we'll talk about that. He was gonna go earlier, why did that get delayed? Well, that one's a doozy too. Anna, tell us the whole story.

Well, we'll get to his delayed trip in just a moment, but the Washington Post put out an exclusive today where they spoke to individuals close to Pete Heggseth, who are under the impression that this, embarrassing failure and stain on our country is genuinely considering a presidential run in 2028. I mean, it's shocking how delusional that is. It's hard to believe it, but let me give you the details as reported by the Washington Post. So these are officials close to Hegsith. The officials say that Hegsith wanted to visit Iowa because it is a presidential testing ground and it's a clear sign of his presidential aspirations. And this isn't the first time that we've heard buzz about how Hegsith is potentially going to

run for office, not necessarily for president, but in 2025, it was reported that he was mulling a run for governor. So Hegsith has privately discussed the idea of running for political office in 2006 in Tennessee. One of the people said, Hegsith was serious, not simply spitballing ideas. So another person, and you could take this with a grand assault if you'd like, because of some of the other things that have come out about him in recent months that kind of make him a little less trustworthy if you ask me. But Michael Wolf speculated that Hegsuth wanted to run for president earlier this year. So I'm gonna pause for comment because when I think about the epitome, the best representative

of unearned confidence, I can't help but think of George W. Bush. But if Hegsith is genuinely thinking about running for president, he takes the cake by a lot. Yeah. So along those lines, Governor Ann Richards, former governor of Texas, Democrat, believe it or not, used to happen back in the day. Had a great line about George Bush. She said, he was born on third base and thought he had a triple. And I've used this line before about Trump, but you could use it about Hegsith as well. He was born on third base and thought he kicked a field goal. Like these guys are utter fools. So look, what constituency does Hegseth have? So he thinks he's going to go for the rah-rah,

secretary of war, more war in the Middle East. Are you serious? That's polls at like not even 12%. And also in the Republican Party, remember the Republicans are still pretending to be anti-war as they're in the middle of all of these wars. That's hilarious. It is hilarious.

But how are you going to have enough votes? So I have a different theory, Anna. My theory is that Israel's flooding the zone. They're like what if Rubio loses? Well then we gotta have Hegsith and besides which okay, maybe one of these guys win but even if they don't they gotta be in the next cabinet too in 2028. And remember Hegseth in his book just praises the IDF over and over again and he's the one pushing to merge our military technology with Israel's.

He's totally owned by Israel, so is Rubio. But as many dogs as they could have in that fight. And it's a logical thing to do. And so I think his handlers are telling him to run. Well, you know, what's amazing is the Israelis and US-based Zionists are absolutely terrified that J.D. Vance is a viable candidate on the Republican side, of course, in the next presidential election. And they have deluded themselves into thinking that J.D. Vance is genuinely an anti-war figure.

Who would turn his back on Israel? Yeah, so I have a little bit different theory. on that. So yes, they are definitely against JD Vance. They are. Right? So now is that, does that mean JD Vance is a good? No, no. And does he, does that mean he didn't take money from the Israeli lobby? No, it doesn't mean that. No, the Israel, remember, the Israeli lobby cannot tolerate even 1% dissent. And J.D. Vance said some things to support Trump's deal about the memorandum of understanding. Now, he was BSing, it wasn't real, but he wanted to set. down anti-war so he can actually win a Republican primary in 2028.

Right. So he can come back and say, well, now remember, remember, I was the one that challenged the Israelis, et cetera. And the Israeli lobby is like, you challenged us? Even 1%? No, annihilation. No one is allowed, because they think that if their sense of being invincible will be shattered if they don't politically decapitate anyone who has ever questioned them publicly.

So that's why JD Vance on the act. advanced on the outs and they're like Rubio and Hexith. And by the way, they'll bring in Pompeo, another guy who is 100% Israeli asset, okay? They might even bring Huckabee and that'll be hilarious. Ted Cruz is definitely coming in. So forget Huckabee. Those are, including Pompeo, four definite Israel first guys who will definitely run for president. They're just trying to increase their odds.

I mean, Pompeo has the charisma of a two by four. Like I just, I can't. No, two by fours are much more charismatic. Fair, fair, more entertaining. Because they could scare you, they could provoke emotions, et cetera. Pompeo is just cardboard. Yeah. But, you know, let's just quickly touch on his delay, Hegseth delayed trip to Iowa.

Because apparently, Hegsith was headed to Iowa earlier to campaign for Republican candidates. But to be fair, that's actually pretty unusual for a defense secretary slash secretary of war to do. Although Hegsith previously campaigned against Representative Thomas Massey in Kentucky, so it's not like there's no precedent when it comes to Hegseth doing that. And about that Iowa trip that was delayed, Hegseth was supposed to appear at a political rally and fundraising event for Republican Congressman Zach Nunn as he seeks re-election. But the trip was postponed because, oh, would you look at that? Several U.S. soldiers from Iowa were killed in the Iran War that were fighting at the behest of the Israelis.

So it wouldn't have been a good look for him to show up to Iowa when few people from Iowa, soldiers from Iowa were killed in a war that we shouldn't be involved in. Just think about that first thing guys, like politicians are a different breed than a normal person, right? So he's like, oh, a bunch of guys in Iowa died for Israel, but I want to run for president to help Israel. So I'm just gonna wait a couple of days until people don't notice anymore that we killed them for Israel, and then I'll show up and run for president anyway.

It's not like they're not dead two days later, they're still dead. Well, he's taking on our short attention spans, which is a problem. A lot of America, I mean, and it's because of the influence of technology and the quickly moving and evolving news cycle. But I don't think Americans are going to forget about the fact that we have sacrificed our service members for a war that has nothing to do with our national security, has nothing to do with benefiting the safety and the prosperity of our country. It is a war that's being fought on behalf of Israel and its attempt to build its own empire.

And we're not just sacrificing our service members, obviously we're also funding it. But look, let's just remind everyone who Hegsith really is, okay, because I think it's worth going over his greatest hits. So for starters, there's the highly unpopular war in Iran that he aggressively lobbied for. In fact, per Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, within the cabinet, Hegsith was the biggest proponent of a military campaign against Iran. The U.S. military in its opening salvo in this Iran war, which began on February 28th of this year, was to bomb a elementary school, killing over 100 little girls and some of the teachers and staffers at the school. Hegseth is now denying reports that U.S. sailors are facing nightmarish conditions on U.S. carriers. like the USS Abraham Lincoln.

