The Young Turks - Neocon Job - April 22, 2025

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

Fired Pete Hegseth Adviser Tells Tucker Carlson He Was Framed. Israeli Security Chief Accuses Netanyahu of Making Improper Requests. New NIH Guidelines Say Medical Researchers Will Have Funding Revoked If They Boycott Israel. Hosts: Ana Kasparian & Cenk Uygur SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞  https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK  ☞   https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER  ☞       https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM  ☞  https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK  ☞          https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH  ☞      https:/www.shoptyt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. On July 18th, get excited. This is big! For the summer's biggest adventure. I think I just smurf my pants. That's a little too excited.

Sorry. Smurfs. Only theaters July 18th. Bacon. Baga! Welcome to the Young Turks. There we are, okay, something's happening. All right, Jake Ugarana is bearing with you guys.

I'm here in New York at the Spotify studios. Do something exciting here in New York soon. Anna's in L.A., and we've got an amazing show for you guys. So Israel is unfortunately out of control. And it has kind of swallowed up the show today, but that's because it's kind of swallowing up our government and foreign policy. So a lot to discover there in terms of what's been happening. And it explains some of the mysteries that we were starting to talk about yesterday. So Anna, what do you got for us?

Well, let's start off with an update on the purge within the Defense Department. This is a story that we covered in great detail yesterday. We talked about the various figures, including those very close to Pete Heggseth, who have had a long-term relationship with Pete Hegseth, essentially getting pushed out of the Defense Department. And so let's just say that that story has developed further. Without further ado, let's get into it. People knew that you weren't fully on board with the regime change program. And then I read all of a sudden that you're a traitor.

You're like marched out of the Pentagon. You did make, just from an outsider's perspective, one maybe career mistake by giving on the record interviews before you went in describing your foreign policy views, which I think are fully within the mainstream of the world and the U.S., but out of the mainstream among, you know, warmongers. We were threatening a lot of established interests in our own separate ways, and we had people who had personal vendettas against us. But you're being accused of betraying Heggseth, who's under attack from people who want a war with Iran.

Let's just be totally blunt about it. In reality, it appears that Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is the one who has betrayed his longtime friends who were in the Defense Department until recently. And in fact, Tucker Carlson had a chat with Dan Caldwell, one of the officials who ended up getting fired from the Defense Department. He was a close advisor to Pete Hegseth. And there were allegations that the reason that he was let go along with two other individuals is because, they were allegedly leaking classified information to reporters. Now, the department hasn't provided any evidence of that. In fact, these individuals are now going to sue the department because they claim

there was no investigation into our conduct. We weren't given any polygraph tests. We don't know why we're getting pushed out. This is wrongful termination. Now, the two others who were fired from the Pentagon Jank were Colin, Carol, and Darren Selnick. these are two other individuals who say they've never leaked anything to the press. And in fact, they've been very close to Pete Higgs, huge cheerleaders for the Trump administration. It's just that their opinions on foreign policy seem to differ from what the, you know, war machine military establishment wants and likes.

And so we're going to get into some of those details in just a moment. But this was a huge interview that had quite a few revelations that I think the audience will enjoy learning about. Yeah. So this now begins to explain what was the mystery yesterday. And it's not surprising. In fact, you know, I thought we did a pretty good job of sussing out what it might be on yesterday's addition of the Young Turks. Obviously, you can watch it live at 6 o'clock Eastern every day on YouTube. And I'll get the podcast on Spotify, which is where I am today. So what didn't make sense was why would Pete Hegesith bring in allies that he's had for at least a decade and then fire them within a couple of months because remember these are not left over Biden people

Hegesith brought them in so then two three months later abrupt firing so that didn't make any sense at all so and he keeps talking about the deep stay we'll get to that in a second but wait a minute how could they be deep state if you brought them in are you? Are you? you deep state? Like, so that part doesn't make any sense at all. Now, the fact that there might be something akin to a deep state is beginning to make sense. But it doesn't make sense that the guys who were fired were deep state. It makes a lot more sense that the deep state were the ones who fired him. But isn't that amazing that it's Hegsus allies and they're getting fired from underneath him. And he has to pretend it's about a leak. And now we know definitively

that it isn't that it was they didn't offer a polygraph test. They had no evidence. They didn't even take their computers. We know all of this now. So, but yes, there are neocons within the government. And I think this is an enormous story. And yes, we have enormously strange bedfellows. Tucker Carlson and today's Steve Bannon talking about similar things. But you know what? If ever there was a time and a cause to unite the left and the right, it would be this to stop a war with Iran that the neocons want to drive us into. And let's be honest to satiate Israel, not this country. So let's talk about the cover story briefly before we get to the meat of this story. So defense officials told Politico last week that the investigation centered around a series of leaks,

including the deployments of carriers to the Red Sea, Elon Musk's visit to the Pentagon for a security briefing, and the pause of U.S. intelligence to Ukraine. Now, Caldwell, Dan Caldwell, who was a close advisor to Pete Hegseth and was pushed out of the Defense Department recently, insisted that the untold story was that his controversial views had made him a target. And I happened to believe him. I think the story that he tells here is definitely believable. And to really understand why Caldwell believes that he was falsely accused of being a leaker and pushed out of the Trump administration as a result, we have to kind of delve into his foreign policy views, which unfortunately happened to be pretty novel within the defense department. Let's take a look.

risks being incredibly costly in terms of lives and dollars and instability in the Middle East. The idea that it could become a major war is kind of absent from American news accounts. So the idea is that the United States, probably in partnership with Israel or vice versa, Israel in partnership with the United States, would take out the, I think, six Iranian nuclear sites, and that would kind of be the end of it. that it wouldn't be become a major war. I mean, I don't think I've ever read any account that suggests it could become a major war, but you're saying it could. Look, when the minute that the bombs or bullets start flying, you can never say with certainty what exactly is going to happen. But I think that because of the fact that Iran has been put on its back foot, and Iran is weekend, they've had a lot of failures in the region. I think that actually creates an opportunity for more and better diplomacy, but there's

some who argue that creates an opportunity for more military action. In fact, if you go back to the New York Times reporting last week about what was thought of as an impending military strike against Iran, which, by the way, Trump actually decided against engaging in. Caldwell is part of a small group of people within the Defense Department, or at least he was a part of a small group of people within the Defense Department, who saw the weakening of Iran as an opportunity to engage in diplomacy and get a nuclear deal signed as opposed to engaging in a hot war with Iran.

Now, the war machine within the Defense Department very much wants that war. But what was so surprising about that reporting last week, Jank, was that among the individuals in the Trump administration who were against doing military strikes along with Israel against Iran were Tulsi Gabbard, which I'm going to give her a lot of credit for, VP J.D. Vance, going to give him credit for that as well. But included in that group was actually Secretary of Defense Pete Heggzitt, who has this like neocon history. So I was. actually really surprised to see that he was one of the voices in Trump's ear, discouraging him from going along with what Israel wanted, which was to engage in these, you know, strikes against the nuclear targets in Iran. And so that's making me really rethink the way I perceive some of the stories that are coming out about Pete Hegseth and all these other individuals who have been purged from the Defense Department in recent days. Yeah, so there's something that's something that's a really interesting phenomenon here, and that is not just about this story, but that really goes to the heart of what is what does a deep state mean?

Who, what, who if they exist, who are they? And how do they have this much power? So here's why I say that. So, you know, we report on that story that Anna is referring to last week on the Young Turks. And, you know, I said huge credit Tulsi Gabbard. By the way, huge credit to Donald Trump for not doing the strike against Iran. He or Israel already pressured him. Netanyahu came to America to pressure him into attacking Iran on behalf of Israel. And we showed you the story where Israel decided, oh, you know what? Our planes can't do this attack. So we're going to order America to do it. And oh, right, and we can't really fully handle the defense. So we're going to order America to do the defense after we start the war. And so Trump for now said, no, great, okay. Hexith is on the side. It appeared based on New York Times reporting of Gabbert and J.D. Vance is saying no to the strike.

So then who's firing the guys under Hegsit? Who are his allies? Because it doesn't look like Hegseth's firing them. I mean, even if you're, he's technically firing them. Why would he? They're the guys he brought in. And in like a minute ago. So that doesn't make sense. Trump said no to the Iran strike and is generally clueless about what's going on in his administration. So I don't think he necessarily gave the direct orders to fire these guys. So who the hell is giving the order to fire these guys who

are hardcore MAGA, hardcore Hexas supporters from underneath Hegsit? See, that's super interesting. So how does the, I mean, if such a thing is the deep state exists, how do they do that? Who are they? And how do they pressure Hegesith to actually commit to? Yes, I'm the one who fired them. Yes, it's because of this made up story about leaks, etc. How do they get them to do that? And I don't know. Yeah, that is a good question. I should say that in an interview recently with Brian Kilmeet on Fox News, unfortunately, defense secretary Pete Heggseth did not, um, defend his friends, including Caldwell, who actually worked for Hegsith at an organization known as Concerned Veterans for America. They had a close relationship. Caldwell wrote an op-ed in town hall.

I'm sorry, he wasn't the one who wrote an op-ed in town hall, but he was one of the individuals who was really rooting for Hegsith to become Secretary of Defense. They are not enemies in any way. They never had any kind of negative relationship. But someone, you're right, someone or a group of people got rid of Caldwell along with other individuals who have some ideas about foreign policy that don't go along with the neoconservative ideology. And now you have Hegsith essentially providing cover for the decision to fire these individuals because I think he realizes, oh, wow, my job is really on the line. Just yesterday, we shared the story about how there are some rumors about how the White House is already looking for replacement for Pete Hegs. So now that he's

afraid about losing his job, maybe he's willing to throw his friends out. under the bus, but nonetheless, later in the interview, Caldwell also said, quote, I think there clearly is a very strong coalition within the United States that wants to see another war in the Middle East and it crosses both parties. Preach. I mean, I think we all know that, but the fact that he references this bipartisan support for more war in the Middle East, you know, really goes to the point he's trying to make about why he believes he was actually fired. And so, look, why is it that Caldwell does not believe that he was actually fired for being a suspect in leaking classified information to reporters? Well, he explains part of it in this next clip. Let's take a

look. So I just want to be totally direct with you. Did you leak classified information against the wishes of your superiors to media outlets? Absolutely not. Did you photograph classified material and then text pictures of that material to an NBC news reporter. Absolutely not. And I have not spoken to an NBC reporter while at the Pentagon. Are you, do you know what you've been accused of? No, I don't, sitting here right now, myself and Darren Selnick and Colin Carroll, the other two individuals that were escorted out of the Pentagon,

initially placed on leave and then fired on Friday. We have not been told, as of this recording, One, is there what we were being investigated for? Two, is there still an investigation? And three, was there even a real investigation? Because there's a lot of evidence that there is not a real investigation. We're going to get to some more details about why he doesn't believe there's been a real investigation into possible leakers within the defense department. But before we get to that, I just want to just quickly remind you all that Mike Waltz, national security.