And we've just learned why those sailors haven't been receiving adequate supplies. Let's take a quick look at that. Now we learned that a destroyer was without power for four days. What is the American public supposed to make of this? That the U.S. Navy is under tremendous strain, that decades, previous administrations maybe didn't build enough ships to be fair. But this is just an unforced political error by President Trump. There's no need to belittle these sailors.

Well, there's the strategic error. Also an unforced political error. It is a basic political error to belittle the families of sailors and belittles, belittle sailors who are out on these boats for 12 months at a time. And we are unable to resupply them. Why? Because Pete Hegseth hid the fact that Iran destroyed the main resupply base that the United States has in the Gulf.

He did not make that public in press conference after press conference. And that is, again, the way that they have mishandled this war. By the way, the Washington Post reported today in an exclusive that there are informal talks happening among those in the Trump administration about whether or not we're gonna have a presence in the Gulf moving forward because Iran did in fact destroy our military bases there, which was by the way predictable. But Trump decided to go to war at the behest of Israel anyway. Yeah, so a couple more problems with Hegsworth going there. Number one, we right now have a terrible problem with all of our ships. We can't get them supplies. And by the way, Hegseth

lied about, you know, the supply issue because the Iranians hit one of the places where we held their supplies. And so he should be busy tending to that, to the problems on the not just the USS Abraham Lincoln, the USS Boxer, and now about four ships are reporting the same problems, but he's busy with his own political aspirations. Now point number two is, imagine if Lloyd Austin, Biden's defense secretary had done something like this. Well, you don't have to imagine too hard because he was actually gone for some period of time because he checked into a hospital. He had a medical emergency and the Republicans went nuts.

They're like, he should have said where he was and we don't care that he was sick. By the way, the same Republicans would go, oh, Mitch McConnell is dead or alive? Who cares? You're not allowed to go into his hospital. He could stay there for weeks, months, it doesn't matter, how dare you ask, right? But they were like, Lord Austin, I can't believe he's sick, that guy should be fired. immediately, right? Now this guy, Pete Hegsith, goes just for politics, right? Not because he's sick, not because of anything else, and they're like, Bravo, bravo, right? No, not

Bravo. Go back to your goddamn day job, okay? And if Lloyd Austin was out there going, hey, come on, elect Abdul Al-Said or whatever, oh my God, their heads would have exploded. And they would have all been like, oh, this is the worst thing that ever happened. And finally, to me, the insult to injury, it's a tiny thing, but Hegsith while campaigning in Iowa rolled He's a little up his sleeves and he has a tattoo that he purposely showed like this to the audience. And it says we the people. But please. Get the F out of here, man.

No. Which people? Maybe you get a little, you know, asterisk in there. I mean, of course, the Israeli people, right? So please, as you're having our American boys and girls die for another country, at least have the decency not to not put out we the people there as if you believe that, you fraud. And then there are the workout videos, which we haven't talked about on this show. I felt bad mocking someone in the middle of a workout, but I think Hegsitz deserves it. You know, the guy who has all this tough talk about, oh, we're gonna destroy the Iranians as we're getting our asses handed to us.

Here's what he looks like during his military drills. Okay, that's gotta be at the end of a set. I hope so. That's gotta be at the end of a set. Otherwise, it's just too humiliating. I think it was though, to be fair. Keep this. It has to be.

It has to be. Even so, brother, don't do it, don't do it. Don't tell everybody that they're fat and out of shape and then go next to real soldiers and you know, have your curly cues dripping down with sweat and like, eh. I mean, he literally looked like Trump doing the fake thing of the fake lifting. Anyways, I don't care at all. I don't care how much you could bench. I care that you take care of our troops, which you obviously.

Obviously don't. You send them into harm, for a different country. And then when they are harmed, you don't care. And you're back to worrying about you and your own career. Yeah, I care a little bit, but I hear you. Let's take a break. When we come back, what are we going to talk about? There's so much, you know what, let's do the story that you really want to cover,

because I don't want to save it till the end. Okay, so Democrats be Democratting, right? Jank is surprised. I'm not. We'll tell you what the story is when we come back. Hey, Andrew, what's up? Hey, Jank, you ready to make this way? Yeah, I guess.

I promise it's easy. Universal, basic, and you get income. Yeah, you keep saying that. But you sure I'm gonna have coverage? Of course you will. You think I would have bad service? I'm Andrew Yang, of course I have good service. Alright, let's try.

But I'm so bad at tech. So, wait, should I do this thing of the hashtag business? Andrew, you're still on, right? Yep. Oh, I see it. You crazy. Oh, wait, I don't see. Oh, yeah, I do see it. Here we go. I actually did not realize that you'd be searching in real time, but I love it.

How much do people actually normally say? Yeah, the average American is going to save between $500 and $1,000 a year on Noble. Yeah, no. You know what I'm going to do, Andrew? Are you ready to become a noble member? The two buttons are do it and go back. There's no going back. We're doing it. We're doing it. Here we go, Noble Mobile.

Oh, my gosh, I just called you and are you now on? Noble and not Verizon. Why didn't you tell me it was going to be super easy? I know, man. Now you just stay away from your phone and watch the money roll in. I can do that. You can go phone, yeah. Jank, you still there? Andrew? Oh, well, at least I got Noble Mo. It was really just one take. The whole thing is wild. It's in my shoes. Hi, I'm Brett Ehrlich with Breaking News with Brett Ehrlich. This is Breaking News with Brett Ehrlich. Hi. Red Ehrlich here. According to EPA head Scott Pruitt, climate change is not happening. He cited a meme on Facebook you saw.

When pressed to back up this source, he said it must be accurate because the watermark said it was made by a scientist. So your move, truth? At TYT, our mission is to boldly pursue truth, challenge the establishment, and drive positive change. At a time when corporate capture of our media, our government, and our politics is nearly absolute. Everyday working people need a champion to fight for them and a push back against the powerful interests that threaten our democracy itself. At TYT, we're proudly progressive and call out corruption and duplicity wherever we see it, from Republicans, Democrats, or anyone else.

And unlike mainstream news media outlets, we're not beholden to corporate advertisers to defense contractors, to Wall Street, or to Big Pharma. We only have to answer to our audience, and for nearly two decades, we've accomplished that by delivering honest, timely, and insightful perspectives on the day's news without fear or favor or concern for whose toes we might step on or which powerful elites we might offend. And while we're super serious about the news, we also manage to do it in a way that is fun and lighthearted. We can do this together and serve our audience. And yes, have fun doing it. People have died for us to have the chance to vote.