advisor to Donald Trump, the guy who accidentally included Jeffrey Goldberg in that signal chat where they're discussing a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen. That guy, that guy. He's still employed by the Trump administration. Interesting how that guy is still employed by the Trump administration, considering his massive mistake. But these individuals are fired under incredibly flimsy allegations. Fascinating. Yeah. Anna, look, this is so interesting because it, in a lot of ways, unites the right and the left in terms of actual voters. Because if you're a fan of Hegseth or you're anti-war and you voted for Trump because you thought he's anti-war, well, then you don't want these guys fired. These are the,

this is the anti-war contingent, right? And so, and if you're on the left, I sure hope to You don't want war just because Trump's president, and he hasn't declared one yet. So, and so of course the left is anti-war. So we should all want to get to the bottom of what's going on here. So why is Hexif firing these guys when it's super obvious that he didn't want to? And this conversation about leaks is ridiculous. They didn't, they didn't do any investigation at all. And remember, they're not firing lefties.

firing their own. And to your point, Anna, about the cover story. So wait, let me get this right. There's no investigation of theoretical leaks from the Pentagon. And there's no evidence connecting it to these anti-war guys inside the Pentagon. But they're immediately fired with no evidence and no investigation. But we all know, we saw with our own eyes, we heard it with our own ears. We saw Hegsith and Mike Walls and all those guys in the signal chat actually leaking national security information, top secret information about how we're going to strike. So if you say this is accountability for leaks, how could there be no accountability for walls who set up that group and included a reporter? How could there be no accountability for

Hegsith, who's the one who actually gave the coordinates and the timing of the bombing, etc. But there's accountability for people who are underneath them with no evidence and no investigation. No, this has nothing to do with leaks. It has everything to do with whether we're going to war with Iran or not. And by the way, it's not just Israel that wants that war. The military industrial complex wants that war. They're going to make a literal killing off of that. I mean, it's going to affect hundreds of billions of dollars that they're going to make. If you think that they're not motivated by that, you're probably, you know, just recently escaped from an asylum or a national media report. I just think it's fascinating. Like last week,

it's reported by the New York Times that you have two camps within the defense department. They're both in Trump's ear. One side is encouraging him to do military strikes against Iran, obviously with Israel by its side. The other camp is saying, no, this is not a good idea. This is going to drag us into a hot war with Iran. You should avoid it. And now you're seeing that side in particular being pushed out of the Defense Department. And by the way, what's also just so incredibly absurd is just how much access Caldwell had two incredibly top secret classified information up until the moment he was fired. He talks about that in the next clip. So there was this leak investigation that was ongoing for weeks, right? What were you? Was your access to classified

information limited during that time? Not at all. In fact, the day I was escated out of the escort out of the building, I went into, I won't get specific, the highest of high level intelligence briefings. And up until the minute I was pulled in my office, I was on highly classified systems doing my work. So you were looking at highly classified information up until the moment they brought you outside and separated on the basis of the claim that you were leaking classified information. I was doing my job. Part of my job entailed looking at intelligence, helping making recommendations the secretary, giving my thoughts, working with the policy team, and most of our work was done on classified systems. The reason I'm pressing on this is that doesn't make

any sense. It doesn't make any sense to me. Yeah, it really doesn't make any sense. So if the Defense Department suspected that Caldwell is one of the people who is a liability because they They suspect that he's leaking classified information to reporters. Why did he have access to highly classified information up until the moment he was fired from the Defense Department? It just doesn't make any sense. And to me, it's becoming clear and clearer that this cover story is flimsy at best, okay? But also incredibly gross in covering up with the real reasons are at worst, at worst, because

it's all really about pushing certain individuals out. because of viewpoint diversity, something that the Trump administration wants to see on Ivy League campuses. They really want viewpoint diversity, but not in the Defense Department. Viewpoint diversity is not allowed in the defense department. You must beat the drums of the war machine. You must support anything and everything that Israel wants the United States to do in regard to foreign policy in the Middle East. That's what this is really about. And it's disgusting because the U.S. has been dragged into wars in the Middle East as a result of,

of what Israel demands in the past. We have suffered the loss of thousands of our soldiers, so much of our resources, and there's some possibility we could get dragged into it again if more of these individuals get pushed out of the Defense Department. For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio.

Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. the media component because here we have, you know, you know, so one of our members is asking, and I'll address it in the social break when I read more of the comments, um, about Tucker Carlson, wait, he's starting to make sense that. No, no, no, guys, on other things, they don't make sense at all. So, you know, it like Steve Bannon and I mentioned earlier and he's warning about the deep state in a similar way. But then on another topic on the Arbrego-Garcia topic,

he's saying let's suspend habeas corpus. That's insane. So like, but at the same time, is Tucker good on this issue? Yes, unequivocally, absolutely. And so if you say, no, I'm gonna hate Tucker, even though he's clearly, you could see it with your own eyes, trying to stop a war with Iran. Okay, but like I, I'm trying to save lives. And so I believe in positive change in the world. So if Tucker's come to our position of being massively anti-war, anti-neocon, no more wars of them in the Middle East, no more serving Israel, So yes, I'll take yes for an answer. And God, we know need those allies.

And that brother talking to him right there said at, you know, that Tucker has been critical in in pushing back against the idea of war with Iran. And remember guys, this is what I keep reiterating. It's important for us to be in alliance with those guys on given topics that we agree on. Why? Because Trump's not gonna listen to us, but he is listening to Tucker Carlson. So I would much rather have to talk Carlson as an ally on this than not have any allies on the right. And so and it's a great day in America that the there's some portions of the right wing media are changing and going outside of what the Trump talking points are,

what the right wing talking points are, etc. So because now bring it back to mainstream media, is anyone in mainstream media even talking about this as a war between the neocons and the America first guys within the administration, because they seem to be having a nonsense conversation. So the Trump's team idea is, oh, there was, they leaked, and without an investigation, we magically knew it was them. And with no evidence, we knew it was them. Okay, so that story's nonsense, right? So by the way, what are the Democrats saying? Generally speaking, absolutely nothing, because it's beloved Israel. So they've all bound their heads. But if they're saying anything at all, the pushback is, oh, Hegs is an idiot and drunk and etc. And this is just as

incompetence. Nah, that doesn't make any sense at all. I mean, you don't just throw away these friends and colleagues and allies from all this time within three months of you getting the job because you're incompetent or you're, that doesn't make any sense. No, no, nobody's that incompetent. So both sides have an official story that is utter horse crap. And is anyone in Main Street media calling them out?

No one, no one. So then it's super curious to see if people on the left like us and people on the right like Tucker Carlson can actually rally enough voters to create enough pressure on the Trump administration to push back against Israel's efforts here to drag us into this war. And I don't know the answer to that. I don't know that we have enough power. I don't know that we have enough democracy to be able to do that. But at least the battle is joined. And so now maybe we have a fighter's chance, whereas we didn't in the Iraq war, because All we had was mainstream media monopoly that just did propaganda about how awesome and easy that Iraq war was going to be and how necessary it was. So now we have mainstream media just kind of letting it lie and not sharing the truth with anyone, but folks on both wings have, because of online media and independent media, have begun to realize this game's being played on you. Soon they're going to send your kids to that war and certainly your money to finance that war. I just want to say both things can be true. So the cover story about how these people are

being pushed out because they're allegedly leakers is a cover story. It's BS, right? I see that as separate to the issue of Pete Heggzitz's incompetence because his willingness to engage in detailed conversations about military operations on signal, not just the signal gate story that initially broke, but the fact that there was another separate signal chat that his wife, brother, and lawyer were in on, in which he's also sharing more and more of these sensitive military operations and details about it. That does show a level of incompetence when it comes to Pete Hexit. So both things can be true at the same time. But I think that, at Signalgate, to be honest with you, is being exploited by those who want to push, you know,

the anti-war component of the Defense Department out. And I didn't think that Pete Heggzith was part of that group, but considering what the New York Times had reported just last week about how he was in the president's ear, advising him against doing these military strikes against Iran, that makes me think, okay, well, Pete Hegseth has become a bit of a target as well. So, He could be a target, but he's also incompetent for the signal gate issues and other issues. So that's my take on that. I want to just end with one final video. Let's go to the last video in this segment because, you know, Caldwell said a lot of really glowing things about Pete Hexith in the context of this interview with Tucker Carlson.

And I just feel really bad about that because of the fact that Pete Hexeth then went on Fox News to say this. Through that leak investigation, unfortunately, we found some folks that we believe were not holding to the protocols that we hold dear here at the Defense Department. Through that investigation, they have been moved on, and that investigation continues. Those folks who were leaking, who have been pushed out of the building, are now attempting to leak and sabotage the president's agenda and what we're doing. And that's unfortunate. It's not what I do. It's not how we operate. And so you've got another allegation being pushed again, not based on how we're operating around here. You believe this came out. They said it was called Team Huddle because, so one of the people who work for you, one of the three who no longer are there, leaked this out as a way to get back at you? That's right, Brian. When you dismiss people who you believe are leaking classified information, and again, the investigation is ongoing and that will take time.

And when the evidence produced it will go to DOJ. Why would it surprise anybody, Brian? those very same people keep leaking. I mean, that is some leftist level betrayal. It's pretty incredible. Jank, back to you. But if there's such leftists, why are they on Tucker Carlson's show? And why is Tucker agreeing with them completely? So yeah, no, we're at a super interesting moment in American history.

Will we be pushed into this war with Iran because of a foreign government? And then if we are, what will be the consequences? At what point do we reach critical mass of enough people getting news from independent media that the rebellion begins? That we say, well, no, we don't want to be occupied anymore. And we don't want to fight these wars for Israel. And I don't care what anybody on cable news says or what any of the incredibly corrupt people in Washington think.