So there's just the beginning of a much bigger fight over the president's desire to interfere in the midterm elections. He's deploying multiple strategies using every tool available and testing out each one of them. You're damn right. We're going to have ICE surround the polls come November. It's to stop people from. I am scary, I am threatening. I'm Darth Vader. Right in the face. Back on TYT, Jank Huger and Anna Kisparin with you guys.

Now we're gonna go to a story that's gonna enrage me. That's gonna be fun for everybody, so let's do it, okay? So a Democratic strategist went on C-SPAN and sounded like a Republican. Now that's pretty normal, I've seen that for decades in my life. Sure is. But something weird happened. The caller started calling him out because, the walls have been breached and the propaganda doesn't work anymore. So when he started

criticizing Abdul al-Saeed, caller after caller started saying, wait, are you even a Democrat? Or do you represent someone else? Great question for that story. We go to Anna. Well, I think a good way of having the audience understand how upset the callers were is to show you examples of what the callers had to say to him. So let's start off with the first video. Stanley, Clinton Township, Michigan, Democrat, please go ahead. I just want to say, in regards to Michael. What kind of a Democratic strategist are you? Tyrone is in New York City.

Democrat. Hi, Tyrone. You're on the air. Unfortunately, it seems like I'm listening to two Republican strategists. Michael, Brooklyn, Democrat. Good morning. Yeah, I'm just amazed. I guess I'm a third person who called, is calling to say, Michael, Delaware, what, you know, you're doing a tag team with Republican buddy, might be a Republican. Do you want to win the Senate back in in 2026? The only way you're going to do it, you're going to need Michigan. And you're dissing this guy. I'll see it. What's wrong with you? Are you out of your mind?

Well, I mean, I think he's a creature of the very real issue we have in this country with the Uniparty. I mean, I think it was bad enough if we genuinely were under the assumption that we were ruled by a two party system. But that's not even the case anymore. We are ruled by a uniparty on issues that actually have a very real material impact on our day to day lives. Issues of foreign policy, issues of money in politics and corruption, issues involving our economic system and whether or not certain things need to be reformed. So all this money doesn't get hoarded to the very, very top, not even at the 1%, but at the 0.1%. Okay? And so I'm not surprised, I'm not surprised, by any of this, I am not surprised that a so-called Democratic strategist is opting for the

Republican to win in the Senate race in Michigan. Yeah. Because at the end of the day, I've only seen Democrats fight aggressively when it comes to one thing, when it comes to defeating people to the left of them. Yep, so he's a former press secretary for Jill Biden. Of course he is. And I actually interviewed him on The Young Turks, so you could see that interview on our YouTube channel.

And it's an interesting one. And there he was making good points about how the, a lot of Democrats already knew about Joe Biden's situation. And so we had a very pleasant conversation. But that's silly me. Like I should remember, of course, everyone in DC works for Israel. So he doesn't care if the Democrats win or lose. He only cares if Israel wins or loses, and he's gonna prove it.

So let's show you the videos first, and then I'll come back. And he's now challenged me publicly, and we'll talk about that as well. So let's start with the next video. So you just got a little taste of what some of the callers had to say. Let's actually hear them out in context. Michael, Delaroza, what, you know, you're doing a tag team with your Republican buddy, might as well be a Republican. Do you want to win the Senate back in 2026?

The only way you're gonna do it, you're gonna need Michigan. And you're dissing this guy, I'll see it. What's wrong with you? Are you out of your mind? Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's just, you know, it's just beyond me that you're coming on as a Democratic strategist. How can you, how dare you?

I mean, you know, I'm like, I'm from Brooklyn. I'm like, I think Adam, Adam Goodman's kid could do a better job supporting the Democrats. Let's go to another caller, one that was a little more aggressive. Take a look. Michael, you're fired, okay? You should not be a Democratic. I'm so upset with everything you said. Now, Cindy, besides his comments about the Michigan Senate, which we've talked about now

a couple of times, what else did he say that upset you? And you're calling on the independent line, so are you a Democrat? You're leaning Democrat this year. All right, so how does he hurt your party? Well, I don't have time to go into everything he said, because I want you all to talk about how corrupt the Trump administration is and how the Republicans are not doing one single thing about it. That's why I'm leaning Democrats. That's why I would vote for El-Sayed in Michigan if I was in Michigan.

Let me just say that there are a number of really big issues that I think you have buy-in across the political spectrum among voters. I'm not talking about people in positions of power or strategists or the rest of the political scum that we have to deal with and talk about on a daily basis. I'm just talking about the American people. They want money out of politics. They want the corruption out. But here's the thing. When you're a democratic strategist, your bread and butter is money in politics. Kamala Harris raising $1.5 billion.

Where'd that money go to the Democratic strategist, right? So you think someone like him is going to carry water for the American people when they want money out of politics? Of course not. Of course not. So we're gonna get to why the callers were so mad and show you a couple of clips that also enraged me. But I like that look that the Republican gave him when they were outed. A look of like, oh, are you okay?

They caught us. Yeah. Like now they know we're working together for Israel and having the Republican Democrat doesn't matter. There was there Republican who was against Israel? Then they would both sound like Democratic strategists because he would then attack the, like if they were talking about Tom Massey, I'd be shocked if the Republican consultant didn't attack Tom Massey.

Right, that's a good point. Yeah, okay, because it's really the unit party serving one country and it isn't ours, right? So second of all, look, guys, we just showed you the good news. In the old days, none of that would have happened. He would have spouted off about, oh yeah, yeah, make sure you vote against the Democrats. I'm a Democratic strategist, we're weak and we really want corporate PACs and foreign governments to win, and that would have been it. There would be no pushback, right?

Certainly the host is not going to push back. But now the Democratic voters have been awakened. And it's a beautiful thing to see. Sure is. So now when he's like, now remember, I'm the Democratic strategist, but vote for the Republican in Michigan. So the Democrats don't have the Senate so we can say there was nothing we could do. There was nothing we could do.

And then the donors can get everything they want, right? And the caller after caller was like, you're fired. How dare you? I caught you. Like yes, yes, there you go. Wake up everybody, wake up. These Democratic politicians and strategists aren't Democrats at all. They're all betraying you for the donor class who they literally work for.

He's a consultant and a strategist. He gets paid by the donor class. Yes, and remember the last caller that you heard from, the woman, is an independent voter, Which means that she has casted ballots for Republicans. This time around, she's leaning Democrat and actually wants El-Said to win because she's disgusted by the corruption that's been brazenly displayed by the Trump administration with absolutely no challenge from any Republican lawmakers whatsoever. And he's trying to talk her out of it. It's amazing. It's amazing.

So why? Why? Here he is explaining why he's against Abdul al-Said winning a Senate seat in Michigan. I'm supporting every Democrat. I can't wait for Democrats to win. I know Democrats are going to win. I just want to do it without bad Democrats. For example, a Democrat, the guy running from Michigan, Mr. El-Sahed, has said when he gets to the Senate, he is going to challenge. He's going to primary. He's going to set his sights on other Democrats in the Senate. So that means he's coming for Catherine Cortez Mastow. He's coming for Maggie Hassan.

He's coming for John Fetterman. He's coming for Michael Bennett in Colorado. He's coming for mainstream Democrats in the Senate. He has said he's going to do it. This guy who claims to, who wants to be their new colleague is going to go up and run against them. No, thanks. We don't need him. He's also going to ask with Chuck Schumer.

Yeah, exactly. He's not going to give Chuck Schumer his vote. No. I don't see what the problem is, do not threaten me with a good time. That sounds awesome. Yeah, I think he just accidentally helped Abdul al-Said because that sounded awesome. It did sound awesome. He's like, oh, no, Abdul al-Said wants to challenge the dead weight in the Democratic Party.

We can't have that, he's a bad Democrat. Okay. By the way, I mean, it was a hilarious, ironic statement that I totally missed by everybody. He's like, now he's a bad Democrat, that's why I don't support him. And him not supporting other Democrats is terrible. Wait, you just said you don't support other Democrats. But the bad Democrats. Okay.

And then you listed a whole bunch of Democrats that no one is allowed to oppose because they're the good Democrats, according to you. I mean, Cortez Mastro is really like doing some heavy lifting and improving the lives of the American people, right? Yeah. Please. And so, of course, the reason he says that is because those are potential clients. Those are people who are corrupt Democrats who love the donor money.

Right. And who love consultants and strategists who tell them, Pretty little lies about, oh yeah, the American people want the same thing as the donors. Totally, totally. So he just listed for you all the bad guy Democrats in reality who never deliver for you, and that's an empirical fact. Have they gotten you hire men in wage? No, paid family leave, no public option, no.

Anything, nothing, nothing. Those are the bad Democrats. And he's like, can you believe this Abdul El-Said is actually going to fight for Democratic voters? And normally in Washington, they'd be like, yeah, boo! Way to go, Michael La Rosa. But now you're on C-SPAN and the walls are breached. And the actual voters are like, yeah, not buying it. I think you're full of crap.

And the voters are right, of course. Here's another attempt of him explaining why he's definitely vote blue no matter who. But there is a caveat. What's that caveat? You're about to hear it. Vote blue no matter who. The problem with that is, who still matters. At least it matters to me.

And I just come from a time when, And I know I watched people jumping out of windows on 9-11. It's personal to me, and 25 years later, somebody who can't stand up to his friends on line, on streamers, I don't even know who these people are. But if you're too cowardly and too weak to stand up to somebody who justifies terrorism, who justifies 9-11, the test of leadership is not standing up to the other side. That's easy to do. standing up to your friends and he's too much of a coward to do it.

Oh, wow, Abdul al-Said justified 9-11. Where? Where's your evidence of that? I mean, did Abdul al-Said draw attention to how disastrous U.S. foreign policy is in the Middle East and how that leads to hostility directed toward the American people? And is that inaccurate? Because it's not inaccurate. It's 100% true. And, Jank, I have one area of disagreement with you. I do think he's a little bitch for Israel.

I do, but I don't think that's the main reason why he's against Al-Sayed. I think the main reason why is because Al-Said and candidates like him represent what the majority of Americans want in getting money out of politics. And again, that jeopardizes La Rosa's bread and butter. He's looking out for himself. You think he cares about the American people or Democratic voters? Of course not. So that's actually going to get into our dispute online about it, which I didn't even realize

until we started the show, which is hilarious. Because anyways, but first let me address that real quick. He says, well, he can't even stand up to his friends who, you know, advocated for 9-11. Nobody advocated for 9-11. I don't know what the hell is he talking, but I know he's referring to Hassan, right? And so, except Abdul did stand up and say, I reject those comments. Oh, yeah, that's right.

Oh, by the way, who else rejected those comments? Hassan did two days later, right here. He was sitting right there. He said it, he's been on the record for years that he's like, yeah, that was a stupid way of saying it. What I really meant is about the foreign policy that led to it, which by the way, the great majority of Americans agree with, right? But he, Michael Delaroza, paints it as Abdul did not reject that when he did, and so did Hassan.

So he's lying about it, and why is he lying about it? My sense of it is, he's like, Muslim candidate, I bring up 9-11, imply terrorism connections. Very clintonian. Demagoguery. It's actually very Dick Cheney like, right? So Dick Cheney was when they were asked them, hey, did Iraq attack us on 9-11? They came from the same geographic region as the people who attacked us, he said. These people disgust me, man.

Yeah. So, okay, Michael, you're totally lying about that and we're going to move on. So now he's, look, I said online once I saw this that, you know, obviously he probably lobbies for Israel, and he took great umbrage at that. So let me share Graphic 3 his statement about that, and we'll break it down. He says, hey, Jake, you're a nice guy and I enjoyed being on your show, but respectfully, someone has given you completely false information about me. If it were true, I'd happily take it as a badge of honor.

Of course you would. That he lobbying for Israel is what he's referring to. But alas, not one word of it is true, correct, honest, accurate, or real life. Would you mind deleting the post or correcting the record with an apology? Hilarious. I would have reached out privately rather responding public view, but I don't have your contact information. Thanks, Chang. No, I will not be taking it down.

And here's why I said it. So he works for Ballard Partners. Ballard Partners has an office in Israel. Now it is technically possible that the Ballard Partners has an office in Israel, but they do absolutely nothing there. That it's just an empty office, people just show up and do nothing at all, and they come home. So I don't know for a 100% fact, to be fair to him, and I'm being honest here, and I'm stating it publicly, that Ballard Partners does anything for Israel, they might be super stupid and

have an office there for no reason at all. Okay? They have an office in Israel? Yes. So, but he says, no. Wrap it up, homie, wrap it up, wrap it up. Like, don't insult our intelligence, let's move on to the next claim. Okay, so anyways, so look, I don't know if they have Michael working on that client or not.