I'm a great interview with Jeffrey Sachs and Andrew Napolitano. I mean, look at these strange bedfellows, but that's good, that's how democracy should be. It should be, hey, we agree on this and we don't agree on that. And Jeffrey Sachs has always been a brilliant scholar. We've totally disagreed with the Napolitano in the past. But here we are, we all agree. And Sax and Apolitano are saying the same thing we are, which is, this is obviously Israel. And they're not hiding it.

Israel definitely wants us to attack Iran. Nanjahu says it publicly. And he's now applying incredible pressure. And what form that pressure takes is also sued. interesting. Why are they getting Hegseth? And how are they getting Hegseth to throw his own allies under the bus? I don't know the answer to that. But if we ever find out, yeah, there is going to come a point where the American people are going to be fairly furious with Israel and how they've controlled our government. But they keep poking the bear, poking the bear and saying,

that's okay. We'll just make the, you know, sucker Americans fight one more war for us. And maybe they could have tens of thousands of people where casualties like the Iraq war of Americans, let alone hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. And this idea that Iran wants to be attacked, absurd. Everything about this is absolutely absurd. And which way is Trump going to go? I still don't know. So that's as interesting as it gets. All right. Well, when we come back, we'll talk a little bit about how the National Institutes of Health have now sent out a warning to any researcher who's looking to get government grants for their research, but engages in the boycott and divestment movement against Israel, there will be some punishment. We'll be right back and we'll tell you

the details. All right, back on the Young Turks, the most honest news show there is. Cenk Huger and Anna Kasparian with you guys. Also Julie Bainbridge, Sid and Fair and Practical Progress. That's their handle and they've now joined the Young Turks. You could do likewise by hitting the join button, or you can just subscribe for free or ring the bell and keep in touch with the show. David, Michelle, thank you for gifting five Young Turks

memberships on YouTube. I love this community. All right, let's keep it going, Anna. What do you got next? Well, we hear a lot about how Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and it's our important ally, but there's some drama that's been unfolding and it really does show that the government is willing to come down hard on anyone who is questioning Israel's foreign policy. So let's talk about that a little bit. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is embroiled in yet another massive scandal of his own making, by the way. Now, in this case, the scandal involves him going after Israeli protesters, and he's being called out by someone within the Israeli government should be specific. So the issue at play here is that there are Israelis within Israel who have been protesting Benjamin Netanyahu for a whole host of reasons. I mean, of course, prior to this terrible war on Gaza, he wanted to weaken the power of the Supreme Court in Israel, that led to mass protests. And then you have the family members of

the hostages who desperately want a ceasefire in order to get their family members back, protesting in the streets along with their supporters. And Netanyahu's sick of it. And so he wants to squash these protests and these protesters in what has been referred to as the greatest democracy in the region. So his depravity and corruption doesn't end there. Here's what you need to know. Last month, Netanyahu moved to fire a guy by the name of Ronan Barr, citing a lack of trust. Now, Barr would have been literally the first shinbet leader to ever be fired in Israel. However, his dismissal was put on hold after the Israeli Supreme Court stepped in and blocked his firing. And then yesterday, Barr published an affidavit alleging that Prime Minister Netanyahu

allegedly placed his own interests over the state of Israel, but Barr refused to help him do so. So for example, on several occasions, Netanyahu wanted Barr to sign an opinion that would halt the prime minister's corruption trial. And that's something that we've talked about a little bit on the show before. I mean, one of the incentives that Netanyahu has had in continuing the bloodshed in Gaza and the West Bank is that as long as this war goes on, he's hoping that he can hold off on being prosecuted on these corruption charges. And now we're learning he was trying to get the head of the shin bet to sign some opinion indicating that there's no reason that this corruption trial should move forward.

It should be halted. Netanyahu also told Barr that in the event of a constitutional crisis, Barr had to be loyal to him and not the court of law. And finally, Netanyahu even instructed Barr to go after Israeli protesters. So Barr said Netanyahu had told him on more than one occasion that he expected Shinbet to take action against Israelis involved in anti-government demonstrations with a particular focus on monitoring the protests financial backers. Jake, that sounds real familiar. We hear a lot about how Americans who protest against Israel's war on Gaza are funded by all sorts of nefarious figures and foreign governments and terrorist groups, even though there's no evidence. of that. And now Netanyahu is using the same tactics against Israelis, his own people. That's how depraved and corrupt and disgusting this man is. Yes. And one of the charges against them is that his advisors might have taken money from

the government of Qatar to do positive propaganda on behalf of Qatar within Israel. And the, and Shinbad and Israelis are, you know, outraged by that idea. Good, that's great. I'm thrilled that they're outraged by that idea. But it is deeply ironic that people in Israel are outraged that a foreign government would do propaganda in another country. What do you guys doing over here? Are you, I mean, there's overwhelming Israeli propaganda here. Who do we arrest to make that?