It doesn't matter. But come on, your firm not only works for Israel has an office in Israel, and you expect us to believe that they do no work for Israel and that your firm is not at all connected. Not at all connected. Wrap it up. But even more so, Anna, is that everyone in DC, if there's strategists or consultant, knows you better not cross Israel. Otherwise, you're not gonna get another job, period, period.

Somebody will call you an anti-Semite, there'll be a whisper campaign, Canary Mission will come in, and your career will be utterly destroyed. So they all know, as a matter of reality, in fact, if you are working in D.C., whether you're a Democrat or Republican, you must. You must get on your knees for Israel. And you must try to destroy any candidate, whether you're paid to or not for that particular race. You must destroy candidates on behalf of Israel.

Never serve America, how dare you? Serve the Democratic Party, that's just the front for you do getting on TV to do propaganda for Israel. So you don't want the Democrats to win Michigan, you don't want the Democrats to get the Senate because of a made up story about how Abdul did not reject Hassan's comments about 9-11. obviously made up because he's on the record. We want us to run the tape for you?

Okay, we could keep embarrassing you all day long, but none of what you're saying is true. So what we are all hearing, because we've heard it for the last 40 years from both sides is, all hail mighty Israel. So, Jake, look, this is the reason why I don't think there's a real political solution to the troubles that we're experiencing as a country right now. because La Rosa is not novel in the Democratic Party. He's part and parcel of the Democratic machine. These are the people who consult the politicians, the candidates.

This is the type of ideology they have. And they'll be super mealy-mouthed when it comes to challenging anyone on the right. But they're certainly not mealy-mouthed when it comes to going after anyone to the left of them. So I don't remember our exact conversation in that interview, and I hope I, I've been I believe I challenged him on this, but you guys can go watch it. But you know, you work for Jill Biden, one of the biggest liars in Washington. Fitting, fitting. Yeah, she's the one who said that Joe Biden was the best Democrat to run.

A dynamo. And that he was wonderful behind, and amazing behind the scenes. His brain definitely wasn't melting down. And we found out that you guys were all hiding the truth and now you pretend like you were, you know, were against it or something. And I maybe made the mistake of believing you. But what, what happened? Jill Biden, your boss, lied to the whole country.

She knew that Joe Biden had dementia, but she wanted power. And by the way, since they were hungry for power, what did the Bidens do when they were running the country? And you have to say plural, because Joe obviously was senile and we don't know who was running foreign policy and domestic policy. I always assumed that it was Jill Biden for domestic policy and Anthony Blinken for foreign policy. But really, it doesn't matter because they all work for the same people, the donor class. Trump comes in, you still get man yahoo, it doesn't matter, right? But at the time, Jill Biden and Joe Biden made the decision, we're gonna back the genocide. And in fact, we're gonna send them a $21 billion check to keep murdering innocent Palestinians.

And then they murder 23,000 children. But now you're telling us that you're willing to have the entire Democratic party lose just so that a candidate who doesn't bow to Israel doesn't win an election. And then you tell us, no, but you don't work for Israel. The one honest thing you did was say, but you would love to. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, we'll talk a little bit about the economic ramifications of the Iran war, which is being fought at the behest of Israel, something that Michael LaRosa probably absolutely loves. So we'll be right back.

This guy, Hassan Piker. All right, let's start with Twitch. Injustifiable says, I feel like that guy's been on C-SPAN for six. 60 years. I'm not sure if he's referring to the host or the Republican and Democratic strategists because they all look the same. They all say the same things. So it's been the same for the 60 straight years, no matter who's in the seat. Cincomidi says, if you don't use your data, Andrew Yang comes to your house and hands you cash. Almost, almost literally. Andrew doesn't ask you come to your house, but he does send you money to your house. So t.yt.com slash switch. YouTube members,

Dustin DeWinn says Jared's going to move the Lakers to Gaza. Yeah, don't give them any ideas. Carol Gosh says Anna looks great, tan, blonde, and gorgeous. Oh, okay. Thank you, Carol. I'll save more of the compliments for a little bit later. Let's go to Super Chat. Pack American Pious Knight says,

I wonder why CNN and Fox News and the rest of the trash corporate media never invited actual unbiased Israeli historians and philosophers and getting actual facts why Israel is considered an apartheid state history-wise. Here's the irony. This is the irony. U.S. politicians, and especially Israelis, call out Muslims and al-Qaeda and Taliban as radical extremist Islamists. I mean, literally, look at the words they use. Promise land, we were exiled 3,000 years ago, Palestine never existed, so on. They sound more unhinged than al-Qaeda. So I don't know about that, but I do know this. They always

say radical Muslims. They never say radical Jews, because you're not allowed to say that. But you are allowed to say radical Muslims. This guy, Hassan Piker. All right, back on TYT, Jane Canana with you guys. And I just wanna read a super chat real quick that challenged me. Bo 3670 said, Jane, when will you stop being so repetitive and start talking about those other giant lobbies

for Papua New Guinea and Morocco and Kazakhstan that control our government? Oh, that's right, none of those exist. No, I mean, the Israelis would have you have you I mean, the Israelis would have you believe that a real threat in undue influence over our government is Qatar. Yeah, oh, no, yeah, though. It's totally normal. It's totally normal for other countries to control us and steal our secrets and drive us into war and take trillion his office.

Okay, by the way, earlier I mentioned New Hampshire. I knew I wasn't right about that. I confused it with Alaska for some reason, because of independent or something. Anyways, Florida, Alaska and Wyoming are today. So if you haven't voted yet, make sure you vote in those three states. And then we are going to do old school tonight and Operation Joy. Those are old schools for the members. But we will update you on the elections results as we go.

Vote for Oliver Larkin. In Florida, he's a rebellion candidate. All right, let's go to the next story. You'd have to pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline. Just remember, you're doing it so that a very evil country cannot have. A country, really, it's the number one state sponsor of terror in the world. We don't want to have them have a nuclear weapon. And so remember that when you have to pay a little bit more, you're at $4.

It's okay. I mean, I'm not, I'll never apologize. I did the right thing. He'll never apologize for not serving you for driving up your prices and going into endless wars, the exact opposite of what he promised, because beloved Israel must be served. And no one can apologize for that. Now remember last year this time, gasoline was around $3. Now it's about $4, but that's all your fault, okay?

Not Trump's fault and not Israel's fault. So Anna, tell us all about it. Well, I think it's important to check in on what ordinary Americans are already experiencing as a result of inflation, runaway inflation. We're now starting to see the ramifications of the war that we are fighting on behalf of Israel. That has led to the Strait of Hormuz being closed. It has also led to the Red Sea and the Houthis no longer allowing the Saudis to transit oil through the Red Sea.

And so what is that translating into? Well, people are struggling to pay for necessities. That was already the case and this situation is exacerbating it. So everyday Americans aren't just struggling at the gas pump, it's everything from food to utility bills. And it's become such a problem that you have these predatory, loan sharks behind buy now pay later companies cashing in. And they're cashing in big time. In fact, two of those companies, Flex and Zip, are now letting people take out loans on broadband service,

their electric bills, health insurance, mobile phone service, their mortgages, water bills. So a firm, one of the most popular pay later apps or services, is also providing loans to tenants who are having trouble affording their rent and need a little bit of an extension in their monthly rent payment. So they can extend it for about two weeks with a service that's being offered by a firm. But there are consequences to that. We'll get to in just a minute. Now, according to research that was just released by the Federal Reserve, Americans spent $160 billion with a B, billion dollars last year through pay later loans.

nearly twice what consumers spent two years earlier in 2023. That's still a fraction, though, of the more than $3 trillion U.S. shoppers spend annually on consumer credit cards. In fact, consumer debt, credit card debt is still at record levels. That has not been alleviated, as you can imagine. But there's more, and I call them loan sharks for a reason. Not only are the interest rates tied to these by now pay later loans incredibly high, are often very deceptive of the terms involved.

And there's usually an option to make four payments for 0% interest. However, the longer term financing through these by now pay later services carry interest rates up to 36%. And if you are late on a payment, of course, there's all sorts of penalties and fees. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at the tail end of last year, December 2025, put out a report that looked into 2023 numbers. So obviously we're talking about 2023 has nothing to do with the Iran war. I want to be clear about that. But it was already starting to snowball into a problem, right? These buy now pay later type loans. So across six companies, lenders originated

$335.8 million by now pay later loans totaling $45.2 billion with an average loan size of $135.5. inflation adjusted. We're in a bad place as a country when our fellow Americans have to take out short-term loans for $135 on average. But let me continue. The user base expanded as well. Get a load of this, 53.6 million consumers took at least one by now pay later loan in 2023 and average usage increased to 6.3 loans per user per lender with a

with an average annual by now pay later loan amount of $848, inflation adjusted. So we're getting decimated out here. Totally decimated. And Trump and pretty much everybody in Washington goes, we don't care, we're not even going to cover it. I'm not gonna apologize. Yeah. So but like look at where all the attention is.

The attention should be on your problems. This is theoretically a democracy of the people. by the people for the people, right? No one gives a damn about your problems. And instead, whether it's Biden or Trump, you always get in Nanyahu, right? So now we're back into a war in the Middle East. Everybody's talking about the Middle East, the Middle East, the Middle East, and by the way, it's only making it worse, right?

Gas prices are going up because of the war, inflation is going up because of the war, unemployment's going up because of the war. And so all of your problems just got worse, and no one's doing anything to fix it. Because everybody's obsessed with, yes, but what does Israel want? How about the proxies of Iran? How about the drones and the ballistic missiles? And how many countries do we have to invade? And how much money do we have to give them for their genocide?

You're supposed to be the main people that the government is taking care of. It's called the House of Representatives. They're supposed to represent you. So yes, Trump's a giant jackass. And he's so stupid it he says it out loud. I don't care about you. I'm not going to apologize. When he was talking about housing prices a couple of weeks ago, he said, I'm glad they're high.

Why? Because he owns a couple of nations. So he wants their price to be higher. Because he's so much. So yeah, he's just spitting in your face. But it doesn't really matter because all Washington doesn't care about you. None of them care about you. And I think it's important to emphasize that, Jake, because I think a lot of people get misled into thinking

the problems we're experiencing can be pinned on one or two politicians. But that's not the case. This has been a growing issue. And Trump is simply another representative of perpetuating the issues that we're experiencing in this country. Trump just signed a deal with Raytheon, $22.9 billion for Tomahawk missiles. Because we've depleted so many of our missiles fighting Israel's wars, providing weaponry, you know, for their mass slaughter campaigns and border expansion policy in the Middle East. And if you look at polling data, it does confirm that the affordability crisis is serious.

Polling shows that the crisis is real. I want to just get into that briefly. Americans are making cuts to their lives just to get by, right? Cuts to things that they need in their lives to get by. In fact, consumer spending in July was down 0.6%. And if you take a look at this chart from the Century Foundation, It shows, you know, a surveys result from morning consult. And some of those changes include tapping into their savings for bills, paying bills with credit cards, as we talked about earlier, taking on debt to cover basics, skipping

meals to save money. And that also tends to translate to really bad polling numbers for Donald Trump. And we're gonna get to what those latest polling numbers are in just a minute, his approval rating. But before we do, just keep in mind. Trump has a history of messaging his apathy toward Americans and the pain that they're experiencing. So here's one example. Let's go to SOT2. They said, they used the word first time I heard it. It was a word, you know, made up by the Democrats.

Affordability. They said, affordability. I said, I've been here one day. Don't worry, I'll take care of it. And we're taking care of it. The people behind them are like, yeah, it's made up. Are we supposed to laugh or clap at that? Like what is that? The Democrats made up a word. They made up a word, yeah. Called affordability.

It didn't exist before. Right. This is not the only time he said dumb things like this. He once claimed that he invented the word fake. I'm not joking, I looked it up. So the guy is just a lunatic. And by the way though, so now two quick things about that. Number one, Anna made the point earlier that we just spent $23 billion

for Tomahawkwitz missiles to reload. reload. We spent all of them for Israel, all of them, right? So that's $23 billion that could have gone to making your schools better, giving you more health care. But now your kids can't get health care, they can't get school because Israel needed another war. So we have to reload. And by the way, you think we're going to spend the, keep those Tomahawk missiles for ourselves? Now we're going to spend it in the next war that Israel drags us into. But that's not all. The reason I brought it up is because we also just did a deal for $35 billion in bad interceptors. And $58.6 billion in Patriot Pact 3 interceptors.

We are the top debtor on the international stage. We're borrowing all of this money from China, Japan, and other countries so that we can gift it to Israel. And then we pay not only that sum, but the interest on it for the rest of our lives, our kids' lives, and our grandkids' kids' lives. So all of that, you get none of the benefits. In fact, some of you die in that war and our gas prices go up and all of the inflation goes up. Plus, you have to put in at least another $100 billion to restock all the missiles that we didn't use for us, we used for another country.