stop. But overall, look, this is the upside of Israel, is that they still have a thread bare democracy. I mean, obviously only for the Israelis, the Palestinians get a brutal dictatorship and some of the worst depression in the world. But within Israel, since, oh, well, it's fellow Israelis, these are important and special people, they actually care about their own rights. And some parts of that system are healthy. Like, if they just ended the occupation and got rid of these brutal right-wing terrorists that are currently running Israel, they could be a perfectly great nation, right? And because they have the foundations like respecting the cords, as strong and healthy press, and an opposition that cares about protecting

rights. But if they give away their rights, by the way, as happened in Turkey, and I think that Larry Tribe, a Harvard law professor talking about that, and he mentioned, well, he was talking about here in America. But it also applies to Israel. As happened in Turkey, has happened in Germany. So I hope that the Israeli people still have enough fight in them, at least when they're protecting their own interests, that they not give away their rights to this despotic madman Netanyahu. Because his thirst for power isn't just to brutalize Palestinians and nearby Arabs and take their land. His thirst for power also affects the citizens of Israel. He's also going to take away your rights. So if they don't push back now, they'll never be able to get rid of Netanyahu.

And then we'll have this monstrous government for God knows how long. But I've seen this movie many, many times, yes, including in Turkey and in Russia, where they slowly take away rights, but there's a critical couple of crossing of the Rubicon moments. And this is one of those moments. If Netanyahu can fire the head of Shinbet and end the investigations of corruption against themselves, then that's it. Even within Israel, democracy is lost. Well, luckily, Netanyahu was unable to weaken the Israeli Supreme Court, but had he done so, there was some likelihood that the Supreme Court would not have been able to block Netanyahu's decision to try to oust Ronan Barr from his post. And by the way, Barr says the following, I was required to provide

details regarding the identities of Israeli citizens, protest activists, and was expected to monitor protest financiers. And by the way, I mean, I just want to draw some parallels to the United States and bring up an argument I've been making quite a bit on the show lately as it pertains to due process. When American citizens begin to advocate for the erosion of due process, under this assumption that it's totally okay to do that because it's only going to impact non-citizens of this country, they're really harming themselves. Because these same tactics will in fact be utilized against Americans as well, against citizens as well. And so you're seeing the same behavior, the same attacks that Netanyahu has used to target protesters here in the United States.

Now he's using those same tactics against his own people in Israel. So it's just something to keep in mind. When you start making excuses or engage in apology for this type of disgusting anti-democratic behavior, you should expect that to boomer rang right back to you. Now, Barr refused those requests. Thankfully so, and that's the reason why Netanyahu wanted to oust him. But the timing of Barr's firing is also a little suspicious. For one, the Shinbet had recently released that report listing how its own failures led to the events of October 7th. And in that report, they also cite the mistakes made by Benjamin Netanyahu in the lead up to the October 7th attacks. And what's even fissier is that the shinbet, along with

Israeli forces have been investigating and recently arrested two of Netanyahu's aides. This is what you were referencing earlier, Jank, in connection to improper payments with the country of Qatar. And then an Israeli businessman recently told Israel's public broadcaster that he transferred money to the other Netanyahu aide, Ellie Fieldstein, Feldstein, on behalf of a U.S. lobbyist working for Qatar. Now, Feldstein is also accused of leaking classified intelligence documents. I mean, it's just a total mess, right? He's got his aides who are in trouble. He doesn't like the fact that he's being criticized in this report that was put out by the shinbet. And so his only tactic is, let me retaliate and let me just get rid of my critics,

both in the, you know, both when it comes to Israeli civilians, right, let me squash those protesters, But also let me go after the head of the shinbet because he's not doing my bidding and I don't like that. That's who Netanyahu is. That's the kind of guy Netanyahu is. Yeah, so a couple things here. So shin bet are no angels. And they along with the rest of the Israeli government are, you know, have Palestinian blood all over their hands and everywhere else. So it's not like these guys are like some sort of peacnic liberals or anything along those lines.

No, they're due security for the state of Israel. They can oftentimes very, very ruthless. And so they're not trying to protect anyone but Israelis. And so if Israel goes, yeah, yeah, it's okay, I bet this authoritarian leader has our best interest in mind. That's a mistake a lot of folks have made throughout the country and throughout world history. history. And so if they keep going in this direction, eventually Netanyahu will start treating the Israelis like they're Palestinians. Because he doesn't really care about anyone. It's not like he's like, oh my God, other people are sacred. Only Netanyahu is sacred. And you can tell because he's systematically destroying not just Gaza, not just the brutal occupation of the West Bank, but he's systematically destroying his own democracy within Israel. And that's how all these authoritarian leaders are. They, like, it's so hard for the rest of us to grasp that these people were born with no empathy. So that's why, whether it's Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Erdogan, you keep waiting for them to have a human moment and go, oh, my God.

Oh, that's a fellow Israeli. That's a fellow Turk, fellow Russian. I really care about them. No, they don't. They only care about themselves. They have no ability to empathize with anyone. In fact, we're asking a poll in the live chat, you know, check out the show live, obviously, 6 to 8. p.m. every weekday and be part of it. And so we're asking, you know, who's more authoritarian,

Trump or or Netanyahu? And last I checked it was 50-50. You know, and look, it doesn't get worse than Netanyahu. So I guess I would vote Netanyahu, but who's more corrupt? But but then Trump is corrupted by Netanyahu. I don't know if that makes him more or less corrupt than Nanjahou. So I think you guys are probably right to have it right around 50-50. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, we'll talk a little bit about a U.S. senator visiting a political prisoner and a lot more. There's a lot of news to get to. So stick around.