Now to the point I was making about how yeah, Trump's a particular kind of idiot and monster because he just has verbal diarrhea and he just blurts out the things that are actually in said. I also remember in his first term morning he was like, I don't want any poor people in my cabinet, I only want rich people in my cabinet, right? Because he thinks rich people are smarter than you and better than you, and he serves the rich. So how do we get into this mess? I mean, look, so Anna's talking about loan sharks.

Of course they're loan sharks, but they put on ties and we passed bills that were almost all bipartisan. So that's when our Democratic friends catch feelings. No, you have to say it's only Trump. It's not only Trump. Bill Clinton deregulated a lot of these industries, right? The corporate Democrats and the corporate Republicans work together to screw us. over, Trump is just the manifestation of that disease.

Yes. So we legalize a whole bunch of things that used to be illegal. Fraud, Donald Trump let go of almost every white collar criminal charge on fraud as soon as he got into office in his second term. By the way, the media barely noticed. Oxycontin is basically heroin. We legalize it, we put the drug dealers in suits, and they went and created a giant heroin epidemic in the country. And tens of thousands Americans died. Destroyed families, gutted our country, absolute scum of the earth, barely suffered any

consequences for it. And so there aren't, it's not like there's no good guys, but there are tiny exceptions to the major rules. So for example, we also legalize bank robbery. Wait, really? Yeah, as long as your executives at the bank. So for example, Wells Fargo started stealing from their own customers. And they had three, four different tricks to literally steal your money.

Right? Now, Elizabeth Warren did a good job in that case, created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. You give Obama credit because it happened under his watch, except Elizabeth Warren embarrassed them into it. He did not want to create it. And then as soon as Trump got in, he destroyed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and it's no longer here to protect you. But in that brief moment, when a progressive populist actually got the job done, it actually prevented the bank robbery. And Wells Fargo had to pay people back. Billions of dollars, they'd start. stolen from them, okay? But now that's gone as well, there's no consumer protections to deregulate those industries.

So now all of the things that used to be criminal are not perfectly legal as long as you bribe an American politician to do it. So let me just briefly reset to talk about the Ipsos poll because it's worth discussing. So the very real economic pain that the American people are suffering as a result of rising prices, that have come from the war that we're fighting against Iran at the behest of Israel, has translated to lower approval ratings for President Donald Trump. In fact, the latest, let's take a look at this graph. This is graph six.

It'll show you the results of the latest Reuters-Zipso's poll, which shows that only 33% of respondents approve of how Trump is leading the country. Now, in a panic, Fox News jumps in to try to, you know, rewrite history, make it appear as though it is totally worth it for you, the American people, to pay higher energy bills, higher prices at the pump, more money for food, because the war against Iran is totally worth it. Take a look. There's been sanctions and there's been agreements and there's been harsh words, but he's the only to take them on directly after 47 years.

And they want to do anything they can to make sure he's not present or if he is president, make sure he does not have as much power. So that's what I worry about. They'll be able to dictate our elections unless we take them down before they can. That's why we have to make it a national security issue. We cannot, it's not being elitist. It's not saying that it doesn't matter. Of course gas prices matter.

It impacts not just people on the day to day basis, but everything is controlled. by oil and gas. But when you tell the American people, this is a national security, what could happen if we don't get about? No one would have ever suggested when they attacked 9-11, our twin towers, and the gas prices went up

when we were in combat operations, that should impact our response to them. But don't forget, these are people that want to wipe America off the face of the map. They want to wipe Israel off the face of the map. They say death to America. So if they got a nuclear weapon,

we won't even have cars to put gas in, right? I mean, it's more important for them not to have a nuclear weapon because they do want to kill us. They hate us. And don't forget that. Okay, I just want to talk about the claim that attacking Iran is important despite the fact that it's leading to inflation because it's a national security issue for the United States. Bitch, we just ran out, we're running out of missile interceptors. We are running out of our weaponry fighting wars on behalf of a foreign country which leaves the American people.

vulnerable to an attack. And you want to talk to me about national freaking security? That's what they want to talk about? Yeah, so no, no, there was a couple of amazing things in there. Number one, the way he framed it was like, let's pretend this is about national security. Like, you know, after 9-11, no one would have complained because that was American interest. We had been attacked. We were attacked.

Iran didn't attack us and didn't have the capacity to attack us. Their missiles can't reach us. So, and by the way, Iran is. as opposed to alicator, they're mortal enemies. But so, but he's like, since there is no national interest here, let's pretend there is. Let's just reframe it as national interest, even though we all know it's Israeli interest. Why was Israel treating al-Qaeda fighters in their freaking hospitals as the civil war in Syria was taking place? I'd like them to answer that question.

Yeah, why does ISIS never attack Israel, but only Israel's enemies? Maybe it's a creation. Okay, so I- Of the Israelis. I don't know, but okay, so then of course the blonde at the end jumps in with the usual scare fear mongering. They're going to kill us all. They hate us. So you should hate them and you should help Israel destroy them, even though they have nothing to do with us. Why does Iran, quote unquote, hate us?

I don't know, maybe because we invaded it, we attacked it, and we've been helping Israel try to destroy them for the last 50 years. Is that complicated, really? But of course, the whole point of Foxxon's the lie to you. But to me, the most spectacular and amazing thing there was, Ryan killed me, I hope you didn't miss it, when he was saying, now, you know, Iran is trying to dictate our elections, so we have to hurry up and do something. Iran is trying to dictate our elections?

Iran, yeah, totally. They're spending big money. They're spending big money to oust politicians they don't like, you know? So the Israeli lobby has spent over $100 million in the last election cycle and this election cycle. They're the leading lobby to spend money in our elections in both. cycle so far. Iran, to our knowledge, has spent $0 on our elections, but on Fox News, it's a completely different reality. So the 98 year olds watching it, they're like,

oh, did you hear Iran's trying to buy our elections, and they were gonna kill us. So we had to murder all of them on behalf of Israel. They do chance. They do chance, please. Israel has murdered 10 Americans in the last three years. They spit on our face and having arrested a single person, a single one of those more, they know who killed them. They won't arrest them because they think American lives they're worthless. No, no, they're very worried about U.S. national security, everybody. Yeah, and guys, keep it real on what's going on with Donald Trump. Donald Trump's hates being unpopular.