We'll be right back. All right, back on TYT, the online news network. Jank U Granat, Experian with you guys, but also David, Michelle, Ashley Capels, Charlie Turk, and Lady A.F, all gifted five memberships on YouTube. Really appreciate you guys. Look, guys, this is how we spread the word. And people sometimes get those gifted memberships. And then they get hooked on the show and they're like, oh my God, finally an honest

news outlet. And that's actually independent and calls out all sides. And by the way, also gives credit to all sides when they deserve it. So we love you guys for spreading the word. We appreciate it. Anna, what's next? Well, we got to talk a little bit about what the priorities seem to be over at the National Institutes of Health because you would think, given the title of the department, they would care about prioritizing the nation's health. But it appears that, no, they're prioritizing the feelings of a foreign government instead.

So let's give you the details on this story. A new notice that's been put out by the National Institutes of Health makes clear that grants will not be awarded to any researchers who have decided to support or engage in the boycott of Israel. And when I say boycott of Israel, it's the boycott and divestment movement that seeks to avoid spending any resources on businesses or business entities located in Israel. that's meant to basically implement some pressure to get Israel to maybe rethink some of their policies as it pertains to Palestinian civilians. But nonetheless, we can't have that. So now the NIH is deciding that it makes more sense to punish researchers for their political beliefs that, of course, are not in any way tied to medical research they might be doing. So just think about it this way, if a researcher is supportive of the BDS movement, but is also doing important

critical research on, I don't know, a cancer cure, well, that individual will be denied grants by the National Institutes of Health because of his political engagements with the BDS movement. So this was a story that was brought to my attention, at least, from Glenn Greenwald over at X, where he posted a screenshot of the notice itself and what it said. So this is the relevant part. It says, recipients must comply with all applicable federal anti-discrimination laws, material to the government's payment decisions. And then it notes, okay, it lists different discriminatory acts.

And then in D, it says discriminatory prohibited boycott means refusing to deal, cutting commercial relations or otherwise limiting commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies or with companies doing business in or with Israel or authorized by, licensed by, or organized under the laws of Israel to do business. Do you guys understand how absurd it is that out of all the countries in the world, there's only one country that's cited in this notice put out by the end. NIH. So you can be as critical of the United States government as you want. And by the way, I think that that right should be protected, obviously. But the idea that you can be critical

of the United States government and still qualify for NIH grants to conduct important scientific and medical research, but you would be denied those grants if you have the audacity to be critical of the Israeli government. I mean, that is not America first. Okay, that's obviously not America first. So, Jank, what do you think? It's also not Maha or whatever they call it, you know, make America healthy again. Right. Like, how does this make America healthy? How does this have anything to do with America? I mean, look at it. Look, at this point, it's totally mask off. Basically, Netanyahu is saying, yeah, I control you, bitches. What are you going to do about it? You stupid Americans, I'm going to order all of your politicians to do whatever I command them to do.

You think Bobby Kennedy Jr. is going to give you health or human services? No. You think he's going to do anything, whether you know, you're a right winger and you want him to do something about vaccines or whatever other agenda you have about that or you're just a normal American who's worried about what's in our food and you go, well, I kind of like what Bobby Kennedy is doing there. Or you're a normal American who wants, you know, drug prices to be lower because the government should be able to negotiate it, et cetera. No, you're not going to get any of that, okay? You're not going to get any of it. All you're going to get is a steady diet of follow Israel's orders and shut up about it. So look, I don't know what the other side has to say here. I don't know what kind of lunatic argument they can make. Oh no, it is not Israel controlling us even though we did not mention any other country or even America. No, it could be Norway. It could be Paraguay. I don't know who is in charge of our government. It is such a big mystery. Yeah, what does health and human services have to do with boycotts of Israel? I mean, that's why they're just saying it now.

Yeah, we own you. What are you going to do about it? Because there's no, there's not even an excuse for this. It has nothing to do with health. You know, one of the potential upsides to RFK Jr. serving in the role that he's serving in within the Trump administration was, you know, prior to getting confirmed for that role, he was a vociferous critic of the FDA. because of the corruption within the FDA.

And that was something that you didn't hear any government officials complaining about or there was no indication that it was even on anyone's radar. So while RFK Jr. has had his issues for sure, especially when it comes to some of his vaccine ideology, I thought maybe there could be a silver lining to having him serve within the Trump administration, because I agree with him on corruption and how it's negatively impacting our food supply, how it's making Americans sick. I loved hearing him talk about those things. But based on what we're reading now, RFK Jr. has actually invited more corruption within the National Institutes of Health. at least. Now, he's not the NIH director, but obviously this is all under the umbrella of the department in which RFK Jr. is the head of. And it's incredibly frustrating to see this happening

because this shouldn't be a priority. And by the way, isn't this unconstitutional? Isn't it wrong for the federal government to punish Americans, in this case medical researchers for their political views and their political engagement and speeches and speech, I should say, like this is crazy. But this has been going on, Jenk. I know this seems novel to a lot of people if they haven't been paying close attention. But on a state level, this kind of behavior has been going on. You know, in Texas public schools, there was a teacher who didn't have, this is years ago, her contract with the school district did not get renewed because the school district found out that she was part of the BDS movement.