He knows why he's unpopular. It's this war. That's why he's been trying to, in his own dumb ways, get out of the war. What if I bomb them more like Israel tells me? What if I say we're going to get a peace deal? What if this, what if that? Hey, bro, why don't you just make the deal? Hey, open up the Strait of Hormuz and we'll leave, right?

And at this point, Trump says I don't even really privately, according to those insiders on his own team, he doesn't even care about the nukes. He never cared about the nukes because it was always a fabrication. Remember how he was bragging about how we destroyed all their nuclear facilities in the earlier war against Iran? Right, so he doesn't believe they have any nuclear materials left. We can just leave, right? But no, we can't because then Israel says, yeah, but who would be here to fight my war for me and die for me?

Pretend it's your national interest and go back into the war and pay more. And you're telling me Donald Trump is going to go through all that and be the most unpopular he's ever been just because the Israelis convinced them with a good argument? No. And it's not because of the money he already took because Donald Trump always screws over his creditors. No, they have something on him. I would be shocked if they don't have something awful, disastrous on him because- It's gotta be something that's where he says I would rather be lower than dirt and have

everyone in America hate me than have them release that tape. I mean, we're talking about a guy who regularly craps himself in public and it's got to be something more embarrassing than that. I don't even know about that, but look, guys, the bottom- But bottom line is, Epstein worked for Israel. Another thing mainstream media won't tell you, read the drop site news articles. It is not in dispute. Every foreign policy deal he did was for Israel, including procuring weapons for Israel.

Oh, got any of the added videos, cameras in the Kleenex boxes. Gee, I wonder if there's tape of really powerful men in America that Israel might use. Mainstream media will say those are all facts, but facts are anti-Semitic, and you're not allowed to say facts because we're reporters. I'm telling you, it's probably blackmail. When we come back from the break, Jank Uger will read some of your comments. Don't miss it. We'll be right back. I started using the word the groceries. All right, let's go to our members on t.com.

No, actually, let's start with YouTube members to give it context. Joe S. And Y says, I hope Anna will share a fun story about Italy for the members. Oh, I sure will. I wanna go back for our 10 year anniversary in a few years. If I get a job this year, it's what I'll be saving for. Oh, look at this, ancestral worms says, I've got $80 in my noble savings account. Love the switch.

There you go, look at that, I'm telling you. T.y.t.com slash switch. You're gonna save a lot of money. Your cell phone service is gonna be great. Nothing's going to change. TYT.com slash switch, please go save money. Okay, I feel better when you do. Nicholas Gerson says, wow, the guy who bows down and sucks up to the establishment is calling Abdullah coward, typical corporate democratic, Democrat projection.

Nicholas, that's a good point. I wish I made it in the middle of the story because he's like, he's a coward. He won't even stand up to his friends. And then he's like, and he's standing up to people like Chuck Schumer and Mastow, how dare he? Wait, I thought you said he was a coward who wouldn't stand up, right? So Nicholas, great, great, well, you know what, I've done this in a while. Blue Apring gift card, $100 gift card, rewards at t.yt.com to collect it. You're already a member, you're on YouTube, we know it.

Yeah, yesun Karatekin writes, and Jenk is the godfather of independent journalism. I thank you, that's an amazing compliment. Sneaky Dog Inc. says, Anna with the guns out today, Shroder And as Dragon says, Anna, your talent and work ethic is obvious and much appreciated. But to be superficial, your hair looks the best I've seen it in a decade. That's crazy. I don't know why. It's a subjective thought though.

Thank you. He assures us. All right, we'll be right back. All right, guys, we're back. Jank and Anna with you guys on the Young Turks. And the reason I'm looking down at my phone is to get you the exact results because, unfortunately, the polls did close already in Florida and we already do have a projected winner. And I say unfortunate because it's Jared Moskowitz.

He got 61.4% of the vote with 44% reporting, but it was enough to be projected as a winner. And Oliver Larkin got 38.6% of the vote last we checked in. So Larkin with a good showing, 39% against an incumbent and incumbent with a lot of money. I know shockingly from APEC and others, but Moskowitz will take money from anyone. He's also a prostitute for corporate packs, not just foreign governments. So the corrupt Democrat won again. Larkin made a spirited run and maybe you'll get him next time because that's literally sometimes you pick up momentum and for a first time run 39% is amazing.

So great job Oliver Larkin and hopefully you'll see him again in 2028. So I'll check it on some of the other election results for you guys, get them for you, probably in old school for the members. Elliot Morgan's gonna join us, which are a little philosophy. So how's that for scintillating? I love it, but, and as you know, old school can be a ton of fun if you remember. So hit the join button below if you're on YouTube, t.com slash join. As Anna pointed out, we just wanna interact with you guys for the couple of minutes that we have here.

James Kelly wrote in on Super Chat, he says, have you guys heard of a podcast called Blowback? Yes. It's a really interesting breakdown of what was going on before, during and after US, different US wars behind the scenes. It really puts a lot of US policy in perspective. So when I read that comment, I thought, no, I don't know it, but I bet Anna does. And she already told you she does. And so do you like it?

It's a great podcast. I haven't listened to it in a while, but very informative, very well produced, highly recommend it. Yes, so all right, I'll check it out. So I always appreciate the recommendations. It's just Vegas on Twitch, wrote in, how can Jared Greenlight anything? He doesn't hold a position in our government. Now that is a point actually that a lot of mainstream media is making. So okay, they need one decent point because that falls in the category of anti-Trump rather than anything else.

But yes, it's outrageous. He holds no government position at all. And then he goes in and says yes, the Israelis are right about everything. And the other side is terrorist, and I'm only gonna support what Israel says. And he's basically the godson of the Israeli prime minister. So how is this not cheating on behalf of Israel? It's so, so, so obvious. And he has no position at all.

So it's just a giant joke played on the rest of us. All right, Ben Jammen writes in at t.com member section. Compliments flooding in for Sensei Anna as per usual. And then he says in brackets, you're beautiful too, Cenk. Well, I appreciate you, Ben. The patient says about the callers on C-SPAN, I'm so proud of these people for calling a spade a spade. Fish cleaner says, I can't express how much I despise the Democratic Party for putting us here. I agree on all of that.

But guys, we're about to have a great segment for you guys called Operation Joy. We're gonna release joy into the world. So stay right here. It's for everybody else, for everybody. So we'll be right back and do Operation Joy for you. I love the poorly educated.