So what? What impact does that have on her ability to effectively teach within the public school system? It has no effect. But she was punished. Everyone was quiet about it. No one cared. And so now this brain rot has made its way to federal government agencies. And we're all going to suffer as a component of that because we should be funding important research, especially as it pertains to cures for diseases, things like cancer. This is insane. Yeah. So look, I've taken a decent amount of crap from some folks for even ever being open to RFK Jr., but I was. So we had an interview with him. We challenged him on the things we disagree on. We agreed on some things back when he was running. You know, I've talked a lot about his housing policy, his anti-corruption policies, which I like, etc. So, you know, and he is, you know, in his own way, anti-establishment. So I, you know, as much as I disagree with him about vaccines, and some of the other stuff that I have to confess that I find to be kooky, I couldn't have more of an open mind to, hey, maybe while he's doing some damage on some fronts could actually open up some interesting doors on other fronts. But no, no, instead what do we get? We get an unconstitutional attack against our government. What do you mean I can't criticize Israel? What do you mean I can't boycott Israel? Why? Why? The First Amendment very clearly says I can boycott anyone I like.

I have freedom of speech, freedom of the press, et cetera. What is this? You can't criticize Israel nonsense. And so it's obviously deeply unconstitutional. No decent American would be in favor of this crap. Okay, but then you go to the next level. You know, on other stuff like the attacks on the academic freedom and freedom of speech on the academic campuses, they at least have a cover story. Oh, we're so concerned about anti-Semitism.

Oh, we don't care if you are racist against black people. you hate gay people or Muslims or Christians or Americans. We don't care about any of that, but we'd care deeply about anti-7s. Okay, but at least you can make some sort of argument there, right? I mean, barely, it's bare thread and it's so transparent. But in this case, this isn't even about anti-sevantism, it's about contracts. Yep. Wait, whether you want to spend money in Israel or you don't want to spend money in Israel is related

to your health, how? Other than the fact that you're pissing off Israel, and that could be really detrimental to your health if you're in the U.S. government, right? So which then leaves me to, I have to say it, because he's so over the top. So okay, let's be honest about it. Is Bobby Kennedy Jr. on Epstein's list? Yes, he is. So does that mean he definitely did something with Epstein? No, I don't know that. And because they won't release the Epstein files. Oh, that's because, oh, the president and the head of HHS are also on Epstein's list. Gee, I wonder why they're not releasing the Epstein files. But did he know Epstein? Yes. Did he have contact with him? Yes.

And now as head of health and human services, he's weirdly for no apparent reason, obsessed with, almost exclusive to anything else, making sure that Israel isn't boycotted in America. Crazy. Yeah, yeah. Well, look, he leaves us no choice but to wonder and to ask those questions, because otherwise this makes no earthly says they don't even have a cover story for it. They're just like, that's it. America works for Israel and no one in America is allowed to disagree. Yeah, it's, it really is wild. And look, Glenn Greenwald shared this on X. This isn't going to get much play in the mainstream press. And, you know, usually the role for going after mainstream media is Jank Uger. But I'm going to go ahead and do it in this case because there's no way they're going to get into a deep dive on how, you know, the federal government.

government is violating the First Amendment and punishing people for their political speech. Specifically on behalf at the behest of one foreign country, it's absurd. All right, that doesn't. You know, hey, Anna, real quick, I'll just follow up on that. So what's the cover story for the media? So because it's not like MSNBC. They don't need a cover story. Okay, we know what happens to people in the media if they're too critical of the Israeli government.

You've created a media company where no one has to worry about getting fired for sharing their opinion, but that's not the case in the vast majority of news outlets. Are you crazy? Are you insane? We know what would happen. Come on. Right. So just like, for example, it's not like CNN in New York Times, Washington Post, MSNBC don't have an opportunity or an inclination to criticize Trump. They can't wait to criticize Trump. Yet here, they can't. And Bobby Kennedy Jr., oh my God. The amount of negative articles about Bobby Kennedy Jr. That the New York Times is printed could fill an entire library. But here, oh, criticizing Israel, we cannot find a way to do it. Oh, golly gee, we just ran out of ink. Oh, time to go to a commercial break. I guess we just can't find any criticism of Israel at all.

But all of you bow your heads and don't you dare ever criticize Israel? You want to touch a dollar going to Israel? You are not allowed to do that, okay? You must spend all of your dollars on Israel. Both through your taxes, they're going to take endless billions of dollars from you, and you must spend money there. Otherwise, your health is in danger. Yeah, I know, I know, brother.

But okay, go ahead, mainstream media, make up excuses. I want to hear your cover story. Why aren't you talking about this obvious takeover? Yeah. All right, in the second hour, we'll talk a little bit about Senator Peter Welch. He did visit a Palestinian activist who is in detention for wanting an end to the bloodshed in the Middle East. And then later in the show, we'll switch things up a little bit and talk about the Ivy Leagues that have been targeted by Donald Trump. One of those Ivy Leagues is actually fighting back pretty aggressively.

We'll give you the details on that and more when we come back. I don't know.